I mostly switched for the interface, it feels far more modern and easy to navigate compared to Cura and Prusa (while retaining all but the most bleeding edge features from each). Still not perfect, but I’ve found it to be leagues better at managing and swapping between multiple printers/ nozzles/ materials. It has native calibration tools for everything from temperature towers to flow rates and pressure advance. Plus it plays very nicely with Klipper. I haven’t used it a bunch on account of not being wholly set up for it, but multi color printing is also super easy. It’s kind of dumb, but I appreciate that updates actually update the app instead on installing a new instance (that I’ll have to go uninstall later, looking at you Cura) so that my “send to print utility” button in Fusions always just works. Updates also seem more substantial with meaningful features (things like scarf joints to hide layer lines come to mind), you can very much feel the love that community has poured into it. It’s open source software in all the best ways possible.

I was pretty sold after Teaching Tech’s video last year, but a number of other channels (Lost in Tech comes to mind as well) have also done Orca slicer videos if you’re looking for reasons to give it a try.

Orca is forked from Bambo’s slicer which is in turn forked from prusa slicer.

I’ve seen 247printing’s 3:27 and 2:25 speed benchys (benchies?) on a customized Voron v0, but that fact that someone came in and took the record on an Ender 3 platform is the most impressive thing to me.

I was more trying to armchair lawyer if they had a legitimate case here. Most of stuff they’re citing is used so broadly across the 3D printing community, I’m wondering if their patents are even enforceable anymore (as I understand IP law, if you don’t actively protect your IP you risk loosing it).

The whole thing almost reminds me of when Slice took Phaetus to court over the surgical pipe in the dragon hotend.

Thank you! Updated my comment with your links (The .gov site for the patent office is ironically difficult to permalink to, go figure)

Linking the patents listed, because I’m struggling to understand what technologies are spelled out in them (I’m taking my best guesses here, so feel free to correct me if I’m misreading something, because I probably am):

• 9421713- purge towers apparently
• 9592660- heated beds/ removable build plates
• 7555357- something to do slicing workflow/ path generation
• 9168698 / 10556381- detecting that force has been applied to the extruder

Given how broad these are, this case could have some less than pleasant ripple effects on the rest of the 3d printing community, like opening the doors to drag ultimaker/ prusa into court over random commonplace stuff.

The specific patent links seem to be broken. All return 403. Here are functional alternatives.

I’ve made a couple of stamps (my maker’s mark and an icosahedron (d20), mostly for accents on a project I was working on at the time), but nothing this ambitious. I can’t get over how nice the texturing came out; well done!

Very nice!

I was wondering if that’d be possible but was never brave enough to attempt it. I do have another fun intersectional application though: custom stamps. Not nearly as long lived as brass/ metal, but way cheaper especially for low volume, plus you can embed magnets so they stick to an arbor press. (Just remember to hit the top with a quick sanding to knock off any extension artifacts)

Chiming in to say that you absolutely don’t want that in your bedroom. Not sure how ubiquitous the experience is, but if you’re ever done a titration experiment in a chemistry class (the one where you add one solution into another a couple drops at a time), your body’s response to being exposed to resin fumes (as well as VOC’s from some of the more exotic fdm materials like ASA) is a lot like that: little by little you add more of one solution to the other and at first you don’t really notice anything (beyond the volume increase), so you keep on adding more, when you finally hit the equilibrium point the whole solution suddenly changes colors.

In practical terms, the more you’re exposed to resin VOC’s the more you’ll burn through your buffer, once it’s gone your body will basically go into panic mode whenever it comes into contact with said material. It’s one of those things that’s high enough on the removed around side of things that you really don’t want to find out…

That said, welcome to 3D printing! There’s plenty of resources around, so (for the most part) if you aren’t sure about something or run into trouble, all you have to do is ask!

You raise a very excellent point, for what I’ve spent toying and tinkering with my OG ender 3 pro, I very easily could have bought a nice Prusa/ Bamboo/ Voron printer.

That said, I can’t say I regret the thessian ender route either. I’ve learned so much about not just the printer itself and how it works on a fundamental level, but also how to model and design for the materials I’m working with and the capabilities of my machine I’m way more comfortable working with small electronics (wiring/ crimping/ soldering and am even flirting with PCB design) compared to when I first got into the hobby. I tend to be more of a hands on learner, so I enjoy the project printer (to an extent) and the learning experience that comes with it.

It very much depends on what OP is looking to get out of/ do with the printer, I 100% agree if it’s more of a "I just want it to work ", a Prusa or other mid-range printer* is probably the better play than something in the budget range.

* Depending on how OP feels about Bamboo, the A1 may be a good option on that front as well (once the teething problems get worked out)

Nice! It took me entirely too long to realize I could change filament manually to do pretty colors. Hard agree on it being super annoying, but it’s a neat trick to have in your arsenal.

Lol, if years of being a software developer and a maker have taught me anything it’s that there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. Bask in the glory of your temporary wago connectors.

Also, neat hats! Manual filament changes or are you rocking an ams?

It’s primarily written for klipper, but I’ve been been getting pretty good results dialing in my was-an-ender with Ellis’ tuning guide (all but eliminated my problems with elephants foot). It goes over exactly what a good first layer should look and feel like, plus extra related settings.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve picked up from the Internet is to never cheap out on things that connect you to the ground (tires, shoes, mattresses, chairs, etc). Theses chairs are primarily sold to business/ offices where they’re meant to be used and abused daily for years without needing to be replaced while still remaining ergonomically comfortable. That said, 1200 is the new sticker price, you can absolutely find them second hand/ refurbished/ resold for a quarter of the price. Admittedly still expensive, but very much worth it when compared to an IKEA/ office max special.

(I may be a little biased since I daily drive a Leap V2)