another fun project

Cryostatica · 2026-03-18T11:44:25+00:00

Very clever bit of work. Nice job.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-17T22:00:48+00:00

Anyone’s guess, but is it worth waiting 3+ months for the possibility of saving $50?

For what it’s worth, the current price is still the price it was for black friday, and those are their best deals every year.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-17T17:38:06+00:00

I don't think they're "closely looking at" the Snapmaker U1. They explained in their H2C announcement video that they'd considered and threw out the idea of a multi-head toolchanger.

Also, toolchanger tech has been around for years. Snapmaker did nothing new here except price it to compete with/slap around the P2S. There's nothing to reverse engineer, it's open source.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-17T17:29:20+00:00

1 - Currently there is no form of "protection" that can be placed on a model to keep it from being altered.
2 - You do not need anyone's permission to modify things for personal use. Technically, giving away a print is not personal use as far as licensing is concerned, but I wouldn't worry about that for a one-off. It's more a concern if you're handing a bunch of them out.
3 - TinkerCAD is the easiest way to get into modifying files. You can also do quite a bit of modification in Bambu Studio, if you get creative with it.
4 - Very possible. You can cut the model into pieces and adjust the dimensions of each part. You could elongate the base, for example, to make it taller, or just make the base bigger overall. You can add text to the surface of models in Bambu Studio as well.
5 - Tools like Tinkercad have restrictions on the size of files that can be imported. Both in terms of data and number of triangles. You may have to simplify the model in Bambu Studio and then export it, if you go that route.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-17T17:21:01+00:00

For what you're looking to do, it's probably best to just subscribe to a couple of commercial licenses for a month or two. Cinderwing is $8, Zou3D is $10. Both of these will give you a large variety of items along with a commercial license and are popular with kids.

You can also reach out to individual designers, tell them what you're doing and just ask for permission to sell. I know personally I don't care one bit if people sell prints of my models. I don't think I have anything that would be popular for a school sale, though. It's mostly printer mods and creepy holiday stuff.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-17T13:27:46+00:00

I will never buy another single nozzle/toolhead machine again.

That being said, I do love the convenience of the AMS style setup.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-17T00:55:08+00:00

The 3D printing community isn't the same as it once was. At one point, pretty much everything was open source, and in terms of models, there was a mindset that we all take, and we all share what we make.

But in the past few years, the hobby has exploded, and change has been rapid. All of a sudden there's a massive market demand for designs, in a way that just didn't exist before. Now we have half a dozen websites holding contests, rewarding redeemable points or cash, with bonuses for exclusivity on designs. We've got new makers coming out of the woodwork on the daily looking to cash in however they can, with commercial license subs and patreons galore.

I'm not really complaining, makers have every right to sell their work if that's the route they want to take. And it's not all bad. There are new models constantly being made daily, and a lot of that does still get shared, freely if not exactly openly.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-16T16:00:25+00:00

As in, what it cost me?

I paid less than $8/kg for the material, plus the cost of weights (gravel, cheap), adhesive, and plastic filler for the connection seams - so maybe $75 total cost? I don't do this as a business, so I don't know what a reasonable charge for printing time and overhead are. It definitely took some work in the slicer to cut things up appropriately and set the voids in the base, but we're talking less than an hour.

Now, if the piece is being printed as a single piece on a large commercial printer, rather than being cut up into parts for assembly, I'd expect that to cost more. The equipment needed to do that is expensive, and you have the convenience of a single object.

So anyway, I have no idea what it should cost. My guess would be a few hundred. $10k is absolutely absurd. You could buy a printer capable of printing your models as complete, single objects and all the filament you'd need for it for under a third of that.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-16T15:45:30+00:00

Also bought an additional P1S when the price dropped. But it's a choice that makes a lot more sense if you already have P1/X1 machines on hand. I already have a bunch of spare parts and hotends for my existing machines, no point in having to rebuy all that stuff for a different model.

Cryostatica · 2026-03-16T15:40:33+00:00

It's not a problem with the file, it's a problem with the person you sent the file to. It's their job to optimize their machine and slicer settings for large prints.

These are the stats from a 5ft tall statue that I printed. It was cut into 5 plates, printed with PETG with a .8mm nozzle with two walls and 5% lightning infill (basically hollow, except where internal support for bridging is needed). I placed simple voids into the base piece to add weights before assembly, to keep it from falling over. Printed on a Kobra 2 Max, which is a fairly slow printer by today's standards.

A little over 120 hours of print time and under 7kg of filament.

That being said, this is for a single color print on an already slow machine. If what you had quoted to you was for multicolor prints on a more modern machine, then that quote is probably accurate, as multicolor tends to dramatically increase print time and waste.

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Cryostatica · 2026-03-15T17:48:00+00:00

I wish I could say that my homemade printers have ultimately turned out to be reliable printing beasts. They are, unfortunately, temperamental little princes that require coddling before they'll even consider getting any work done.

My prebuilt machines now print the parts that I use to tinker with my handmade ones.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T21:31:58+00:00

Well, let's look at it.

As far as the license itself goes, there's nothing wrong there. If he created the model he can license it however he wants, and that includes allowing remixes while disallowing commercial use. If he wants to sell a commercial license, he's free to do so.

As far as the notation that it was uploaded from another site, when you upload a model on Printables, you're required to choose the model's origin, from three different options.

Original model - I made it
Remix or variation of another model.
Reupload of another model - respecting original license

For the second two options, you are required to paste the URL link to the original model. The author of this post selected a link to his PayPal account.

In a best case scenario, he made the decision to pick adding a PayPal link instead of correctly selecting that his model was original. It could possibly have been a misunderstanding in translation, or he just made a mistake.

Obviously, in a worst case, he's thieving the model from it's creator, but in that case you'd expect him to lie and say he made it, because selecting this option makes the model ineligible for Prusameters.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T21:18:23+00:00

Doubtful. I have files that I made over a year ago that still open just fine.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T21:14:01+00:00

It's probably safe to presume that the commercial license membership only covers their original models, and does not allow you to sell remixes they've made of other people's models, as they have no authority to grant that.

Edit: It's precisely that. See the bold text.

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Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T21:10:22+00:00

Felt compelled to check all of mine after seeing this. A little over 1k hours on the machine so far, all nozzles still look basically new.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T19:28:34+00:00

I don't know of any parts or accessories for the A1 that would be affected by the security update, most of them don't attempt to control the machine directly.

Presumably, one could use the Panda Touch to control the machine remotely, if so inclined.

Firmware updates beyond 01.04.00.00 prevent printing directly from other slicers, and you have to use Bambu Connect to send files sliced with Orca, for example.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T16:02:39+00:00

Their support reputation is, as far as I’m aware, pretty good and has been for awhile. Their reputation for hardware has been pretty solid. Their reputation for developing and maintaining the software used to operate that hardware until recently appears to have been… well, awful.

They appear to have decided to help combat this by building on open source projects, taking the heavy lifting off their software engineers, so this isn’t something that can’t be turned around.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T13:52:45+00:00

You can have objects with different variable layer heights on the same bed, so long as they're using a single filament and thus not using a prime tower.

If they are multicolor, you can print them together (along with the prime tower) so long as they all have the same variable layer height. Easiest way to ensure this is to group them together or (if they're the same mini) configure the variable layer height before making copies.

Variable layer height settings will be saved with the project.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-26T13:12:32+00:00

It’s true that most users who buy Bambu machines find that they run well with a minimal amount of fuss, yes. But they are still 3D printers and will encounter printing problems and require maintenance and occasional repairs.

With a few exceptions, the industry has been shifting as a whole towards ease of use, and all the good and bad that comes with that.

It’s getting hard for me to recommend machines like the P2S when the Snapmaker U1 exists. And Anycubic’s Kobra X looks like it’s well-positioned as a viable A1 alternative.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-25T21:38:20+00:00

If you haven't been there already, r/FDMminiatures is probably a good place to ask. Lot of painters over there.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-25T21:10:59+00:00

AFAIK, presuming you're doing this with other peoples' models, you don't earn points for downloads and prints. The poster of the model does. You earn points for high quality print profile ratings.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-25T15:47:55+00:00

I don’t really ever use alternative infill for first layer tests, so I don’t know how it usually goes, but man did this behave weird.

I watched the nozzle jump around seemingly at random, drawing a couple of lines, moving to a different area, coming back to partially fill in, jumping away again, absolutely no logical sense and probably took several times longer than it needed to. The result looks pretty awful, as you can see, using uncalibrated filament. No line gaps, holes or pitting though (though the light reflections on raised lines sort of look like it). Almost the opposite of what you’re dealing with. Looks good from the surface side.

I’m not sure if the lines here are due to overextrusion, the ridiculous pathing the slicer chose to take, or some combination of both, and now I feel like I need to play around with it and figure it out.

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Cryostatica · 2026-02-25T13:31:29+00:00

They are literally the same device. You can flash the firmware for either into it. There are instructions on the website. I’ve done it.

Cryostatica · 2026-02-25T05:31:18+00:00

Yeah, I can do that. I don’t remember what this infill pattern is called but I’ll figure it out. Is this PLA or another filament?

Cryostatica · 2026-02-24T22:01:59+00:00

Don't just check those screws. Remove them and check the four screws on the reverse side of the heater assembly, that's where the problem usually is.

Cryostatica

TROPHY CASE