Originally this said 'how to make your own.' # First, Making your own

We provide our plans free. We spent a few days creating and testing on Prusa and Flashforge. The files (including .3MF and STL) should be an excellent starting point for any other quality 3D printers you might own. The files we currently include are:
- The STL for one of the Maintenance Connection Canada Earsaver, design 1. (We provide the STL in case your slicing software can't handle .3MF files yet)
- Two .3mf files optimized for PLA (.3mf files are slowly taking over STL because they have many advantages over STL. You can specify extra info such as how 'we' optimized them to print for PLA and PETG)
  - One of them has just one 'instance'.
  - The other is set up for printing 11 at a time on a Prusa i3 MK3 printer
- Two .3mf files optimized for PETG, again a single instance and one with 11 to maximize the use of a Prusa i3 MK3 printer.
- 4 gcode files, one for each of the .3mf files above, ready to run directly on the very high quality (yes that is an opinion!) Prusa i3 MK3 printer.

If you are printing on a Prusa mini, you can use the 1x (one instance) .3mf files and add as many instances as you want. If you are printing on a different printer, you may want to tweak the bed and filament temperature and speed to your 'preferred' settings that work best on your printer and print bed. On the Prusa, we print PLA on the smooth PEI flexible bed and PETG on the powercoated (bumpy) PEI flexible bed.

You do need a printer that can print 6" wide or deep, so many smaller 3D printers can't print this horizontally or vertically, but most can by printing on the diagonal. You may only be able to print one or two at a time in that case.

Initially, giving you the print files was the ONLY way we were going to make them available, we created a set as gifts for our customers and provide the plans for free. But then, when we showed our first samples, we received requests to sell more. We said "we provide the plans free so you can print your own" but the request stood so … that is what we are doing. I guess the three main reasons would be:

You don't yet have a 3D printer.
your 3D printer is busy doing other work or
your 3D printer bed is too small

If you don't have a 3D printer yet, this may be a great reason to get a 3D printer, by the end of COVID-19, we expect that most companies will have at least one 3D printer. There are a variety of reasons why, but a combination of factors of cost, quality and, while COVID-19 didn't really make the reasons much more compelling, the ability to print new items on demand to meet the needs of COVID-19 brought 3D printers into the mental foreground, and for many people, they had extra time on their hands which gave time to experiment with and learn how to use 3D printers. # How to buy more ear savers (and some bonus tips):

We charge postal shipping and handling per order

$5 CDN for shipping to Canada
$5 USD for shipping to USA
$10 USD for shipping to most other countries
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Plus: (All prices below are in really cheap Canadian dollars)

For 1 to 99: $1 per Maintenance Connection Canada Ear saver. "our pick of color" (we pick, might be all the same, might have a variety. It really depends on what we have sitting in stock, or if we are manufacturing new, whatever plastic we happen to have in the machine(s) we are going to manufacture them on.)

If you order 100 or more "our pick of color", the cost is 80 cents each.

We will also print them in your choice of a variety of colors. If you order 100 or more, the following colors have a 10 cent per ear saver up-charge (so $0.90/earsaver): Note that, due to COVID-19, we have been having trouble sourcing many colors, which depends on 'the week'. So we'll talk to you if we can't get your color 'right away' and let you decide whether to wait, cancel or pick a different color.

White
Black
Light grey
Purple
Orange
Red
Green

500 or more: 70 cents each, and you can pick from any of the colors above or 'random'. 1000 or more, the cost is 60 cents each, and you can pick from up to 2 of the colors above or 'random'.

Bonus tip for printing your own: Some of the ones below are available in a 'lower quality (lower cost)' brand if you want to make them yourselves (we give you free plans) but our experience, and the general consensus on the internet by those that have tried is that the lower cost versions result in more wastage (failed prints) and the final product is not as good. The prices below are based on the materials we would use for our family and friends. There are a lot of interesting options. About a third of the choices are ones that we would likely not use for an ear saver (especially the rust one!) but all are very interesting for different projects as we add products to our inventory.

Some are decidedly expensive. The ones made significantly out of rock or steel for example.

Bonus tip for printing your own: If you are making your own, be aware that a kg of steel will print far less of a given sized product than a kg of plastic, so the filament prices may seem significantly cheaper - until you realize how few a kg will produce when you ramp the weight up per ear saver. So you might say "this material is only 2x's as expensive per roll" and then find out: The roll only has a half kg, and the material weighs 6x's as much, so the cost of material per earsaver is 24x's the cost per unit! But the results are often stunning.
Bonus tip for printing your own: Many of the upscale filaments will eat through your brass nozzle in as little as 15 minutes of printing.
- We recommend using Tungsten-Carbide nozzles, we get ours from DyzeDesign.com though others like EV3DM also manufacture them. We recommend Tungsten-Carbide because they have almost identical heat transfer properties to the brass.
- We do not reccomend the jeweled (Ruby) ones: too easy to break and more expensive than Tungsten-Carbide while offering no additional life. If you have a Ruby, use it until you break it, then replace it with Tungsten-Carbide. If you never break it - then no problem, it's a great nozzle other than it is fragile.
- We do not recommend stainless steel: while admittedly cheaper than the Tungsten-Carbide, they have very different - harder to work with - heat transfer characteristics, where you will need stainless steel is when you require a lead-free nozzle for FDA-approved materials or medical devices. So unless you have it for legal/health reasons, if you already have one, we stil recommend you relpace it with Tungsten-Carbide.
- We do not recommend Tungsten nozzles. Please note: A Tungsten nozzle is NOT a Tungsten-Carbide nozzle unless the manufacturer specifically says it is Tungsten-Carbide.
- We do not recommend hardened steel, different heat transfer characteristics. Spend the one time cost and upgrade to a Tungsten-Carbide nozzle even if you already have a hardened steel one.

Upscale colors

Minimum order 80, add 18 cents per ear saver to your product cost total

Ivory (No elephants, hippopotami, walrus, narwhals, whales, warhogs or frozen mammoths or any other animals injured in the production. It is just Ivory coloured.)
Chocolate brown (No, this does not add chocolate flavour to it!)
Light Lilac (Color only, not the smell.)
Purple Red
Sky blue (It won't float away.)
Turquoise Green
Silver (Just the color, we'll leave the real stuff for making solar panels)

Premium colors (minimum order 80)

Yellow Gold (Sorry color only, no gold included) Add 24 cents per ear saver.
Antique gold (Still just color, no old jewelry ground up to make this.) Add 36 cents per ear saver.
Icelandic blue (translucent, like clear cold waters) Add 20 cents per ear saver. This one is extremely attractive.
And several more at 33 cents more per ear saver.

Premium materials. All minimum order 80.

Coffee (yes, real coffee or at least the part that wasn't used for making your coffee, see below, 54 cents extra per ear saver charge on the product cost.)
Hemp (color varies naturally), manufacturing leftovers. And no you won't get high if you suck on or eat these! 61 cents extra per ear saver.
Beer (color varies naturally), made from manufacturing leftovers and byproducts - basically the material that made the beer with only a bit of actual beer included. 61 cents extra per ear saver.
Gold Rush (pearlescent shine gold) 60 cents extra per ear saver. Not real gold, just the look. But beware - you may find people trying to steal them thinking they are real gold, so don't leave these sitting around, of course, as soon as they are picked up, the weight makes it clear they are not the real metal.
Glow in the dark? Blue, Green for 45 cents extra per ear saver. Made with ABS.

Pearlescent, all the pearls are astonishingly good looking.

Pink Pearlescent bubble gum 30 cents extra per ear saver. (No pearls, just the look, and you can't stick it behind your ear or under your desk.)
Misty Green (bluish) pearlescent shine 30 cents extra per ear saver. ### Metallic and Metal
Copper, Emerald, Merlot, Aquamarine, Brass, Black , White Purple, Onyx, Orange, Purple, Ruby, Silver or Yellow pearlescent shine 32 cents extra per ear saver. All of these are just the colors, not the objects. See below for items that contain ground up rock, metal etc..,
Rusty iron, magnetic, real iron, real rust. Probably not a good choice for ear savers, unless you are a large scale prankster! Obviously the rust part is not bio-degradable, but after and while the plastic biodegrades, the iron will turn into rust and become plant nutrients. 3.91 extra per ear saver. (brush it and expose it to salt water for 2 or 3 days to hasten the surface rusting. Because each tiny piece of iron is encapsulated in plastic, it won't rust 'through' like a piece of iron, it will just surface rust like aluminum.)
Want them super strong but still biodegradable? We can add carbon fiber for 48 cents extra per ear saver. Available in all the colors that Ford offered the Model T ford: black.
80% metal: Bronze, Copper. $4.18 extra per ear saver.
Metal: Aluminum, Brass, Tungsten, Steel. $7.41 extra per ear saver. ### Stone and Wood
Stone: Architectural Clay (brown), Red brick, Sand, Dark grey/gray stone, ground Concrete. $1.49 extra per ear saver. All stone various naturally, though usually not as much as wood. Gravimetrically 50% powdered stone.
Stone: White, Granit, Pottery Clay (light), Terracotta. $1.85 extra per ear saver. All stone various naturally, though usually not as much as wood. Gravimetrically 50% powdered stone.
Real wood: Olive, willow, coconut, cork, birch, cedar, ebony, pine: $1.49 extra per ear saver. All wood various naturally, though usually not as much as hemp or beer.

The ones with filler such as metal or stone or wood are not realistically recyclable, the foreign material will gum up the recycling system, but they are still compostable. Obviously the filler metal or stone isn't but all the plastic around them is and it will release the other dust as it composts. We can also provide custom colors at an additional cost.

Again

Remember, you do not have to buy from us, if you have your own 3D printer

We provide the plans FREE for you to make your own. If you have the same printers and setup we have, you should be able to just 'go', if you have a different printer or different setup you will need to tweak - but you likely already know how to do that.

Bonus repeat Tip for printing your own: For most materials other than the basic, we strongly recommend you go with a Tungsten Carbide nozzle instead of a Ruby, steel or brass. All, including the glow in the dark will wear out a standard nozzle very quickly, so the higher quality nozzles are worth the cost. Having said that, if you already have a Ruby - don't throw it away, it's biggest disadvantage is that it breaks easily, so keep it until it breaks, then make it's replacement a Tungsten-Carbide (not a 'Tungsten'.)

Are they going to be used in a hot climate?

Or left in the dashboard of a car, or other 'hot' location. ### 115C/239F tolerant (and still biodegradeable)

If you live in an area where the temperature gets above 55C (131F), like some of our staff in India, or you have a burning (pun intended) need to leave them on your car dashboard in the sun, let us know and - for a $0.25 extra per ear saver each we can produce them in a heat resistant plastic. Limited colors with 115C (239F) Black, Blue, Grey, Natural, Red, Silver, White.

None of the special materials/colors above are available in higher heat. The heat resistant ones are still bio-degradable.

160C/320F

For $0.42 extra per ear saver we can provide Black or Natural colored with 160C (320F) and biodegradable.

More coffee notes

Can't get enough coffee? As above, we can print your ear-savers using PLA that is made specifically from coffee byproducts (helps keep the coffee production process as green as possible.) Update: While yes, we can create custom food grade cups for coffee (very expensive though) using a different plastic, no, sorry we can NOT create a coffee cup from the Coffee PLA. The melt temperature is significantly below that of boiling water. So pouring hot coffee into a coffee cup made from this would literally melt the cup! Update 2: Yes, we could create them for your iced coffees, but given law suits and such, the risk of you forgetting, filling it with hot coffee and suing does not make it worth it to us. Update 3: Yes, We have made coasters, but not from this material. A hot cup would melt these 'coffee' coasters. This materially really is very wonderful for any purposes where the temperature stays below 50C, but above 50C, you need a different material. We think this coffee based PLA is perfect for your custom ear savers, especially if you are in an industry around food or coffee. Update 4: I'm pretty sure the person who asked me this was joking … but no: sucking or chewing on a coffee based ear saver is not likely going to get you through the morning without your cup of joe. As with all our products, we do not recommend eating, licking, sucking or chewing any plastics - even the biodegradable ones made from plants.

Why is it 'cup of joe'? A 1914 ban on alcohol on US Navy ships by Secretary of the Navy Josephus "Joe" Daniels, meant that the strongest drink a sailor could get on a ship was black coffee.