3D Printing

Haibane Renmei is an anime I return to again and again. There’s an idea introduced in the first few episodes that resonates with me far outside the bounds of the show: The main characters are restricted to only own items that are used. I never finished the show. So I never learned why this limitation is placed on the Haibane. The more important thing for me is that this limitation sounds like an interesting guideline for myself.

A few years ago, my girlfriend asked me to fix her sunglasses. The ear piece had snapped off. At the time I thought that maybe it would be possible to 3D print a replacement, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how to do it. The project was never high priority and so it got buried under other TODOs only to be resurrected this week. While the final product is a little rough, it looks good from a distance and is 100% functional.

A while back my girlfriend’s step-dad leant me 3D Systems’ Sense 2 scanner. I similarly got access to an old MonoPrice MP Select Mini 3D Printer from a friend who had upgraded quite a while ago. So I theoretically have both ends of the 3D replication pipeline now. Unfortunately, just like with the MP Mini, there are some limitations. And, while the MP Mini has (or at least had) a thriving community to support it with guides, tutorials, hacks, and mods, the Sense 2 does not seem to have the same support.