Jerry: Welcome to another episode of the Co Extrusion Podcast. So on the last episode, ⁓ JJ, we were talking about ⁓ projects and more specifically, I think we were talking about some projects that Bamboo Lab has kind of like put together. ⁓ So I was on the Bamboo Lab website and ⁓ it sparked me to see they've got this thing called Makers Supply on their website. And it's a whole bunch of what appeared to be, ⁓ presumably like ⁓ they're like, ⁓ you or me have like designed a project, but it requires non-3D printed parts and you can buy kits of these things. So. JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah. It's super cool how they've kind of integrated between their, like, what's it called, MakerWorld is their model sharing website, and their store, and kind of integrated the two together in an interesting way. ⁓ So people can create projects and say, hey, this takes a magnet or some screws, and then they take those that are in the creator program and make a whole listing on their website, and so you can buy... Jerry: ⁓ wait, it is this . . JJ Shankles: hey, I want to do that project. And some of these are really elaborate projects. And then you click on them, and it's like, cool, it's going to be a strip of tape. It's two and a half, two bucks or something. Some of these projects are really cheap because it doesn't require a ton of parts. And I haven't learned fully the monetary compensation there. I do think these creators are compensated in some way for people clicking on that link and buying it on their website. Jerry: Mm-hmm. JJ Shankles: ⁓ but I don't fully know how the things are split between there. But it's super cool. It makes it so easy. I don't know if you use MakerWorld very much, ⁓ but I feel like the website and the amount of projects that are on there have just been really good. Like really good and more elaborate, I think, because it makes it easier for a creator to say, I want to design something awesome. Design this. but I do need a light in here. And instead of on printables being like, OK, now you can go on Amazon and use this light. It's like, no, here's the link. Click this link. Takes you to MakerWorld. Buy exactly this light, and it will work. Jerry: Yeah, first, I actually didn't realize that it wasn't Maker World. I mean, I knew I wasn't on the store, but in my head, I didn't because like these are not projects that are designed by Bamboo Lab. I don't believe it seems like they're designed by creators. What? What shocks me or what makes me so like, I don't know what makes me so excited about this specifically and what I think Bamboo Lab has done JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah, some are, but not all of them are, yes. Mm-hmm. Jerry: absolutely incredibly well is that, and I think you hit the nail on the head with this one, you've got to be in the creator program or whatever they call it. So some random Joe Bowe, like you or me, is not going to necessarily go and design these projects and upload them. And it's like filtering just through just a load of spam, right? And like on MakerWorld or on printables, when you're scrolling through projects, there's just a load of crap. Like JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry: Let me rephrase, maybe not crap, but to me, I don't want it. So I have to filter through it, right? It might be a really well designed model, but on here, all of these projects look cool and they're the renders are professionally done and screen captured. The actual printed photos are professionally screenshot of photos. It looks like an honest to goodness, like real projects, not like, ⁓ yeah. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry: Sally from across the street 3d printed this thing and screen or you know took a picture of it with her ⁓ on her kitchen table with the dinner in the background like it looks good and and and then instead of having to go to the description and click the link and it send me to like a dutch amazon page or like an english amazon page it and then i gotta go find the appropriate size like the appropriate size magnet JJ Shankles: Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. Jerry: or brass rod on Amazon available in the US, it's just all available here. JJ Shankles: Yeah, yeah, and they've made their website where they sell all the all those basic parts you need all the standard size rods and screws and all the sizes of magnets possible and so a maker can say yeah I need this weird magnet and this weird screw and they've got it in every zone because that's very true what you've said of like you look at an old thingiverse project and it's like cool this links me to a 404 page on a Jerry: You JJ Shankles: German version of Amazon. It's like cool. ⁓ No one knows what screw this was anymore because he didn't say what it was. He just linked it like Jerry: What's probably more problematic and like this was me like getting like my overinflated like, you whatever like I'm I live in the United States. Most of what I find will have an Amazon, a US Amazon page. The biggest problem is for the people that live in Europe or in Asia or any or South America. They're they're very likely not going to find like let's say you're in Brazil. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jerry: the odds of you finding a printables page or the project you want and Brazilian Amazon links so low. So it's not really a problem for me and it might not even be a problem for someone that lives in like London, but for other people, this solves that problem. But they take another step. like they've got the skill level on there. They have the print time and they have the filament used. JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah. Jerry: So you know how much filament it costs and you know how much the hardware kit costs. like I'm looking at, ⁓ I'm looking at a model here, which just looks super cool. It's, ⁓ like when I was a kid, I used to shoot rubber band guns. This is, or the, nerf guns, this is like a three printed nerf. Esque kind of thing. They just called a toy shooter. It's $6 and 49 cents and it uses 375 grams of filament. I know exactly how much that project costs. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry: It's like 10 bucks less than 10 bucks, including shipping. have everything I need and I have a whole entire project. A whole, I can print the parts on the week on Saturday morning. I can start the parts and by Sunday evening, can like for 10 bucks that whole weekends of fun. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And the parts for those are reusable even. Like, better than buying a Nerf gun and then one part breaks to it and then now it's trash. It's like, cool, if you break it, you can fix it now. Or a lot of those, the Nerf guns, or there's also a water gun in there where it's like, the core spraying module can go into, there's, I don't know, 50 to 100 different projects. Someone has used that module to make a water blaster. Jerry: True. ⁓ Yeah. JJ Shankles: And so you can make one, play with it, take it apart, put it in a different one. ⁓ Yeah, it's one of those like, ⁓ and I feel like I'm always. Jerry: This is... JJ Shankles: praising Bamboo Lab and it's just like, no, they're just doing some really nice things that I think everyone else should be catching up to. I'm highlighting it because I think everyone should be doing this, not because I'm getting paid by Bamboo Lab to say these things. Jerry: Yeah It's- It's so truly I am not sponsored by bamboo at all. I have received one bamboo printer four years ago. They don't like me. I don't know why. I really like bamboo. I in certain aspects. I do really, really like what they've done. But like, here's another one. And I can't I can't pull it up. I don't know if you have the ability to pull it up. But it's a mini motorized basketball game, right? So and if you don't have the ability to pull it up, that's fine. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Yeah Jerry: But, ⁓ this is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. It has a, it has 13 different part numbers. And like, this one's a little more expensive, right? This one's 45 bucks, but I do think this is probably a little bit more advanced, but it has 13 part numbers down there. The odds of me finding all 13 of those exact same parts. JJ Shankles: Let me see if I can share screen here. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ha ha. Jerry: is probably actually after I buy them myself on Amazon, it probably will be more than $45. And this is cool. JJ Shankles: ⁓ yeah. And that's another, it's super cool. And all the parts you get kind of exactly what you need instead of you're very true on most projects. If you buy it on Amazon, cool. Now you have to buy. Jerry: Or more? Any, JJ Shankles: 20 screws when you really need five. Or you have to buy 20 bucks to get a whole set of all the screws you need and the few bearings and the motor. This is pretty simple what you get at the end of it. but all the prices are reasonable for what you're getting basically. Like this one has a lot of parts to it. That's why it costs more. The cheaper ones, it's not like every project is locked at five or 10 bucks. No, this one's exactly $45.91. Exactly. Jerry: Yeah, and to kind of be a little bit more detailed as to what you said, I have dealt with this personally. like here you get you have to get flat washers and these certain M.2 or ⁓ two and a half machine screws and then ball bearings, all these things, right? JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry: None of these things when you get down to the component level if you've ever searched Even buying packs of 20 you're lucky right like you probably are buying a multi pack of like Seven sizes and then you're gonna get 13 you're gonna get 20 of each you're gonna pay 20 bucks and then all there's 13 part numbers here, so if you do that 13 times you've got I Mean you're gonna be in it for JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jerry: 120 bucks 150 bucks. That's the cheapest and that is not that is not worth it JJ Shankles: Yeah. And now you have a hundred flat washers that you're never gonna use again and some weird sized screws that you're never gonna use again, like... Jerry: Like it's good. I am a proponent partly because I've got like 30 3d printers, but I'm a I'm a proponent of having a lot of screws of varying lengths and diameters and thread thread pitches and stuff because I use them but I don't need 400 like 14 millimeter plastic balls. Like come on. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes, the screws specifically, that's the one where it's like, okay, cool, I do want to buy a multi-pack of screws, but there's the random weird bearings that it's like, okay, I don't need that many of springs yet. Jerry: or springs. don't need I don't need 400 half inch springs that have like a 10 Newton force. JJ Shankles: Yes. Jerry: What do I need multiple of? Magnets of varying diameters and thicknesses, screws of varying diameters, pitches and lengths. It kind of ends there. Anything else I want to buy the exact quantity of. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yes, yeah. Uh-huh, yeah. And so with a lot of these projects, think you could go through and individually buy all the parts, because it lists all the part numbers, and all those part numbers on that project are on that website. And so if you're like, well, I don't need the screws, I don't need the washers, I actually have some plastic balls from another project I bought, you could just buy specifically the springs you need, or specifically the... little things you need for these different projects. That's really cool. Jerry: Yeah. And do you want to know what else this does? This promotes... I'm funny, I'm bringing this up. This promotes open source. We just talked about this in the last podcast or maybe in the future. I don't know. We just talked about it five minutes ago. The reason this promotes open source is because anyone that's designing these projects, these files are presumably free. But so the creator of the projects is giving you the files for free and JJ Shankles: Yes. Jerry: when you buy the kit, presumably Bamboo Lab is, you know, passing over, you know, what, 5%, 10 % fee because you bought the hardware kit. So like, for instance, this, this is a card shuffler. Okay. It looks fairly advanced, but you know, some, someone might not want to release these files for free. They might want to sell the files because they want, they spent the time to design it, but okay. I'm not going to go buy the files, but JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry: I will buy the hardware kit and now it's $10 if they give 10 % to the creator of the of the Project now the creator just sold the files essentially for a dollar But you know if a hundred two hundred three hundred people buy this because it's posted on bamboo's store Like it's not a scam. It's on bamboo's official store Now the creator just sold their files and they got money for it so like JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah Mm-hmm. Jerry: It promotes that, like, project development, the small-scale project development. JJ Shankles: Yeah, and I think one of the biggest proof that people want open source projects, their crowdfunding on their website. I just recently looked at it and I was surprised at how much money these projects have raised. Some of this one, the Snap Frames, has raised $205,000. Because yeah, I've totally wanted this. Jerry: Ah! $205,000? Oh, what is that called? That's on MakerWorld? JJ Shankles: of like really good, easy to use, snap together picture frames, but to just 3D print them. And so all these different rewards very much looks like Kickstarter. Like this website is based off of Kickstarter, I would say. ⁓ And yeah, it's an awesome little project here. And so many people want to spend, you know, 30 bucks for this or that. ⁓ 20 bucks for the basic pack. Jerry: I think I remember talking about this with you like a month or two ago or something. This is wild. Two hundred and five thousand dollars. JJ Shankles: And it's... Yeah. And that's definitely one of the big ones. But some of these small ones that have raised, you know, 500 bucks, a few thousand bucks here or there. for all of these different projects. Jerry: Man, if I designed something like this, so I'm looking at... This is, would call, I mean from my five seconds of looking, a medium scale project, right? Like, I don't know what this is, a cryptotrope, a time... I don't know what it is, but it raised 2,100 US dollars. Okay. I probably designed this as a fun project for myself. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jerry: And if I posted it there and made $2,100, that's $2,100 that I wouldn't have had otherwise because I was doing it for myself anyway. That's what that is. This is like. This is awesome. JJ Shankles: Yeah. to just like, yeah, to make good projects and get some funding to make a tier above just a personal project. Like I might make one little thing for me, but being like, okay, cool, I'm gonna design a few different phone cases and release them on here. And I don't know the specifics of this project. Okay, it looks like changeable faceplates and really cool project has made $40,000 is amazing. Jerry: So here, try to find this one. Do like a search for it right there. Scroll down. It's called PlayGrid. Stop right there. That is so cool. That is so cool. And it uses your phone screen and it looks like you can probably in some way. I don't know if you make your own games, but or if they if it comes with games, I don't know. This is wild. JJ Shankles: Play grid, this one, yeah. Yeah. Yeah That's a cool, awesome little board game to it, yeah. Jerry: But it's like, so I haven't read this, obviously, I just I just figured out, but it looks very modular and it's it's gridded such that it's 3D printing. Presumably you can print different pieces to make different games or to make different variations of games. You've got a phone screen there. Presumably you download an app that's free. It comes with it. It keeps score or does whatever. ⁓ This is awesome. JJ Shankles: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Of like, all of these things you could do with it. This is an awesome, like yeah, I'm so excited for this. It's launching soon. Notify me on launch. Jerry: Like, yeah, I know. I also just click notify me as well. Like. JJ Shankles: And yeah, giving them the platform for it, but also giving the consumer side of things the platform to find these cool projects instead of them having to like make a YouTube video and me having to click on it. Them kind of just compiling all these good ones here together is... Jerry: Yeah, and another thing that this does is, and this, this might be a longer, longer podcast, but, ⁓ this also gets a lot of this stuff off of Kickstarter. My, my opinion is this stuff doesn't belong on Kickstarter, but cause it, it's not what it's designed for. I have seen a lot of, ⁓ a lot of artists that have designed some absolutely incredible minis. JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah. Jerry: like sets of minis and stuff. And those get posted on Kickstarter all the time. And I think it belongs elsewhere. I think it belongs here. But here didn't exist. I mean, I think this has existed now for I remember talking about this with you, right? Like JJ Shankles: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, but it's only been a couple months. Like, it's not been that long of a thing. Jerry: And this needs to exist and, it does now, cause like, this incentivizes people that have skills to go do it. And it's like, a lot of these things are people that just have a passion. they're like, they're fueled by passion and they would do it anyway. But if you're fueled by passion, you'll do it anyway, but you can also get, you know, 10, 15, 20, $30,000. There's a pretty good chance. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Jerry: You'll like build a small team and do it better. Like 3d packaging generator. I'm not exactly sure what this is, but it's raised $32,000 and it looks like you can make custom 3d printed packaging. Printed out and like I'm looking at an NES or not NES version, a Game Boy version with like multicolored and stuff. make boxes of custom shapes and sizes. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry: Like, I'm not sure that I need this right for myself, but like, that's, that's rad. like, but like they raised 32 grand and there's a chance, like, this has a web, this has a web, like, like a, software JJ Shankles: Yeah, like some of the projects are more niche, which is cool, which is fine. know, like niche isn't a bad thing just because it's not for me. It's awesome that it is for someone else. ⁓ Jerry: package necessary, whether it's a website or downloadable software. And like, this probably would have been someone's personal project and maybe it would have run in like a command line or it would have run in a really clunky, a really clunky interface, but because they could like monetize the whole thing, it is intuitive and it's nice. I don't know. Like this is, this is the kind of thing that. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jerry: I think Bamboo has done this better than like they've made good printers. They've done some software innovation in terms of speed and tool changers and whatever else. like this and the ability to combine model kits, in my opinion, is where Bamboo has like this kind of thing is what I feel like they've done well. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yes, yeah. I think this pushes ahead of the other websites, ⁓ of like really adding things to their website. Like, Printables is still, I would say, my number two go-to for files. ⁓ I still like their website, but so often it's like, it's just the same, and it hasn't changed so much in a while, versus MakerWorld. I go on there and it's like, whoa, this is a whole new thing they've added on here, or... ⁓ laser files, since their printers now have lasers, ⁓ or even doing mixed media files. There's a whole section that they've made where it's like, ⁓ this project uses both the laser and 3D printing together. And it's like, I've always wanted to find those, and they're so hard to find on any other website. Jerry: ⁓ Yeah, and I like printables and what I like that printables try to incentivize people to design more and they incentivize designers and they also incentivize people to come to their platform ⁓ with their competitions, competitions award you points like lot or filament meters or whatever they whatever they're prusa meters and JJ Shankles: Yes. Whatever, yeah, Prusa... meters. Jerry: And you can obviously exchange them for like, you know, printers and stuff like that. And, and that's a good way to get people to come to your platform and to give back to the creators because like, but like, I mean, bamboo is incentivizing you to come to their platform for cold hard cash. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. And I think MakerWorld also has web contests, and the winners are just in money. Like, you get a gift card to their website, ⁓ which is a lot more tangible. Like, it is still just a gift card, but this one is like, you get a hundred dollar gift card versus Prusa. get however many Prusa meter points. ⁓ I don't know. Jerry: Yeah, the PrusaMeters, you have to have 25,000 to get a Mark IV-S, but with a gift card... Actually, it looks like you can, it looks like you can exchange your Prusa meters for vouchers, but I, I would be curious if you can combine vouchers and I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's rules surrounding that, but with bamboo, if you could just get a gift card, you could apply as many gift cards. JJ Shankles: Yeah. it feels a lot easier where this Valentine's one, first place got $300 Paypal app gift card. Just like straight up, then a 200, then 100, and then eight people got $40 gift cards. It's like, that's pretty big for just a little project. Jerry: There you go. And they probably enjoyed doing it. They probably learned something doing it. They probably got like. Like they probably got a little bit of an ego boost because they won something and that might fuel them to design more like. You shouldn't live for ego boosts, but like if it feels good and you're doing good for the community like. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm Jerry: That didn't seem like a problem in that sense. JJ Shankles: Yeah, to push people to make more and maybe make something to be higher on the list next time. Jerry: These are like, guess the the thought the thought behind this podcast originally was like, this is really like, this is really cool. It's something that other brands aren't doing. And I think, sure, if Creality started the same thing, everyone would be like, ⁓ Creality is like they're they're copying from Makerworld or copying from bamboo. OK, maybe they are. like JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jerry: Whether they should or shouldn't do it, I don't know. But this is the kind of thing that I think is going to push 3D printing into like everyday world. Because right now, like let's say these model kits didn't exist and the bamboo's crowdfunding didn't exist. Like so many times I am scrolling on Reddit on some like completely random forum board and someone says, I've really wanted to get into 3D printing, but like I haven't had a reason, but This might actually, you know, push me over the edge to buy a 3D printer because whatever the topic is, right? But like model kits. This could make someone buy a 3D printer because now they actually have something to do with it. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah, I get that so often when I do show off a cool, like the 3D printed loom was one I got a lot of comments of people being like, finally something like a cool project that you can use 3D printing for and it's like, no, there's so many cool projects out there. It is true, I do show off little fidget toys here or there because they get views, sure, but I am doing a lot of cool projects and there are so many more that exist out there that exist and there are... awesome projects for your 3D printers. And I think you're right, what you were getting on of if other brands started doing this, sure they would be called copying, but I still think they should do it. Jerry: It's- Yeah, I mean, just because you didn't originate something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it right. how many brands sell cars? ⁓ wow. Toyota stole a car from Honda or what? But just because you didn't originate doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. like this is just I mean, this is cool. And I think Bamboo is doing something good here in that the creator, what do they call it? The creator? JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jerry: whatever the trader program like they're probably all vetted there they're like real designers I mean this stuff is not by me I wouldn't design but this could be taken to the next level by like bamboo lab them self designing more or if Creality takes it on Creality designing kits Elegoo designing kits right like you are literal professionals and JJ Shankles: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jerry: hire some interns that are trying to build a resume and they're trying to, they're trying to like, you know, I don't know, I don't know if be valuable is the right word, but they're trying to their resume building, right? Like they can do this stuff, they can build kits and it will be valuable for the, for the company to have a catalog. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. To fund those, yeah. And I think that's how Bamboo did it. Or initially, I don't know how the specifics of who they got to do it. But initially, them being like, cool, here's our official files we're releasing, and now let the community take it and run with it. Of like, giving you here some ideas, now do whatever you want. Has been huge for them, specifically, I think, making just a good website. Jerry: Yeah, well, this all started from and I correct me if I'm wrong, but this all started from like. They would give you a model kit in the box of your printer, you could get a 3D printable mouse or a lamp or I think there was like four different ones like a Benchy. JJ Shankles: Yeah. the on the desk I've got the clock and the mouse kit right here Jerry: And those were designed by Bamboo Lab. JJ Shankles: Yes, these are not. And these are ones I've reassembled this mouse two or three different times, because I would find a new one that was really cool. So I'd take it apart and put it together again. ⁓ And maybe this clock I even put together at least twice. So yeah, it's like, because it's just like a standard clock module on the back. Like that is the most basic thing. You could buy them cheap and put it onto whatever project you want. Jerry: There you go. ⁓ yeah But like, it started from something as simple as that. Right? And now it's turned into like, ⁓ I can go buy a Batmobile Tumbler. ⁓ that is like an advanced complicated project. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah, or these full remote control articulated car, a full remote control, this one's a remote control vacuum truck. yeah, these are elaborate, amazing projects and that are really funding designers. Like giving the money back to the designers and the community ⁓ is something I think every company should be really leaning into. Jerry: Yeah, I really feel like. I feel like this is the next step to, you know. This is the next step to making everyone buy a printer and like this for someone that's not in the 30 printing world right now, they probably don't necessarily or they won't immediately realize that a 30 that a model can be printed on any printer. So right now, if I knew nothing about printing. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry: I might be more compelled to buy a bamboo lab printer because the model kits exist and this crowdfunding exists and all of these are compatible with bamboo lab printers because bamboo lab is hosting it. And the people that you're trying to get into 3D printing are the people that don't have printers so they don't know. Sure, I can go to crowdfunding and back this on JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry: spent on Makerworld and then printed on a Prusa machine. but like. JJ Shankles: And you're very right that the profiles are designed for bamboo lab machines. ⁓ One of my brothers brought, he has a K1 that I gave him ⁓ and tried to print out one of the cyber brick projects. And like the tolerances were a little weird because he had to just download the STLs and use them on a different machine with a different printer profile. it's like bamboo seems to have a certain profile with like how the screws I feel like are a little undersized how they came out. I don't know, they're a little, they screw together beautifully, but it's because the profile was designed with these tolerances in mind. Jerry: Fair. That, yeah. And, so, yeah, I, you know, maybe these files are better on bamboo, especially for like the newcomer that might not know how to tweak a profile or might not know how to changed to the correct one so I don't know. Bamboola was doing something right. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Yes, yeah. And I think this is a great, awesome thing for the community. Yeah. Jerry: Oh, 100%. Well, what do you guys think? Have you guys used crowdfunding? Are you buying any models or model kits off MakerWorld or whatever bamboo store? Let us know in the comments down below. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yes, if you know anything more about this, let us know in the comments down below. We'd love to hear from you. And while you're down there, be sure to like and subscribe if you're on YouTube. ⁓ And come back. We keep making new episodes every week. Jerry: Yep. I'll see you guys next week. Bye. JJ Shankles: Alright, see ya. Bye.