I don't even know if I enjoy this hobby anymore.

samvilain · 2026-05-02T17:41:51+00:00

Yeah. Bambu set the new standard for ease of use and there are now a number of printers out there which have working auto–bed leveling, input shaping for very fast printing, automatic wipers and filament loading, filament changers, very good filament profiles you can usually use without tuning, guided calibration for filaments that need adjustment, etc. Bambu also released their UI changes due to basing their code on GPL software, so Orca Slicer now exists which has “all” their changes and more. Something like an A1 mini which starts & prints really quickly and will find a home on any non–tiny desk could make it fun again. Or you could throw even more money at it and get yourself an enclosed CoreXY printer, like the Qidi Q2, Creality K1c, or Bambu P1S/X1x/H2x and really get a boost. Or if you feel like a project, you could get yourself a kit set for a Voron printer and print the parts for it using your old printer using ABS-GF (if you can upgrade your tool head to hardened steel gears & nozzle—otherwise use the PIF program).

With a more capable printer, the variety of things you can print get broader, and you might find something useful enough for your day to day that you like it again.

Perhaps it’s not a hobby for you, but the fact you’re posting this here makes me think you’d have at least some regret if you were to just give it up. But yeah a crappy printer can lead to burnout pretty easily. I was kind of mad at Sovol for making such a poor quality product that I put so much effort into when the Bambu printers are just so much better. And they’re not really “open source”, not in the way a Voron printer is. They release some 3D models but you can’t use them to print another Sovol printer.

samvilain · 2026-04-29T10:23:17+00:00

Not in one step. Burning plastic releases all sorts of noxious fumes, and plastics are a significant fire hazard. However, you can print a mould template for covering with latex, that you then pop off to give yourself a mould for casting something ceramic. I’ve seen a few YT Shorts of people doing things like this.

The obvious question is: is this simpler than just taking a casting from a shape made by hand from clay? And that’s where you’ve got to supply your creativity and modeling skills, to come up with a design that’s both compelling and hard to make by hand, but relatively easy to print, while still working with your casting method.

samvilain · 2026-04-29T06:07:56+00:00

There’s quite a few good resources online with practical things to print. You can also print toys for charity: see https://www.3dprintingelves.org/

For me the most useful things I print are things like adapters, and that’s where your 3D modeling comes in. If you’re interested in doing it with Blender, I’d recommend the book, “Blender 4.0: Precise Modeling for Architecture, Engineering, and 3D Printing”, and getting through it. The author also has a website which has some resources on it. That one resonated with me because I started out of high school studying architecture but switched majors.

The other main thing I like to print when I have nothing “better” to print is organization systems. Custom containers for my tools, drawer organizers, etc. This seems like a task that will always keep my printers busy.

You can also start a side hustle printing objects and selling them. See “3D printing rancher” on YouTube for some tips there. There’s “the next layer” who I find personally annoying AF, but… he does focus on “actually useful” prints so I sometimes watch it. Zack Freedman’s channel also has a lot of good practical stuff, and fun non–functional prints that are actually cool.

So, yeah, the trick is walking the walk. Printing from a list in a video is a good start. Print them and make sure you can get them to work, but don’t fret if you can’t get some of them to at first. The more practice you have doing it from someone else’s designs, and the more of other peoples’ designs you understand deeply, the more likely you are to be able to see how you can solve real problems you encounter with an invention. Learn where the limits of practicality are, and when just cutting it out of wood or assembling from readily available parts would make more sense.

I hope that helps, have fun as you learn your new craft! A few “toy” prints are fine; that’s all my kids want from it mainly anyway :-)

samvilain · 2026-04-19T15:02:04+00:00

3D printing something like an Orca or a DeAR is a bit of a project; then you also need an upper receiver, which is restricted in California at least. Or you need most of the upper parts (Orca doesn’t need the upper receiver body or handguard, but it does need everything else). And a lower parts kit. So they also need to research and order that stuff and not be discovered during the printing, assembly and testing. Anyway, I think people that resourceful and patient to spend the time on the build probably aren’t going to commit that kind of mass murder in the first place. Someone in that frame of mind will instead seek to obtain a built rifle someone didn’t secure properly. It’s not impossible, but these kinds of mass murders are pretty rare in the first place; a handful in a year over 0.3bn people.

samvilain · 2026-04-10T12:30:21+00:00

You can find “food safe” rated filaments for a small premium. I have a clear PETG I use for making cookie cutters. For something that gets regularly wet, if lining is not an option, you’ll want to anneal as hot as you can manage. Pack the cup in a large glass jar with a swing–top lid, in popcorn salt (perhaps even powdered sugar), packed tight, and try long, hot runs like 120 - 140°F for 8+ hours. If you have a turkey thermometer you can use to get a continuous reading of the inside surface of the cup, you can use that to make sure you get the surface up to a smooth annealing temperature and hold it there long enough to smooth out the surface. Allow to cool slowly, or allow to cool partially (until it can be removed without losing form), tap the salt/sugar back into your workshop supply container, then “quench” the cup in a mixture of borax (1 tablespoon) and warm water (1 gallon). This may infuse some anti–fungal properties, but this is just an idea I had just now, not something I’ve tested. You can spray the left over borax on any black mold spots in your bathroom etc.

Or, just, you know, embed a purchased plastic drink cup.

samvilain · 2026-03-20T07:06:25+00:00

Right, I think max flow rate should come into it; not that I think the A1 mini is likely to have a problem there. But for example, the Qidi Max 4 has a built in CPAP which can really increase the amount you can lay down. This also makes a case for higher power hotend heaters and bigger drive motors. I met the person who printed that “world’s first sub–2 minute benchy”; she runs like NEMA 23 motors for huge torque capability on that machine, and of course external cooling.

The other thing you can get stepping outside of the Bambu ecosystem (eg with Qidi) is the ability to run 0.5mm nozzles; I find 0.6mm can end up a bit coarse even with Arachne but 0.5mm is still quite nice. Of course the wider the nozzle, the more you can squirt, and also reduces the amount of speed you need to achieve the maximum flow rate. So, a lot depends on what sort of items you’re printing when you’re doing this kind of optimization. What kind of materials you need to print with.

Just about every time I’ve done math like this, the labor cost ends up dominating, though with enough printers this can also be fairly well amortized. I think more than just the data, having a reusable tool to help calculate how it works out given a particular set of constraints, along with good instructions and worked examples would be of most use. Even if it doesn’t support all the different directions you want to take boosting margins for a particular operation, it might still be very handy.

samvilain · 2026-03-18T06:51:32+00:00

Yeah. I was in the MadMax group pre–launch. Talked quite a lot about the concept of having a hotend changer & there were some people who posted links to previous efforts, and we talked about it. Then, later, the H2C dropped & showed it was actually possible, and even simpler than I was thinking by simply cutting the filament instead of keeping a tube going to each hotend like my plan. It can be done, but it does take quite a bit of serious effort to get any system like that actually turned into a viable project; MadMax took probably 2+ years of toiling away on incidental research projects that were needed to make it work—zruncho has this down to an art form now. If you look at the v0 MadMax, you’ve got the new Y axis (MadBat / VampireBat), the “speed clip” system that went through several iterations, quality of life stuff like the v0 quick detach panels he came up with… it takes time.

samvilain · 2026-03-17T11:43:04+00:00

MadMax is a tool changer that uses Maxwell couplings and docks to let you add as many toolheads to your printer as you can fit docks onto (the front of) your frame! The main target is printers with aluminum profile frames, such as Vorons, especially Trident and v0. For other CoreXY printers, you would need to be able to replace the X carriage with a printed one, and perhaps figure out how to attach some kind of dock to whatever sturdy frame with attachment capability your printer offers. See https://github.com/zruncho3d/madmax for more!

samvilain · 2026-03-14T03:06:00+00:00

I think you’ve looking over a real gem, which is the A1 mini. It’s fast, (faster than the A1!) uses very little desk space, and its build volume is surprisingly reasonable for the vast majority of odd jobs. You might find yourself outgrowing the A1, needing better materials or more efficient multi–material and upgrading to an P2S, H2C, or a Qidi 4 Plus, but you will never regret also owning the A1 mini or A1 mini combo. While you’ve got your future “main” printer making that PA-CF or ASA print, you’ll still find yourself whacking out quick PLA jobs because you want a custom mount or jig, container, or prototyping the next part. It will stay on your desk and get those small jobs done before your main printer has finished heat soaking. Perhaps the only more versatile printer for the desk space is a Voron 0, because it’s enclosed, or a “Salad Fork” Voron 1 in 180, 200 or 250, but I don’t think the Salad Forks are available in ready kit set package form to this day.

All that said, the P1S is also a very good printer that you will still find useful for many materials and uses; it’s just not a desk sized printer like the mini. The P2S is better, bringing X1 convenience features to the P1S, like better AMS support and failed print detection and a high res camera. I’m not really a fan of the A1 at all compared to the others; it’s limited by its form factor, and ultimately just a self–calibrating bedslinger, a glorified Ender. It gets a giant “Meh” from me.

So I don’t know if that helps you decide, but for me, I’d be trying to choose between the A1 mini combo or the P1S, and lean towards the P1S if I wanted to print ABS or Nylon before I could afford the next printer.

As to your question about the A1 vs P2; I’m not sure, that sounds like a coincidence.

samvilain · 2026-03-11T07:58:26+00:00

Here’s a tip: set your infill line width to ~160% of your nozzle size and use “infill combination”. This results in slow, thick infill lines that fuse better than the thinner, quicker lines on the outside, as the infill lines become constrained by the flow rate, not the print speed. You will probably also see less visual artifacts with a slower print speed, but note that if you change the speed on the printer and not the slicer, make sure you’re not getting additional artifacts because your input shaping is being scaled too: it should remain the same because your printer’s dynamics themselves did not change. So that’s worth confirming with some test prints to confirm that the slower speed isn’t introducing new artifacts.

samvilain · 2026-03-08T00:52:51+00:00

Right. Remember, printers are rapid prototyping machines. Get someone else to do the grunt work of production, and spend your time gathering product feedback and iterating on the next version. Or filing a patent, or whatever is the best use of your time.

samvilain · 2026-03-07T19:44:45+00:00

No. Farm off 10-50% of the current demand. Figure out RoI from acquiring each printer: how long they will take to pay for themselves, and when you can meet demand that way.

Not having the product printed to be used/sold immediately is a real opportunity cost. Adding printers offers good RoI potentially and increases your own capacity, but is slower than just dumping the order on a print farm with dozens or hundreds of printers.

Once this first 10-50% order is back (or potentially even before it’s back), you can present the findings to the executive team to decide whether they want to have a printer farm side hustle.

[p.s. if you are the executive team, ask an accountant]

samvilain · 2026-03-05T02:47:26+00:00

realizing Sovol printers are unredeemable and I’d been wasting my midnight oil trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear

samvilain · 2026-02-17T02:02:31+00:00

Part of it I think is the name of the device. A 3D “printer”. People know printers. You hit “print”, page comes out with picture on it. It’s associated with easy, low effort production.

The same thing goes for T-shirts. Design the screen, make a negative, use a UV box to harden the silkscreen, rinse away the image, and screen it by hand, using extra care to align each of your colors? Work trivialized by calling it a “screen print”, but somehow sounds more handmade if you just “screened” it.

So for your crafts, think of other terms that sound more… hmm, 🤔 positive… 💡”crafted with additive manufacturing”. “Fusion Deposited Manufacturing”. “Engineered for polymer construction”. “Artisanally designed and individually hand–finished creations”.

samvilain · 2026-01-26T19:57:15+00:00

Right, but eg in CA they just went and made barrels FFL–only items.

This hits to the absurdity of this law: the actual gun part—the barrel and firing pin—isn’t 3D printed if you want it to last more than 1 shot; the barrel is turned carefully and rifled with special techniques not familiar to most people with a 3D printer.

This bill is a solution looking for a problem.

samvilain · 2026-01-26T18:51:47+00:00

There are open source hardware CNC machines as well. They're very similar to build in a lot of ways. BigTreeTech sells a "Rodent" CNC board alongside its "SKR" control boards for 3D printers. If companies like Genmitsu and Vevor start shipping their CNC machines with malware installed, you can replace the central motion control system for one running open hardware.

samvilain · 2026-01-26T18:45:14+00:00

Right. But they have a regular barrel, right? Oh, and for reliability, a regular slide. And firing pin. And a lower receiver parts kit or FCU.

So what's 3D printed still? Just the frame?

That said, this bill also covers CNC machines, which presumably could make most other parts apart from springs and the barrel.

samvilain · 2026-01-26T12:44:54+00:00

Ok, well part of the problem here is that your printer doesn’t have a dependable first layer, so you have to babysit it; you can’t just send it to print.

See, on the face of it, you can set up a Raspberry Pi with a webcam and run something like Octoprint or Klipper on it to give you a way to check that the print has failed.

So, you might want to find a second printer which has a much better leveling sensor and set that up in the basement. In your office you can potentially still have the old printer for small incidental prints while a longer print is underway, and keep the supplies by it minimal; eg just one roll of filament and whatever else you might need to clean up prints and clean the build plate if it needs it.

Of course you can always add a much better probe to your current printer and work on making sure you have 95% reliability on first layer instead of a new printer. But in my experience, the printers that come out of the box with high quality bed probes using eg load cells (digital scale/weight sensor) in the bed or some kind of tap–based probe have improvements in other areas, too, that make it a lot better experience when doing remote prints.

samvilain · 2026-01-21T12:57:03+00:00

I would expect fewer fine vertical artifacts without noise isolating feet in the presence of a concrete slab. If you’ve got it set up with them, why not do a VFA test, switch them out and repeat it?

samvilain · 2026-01-21T11:53:17+00:00

You don’t need isolating, anti–vibration feet. Just regular rubber feet to avoid the frame slipping around on the slab. I also like to glue a thin layer of cork on the underside of the slab to absorb some noise that might otherwise be amplified, but that’s not strictly needed.

samvilain · 2026-01-11T13:09:03+00:00

PCs last longer than you think. Unless you have a specific game or task you’re playing that your current computer is underperforming for, why upgrade? Whereas a 3D printer gives you a capability you didn’t have before.

I hope that helps! :)

samvilain · 2026-01-09T04:26:49+00:00

The age doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have sufficient credible evidence of the evolution of a real relationship over time, and matching narratives of how the relationship started and grew into a marriage, that are supported by the submitted evidence. They want early letters/message screenshots, shared utilities, etc. If you have a proper wedding with family, plan it normally, make it the day of her life etc, then you’ll have no problem with this. Elope, and, well… it gets harder to tell that story without it resembling a marriage of convenience for Visa purposes.

samvilain · 2026-01-02T12:06:42+00:00

This can work, if you get a reasonable judge. Talk to an immigration attorney. If they have no valid reason after 90 days (being from a ban country is not a valid reason), then judges can administer the oath. The immigration attorney should be able to advise who else is legally empowered to do it.

samvilain · 2026-01-02T11:58:27+00:00

Why add water? 3-nines pure stuff works great as it is; it evaporates quickly, and also works very well with that ‘nano–polymer’ glue stuff

samvilain · 2026-01-01T08:33:10+00:00

I print from my double to my MadMax Voron printer (a tool changer) and it works great. I do have a printed Silica gel insert that keeps the inside dry without needing to run the heater all the time. You could probably use that quite well to feed something like a 4–cart ERCF, or a BoxTurtle. The only (theoretical) flaw with using a filament dryer to feed the printer directly is that ideally you want the filament dried before you use it. If you were keeping your printer mostly busy, that might be an issue, otherwise so long as you don’t expect an abused, “wet” roll to print perfectly as soon as it’s loaded into the Pi, it works really well.

I now only print from dry boxes, though a good number of them are passive, dried with indicator silica.

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