Jerry Gomes: Welcome to another episode of the Co-Extrusion Podcast. How are you doing, JJ? JJ Shankles: Hey, I'm doing good. Jerry Gomes: Good. Alright, so I got I got a spicy question. So we have printers that are good, but do we have printers that are good enough to put in your grandmother's house and for your grandmother to use? What does it take to make 3D printing go to go mainstream? Right? I think we're maybe, maybe the grandmother's house might be a little bit extreme, right? Like she I'll I'll I'll I'll give that one up. But JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. People who are smartphone savvy, let's say let's put that's the bar of Jerry Gomes: Yeah. So like what is it what is it gonna take for me to JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: walk a block down the road, walk into my neighbor's house and see a 3D printer? Like I don't know who that guy is. I don't know if JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: he's a doctor, I don't know if he's engineer, if he works at the pharmacy or the grocery store, like what's it gonna take? Are we there? JJ Shankles: Yeah. I think we're getting there. We are Jerry Gomes: Yeah. JJ Shankles: definitely getting there. Seeing my a few weeks ago I was went to see family and my nieces and nephews are in elementary school. I think the youngest is second grade or something. And seeing him w run a K one, like a Creity K one, what the printer that Jerry Gomes: Second grade. JJ Shankles: Everyone has had the issue. He's been using this for years as you know, like it's not like, he just started Jerry Gomes: wow. JJ Shankles: at in second grade. It's like no, he's been using this for like a few years now. And the K th this mine was like the beta K1, like one of the first K1s. And everyone complained about how many issues this printer had. And it's like, these little kids can keep it running. Like I am impressed Jerry Gomes: man. JJ Shankles: at how much the when the young kids get started with it. Jerry Gomes: So JJ Shankles: And then of course all of their friends have it now. And so it's I could see it being a generational thing where the next generation is just really good at it. Like you figure out the few Jerry Gomes: Just gonna be able to? JJ Shankles: quirks and sorry, that's a little different than features Jerry Gomes: Ha. JJ Shankles: you know, beyond talking of features that printers need. me just being impressed with young kids being able to pick it up and learn it so quickly. Yeah. Mm Jerry Gomes: I I think that's part of the conversation though, because JJ Shankles: hmm. Jerry Gomes: so I think this conversation needs to split in two ways. The first, features that don't exist or features JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: that didn't, but finally do exist. But I think secondarily we need to look into like what to in order to make it go mainstream, how do we teach people how to use these things? Because even JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: if they're easy to use doesn't mean someone knows if there's value for them. How are how are they gonna use it? What is useful for them? Are they can they JJ Shankles: Mm. Jerry Gomes: do CAD work? Do pe does someone need to know how to do CAD work for it to go mainstream? I think no. But JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: like and the thought that I had in my head was young kids. So it's kind of interesting that you brought that up. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: Young kids, now when maybe they can have like an engineering class in elementary school, second grade? JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: That kinda blows my mind a little bit, but I'm thinking like fourth and fifth grade. Like I JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: had PE and all these other like all these other like music class and art class. Like art class is a perfect place to start teaching JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: kids how to print their own, like I hate to say it, I hate to say it. Dragons? Toys? JJ Shankles: Yeah. But it's it's starting to be a thing 'cause in their elementary school they have like a it's like a technology class, I think. It's just general technology or whatever now. Jerry Gomes: There you go. JJ Shankles: But like that's a dedicated class and they have three D printers in that class and they do three D printing s you know, they do technology and engineering and three D printing stuff and it's like That's wild that it's you know to see it in schools. Like when I was going through school, it wasn't until college when like our engineering d school had some 3D printers. I never even touched them, but they were there. Yeah. Uhhuh. Jerry Gomes: yeah. And they were bad ones, the ones where you had to level the bed with screws and then manually level the bed with with paper and yeah. JJ Shankles: I think now remembering I think there were those like Da Vinci ones. The ones that had like Jerry Gomes: Mm-hmm. JJ Shankles: a lockdown spool system. So it like you have to use their spools on their machines and they overpay for it. Like and they were probably tiny and terrible and way too expensive. Like Jerry Gomes: Yeah, I'm looking these up. The XYZ ones. JJ Shankles: Yeah, something like DaVinci XYZ. Jerry Gomes: I do remember that I've s I've seen some of those on my Facebook marketplace in the last year. JJ Shankles: I've thought about Jerry Gomes: Yeah, so JJ Shankles: getting a weird one off of totally I see off Facebook marketplace where it's just like this for fifty bucks to get some fifteen year old terrible machine and Jerry Gomes: Should go back in time? Remember my Yeah. Should I go back to remember why I hated myself? Because why would I do this? JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: Yeah, no, and that's actually interesting to me because a technology JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: class, like it's the same thing. You see little kids at at restaurants and their parent hands them an iPad. And as much as I hate this, like JJ Shankles: Mm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: their parent hands them an iPad to keep like make them shut up so they don't bother JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: the people at the neighboring tables and probably so the mom and dad. aren't bothered as well. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: But like they're like, you know, flipping away, typing away, playing these games that I mean, obviously I could learn if I touched them as well, but I mean that's wild that yeah. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Mm hmm. But their dexterity is of like being able to like, I know how to unlock the phone. I need to know how to get through the settings, go through the mi you know, go to exactly where I want to get to to get what I want out of this. It's like, Whoa, Jerry Gomes: It Yeah. JJ Shankles: I I struggle with an iPhone, you know, like Jerry Gomes: It's it's shocking how moldable a child is though, because JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: part of what integrating 3D printing into modern society is going to be JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: is integrating it to a child. Because how easy is it to teach a child a new language when they're a child? Super JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: easy. Well, for what it's worth, right? Super easy. How easy is it to teach a kid how to use a phone? Super easy. I know that because I see kids using phones and iPads, but my great grandmother, if I handed her an iPhone, was sh was she gonna do with it, right? She's gonna say, What is JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: this? And I'm gonna say it's a phone, and she's gonna say, but it doesn't look like this, right? So, JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: but you you give it to a child early on and they grow up with it and like it. It's the same JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: with food. If you didn't eat mushrooms growing up, by the time you're 15 or 16, you're not gonna like mushrooms. Even JJ Shankles: Mm. Jerry Gomes: if you've never had one, you're gonna put it in your mouth and you're gonna hate it. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: So like I think part of like integrating into modern society is starting in small doses and starting while we're young, right? JJ Shankles: Yeah. And I could see school being a big part of that. But features wise, I think, what feature do you think either is an important one we have now or something we need to add to make it more accessible? Jerry Gomes: Yeah, so I haven't so I think features wise, we need to make printers as stupid simple in terms of the user interface and the firmware. That is something JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: that I think Creality and Bamboo have kind of paved the way for. However, I don't think we're there yet. I think they're very JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: easy. I really do. But I do think if I pick up an iPhone, I do believe that an iPhone is still easier to use. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: I think when when you pick up an iPhone, you know, I have an Android, but that doesn't mean that I mean, I could navigate that. I could go to the phone app, I can go to the texting app, I could text my JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: mom, my dad, my neighbor. The keyboard looks the same. Everything on that phone is like foreign to me, but I would know how to use it. When I go from a Creality printer to a bamboo printer to a this or to a that, it's different. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: And it's a different brand, but it's different enough that I still need to navigate and figure it out. The names JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: for things are different. So the frequency, vibration compensation, all these different brands call it something different. Ever so slightly different. If JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: I had if I had it all like enumerated on a list of paper in front of me, I would probably know and I could connect the dots. This is the same as this. This is the same as this. But JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: it's ever so slightly different. Like messaging is text messaging is text messaging. It doesn't matter what you are. So I think user JJ Shankles: Mm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: interface is something that we're lacking significantly. In the last podcast JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: we actually talked about the Creator 5 Pro and you were saying that the firmware is lacking. And JJ Shankles: Yeah. The user interface is the great example of on the front screen you can click on somehow I always get to a screen that shows you the spools, but that's not the right s screen to change the spools. You have to go to the filament tab to change the spools. So you can there's one way from the main screen, you click one button and it just shows you the spools. But you can't change it there. You have to go to a different tab to change it's like why d this tab should not exist. Jerry Gomes: Yeah, why? JJ Shankles: These should be the same screen. Like two ways to get to the same place, that would be great. Instead it's two ways to get to two near identical screens and one is unf use unfunctional and one is functional. So it's like who made this? Like yeah. Jerry Gomes: Yeah, it doesn't make sense. kind of along the same kind of along the same route as firmware. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: Again, about the Creative Five Pro, we just talked about in the last podcast, you just mentioned in order to change filament on that, you have to basically remove the entire top hat, manually go to the tool head and like grab and cut the filament, and then you need to manually pull the pull JJ Shankles: Manuel pull it all the way out. Jerry Gomes: it out. So I hate that I hate that I'm linking this to Cheedy because I was gonna say the same with Cheedy. Cheaty's firmware is bad, but also Cheidi's filament loading and unloading is bad as well. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: Things like this, these are obviously corrected and I shouldn't even say corrected. They're obviously this isn't the problem with Creality or Bamboo. JJ Shankles: Easier. Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: If you have an AMS, but if you don't JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: have an AMS. This is still potentially a problem. If you don't have an AMS, you can still cut the filament, but you still have to manually pull it out. That's JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: the same on both Creality and Bamboo. Like, to go mainstream, not only do you have to have firmware that's easy to navigate, you have to have functions and capabilities that are so stupid and simple. However, JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: I say stupid and simple, and I don't mean that as like as like a like negative towards someone, but like JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: if I am A four-year-old or a five-year-old kid, I'm just not gonna know what I'm doing because I like I'm I'm ignorant. I'm not stupid, I'm ignorant, right? JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: or what if I'm a four-year-old kid and I can't reach the printer on top of the table? I'm on my phone, I'm on my iPad and I click unload, and then it smashes JJ Shankles: Hm, yeah. Jerry Gomes: the tool head against the table or against the against the cutter. And then it JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: manually unwinds it, and then I step up stand on my tippy toes or I stand on my step stool and I grab the filament off the rack because it no AMS, side mounted JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: or back mounted, and it automatically spooled it up. Now I stand on my tippy toes or my step stool and I grab the filament off, right? Like same with manually loading. You should be able to manually JJ Shankles: Yeah, yeah. Mhm. Yeah, I think Jerry Gomes: load. JJ Shankles: the manually loading there are there's correct ways to do it and incorrect ways to do it. Of Jerry Gomes: yeah. JJ Shankles: I think the Creator Five and a lot of cheaty pr I haven't used the since the cheaty five four max. It was a big printer, but it was one of those where like you have to reach in the printer from one side to hold the The extruder gears open and reach around to the back of this massive printer and pull it back. I have a six foot four wingspan. I struggled to t reach both sides at the same time. And I'm like, this is ridiculo it's both like physically demanding and difficult to do. And they're like, yeah, that's how you're supposed to do it. And you're like, who? Who do you want to do this? Like, versus Jerry Gomes: That's crazy. JJ Shankles: you get a K1, K1C, K. Even these ones that if you don't have a CFS or auto loading or unloading, it's easy to change filament on a lot of single spool printers. And there's so there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. Like there's easy and then there's some companies that just like don't put the effort into smoothing the r s rounding the edges to loading and unloading, I think. Jerry Gomes: Yeah, and and I think we could probably go and dissect every different brand, because I think every brand, including bamboo, including Creality, I think all JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: of them do something wrong, JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: and they're probably doing it wrong either accidentally or intentionally. For instance, Creality. This is just spur remote off the top of my head. I'm sure there's JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: other ones, but Creality's integration with the Creality Cloud is terrible. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: It is awful. You need to either remove Creality Cloud from your printer or fix Creality Cloud so it's actually user-friendly, good, helpful. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: Nobody wants to go to Creality Cloud and be bombarded with advertisements to download models that you don't know what they are, you didn't search for them, you don't care for them, and nobody wants to pay 19.5 Creality coins for a model that they can get for free on Maker World. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: Like All of these things don't make sense. Or like, JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: what about okay, so that that that's another topic, but I th JJ Shankles: Yeah. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jerry Gomes: I think every brand has something that's not good, and if you took the best of every JJ Shankles: for sure. Yes. Jerry Gomes: single brand right now, we might be JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: there? Maybe. JJ Shankles: Yeah. one feature I wanted to mention that is my favorite on the Creality is we're not I'm I don't love Creality. Creality's not perfect, but this is a feature that Creality's Spark X I seven has. Changing when a filament breaks in that tool path, all the way from the CFS light to the nozzle, it's so easy to disassemble the entire tool path. of like the extruder motors gear is really easy to open. The nozzle is a latch. pull it straight out so you can totally get to it. And the day after I was changing the because I had some filament break. I've had filament break every step along the way and it's really easy to get to everything. The CFS since there's n it's not hidden underneath the the path of the CFS filament isn't underneath like every other one. It's straight out the top. So it's hidden for two inches. So it's Jerry Gomes: Yeah. JJ Shankles: really easy to push through from the top or the bottom to get some broken filament out. Then the day after that, it was the CFS or the K2 Pro and Plus both had issues with clogging on me. And dis getting to the filament path Jerry Gomes: Bad. JJ Shankles: inside there, like you gotta take it apart, fully unscrewing things, and it's a pain to get to the filament path if it breaks in the wrong section in those printers. Versus the Spark X is this like really cheap printer that I think they finally like did a good job making an easy to disassemble tool path or filament path. throughout entire machine and it's like this should be on more printers where like it's Jerry Gomes: Yeah. JJ Shankles: one latch to open up the entire gears, it's another latch to pull the whole nozzle off. And you're like, Cool, it's right there. I can see everything. It's so easy. Jerry Gomes: So I completely agree with you a hundred percent JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: because recent I have on my K two Plus, as of like a couple weeks ago, I had multiple issues with filament. It would always jam inside the nozzle right at the tool head, JJ Shankles: Mm. Jerry Gomes: right there where that extruder gear feeds it directly into the into the melt zone. What JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: was happening was the PETG I was using was too low quality. I didn't know that. Well, I mean, I knew it was cheap, but I didn't know it was not high flow enough to print at normal speeds. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: And it and I was and I was ramming too much filament in there and it couldn't the flow couldn't keep up. So JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: it was jamming and and to get into the tools to get into that zone like that area is like four screws and then it's a pain in the neck to actually disassemble and get the filament out. And so I a hundred percent agree with you, like ease of repair. JJ Shankles: Mm. Jerry Gomes: I'm gonna piggyback on that though, because when you said that, that's why I'm like my jaw dropped, you said that and it made like a light bulb go in my head. Another thing that I think we're seriously lacking is repair shops. And that has nothing to do with FlashForge, Creality, Bamboo, anyone. That has something JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: to do with like just global integration of society. Because what happens when my car breaks down? Either I choose to fix it because I'm mechanically inclined, or I JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: bring it to a repair shop. And if I bring it to a repair shop, those guys want $100 an hour. Plus a fifty percent up charge on parts, but my car is fixed. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: We're dealing with different levels of products here, right? Like a car JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: might cost fifteen to fifty thousand dollars. My thirty printer JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: costs two hundred to two thousand. But JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: we I think we're in a I think we've kind of gotten to an era now where the I'm gonna call the good printers because the JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: you could still get a good like the Spark X I seven's still a decent printer, but JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: The good printers are people are buying fifteen hundred to two thousand dollar printers and as they should if they're expecting the printer to last for five years, but they're not someone that is necessarily engineering inclined. Even JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: if it's something as simple as a filament jam, JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: like I understand there's a lot of content online about how you can fix this and But like there's also a lot of content online about how you can replace the light bulb in your car. I can do it in literally 35 seconds. But some people some people don't have the means to do that. And so like shops that can you can bring your printer to to calibrate them and to repair them and to tune them. A nozzle change, unless you get one of those quick swap nozzles, which I love by the way, and maybe that needs to be integrated, but unless you get a little quick swap nozzle Some people might not necessarily be equipped to change their nozzle after a hundred, fifty, two hundred hours. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think I wonder if it could be integrated with sort of like cell phone repair shops or something, if like those types of stores could be that. I couldn't I just don't see a chain of purely 3D printers stores opening in every city. Or like Jerry Gomes: I agree. I agree. JJ Shankles: a Best Buy, like a you take it to your Best Buy or your gigaparts mega microcenter, wherever techie circuit city isn't a thing anymore. But like that type of like a place having a repair. Cause yeah, the fifteen hundred to two thousand dollar printers, those deserve to be repaired. The two hundred dollar printers, like I just don't Jerry Gomes: yeah. Spino. JJ Shankles: see. I don't people I don't see people spending sixty to eighty to a hundred to spend a hundred bucks to repair a two hundred dollar printer. I don't think Jerry Gomes: I agree. JJ Shankles: you're gonna get many people to yeah. Jerry Gomes: I think those I I I see in the future the two hundred to two hundred fifty dollar printers are gonna start to go by the wayside because JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: I think they're gonna I think people are gonna start to opt towards printers that are between the six hundred and fifty plus dollar range 'cause they're just generally more well equipped. They're fully enclosed, they're more capable. Especially if we get to the point where all every brand has a fully flushed out user interface. You're gonna need more money on the software dev team. You're gonna need more money on the customer support side, which is another thing that we would need. Every brand needs to have JJ Shankles: Interesting, yeah. Jerry Gomes: a 24 seven or every brand needs to have a customer support line that's available for at least twelve hours a day kind of thing. By phone, JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: by email, by chat. JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: so with all of those things, ads cost and I think you're gonna start to see printer prices rise. So yeah. I agree. I don't think you're gonna repair the two hundred dollar machine. JJ Shankles: I don't see the two hundred dollar printer going away. Jerry Gomes: Really? JJ Shankles: I would push back on that. I I think the two hundred dollar price point, I do agree, they're maybe pushing towards the the three hundred with like, well you have to have the accessory box, the CFS with it or something. but I think there's always gonna be a two hundred dollar brand out there. Jerry Gomes: That's fair. JJ Shankles: Though like I could see big brands definitely pushing being their their most sold printer, their flagship. pushing up more and more. but I think there's just a big market right at that two hundred dollar price point where it's like, that's an easy sell to get people in the door, Jerry Gomes: Yeah. JJ Shankles: like Jerry Gomes: Yeah. But but no, going back to the repair thing, I I yeah, I don't JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: think that there's a big enough market to have a dedicated like repair shop JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: in every major s I mean maybe there will be a shop that someone opens up in your in your area to sell machines and stuff. And I don't think that I don't think 3D printing market's gonna blow up enough to allow for JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: that though. But I do think, yes, micro centers, What wa I can't remember the name of the one in in in my city, but JJ Shankles: The gigaparts. Jerry Gomes: Giga yeah, Micro Center Gigaparts, Best Buy, those are all perfect places for it. Cell phone repair JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: shops, I wouldn't have even considered that, but I do yeah, JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: that's perfect. I think places like that are very technically repair inclined for and and they're set like especially the phone repair shops, those are explicitly set up for the people that want to keep their phone as long as possible. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: But don't want to send it into Apple to be like killed on price. Like that that's the perfect JJ Shankles: Yeah. Where like they Jerry Gomes: place. JJ Shankles: they have technicians kind of in place and ready to follow a set instruction set. Of like they how to you know, you really just need to be able to follow instructions and with a screwdriver can pretty much Jerry Gomes: Exactly. JJ Shankles: do everything. You're unscrewing, ch clearing the filament line, screwing in a new nozzle. Pretty simple, but I do understand that some for some people it's let me pay someone fifty bucks to do this to just Jerry Gomes: Or JJ Shankles: get it working again. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: I'll say this. I've done it myself where I was performing a repair and your thermistor wire or the thermistor wires are so JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: stinking tiny. I broke the thermistor wire and I actually did it twice by the way on the re on the part that I JJ Shankles: no. Jerry Gomes: bought in return. But the thermistor wire it broke and so what if I am trying to be frugal and I'm trying to learn my machine and I break it myself while doing some kind of a nozzle change. Well now when I break my thermistor wire, that's a whole nother problem. Because now, JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: at least with this machine, the entire tool head needed to be replaced. Right? At that point, that one that one might be out of the out of the wheelhouse of the person that was trying to be frugal and trying to learn and and that okay. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: Bring it down to your local like bulbs plus or whatever it's called and JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: have have the have the local technician take care of it. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Or maybe maybe the solution to that is making the bigger repairs more doable. 'cause a lot of Creality and Bamboo Lab, they do have really good wikis out there. And so if they made the parts more repairable, if they made, the Jerry Gomes: Yeah. JJ Shankles: whole hot end is four screws and a plug, you know, and here's a great diagram and video and step by step Jerry Gomes: yeah. JJ Shankles: instructions to be like, hey, it doesn't need to be this whole complex thing anymore. Let's make it this is easy to change. The main board is easy to ch you know, everything make every s part easy to repair could be a big step forward for repairability. Jerry Gomes: There's there the shop manual for your Toyota or your Honda exists, right? That's what JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: my grandfather passed down to my father and he gave to me the shop JJ Shankles: Uh-huh. Jerry Gomes: manual for the car, right? Like of course, shop manuals in the olden days are like paper, right? You can you can JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: they're they're this thick, literally. But it's how to repair literally everything, right? And JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: Creality already they're a big enough company, they already have a standard operating procedure for how to assemble the printer. Which means if they already have those instructions of how to assemble it, they also JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: have all the instructions of how to disassemble it. And if you JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: publish that, and I'm you don't have to sell the the repair manual to everyone, but JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: like make it available for five dollars as a PDF. Right? And I I okay you know what I I JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. No, make it free. It's gotta be free. Jerry Gomes: I'm sorry I said that because I agree, right? JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: I'm sorry I said that. But make it available JJ Shankles: 'Cause they do have some on the on those newer printers where when something goes wrong and the error pops up, there's a QR code Jerry Gomes: QR code. JJ Shankles: and you scan it and it takes you directly to that wiki and it says, Hey, here's the issue and here's how you fix it. Jerry Gomes: I w I'm gonna I so you pushed back on me once, I'll push back on you. The one JJ Shankles: Yeah, yeah, yeah. huh. Jerry Gomes: time that I ever scanned a Crowdy QR code, it took me to Crowdie's wiki website and it did not help me. It didn't. JJ Shankles: four four page not there. Jerry Gomes: It really it No, the the page was there. The page was there, but it didn't JJ Shankles: okay, it was there. Cause I've done it with a with a brand new p s brand new printer and you scan it and it's like, this is brand new firmware, these QR codes don't take you anywhere yet. Jerry Gomes: Well err the error codes don't tell you exactly what broke all the time, especially if you're dealing JJ Shankles: Mm, yeah. Jerry Gomes: with the filament line. We've talked about that once. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: It it got clogged between here and here and it might be this or it might be that, right? I guess JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: Some kind like documentation. I gotta I'll just say documentation JJ Shankles: Yeah. Jerry Gomes: add a period to it, right? We're definitely in a world where documentation was better than it was five years ago. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: But I'll agree with you we're not we're not to the point where I think I would buy a two thousand dollar printer as some random hat drawn person, don't whatever background I have. And then expect to be able to perform all the repairs without a decent amount of research. JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah. We're definitely not there. And I think they're taking the baby steps there of like putting those QR codes, but those need to take you to the correct article and those need to take you to like a well documented step-by-step thing. And sometimes it is with some brands, but then I've taken it to sometimes it's a four four page not there. Sometimes it's it could be anything. Great. Jerry Gomes: Yeah. So I'll I'll do another piggyback on you. And JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: so this kind of goes along with how w mm when I said firmware earlier, but I'll it'll tag firmware, it'll also tag documentation. But these videos that get made and the firmware that gets made, the the translations are much better than they were even as recently as a couple of years ago, even a year ago. Translations are still better. But if I I still see this a lot in the content that gets published from Creality and that gets published from these other brands, they make small like one to two minute videos on unboxings or this or that or whatever it is. JJ Shankles: Mm mm. Jerry Gomes: And it's either only text, there's no speaking, and all the text that pops up on screen, and that's fine if JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: it explains the process. But I see bad translations there. or when there is speaking involved, it's it's not as necessarily easy to follow along because again, translations or accents or whatever. So I think we need to definitely work on that as well in order to have a more well rounded product. Like if I buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner, everything on the content on YouTube or on the the manual is all like JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: perfect English because it was written by an English nat a native English speaker. And yeah. German. A native German speaker. JJ Shankles: Yeah. And it's every other language. Like they've got Spanish, French, German, you know, everything. Jerry Gomes: A native French speaker. A native not not that I can read that, so I don't know if those are translated well, but I was I assumed JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know how perfect they are. I assume, yes. Yeah. Yes. documentation being translated. another interesting on a very separate note. More features, more cool killer apps, I would say. This is the full control, full spectrum printing where it takes CMYK and it prints Jerry Gomes: Mm-hmm. JJ Shankles: it blends and stuff like that. Or the Hue Forge, things like that. Sort of that killer app, I think, to like to show off like here's what printing can do. I think it's definitely getting there. But there's still cooler things that you could do where you're like Jerry Gomes: Like third party, meaning different different third party brands come in, start companies JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: that focus on this software that can be integrated with any printer you're talking about. JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah. T to make printing go mainstream, we need more more awesome e example of like this is an awesome example. You can print full color everything with a four spool tool changer three D printer is crazy. But it needs to be better implemented and then we need more I think big brand buy-in. Like if if Dyson released STL files to you. Jerry Gomes: my gosh. Yes. JJ Shankles: That would be crazy. Like that would be even if they sold them, I w I would buy an official Dyson STL. I would buy, you know, so many brands if big brands started adopting it. I think that Jerry Gomes: Big brands JJ Shankles: would be it. Jerry Gomes: big brands need to be careful with the models they release because they don't want to make your products be repaired solely with 3D printing because then you'll never buy a new one. They also need to be careful JJ Shankles: Mm. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: they don't sell ma that that the models don't prevent them from selling accessories. But goodness gracious, if Dyson released like three different STLs for how to mount your vacuum on the wall, it might even save them money because they don't necessarily have to manufacture them and sell them. Or s manufacture JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: them and include them in the shipping box. Because that they include that for free. Sell JJ Shankles: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: sell me the vacuum for the same price, but well, I'm gonna be careful. Sell it for the same price, but don't include that. Don't include the stuff I don't want. Like the ones I don't want, don't include that. But now I JJ Shankles: Mm, yeah. Don't include the stuff I don't w want, yeah. Jerry Gomes: can print the wall mount or I can print this or that. Or like attachments for the nozzle. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. And sell it. Sell me that STL. Like I w I would buy an official Dyson nozzle STL. And yes, people are going to take that and redistribute it online. But there are so many things where it's like, cool, I don't really want a pirated STL. Like I want to support companies that are putting out STLs. Jerry Gomes: yeah. JJ Shankles: Like I I would spend ten bucks on an STL for an official Dyson Walmount or every, you know, brand official Jerry Gomes: yeah. And JJ Shankles: STL parts. Jerry Gomes: Ford, they released the what was the what was the truck that did that had the adapters for specifically 3D print it might have been the Maverick specifically JJ Shankles: Maverick or something? One of theirs. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: allowed a there was like attachments for 3D printing accessories. JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: Now, I feel like that's a little bit extreme, but super, super cool. So again, big brand adoption. JJ Shankles: Super cool. Mm hmm. Jerry Gomes: So JJ Shankles: Yeah. Hopefully it does more and I don't know I hope maybe it's on other Fords. I just I remember hearing about it on that one car, but I don't know how much Jerry Gomes: Think was just on that one, but JJ Shankles: they did with that. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: Yeah. I feel like we gotta hit all the topic I mean, I'm sure there's more, right? But like JJ Shankles: Yeah, always more. Jerry Gomes: what when we were talking about brainstorming this idea, I knew that there were ideas in my head, but kind of as this podcast went on, I'm like, wow, yeah, that's actually a place that we can improve and we can improve there too. But like JJ Shankles: Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomes: generally I think we're in the right direction. I could see 3D printing going mainstream and I mean, depending on how fast stuff gets adopted, it could be in a lot of houses in even three to five years. Like repairing good JJ Shankles: Yeah. I could see Jerry Gomes: like repairing good products with brand adoption and stuff. I mean it's we're in the right direction. So JJ Shankles: Yes, yeah. Definitely it's increasing and it ki the industry keeps growing, for sure. Yeah. Jerry Gomes: yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that's the end of this podcast. Guys, we publish podcast every single Friday. if you have any comments, any cons or concerns, if you have any thoughts about about this topic, post them in the comments down JJ Shankles: Yes. Jerry Gomes: below. We'd love to have a conversation with you guys. But yeah, make sure to like and subscribe. If you subscribe, ring the bell so you see us post next Friday. But yeah, I think that's all we got for today. JJ Shankles: Yeah, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye. Jerry Gomes: Yep. Bye guys.