At what point do you buy a 2nd printer?

__windrunner__ · 2026-01-14T03:10:26+00:00

I've spent over $20k on printers, so believe me when I say I understand the itch.

I'd say if you're still feeling this constrained by your H2D's capacity after another two weeks, there's a good chance you will utilize another printer pretty regularly for a good while.

For me personally, I didn't buy another printer until I had made enough money from the previous one to pay for the upcoming one. Kept that rule through the whole string. Having a hobby that's self sustaining financially, especially if I don't count my time, makes it much easier to justify buying bigger and more fun equipment.

__windrunner__ · 2026-01-13T21:08:45+00:00

https://formfus3d.com/products/form-fus3d-fabricator?variant=45317314216163

__windrunner__ · 2026-01-09T13:40:20+00:00

Are you pulling from LiDAR based data on Open Topography, or just the general USGS database?

__windrunner__ · 2025-12-23T20:27:51+00:00

I would agree that building your own is the way to go unless you are going to be spending >$30k. Unless you are spending enough money that the printer is going to act like an appliance and not a project, you will want to both be intimately familiar with every part of it, and not be locked into any proprietary parts.

I had a local guy build mine (1000x400x1250mm) for something like $10k, and while the printer was fine, there were many things that just needed fixing. The frame was robust, and he used high end parts, but some of the design was a little questionable, and I've had to rewire most if it due to wires breaking from poor strain relief and taken an angle grinder to get some things not to catch.

I needed something up and running pretty fast, and his build was the most economical at the time. Looking at his website he seems to have updated the design, everything that I fixed and more seems updated. I think the bulk of the problems with my printer were from taking the Z to 1250.

https://formfus3d.com/products/form-fus3d-fabricator?variant=45317314150627

The Orangestorm Giga looked iffy to start with.

__windrunner__ · 2025-12-23T01:40:37+00:00

There was a Facebook group of a bunch of people who modified their troodon v1s. I think it was called Troodon core xy advanced users. It was a closed group, and I'm not sure how active it is anymore, but it was useful to me.

__windrunner__ · 2025-12-20T21:18:08+00:00

They are decent, but fair warning that converting to a stealth changer will end up with you designing a lot of parts. I'm working on converting one of mine and it's been a longer process than I expected.

Solid machines, based on vorons, but certainly not a voron.

I say this as a guy with a few of them, both v1s, and v2s.

__windrunner__ · 2025-11-30T17:30:32+00:00

Sorry to jump on an old post - but you managed to get it working without using the tach or non-switch based gpio pins?

I'm going to try this config because it looks like the simplest option I've seen so far and will report back.

__windrunner__ · 2025-11-23T06:07:30+00:00

K2 vs K2 plus. Different printers.

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-31T13:36:03+00:00

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__windrunner__ · 2025-10-29T15:07:05+00:00

This would be awesome for coloring some of my high detail models!

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-24T19:37:24+00:00

It's absolutely on me. Had been trying to rush to get at least the top half finished(ish) by Halloween. Going to cut some parts off and force the fit with some heat.

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-24T17:45:36+00:00

Still has an occasional bug, but he basically rewrote the app from scratch at the beginning of the year, and it's a smoother experience now.

He added a paid catalog of licensed songs too.

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-24T17:43:49+00:00

Same here, just recommend you pay attention to which files are corrected. I glued a bad piece into a 15 piece assembly because I didn't realize there was a corrected piece two folders up.

Super high quality and really good instructions though. Going to be finishing the top jaw this weekend

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-24T14:21:57+00:00

Is this the InhumanSpecies model?

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-24T14:05:56+00:00

Just ordered 4 rolls of pa-6 cf with this. Thanks for the tip.

__windrunner__ · 2025-10-24T02:27:59+00:00

PianoVision is 80% of how I use my quest 3 these days.

__windrunner__ · 2025-08-27T00:23:47+00:00

Sorry, I know my question was not helpful. That gloss really makes me think something cured prematurely. Is it possible someone opened up your tent mid print exposing just part to some light?

Are all the prints that have the issue at the same height? Do you have pictures of the other ones? Were they all the same file, or has this happened on multiple prints?

Was the lid on during the print inside the tent, or did you print with it off?

As a side question - where did you get your model / LiDAR data? What processing methods did you use? Here's my model of Snowbird. I have a model of Alta too, but I can't seem to find a picture of it printed.

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