The loveable YouTuber rarely seen without wearing a 3D printed hat…Jwall works a 50-hour day job to support the content for his channel Print That Thing, and the projects truly never stop.
3D Printing Industry caught up with Jwall to discuss everything from 3D printing bacon, to his dream project of a 3D printed house and a sneak preview of what could be the next big trend in 3D printing.
3D printed Wolverine claw by Print That Thing on YouTube
The Maker community on YouTube
YouTube is an important medium for the 3D printing community and for Jwall “is where I fell in love with 3D printing technology for the first time.” He says one of the first 3D printing videos he remembers was the selective laser sintering of a functional wrench. After that he used the video platform to learn how to use Autodesk’s MeshMixer software via a video from YouTuber MakersMuse.
Since then, Jwall’s own channel Print That Thing has grown to a community of over 14,000 subscribers, and over 1 million total views. For him the most successful video to date has been the “3D Printing Bacon” video, in which he uses Autodesk’s ReMake to model a piece of bacon, freshly “cooked” in the back of his camper van.
3D printing bacon with Print That Thing. (Note: Bobo the cat sleeping on the right)
The popularity of the video caught the attention of Autodesk which for Jwall, who has been using their software for years, “is a dream come true”.
3D Printing Bacon also features a cameo appearance of his cat Bobo, who may hold the secret to Jwall’s success. The cat armour Jwall made for Bobo in 2016 is still one of Print That Thing’s most popular videos, it’s easy to see why…
Jwall’s next project featuring Bobo is of 3D printed cat bowls made using VR in Gravity Sketch. A preview of the bowls from Print That Thing on Twitter shows that they are just a fierce as Bobo’s tailor made cat armour.
Print that: 3D printed house
Never one to shy away from dreaming big, one of Jwall’s goals is to 3D print his own house, which he assures us he is 100% serious about. “Got the acres of land, now just waiting to save up 3D print a house one day,” and he’s put together some rough designs in Tinkercad just for fun.
The 3D Shapes House idea uses the basic 3D shapes: sphere, cube, pyramid, & cylinder to create the 3D house. The cylinder being a slide pipe down to the balcony!
Who wouldn’t 3D print a slide into their house if they could?
Of course, Jwall is also realistic about the time it will take to get all the ideas together, “the vibe of the 3D house is still in development for the next few years” though he eventually plans to do a mini documentary of the process.
Becoming full-time
The main goal for 2017 is for Jwall to become a full-time YouTuber. He has set up a Patreon page where fans can support his videos by pledging just one dollar per month, which is fair considering all of his designs can be downloaded for free!
The next big 3D printing trend?
At 3D Printing Industry we like to keep our fingers on the pulse and try to print all (or at least as many as possible) the things. We’ve posted videos and photos of this years popular models such as the much “beloved” Baby Groot, Amao Chan’s fantastic Save Pangolins and of course Primoz Cepin’s Hairy Lion.
Jwall gave us a preview of a project that combines the hairy lion technique with a historical figure well suited to hairyfication.
Some of his current Patreon supporters included fellow YouTubers SparkyFace5 and A Pyro Design. SparkyFace5’s Tessa Nesci is the founder of the #3Dblockzoo movement in Tinkercad to get more people involved in 3D design.
A Pyro Design is a graphic designer known on YouTube for bringing logos to life through 3D printing. He’s also a key supporter of Twitter’s #3Dpinkmafia 3D printing all the things in pink filament.
A collection of J Wall’s 3D printable designs can be found on the Print That Thing MyMiniFactory profile, where he’ll soon be uploading the model for a hairy Einstein. The video for hairy Einstein will be a tutorial on how to turn waste filament on 3D prints into hair. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
If you’re a YouTuber looking to share your next 3D printing projects with the world we’d like to hear from you. You can contact 3D Printing Industry via email here, Tweet us @3Dprintindustry or send us a message via Facebook.
Featured image shows YouTuber Jwall in his 3D printed world featuring the Print That Thing logo. Photo by Nick Rau
