3D printing hobbiests, What got you started down the path?

[curious aardvark]

An advert for makibox 3d printers popped up on - facebook I think.
back then 3dprinters were kind of in the news, but cost an arm and a leg and a spare kidney.

This thing was £200.
I love gagets, I love making things, as a kid I was always inventing stuff.

So an affordable 3d printer !

Alas, makibox went under before I received my machine and what with postage and filaments - that I had already paid for. I lost £300 - but while I was waiting for the makibox to arrive, I'd read just about everything you could on 3d printers and I had the bug.
That was 7 years ago and affordable 3d printer options were few and far between.
It's absolutely incredible how the industry has progressed since then

Ended up with a flashforge creator - the original plywood model. Brilliant machine.
And it's kind of snowballed from there.

I've now got: 2 replicator clones: (flashforge and klicnprint), 2 deltas: (he3d k200 and monoprice mini delta), a prusa spec I3 (ctc i3 pro-b) and a corexy: (twotrees sapphire pro 2).

The ctc I3 is currently on a high shelf awaiting the day i have the time and inclination to give it a new brain and display.
The flashforge - after about 5 years of sterling service - is mothballed and will probably be used for parts at some juncture, should anything on the klic-n-print fail. An original mightyboard is worth it's weight in gold !
The other 4 are all fully working and setup.

There are bits of a giant delta (man sized) also scattered around my workshop.
I'm in two minds about what to do with it.
I need a few bits of ready threaded 30x30 extrusion to finish it.
But, I could also use the existing parts and a bunch of others to make a huge corexy.
But the delta would take up minimal floorspace for build volume while I have nowwhere for a giant corexy to go.
But I have all the bits to finish the delta, but a giant corexy.......
And that's where we shall leave our conflicted termite muncher

My entire 3d printing journey is detailed on this forum - you have to shop around, but it's all there :-)

I sell the occasional thing, design several unique things every week and short of making actual money from it, couldn't be enjoying the whole field of additive manufacturing more :-)

The sheer wonder of imagining a thing that has never before existed in the world and then holding the physical reality of it in your hand, a few hours later, is something I will never grow tired of.