For example, I’m sure the average joe doesn’t know just how expensive calligraphy pens can be, or how deep the rabbit hole goes on video game speedruns.

  • @jackoneill
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    5810 months ago

    3D printing! You can start out cheap but you can get STUPID expensive, and it’s the biggest most meandering rabbit hole I know of

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
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      1210 months ago

      It’s expensive, but it’s also expensive in lots of different avenues. It’s not like you can just go “well I’ll never buy a big pre-built proprietary printer then I’ll just make it myself! Open source forever!” Because that’s the road to leads to sourcing and building your own voron from scratch and spending a thousand dollars on parts

      • @enigmara
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        210 months ago

        Because that’s the road to leads to sourcing and building your own voron from scratch and spending a thousand dollars on parts

        Looks at my 2.4 sitting on my workbench.

        Can confirm, that’s exactly how it happened. 😬

    • @ikidd
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      510 months ago

      I’ve been amazed at how cheap it’s become since I built my first few printers. I spent thousands building printers that aren’t half as good as a $300 printer today.

    • /home/pineapplelover
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      fedilink
      310 months ago

      I just bought an elegoo neptune 4 pro and thought about buying more filament already. Hopefully it will only be filament and not more machines or something

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      310 months ago

      And getting consistent prints at a decent speed can be challenging! (Slow and good vs fast and unreliable is a common choice.)

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
        110 months ago

        I can highly recommend the Klipper firmware if you haven’t already, I can print at much higher speeds than marlin firmware and the print quality is actually better

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      210 months ago

      3D printing really isn’t expensive, especially since you can create a lot of stuff for cents. I’m considering a new extruder for my Ender 3 (Looking at the LDO orbiter v2) and that’s €70, which sounds expensive for the printer, but compared to any other hobby that’s peanuts

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
        310 months ago

        It can get expensive - especially if you start looking into high-end / commercial quality printers.

        …or if you burn through 3 reels of TPU just to get one goddamn wrist rest to print. 😩

      • @Aux
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        010 months ago

        Yeah, €70 is not much for an upgrade for a hobby. That’s the price of a mid-range chain for a mountain bike and chains are not upgrades, they’re consumables, which you buy at least once a year, lol.

    • @Aux
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      210 months ago

      3D printing can be expensive, but I disagree that it is stupid expensive.