All Asylum Life Podcasts

Half a tote of failed prints fits in a Manila envelope now. LayerXLayer didn't set out to prove that. He's the main recycler in his house, the one going through the can asking who put this in here. So from when he first started 3D printing he kept his scraps: failed prints, supports, and later the poop, the purge a printer leaves behind. He kept it hidden in a box, because he didn't want his wife...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nSiDZli0a9I Denise printed a Han Solo blaster, and then a bunch of Scouts dropped it. It was one of the first fancy prints she ever did. In third grade she desperately wanted one. A friend had one, and she never got it. So when she finally had a printer, she printed one, and she said it was just the coolest thing. Later she brought it to a Scouts demo along with some oth...

By the time I got around to Benski, he already had the listing pulled up. I'd asked all three guests about the first thing they ever sold to somebody who wasn't a friend or family, and he went and looked his up. It was a design he'd forgotten he made. He was aggravated that there was no good way to travel with a Dr. Squatch bar, so he designed a holder you can slide the bar out of and back into, a...

His mom's way of grounding him was to take away whatever he was enjoying most: the game console, then the TV, then the radio, until all he had left was books. So he read the encyclopedia that summer. In this Padded Room conversation, Modern Magician (David Bates) goes back to the beginning. A first PC built from parts headed for the trash, a GED that opened the door to tech jobs, and a habit of mo...

Somebody in chat asked if we could see a picture of a young RetroMaker, and he said sure, he had one right there on his desk. Christmas, 1983. Glasses. He's doing a little overbite on purpose, to be cool. And there in the shot is his first boombox. The boombox he designed to be 3D printed, the one that more or less started his whole retro catalog, is kind of based on that one. He didn't lead with...

I asked her to give me a pose for the YouTube thumbnail and she asked if she could put her dino in it. That is the moment I keep coming back to from this one. Not because it is cute, though it is. Because another maker made that dino. He is starting out in model making and he has been making little critters based on the likeness of his friends, and she was one of the ones he picked. She held it up...

The first thing Bearded Printer ever 3D printed was half of a Baymax. It was the sample file that came with his first printer, an Anet A8 kit. He bought it because an Ender 3 was more than his budget could handle. He built the kit, felt pretty competent about it, and sent a print. He hadn't leveled the bed. He didn't know you were supposed to. The nozzle started digging into the plate, and he let...

Somebody in the peanut gallery asked TechJeeper what the Polaroid on the wall behind him was. It's not a Polaroid. It's a rug, and he tufted it himself. It's also the only one he's ever made. He liked doing it. He still has all the pieces, he says he wants to do it again, and he and his wife went and backed a robotic tufting machine on Kickstarter that shows up in October. But the rug is one rug,...

Vic told me a rule he set for himself back when he was starting: the filament had to pay for itself or he didn't buy filament. Two rolls off Amazon was a stretch. So the business didn't really start as a plan. It started as the only way to keep printing. That worked. It worked well enough that he ended up making a video about how 3D printing had killed his hobby — the thing he did for fun was now...

You've probably already printed one of Karen's ducks. Nate ran a plate of 25 Uncle Sam ducks off the printer for the 4th — every one of them came off a model Karen Chau designed. So when she sat down with me in The Padded Room, I wanted to get past the ducks and into how she actually thinks. Turns out the ducks are the easy part. Karen came up through 2D design — she's been on Zazzle since 2013, d...

Pretzel Prints designs some of the most unique 3D models out there — creepy skulls, a skeleton you bury in a working sand garden, flexi bones — and she does something almost nobody in this space does on purpose: she keeps her best files off the public platforms. In this episode we get into why. We talk design theft, staying an artist inside the 3D printing world, Prusa loyalty, and the wild range...

Youtube | Rumble Join us on Asylum Live as we dive deep with Creatrix Brit, art director for Polymaker Education and multi-talented maker whose journey from decade-long paramedic to 3D printing content creator offers unique insights for creators everywhere. �️ Timeline: 0:00 Introduction & platform moderation humor 5:30 Brit's role at Polymaker Education 12:45 First meeting at RepRap & cre...

Youtube | Rumble Join us on Asylum Live as we sit down with Melissa and Nathan (aka Cookiecad), the dynamic duo behind Cookiecad. Discover how a baker's need for custom cookie cutters evolved into one of the most vibrant filament brands in the 3D printing community. � Timeline: 0:00 Introduction 2:15 Melissa & Nathan's unconventional matchmaking story 8:30 From Queens to cookie entrepreneurshi...

Youtube | Twitch | Rumble Dive into the fascinating transformation of a hardcore Twitch gamer known as "Juan Wick" who evolved into the versatile creator behind Juan Makes (aka Nick). This episode uncovers the raw, unfiltered story of how gaming obsession transformed into making mastery. 🔧 Discover Nic's journey through multiple maker disciplines: Large-scale 3D printing projects with zero gateke...

Youtube | Rumbe | Twitch Join us on Asylum Live as we sit down with Zack Freedman, the witty and talented creator behind VoidStar Lab. In this candid conversation, Zack shares his journey. Zack also discusses his creative process, the challenges of managing Patreon supporter credits, and why he left New York for the mountains of Colorado. Whether you're a long-time fan of VoidStar Lab or just disc...

Join us on Asylum Live as we sit down with Kirsten, a versatile artist whose journey spans from traditional 2D art to innovative 3D design. In this engaging conversation, Kirsten shares how she transformed her lifelong passion for art into a thriving career, navigating from commission paintings and polymer clay jewelry to sophisticated articulated 3D models. Discover how Kirsten's unique backgroun...

In this Asylum Live interview (recorded February 20th, 2025), we sit down with popular creator Basically Benski to discuss his journey in the 3D printing world and beyond. Starting with an Ender 3 V1 gifted by his father in July 2023, Benski shares how he built his TikTok following and eventually turned his passion into a business selling 3D prints at vendor markets. As someone with dyslexia, he e...