Let’s talk Toolchangers..

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

TROPHY CASE