How I went from pure excitement to drab
I am one of those people who are always on the lookout for the neatest new thing. Whether it’s technology, a new way to design, or just something to entertain myself with, I am always excited for that new thing.
Lately I’ve found myself interested in 3D printers that can produce things that are sustainable and better for the environment. I had recently discovered one such device, a chocolate printer. Yeah you heard me right. A printer that prints with chocolate instead of filament. The ideas had already been swirling in my head about how I could put a printer like this to good use. I discovered a company that produced a 3D printer that looked nearly perfect, it was called the Cocoa Press 2 going for ab out $1500 if you printed your own parts, $1750 if you wanted them already printed, and $4,500 if you want it fully assembled (2 month lead time).
As a regular printer owner. I’ve put together many of my own printers and so I opted for the $1500 versions. It didn’t make much sense why they would charge 3 times the price to put it together. Most printers charged $500 maybe $1,000 and that made sense, but $3,000 for a $1,500 printer. So I ordered it and patiently waited, and waited, and waited. The company had no sense of time when it came to packaging and delivering, with no notice of what was taking so long.
finally received the box in the mail. I was excited. That is … until I saw the parts. When I say there were thousands of parts in their most basic components, I nearly died. I realized that it could take me weeks or even months to put this thing that was smaller than a microwave together. Immediately I became frustrated as there were no clear instructions in the box, not even a link for detail to find them. So I took a visit to the website and discovered a 244 page PDF of directions. I nearly had a heart attack.
So I went to work putting it together. I found myself frustrated, because there were times the directions were not entirely clear. Furthermore, the whoever wrote the directions clearly thought their wisecracks were funny, but it just made me even more frustrated. After spending 3 days working on it, I reached my breaking point. The directions were clear about the bed movement, as I pressed up and down on the bed, the bed just popped off and dozens of mini ball bearings slightly bigger than a human hair went flying everywhere. I had reached my breaking point and decided to check the whole thing in the trash. Never had I been more frustrated and robbed of my optimistic spirit as I had been in that moment. Clearly the stress was getting to me (my left eye was twitching - never a good sign) and so I did the only thing a rational sane person could do, throw it in the trash. I’d say I rarely make blunders like this, but when I do, I feel it’s important to move on as quickly as possible and glean the lesson from the experience. The lesson here was that the $3000 extra price tag for assembly on a $1500 product should’ve been a bigger warning. I should have scrutinized and inquired as to why the fee was so big.
For the foreseeable future, I won’t be making anything out of chocolate. It’s just too rich for my blood.
