Your first ‘1’ planted the seed, 11 years later, we’re a whole forest! 
Do you remember when you started 3D printing? We all do!
Share yours in the comments.
Celebrate with us in Detroit April 9 → To Makers By Makers
to.store.creality.com/sns-creality-11th-anniv
My very first 3D print?
Believe it or not - it was for my triathlon bike.
The name Iron3D_Dad isn’t just about the clean finish of my prints… it’s a shoutout to how I got started: IRONMAN.
And no, not the Marvel superhero - I’m talking about the real deal:
140.6 miles of type-2 fun:
)Leading up to race day, I hit a wall. I needed aerobar risers, a new wheel block, and most importantly - a bottom bracket tool (Token BB3724R-2A)… that was not a common part. My bike was older, some parts and specialized tools were no longer in production. None of the bike mechanics I know had one either!
So I 3D printed it.
I started small with the risers. Then wheel block. And finally - the bottom bracket tool itself.
I put out a request on Reddit for someone with the original tool to snap a ton of iPhone pics (gotta love LiDAR), then meshed them together to reverse engineer a model. After a few failed prints and tweaks, I got it right - and torqued the bracket to spec.
Sure, it was a one-use wonder. But it got me to the starting line, and eventually, the finish line.
Since then, I’ve printed and sold custom triathlon components, built light housings for a dark sky project, made custom AirTag holders - and now I’m printing Easter eggs from Creality Cloud for my daughter. She lights up every time we crack open a new one.
Turns out, all it takes to survive Ironman is grit, training… and a 3D printer 
