I was thinking about this question today as someone used our work printer for some personal stuff.
As for me, I am printing little things that I would say make it worth it. I’ve printed lens adapters for my camera for example. That’s worth a good 14 to 30 bucks per print. My most favorite photo was with an adapted lens that came from a projector. I also printed IEMs and those things are worth it. Listening to music is second to none on those things. Plus I printed the same shell but for ear protection and again the fit is perfect and sure there’s post processing to get smooth surfaces but in the end it looks like a professional made it. So I think 3d printers are worth it.
Yeah I had a friend build one out of like balsa wood and a couple CD trays and the rest of us were stunned… And not very impressed after like 5 minutes which a shame cause it really was a beginning stop that showed what was possible.
I am definitely less into making those kinds of jank printers just cause the costs were never quite zero, and we have so much better options.
So like that hot-glue-models that came out? you could tell it was supposed to be a cube-like object. For a middleschool hacking components out of junk electronics… well… it was both hilariously awful… but in hindsight I should have been very proud of it.
it did do what I needed at the time, though, so there was that. I wouldn’t really recommend PVA as a filament material, though.