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Crossed Wires · Jul 14, 2025 · 1 hr 44 min

3D Load Letter

Did you grow up wishing you could make real 3D objects from your computer, maybe if you're British you remember the cartoon 'Penny Crayon'? Well, in this modern world we live in, you can do all of that with a 3D printer. Our guest is friend of the show and all-round self-hosting nerd, James Smith, who has been working on Manyfold which is a self-hosted project you can use to manage all of your 3D model files. Of course, none of that will make any sense if you don't know your Z-Axis from your extruder, and so James and James attempt to give a comprehensive guide to 3D printing, with an unintentional bias towards filament based printing. Have you gotten into 3D printing yet, maybe you've got some horror stories to share of prints gone wrong, or want to share your amazing creations? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to podcast@crossedwires.net, or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server. If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page. Affiliate Promotion Backblaze "Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too. Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up. Hetzner Need to host your own instance of Manyfold, or any other app or service that can run on Linux, then check out Hetzner, with hosting in the EU and great rates on both AMD and Ampere powered ARM servers, as well as great pricing on storage including object storage and hosted NextCloud. Episode Links James Smith on Mastodon Manyfold: Website / Mastodon / Public Instance Benchy - Public domain 3D printer test model Ender-3 V3 SE Bambu Labs Cloud Dependancy - Louis Rossman on YouTube Slicers: OrcaSlicer Slic3r 3D Design TinkerCad - Free web based model creation from AutoDesk FreeCad - Open-source CAD software for Mac, Linux, and Windows Online Model Sites: Thingiverse Printables Mentioned models: NES Switch Cartridge Case V2 by flyingpurplecow - Thingiverse Fusion 360 IKEA Skadis Peg Models by Rkimmell73 - Thingiverse OctoPrint Klipper Sea Dog Game Studios - Table top gaming by Jae's sister and brother-in-law, lots of 3D printing Chapter Times 00:00:04: Introductions 00:03:39: What is 3D Printing? 00:08:17: A Resin PSA - Wear Gloves 00:10:16: Filament Printing 00:20:08: Open Hardware 00:29:13: Calibration and Setup 00:31:31: Bambu Labs 00:38:34: Slicers 00:44:00: 3D Modelling 00:50:01: Manyfold 01:03:24: OctoPrint & Klipper 01:11:23: Troubleshooting Prints 01:21:28: Multi-Colour Prints 01:30:07: Random Thoughts 01:37:23: Wrapping Up Credits Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

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Did you grow up wishing you could make real 3D objects from your computer, maybe if you're British you remember the cartoon 'Penny Crayon'? Well, in this modern world we live in, you can do all of that with a 3D printer.

Our guest is friend of the show and all-round self-hosting nerd, James Smith, who has been working on Manyfold which is a self-hosted project you can use to manage all of your 3D model files.

Of course, none of that will make any sense if you don't know your Z-Axis from your extruder, and so James and James attempt to give a comprehensive guide to 3D printing, with an unintentional bias towards filament based printing.

Have you gotten into 3D printing yet, maybe you've got some horror stories to share of prints gone wrong, or want to share your amazing creations? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to podcast@crossedwires.net, or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

Affiliate Promotion

Backblaze

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Hetzner

Need to host your own instance of Manyfold, or any other app or service that can run on Linux, then check out Hetzner, with hosting in the EU and great rates on both AMD and Ampere powered ARM servers, as well as great pricing on storage including object storage and hosted NextCloud.

Episode Links

 

Chapter Times

  1. 00:00:04: Introductions

  2. 00:03:39: What is 3D Printing?

  3. 00:08:17: A Resin PSA - Wear Gloves

  4. 00:10:16: Filament Printing

  5. 00:20:08: Open Hardware

  6. 00:29:13: Calibration and Setup

  7. 00:31:31: Bambu Labs

  8. 00:38:34: Slicers

  9. 00:44:00: 3D Modelling

  10. 00:50:01: Manyfold

  11. 01:03:24: OctoPrint & Klipper

  12. 01:11:23: Troubleshooting Prints

  13. 01:21:28: Multi-Colour Prints

  14. 01:30:07: Random Thoughts

  15. 01:37:23: Wrapping Up

Credits

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

 

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