Several months ago I 3D printed an IBM z15 pencil holder. I used a design that had been floating around, so it wasn’t perfect, but it was a nice little model. I ended up following up with a design team inside of IBM and got a more perfect version that they were OK with me sharing the with community.
But I already had a z15, so I wasn’t going to use this STL myself. Or was I? I clearly now needed a LinuxONE!
A colleague (thanks Joris!) hollowed out the STL to make it cheaper to print, and I removed the Z. Voila! I had a LinuxONE file to send off to get printed.
In the future, I may try to get it printed in the color I actually want, but I went for a quick quote and cheapest printing option that made sense from Xometry. I also used their tool to shrink it a little so it was the same size as my z15.
(As an aside, I’d love to own a 3D printer some day, but they’re expensive and require maintenance and all kinds of things I don’t currently have time or space for. Maybe some day!)
Since it came in white, I had to spray paint it just like the first (see my previous post for paint details).
Then I had to put down a coat of white in the inset areas, since the orange paint wouldn’t show up well on the black.
I went with the Orange Golden Artist Colors acrylic paint, the same brand and type I used with the z15.
The orange ended up being quite a bit brighter than the real LinuxONE, but I’m OK with that. I’m using it in a lot of photos and social media, so it’s fun that it’s more visible. That said, the “LinuxONE” and “IBM” text was the trickiest part about this model. When I shrunk the design, the IBM logo got a bit too small, and I didn’t have anything for LinuxONE. Ultimately, both spots were too small for proper logos, so I kinda just winged it with “IBM” and just drew a couple of lines to represent the spot where the LinuxONE branding should go.
It turns out OK! I still need more practice on miniature painting, but it’s not meant to be a perfect model, it’s just a bit of fun.
So I had a bit of fun, first with some cloud and Linux photo shoots!
And one with the System/360 bannerhead I have (grandpa!)
And finally, in action. I “brought” them along to the recent IBM Z Day we hosted, and included them in the pictures I took during the event.
Want to join in the fun? Grab the STL file and print your own!