Messing around with cnc-based machines lead to a lot of tinkering with hardware and software, most of which I knew little about. I was introduced to 3D printing by a co-worker, who was looking to model things and test out his new 3d printer. I asked for many small items for my DIY RC quad copter builds and he delivered so many great pieces that made my builds so much more convenient. I had to try it for myself. I learned to 3D model and methodology for designing models around the capabilities of how a 3D printer produces shapes.
3D printers eventually lead to an inexpensive laser etcher, with the intent of speeding up the cutting of RC plane templates/plans for scratch-built planes from dollar foam board panels. It succeeded in scoring the lines for such but non-gas laser was simply not powerful enough to do more than a few millimeter cuts. In order to use the laser cutter I learned about vector-based graphics as a basis for building laser/CNC tool path instructions that the laser controller could execute, not unlike how a 3D printer works.
My next adventure was with a CNC Router design, that was developed around mostly 3D-printed parts.
