I probably count as that type of person you describe. I found a model on Lemmy that I really wanted to make and ended up buying an Ender 3 v2 cheap with a coupon at Micro Center. Has it totally been trouble-free? No. But I got it for a hundred bucks, plus a few addons (auto-level, flexible magnetic bed). I’d have to pay significantly more for a nicer one, when this is just an experimental hobby. I don’t care if I have to fiddle around a little more to get my occasional print going. In a way fine-tuning is part of the problem solving and tinkering I’m really looking for. I don’t care if the quality is less than what another printer can do. I don’t need a Cadillac when a Geo gets me to the grocery store just fine.

Oh, and most of my issues were caused by removedty filament. Once I went from some weird stuff on Amazon to the Inland I’ve had better success with, things went way better. I’m surprised that’s not mentioned more actually.

My great-uncle never learned how to use a computer (well, other than the TRS-80 he got before he retired). He was pretty mechanical though. Even if he probably wouldn’t understand much about how it worked, he probably would’ve appreciated 3D printing if used for a car part or something!

Data is data

Or maybe beauty is beautiful, since I don’t even know what’s going on here but it’s kinda pretty I guess?

So?