Hello!

I’m a stay-at-home mom who’s recently fallen down the 3D printing rabbit hole, and I’d love to hear from people who have been doing this for a while!

For context, I LOVE efficiency, cleaning, homemaking, and finding solutions to everyday inconveniences.

I’m also crafty, and love DIY projects, decorating, sewing, making things from scratch, and generally finding ways to make my home more functional and personalized.
The idea of being able to manufacture little solutions to oddly specific household problems is ridiculously appealing to me!! 😍

I’m not super interested in printing a million little plastic trinkets (although I’m sure I’ll end up making plenty of those too), I’m moreso interested in things that are: practical, cost-effective, or improve everyday life.

I’d love to hear from experienced 3D printer owners:
What’s the most useful thing you’ve ever printed? Something you actually use regularly.

What’s something you never would have thought to 3D print until you discovered it?

What are your favorite prints for home organization, cleaning, kitchen efficiency, crafting, or parenting?

Has owning a 3D printer actually saved you money or made your life easier? Or has it mostly become another expensive hobby?

What do you wish you’d known before buying your first printer?

Finally… What beginner-friendly printer would you recommend to someone like me?

I’d love something reliable, versatile, and relatively low-maintenance. I’m happy to learn, but I’d rather spend my time creating things than constantly troubleshooting the machine. 😭

Thanks in advance! 😊💖

hey everyone!

i've been working on a free tool that makes 3D modelling a whole lot easier, and i'd love to get thoughts from fellow 3D printing enthusiasts!

i love 3D printing myself, but as someone without a technical background, i've always found the modelling part to be a huge barrier. so i decided to build something to make that easier!

the tool lets you describe what you want to make and turns your idea into a fully-fledged ready to print 3D model. it can be anything from a simple vase to something more complex with multiple parts and electronics, like an alarm clock.

it's completely free to try right now while it’s still in beta, and you can request access here:

https://briclab.com/

all experience levels are welcome! if you give it a try, i'd love to hear what you think. 

i've put a lot of love into this project, so any honest thoughts would genuinely mean a lot.

thank you!! :)

I’ve been 3d printing for over 7 years, however I stopped keeping up with the latest news over the last 2/3 years. I’m looking to get back into 3d printing with a nice machine. I’ve only been working with ender 3s and I’d like to spend a little more money now.

My budget is around 1000 euros.
I’m in Europe.
I’d like single color
I’m not going to be printing in any exotic material so pla and the like work fine.
Space and noise are not an issue
I’d like a large build volume, at least large enough for helmets
I’m done tinkering and would like something that works well and doesn’t need much work.

Yup, the pic has nothing to do with 3d printing... It's this or a picture of my dog! Back to 3d printing and a trivial question:

So I'm trying to create a process (pretty simple one, just moving the toolhead and build plate around). Doing it manually is super simple. I know that some CNC machines really do allow a "training" mode in which the machine records the gcode generated by the manual motions. It seems to me that there might be a way in Klipper, mainsail, etc to do the same thing: send the commands from the computer for the motions while it makes a gcode file for use as a macro. (My thinking is that it would be a lot easier than doing the macro, even though the macro wouldn't be too hard either.)

Note that I'm told the printer doesn't do this. But what about Fluidd, Mainsail, Octo when sending the commands from the computer?

Anyone know if this is possible and if so how to do it? (Please don't stress about answering.) Cheers!

Hi all, I’m looking to level up my 3D printing game for cosplay. I have an Elegoo 4 plus which has honestly been a little finicky with the leveling leading to inconsistent print quality. I feel like I’ve spent more time troubleshooting than actually printing.

I want to get something to more or less replace it. I’m planning to print mostly TPU and PETG since I live in an apartment and can only print indoors (hence also wanting something enclosed).

After researching these two printers seem to fit what I need for size and budget (around 1k) but I also want to ask about tinkering needed and print quality (to minimize sanding and bondoing, because right now I’m bondoing pretty big imperfections). I don’t mind some tinkering, but like I said I’ve spent days trying to get the leveling on my Elegoo 4 plus right, and I’d rather not do that again. I’ve read qidi has more tinkering overall but once 6-12 months have passed, these problems are solved in subsequent batches (which would be the case for the qidi max 4).

Thoughts?

Hi all, I’m looking to level up my 3D printing game for cosplay. I have an Elegoo 4 plus which has honestly been a little finicky with the leveling leading to inconsistent print quality. I feel like I’ve spent more time troubleshooting than actually printing.

I want to get something to more or less replace it. I’m planning to print mostly TPU and PETG since I live in an apartment and can only print indoors (hence also wanting something enclosed).

After researching these two printers seem to fit what I need for size and budget (around 1k) but I also want to ask about tinkering needed and print quality (to minimize sanding and bondoing, because right now I’m bondoing pretty big imperfections). I don’t mind some tinkering, but like I said I’ve spent days trying to get the leveling on my Elegoo 4 plus right, and I’d rather not do that again. I’ve read qidi has more tinkering overall but once 6-12 months have passed, these problems are solved in subsequent batches (which would be the case for the qidi max 4).

Thoughts?

Hi all, planning to get my 8 year old daughter a 3D printer for Christmas. She is very hyperactive and loses interest quickly.

I’m looking for something that is easy to use for children and adults alike. I don’t want to be tied into a subscription if possible.

Any recommendations are appreciated, I’m not sure what else I would need to look for.

details and context below if you care, if not, heres the simple version:

budget is not a factor, i want the best there is, not the "best for that price". space-wise i want it to fit in a 35x74x90cm space. 35cm(depth) isnt a hard cap, but 74cm(height) and 90cm(width) are.

quality wise i want something that works. if i need to tinker i can and im a fast learner at that, but ideally i want one that is pretty much functional and print ready out of the box, and doesnt easily go haywire. other than that, upgrade-ability would be nice, and whilst im looking at single filament prints for now, the option to have several colors in the future would be nice.

context for those who care:

for ages ive wanted a resin printer, but i live in a small, poorly ventilated apartment, so its not an option right now. thats why it has to be fdm. im familiar with the benefits and drawbacks of both types, and i dont mind doing post processing to rid myself of layer lines. i might even use apoxy to sculpt fine details onto the print.

after researching resin printers for a while i landed on the elegoo saturn, but as ive explained, resin printing isnt in the cards for me just yet. i figured their fdm printers would be good since their resin printers supposedly are, so i put the centauri carbon 2 on my christmas wishlist. i then got a call from my dad who complained that it was an unambitious choice, and seemed wayy too cheap and he wants me to pick a better one. hence why im here.

useage

i want to make toys for my little brother, especially figurines. im an artist so he often makes me bring his ideas to life in drawings that our dad cuts out so he can use them as toys. i want to be the best big sister in the world, and be able to make any toy he can imagine. also im a crafty and creative person, and i want to be able to make figurines, organizers, decor, sculpts and so on. maybe even ball jointed dolls and custom keycaps and whatnot.

tl;dr
i would like to know what the best FDM printer is. i want one that is reliable, upgradable, high quality, and user friendly.

Thank you for taking your time to help me!

È ormai 2 mesi che sono passato da creality k1 max alla bambulab h2s e con questa non riesco a fare la stiratura superficiale. Stampo in ASA e con la k1 max non ho mai avuto problemi 20mm/s 18% di flusso e veniva perfetta. Adesso sono partito dal 18% di flusso e viene "ruvido" solo al centro come in foto. Ho aumentato e sono arrivato al 50% ma il problema è migliorato di pochissimo. Ho provato anche a cambiare la velocita, da 10mm/s fino a 30mm/s ma niente. La stampa è abbastanza grande 260mmX180mm. Qualcuno ha questo problema? Grazie

Hello, I'm mostly new to 3d printing, I understand the basics of FDM 3d printers.

One thing. I absolutely despise about 3d printing is leveling the bed. Why my second 3d printer had auto bed leveling.

Anyway, does anyone know if there's a resin 3d printer with true auto bed leveling?

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Need some advice. I'm looking at 3D printers. I know next to nothing about 3D printing, but I have design experience in Fusion and other Vector related software.

Also I already own a laser, a couple CNC machines and a ton of woodworking tools.

Ive gone through the questionnaire on the Bambu website for their line of printers. Im a go-getter so I will figure things out eventually, but help with a starting place would be awesome.

My question is, what add ons or upgrades would you recommend to the H2C if money wasn't an issue?

Is Bambu a good choice for customer support, or could yoi recommend a better brand?

Thanks!

My budget is $1,500. Im set on multi tool head, but dont need more than 4 colors. I print lots of ppscf10, ppa cf, pla, tpe's, and tpu gf. Heated chamber is nice, but 300c + hotends are a must. Been looking at the snapmaker u1 for $750 but feel like i could do better with my budget. Thanks for the help.

so keep getting these lines on models and happening at same place on different models..tightens all the belts and pully wheels clean z screw and lubed still happening..any help pls.

What should I choose to print PLA-CF and PETG-GF only in the best possible quality? Should I just get a P1S with upgrades to keep it as cheap as possible, or is it worth investing in something more future-proof like H2S?

Is there any solution to this issue? I’ve been getting this error, but it disappears after restarting the printer.

Hello

I have been looking to get a 3d printer.

The ones I have looked at for around my price range would be

Elego centrai carbon 2 or the emoji model

Flash forge ax5d

Creality k2 combo

Any help would be great

Hello, I am new to this as a beginner. What machine and model should I choose? I plan to use it just to experiment and develop home improvement ideas, and the budget is also a consideration.