Half a tote of failed prints fits in a Manila envelope now.
LayerXLayer didn't set out to prove that. He's the main recycler in his house, the one going through the can asking who put this in here. So from when he first started 3D printing he kept his scraps: failed prints, supports, and later the poop, the purge a printer leaves behind. He kept it hidden in a box, because he didn't want his wife to see it. Then his sister-in-law had an extra t-shirt press. He started flattening the plastic just so it would take up less space, and about half of one of those black and yellow Home Depot totes came down to around 16 plates. The last round he molded around the bottom of a champagne bottle, so they look like little cups.
He'd like a shredder someday. Not for making filament. He just wants to shred his prints and make more plates. People offer him their filament waste, too, and he turns it down. He knows what's in his. He doesn't know what's in yours, and he's the one sitting there breathing it in.
I broke a friend's press doing exactly this on a live, making guitar picks. I'm still a little scared of it.
He calls himself a plastic pusher. He's more designer than printer, and he thinks it's weird that we call people who 3D print "3D printers," because those are the tools we use. His office is about six feet across and fourteen feet deep, so before he prints something he asks whether he needs it and whether it's going to make the room better. He likes wearables best, a crown or a ring, something to give to people.
I wanted to know how a guy who works like that ended up in the middle of the community. He almost didn't. Around 2022 he wanted to go to a 3D printing festival he'd heard about, but there was some drama in the community, someone who was, in his words, kind of racist, and he wasn't sure it was the right place for him. The next year he asked himself where else he was going to go. This is where the 3D printing people are. So he went on a Sunday, walked around, and had a blast. Then he volunteered. Then they asked him to MC, and people he'd watched online for years started following him on X. He met his co-host, and that's how Unspooled started.
He grew up an only child. He doesn't think of himself as an extrovert, and he does a lot of inner monologue. He also hosts music shows, and he shot weddings, where you turn into a bit of a bossy monster to wrangle people without insulting them. He does it with snarky humor. At a booth he messes with people just enough that they don't feel threatened, and they end up saying, all right, you're crazy, I'll come check it out.
Does he get imposter syndrome? "All the time, dude." He was freaking out in his head through his first interview. He feels like his ride has been fast, and that there are people who've been at it longer and haven't been as lucky. Still, if he sees a good opportunity, he says yes, unless it goes against what he believes.
The part I keep coming back to is the computer labs. When he worked for the city, he set up labs in rec centers, most of them in African-American communities, and he'd come back to find nobody had used them. People were afraid of breaking the machines. So he'd tell them, "If you break them, that's what I'm here for. I'm here to fix them." He looks at 3D printing, CNC, laser engravers and UV printing the same way. Somebody from Honduras could make something beautiful we've never seen, because they never had access to the machine. So he shows kids 3D printing at a camp near his house, and a couple of weeks ago he went to a school to help with their machines.
That's the community he's building, on Unspooled and off it. "We're just trying to be a space for everybody," he said. Get the printing talk out of your system, and then let them get to know you. "I personally don't care who you are or what you like, as long as you're not hurting anybody, we're good." He wants Unspooled loose enough that he can just be Steve, and not necessarily LayerXLayer.
His advice for anybody starting out was what he does himself. Be willing to say yes. Have fun, stay out of your own head, and be yourself, because he can tell when you're not.
So who do you know who has never touched a printer because they're afraid of breaking it? What do you think they'd make?
Live life to the fullest. Grow in wisdom. Show what you've learned generously.
Find LayerXLayer: https://layerxlayer.xyz/
His song, "Plastic Pusher" by AL: The Padded Room: [Plastic Pusher streaming link once released]
Watch The Padded Room live Tuesday nights at 7pm ET: https://twitch.tv/asylumlifemakes