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From Adversity to Imagination: Timothy Durham’s Journey with Creality 3D Printing
2024-11-04 15:54:13
Lee Durham has lived a full life and endured more than most. He is a pretty normal guy who has served his country in the Marine Corps and retired from 35 years in the auto industry.
Lee worked for General Motors and for Dodge, great American Auto makers in a highly competitive industry. But life hasn’t always been rosy for Lee. A difficult divorce cost him his house, his car, and most of his savings. This drastic life change also caused Lee to suffer from depression and anxiety.
Lee was 64, and desperately want to find some way to keep up his good routine, alleviate his symptoms of depression, and also learn something new. Retirement was a major life change and he was more than a little bit nervous.
Lee with his 3D printers and a showcase of his creations
Enter Lee’s son and the Ender 3 Pro. A gift that would change his life. This machine opened up a whole new world to Lee. Not only was he able to tinker with the machine and use his mechanical skills but he was also able to express his creative side and build things for the first time in his life. It is safe to say that Lee was hooked.
He appreciated the ease of use and the endless possibilities for creation. He also become a very loyal user of the Creality brand and it is still the only brand printer he has ever owned. He upgraded when possible, getting bigger printers and faster printers.
When he was able to create his first large-scale project on his Ender 6 in just 15 hours (a task that would have taken 4 days on his older machine) he was more impressed with the higher quality of the print than he was with the speed improvements. Nothing but Creality for him for life!
Lee's large-scale 3D project created with the Ender-6 printer
"The only product I ever buy is Creality because they're an outstanding company. They grow like no company I've ever seen before."
Lee now has been using Creality machines for nine years and has scanners, printers, resin printers, and laser engravers valued at more than $15,000 USD.
What is his advice for beginners? "Put the machine together, get to know it, and learn how to maintain it," he says. Learning how to 3d print means learning the basics about how the technology works. That’s good advice for us all.
Once comfortable with the setup, Lee encourages beginners to dive in. "After you start learning, just start printing, don't be as scared. A lot of hands-on, a lot of adjustments and tinkering."
You can’t be a customer of Creality and not be a user. Making mistakes is part of the learning curve in 3d printing and we have all been there. Whether we are 14 or 64 we have all been there. Lee knows that and has also noticed the sentiment in online groups.
Lee recalls turning to online resources whenever he hit a roadblock. "I explored YouTube, forums, Creality Facebook groups, and the wiki for information," he says. "If I couldn’t find what I needed, I reached out to knowledgeable people in the support groups, and they were always ready to help."
It is an amazing community of users that make up these groups and forums. The 3d printing community is a collaboration of people supporting each other. There are no dumb questions and nobody knows all the answers.
This works very well with Creality’s core value of ACCESSIBILITY. We also want everyone to have access to 3d printers and to a support network. Lee is helping us to continue this online today.
But it has not been just Lee who has been interested in his 3d printers. Lee has a granddaughter who is from a completely different generation – one that watches screens in all their spare time. This does not happen when she visits grandpa Lee.
Lee says she bombards him with questions and watches the machines add layer by layer to her projects. “Kids are very smart. They know what they want to do."
Lee began his journey with Creality in the first two years we were making printers. He has been with us nearly from the beginning and we value his support. "I've watched Creality grow. And every time they grow, I smile because I know there's more technology being put into their printers."
This year he saw printers released that offered features he once could only dream of. Speeds and sizes that were impossible when he got his first machine. We are so proud to have customers like him and we are excited to see what he will create next.
Lee and the Creality Team
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