New to 3d printing, is it a good hobby?

[Roberts_Clif]

Printing isn't a "hobby" anymore than a wrenching or sawing is a "hobby."

You are outright wrong.

Definition of hobby

an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies
An guess what the first Item on this list is. 3D Printing

[curious aardvark]

well with me it's both a hobby and part of my business.

And in what universe is it comparable with wrenching and sawing ?
I think of a thing, I design the thing and my 3d printer makes the thing.

If I use a saw - I need wood, nails, glue screws and plans - which I am bloody awful at drawing.
If I have a wrench - I need lots and lots of other things to go with it.

I agree that a 3d printer is a tool. However it is NOT comparable to a saw or a wrench :-)
It's equivalent is a fully manned and tooled up production line at a plastics factory.

[Roberts_Clif]

well with me it's both a hobby and part of my business.

If I use a saw - I need wood, nails, glue screws and plans - which I am bloody awful at drawing.
If I have a wrench - I need lots and lots of other things to go with it.

This is correct, however would never tell Jay Leno that his Hobby of restoring old cars was not.

Word is he just sold all his entire car collection to Arab Sheikh for about 1 billion dollars.
Now he has plenty of money to start again from scratch, and reminder his fun was in restoring the cars.
His job was late Night Talk Show Host, so car rebuilding cars was his fun hobby.

I bet it Hurt him selling his car collection, but not for very long (haha). Bet Leno next New first car restoration will be a classic Race Car.

If you read this Jay would be proud to 3D Print a part for your next project.

[ralphzoontjens]

Lol 3D printing is the nr. 1 hobby on Wikipedia! I can agree with nr. 2 and 3 as well, have yet to try nr. 4, possibly 3D printed, although I do have a native Polynesian boomerang.

I do agree that 3D printing is a hobby just like sawing, we can get a bit obsessed with the tools themselves. But figure sawing is definitely a proper hobby as well - anything you can put your heart and creativity in. Hobby relates to passion - what you love and what you are good at - in the end we also want to make something useful to the world and gain wealth. I haven't heard any news about Jay Leno and that Arab sheikh though.

[curious aardvark]

hell with that kind of money he can get his own baam, metal printers and makes cars from scratch :-)

For me a car is a tool. I put stuff in it and it takes me and stuff to where we want to go.
Making one from scratch with a bunch of fancy 3d printers, would be fun.
Fixing up existing cars - does nothing for me :-)

Each to their own :-)

where did you find the list of hobbies that put 3d printing at the top ?
Gardening, stamp collecting, coin collecting - hell just collecting stuff - is massively more popular than 3d printing :-)

[Roberts_Clif]

Well ! ! !
3D Printer is at the Top because it has a number in the Name alphabetically speaking, It was a play on words stating its location on the List..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies

[curious aardvark]

I can do baton twirling :-)
though usually with a quarterstaff ;-)

[curious aardvark]

guess they must be euphenisms I'm unaware of ;-)

[DaviBrons]

A 3D printer is certainly a very useful and interesting hobby. For starters, you can use ready-made models (for example, there are a lot of them here https://www.thingiverse.com/). But until you learn how to model, it won't be more than just a hobby. Try to start with simple modeling programs (eg https://www.tinkercad.com/) and then move on to a higher level, such as AutoCad. By learning 3D modeling you can start planning a small business. Good luck to you!

[Albert89]

Yes, It is more helpful for modeling.