What are you working on? I think that’s a good thing. Why are you in my shop? Why am I not making anything? Because you kindly let me come to interview you and ask about your story and your thoughts on this kind of shop. What changes will happen as these tools continue to improve? You are currently in a temporary space, right? You are building a new shop.
Yes, I recently moved my studio, although I don’t know how heavy it is, but it is indeed very heavy. I have moved about four to five times in the past few years, trying to find a place to settle down for the long term. Now I am in a garage, building a new studio, but it will take some time to complete. In fact, there is some construction noise outside, I don’t know if it will affect the interview.
What are you building? I am building what I hope will be my last studio to move into, which will be very spacious, with a lot of power outlets, and hopefully become the ultimate studio to make anything you want. This is quite a serious construction project, you mentioned it’s about 8000 square feet.
Yes, it will probably be around 8000 square feet. It looks amazing, I’m a bit envious, I think it might be better than Formlabs’ studio.
Of course, that’s the goal. You mentioned it’s been almost 10 years, right? In fact, it’s close to 10 years because you sent an email shortly after Kickstarter launched, which was in September 2012. So it’s been 10 years, I remember it very clearly.
When we got in touch, it was indeed unusual. Formlabs had been established for less than a year at that time, and we only had about 10 people, having just launched a product on Kickstarter. Then we started receiving a lot of emails from people who wanted to join us. I remember seeing Shane’s resume, which had a lot of content, but at that time, we received many resumes, so I skipped it. That might have been a big mistake, luckily he was persistent. A few days later, he sent another link to a webpage detailing a software he developed, replicating all the features we showcased on Kickstarter, including slicing, generating support structures, and even some features we hadn’t implemented yet. At the bottom of the page, it said: “I spent three days developing this; imagine what I could do if I worked full-time.” I forgot this at the time, but we immediately invited you to join us.
What were you thinking at the time? What were you doing? I was in school, and when I got your call, I was in the middle of midterms. I just walked out after turning in my paper.
I think this is my experience when applying for jobs. At that time, I didn’t expect to go for an interview with a company, let alone fly to Boston, or even move there. Boston is one of the places I think is least suitable for starting a big company.
From a broader perspective, I had been active in the 3D printing field for a few years by then. The first time I heard about a 3D printer, it completely shocked me because it was a machine that could make almost any part you needed with minimal effort. I thought I needed one of those machines because I loved making things, but making parts was always difficult.
When I entered this field, the consumer 3D printing market didn’t exist yet, that was around 2009. I’m not sure if MakerBot was founded in 2009, but at that time, the only option was to build your own 3D printer. I built one, but it was terrible. What I really wanted was an SLA (Stereolithography) printer because I had been making FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers, which had many drawbacks, the biggest problem being that parts tended to crack, and the types of materials that could be used were limited. SLA printers, on the other hand, could produce perfect parts, using various materials, and with very high precision.
However, at that time, there wasn’t a single SLA printer on the market for less than tens of thousands of dollars, even hundreds of thousands. So, when I saw Formlabs’ project on Kickstarter, it was an SLA printer priced around $2500, and I immediately realized this was what I needed. I not only wanted to buy this machine but also wanted to build one myself. So, I applied for a position at Formlabs, but no one replied.
My logic was that the hiring process was to find people with the required skills who could do the job at the lowest cost. So, I decided to demonstrate my skills and abilities in the most direct way possible, which is why I developed that software. This might be the best job application I’ve ever seen, and it worked very well. Of course, there’s a risk in doing this; it might seem a bit strange. In fact, I did some tracking when I sent the application; although I didn’t tell you, I hosted the application document on my server, and every time someone opened the file, I recorded their IP address to confirm if you had seen my application.
I was worried that if there were too many emails, you might not even look at my application. If no one had opened it, I would know to try other ways to contact you, like through Twitter. As a result, I saw access records within five minutes of sending my application, and all of them were from Boston. A few minutes later, there were more access records, and I knew that was because I forwarded the application to everyone.
From my perspective, this was a very special experience.
It was really good; they thought it was cool. And it was really bad; they thought I was a madman and laughed at me. I didn’t know which one it was at the time, but I thought they saw it. I’m glad you kept insisting, and now you still regret not clicking on the resume the first time. It’s a nice story, yes.
Maybe we can trace it back further; it’s clear that you are very passionate about making things, engineering design, and so on. Did you play with Lego blocks as a child and always know you wanted to be an engineer, wanting to make things? How did you get to this point?
Actually, I didn’t know what an engineer was back then. Some people would say, “You will become an engineer.” But I didn’t even know what that meant. I just had a vague idea that an engineer was someone who made things. My parents did a lot of that, especially my father. He had done various jobs but did a lot of electronics work. When I was very young, like four or five years old, he had me making circuit boards, teaching me how to solder, making plastic models. There were these 250-in-1 electronics kits with spring terminals that you could connect with jumper wires to make a small radio or blinking light, etc. I had many different types of kits and loved doing these things; it made me very happy, and I would do as much as I could. I knew I wanted to make things and had always been making things.
This is actually one of the motivations for making YouTube videos because I know that many people don’t understand engineering and don’t know how fun it is. If you don’t have someone like my father to show you all this, you might not even know it’s an option. Many people think engineering is like magic, that only super smart people can design things like phones or cars. But in fact, the behind-the-scenes situation is very messy. It’s not a group of geniuses making perfect decisions. Until I heard you describe it this way, I realized there’s a thread running through from the lab to YouTube. Whether it’s making tools to make engineering more accessible or inspiring people to become engineers through YouTube, it’s all about making engineering more popular.
Formlabs and the content on YouTube are different, but in terms of impact, Formlabs is basically making a tool that can multiply people’s efficiency. Almost every company has Formlabs machines, especially in most cases, they are using them and think they are very good. This basically allows many companies to iterate faster and thus speed up development. Therefore, I really enjoy the part of user interaction, seeing people using these tools.
I make some things and think about how people will use them and how to improve them. I love that process. As for the videos, although they don’t help people learn engineering in the traditional sense, in terms of entertainment value, I think they lean towards positively impacting people rather than being completely meaningless content. Watching these videos is not just a waste of time; people will gain something from it.
One important experience I had while working at Forum Lives was that the number of engineers is far from meeting the demand. In any field, there are countless engineering problems to solve, and there aren’t enough engineers to tackle them. If my work can inspire more people to enter the engineering field, that would be very meaningful. This may be a long-term process, but the impact of that inspiration is huge. Even if it’s not purely educational, it can spark people’s interest in these fields, which is very valuable. I often see this; almost all the hardware engineers I know watch my videos. Many young people choose their career paths because of this. I think there’s a lot of intrinsic joy to be found in activities like making things, designing things, or writing code. Engineering is one of the important factors driving social progress and development.
One way to measure the impact of these videos is through watch time. A video I make usually has about a million hours of watch time. A million hours is equivalent to two lifetimes of being awake. That’s amazing, so you have to ensure that the content is valuable; otherwise, you’re wasting every moment of two lives. This idea makes me feel that my work carries a significant responsibility. Considering how much time is spent watching these videos, I will do everything I can to improve their quality. Because the scope of influence is huge, even if I invest two hours to improve the content, that improvement will have a huge multiplier effect through all the watch time. It’s like developing a product; companies will invest a lot of money to slightly improve a product because many people will use it.
There’s a story about Steve Jobs. He once asked an engineer to shorten the startup time of a computer, and the engineer asked why so much effort was spent to save a few seconds. Jobs calculated the number of startup times for all the computers on the whiteboard and concluded that those times added up to the equivalent of several lifetimes. I also consider this when developing products.
There are various multiplier effects in the development process. The thousands of printers shipped multiplied by the thousands of tasks and parts they complete, multiplied by the X hours each person spends on each task, so even a small improvement can have a huge impact. After you joined Formlabs as a software engineer, you quickly took on some significant technical challenges. What problems were we solving at that time?
Mostly algorithmic problems aimed at enabling the printer to print successfully. For the audience, let’s assume you have a 3D model, and you want the printer to give you a physical copy. There are many steps between the 3D model and the actual object, most of which are handled by algorithms. For example, you would say, “I have this mesh model; at what angle should I print it?” Because different angles will affect the success rate and accuracy of the print. By optimizing the printing angle, you can improve quality in multiple aspects.
Obviously, you need to slice the model because the printer prints in 2D layers. You need to convert the 3D model into a series of slices. But for SLA printers, it’s not just slicing; you also need to guide the laser to print. Therefore, you need to calculate how to guide the laser to form a specific shape. However, the laser has a certain size and is not an infinitely small point. If a part of the model is thinner than the laser diameter, how do you handle it? Do you continue drawing or ignore it? These are all problems that need to be solved to achieve the best approximation for a given model.
For example, there’s a tree frog model with three fingers. Whenever people generate support structures, they usually can only generate support on one or two fingers and cannot cover all three fingers. I spent about a month trying to make all three fingers of this tree frog get support. This is not just a problem with the tree frog; it’s a general problem with the algorithm itself that occurs in many different situations.
The difficulty of 3D printing lies in the fact that, compared to many other software, the uncertainty of input data is much greater. For example, if you develop a spreadsheet program, the input data is usually in text and tabular form, with little variation. Even if there is some complex data, it won’t be too outrageous. But 3D printing is different; the input models can be any shape, including fractal details, self-intersecting Klein bottles, and other perplexing structures. Therefore, any algorithm you develop must be able to handle models of arbitrary shapes.
In the case of the tree frog, you might think, “Oh, I didn’t generate support in that place, so I’ll make something to push one finger over.” This solves the tree frog problem, but the same approach may not work with other complex models.
Although the tree frog model is somewhat different, there are countless variations. Therefore, we must design it to be extremely general. We found that the closer the model is to physical reality, the better the simulation works, thus better able to cope with these problems. We are constantly trying to understand the physical principles behind printing and trying to model them in software, but at the same time, we have to balance practicality and speed of operation. A theoretically perfect system is not always better than a slightly “patched” system.
I remember when you were working at Foreign Labs, you did a lot of long-distance cycling. Can you talk about your experiences at that time? I have a trait that is both a flaw and an advantage: once I decide to do something, I will do it to the extreme. At that time, my sister and I were looking at a map of the US, and I said, “We can ride our bikes across the country.” She replied, “Yeah, we can ride our bikes across the whole country.” So I said, “Let’s ride our bikes across the country, and let’s finish it in four months.”
I convinced her to ride from the Canadian border to the Mexican border along the Pacific coast. In the process, I started thinking about who else would do this, and later found out that there were people who participated in cross-country bike races. This is very interesting because it’s not something many people would do, and it involves various techniques and strategies. For example, in the race I participated in, you had to be self-sufficient throughout the journey, without accepting help from anyone; all food and equipment had to be carried by yourself. If the bike broke, you had to repair it yourself; if you needed to sleep on the road, you had to prepare your own sleeping gear. This is one of the most extreme things I’ve heard of, so I thought, “Okay, I want to try it too; it looks both difficult and fun.” This challenge not only pushes you to the limit but also involves strategy and techniques, including training and nutrition.
By the way, you might be underestimating your achievements. The most challenging ride you completed should be the Great Divide Trail, also known as the Tour Divide. This route extends from Canada to Mexico along the Rocky Mountain watershed. The daily vertical change is about 10,000 to 15,000 feet, and the riding distance is about 140 miles. This far exceeds what most people can endure, and you completed it in 19 consecutive days. During this time, except for sleeping, you were almost always riding, which is undoubtedly a torment and a great test for both the mind and body. It is said that you mainly survived on donuts and Pop-Tarts.
Pop-Tarts are the perfect fast food. They are fat-free, sugar-free, and protein-free. When you are alone, camping outside, and sleeping outdoors every day, it truly is incredible. For me, this lifestyle is amazing.
I don’t know why I did this. I used to stop because I had children, and this activity is indeed very dangerous. Especially in road events, people die every year because of it. I don’t want to be that statistic. I remember you participated in Farm Labs’ races multiple times, and you would go there for weeks in the summer for those events, and when you came back, you looked like you had gone through a lot of stress. Do these experiences really bring such great mental stress? Indeed.
Interestingly, the best performers are usually older, around 40. This indicates that this sport tests mental quality more than physical strength. Older people tend to be more mature, have experienced more things, and are better at coping with various stresses and life events. Although this sport requires a lot physically, the psychological challenge is even more daunting.
Imagine waking up feeling like you’re about to die, your whole body is sore, and you even want to give up, while it’s freezing cold outside. You have to get on your bike and ride for 18 hours straight. When you get on your bike and climb, you have nothing to do but think about how bad everything is. Although it’s not always that bad, sometimes it is indeed 18 hours of hell. Therefore, you must have a strong mental quality to resist the thought of “I can give up right now.” You can choose to stop, go home, and reunite with your wife, but you have to keep going. This is definitely not the first kind of fun, nor the second kind of fun. I don’t know what kind of fun this is. The first kind of fun is enjoying the process, the second kind of fun is feeling happy after completion, like running a race. Riding a snowmobile is the first kind of fun. And this sport goes further; even after completion, it’s not fun. However, sharing these stories during the interview might bring about the third kind of fun. Over time, you do forget the pain, and it’s more about showcasing the limits you can reach. This sense of satisfaction doesn’t come from the fun itself, but from the fact that you can force yourself to complete these challenges and succeed.
I’m particularly interested in this higher level of fun; it may be a flaw or an advantage. Many people at Form Labs know this. They often mention that if someone asks me if Shane would participate in such races, I never thought he would do that.
Lab, as a YouTube star with millions of subscribers, you’re not at the forefront of those least likely to succeed. I’m surprised by this too, but thinking about it, your speeches are very clear, and you can think from the audience’s perspective, which is key to creating excellent media content.
How did you master YouTube? I just try to make videos that I think are excellent. That sounds like a cop-out, like the meme about why homeless people don’t buy houses. But in reality, I didn’t research YouTube production techniques too much. I mainly review after making each video, identifying all the areas for improvement. This may include storytelling, editing techniques, visual effects, or shot selection.
Learning to make excellent videos is actually very difficult; there’s no ready-made book that teaches you these techniques. The key is that even if you don’t have a clear learning channel, making videos still requires certain skills and techniques, and you need to constantly hone and refine them. Your videos contain many elements, from cover images to graphic design to the montage of the production process; every detail needs careful consideration and arrangement.
It’s worth mentioning that not only did you complete the entire project independently, but you also made the video by yourself, which is amazing. Over time, I have accumulated rich experience in speaking, visual communication, illustration, video editing, and 3D modeling, which has laid a solid foundation for me. However, the most challenging part is in storytelling and making engaging videos. Typically, a minute of video takes 7 to 10 hours to edit. Most of the time is spent figuring out how to integrate all the material into a coherent piece.
When making my first video, I was almost starting from scratch, constantly re-editing until I thought it was the best before releasing it. In the process, I realized that I needed to shoot certain shots or should add some explanations somewhere. This continuous improvement process gradually helped me master video production skills.
I didn’t do this until the next time, and I remembered that this time we had to do these things. This repeated effect means that if you work very clearly to improve, you will indeed make progress. At least in my experience, that’s how it is. I enjoy doing this; I think if you don’t enjoy making videos, it’s hard to make good videos. If you’re just doing it reluctantly, it will be very difficult. But I enjoy telling silly jokes, making silly images, or clearly explaining certain things. Of course, there are always some parts that aren’t that fun, but that’s part of the job. I find that struggling is actually a good thing, at least in the right dosage.
When I was a kid, if there was something I wanted for my birthday, I had to beg, wait, and look at the pictures in the catalog, hoping I would get it. When I finally got it, it became very beautiful because I had been looking forward to it, hoping for it, and there was a risk of not getting it. However, as an adult, if I go to the store and buy the same thing, I feel nothing. If there’s no process or struggle, there’s no sense of satisfaction.
For these projects, even the parts I don’t like, like hitting a wall or something being particularly difficult to make, you can see all these details on camera. My God, I spent countless hours making this thing, there are many good SLS parts to put here, but you know, there are some parts you really don’t like. However, when everything goes smoothly in the end, that struggle makes success even sweeter.
So, what made you think about leaving Formlabs? I know there are some negative factors in this, so don’t be shy, tell your story. I know this story, and it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time because it was a huge loss for Formlabs, and I regret losing the opportunity to work with you every day. I did think about what I could do differently to continue collaborating with you. At that time, I had just started making videos, did a few videos that performed well on the new channel, and before that, I had never done anything like this. At some point, they started paying you. I remember one time I earned $10, and at that moment, I thought, this could really become a career. That turned a very abstract idea into reality—I just made $10, could I make $100 next? Of course, from that moment on, that idea started to gradually materialize. So, at that moment, I realized maybe this could become a job, and it’s really fun. If this could be my job, how wonderful it would be.
This might be one of the best jobs in the world, so that’s one aspect. But there were many other factors to consider when deciding to leave. For example, if you were completely satisfied and fulfilled in your job, would you still make YouTube videos? Probably not, because even in the past, I had wanted to make those videos, so I think it was inevitable.
In addition, there were other motivations. For me and my wife, being close to family is very important, especially after having children. We now have two kids. At that time, we were in Raleigh, three hours away from where we live now, which is three hours away from family. When I considered the YouTube thing, a big advantage was that I could do it anywhere.
We moved from Boston to North Carolina. In fact, a step in between was omitted, but I was still working at Formlabs, working remotely from the Raleigh R&D office. This made the situation much better; I had a workshop to work in. If I had stayed in Boston, I would not have been able to have that workshop, and without a workshop, I might have gone crazy, so I was in Raleigh anyway. Even so, it was still far from family, especially if I wanted the kids to see their grandparents often. Therefore, I knew that if there was an opportunity to find a good job and be close to family, it was something that had to be taken seriously. This was an important factor.
At Formlabs, I felt several different aspects. First, I felt that there was no opportunity I would regret not seizing. I had already done most of what I wanted to do there: worked as an engineer, managed teams, even managed teams of teams, developed products. There was nothing that made me feel “I would really regret not doing this because such opportunities won’t come again.” However, on the YouTube side, this seemed like a rare opportunity that would be hard to find again, and if I didn’t seize it, I would regret it. So that was also a huge factor.
It sounds like you were excited about turning to YouTube, but there were also negative experiences at Formlabs that made you want to leave. The background is that this happened after the launch of Form 3 in 2019. Although the product ultimately became very successful, with significantly improved reliability, new materials, better surface finishing, and improvements in various aspects, we had higher goals, and there was a lot of self-criticism within the company, discussing many things we could have done differently, without much time to celebrate our achievements.
From my perspective, I basically invested three years to realize this project. This was almost the only thing I did during those three years, and in the end, for some reasons…
There was a viewpoint within the company that the project I was responsible for was a failure, which made me feel less excited about the future. And when working on YouTube, people genuinely appreciate my work, and they tell me they like the content. This contrast is very obvious; when I create content for YouTube, it’s completely different from when I work at Formlabs.
I’ve heard you mention this before, but it’s still hard to hear every time because it’s my responsibility to ensure that employees feel their hard work is recognized. This is a huge lesson for me. Looking back, there were many reasons for this, but ultimately, I think the biggest factor is that the company became very large. Because information could not be fully shared, there needed to be a narrative framework to explain what happened and why. For example, if a project fails, there needs to be a larger context to explain that. I realize that the company is now very different from when I first joined. Back then, we were a fast, tight-knit small team, and everyone was giving their all; everyone knew that others were doing their best. After the company grew, although people were still working hard, there were so many things and more layers that some people’s presence was even unknown. This indeed made the company different, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. The company’s scale allows it to do more things simultaneously, and there are many benefits. However, I also realize that the company has undergone a significant change, no longer the way it was when I first joined, and it’s no longer the kind of working environment I excelled in or was interested in. This is also one of the reasons I decided to conduct this interview, hoping to share an interesting story to let more people know.
What you are doing today is closely related to the mission of Formlabs. You are using many excellent manufacturing tools and other types of creative tools, such as software tools and electronic devices, to create some impressive works. You can turn an idea into a complex and functional product in a short time, which is astonishing. I think, to a large extent, it’s because you have the support of these tools. About 30 years ago, you probably couldn’t have achieved such great things like you can now. The mission of Formlabs is to make such tools more widely available, allowing more people to start from an idea and ultimately realize it.
So, which tools do you think have had the greatest impact on your work over the past few decades? Overall, the development of digital manufacturing technology from almost non-existent to something that almost anyone can access and use is a huge leap. 3D printers are a great example; they have existed since the 1980s but only became popular after 2010.
The largest companies can now offer products worth tens of thousands of dollars, while now you can get similar products for $100 or less. The same goes for CNC machines, various digital manufacturing tools, laser cutters, etc. Almost all computer-driven devices are much better than in the past.
Regarding software and electronics, doing any electronic or hardware-software work 20 years ago generally required a high technical barrier; you had to be a computer scientist or electrical engineer to accomplish these tasks. But in the past 20 years, especially in the last 10 years, there have been significant advances in electronic prototyping tools. Arduino is a huge project, but there are many other similar projects, like Raspberry Pi. Now there are very powerful computers that cost around $20, which far outperform any computer from 20 years ago. A large community has formed around these devices, and people use them to make all sorts of things. University education in any technical field can buy these devices and create robots that can perform tasks.
The maker scene in 2000 was basically content from Popular Mechanics magazine, mainly woodworking projects, perhaps some amateur radio making, but the range was very limited, and you rarely saw anyone making robots. Today, tools are more accessible, cheaper, and more powerful. Which tools do you think still have the most room for improvement? Where do you think things could become simpler?
Overall, when I make something, manufacturing is just one part of it. Before making, there are many steps to turn an idea into a tangible physical object. Once the parts are made, they also need to be assembled and made to work. In this process, there are corresponding tools for each step. For example, when designing parts, I use CAD software; when designing circuits, I use some editor to layout the circuit and place components. Therefore, the tools for generating designs have huge potential for improvement. Take circuit design as an example; there’s currently no way to directly say, “I want a circuit that performs a certain function,” and have the system automatically generate it. If you want to create a circuit with a specific function, you usually need to have some electrical engineering knowledge. I don’t think that should be a prerequisite. There are many amazing computer generation technologies developing right now, and I think it’s entirely possible to achieve this goal: just say, “Give me five circuit solutions that achieve this function,” then choose one, make it, and test it. If it’s not right, tell the system how to adjust it, which would greatly reduce the required knowledge and labor.
All these improvements you mentioned involve software, mechanical design, and electrical design, with the core being able to specify what you want at a higher level rather than specifying the surface or component positions in detail. That is, to achieve your needs through functional descriptions.
I have a friend who is researching an electrical CAD tool called Jit X. The idea of this tool is called declarative design, where you just state what different components you have and how they work together, and the software automatically calculates how to connect and layout them on the PCB. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in this area. If this can be improved, not only could I save a lot of time because I spend a lot of time on early designs, but it could also allow more people to participate in making and designing, not just as a hobby, but also as a profession.
Like Arduino and more user-friendly programming languages, this lowers the barrier to entry and reduces the need for knowledge of the underlying computer. For example, now some people attend coding boot camps and can be qualified for many jobs that companies need after six months of training, without needing four years of education. I think this model applies to many other activities, especially in manufacturing.
Speaking of manufacturing, you’ve spent a lot of time on devices like milling machines, especially in setting up CAM steps. Most software-driven devices have a lot of room for improvement. Formlabs has invested a lot of time in this area, working hard to achieve smart software that gets the desired results with less effort. For CNC machines, although there have been some improvements, they are still very manual and prone to error. What has always bothered me is that CNC machines can easily self-destruct due to erroneous commands. For example, sending an incorrect command might cause it to drill through itself, damaging the machine. In fact, preventing this problem through software isn’t difficult; it just requires some sensors and smart algorithms. Additionally, there are many other issues, such as automatic setup, generating tool paths, and fixtures. When I generate commands and tool paths for machines, I need to specify which tool to use, how to cut, speed, and velocity, etc. I think in 2022, these operations should be smarter.
About the self-destruction issue of machines, this is very insightful because it directly maps the difference between low-level languages and high-level languages. Low-level languages have many ways to overwrite their memory and cause the entire computer to crash, while high-level languages usually have protection mechanisms, which, although come with some drawbacks, significantly improve productivity. In Formlabs’ 3D printers, compared to milling machines, it’s easier to design 3D printers to avoid self-destruction because it doesn’t have a drill to drill through itself.
Of course, you can design a way for Mega Form Three to self-destruct. Through selective laser focusing, high-power heaters, etc., it is indeed possible to start a fire. We have invested a lot of work in this area to ensure its printing reliability, but more importantly, to ensure that the equipment does not self-destruct. For this, we have added many checking mechanisms.
I think this can serve as a useful guide for other digital manufacturing tools: the first step is to ensure it doesn’t self-destruct, and then gradually add more advanced features like more computers, sensors, etc. Adding sensors can help humans reduce errors and abstract tedious work, allowing computers to handle it. This saves a lot of time, and if computers can handle these tasks, the results will be better.
Regarding 3D printers, you mentioned that their biggest shortcoming is material performance. For polymer printers, there is still a lot of room for improvement in material performance. If you could choose a better material, what properties would you like to improve?
ABS is a common choice. Generally, FDM printers use ABS or HDM to achieve good printing results. However, FDM printers have a big problem, which is that printed parts tend to split in one direction, leading to uneven strength. ABS performs well in one axial direction but not in another. The advantage of ABS is its strong impact resistance and low cracking tendency, making it suitable for making items that need to withstand shocks. Many items in real life are made of ABS because it has high strength, is not easily deformed, does not crack easily, and offers a good balance of mechanical properties.
How does SLS nylon perform? SLS nylon (usually nylon 12) performs quite well, but it’s not as tough as ABS. I don’t have much experience with nylon 11, but it seems it’s still not at its best. However, I mainly use SLS printing now because it performs well and can print multiple parts at once.
If we can achieve the improvements mentioned above, like better milling machines, better electronic designs, and better 3D printing materials, what could you build that you couldn’t achieve before? Do you have any good ideas?
I think the issue is that there’s a subconscious filter; if something isn’t something I can actually do, it doesn’t even enter my consideration. But with these tools, that filter changes. For example, I have a 3D tracking camera, and using it, I made a bow that can track flying targets and automatically aim and shoot. Without this high-speed tracking system, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this project. It wasn’t until I had these cameras that this idea came to my mind, unlocking many new possibilities.
In fact, it wasn’t until I understood this technology that I realized this. Sometimes we naively think that the process from idea to realization is linear. But in reality, many people’s approaches are bidirectional: they consider both the tools they have and how to use those tools to achieve their goals. Tools and goals are considered simultaneously, and both are important.
In product development, I often think about this. We can list all the areas we want to improve and set some goals, such as a certain feature should improve by two times. However, achieving those goals might lead to higher costs, making it more difficult to use, or other issues. Therefore, we need to constantly adjust in both directions: what do we want? What can we achieve? Then find a middle ground.
I notice that many of your fans express similar wishes on YouTube and Discord servers, perhaps during high school or college, they hope to create amazing works like you. Do you have any advice for them?
For me, learning the basics is very beneficial. Although this is not a prerequisite for starting to make things, if you want to make better decisions and have stronger abilities, it’s very important to understand some basic principles of physics, electronics, or how computers work. I know that if I hadn’t spent time learning this knowledge in college and in my personal life, I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything I do now.
Another piece of advice is that there’s always a better tool that can help you complete tasks faster or better. But without those advanced tools, you can still make many things you want. For most of my life, I’ve been making things with drills, hand saws, and a few other simple tools. It’s easy to feel frustrated or think that once you have a certain tool, you can really start making things. But tools are just aids, not the deciding factors. My advice is to start making something; you’ll learn a lot and find out which tools are most useful, and then you can keep improving.
Shane, our time is almost up; thank you very much for taking so much time to chat with me and share your story. I think this is very inspiring for many people, and I look forward to your upcoming works.
You’re welcome; I’m also looking forward to my upcoming works. This has been brewing for a long time, and I can’t wait to see it succeed in the end.