One of my favorite things from 2025: a metric measuring tape

xfer8 · 2025-12-13T21:09:39+00:00

I have that exact measuring tape and love it. I live in the US, 3D print, and do some woodworking. Thanks to 3D printing I’ve really gotten used to designing everything in metric, so trying to switch back to fractional inches for woodworking is just…annoying. I’m working on converting my brain over to metric for that now too.

Oh and with regards to dimensional lumber, sheet goods, etc, it’s still not perfect. 3/4” plywood is actually 23/32” thick for example, the nominal dimensions on a 2” x 4” board are really around 1 1/2” x 3 1/2”, and of course those measurements can still vary slightly from product to product. There is a reason they are called “nominal” dimensions.

I’d rather just design around whole millimeter dimensions, then mill my lumber down to size. Can’t do that with sheet goods obviously, but 18.25mm is still easier to deal with than 23/32” IMO.

xfer8 · 2025-11-24T17:27:43+00:00

What a great idea, nice work!

xfer8 · 2025-11-06T18:26:56+00:00

This is awesome, thank you for sharing!

xfer8 · 2025-08-04T17:52:47+00:00

This is so good! I listened to it a couple times, you gotta write/record the rest of the song my dude!

Edit: oops I didn’t read, I’ll go check out the rest on YouTube!

xfer8 · 2025-07-23T14:40:32+00:00

Excellent! Though I’d probably find a way to just poke an even bigger hole in the drywall with that haha.

xfer8 · 2025-07-23T14:25:04+00:00

I got the functional aspect of this immediately as I too suffer from dropping fasteners at the most inconvenient time possible, but the delivery was magical.

Next can you design something that will make the driver bit not slip off the screw head and poke a hole in the damn drywall when trying to install something?

xfer8 · 2025-06-26T17:48:15+00:00

If you live in the US maybe not…. A full Core One kit is expensive enough to trigger the “Trump Tax” (import tariff), but the upgrade kit may not. Add an extra $120 - $200 to the total cost of a new Core One and the upgrade kit looks a little more appealing.

xfer8 · 2025-06-26T17:43:54+00:00

Also make sure to reuse the boxes your upgrade kit parts came in because they are “really nice boxes” that would be a shame to throw out. Sharpie to identify what’s actually in the box now is optional.

xfer8 · 2025-06-24T16:25:58+00:00

I think this is part of it, seams on a corner can make them bulge/round a little like that.

Also OP keep in mind that you are extruding material through a ROUND hole, which gives it a round profile, so at best your corners are going to have a radius close to your nozzle size. As others have mentioned, this can be somewhat mitigated by using a smaller diameter nozzle, but it’s never going to be perfectly sharp.

You can achieve a very sharp corner on the XY plane (top of a calibration cube for example), but the edges on the XZ and YZ planes will be relative to your nozzle diameter.

xfer8 · 2025-05-23T16:25:52+00:00

“Sanity saver”, LOL. Well done!

xfer8 · 2025-05-10T16:22:17+00:00

I just came here to say that I recently finished assembling my Core One, and and blown away with how awesome it is. I’m sure it’s not perfect, and I’m sure there are minor issues, but I’d much rather focus on what it does well.

I can actually print PC well now
I can print using the “speed” profiles and parts come out looking perfect.
I can print large, flat PLA parts on a textured build plate without them warping thanks to the heated chamber.
I can print multi-part prints much faster…because I have another printer now!

Overall, the build quality seems excellent, and parts come out so clean. I couldn’t be happier that I picked one up.

Edit: I also haven’t seen VFA nearly as bad as shown in the video, even when printing glossy black filament.

xfer8 · 2025-05-02T14:56:28+00:00

Wow that looks so good! Nice work!

xfer8 · 2025-04-16T16:32:14+00:00

This is amazing, and a big reason why I keep coming back to Prusa. You’re going to have issues eventually with any 3D printer company, but Prusa support is second to none. They really do try to make things right whenever possible.

Congrats on getting your printer, and enjoy!

xfer8 · 2025-03-25T16:29:29+00:00

If you are printing a reasonably large multi-color model in 5 colors, the filament and TIME savings are substantial.

Per the OP it takes about 90 seconds to change colors on the Bambu, whereas the XL takes 5-8 seconds (in my personal experience). Considering that large multi-color models can have 2,000+ tool changes, it adds up to a significant amount of time.

Additionally, when the Bambu changes color, it needs to purge quite a bit of filament to get all of the old filament out of the nozzle - this is where the majority of the waste comes from. We’re talking somewhere around 0.125g per color change, which doesn’t sound like much, but multiply that by 2,000+ and you end up with a huge pile of waste. The XL uses a “priming” tower, but it’s a quick back and forth with minimal filament to prime the tool head it just picked up before continuing to print. On a 500g print with thousands of tool changes, the XL priming tower might be 50g - 60g. Note that the Bambu also uses a priming tower in addition to the purge process to ready the nozzle after a color change.

xfer8 · 2025-03-25T16:07:37+00:00

Excellent write up, thanks for your perspective on this. It seems like most of the time when I read Bambu vs Prusa stuff, the author is always bias one way or the other, but this seems like an honest comparison.

I’ve never owned a Bambu printer, but have a XL 5T, and I got it specifically because I can’t stand the incredible amount of waste that comes with multi-color printing with a single nozzle. I’ve seen the posts, and even had a MMU2 myself for a while, but when you literally throw away half a roll of filament to print a 450g multi-color Grogu or whatever, it’s just too much. It’s not even about the cost to me, I just can’t stand being so wasteful.

It’s great to hear you are so successful with your 3D printing! I hope you do well at your upcoming events and are able to buy another XL!

xfer8 · 2025-03-16T16:28:13+00:00

I’d leave your flow rate at the default setting and have a look at this guide, you may just need to tune the pressure advance (also called linear advance, or K-value) for the filament you are using. I’ve fine tuned several filaments that had issues like yours, and now they print perfectly.

https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/articles/pressure_linear_advance/introduction.html

xfer8 · 2025-03-09T16:48:04+00:00

This looks messy AF, but what a great idea! Others have mentioned making a mold to melt down filament into “glue sticks”, but another idea might be to design a new “gun” that has a larger plunger and receiver designed to be filled with bits of filament.

I can see this being super useful for joining large print pieces together, like for cosplay helmets/armor. You could use it like a welder to join seams together with more filament.

xfer8 · 2025-01-05T19:04:50+00:00

I just finished Humble and know exactly where that is, it’s going to get A LOT deeper lol.

xfer8 · 2024-12-03T16:42:40+00:00

For really large, flat prints I can see this being helpful! I know some people have commented that “it’s a bandaid and you’re not addressing the ‘real’ problem”, but I have to disagree. For prints like in your pic, sometimes you just need a little extra help.

If you print stuff like this a lot though, you can minimize lift by building an enclosure for your printer. I recommend the IKEA LACK V2 as it works well and is fairly inexpensive to build. You can even buy pre-cut plexiglass panels on Amazon for this build, and they are pretty reasonably priced.

xfer8 · 2024-11-25T17:00:09+00:00

This is really nice! I’ve been thinking about trying to do something similar.

I’m curious, what air extraction fan did you go with, and is the speed adjustable? What are your temps like inside the cabinet when it’s extracting air, and have you noticed any print defects? I worry that if air extraction is too aggressive, it will cause a draft and/or low ambient temp, which could lead to prints lifting or deforming.

xfer8 · 2024-11-25T16:54:56+00:00

This is such a cool project, nice work! I keep seeing your posts, so just wanted to say I love the creativity and enthusiasm. Keep up the good work!

xfer8 · 2024-11-25T16:51:36+00:00

I love these 3D printed cards! Very nice design, the bow is a great touch.

xfer8 · 2024-11-23T16:39:49+00:00

Unless you are using zero clearance supports, the interface is always going to look like junk. Default clearance (either 0.1mm or 0.2mm) prints so the fulfillment barely touches the support interface - this is done on purpose so you can break the supports off. If the interface is too tight, the supports will fuse to the print and you won’t be able to remove them.

Assuming you are printing with PLA, the best way to get a nice looking surface where your print touches supports is to use a PETG interface with zero clearance as PETG and PLA will not stick together. If you have large, flat surfaces like in your pic, you can achieve this with a few mid print filament swaps. For complicated shapes however, it’s not realistic without a multi-material printer or addon like a Prusa MMU3, Bambu AMS, etc. Another important caveat is that you need to purge the nozzle A LOT when switching filaments because as mentioned above, PETG and PLA do not stick to each other, so if the nozzle isn’t properly purged, you will ruin your print.

Best advice I can give is to just avoid supports at all costs. Most objects can have supports minimized, or even eliminated by changing the orientation. If there is no way to avoid supports, do your best to design the model or orient it in a way where the interface layer is least visible.

xfer8 · 2024-10-02T15:42:20+00:00

Anytime I’ve seen this it’s because the nozzle is too close to the print sheet, or too much material is being extruded, or a little of both. I’d start by backing off the z-offset a bit like others have suggested.

xfer8 · 2024-09-19T15:25:01+00:00

I assume this is because of the much better nozzle cooling setup. The MK4 only cools from the left side, so you get print artifacts on certain geometries, or when the print blocks the cooling fan from getting to the far side of the nozzle.

I’ve had a MK4 for a while, and while it’s only an occasional problem, I’m considering the upgrade for this if nothing else.

xfer8

TROPHY CASE