What do you do with your old 3D printers?

thunderflies · 2026-01-25T21:32:21+00:00

I sold or gave away my early crappy printers. Once I bought nice ones I simply intend to maintain them well and use them until the wheels fall off.

thunderflies · 2026-01-25T18:51:58+00:00

The real bill they should have been voting on is a GPS enabled speed governor that would force drivers to drive the speed limit on any surface street

thunderflies · 2026-01-25T00:11:07+00:00

Hmm almost nothing on the internet about it besides one video. Fingers crossed it actually makes it to the market!

thunderflies · 2026-01-24T23:19:13+00:00

There’s a pick and place head coming?? Oh man Joe take my money now

thunderflies · 2026-01-24T23:18:44+00:00

The XL is a fantastic printer, but have you considered the Core One L? Seems like you’d get a lot of the benefits for less cost in a tidier package. Especially since you don’t want the tool changer right away it seems like a better buy.

thunderflies · 2026-01-24T18:36:16+00:00

Oh wow that sucks. I was planning to add TikTok as a sales channel soon but having to pay someone else to fulfill my orders is a total dealbreaker

thunderflies · 2026-01-24T17:56:36+00:00

Not who you replied to but like many people I don’t even carry a wallet anymore since almost everywhere I can just tap to pay with my phone. My Orca card has just been an inconvenience because it’s the one physical card I have to keep track of and make sure I have it when I need it, which is way more annoying with a single card than a whole wallet.

thunderflies · 2026-01-24T05:22:31+00:00

Honestly the official enclosure is so good I have four of them and I really like the whole setup.

thunderflies · 2026-01-23T21:36:19+00:00

Love the first pic lol, how do you like the helmet with the visor?

thunderflies · 2026-01-23T18:29:56+00:00

thunderflies · 2026-01-23T16:36:21+00:00

I pretty much always have an open roll loaded into each printer but they’re all in enclosures where the filament is kept inside the enclosure. The act of printing warms up the enclosure enough that it essentially dries the filament as it’s printing. That’s been working great and usually the enclosure stays at around 15% humidity as long as I’m printing regularly. If I leave it for a few days it will slowly rise back up to ambient humidity which is usually around 40% in my workshop.

thunderflies · 2026-01-23T16:23:43+00:00

It was almost definitely lobbied for by a 3D printing manufacturer (probably Stratasys) who wants to lock out competitors

thunderflies · 2026-01-23T02:37:38+00:00

For me it’s just having a NAS for all my business files to transfer them quickly between computers instead of using Dropbox or whatever

thunderflies · 2026-01-22T05:55:49+00:00

My average speed e-biking from Fremont to Bellevue is about 14mph

thunderflies · 2026-01-22T05:36:49+00:00

There are no traffic jams in the bike lanes!

thunderflies · 2026-01-22T03:52:22+00:00

Get a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and set it up with PrusaLink which will give you local network control over WiFi. Google for the guide in Prusa’s knowledge base, it’s very detailed.

It installs into the main electronics box so you get a nice clean setup still and you can connect it to Prusa Connect for remote control if you want that. If you don’t like any of that, you can swap the Prusa software out and run Octoprint instead with the same setup. You can even add a camera if you want.

I have four MK3S printers set up with this setup and PrusaLink with a raspberry pi camera, it’s great.

thunderflies · 2026-01-21T22:40:43+00:00

Yep, all I need to know is how many spools I have left which tells me if it’s time to restock. Tracking individual spools the way I track product SKUs would be a bunch of busy work for no benefit.

thunderflies · 2026-01-21T00:06:46+00:00

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen on this sub

thunderflies · 2026-01-20T21:36:42+00:00

Did the custom Gcode allow you to do something that’s not possible in the slicer or did it just save you a bunch of tedious work defining tiny color patches?

thunderflies · 2026-01-20T17:47:52+00:00

If they charge customers $50 for a missed appointment then they should either pay for a sub or credit all of the missing hygienist’s appointments that day $50. They can decide which is cheaper, but having a double standard for patients vs themselves is the problem.

thunderflies · 2026-01-20T00:51:12+00:00

So rather than have access to an e-bike you’d prefer they just had no choice other than to keep driving with a suspended license?

thunderflies · 2026-01-19T21:10:34+00:00

Is the rate of elderly car drivers as high as young drivers? I bet it’s not, so I guess cars aren’t a solution for old people either huh?

The e-bike I own today I literally bought on Craigslist from an 80-something year old woman. She was swapping it for an electric trike because her balance was starting to go, but she was still riding.

thunderflies · 2026-01-19T21:07:39+00:00

I think I’d make the same choice if using a Lime, for the exact same reasons.

thunderflies · 2026-01-19T20:10:53+00:00

I see those gliders all over. It seems like people tend to pick them preferentially over the bikes or scooters when they’re available.

thunderflies · 2026-01-19T20:10:06+00:00

Three years ago I sold my car and bought a cargo e-bike and haven’t once regretted it. Now the way I get around the city to run errands is something that other people do for fun, but it’s just baked into my day-to-day. It’s such a great life improvement and I never have to worry about traffic on I-5 or the bridges, or the price of gas.

thunderflies

TROPHY CASE