The Blob Strikes at Dawn: A Tale of 4AM Printer Surgery
Ah, the glamorous life of 3D printing. People think it’s all rainbow filaments and flawless miniatures—until they meet the Blob of Death.
If you’ve ever walked into your print room, half-asleep and clutching coffee like a life preserver, only to find your hotend entombed in what looks like a plastic lava flow… congrats! You’ve just unlocked the secret 3D printer side quest: Hotend Emergency Extraction, Night Owl Edition.
This morning (if you can call 4AM “morning”), we were greeted by one such catastrophe. The vindictive wrath of the filament gods had created a blob so menacing, even our articulated Guardian print looked concerned.
What followed was a delicate operation involving:
- A heat gun
- A heroic pair of tweezers
- A sacrificial Allen key
- And a prayer to whatever printer deity oversees late-night maintenance
Hotswapping a hotend while the moon is still high and the rest of the world is asleep is a true test of character—and caffeine tolerance. But we prevailed. The blob was defeated. The printer lives to print another day. (And yes, we now triple-check nozzle tightness because trauma is a powerful teacher.)
But why the hustle? Because we’re prepping like mad for The Raleigh Market this weekend (Saturday & Sunday, 9am–5pm, in the Commercial Building)! The new lineup includes:
- An articulated Guardian from Legend of Zelda, looking very shifty
- A crab who holds spoons, rings, and possibly your soul
- One Ring keychains to doom your keyring with power
- Kaws-inspired art pieces that serve looks
- Buttcheek Toad (you really have to see it)
- Sackboy from Little Big Planet, still the purest soul in the realm
- And our nearly-finished, warrior-queen Lae’zel, ready to judge your rolls
So come see us, chat about print fails, grab something rad, and maybe share your own horror story about the dreaded Blob. Misery loves company—and we love making cool stuff despite it.
Stay filament strong,
Stacy & Jacob
Illusory Wall Prints 🧱🔥🗡️