Polylactic acid

It will examine the downloaded STL file and determine whether it is configured to work with the 3D printer.

While printing PLA, spaghetti happens.

I'd much rather the result be what I intended than a pile of useless PLA.

That one is still in process, mostly because there is a lot of printers out there, and the goal of this app would be for everyone.

3D printers aren't at the level many projected, but they are still a growing market.

So that's why they charge the money.

Well, and I suspect this might be like injection molded, not like it's not, you know, PLA out of a 3D printer, I hope.

I don't see the...

Of course, the picture's not great, but it looks more like injection molded than 3D printed, I think.

It's good.

This is just

PLA.

And so the dimensions were 1.3 inches wide, so it'll fit in a handguard.

And so we did projects for PACCAR, Porsche, Ford.

Phillips Medical, and this was back when stereolithography machines, i.e. the opposite of your 3D printers that's just printing PLA, stereolithography, those were the earliest cutting edge machines.

And so I was doing prototyping and that's what us Americans don't understand is like this big pen or even better is a big lighter.

In this $0.59 or $1.59 Bic lighter is some 49 pieces, of which those all have extensive tooling to make that incredible engagement as you roll that flint wheel across that flint, get it to arc just across.

You got a new favorite filament, do you?

yeah i do okay my favorite filament the one i love printing with the most now remember i'm not talking about meeting requirements i'm just saying what my favorite filament is is actually pla silk okay because it's so pretty and it it's always a surprise to see what it's going to look like and it

And it's pretty straightforward to print because it's PLA.

Yeah, I mean, I've got it dialed, so I don't really have issues printing with it.

It does expand a tiny bit after it comes out of the nozzle, but I've compensated for that.

And it's just so pretty.

The results are always so intrinsically rewarding.

Anything I print with PLA silk of any type, be it rainbow or a single color, it's visually always very rewarding.

Because resin printing, regardless of the complexity, it just goes one layer at a time, no matter what.

And it renders it, it burns it in, and then it pops up, goes back down, burns the next layer in, et cetera, et cetera, right? That process is a little longer than using what we call an FDM printer with like PLA filament.

Yeah, yeah.

So I was running these things off and waiting five and a half, six hours to see how they are.

Right, right.

Yeah.

And then suddenly it dawns on me, you know, you can just do a quick approximation in PLA in 15 minutes, which is what this one is.

But it's great because now I do see I see the way everything is.

Many tea companies have shifted away from petroleum based plastics.

to a bioplastic called PLA because it's derived from plant sources like cornstarch.

Siesto Celestial Seasonings is here, right? Aren't they based here in Colorado? I don't know

if they are still because they used to be out of Boulder, but I'm not sure because I think they were sold.

What kinds of materials are you creating?

So we use this PLA plastic.

It's not toxic when you print it, but other printers can ventilate it better than other printers.

Like if you get an exposed printer...