The Meltzone

Thank you to Druckwege for sponsoring this episode! Check out their resins at https://shop.druckwege.de/ and use code "TOM2021" for 15% off! Stefan joins this Podcast from his holiday in South Tyrol. Topics are not only how to properly relax but they also cover a Stop-Motion Benchy animation, an update on the Chitubox lockdown of the Mars 3 firmware, an upside-down 3D printer, and a simple way of...

clones with little to no innovation. After this ramble, they talk about an artistic lamp Kickstarter campaign that uses orange peel filament which unfortunately seems to be only questionable marketing. Though during their research they've still stumbled upon a way how orange peels might really be transformed into a polymer. Next, they discuss 3D printer modifications to soldering robots and pen pl...

Thanks to JLCPCB for sponsoring this episode! Get custom PCBs from $2 with free SMT assembly at https://jlcpcb.com/RHS This episode covers a ton of recycling topics starting from Stefan's adventures into 3D print recycling over the PETBOT that allows direct recycling of PET bottles, to the number of wasted plastics in filament spools all the way to reinforcing PLA with shredded turbine blades. Tom...

Tom finished his VORON 2.4 build live streaming marathon and talks about his experience and the choices he made, for example using a DUET 3 with Reprap firmware instead of the usually used Klipper configuration. Stefan shows the latest Make magazine Germany in which this Podcast got featured. Both discuss the “Jugend Forscht” winning entry where ultrasonic modules are used to heat and disperse res...

In this episode, Stefan proudly presents the trademark certificate that he registered for his channel name and talks a bit about the process involved in applying for it. Tom discusses his plans on re-branding his channel. The following topics cover procedural G-Code generation and the FullControl GCode Designer. After that, Tom and Stefan briefly talk about a recent controversy surrounding Make An...

This episode is full of weird 3D printers, starting with a 3D printing simulation from Spee3D. Tom and Stefan further talk about a new dynamic build platform concept to reduce the support amount and a Japanese project that converts a 3D printer into a production line plus the Thermorph concept that allows automatically folding 3D prints using a smart combination of PLA and TPU. Then they discuss t...

In this episode, Tom and Stefan present their new logo and talk about a semi open-source approach to electric driving vehicles, Lulzbot's new “as low as $750” printer, Stratasys' last heated build chamber finally expiring and a slicer integration to finally print 90° overhangs without support. The main topic is about the question if we are genii since so many reach out to us as their last hope for...

Freebooting everything! Tom's whole website got copied and translated to French by an Affiliate Portal. One of Stefan's videos was re-uploaded by an Instagram channel as well as shots from his videos were taken to advertise threaded inserts on Amazon. Both talk about their way to appeal and defend themselves against those cases and correct a couple of things from a recent episode. They further dis...

In this episode, Stefan talks about his VORON 0 build he started right after the last podcast episode on his hunt for a 10 minutes Benchy. The news cover a lot of recent 3D printers and printing technologies including the current Plybot Kickstarter, Formlabs finally releasing the Fuse 1, electrochemical metal 3D printing, and a 4th axis for the Prusa that tries to save on support structure. Both s...

First, Tom and Stefan talk about the recent Corona situation and how it's affecting them. They quickly change the topic and discuss their latest experience with the CR-30 belt printer they have for testing. The news topics cover yet another Kickstarter where Ulendo is claiming that we can print 2x faster with their cloud service. Then XOLO announced their first volumetric 3D printer and a new pate...

After a bit of a break, Tom and Stefan are back talking about their responsibility as "influencers" and the new hype around Belt 3D Printers that are currently on Kickstarter. Belt 3D printing doesn't only require suitable hardware, but also software that supports this uncommon kinematic. Both talk about the importance of hardware and software upgrades and how they are necessary to improve the tec...

This week, Stefan and Tom have a guest on the podcast - Gine Häußge, main developer of OctoPrint! They talk about what it's like creating and maintaining open-source software, what her learnings mean for other projects like FreeCAD and what it's like to be a solo entrepreneur.

With Stefan's last day on parental leave, he and Tom get together once more to talk about the developments in the 3D printer scene. It seems like Belt printers are making a comeback, Fusion360 is again making drastic changes and E3D have somewhat quietly released their hybrid manufacturing toolhead for the toolchanger.

After another short break due to Stefan becoming a father, both talk about recent projects involving 3D scanners & sublimating 3D scanning spray. News cover KFC planning to print with lab meat in Russia, 3D printing gunpowder, a Standard for Open Hardware and Open Source Computer Vision Algorithms for print correction. Due to recent events, both rant about an allegedly "fully" 3D printed motorcycl...

3D Printed "meat" is the hot topic right now! Stefan and Tom cover two approaches that aim to print texture into vegan "steak" and "salmon". Both look promising, but like with most 3D printed food, the hard challenges remain to be solved. Can a huge show like Formnext happen in the current pandemic? Apparently the answer is "yes", as TCT Asia has just finished. Staying with Asia, Creality is repor...

After thinking about buying a lathe for ages, Stefan finally bought himself a new machining tool for the workshop. Tom shares his own experience with his Mini Lathe. Tom recently received a Prusa Mini and talks about his first impressions as well as some plans for it in his upcoming 3D Printing Beginners Series on YouTube. Both discuss the recent theft of fellow YouTuber Heliox' channel and a new...

Lots of interesting topics this time! Tesla is apparently using last-minute 3D printed parts in the first Model Ys they delivered; Adrian Bowyer is proposing a novel print removal system; and the US Army has been working on a non-homogeneous 3D printing filament. But Stefan and Tom haven't been idle, either and have been working on the Toolchanger and on finally getting an old CNC working. All tha...

It's The Meltzone Lockdown edition! Tom is running out of home improvement store goods while Stefan is holding himself over with VR and finally building his E3D Toolchanger. We're also talking about printing faceshields and other PPE and how getting organized is really important right now. Also, Makerbot is supposedly opening up their Method 3D printer to filaments from other manufacturers. In the...

On this content packed episode, Tom and Stefan talk about their recent live streaming efforts, VR, the newly added FFF slicer in Fusion360 and why Stefan thinks it's a challenge to add gears to his new plastics shredder. There are currently a lot of efforts being done to use 3D printing for medical equipment due to the current Corona pandemic. Both discuss the positive and negative sides of those...

Update: After the blanket travel ban from Europe, MRRF has officially been canceled / postponed. In this episode, we talk about Stefan's new Toolchanger, more use cases for LW-PLA and our (back then still relevant) plans for MRRF 2020!

Tom and Stefan talk about the upcoming events that they'll attend including Malta Maker Fair and MRRF2020. Both recently released a material testing video and discuss if resin prints are really isotropic and why lattice or porous structures performs the way they do. Tom got kicked from the Amazon.com affiliate program and explains how that happened. Stefan got a new Pellet Extruder and expresses h...

Flashforge first cloned Makerbot - and now it looks like Makerbot are selling Flashforge's machines? That and a discussion on the (non) availability of the Elegoo Mars Pro, our take on Linus' "I've been thinking about retiring" stream and our pros and cons to using "servos" on 3D printers in this episode of The Meltzone!

Tom and Stefan are back from their holiday break and meet up in the "real" CNC Kitchen. They talk about current projects like Stefans work on Colorfabbs Light Weight PLA (LW-PLA). Both discuss the recent problems with the Hermera Extruder and how E3D is handling it. The topic of the week covers the differences between Teflon-lined hotends and full metal hotends, where the differences are and that...

Is Prusa turning on the open-source community by requiring you to physically damaging the Mini's board to run custom firmware? That's our big topic of the week! Well, technically, topic of the bi-week? Stefan has been working on a surprisingly simple and universal variable infill algorithm while Tom has been trying to combine the advantages of filament and resin printing. In other new, Marlin 2.0...

Tom and Stefan have been at Formnext 2019 the week before and talk about their impressions. The news cover the current state of Lulzbot and also that Generative Design for Fusion360 is currently available for free. Podimo, a German startup wants to be the Netflix of Podcasts. Both discuss if they like their business model and if the even want to be listen in the Podimo app. Tom got into RC flying,...