3D Print Farm Life | Shipping Etsy Orders, Cryogrip Insanity and the Filament Poop Chute Fix

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

3:15 - 100% print and include packing slip with every order. Print full size on laser printer, adds only a penny and a half worth of paper/toner to each package. Adds professionalism, gives me one last check during packaging to make sure I got order right, helps carrier deliver package if label is damaged, includes a scannable QR code to get back to my store, gives me room to scrawl a short 'Thank you for your order' on it to reinforce that there's another human at the other end of the transaction. Lots up upside, very little downside.

[@TheMountainMaker]

I have started including the 4x6 packing slips not only to make the packing process easier but to ensure the customer gets what they ordered. I like how ship station and Shopify allow me to print a clean 4x6 label but it may just make sense to invest in a full size laser printer. Thanks for the advice!

[@MattWeber]

@@TheMountainMaker A cheap brother laser printer is like $100 or less and a usually get 3000+ pages out a single laser toner cartridge so they are ridiculously cost effective

[@ParkerAntonivich]

Great job! Love the content!

[@TheMountainMaker]

Thanks. 🙏 Much appreciated!

[@trevorcorliss8]

Very awesome!! Keep up the great work! 😊

[@TheMountainMaker]

Thank you! Cheers! 😆

[@shaunhilliard2418]

Where do you get the cryo plate for the mini? I have one coming for my A1, but haven't found one for my mini.

[@TheMountainMaker]

I ordered it directly from the manufacturers website. They are brand new so it took about 2 weeks to arrive from overseas but i just got it yesterday. They are the bright blue plates, i believe mine is the Glacier but im not right in front of it to verify.

[@shaunhilliard2418]

@TheMountainMaker thanks.

[@TheMountainMaker]

Here is the one i purchased from the manufacturers website. biqu.equipment/products/biqu-panda-buildplate-cryogrip-pro-for-x1-p1-a1-printers?variant=41574696190050

[@Jen-fp2xz]

What material do you use for cookie cutters?

[@TheMountainMaker]

I use elegoo pla but have been looking into the specialty filament designed for cookie cutters. I also run them on a dedicated build plate that is for nothing but cookie cutters and that specific machine only uses PLA

[@KellyBNunn]

Confused. Did you need two sloths? In brown. ? You printed husky s

[@TheMountainMaker]

I needed 4 sloths in the darker brown, but only had 2 in stock. At that time, i was waiting on more polymaker brown to come in the mail so I could print the other sloth keychains but didnt currently have any on hand.

[@clyoul3ss819]

Cool set up you have there. Looks like it may be a shed. I was thinking about putting a enclosed Bambu in my basement. Will the moisture effect the filament in a basement....shed etc? I heard it needs to be no moisture!

[@TheMountainMaker]

Honestly it will depend on your area and how well controlled your environment is. This is in an insulated and climate controlled garage space and it also doesn’t get too humid here minus a few weeks during July and August. I have a filament drier for the PETG an any PLA if i start to notice stringing or other print issues such as filament popping at the nozzle and under extrusion on the printed part but 95% of the time, i don’t have any issues with PLA. Even during those summer months when it was upwards of 50-55% in the garage without the extra dehumidifier, i didn’t have any issues with PLA. I suppose if you are in Oregon or Washington, the UK I’ve heard is pretty wet as well, you may need to keep it in a dry box or dry it before/during printing

[@mikel9567]

One of the things I would suggest to speed up your work flow is to put your packing list on top of the shipping label. That way you don't have to waste time looking for the shipping label and possibly putting the wrong one on.

[@TheMountainMaker]

Great tip! I have actually started doing that with the last 3 or 4 batches of shipments

[@TheAtomicSoul]

How much to ship that 10x15 bag? I'd think a box would be a bit more secure and better prevent it from getting broken.

[@TheMountainMaker]

If I was getting complaints of things arriving broken, i would look into switching but Ive only had 2 or 3 that broke during shipping at the very start of me selling them and have since changed the way I protect them with the added bubble bag and that seems to be working so far. I've shipped countless ones overseas as well and nothing reported as broken. The boxes are also about 90 cents to a dollar more expensive to ship per item than the bubble mailers are, plus I would still need the bubble bag to protect it, then the boxes also get padded out so things dont slide around or bounce during shipping, so theres a lot of extra added costs with using a box vs the bubble mailers as well. The cost to ship the actual item in the bubble mailer vs the 9x6x4 box is maybe $1-1.50 more for the label on the box

[@tanookimarketing]

Anyone know the name of this gents shop? Saw a few cool items I want to purchase.

[@TheMountainMaker]

Hey Mike, here’s our Etsy page mountainmakervt.etsy.com

[@tim-tron]

If anyone is having a hard time removing parts from the cryogrip, just put the plate in the freezer for 10 minutes. much easier to remove parts. not my idea, another youtuber suggested this.

[@TheMountainMaker]

I haven’t had a hard time yet aside from those little tree support bases, if you consider that a hard time. Printing with PETG on it for the first time right now and I’m hoping the purge line is easy enough to remove. I know when i print PETG on the stock textured plate, if i forget to run a line of glue down the front where it prints my purge line, its a pain to remove after the plate cools so i can only imagine it with the cryogrip.

[@SPEEDYMEDIA24]

I like the print farm dude, I'm currently trying to start a small one with x1 carbons

[@TheMountainMaker]

I have been eyeing one for my next printer to do some more advance printing but holding up for the upcoming release of Bambu Labs new printer hopefully early next year. If we had any sort of information about it, i could make a more informed decision now because honestly, it might be overkill for what i do but we will know soon enough. Thanks for the support!

[@vlyq1]

16:10 a fun solution could be a slide or ramp leading from the back

[@vlyq1]

my bad didn't watch the full video

[@TheMountainMaker]

So this one actually fell off, not the part I secured to the printer, but the part that connects to that. I did that off camera but its actually 2 pieces. Long story short, I didn't glue it in place and the vibrations caused it to slide out but it did work well once I adjusted the roll in the back. Still need to get back there and re-secure it in place but so far, its falling out and most of them go into that hole and down into the box anyways so why mess with it 😄

[@unzensiert-ungeschnitten3990]

You run your printers in LAN mode ? I can never save it to the sd card, I need LAN mode I guess ?

[@TheMountainMaker]

I have them setup in the cloud and can either send the files to the machine to store them on there or i can print from Orca and it will store it on the sd card as well

[@esteven60]

for this kind of business do you get an LLC? or whats your suggesting.

[@TheMountainMaker]

It would really depend on your location, what you’re selling, etc. for that advice, i would recommend talking to an accountant or business attorney as it will vary from person to person

[@bingfischer9679]

How do you send a package as you did in this video with the outside of the box having markings on it all over? I know USPS and UPS wants you to black all that out. Just curious. TY for the vids.

[@TheMountainMaker]

As long as all the old shipping labels are removed, they never give me any trouble. So far, I haven't had any issues with packages not getting delivered and I use USPS and UPS exclusively

[@bingfischer9679]

@@TheMountainMaker TY, Good to know. I been scared into oblivion about re-using Amazon boxes. LOL

[@MattWeber]

Instead of widening the hole, grab a paper towel roll. They usually are identical since paper towels and TP are usually from the same source factory and they just cut the tube to the needed length from the seam long stock tubes.

[@TheMountainMaker]

That’s a great idea. It would actually let me route it right into the hole that i cut. Thanks for the tips and printer recommendation!

[@BlueKnifeGtag]

great video cant wait to watch more

[@TheMountainMaker]

Thanks, Glad you enjoyed!

[@FinetyRabaey]

Where can I find the file for the giant Pencil holder?

[@TheMountainMaker]

The giant pencil with the open top is from CM Designs on Thangs and is a paid model for commercial use. I’m not sure if it’s free for personal use or not but can check when i am back in my office

[@FinetyRabaey]

@@TheMountainMakerok thanks

[@Affinity3DStudios]

Why not use the key ring with chain. It’s way too close on the ring imo

[@TheMountainMaker]

I have some of them, but the openings on the key rings i purchased seem too cheap and flimsy once you open it and close it back up and ended up having some of them not close up properly cause it to get caught and open back up. What i need to find is a double sided ring with the chain instead of the little split connectors most of them come with.

[@OmegaGamingNetwork]

I'm still not sold on the cryo grip, all I'm finding is it just makes getting things off harder than it needs to be. I don't have adhesion issues with textured PEI. I dunno, perhaps I'm just not printing anything that benefits from it. I did recently throw one of the e3d obxidian nozzles in one of my machines and I'm coming to the conclusion it is in fact worth the asking price. Which galls me because I'm cheap and spending that kind of money on a nozzle feels wrong.

[@TheMountainMaker]

I was in the same boat as you a few weeks ago but kept having issues with one or 2 small prints in particular and decided to give it a try. I don't use it for all of my prints, as it leaves a shiny texture on the bottom, but the little fidget keychains with those small ears definitely benefit from the cryogrip.

[@Makeringedients]

Would you like to elaborate on the nozzle? I find the cryogrips ok (both versions) but not a solution that beats all others

[@OmegaGamingNetwork]

@@Makeringedients The short of it is this. When one runs a 3d print business, time is money and anything that saves time, saves money. For the kind of prints I do, the e3d nozzle is almost twice as fast as the stock nozzle on my P1S. When you are printing out hundreds of items in a day, that kind of time savings pays for itself very quickly. Now I do a lot of large prints that have long straight lines where the flow rate of the nozzle becomes important. For things like his keychains as an example it would probably be a negligible change.

[@TheMountainMaker]

What is max flow rate on one of those nozzles? They wouldn’t be right for the keychains but i could see it coming in handy for the dumbbells or other single color prints

[@OmegaGamingNetwork]

@@TheMountainMaker On a max flow test it was still holding strong on both Bambu basic PLA and Elegoo high speed PLA at 45mm while the stock nozzle starts creating a mess at 25mm. I'm running it at 40mm and have yet to have issues.

[@vlyq1]

2 videos In one day?

[@TheMountainMaker]

I’m feeling generous today 🤣 And I’ve got a lot coming soon so i needed to move up some of the scheduled videos and a lot of people were asking for the last video so i figured why not!

[@TranquilityTerrace]

I cant imagine you are making any profit from one keychain toy factoring in the cost of all the packing materials and shipping itself.

[@TheMountainMaker]

Not much but the cost of manufacturing is minimal, especially the more i load up into the build plate, and the customer pays for shipping and handling

[@redkeyinuse4754]

I wish I could even make 1 sale.

[@TheMountainMaker]

You’ll get there! Focus heavily on your titles and listing photos as they are the first thing potential buyers see. I don’t worry too much about the listings all matching each other because in my case, i sell for a variety of audiences and most of my customers are finding me by searching for a specific item or theme versus browsing my storefront.

[@redkeyinuse4754]

@ it’s been months now and I can’t sell anything online or in person. People say how “awesome” stuff looks but then never order anything. The market is so flooded.

[@TheMountainMaker]

That was always my issue locally with my woodworking and furniture pieces and part of the reason i moved to 3D printing. I had no clue if it would sell or not but one thing that upped my sales in the start was turning on Etsy ads. You only pay when people click your sponsored listing, but as a new shop, unless you are the driving force behind getting traffic to your page, Etsy doesn’t really know what you do yet. After turning on Etsy ads to the max per day, I’ve been consistent with sales. It’s a bit of a risk because you could very well go a month paying 10-15-$20 without making a sale, but the next month you could have a couple sales a day. It really depends on the time of year, your listing titles and the photos you are using, as well as what you are trying to sell.

[@redkeyinuse4754]

@ I honestly feel like it is something else. People are able to sell the dumb dragons for $20 all day long. But I have people complaining about $10.

[@massriver]

Someone needs to melt the scrap and pour into silicone mold or make sheet. I'm to lazy to try.

[@TheMountainMaker]

I’d love to, but definitely need to get a throw away toaster or little oven to try it with!

[@joeking433]

BE SURE TO TIP YOUR MAIL CARRIER!

[@TheMountainMaker]

Good tip!!

[@cameronck]

may want to avoid 3d printing cookie cutters, layer lines trap in bacteria, not a liability i would want to have!

[@810Metalworks]

I’d imagine using a lower layer height would fix that. I use .16 on some stuff and the layer lines are practically invisible.

[@TheMountainMaker]

I print them at .16 and use ironing on all top surfaces to close up at least those top layers and make it easier to clean. With that said, I’ve come up with an additional tag that is going to be included with them to point that out but also recommend them for a one time special use or for pottery or playdoh/clay stamps as well. There have been a few tests done to show that once cleaned, they are typically just as clean as a normal plastic utensil and I think with the advance technology of these printers now, it’s less likely that there are those pits and gaps as you might see from less calibrated machines is just my thought but i know nothing so take it with a grain of salt.

[@810Metalworks]

@@TheMountainMaker what are your ironing settings? I’ve had awful luck with ironing. It literally looks worse after 😞

[@TheMountainMaker]

On the P1P it works awesome for me, I’ll check those settings when i get back to the computer but I’ve had some issues with the A1 Minis and i think its related to the flow calibration. I just ran a test print to confirm it but i would end up with stringing or what looked like under-extruded areas so I’ve been playing with the settings for a while and can’t get it quite right but i just unchecked the flow calibration on this last one so when i get back to the shop this evening, i will see what the results are. I’ve ironed before with great results on the A1 Minis and i think i had that unchecked then as well

[@TheMountainMaker]

So I can't confirm 100% but I just ran 2 prints on 2 different A1 Minis without the Flow Calibration Box Checked in Orca and the ironing came out pretty much perfect. Im not sure exactly why as it should theoretically produce a better result but I knew I had gotten good results with it before and lately ive been keeping all the boxes checked but the Flow Calibration is the one thing the P1P doesnt have that the A1 and A1 Mini do so I figure it has to be something within the coding or possibly orca slicer but off works better. Now we know