3D4U Printing
Started in my garage with a single Monoprice printer. Scaled to a small commercial floor serving FIRST Robotics teams and local Bay Area businesses. When COVID hit, retooled the floor to print PPE face shields and donated them through Maker Nexus to Bay Area hospitals. The Harker Aquila ran a feature.
Role
Founder — sales, ops, fulfillment, the printers.
How it started
Bought a Monoprice IIIP to print parts I couldn't get anywhere else. The printer paid for itself the first month. Then bought another. Then a Prusa I3 Mk3. By senior year there was a real customer list across the South Bay.
Card on the table
Printed our own business cards — actual orange parts with the logo embossed. Walked into every FIRST Robotics competition I could get to and handed them out. Most of our biggest accounts came from those weekends.
Print to protect
When COVID hit I retooled the floor. Two Prusas churning out ten PPE face shields a day, donated through Maker Nexus to Bay Area hospitals — part of an effort that delivered over 13,000 shields with 500 volunteers. The Aquila called the piece 'Print to protect.'
Maker Nexus
Maker Nexus in Sunnyvale was the hub. They coordinated the 500-volunteer print network and ran the last-mile drop to hospitals. I'd swing by every couple of days with another stack of shields.
The storefront
Built the site myself at 3d4uprinting.com. Service tiers, online quoting, a photo gallery of the work. Pulled in inbound from across the South Bay.
What I sold
Prototype runs for FIRST Robotics teams. Replacement parts for local makers. Custom jobs nobody else could ship in time. I said yes to weird work and learned to quote it on the fly.