I'm an IT professional with a software development degree and a lifelong habit of taking things apart to see how they work. I got my first 3D printer, an Ender 3 V2 Neo in mid-2025 and used it to print articulated dragons, Raspberry Pi cases, gifts for friends. Fun, but I wanted to make something real.
The first serious project was a fully functional Iron Man helmet. It worked, I listed it on eBay, and I got humbled fast. The real breakthrough came later that year when I found a video of someone turning a disposable lighter into a working web spray mechanism. I tried it, it ripped. My girlfriend and I wore the first working web shooters to a Halloween party, everyone flipped, and I knew this was the one. I started the Etsy shop a few days later. First sale came a couple of days in, we celebrated with wine and pizza.
The Ender 3 got me off the ground but it couldn't keep up, slow prints, single-color only, quality that wasn't where I wanted it. I upgraded to a Bambu A1 with the AMS and never looked back. Multi-color prints, way faster, way cleaner. That printer is what made real custom orders possible.
The pole vault tips came from my other obsession. I've been vaulting since middle school and still compete, my PR is 13 feet. I train with Pole Vault Miami, and when my coach started offering custom printed tips, I jumped in. The first batch of ABS tips broke along the layer lines. I moved to a Bambu P1S, iterated on the process, and now every tip we ship holds up to real training loads.
My girlfriend has been the biggest supporter since day one. Every product decision gets talked through with her. Every order that ships, ships because of both of us.