Our ‘E3D meets…’ blog series shines a light on some of the biggest 3D printing community champions, and then takes a peek inside their workshop. We love workshops!
At 3D Meetup Sweden we bumped into Jón Schone from popular YouTube channel ‘Proper Printing’. We got talking and he showed us his belt extruder, plus a bunch of other things. He also told us he’d love to get featured on the E3D blog, so, let’s learn all about him!
Jón Schone, AKA ‘Proper Printing’ on YouTube
Hello Jón! Tell us a bit about yourself!
Hi! I’m originally from Zaandam which is a city north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
My passion for technology started when I was very young. I remember experimenting a lot with computers and audio. I blew up my first motherboard at age 13, destroyed audio amplifiers, and got shocked a bunch of times by not thinking too much (you should disconnect the plug before opening a multi socket, who knew?)
My tinkering has taught me a lot, and to cut a long story short: I ended up becoming an engineer. I started in precision mechanics and eventually electrical engineering.
How did you get involved in 3D printing? What was your first machine?
In 2013 I worked at Philips in Drachten, where they develop shavers, air fryers, vacuum cleaners, the list goes on. It was very interesting to say the least!
Back then the first wooden Ultimaker machines were dotted around the building for people to play with. They were mostly used to 3D print trinkety things, like that classic owl model or Eiffel towers. I used it for an actual test setup. I think I might be the first person to use 3D printing in a production environment at Philips – things have come a long way since!
That’s cool. And now you have your own workshop you use on your channel, right?
I moved to my studio a year ago when I decided to separate YouTube from my private life. I found the perfect place which I turned into a studio/workshop/lab/office/mancave. It’s packed with everything I need to create things.
I’m a fan of music and audio, so the computer at my desk is between two large studio monitor speakers, an audio mixer, and a digital piano with a drum machine on top. The other corner of the studio is the “dirty” corner, where I have a stainless-steel table with several resin printers and chemicals I use for my projects and experiments.
In the middle of the room I have a work table I built myself out of aluminium profiles and a solid oak top. This is where I sit with friends to drink a coffee, where I brainstorm, build and destroy 3D printers, and hammer down rods in 3D printed guitar necks.
Across the room above the table is the most practical thing I ever mounted, a truss. I invested in lights which are mounted on it, and I can easily mount a camera on it for a top-down view.
I’ve also mounted home-made sound panels on each wall to make the room sound good. There’s one wall without sound proofing that has a large green screen covering the whole wall. I sometimes use this to fool the viewer – for example, making people think I actually visited Shenzhen to receive the prize I won with.
A truss for mounting cameras, lights, or whatever
The 'creative corner' of the workshop
The 'dirty corner'
A custom workbench
How many machines do you have now? Are they all 3D printers or do you like to use other stuff?
Let me count… My studio contains six FDM 3D printers, four resin 3D printers, a curing station, and a laser engraver.
I still have three FDM 3D printers at home and one in storage, too. I wish I owned a lathe and milling machine, since I started out as a precision mechanic. With these tools I should be able to make just about anything, but I need a proper garage for that. Who knows what the future might bring!
Do you have much E3D stuff?
Not as much as I would like to have. The E3D V6 is my actual first full-metal HotEnd, and I have two of them. The first video I made for my channel was about a quick tool change system right before these became popular. Besides the standard HotEnd, I made a tool holder for that E3D V6 which I still use.
Any E3D stuff you’d like to try out?
Well, who wouldn’t want to try out the Revo Hemera? Oh wait, and the ToolChanger! This would be a perfect fit for the project I’m currently working on, the Proper Extruder!
Tell us more about the Proper Extruder – what inspired you to make it? What did you learn along the way? Are there any advantages to belt driven extruders?
The idea is inspired by the FDM filament manufacturing process. Huge timing belts are used to transport filament down the line. I basically miniaturised this. I learnt a lot about engineering resins for 3D printing, which I used to 3D print this.
This idea is a part of a larger idea with the goal to make the strongest 3D print possible. I want to combine several techniques, like paste extrusion, continuous fibre 3D printing, and regular FDM 3D printing. The biggest advantage is that this extruder pushes any material between 0.1mm to 1.8mm. I don’t want to spoil too much (and chances are that I’ll fail miserably), but I’m sure the results will be interesting! Ever wondered how an FDM printed part with concrete or ceramics infused fibre in the circumference feels like? Well, I have, and I want to find out!
What do you do when you’re not making videos?
These days I work at an electronics manufacturer called Variass as a test developer. Together with a team we create automated test systems to test industrial electronics. We build test fixtures, design the hardware interface, and develop software to test if the PCBA’s (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) we produce is as efficient as it can be. I developed a test sequencer architecture in LabVIEW (a graphical programming environment) which is aimed at controlling instruments like programmable power supplies, oscilloscopes, multimeters, and so on. The sequencer I developed makes it easy for the test developer to create a new test program. I’m at the point where I don’t need to leave my desk to implement a new test in the production environment.
What’s the best thing you’ve 3D printed?
I can’t decide between the car rim, the guitar neck, and the Proper Extruder. To be honest it’s none of them, but I am not allowed to talk about the one I want to discuss yet as it’s a classified product I developed over the course of a couple of years. Hopefully one day I can talk freely about it.
So, for now I choose the car rim since this is the most difficult project I’ve done. This also led to several new inventions on my channel, like the moving portal mod which was featured by Joel Telling.
Hammering a truss rod into a 3D printed guitar neck
What’s the worst thing you’ve 3D printed?
Before I started Proper Printing, I had a different YouTube channel. This had 16 subscribers and I filmed a project which failed miserably. I never uploaded this because I felt very awkward in front of the camera and literally everything went wrong. I had the idea to 3D print my own SL-Eisblock which is the most epic invention ever made in the word of beer (naturally, it’s German). I thought it would be a good idea to use semi-flexible filament and printed it. 3D prints are not watertight and it wasn’t the brightest idea to place it on the top shelf of the freezer. Fortunately, there was some ice left in it and the layer lines resulted in the ice not being able to get out so I had to whack it on some tiles.
I still have the raw footage; I think it will be fun to make a 'before Proper Printing' video once my channel hits 50k subs!
How long did it take you to grow that beard? It’s magnificent.
Thanks! It grows fast, very fast. I used to shave, but that became torture since I always had that “three-day-beard” due to laziness.
Are you working on any interesting project right now?
Yes! Basically, the three projects I mentioned earlier. I’m going to 3D print the next version of the car rim, but it will be unlike anyone will expect and a whole different take than before. I’m working on a fully 3D printed guitar, and if everything works, I’ll take it to a well-known guitarist in the Netherlands I’m in contact with. And my quest for the strongest possible 3D print is ongoing!
Will we bump into you at any more exhibitions this year besides 3D Meetup Sweden?
Maybe, just maybe I’ll go to MRRF, but the world is still kind of uncertain right now so we’ll see.
Have you joined our Discord yet?
Yes, I’m on there! Let’s chat!
Thanks Jón!
Follow Jón‘s Proper Printing YouTube channel for more cool 3D printing experiments!
We’re always on the look out for community champions to talk to on our blog! If you’re one of them, contact us and we can feature you, your workshop, and your passion projects!!