Life Off The Road
Most of our regular customers, especially across the South, will know me as the ‘Eurodontic lady’ and I can usually be found either on the road or chatting to practices about our fabulous products!
So you can imagine my frustration as recent events have prevented me from doing what I do best. Like so many of us, the lockdown has meant that I’ve had to rethink how I do my job, for the time being at least.
I’m still in touch with my lovely customers, via Zoom and on the phone, but I’ve still found myself with some downtime.
Learning Something New
One of Eurodontic’s key products for 2020 is the Ultimaker S3, an amazing, compact desktop 3D printer. I decided to bring one home to trial. What better use of my downtime than learning something new?
My son was so excited when the printer arrived. Eager to start printing something (anything!), we unboxed it together and set it up within minutes. We pressed the button on our first test print – nothing happened! We’d failed at the first hurdle. So we sheepishly went back to the beginning, and this time we actually read the instructions!
It worked – once we followed the step-by-step setup guide, we were ready to print.
Easy To Use
I downloaded the Cura software and headed over to the My Mini Factory website which has a huge range of free files to print.
Lego Heads was the first thing we downloaded to my desktop. Then it was as easy as opening the Cura software and adding the new Lego file.
The software is really easy to use. I was able to move the image to the perfect position, so it was flat on the glass plate, and after just 30 minutes we’d made our very own Darth Vader head! All I needed to do was remove the support material, which peeled off easily. No mess, no fuss and no need for post-processing!
Caught The Bug
By then I’d definitely caught the 3D printing bug and decided to move the Ultimaker to a more permanent home in my office. I went to do a print – uh-oh, a printer head error. Oh no, here we are in lockdown and I’ve broken it already!
I called the Ultimaker helpline who were brilliant. I had knocked the printer head out of alignment and it was an easy fix. I just had to manually realign the printer head which took a couple of minutes and I was back printing – that week I think we managed several horseshoe models, an iPhone holder, 3D puzzles and a Batman plane!
Online demo
I’m not hugely confident when it comes to new technology, but I have to say the Ultimaker S3 and the Cura Software are so easy to use and they’re suitable for anyone who is new to 3D printing.
If you’d like to have a chat about the Ultimaker S3, give me a buzz or get in touch by email. I’d be happy to give you an online demo – Darth Vader head anyone?
