Learning Should Be Something You Can Get Your Hands On
TITN3D started with a simple idea:
People learn differently when they have the opportunity to actually build something.
For Byron, that belief developed over a lifetime of figuring things out, working with what was available, and learning by doing.
Long before 3D printers entered the picture, Byron was a Boy Scout — where he began learning how to solve problems with limited resources, improvise when the obvious solution wasn't available, and make things work.
That tendency stuck.
In fact, MacGyver became his nickname.
Later, Byron served in the United States Army with the 82nd Airborne Division, 618th Engineer Company — “The Nasty.” His time in the Army reinforced an approach that was already becoming second nature:
Assess the problem. Understand what you have to work with. Adapt. Troubleshoot. Find a way forward.
Problem solving was part of the job.
And it never really stopped being part of who he is.
In 2015, Byron met his wife Martha — who happens to be writing this now.
She has had a front-row seat ever since to the way his brain works: the constant problem solving, the tinkering, the “there has to be a way to make this work” mentality, and the tendency to turn an ordinary problem into a full-blown engineering project.
Sometimes that approach is wildly effective.
Sometimes it involves a lot more tools than Martha believes should reasonably be necessary.
Either way, figuring things out has always been part of Byron’s story.
When Theory Needed More Doing
That hands-on mindset followed Byron into college while earning his degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The subject matter interested him.
The way it was taught often frustrated him.
Much of the education centered around lectures, equations, theory, and learning concepts on paper, with far fewer opportunities to take those ideas and immediately put them into practice.
For someone who had spent much of his life learning through doing, something felt missing.
What happens when you build it?
What happens when it doesn't work?
Why didn't it work?
What happens when you change one thing and try again?
Byron believed the experience could have been more engaging — and often more effective — if traditional technical education provided more opportunities to experiment, build, make mistakes, troubleshoot, and see the physical results of the concepts being taught.
That experience would eventually become part of the foundation for This Is The Name 3D.
More Than a 3D Printing Shop
TITN3D is a hands-on maker workshop built around learning through doing.
3D printing may be what first catches your attention, but it is only the beginning.
Our goal is to create a place where people can explore:
3D printing • Design • Slicing software • Electronics • Microcontrollers • Programming • Fabrication • Painting • Finishing • Creative problem solving
You don't have to already know what you're doing.
In fact, sometimes figuring it out is the point.
We want people to experience the connection between an idea, the decisions they make along the way, and the physical result sitting in front of them.
And when that result isn't what you expected?
Even better.
Now you have something to figure out.
Learn. Make. Keep Going.
There are different ways to become part of TITN3D depending on where you are in that process.
Classes
Structured instruction for people learning the fundamentals of 3D printing, design, slicing, and how decisions made digitally affect a finished print.
Project Days
Dedicated workshop time to work on your own ideas, ask questions, troubleshoot problems, learn alongside other people, and continue developing your skills.
Memberships
For people who want to make TITN3D part of their ongoing creative process — providing a reason to keep learning, keep building, and stay connected to a growing maker community.
Private Events
Hands-on creative experiences for kids, adults, families, and groups through building, painting, making, and creating something of their own.
Throughout it all, Byron is there to teach, guide, troubleshoot, and help you understand what is happening.
He might help you solve the problem.
But whenever possible, he'd rather help you learn how to solve it yourself.
The MacGyver Approach
There's a reason the nickname has lasted.
At TITN3D, having the newest tool, the most expensive equipment, or the perfect solution isn't always the answer.
Sometimes you look at what you have.
Sometimes you try something unconventional.
Sometimes you make a part.
Sometimes you redesign the part.
And sometimes you stand there looking at something that absolutely should have worked — and start figuring out why it didn't.
That's making.
It's also learning.
The goal isn't simply to produce a finished object.
It's to develop the confidence to approach a problem and think:
I can probably figure this out.
Building a Maker Community
TITN3D isn't meant to be a place where one person knows everything and everyone else watches.
The bigger vision is a workshop where people develop their own skills, share what they know, help one another, and eventually become the person who can show someone else how something works.
Someone might walk in because they think 3D printing looks interesting.
Then they learn how a slicer works.
Then they start designing.
Then they experiment with electronics.
Then they build something nobody in the room has tried before.
Eventually, they may be the person helping the next new maker work through a problem.
That's the kind of progression we want to encourage.
Because making something yourself changes the way you understand it.
This Is The Name 3D
Come learn something.
Come build something.
Come bring us the idea you're not quite sure how to make yet.
Come work through something that isn't working the way you expected.
You don't have to arrive knowing how to do it.