Can't help but wonder looking through the gifs, am I actually insane that I MUST fillet, chamfer, or chamfer AND fillet basically every single one of those edges[1] with with tangency weight of 1.5 where possible, until the shape takes a generic apple/bauhaus/lego/ikea style? I'm aware that doing so don't necessarily improve load distribution, but I just can't stop rounding those corners.<p>Am I really the only one?<p>1: <a href="http://numpad0.com/imgs/2026-01-23%20001128.png" rel="nofollow">http://numpad0.com/imgs/2026-01-23%20001128.png</a>
I still have mixed emotions about 3D printing. I do love the idea of being able to print a part when I need it for something. But I do hate myself at the same time for creating more plastic junk. PLA is not really getting recycled, when it fails someone throws it in the trash and it goes to a landfill. Maybe some really diehard enthusiasts are ensuring all their failed prints and broken parts get properly chemically recycled, but I bet most don’t bother and just bin it.
The way I see it is that a 50g piece of 3D printed PLA could be used to fix a 5kg item that would have otherwise gone to the landfill. I for example have a broken hook for the door tray in my fridge, it's a tiny piece but it being broken rendered the entire 1kg tray useless, it's sitting on top of the fridge waiting for me to buy a 3D printer and fix it.
In the US almost all PLA comes from corn, outside the US I think it mostly comes from sugarcane.<p>It can be composted in industrial composters, but even if you dont do that it's still pretty green
And that's the best case scenario, I think most people print useless junk to begin with, just look at the top downloads on printables.com, less than 30% are functional prints, most of them are short lived junk, and a lot are AI generated.
Seems there is a market for a truly biodegradable print material, if even for doing a prototype before committing to a full plastic print. Or a real recyclable method to take old prints and reuse the material again.
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I would encourage people who have never designed physical objects before to try to only print things they have designed themselves as an exercise. For perhaps a year or so.<p>If you have never designed physical objects before it is really challenging at first. The learning curve is pretty steep and, at least in my case, I discovered that I didn't have a mental language for thinking about functional 3D and mechanical design. You also start to look more closely at the objects around you and think about what went into designing them.<p>I started doing 3D design about a decade ago, when I got my first 3D printer. At first using free modeling in CAD and then later learning how to do constraint based and parametric designs in Fusion 360. This felt slow and perhaps limiting at first, but when you get used to it, it will save you a lot of time later and allow you to make more useful designs that are much easier to evolve and vary.<p>I think it took something like 4-5 years before I printed something someone else had designed. Mostly because I used 3D printing to make custom parts for my own projects, but also in an effort to force myself to learn. I know the learning curve was steep, but for some reason I have forgotten how much work it was to learn.<p>Now there are so many useful designs, designed by people who are a lot better than me available everywhere that I do print a lot of things others have designed. But I think learning to design things yourself is a really good opportunity to learn useful skills.<p>For instance, I had never anticipated that I, a software engineer, would get paid, by an actual customer, to design parts for their projects. Or even consult on physical design for someone doing product development. I am by no means at the level where I'd put it front and center on a resume, but I can design, and to some degree, manufacture simple mechanical parts.<p>(Along with 3D printing I've been doing some CNC at a very hobbyist level. I would still say I am very much a beginner when it comes to machining metals, but it is really fun to see that you can make reasonably precise metal parts for real applications (car parts) at home in my garage with not that much effort. This weekend I'll be doing thread milling in aluminum for the first time on a part that requires M3 screws)
I echo this sentiment. So many random annoyances around the house that I've fixed with self designed prints. Its a steep learning curve but you can start simple. First thing I designed was a spacer to go behind silverware organizers to keep them from sliding around. Still in use almost 8 years later. Horrible print quality and all.<p>Last year I printed a peg leg for a nonstandard luggage wheel that broke off my suitcase and Samsonite won't sent a replacement for, a cleanable coil denitrifier for a saltwater aquarium, custom shadowbox drawer organizers for a toolbox, and during an aquarium emergency printed a metric to US pipe bushing.<p>I also put the skills to use for woodworking modeling a set of couch doggie stairs and a couple years ago designing the building for my observatory.<p>It's a really really useful skill
One of the most useful things that I print is Gridfinity storage boxes and holders. I try to organize as many of my tools and supplies using it. I sometimes do a little leather working for fun and have a drawer full of hardware, all in their own bins. In my garage my sockets, wrenches, etc. all has a Gridfinity holder. I design my own as much as I use pre-made ones. A while ago I even saw a shop that used it to organize most of their small wares. It’s an incredible system.<p>Another note: PLA has gotten significantly better in the past few years. PLA+ is legitimately better while being as easy to print and the Polymaker HT-PLA and HT-PLA-GF are even better as you can meaningfully anneal them after printing to make them strong and temperature resistant enough for some very functional prints.
I like having a gridfinity grid on my desk with a number of various sized boxes for at-hand storage of things like paperclips, tacks, pens, etc...<p>In the garage, I have one that I can slap down anywhere, with a couple boxes that I can load for the screws, nails, washers, nuts, and bolts, etc... used in my current project.<p>Having the grid makes the boxes sit firmly in place.
Any reason you are recommending PLA instead of PETG?
PETG is, for me, always stringy. And I don't want to breath ABS fumes.
I still get worse finish quality with PETG (stringing and globbing) and these PLA+ type materials just end up being as good for me while being easier to print. PLA also prints a bit faster.
This is not my experience. PETG should be utterly problem free, super fast to print and has a much lower fraction of failed prints due to various adhesion issues. The big trick is to make sure the filament is dry, if it is not you will be in for a world of trouble. But properly used prints will last much longer, and are mechanically (much) stronger. On top of all that we can buy PETG in bulk for about a third of the price of PLA.<p>For functional parts I would not use anything else until there is a really good reason (such as high temperature stability or more strength for a given weight or cross section). I've gone through multiple tons of the stuff now (3500 Kg in total or so) on 85 printers (Bambu's (43), Creality (22) K1s and Prusas (20)), consistency between batches is very good though from brand to brand there can be some notable differences.<p>If you have stringing and globbing problems with PETG my first guess would be that the filament profile that you are using is subtly off for that particular brand of PETG and/or that the filament wasn't dry.
Calling PETG "utterly problem free" is quite a stretch lol. PLA is pretty objectively much easier to print than PETG, and perhaps than all the popular filament types out there, especially if you are trying to print anything where precision/detail matters. .<p>PETG is just oozier and stickier by default, so stringiness is almost guaranteed to happen, bridging at a greater risk of failure, etc. It is tougher, so unless you have a printer that can use multiple filaments on the same print, removing supports is more difficult.<p>Can you reduce these factors by tuning your 3D printer - yes, a bit. But that's not "utterly problem free".<p>PLA is the plug and play of the 3D printing world right now.
any reason to use PETG instead of PLA? PLA is plant based, in theory bio-degradable, while PETG is produced from crude oil.
That is mostly true, PLA is ONLY biodegradable in a facility that can handle that. Your run of the mill recycling center in your city probably can't or won't take your PLA prints.
Less creep, slightly better at absorbing shocks without breaking, better failure behaviour (PLA can suddenly shatter leaving sharp edges, PETG tends to deform elastically first).
Not the person you’re replying to, but I can see the appeal of PLA. It has more color options and prints way easier.<p>I personally run all PETG because it is ultimately better material post-print, and once you understand how to print with it, it’s not really much harder to deal with.<p>The day I discovered that I should just run my dryer with the PETG inside while printing was revolutionary. Of course, that requires you own a dryer that allows the filament to print while it’s inside.
Unfortunately, even annealed HT-PLA-GF still creeps quite a bit. I find this to be the main problem using PLA as an engineering filament. For many parts it doesn't matter, of course.
The A1 has a relatively small printing plate. How does it work for boxes that are larger ? You print them in pieces and click / glue them together ?
This is true. So far, everything I have printed has fitted on the plate. However, for larger items you can split them on the slicer and include connectors to join them back up - I'm yet to try this though
I tried this with some longer gridfinity boxes and the result was a bit meh. You have to glue them, but even then they aren't as solid as I'd like. But I only have a handful of boxes that needed to be long so it doesn't matter.<p>One thing I've started playing with now are gridfinity cases so I can pick a bunch of part boxes out of my drawers, put them in the case and take them to the garage without risk of everything falling out. Then, when I'm done, they go back in the drawer.
Good article, but I really really enjoyed the (non-deterministic!) falling objects with physics engine at the top of the page.
Hello, what are you using to render the models in the webpage? and what format did you export the models as to do that? It looks very nice!
In the past I've mostly printed intersting/amusing things from places like thingiverse. But this year I had a project I needed an enclosure for, and instead of using something off the shelf I decided to print my own.<p>Being able to design, print, test, change, print again really made the potential of 3D printing shine for me. I must have went through a couple dozen iterations as the hardware choices solidified and I saw what worked and what didn't (like "oh, I actually can't reach that screw once these two pieces are put together"). It was a really rewarding experience and I'm looking forward to the next project.
All of this was on a Bambu A1 Mini?<p>These are the types of things I want to print. My Ender 3 was so finicky, I only got a few out before I gave up.
I had an Ender 3 Pro, and it was also very finicky, ~18 months ago I replaced it with a Bambu P1S and that thing is just a (nearly) fire and forget machine. I've been super happy with it. In the 18 months I've had it, I've probably gone through 10-20 rolls of filament, in the 4 years I had the Ender I went through maybe 3-4 (because every time I wanted to print something I knew I'd have to spend an hour fiddling with it). A coworker has the Ender 3 though and his has been reliable, so it seems YMMV.
I just got a Bambu P1S (they are / were on sale since the P2S came out) and the difference to my Ender 3 is truly night and day. I almost never used the Ender, since it always resulted endless tinkering and even then, the prints never came out well. The Bambu worked flawlessly out of the box.
It was indeed. Honestly, it’s been more reliable than any inkjet 2d printer I’ve owned.
Gridfinity seems very useful. I might try it. I spent $100 on FB marketplace 2 years ago for a AnkerMake M5C with bunch of rolls of PLA. I've printed hairdryer rack, containers, Labubus as little gifts for neighborhood kids to paint over. I thought about getting a multi-color 3d printer like Anycubic Kobra S1 combo, but the wasting of plastics is holding me back. Snapmaker U1 is much better but more expensive.
The U1, so far, is looking to be a great printer. No idea on long term, but you will not find another toolchanger at that low of a price.
Multiple states are trying to ban 3D printing and CNCs<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46713872">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46713872</a>
gridfinity is really addictive. I have no idea what I want to do with it, but I want to print more.
Awesome. This person got way busier than I did [1] (I think I focus more on creating original designs on the printer). When I first got the Bambu in 2024 I did the whole Gridfinity thing. Very fun.<p>As their post makes clear (even to me) there are actually a lot of things out there you can 3D print. Something I printed last year (and did not even bother to post) was a center-console "compartment" for a 1995 Mazda Miata I have. I swapped out the trashy aftermarket stereo (a previous owner has installed in the Miata) for one that is close to OEM but then I had an empty "hole" in the center console. So I printed a cubby for it.<p>I too was like the author. Originally got into 3D printing years ago—found it frustrating. Picking up a Bambu printer a yearish ago made made all the difference in the world for me. Previously I had an Ender and it was, endlessly frustrating (pun intended). The Bambu is so next-level, the software so well integrated and polished, that I finally found that I enjoy, and I am not burdened by, 3D printing.<p>(The only caveat about the Bambu is that people worry about vendor lock-in. I don't believe Bambu have enshittified that way yet, and people are finding workarounds in case they do, albeit by adding complexity in setting up, printing. The price of the Bambu for someone getting into 3D printing is very attractive.)<p>[1] <a href="https://engineersneedart.com/blog/3dprinting2025/3dprinting2025.html" rel="nofollow">https://engineersneedart.com/blog/3dprinting2025/3dprinting2...</a>
I have the same feelings about Bambu. I really like what Prusa is doing for the community and how they drive it forwards - but the Bambu simply works without fuzz. I also came from an Ender and its just so much fun.
Enders are for people that love the tinkering with printers aspect of 3D printing, I would not use them for production. We evaluated a couple but came away unimpressed.
Hah, I hope I wasn't the previous owner! Needed an aux jack, and that seemed like the easiest way to add one!
Couldn't agree more.<p>Knowing you can design a simple part in a few minutes and actually print it immediately afterwards is important. Before I got a reliable printer (bambulab a1) i put off even the smallest projects because I knew it would entail a multi-hour trial and error session with the printer.
Lovely 3D header animation! Fits incredibly well with the posts content :)
I'd encourage people doing engineering/functional parts to also try ASA and PC(-CF). Both are pretty easy to print on enclosed printer like Prusa Core One, and they offer unique qualities that are impossible to achieve with PLA or PETG.<p>Prusament PC Blend is insanely strong and stiff, I saw a 3mm PC bracket bending a high quality metal wood screw into an S-shape without breaking. PC-CF is much easier to print, looks great, and is stiffer still, even if a bit less strong. ASA looks great and is tougher than PC. Both creep less than PLA and PETG. Both shrug off 100C under load.
Nice. I mostly print parts for other 3D printers...
At first I assumed it's going to be this guy: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGje7toBDzsiIrHIHG-eLTvnAgACSDmDm" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGje7toBDzsiIrHIHG-eL...</a>