3D printing is a popular activity among wireless network engineers. Given that they deal with invisible, intangible radio waves all day, maybe it’s no surprise they’d enjoy making things they can touch and feel. On today’s Heavy Wireless we talk about why the wireless community enjoys 3D printing, and how engineers can make and use printed objects on the job–and at home. My guests are Joel Crane, Technical Director at Hamina Wireless; and Robert Boardman, a Senior Systems Engineer for Juniper Mist. We discuss: * How Joel and Robert got started in 3D printing * Printing items to help on the job * How to get started with 3D printing * Hardware, software, and training * Finding pre-existing models * 3D printing to solve plumbing problems * Whether you need to be a CAD whiz * More Show Links: @Potato_Fi – Joel Crane on Twitter Joel Crane on LinkedIn @Robb_404 – Robert Boardman on Twitter Robert Boardman on LinkedIn Building The Tools You Want Through 3D Printing – Robert Boardman, WLPC US Phoenix 2017 – YouTube WLAN Pi Handheld Case – Joel Crane, WLPC Phoenix 2020 – YouTube WLAN Pi Case Development – Joel Crane, WLPC Prague 2019 – YouTube Tinkercad Printables.com Thingiverse Grabcad Transcript: Note: This transcript is provided as-is with no corrections or fixes. Speaker 1 (00:00:07) – Hello again. This is Keith Parsons with Heavy wireless podcast, part of the Packet Pushers podcasting network. Today we’re talking about 3D printing. And one of the questions we’ve heard a lot, both at WPK and just in general is why? Why is there so much 3D printing in Wi-Fi? To help with this today, I’ve brought on two really good 3D printer people who’ve been involved both in wireless and 3D printing. Joel Crane and Robert Boardman. Joel, can you introduce yourself and tell us about you and where are you working? What are you doing now? Speaker 2 (00:00:37) – Yeah, so my name is Joel and I work for a company out of Finland called Homina Wireless. We make like a network mapping and planning tools specifically for Wi-Fi and some other technologies as well. Yeah, I’m excited to be on the podcast today. Speaker 1 (00:00:50) – Robert. Yeah, Hi, my name is Robert. I’m a senior systems engineer. Speaker 2 (00:00:53) – For Juniper Mist covering the Europe area and primarily in wireless. Speaker 1 (00:00:58) – Great. Well, great to have you both on today. Speaker 1 (00:01:00) – The first question and since I already know the answer to that’s why you ask these kind of questions is how did you start in 3D printing? We’ll start with Rob. I got started many, many, many years ago.