Meet The Makers # 21 I Built a Voron 3D Printer And Turned It Into a career with WilliesPaintNPrint

In this episode of 'Meet the Makers,' we dive into Willie's transition from a curious maker tinkering alongside his father to a 3D printing enthusiast and professional in the engineering field. Willie shares his initial steps into the maker community, his evolution through various 3D printers, and the support from friends and the wider maker community that fueled his passion. His story unfolds from humble beginnings with a gifted G Tech A10 printer to contributing his knowledge and creations at Maker Fairs and donating 3D printers to educational institutions. Beyond his personal journey, Willie emphasizes the importance of community support, the openness to share knowledge, and the empowering nature of failing forward in the world of 3D printing and making. His reflections also touch on advice for young people contemplating their career paths and the dynamic, supportive makeup of the maker and 3D printing communities.
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Where to find Willie 
Tiktok: https://tiktok.com/@williespaintnprint
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williespaintnprint/  
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Come be a guest on meet the makers: https://forms.gle/wTqzxqGpsu9hZ39F6

Follow misfit printing on Tiktok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@misfit_printing

Chapters 
00:00 Welcome to Meet the Makers: Diving into 3D Printing with Willie
00:16 The Maker's Journey: From Childhood Curiosity to 3D Printing
01:14 First Steps into 3D Printing: A Birthday Gift Turns into a Passion
01:33 The Evolution of 3D Printing: From G Tech A10 to CR 10
03:13 3D Printing in Education: Donating to SUNY Poly College
03:33 From Buffalo to Arizona: A Maker's Geographic Journey
03:58 Exploring Maker Spaces and 3D Printing in Education
05:29 The Impact of 3D Printing on Engineering and Cosplay
07:05 3D Printing's Role in Reducing Waste and Enhancing Creativity
07:44 From Practical Fixes to Space: The Versatility of 3D Printing
09:14 NoCoCon: A Gathering of Makers and Cosplayers
13:53 The Voron Project: Building a 3D Printer from Scratch
16:11 Personal Connections to 3D Printers: More Than Just Machines
20:52 A Maker's Career Path: How 3D Printing Led to an Engineering Job
22:50 From Hobby to Engineering Career: A Personal Journey
23:45 The Viral Success of a Creative Hobby
24:24 Navigating Career Paths: Education and Experience
27:32 The Value of Exploring and Growing in Your Career
30:34 Breaking Into Software and the Power of Community
33:39 Embracing Challenges and Community Support in 3D Printing
37:31 The Importance of Creativity and Community in Personal Growth
45:19 Concluding Thoughts on Community and Creativity

Transcript

AI Edits from kate willie pp 
[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome back to Meet the Makers. Today I am here with another 3D printer. He prints, he paints, he has a voron, and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff that you're probably going to be jealous of. I am so excited, Willie, to welcome you here today to the Meet the Makers podcast. Thank you for having me.
This is always a question I jump off with everybody on, how did you get involved in 3D printing and just makers in general? I originally started becoming a maker with my father. He always embraced my curiosity when it comes to making.
When I was just like, Hey, I want to take apart the radio. He would turn around and be like, yeah, you can take it apart, but you got to make sure you put it back together or you're paying for it. I learned very quickly that I was able to do and make things and create things, but I had to clean up and also fix the things that I'm doing and working with.
But to get into 3D printing so I originally, I was involved with special effects. I went to SUNY Purchase College and I studied in to be a technical director for special effects, scenery construction. And when I moved [00:01:00] into Queens I didn't have a workshop. I didn't have anything. It's really hard to start sanding and making props and making things on a two bedroom apartment, which again, sand and everything will get all over the place.
I really wanted to get a 3D printer and what happened was one of my birthdays, I think it was 2019, my friends actually chipped in and bought me my first 3D printer. And that's where it took off. It was a G Tech A10. Series 3d printer. It was like a 200 printer, which I burnt out twice.
I don't know how I did it, but I did it. And then I upgraded to a CR 10 and that's what kind of like. evolved from there. And that's how I got into 3D printing. It always interests me and I finally got one. That's such a sweet way that you got into 3D printing. I loved hearing that story.
What was the first 3D printer that you had? G Tech A10. Okay, and it was that Would that be like comparable maybe to a current day like under what was that printer like it was in there? Three clone actually [00:02:00] It was a clone of an ender three and it was pretty neat because the ender three didn't come 

with Filament run out didn't come with a little bed leveling. 
It didn't come with a glass bed. So in it, it was fun. If you look at what I'm one of the very first TikToks I ever had if you look in the back where I did a video where I panned over to my snakes tank, where I made a tunnel for my snake you can actually see that the CR 10 with all my mods and everything on it.
And unfortunately, like I said, I burnt the damn thing out. Oh man, that's crazy. Now, how does one go about burning out a printer? Because now you have me worried that maybe I'm going to burn out my printer. What were you doing with this printer? Printing 24 7 non stop. Okay, yeah. That sounds like we might be in that situation at some point soon then.
I'll be honest because it was one of the older printers as a budget friendly printer. So I don't think the newer printers would have that issue. It's just, but I also was a lot of neglect on my side. So again, Amazon is wonderful when it comes to return. So I went through, they gave me [00:03:00] another one when I returned the second one, it was just like a cool.
And then I sent that one back when it was just like, Oh crap, this thing broke again. So then I said, you know what? I just upgraded to a CR 10 and I actually don't have that CR 10 anymore. I actually just recently donated it to a SUNY poly college. Cause they have a bunch of ender threes and I was just like, Hey, I got this big Creality printer that I need to get rid of because I don't have any room for my projects.
I was like, do you want it? And they took it. And now they're actually currently working with it today. Oh, that's pretty cool. I'm from Buffalo, New York. I think you're in Unica, New York? Yep. I didn't know you were over that far. Yeah, no, I was originally from Buffalo. I moved out to Arizona because Buffalo was a little too cold for me.
But yeah, hearing you talk about student schools, it brings me right back. I went to UB, University of Buffalo, and it's a pretty big school. I imagine maybe they had 3D printers there, but I never had seen them. do they have a program at that school for engineering is that in the engineering department?
Is it in the art department? Where does that printer live? So it's actually a makerspace. [00:04:00] At first it is a makerspace, but also during school It is a 3d printing lab and one of the projects at the college is to actually build and upgrade an Ender 3 like the Professors just like here's an Ender 3 kit have fun 

with it do something So you have them converting it to a laser engraver. 
You have them turning into a direct drive they do ender extender kits, like it just like brainstorms and have these, young adults to get into engineering because it's so easy to modify an ender three, which is why Thingiverse is so plentiful with mods and stuff.
It they turned it into an actual program, which is wonderful. They have like form lab printers. They have a bunch of other printers, but like their main concentration is they havefive or six enders for the group. It's pretty impressive. that's super cool to hear.
I've never heard of, I'm like a little far removed from college these days. but yeah, that's really cool to hear. I, like I said, maybe there was a program or maybe there [00:05:00] wasn't back when I was in school, but yeah, I think like the thing that I always say about 3d printers that I think is amazing is it's A really good introduction to whether you want to call it engineering or STEM or just I guess it falls under all those but I think it's a great introduction for people because it lets you dip your toes into modifying things, tinkering with things, engineering with things, but it's like a really rewarding thing in the sense that like you get to make cool stuff with it.
So I love hearing younger people getting into the hobby and having different ways to approach it. 3D printing actually really exploded with a bunch of friendly printers from like 2014. I think it was and it evolved to what it is today. You have the Voron community. You have the Cosplay community.
It's before 3D printing was big. People were making Iron Man suits out of foam and fiberglass. And you can imagine how of a headache that was. So 3D printing really opened up the world for not just engineering, but also for [00:06:00] cosplays and just as a utilitarian, like for an example, I bought a motorcycle mount off a website that straps to the chim that just plugs into my helmet and it's 3D printed and it's going into today, day and age is products and it's amazing because it's, I had a conversation recently at NoCoCon where they're just like, are you worried about the waste that 3d printing could make because it's using plastics and my caveat when I said, when I talked to him was think about this, manufacturing companies make, if you have 50 orders, all right, you make a hundred parts or a hundred things to have a backlog.
So if you get. Hit with another bit of vote of orders. You could satisfy dollars while you make It's like a buffer with 3d printing now is you can make them on 

demand You can make as much as you need so it's all the lack of waste versus if there is now like You have 2, 000 friggin parts, and guess what, [00:07:00] they're gonna go into landfill because nobody wants those 2, 000 parts. 
It's really opened up the world, to be honest with you. 
But I think what's interesting to me is machines like the Bamboo Lab comes out and it's becoming more of a thing where maybe you don't need to have an engineering background to run a 3D printer. Anybody could, start running a 3D printer. It's not just that, now somebody in their home like you were saying, can make like these one off parts as they need them.
But, even from a standpoint of now I'm not ordering stuff from Amazon every single day. Maybe I'm only ordering every other day because I can make things that I might need and I don't have to, have it packaged up in a box and then in plastic and then bubble wrapped. I think that's an interesting component that it also potentially could cut down on over time if you have more people who have the ability to make stuff right in house.
So it'll be interesting to see how that also evolves over time. It also cuts down downtime when equipment breaks. So for an example, my garbage disposal, the ones that go into the sink and everything the gasket broke. I had water spewing all over my at the bottom of my sink. And so what I did was I took the gasket out, looked at it, measured it with [00:08:00] my calipers, and I cut it up.
I have solid works on my computer and I made it and I printed it out of TPU and it's still sitting in my six months later. It's still sitting there and it's still working great. Again, that's the part of the caveat, which is pretty nice is because now you don't have to worry about that. You can now make parts on demand.
I don't know if any, if but NASA actually started doing 3d printing in space. Yeah. And what's happening is because instead of sending a toolbox, which is the, it's got down of weight and everything, they just send up a spool of filament and if for some reasons the engineers up there is just Hey, we need a, which actually happened a wrench that does three inch per a pound per torque, it's okay, so the.
Designed it here, tested it here and sent up the file and they printed it in space and zero gravity and it worked. Now they can make tools on demand instead of sending a crap ton of tools up, they can make these specific [00:09:00] tools. 

I'm a huge space nerd and I like always loved the international space station. So when I heard that they were using 3d printers there, I was just like, So excited. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Now to back up a little bit, you started talking about you we're speaking of NoCoCon. Can, for people who aren't familiar with that, can you tell us a little bit about what that is? 
Sure. So NoCoCon is an upstate New York convention that happens in Watertown, New York. This was my second year there. They asked me to come. And Last year, we had PandaRed, who was there Eric and Katasaurus, where Eric and I had a Maker Challenge we've had the Barb of Tartar, Kurt Wise and we were all just there, we were having a great time, and then this year, we had PandaRed came again we also had Jenna, who does the the Star Wars cosplays, You had Sunflower Stardust, who does the Dolores Imperial IHR person.
We had Roll for Sandwich there, and we had Props to History, Mike, there. And Mike and I went [00:10:00] one on one, and needless to say, Mike and I got close. At the end of the Maker Challenge, we got duct taped together. Yeah, I was so excited for you to come here today, because I've been dying to ask you, what was the situation, how did you guys end up duct taped together?
Because I saw the video, and I have so many questions. I'm Mike and I, so we were talking and Mike is looking at me. He's I've never done any of these before. What do you do? And so forth. And I literally told him, I was like, let's just have fun with it. Let's put on a show for the audience shenanigans.
I throw something at you. You throw something at me, some trash talk and just have fun with it. That's really what it comes down to. And at some point, like when there's the countdown was happening, I looked at Mike and it was like, we were synced up. We knew what we wanted to do. And. I did a whole length's worth of duct tape and he did a whole length's and we just went over and hugged each other with the duct tape and it got to a point where I kept going and I kept going because Mike kept going and we just kept going and we were ended up duct taping and to the point where now people are recording us it's like honey it's [00:11:00] not what it looks like I swear and it was so much fun but so the challenge that day was we had to make a prop For a cosplayer or somebody at the con.
So Mike actually made a cardboard sandwich for Roll 4 Sandwich. And I was there because CosplayMutt was there. With he had a van that he repainted and everything from Steven Universe. And a motorcycle that was a replica from the walking dead. It was Daryl's motorcycle, which was so cool.

So what I did was he had a bunch of guitars. So I made him a guitar, which I used 3d printing material, like filament for the strings. It was his guitar, but it was there. Mike ended up winning the challenge. So my crown has taken off to him. But I think what's going to end up happening is there may be a guest appearance at next year's doco con where. 
Mike's gonna have to defend his title. Who knows? That sounds like one of the funnest conventions I've ever heard of. Now, it's the, for that convention, was it specifically for mostly cosplayers [00:12:00] go there? Or was there a lot of people who also did 3D printing and kind of a mix of both?
I was actually the only 3D printing person there. So James and Ember, who was the directors of NocoCon, actually met me at Syracuse Maker Faire, who I volunteered for. Oh. Every year, meaning like I set up a booth and I just like educating kids and young makers about 3d printing because they have so many questions.
So they invited me and they invite other tick tockers and content creators. And it's such an honor to actually be able to share a stage with them. And at my booth, what I ended up doing, and I believe I forgot who you had this another podcast with, but they said that During their events, they have 3D printers printing.
I do the same exact thing because, and what she said was absolutely right. You have no idea how many times people don't see 3D printers printing and they don't understand how it works. I 3D printed cross section of a hotend. And I'll have a printer printing and people ask me questions and I'll explain [00:13:00] how it works as an educational standpoint, which is why I do Maker Faires in both Rochester and Syracuse, because I like to do these type events.
So last year I was supposed to be at Maker Faire in Rochester, but unfortunately I got COVID, which I'm extremely upset because I was supposed to be right next to Uncle Jesse at the events as well. he's in Rochester too, isn't he? So hopefully this year I get to do Maker Faire again. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. No, what a bummer and out of all the places that you could have ended up next to and not Been there. Oh, that sucks. But yeah, hopefully this year homie. Hey, maybe you guys will be neighbors again. That'd be super.
Yeah, Yeah now so I saw it recently like i'm not sure how long ago it was that you built it But you have your voron. It's Yes. Amazing. I love that you named it. I love that it's like, it has its whole theme around it. 

What was that process like? And what made you go down that path of building that? So I built a Voron because my coworker, his name is Glenn. [00:14:00] told me about the Voron and I thought it was such a cool idea that a 3d printed parts built a 3d printer and I thought it was such a awesome idea. And actually just bought my Prusa when he told me about this too. 
So at the same time I built my Prusa. I got an enclosure and I printed the parts for the Voron. It's all open source. You can buy kits for the hardware. But you have to print your parts. Now, for anybody who's looking to build a Voron they had something called the PIF system. It's called print it forward where somebody will actually print the ports for you to give you a functional Voron, which is I plan on signing up or trying to sign up because it's a very hard process to get involved with because they have specific settings and specific things they have to do.
And you have to go through a whole criteria for it. I chose. To do clockwork because I think that's what we named it. clockwork is because I really liked the idea that the [00:15:00] Greek mythology, there was a mechanical owl assistant. And I was like, that's perfect because the 3d printers, I consider my 3d printers as my assistants when I'm in my shop.
So I bring clockwork to all my events. Unfortunately, it's also too big to fit in my truck. So I have to put it in bed and it's every, there is an omen to this printer because every single time I bring it to an event, it rains. So I have to wrap it in tarps and everything.
So I said, all right, that's enough. I'm going to be doing live streaming soon on Twitch, where I'm going to be doing workshop Wednesdays, where I'm going to be building a Voron Triton, and I'm going to be building a Voron 0.
2, both collaborated with Matterhacker. I, for the longest time, I'm like a chronically, I might as well be 90 years old at heart. I didn't know much about what people did on Twitch, but it's cool hearing like, I, it seems like 3D printers go there and I've never heard of somebody doing something like that.
Sounds like a super exciting series. I'm going to have to check that out. My Trident I'm building is going to [00:16:00] be Decepticon themed. I actually chose specific filament that it's called Decepticon purple. So it's going to be mainly purple.
I'm going to have panels laser. That's exciting. it's funny hearing you talk about 

your printers and like yours have themes and like I know you refer to them as your assistants, which I think of my printers in a similar sense. I feel like a lot of people in the maker community almost personify their printers and like they have personalities or they have a bit of an attachment to them. 
Now I've, I have all the printers that I've ever owned. Like I've never sold a printer. I've never really gotten rid of a printer. Do you have a certain attachment to your printers and have you ever been sad getting rid of one of your printers? So I'm in the engineering field and if you want to talk more about that, we can because actually 3d printing helped me get my job.
And an engineer once told me his name is Andrew. He once told me, he goes, If you keep on tinkering with it, how long are you going to tinker with it until it is not worth tinkering with anymore? Meaning, when you're going to start, [00:17:00] why do you, when is enough to, when you're working on a printer as much, more than you're actually printing with that printer?
Yeah. And that's what happened with me with my CR 10. And I was like, this is a perfect opportunity for the college to learn how to repair a printer. That's why I gave him my CR 10. Now everybody's Oh, you just gave him a problem. I'm like, yes, but I also gave him the learning experience because I didn't want to mess with it anymore.
And then artillery 3d sent me the Hornet and I donated that to Whitesboro middle school. Because they were looking for new printers as well because my neighbor is actually a schoolteacher there. I don't think I would ever give up the Prusa Because it helped forge my Voron And I will never give up the Vorons because they just put so much work into it It's not like you're a snap maker or an ender or anything where you bolt the pieces again, connect the wires and that's it.
You get to printing. [00:18:00] You're literally taking your heat, pressing in all the parts. You're assembling all the parts. You're filing down the parts. You are running the wires. You're installing all the electrical components. You are literally handling with the PSU. Going ahead and plugging everything in and doing the config file for the firmware.
You're doing everything and When you have that much effort into a printer You really don't want to get rid of it because it does become part of you in a way in the words of what Adam Savage would used to say is that If a part of you is in your own maker space Your maker space is part of you and I'm going to, and 

parts of me is part of those printers. 
And I don't want to get rid of part of myself. It's one of the reasons why I keep some of my props in the shop hung up because I like to see the progression of where everything happens. Like I like to see where my first prop was ever made and where my prop is what I'm making now. [00:19:00] So it's really cool seeing how everything can progress over time.
Yeah, it's interesting hearing you say that about makerspaces. I never until I got into 3D printing, I guess I had never heard of the phrase maker. That just wasn't something I thought of, but I guess I would see I'd watch Mythbusters and see the space that they had, or I was a big Casey Neistat fan, and I loved Casey's studio.
I just remember, I would watch all of his videos, and I was just obsessed.
, and I didn't quite know then that I had never heard of the term makers, or I just thought that they had maybe that kind of aesthetic or whatever, but Thinking now I'm like, Oh, I can see like so much of them is in that space.
And like exactly to your point, like I slowly, like the deeper that I get into this, like the slower my space around me is like evolving into all my different projects. And I've really loved that. But even to that point, I know one of the things you had talked about was like, how much time you put into a machine and sometimes you get to the point of no return.
That's honestly like my first under, when I look back, like I got that thing. And I just modified the shit out of that everything that I could throw at it, I was, and doesn't it [00:20:00] barely ever runs anymore. It's like my least used printer I think there is definitely something to be said, it's really, maybe fun when you're new to tinker and modify things, and I would encourage people to do that, because I think it teaches you so much about your printer, but it's like a double edged sword, because it's, I think you can definitely overdo it as well.
Yeah, I definitely, and that's what happened with my my G tech a 10. That's exactly what happened to it. I over, I overdid it. But I truly feel and again, I may be, people may disagree with me on this. I think everybody should build a, at least a Voron 0. 2, the smallest one.
And the reason behind that is, is because I significantly learned more about 3d 

printing, taking apart a machine and building it from the bones up than I ever did. And I have more of a solid understanding of 3d printing because of that. I'm glad I took up the challenge, cause now you have a bit, you have an engineering backgroundSo did, did your Voron precede you being in engineering? [00:21:00] So this is, so like I said, I went to school for special effects. I started off at SUNY Purchase College, and I went to school with Tommy Lee Jones's daughter where my professors did rock of ages. 
They did wicked. They did the halftime show. Like I was in the industry for a short period of time and I left after two years because I didn't want to do it anymore and I got into 3d printing and sure enough My father in law turned around to me and he's listen, they work for a manufacturing company They're like, we really need a tech who's good at tinkering and troubleshooting.
And I think you fit the bill. And he goes, of course I can't be there for the interview and everything. He goes, but I do think you fit the bill. I'm like, okay. So I applied for the job and sure enough I did the interview and I will never forget the day. In my interview towards the tail end, they're like, Hey, is there anything you want to talk about or anything?
How about your own personal projects? And they, and then they lean into the microphone and he's saying, so how's your sweet tooth RC car [00:22:00] coming out? And I'm like, Wait a second. What? I'm like, I'm in a professional interview. I am literally in like a college shirt sitting in my chair and you're asking me about my RC car.
Excuse me. And they're like, yeah, we followed you on social media and looked at your instagram and everything because we just, again, they do that for the background checks. And they're like, we're actually impressed and how enthusiastic you are. 3D printing because they handle automated machines. I'm like, Oh, okay.
So I explained to him and everything. And about a week later, I get a phone call from the job and they said, Hey, we want to offer you a position here at Utica facility. And I'm like, but I don't have manufacturing background or engineering. They're like, don't worry. We'll take care of that. We'll put you through.
We know you're good for it. I'm like, all right, cool. A year later after I'm with the company, I got promoted to be an engineering technician. So I'm with the R and D team, research, development, developing new [00:23:00] machines. And 

the company turns around and says, Hey, how about being an engineer for us at one point? 
I'm like, yeah, like I would love to be an engineer, right? Yeah. They're actually now helping me go to school and helping cover tuition because they had to get me my engineering degree. And I'm sitting here and I'm just like, my friends gave me my first 3d printer because I just wanted it as a hobby.
And now I'm doing it as a profession with automated machines. And I am doing tick tock on the side. Like it, that's what it is for me. And it evolved and it's truly a kind of like. Surreal how things could just evolve to what it is when you least expect it. And I think one of my very first videos that actually wouldn't have gotten her super popular was I posted a venom Deadpool statue that I made.
And they people loved it and I'm like, all right, let me just keep on posting stuff that I make and it just kept growing and [00:24:00] growing. And I'm like, all right this is just my hobby. I'm not doing this as a career, but now I'm doing engineering. So now I go to work and handle automated machines and I come home and guess what I'm doing?
Handling with automated machines. So no, it's great. I love stories like that of like people almost like falling into things by accident or just, I guess if you want to call it fate or however it happened that I just love that story. For you now, what I guess I'm curious about is you hadlike a traditional start, like you, went to college, you did the more traditional path, but then you almost whether if you want to call it by accident or by fate you created your own separate path.
I guess like for you, would you recommend people, like maybe somebody young listening to this? I'm always like torn if I think like young kids should go to college these days. What's like your take on that based on the path that like your career went? My actual experience and professional opinion, because I can say that now is go to school, get your two [00:25:00] digit degree in your humanities and your.
Basic course, do that. And then I always say, take the year off and dry as many jobs as you can. Try a job doing this, try a job doing that, trying to job doing this and find where you land. And if you're like, okay, this is something I like to do. I'm comfortable in this position and doing this job.
So what I always suggest is once you find that job and Robin Williams would say, find your voice. Then go to school for it. There are numerous companies 

and if the company doesn't offer this, leave the company. that's the first advice I will also give as well. There's numerous number of companies who would love to help you further your education because not only does it benefit you, but it benefits them. 
Because now they have a trained professional, someone who is educated in the field. Who is in now who has the [00:26:00] training because the caveat of doing it for them to taking care of your tuition parcels of your tuition is you have to be there for three or four, maybe even five years after you graduate, which honestly, three or four or five years fly like that.
After those five years, go off and do whatever the hell you want. All right. Once I get my degree, I could leave my company and go to Lockheed Martin. I can go to Cree. I can go to this. I can go to that. I can do whatever I want. Am I going to? No, because I really like the company I work for. But it gives the opportunity.
And now when I found out by mistake SUNY Purchase College, I have 56 college hours at that college. The college I'm in now, Except only two classes. SUNY Poly and MVCC would not accept any. And that was just because it was in the career, but which is lucky of the one I'm involved with, they accepted my humanities and they accepted [00:27:00] my English.
If you take your core classes and have your associates, you can go strain into getting your bachelor's into a field that you want, and now you don't have to worry about those cores. You just have to take the classes. That you need to go into and it's been, you can benefit from it. Unfortunately, and I'm going to say it this way, I wasted my time going to college and not getting my degree.
Now, is it a complete waste? No, I did a lot of growing up, but it's, it helped me evolve and learn what I want to do. I went into special effects because I wanted to feel close to my father because he passed away when I was 16. And I, that's the last thing him and I did together. And as traumatizing that was, I kept up with it because I wanted to keep on doing what I did with him.
And I learned that at a very late age that I don't want to do this. I just did this for the, convenience of being close with him again. I let my emotions get involved. [00:28:00] Now I'm involved with engineering. And I love it. And I know that's what he would want for me. And so don't be afraid to get into a field and then be afraid that you don't like that field, get your cores done, and then you can do whatever the hell you want.

Yeah, I, it's. So interesting hearing you say that because it's like I can almost look back on my life and it seems so like I don't want to say obvious but like it makes sense now I guess I a different but a similar path to you. I started in the medical field when I was going to college and it was like honestly one of the most difficult things I had done up to that point in my life where I had decided that was like not what I wanted to do anymore and just completely switch paths and I think for a lot of people when you're young and you know you're like you're going down a certain path it feels you know it's scary or it's just like it feels like maybe you're almost like it sounds crazy like now being older but like when you're 19 you're like I have to finish this because I've wasted all this time but you're so young you Can literally [00:29:00] change your mind a thousand times and it's okay. 
But yeah, I personally can relate to like just being young and thinking like, oh, this is it. This is what I have to do forever. And I can't change my mind. I think it's important to know that you can. And that's my biggest problem with the school education system. And I know we can go really deep down into this rabbit hole.
But that is my problem with the school education system in grade schools. Like for an example, like high school. And the reason behind that is, is because they tell you, Oh, you have to make up your mind. Now you have to do this. Now you have to go into this college to do this. It's no, you don't have to do anything.
Get your degree and get your associates and humanities or something that will transfer over, do some growing up and figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life. And then do it because now you could transfer those credits because there was a time when I was an engine and when I was in special effects, somebody was a culinary expert.
And they were just like, nope, I want to do I want to do special effects now. And they're great at it, but that's where they started. And the other advice I can [00:30:00] give it too, honestly, is that and this is gonna make a bunch of people mad, but I don't care. Colleges, certain jobs don't give a crat's ass of what college you went to and got your degree as long as you have your degree, all right?
They don't care if you got it at DeVry University. They don't care if they got it at, if you went to Yale or anything else, all right? They're not going to look at your grades, pass, walk out with a piece of paper and get the job you want. Yeah. 

Yeah. We're definitely going to need some not, we're not making friends right now, but I I could agree with you a lot and that I I work in in software now. 
And I know a lot of people may be to clarify, I'm not like a developer. I'm on the product management side, but I know a lot of people think about software and they think like you have to, that's like a very specific, like path you have to go down, you have to, You have to have a degree, you have to have good grades, you have to go to certain colleges, and exactly to your point, I, when, I have a degree, but [00:31:00] they could have cared less if I even had my degree for the role that I'm in now.
 I started in sales, and I worked my way up in that company to a product position, and it's so much of what you're doing. I think, again, when you're young, so many people are like, making you think that this piece of paper that you're going to get is what's going to define your success for the future, butit's so important to know that you define your path and putting in hard work it might not be the path that you think that you're going to go down, but if you just consistently show up and put in work it will take you Where you want to go in life.
And I think that's something that isn't communicated enough to young people. And I hope maybe some young person will stumble upon this and hopefully decide that they can maybe explore a different path. Yeah. And I know I'm, we're going to make some people angry, But here's the thing is I'm not saying that school is a waste and I'll never say that.
Or what college is a waste or what college you go to is a waste. I would never ever say that. You know what? Because there are the, for an example, Lockheed would never accept someone from DeVry. [00:32:00] They won't, but they will accept someone who went to a Pacific let's just say SUNY Alfred, who is an engineering school.
All right. It's, But if it matters on what your values are, I guess what I'm saying is that if you want to work at something and chase that paycheck and get that, that six digit paycheck and get to for a company who doesn't even know your name or work for a company that I work for who granted, I'm not making six digits, but I get a turkey every year to CEO knows my name.
He actually sends me letters saying happy birthday. He follows me on Tik TOK and he actually interacts with my videos. it's very personable. And that for me is a value knowing that I have skin in the company. Then I'm not a number, I 

guess what I'm saying. Yeah, that'sthe final piece of advice that I'll give, and it's like you said, everybody's gonna have a different path that they want to go down, but my experience, personally, is I've also been at a small company, and [00:33:00] I've loved that path so much. 
Again, I think a lot of people lean towards those bigger well known companies, but, yeah, that's it. I love working for a small business and exactly like he said I love that every, I know every single person that works there. I'm, close with the CEO. I'm close to every person that's there.
And it's I think it's a really good way to be able to level up in your career, I think it gives you the opportunity maybe to Try things that you might not have the opportunity to do at a bigger company.
So I guess that's where I'll leave it at. You talked about your sweet two letter C code. I saw it.
I wasn't like a huge twisted metal person. I have played a few times, but as soon as I saw that I thought that was the coolest. How did you was, are you into RCs previously? Or was that the first one that you did? that was my very first RC car.
And the reason why I did it is because I'm really into Swiss metal. Like right here, I have the pop figure signed by the voice actor. I have a replica mask. I have a statue. Like I'm a big twist metal fan. And the fact that they're coming out with the TV show in July, 27th, I am stoked. But one day I woke up and I said, I want to [00:34:00] build an RC car and I want to build a tweet.
Sweet tooth RC car. You don't see one of those. I literally just took whatever avenue I can to teach myself how to do it. I took an RC, I took an ice cream truck from Thingiverse, hollowed it out. And add things, took things apart and printed it. It took me about five kilograms of material to print this damn thing because it was half of it was supports.
But it definitely was a challenge because I had to worry about weight with the chassis and I had to figure out because the chassis was hitting the wheel. So I had to make spacers to rise up the body. I was like, okay, I want to add sounds to it. Quick Google search, about two days worth of research, I figured out how to do sounds.

I never had an RC car ever, like from out of that caliber. But I said, screw it. I want to make one. And I think that is, and as you would say, pivot back over to the hobby That's what it's really nice about 3d printing is because [00:35:00] you can, if something inspires you and something that you're interested in, you could just make it. 
And for an example, Emily and Frank, they made Ironman suits. That's crazy. I'm working on an Ironman suit right now. Yeah. Surprise. And then I'm also working on a bunch of I'm building another three, a bit of building a 3d printer from a 3d printer. It's just and it's one of the reasons why I say at every one of my videos, and you probably even seen in a bunch of other people have seen it and who watched my videos and I say, stay creative.
And the reason why I stay creative is because without creativity or something that inspires you, half the shit we wouldn't, we would have in this world would not be creative, who decided someone in the right mind. Decided let's make curve monitors. Why? Because we can they got creative with it. How did they figure out to put foam over these over our blue yetis? Because I see you have one as well. Because they thought think outside the box. I feel like personally with people are so worried [00:36:00] about what other people are thinking. So they're afraid to become creative and do what something outside of the box because they're afraid to fail and also make a fool out of themselves.
So whenever I say stay creative, I want to make sure that it's what Adam Savage would like to say. A permission slip to fail. Here's your permission slip to think outside the box and to fail and do what you want to do and do how you want to do it, not how somebody else wants to do it. And that's how I've always looked upon it.
So when I made the RC car I was like, I want to build it this way and this is how I'm going to do it. And if I fail and I screw up, Fine. I failed and I screwed up. I went through that whole truck took five kilograms of filament and not because it took five kilograms. It's because I had to go through three.
I had maybe if the prints fail like three or four times when I was building it. And it's that's what happens in 3d printing. You have to plan ahead. [00:37:00] You're going to fail. You're going to have, and don't let it don't let it just like pull you from your project. Take a second, walk away from it.
And think about it. Because the world's brightest minds is the most creative. An engineer once told me if engineers did not fail, we would have flying cars by 

now that, so why not? And then another quote that frankly built, let's say, if you have an idea and it looks dumb, but it works, it's not dumb. 
So it's one of those types of things. It's just Just do it. And so I woke up one morning and I was just like, I want to build an RSV2 with RCM car. Let's do it. I myself and I think a lot of the internet is glad that you did do it because if you haven't seen it You need to go watch the video because it's fucking cool.
It's all I'll say Now I guess a final question that I'll leave you here with is I loved what you said about you know Don't be afraid to fail and I think that sometimes I, a lot of times I think the things that I do when like the projects fail, they, for me, at [00:38:00] least almost push you to be more innovative and they push you to solve problems in a way that like, maybe you wouldn't have thought of otherwise, if it just had gone completely right the first time maybe it was the RC car, but were there any other projects that you can think of that you worked on leading up to this point that maybe were like I don't know if maybe you just hit a wall and you're like, I can't finish this and came back at a later point or I guess What would you say has been the biggest project that you've worked on?
That was like the most difficult for you to get through. So what do you mean by most difficult? You mean ones that I haven't finished yet? Like my venom stitch, which has been haunting me since I was born. Now that you mention it, cause I was curious to know about the venom stitch. Yeah, I still haven't filled and sanded because I just been so busy, but no, it is still on my to do list, but I'm trying to finish.
Now that I said it I'm trying to finish the Iron Man suit that I'm doing for Katsukon. So I'm trying to finish really hard to get that going. I have almost 20 kilograms of material in the basement right [00:39:00] now, so you're gonna be seeing a lot of that soon. And once I finish these four runs, you're gonna, I'm gonna, I plan on posting videos on the helmet and everything I finished because I finished the helmet.
Okay. But when it comes to a project that gave me the most problems and that kind of pushed me outside my comfort zone and gave me the most issues. Definitely it was clockwork. The three of the Voron I have no experience when it comes to programming and don't ask me to configure a file without a guide because I might as well just burn the damn thing.
I built the printer. I'm great with building things. tinkering things, wiring and 

everything. I spent literally maybe about two weeks trying to figure out how to program this thing. And then when I turned around and I was just like, that's it next week is Maker Faire. 
And I want to show this off at Maker Faire, but I can't fix this. Thank God there's a Voron discord because I sat in the discord, talk to a bunch of people and they helped me program it. And they helped me sit there and troubleshoot it. And they gave me a [00:40:00] bunch of tips and everything. And I'm like, I'm not completely confident, but I'm confident enough that I can figure it out.
and that's what I mean by don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone because here's the thing. I learned so much from building that for run and learned so much building those printers. And also getting out of my comfort zone. Then I just grew from the experience between professional as like a career or moving into from Buffalo to Arizona or from Long Island to Utica.
Take a risk. And because you know what life isn't, if you don't take risks in life and make yourself uncomfortable in certain situations, there is no, you won't grow. And so when I built that printer, I was just like, holy shit, here we go. it's the thing that I always end up on this topic and every single podcast that we do is not when you're taking on these challenges too, I think that this [00:41:00] space is such a great space to do it in the sense that there's such a community and like you said, whether it's the Voron Discord or whether it's the people on TikTok there is always somebody here who has been in your shoes and wants to help you, and I think the people in this community are just so patient and so happy to help people along, so that would be a huge thing that I would just say, and especially, I am somebody I'm shy, I'm an introvert, and I hate asking for help, but if you're that kind of person and maybe you're a little nervous to put yourself out there, ask for help It's okay.
I promise in this community people will be so receiving and happy to help you. Definitely, I agree. I think put yourself outside of your comfort zone. And every time that I've done that I've been so surprised that I've been able to push the limits of what I've been able to do.
And it sounds like you've had a similar experience. Yeah. There are some people like, don't get me wrong. There are trolls out there who would be like, Oh, where'd you get that STL file when the print failed? Or Oh, for some reason, my, my hot end exploded. Did you level the bed? It's like the typical jokes.

but the thing is, there's a lot of [00:42:00] people I'm one of them where if someone who is very introverted, who doesn't want to talk to strangers who can't figure it out That's one of the reasons why I leave my email open. And also I have an open communication policy with my channel, meaning like my discord is open. 
My instagram is open. Everything is open to the public. I the amount of spam from bots I get is unbelievable But I do that because every now and then I get somebody who's hey, how do you fix this issue? and I'll and if I don't know how to fix it I'll reach out to the community for them and then reframe the information, even if it's the littlest thing.
I'll take the heat. I don't care. As someone like me, I don't care if I take the heat. I'll take the heat so you can go ahead and learn from the experience. There was a time where in maker fair this kid was just like, I can't get my printers bed to fit and I can't get the fix and be able to level and I'm getting over extruding and this and that.
And I'm just like, okay, hold on a second. I'll [00:43:00] here's my email. Send me an email of all your issues. And I did a breakdown sheet from do this, send it out to him. This 10 year old kid sent me an email saying, Thank you so much. I kid you not. When I tell you this, she, he's thank you so much.
The printer's working beautifully. I pretty appreciate the help. That's why that is what it called a community, an open source, open policy community. And if you can't do that, then we can't grow. 3d printing is not where it is today. If it wasn't before open source and if it wasn't for open communication, for people to grow.
And that's, it's wild. Whoever knew of metal 3D printing and bio 3D printing or like printing organs from 2014, it was wild. the fastest moving 3D printer in 2014 was like 40 millimeters a second. Now you have people like, 24 7 3D [00:44:00] printing who is doing a Voron 2 0.
2 is printing at 2000 millimeters a second. I'm like, that is wild to me. That's a two minute Benchy. And it's but he learned and open source and took a suggestions from the community. And it's, again, it's all about growth in the community. Yeah, no, absolutely and I just, itnothing warms my heart more than those stories of hearing people who like it, even when it's a small issue, but just, it's like, helping them troubleshoot that problem.

And I think it means so much. Like I, I know I've been that person where like it's been something so small and like somebody who was experienced like could solve the problem in 30 seconds. But having somebody just be there to coach you through that it means so much. So if you're new to this community, don't be afraid to ask. 
And if you're not new to this community, definitely if you can help, I say it's, oh, it always comes back to you. If you can give, I think you always get back. We've all been there. We've all been that 10 year old kid who doesn't know how to calibrate the steps for over extruding or [00:45:00] doesn't know how to level a bed.
And that's, I keep reminding people that. Don't gate the community. We've all started somewhere. People are starting later, but also, and the more popularity this kid, this hobby gets, it's gonna happen. Don't forget about that. Yeah, no, absolutely. I could not agree more. I have had such a great time talking to you today.
I feel like we've gone through a thousand different topics since we started an hour ago, but I appreciate you so much for coming on here Thank you Can you let people know where they can follow you and follow along with your projects that you're working on?
Yeah I'm so as it says, I'm Willy's Paint and Print. I'm usually on TikTok or Instagram. Streaming is gonna be Willy's Paint and Print. I actually was able to lock that down. And I also have a, and if you're on Instagram or tick tock, my link tree has everything.
It actually has any upcoming events that I'm doing. So if you want to actually come and meet me and talk shop, I'm willing to do that. And also my emails on there. So if you ever want to reach [00:46:00] out, please feel free. Thank you again for coming on today. Of course. It's a pleasure having you.
It's a pleasure hearing about your projects and with that said, that is meet the makers.