Hi, I'm Alex.
I'm 10 years old and I run my own 3D printing business right here in Henrietta, NY.
How I got started
I got my first 3D printer as a birthday gift and I've been obsessed with it ever since. At first I just printed random things for my room. Then I started printing stuff for my friends — a Minecraft Creeper here, a fidget cube there — and I realized I could actually turn this into a real business.
Now I run Alex's Print Lab out of my house. I find models on Printables.com and Thingiverse, test each one until it comes out exactly right, and then add it to my catalog. I only sell things I'm proud of.
I handle everything myself — the printing, the quality check, the packaging, and the delivery. I even keep a spreadsheet to track every order. My dad helps with the business side, but the prints are all me.
What I love to print
My favorite thing to make is anything that wiggles. Articulated snakes, fidget cubes, anything with moving parts that prints in one piece — it still feels like magic every time. I also really like making useful stuff that people actually use every day, like phone stands and cable clips.
Glow in the dark filament is my favorite material. I always get excited when someone orders the glow version of something.
The setup
I print on a [Printer Model — coming soon] with a 0.4mm nozzle. Most of my catalog uses standard PLA filament. I stock 8 colors including glow in the dark. Print times range from 30 minutes for a keychain to 5+ hours for the bigger models. Every print gets a quality check before it goes out the door.