Maker's Pet has launched oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum that owners build themselves. The robot works by mapping the home with an inexpensive 2D LiDAR sensor and then navigating using ROS 2 and the Nav2 stack on Raspberry Pi, integrating natively with Home Assistant. It can be printed using a regular desktop 3D printer and runs entirely without the cloud, while the hardware, firmware, and software are all open under the Apache 2.0 license. Ilia O of Maker’s Pet is also developing oomwoo in public “from the first commit,” though the project is so early that it doesn’t have any build instructions yet.

Right now, oomwoo is at the request-for-comments stage, with the current v0 milestone covering a 3D-printed chassis, a ROS 2 Gazebo simulation, and LiDAR mapping with manual SLAM, and the compute choice between a Raspberry Pi 5, an ESP32 running micro-ROS, or both is still open. Planned deliverables run from the bill of materials and printable files to firmware and a custom PCB, with the first BoM targeted for around mid-July.

The project is structured so the community can build it in parallel: the robot is split into self-contained modules, and contributors claim one and submit work as a pull request. A convenience kit will be sold through Maker's Pet, but Ilia says that buying it won’t be a requirement, and every part can be sourced independently.

The usual route to a cloud-free robot vacuum starts with a robot you already own. Valetudo, maintained by Sören Beye since 2018 and also released under Apache 2.0, replaces a commercial vacuum's cloud connection with local-only control and Home Assistant integration. Installing it, however, means rooting the vendor firmware, which on many supported Dreame, Roborock, and Xiaomi models requires disassembly and voids the warranty, and also can’t be undone.

The inclusion of local control could be a boon for getting more tinkerers and enthusiasts on board with the vacuum, following several examples of robot-vacuum security failures over the last few years. At DEF CON 32 in August 2024, researchers Dennis Giese and Braelynn Luedtke showed that several Ecovacs models could be hijacked over Bluetooth to reach their cameras and microphones, with Giese telling TechCrunch the security was “really, really, really, really bad.”

Hijacked DEEBOT X2 units later shouted slurs and chased pets in several U.S. homes, and a token flaw in DJI's Romo line let one tinkerer reach roughly 6,700 vacuums worldwide, floor plans, and live feeds included. One owner went as far as reviving a remotely bricked vacuum with custom boards and Python to run it offline. oomwoo's reference design eliminates that attack surface, navigating on 2D LiDAR and bumper sensors with nothing pointed at the room.

With widespread disappointment regarding the availability and pricing of Valve’s Steam Machine, influencers and creators have been mixing up ‘alternatives’ of various shapes and sizes. However, we think the Terk Box v1.1 looks like the closest alternative yet in design and spirit. The work, as spotted by Hackaday, appears to be a collaboration between Jacob Terkelsen, an ex-Tom's Hardware contributor currently working for AMD, and a 3D printing and SFF PCs enthusiast who goes by the handle of 3DCatt.

If you are a 3D printer owner, you can grab the source files for the Terk Box v1.1 direct from Printables.com. There you will find a parts list, which details the various screws, riser cables, and numerous other parts you will need. The .STL source files are all there, too, of course, under a Creative Commons license.

Specific component brands don’t seem to be suggested by the makers, which is probably due to the set of standards embraced by the various PC parts makers. However, we do note in the user comments some people may have had a hard time fitting their GPU. 3DCatt says the max length that will fit is “about 180mm long.” That isn’t all, though, as the recommended PCIe riser cable wasn’t long enough for some, depending on the GPU model. AMD’s Terkelsen chipped in that the build was suitable for his RTX 5060 LP graphics card, but he requested more room for a front 140mm case fan, among a few other tweaks.

The current revision of the Terk Box measures 167 x 168 x 225mm. That may be close enough to the official machine (152 x 162 x 156mm) to justify the extra effort of doing this instead of finding an off-the-peg compact Mini ITX case. Some of the compromises with the Terk Box v1.1 appear to be the fussiness with GPU choice we mentioned above, and the less-than-ideal positioning of the CPU socket in relation to the PSU. However, both 3DCatt and Terkelsen have hinted at refinements on the way to v1.2.

Since they have already strayed from the cubic confines of Valve’s actual Steam Machine, I feel they shouldn’t feel too shackled to the design they currently have. I’ll be watching further developments with interest.

In summary, this is a design much closer in stature and spirit to the original Valve effort, but it is definitely a work in progress. With the various component constraints, the DIY price for this won’t be the most compelling, either. Readers who are 3D printing and PC DIY aficionados, and we must have a few of those, might be able to contribute to the project with suggestions, tweaks, and remixes.

Bambu Lab has finally updated its popular A1 bedslinger with an increased build volume, a few technical tweaks, and additional capabilities. The A2L has all the room of a more expensive H2 Series, but at a fraction of the cost, at $569 for a four-color combo. Its open frame design makes this primarily a machine for PLA, PETG and TPU, which happen to be the most popular filaments for its target audience: family enthusiasts.

Bambu Lab has categorized this machine as a family-friendly craft center. When combined with its gold standard AMS Lite and the H2 Series blade cutter attachment, the A2L can whip up practical prints, toys, and vinyl iron-ons for apparel. The launch coincided with Bambu’s new PLA Pure, a new non-toxic PLA formula with low VOCs, and a pastel matte finish that hides layer lines.

Its one flaw is the insane vibrations generated by the A2L at speed. Normally, larger machines will be slowed down to avoid this, but Bambu Lab decided to toss granulated vibration-absorbing pellets in the frame and throw caution out the door. This makes the machine nearly as fast as the original A1 while still printing error-free. It also makes it a bit of a table snob, as most cheap tables can not hold it. I put the A2L on an IKEA Lack coffee table, a pretty standard surface for budget-minded makers, and the AMS Lite vibrated right onto the floor after 45 minutes of printing. If the table had been any higher (like a card table or wobbly kitchen table), it would have taken the whole printer onto the floor with it. Bambu has included a “steady” printing profile that quells the shaking at the expense of speed. A “high-quality” profile also runs at a less frantic pace.

The A2L retails at $469 for the standalone printer, $569 for a combo, with an additional $69 for a cutting upgrade kit. The printer is also compatible out of the box with the AMS2 Pro ($269), which would give you the ability to dry filament without needing additional equipment. Bambu Lab has really perfected its formula for quality, speed, and ease of use, making this one of the best 3D printers we’ve seen this year.

Specifications: Bambu Lab A2L

Included in the box: Bambu Lab A2L

Our A2L unit came with an AMS Lite and an optional blade cutter/pen plotter attachment. A cardboard toolbox holds all the tools needed to assemble and maintain the printer, plus a blade for making your own scraper. There was also a small coil for running a test print (enough to make that scraper).

Assembling the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L requires a small amount of assembly. First you need to attach the heatbed to the Y-carriage, then place the base into the gantry frame, which is a pretty beefy triangular unit. There’s a handful of screws to hold everything together, and a few wires to plug in. The instructions are very easy to follow.

Do apply lubricant to the Y-Axis while you have it exposed. It does not come pre-greased, and our test unit immediately requested grease after only a few prints.

The AMS unit snaps together quickly before being secured onto its stand.

Leveling the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L completely auto-levels itself during initial calibration, then can recheck the level before each print. It uses the nozzle as the probe, so it can also set the z height for you. I had no problems with the settings and no need to make adjustments.

Though calibration errors are rare, Bambu Lab has a section in its Wiki to guide you through troubleshooting advice.

Loading Filament in the Bambu Lab A2L

Like the Bambu Lab A1, the A2L can work from a single spool holder mounted to the gantry, or from four spools on the Lite AMS unit. In addition, the A2L is also out of the box compatible with the box style AMS and AMS 2 Pro.

For a single spool you must push filament through the Bowden tube to the toolhead, then tap “load filament” on the main menu. The machine will take over from there and display a checklist on the screen so you can follow along.

For the AMS Lite, simply push spools onto the motorized spindles and poke the filament into the intake. The machine will detect the filament and draw it in.

The AMS has an RFID reader, which allows it to read tags on Bambu Lab branded filament. These tags will tell the machine what type and color of filament is on each spindle. If you’re using untagged filament, or the single spool holder, you’ll need to enter this information manually.

Design of the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L is a plus sized Cartesian, or as we call them, bed slinger. The A-Series sleek white and brushed aluminum style has been copied by most of the competition, so Bambu Lab seems to be onto something.

The printer is extremely easy to use with a touch screen interface that contains guides to show you how to run the machine. It has the same build size as the H2 Series, but does not come with an option for an enclosure.

It has metal rails, linear bearings, and dual Z rods, all tucked inside a smooth frame and base that makes it look much more polished than other printers. To make up for its large size, it has a pair of hidden “granular dampers” designed to absorb vibration and stabilize the frame. You can’t see them, but you can hear them if you give the printer a bit of a shake.

The A2L has a new feature called “adaptive vibration compensation,” which uses a real-time algorithm to retune calibration as your print gets taller. This is to eliminate vibrations that can affect printers the taller – or heavier – they get.

When equipped with an AMS unit, the A2L takes up noticeably more space. Bambu Lab offered a clip that I could print myself that would attach the AMS to the X gantry, but I’m still not convinced that is the best place for it.

The extruder motor has been upgraded to a PMSM closed-loop servo to actively detect filament grinding in the gears, clogs and air printing. Combined with the new nozzle clumping detector on the purge sweep, the A2L should be able stop a lot of annoying small problems before they become huge spaghetti monsters.

One odd thing is the A2L uses the same quick swap steel nozzles as the A1 and A1 Mini. These are not the upgraded nozzles used on the H2 Series, but H-style nozzles are backward compatible with the A-Series. These nozzles have made a huge impact on the industry, with the competition scrambling to copy them as well. There’s no screws, wiring or messy thermal paste involved here.

The A2L is compatible with a cutting and plotting attachment, which is available as a separate purchase. The add-on is easy to install: simply remove the front cover and the spinner, then snap on the cutting attachment and plug a cable into the toolhead. It is advised to remove the bowden tubes for the filament, but there’s little need to do so. The hotend remains in place and is kept off by the machine.

The attachment can hold either a Bambu Lab made drag knife or any standard size pen or marker. I was able to use a normal ball point pen in mine by adding a few wraps of tape to thicken the pen body.

This is the same attachment you can get on the H2 Series and uses Bambu Suite, a companion app, to “slice” files. There is no laser add-on, since the A2L is open frame. The A2L also lacks a top down camera for positioning, so you will need to use the cutting function with the help of a phone camera equipped with Bambu Handy. This system is a bit janky, but it works, especially if you take care lining up the photos.

Bambu Lab Automatic Material System (AMS) Lite

We received the A2L Combo, which includes an AMS Lite module. The AMS Lite is made specifically for the A-Series and is not compatible with the Core XY machines. It’s not as clean looking as the boxy AMS, with four Bowden tubes stretching from each spool to the tool head. However, this simplified version is much easier to unjam should brittle filament break in the tube.

Each spool is mounted on a spring-loaded spindle, which provides the necessary retraction. Since each color has its own Bowden tube, the A2L only needs to pull the filament a few inches until it's clear of the tool head, not all the way back to the AMS Unit, which makes it a bit faster during color swaps than the original system. Each spool also gets a motor to push filament to the tool head. This new system solves the problem of cardboard spools with crushed edges, spools that are too wide or too tall, and spools that are too light.

There are notable drawbacks to using either of Bambu Lab’s AMS systems. The printer wastes an amazing amount of material when it cleans out the nozzle between colors. The waste can be reduced with tuning, but takes time and patience. The slicer will tell you exactly how much it will use before you start a print.

The second drawback is loss of speed. The printer needs to pause between layers to purge filament, then do a nozzle wipe on the purge tower. The Flexi Factory Panda takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to print in one color using default settings, and 6 hours and 46 minutes to print in three colors.

Preparing Files / Software

Bambu Lab has its own custom slicer, Bambu Studio, which is a fork of PrusaSlicer. The slicer is also the primary means of transferring files via Cloud service or local LAN to the printer. You can also control and monitor your printer remotely with Bambu Handy, a mobile app.

Bambu Studio is also the “paint” program you need to assign color to your prints. The device tab allows you to talk directly to the printer to define the filaments in the AMS, heat up the printer and control the speed.

It has a wide range of presets for filament from both Bambu Lab and other manufacturers. I’ve found these presets to be incredibly helpful and accurate.

You also use Bambu Studio to access MakerWorld, a one stop shop for the Bambu Ecosystem. Here you’ll find free files for your printer, MakerLab with AI powered design tools and Maker’s Supply, a store front will model kits, hardware, tools, LED lights and CyberBricks so you can level up your 3D printing hobby.

Printing on the Bambu Lab A2L

The printer arrived with several prints preloaded. You’ll definitely want to shop for filament before bringing this machine home, especially if you plan on doing a lot of AMS printing. We have a guide with our favorite filaments for 3D printing here.

To show what the Bambu Lab A1 can do under normal conditions, I printed three Ice Cream Narwhales using default settings of 200-300mm/s and a .2mm layer height, taking 10 hours and 44 minutes to print. The models came pre-painted by the designer.

It turned out beautifully smooth with no visible layer lines or ringing. There was a little color bleed from the gold cone to the top of the narwhale’s head. This was printed in a sparkle blue from an unmarked PLA spool I picked up from SMRRF a couple years ago, and now deeply regret not labeling it better, plus a basic PLA Pink and Black from Bambu Lab and gold from Polymaker’s Panchroma Dual Silk Sunset.

For a PETG test, I attempted to print a wind spinner for the garden, which I created in Tinkercad. The print ultimately failed due to the skinny base, but it got about 95% there, which is still impressive. When it fell over, it looped the rest of the layers around the print like a coil. If you look closely at the coil, you can see little bubbles caused by moisture. The print still looks fantastic and I’ll give it another shot later after I make the base wider. This is printed in Bambu Lab PETG Translucent 6 hours and 31 minutes using a .2 layer height and default settings. This print is smooth, without stringing or noticeable layer lines. The two flat bases printed separately – without supports– then snapped together.

For TPU testing, I printed a prototype phone bag that I created in Tinkercad, using CookieCad Pale Blue Elixir. This is a regular 95A TPU, so I needed to use the single spool holder on top and drop it directly into the extruder. The A2L did a great job, with smooth layers and only a couple stray bits from retraction errors at the very top. The print took 7 hours and 9 minutes using the printer’s defaults.

Reminder – the AMS can print special “TPU for AMS” which is a stiffer formula available from Bambu Lab.

I tested out the A2L’s cutting module by making a few branded price tags for items I sell at a local boutique. For this I used a simple shape I whipped up in Canva and my jpg logo. I dropped both into Bambu Suite, the “slicer” software that runs Bambu’s 2D cutter attachment and also the laser module for a H2 Series machine. (No, there’s not a laser for the A2L.)

I swapped the normal build plate for a purpose built sticky plate and very easily snapped the cutter module onto the tool head, then plugged it in. Because the A2L doesn’t have an overhead “birdeye” camera like an H2 Series, I had to take an overhead photo of the build plate with the Bambu Handy app. It’s surprisingly difficult to get the entire A2L bed into an overhead shot when you’re only 5’2” without getting a ladder. This might be why the registration is a little bit off and the inked logos are a little bit lower than they should be.

This required two passes. First the ink layer, which used a normal ball point pen that I wrapped tape around to fit in the pen holder. Then I swapped the pen for the cutting blade and finished it.

The cutter can also handle vinyl, and with the A2L bed size, you could really get a nice sized shirt made. Bambu didn’t send any vinyl to try out, but they do sell it on their website. Because this is a manual cutter and not a laser melting material, you are free to use any material that is under .5mm thick.

Bottom Line

The Bambu Lab A2L is the supersized evolution of the A1 bedslinger that does double duty as a family craft hub. It’s budget-friendly with an easy-to-use interface that lets beginners have a little extra room to play without having to move up to a price H2 Series.

Like the first A1, this is much easier to use and maintain than Bambu’s larger machines, as the AMS Lite isn’t prone to jamming, and the new nozzle clumping detector sweeps printer purge safely away.

At $569 for the combo and $469 for a single color machine, the A2L is a great choice for makers who want Bambu quality and access to the ecosystem without the price of a Core XY machine.

If you’re interested in a larger color bedslinger, the Anycubic Kobra 3 Max has a 420x420x500mm build volume and is currently on sale for $601.60. The Bambu Lab H2S has the same build size in a Core XY enclosed unit for $1349.

The Kobra 4 Combo is an update of 2024’s Kobra 3 Combo, or perhaps a smaller version of the Kobra 3 Max, depending on how you look at it. It takes style points from the competition, with a brushed aluminum frame and pale plastic base that screams “A1 clone.” Though the printing experience is marked improvement over its predecessor, most of the technical advancement lies in the multimaterial handler, the ACE Pro 2.

Anycubic is clearly aiming the Kobra 4 at budget-minded beginners, with a current sale price of $379 as a combo and $279 as a single color machine. Which, oddly enough, is the same price as the four-color Kobra X we reviewed in February. The Kobra X was a true leap forward, introducing a brilliant multi-material filament switcher built right into the tool head that cut down on time and filament waste.

It’s not that the Kobra 4 is a bad printer. It's just a bit unwieldy when compared to the clean filament paths and slender footprint of the Kobra X. Both machines have excellent print quality and share a quick swap hotend introduced by the Kobra X. It has excellent auto bed leveling and vibration compensation, which is mandatory for modern 3D printers. The ACE Pro 2 can double as a filament drier, which comes in handy for printing moisture-loving PETG.

The Kobra 4 Combo doesn’t have what it takes to knock the Kobra X off its spot as our “best budget 3D printer”, so we’re not including it on the Best 3D Printers of 2026 list.

Specifications

Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo: Included in the Box

The Anycubic Kobra 4 was a beta unit and arrived almost completely assembled with the ACE Pro 2 in the same box. Included are two power cords, one for the printer and one for the ACE Pro 2, a signal cable, and four bowden tubes for connecting the printer to the ACE Pro. The included tool kit has hex keys, grease, and a nozzle cleaner.

Our printer was an early production unit that did not include a single spool holder, but we were able to borrow one from our Anycubic Kobra X to run TPU.

Assembling the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo

The Anycubic Kobra 4 ships in one large piece. The only assembly is removing the packing screws and attaching the toolhead and purge wiper.

The brackets holding the bed in place require a very long hex key, which was included. Fortunately, the hex keys are magnetized because the screws are so far under the bed that they could be difficult to retrieve if they fell off while removing them. Once the brackets are removed, the included trim pieces hide the holes in the base nicely.

Attaching the printer to the ACE 2 Pro is simple with four Bowden tubes running from the tool head to the rear of the ACE 2 Pro, and a signal wire is run from the right side of the printer as well. Both the printer and the ACE require power cords.

Leveling the Anycubic Kobra 4 ­

Anycubic mastered auto bed leveling and Z offset with the Kobra 3 lineup, and this continues with the Kobra 4. The initial calibration includes PID tuning, resonance testing, leveling, and noise cancellation. The printer also offers bed leveling at the start of every print.

Loading Filament in the Anycubic Kobra 4

The Anycubic ACE 2 Pro makes filament loading simple. Just enter the filament in the feeder, and it gets slurped right up. This is a vast improvement over the earlier ACE generation, which often required multiple attempts.

Anycubic brand filament has RFID tags, which are read by the ACE 2 Pro and automatically identify the filament type and color. When using third-party filament, you need to enter the filament information from the printer’s screen and sync it to the slicer.

Design of the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo

The Anycubic Kobra 4 shares its styling, motion system, and hotend with the Anycubic Kobra X, which is a definite upgrade over the Kobra 3. The Kobra 4 uses a new quick-release nozzle that uses a clip to hold it in place. Swapping a nozzle without tools takes no time at all. With the nozzle and the cutter being easily removable, clearing a filament jam also takes no time at all.

The Anycubic Kobra 4 has a 720p camera, which is good for monitoring from both PC and the Anycubic App, but not so much for recording timelapses. It suffers, the way nearly all bed slingers do, with the camera angle caused by its placement on the Z axis. The camera is also used for AI spaghetti detection, which does work, and is thankfully not oversensitive.

With the original ACE PRO, inserting filament was sometimes a chore, as it would often start feeding the filament next to the one you were trying to load. When trying to load filaments one after another, you had to wait for the first filament to be completely finished before loading the next, or misfeeds would happen. The ACE 2 Pro now operates like the Bambu Lab AMS with individual feeders for each filament. Currently, the feeding process is slow, and filament swapping takes a long time. I suspect that this will be sped up with a future firmware update.

The ACE 2 Pro has guides for the filament spools on the lid and on the back of the unit. Most of the spools we tried were compatible, including Prusament spools. Smaller spools, coils, and damaged or fragile cardboard spools can be run only on the external spool holder.

While jamming in the ACE PRO was rare, clearing the jams could require extensive disassembly. The ACE 2 Pro solves this with the filament tubes running externally on the bottom of the unit with disconnects at the buffer.

My favorite feature of the ACE is its ability to dry filament and dry while printing. This feature might be wasted on an open frame bed slinger, but it could come in handy with PETG.

Sadly, the Kobra 4 can dry TPU with the ACE 2 Pro, but it can’t run it. Even when I used “made for AMS,” it refused to run through the ACE. The solution is to use the single spool holder (which I had to borrow from the Kobra X) and run TPU directly into the toolhead. Anycubic promised to add a printable “single hub” to the printer’s memory to use with TPU, but for now, I was able to simply pop the whole top off and shove it directly into the extruder. I tested TPU down to 83A shore hardness, and the Kobra 4 did great with all of it.

The Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo is very quiet, with fan noise being primarily what you hear. The ACE 2 Pro is almost completely silent unless it is drying filament and even then the noise is minimal.

Preparing Files / Software

The Anycubic Kobra 4 requires a download of Anycubic Slicer Next which is based on OrcaSlicer, which is based on Bambu Studio, which in turn has PrusaSlicer at the foundation. If you are familiar with Orca or Bambu Studio you should know what to do in Anycubic Slicer Next.

From the home page of the slicer you can see your most recently opened files and access Makeronline, Anycubic’s file sharing library.

Anycubic Slicer Next can be run offline with files transferred manually via USB. I prefer to have access to my printer from my computer and the Anycubic app if only to stop a failed print from wherever I happen to be. From the workbench page of the slicer or the task details page on the Anycubic App, you can stop a print, skip a part, and adjust everything from print temps to print speed. You can print pre-sliced files directly from the Anycubic App but the ability to change the print settings is very limited.

Printing on the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo

The review unit came with an adorable (though mostly useless) vacuum sealed pack with four coils of PLA. To fill up that ACE 2 Pro, you’ll want to check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for more suggestions.

The Kobra 4 comes with a number of presliced files on the machine’s memory, which include useful tools, test prints, and a few fun models. It also had this “four color cube” test, which is a complete waste of your time, filament and sanity. Don’t print this.

I ran a lot of PLA while testing the Kobra 4. This pair of Geckos is a good example of the results. They printed in 5 hours and 9 minutes at .2mm layer height using 3 walls, 10% infill, and default speeds. Because of the size and shape of the model, the print speed is more like 160mm/s. It’s printed in Anycubic’s Cyan, Yellow, and Black PLA.

I did not change the default flushing volumes and ended up losing about 40 grams of filament in the filament purge. Due to a software bug, Anycubic’s slicer vastly underestimated the waste and even suggested it would flush negative values of yellow filament. This bug has been around since the Kobra X, and I really hope they have fixed it by now.

For PETG, I printed a plate of PentaClick balls from YosaNatural on Makerworld. With a .2mm layer height, four walls, and an average speed of 90 mm/s, they finished in 4 hours 38 min. The print looks great in Prusament Yellow Gold PETG, and the print-in-place hinges worked great with no hint of overextrusion. The model prints flat, then is folded and snapped into a ball shape. A small rubber band around the middle provides a spring action, so when you press the ball flat, it pops back into shape.

For TPU, I ran both hard 68D and soft 83A to make parts for our RC Deathracer, designed by Michael Baddeley.

While the smooth bumpers printed flawlessly, these spiked hubcaps, just based on their design, led to a fair amount of stringing. I’m confident this can be fixed by running with a bit more retraction. Using a .2 layer height and capping the speed at 50mm/s, the hubcaps took 5 hours and two minutes to print. This was printed using Microcenter’s TPU for MFS in black.

For softer TPU, I printed some tires I made in Tinkercad out of 83A TPE from Esun. This required removing the four bowden hub from the tool head and forcing the soft material directly into the extruder. It's annoying, but worth the effort as it ran the TPU beautifully. I used a .2mm layer height, two walls, and 10% concentric infill, with an average print speed of 50 mm/s. This took 1 hour and 35 minutes to complete. The tires are super soft and grippy and nearly perfect, with no stringing at all.

Bottom Line

The Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo is a step rather than a leap ahead of the Kobra 3 Combo, but it is a good value for an entry level 3d printer. It borrows the clean aesthetics of the popular Bambu Lab A1 and greatly improves the multimaterial handler from its first iteration. It’s a highly capable out-of-the-box experience for beginners.

However, it can’t quite compare to the Kobra X in value or space saving. I would only recommend the Kobra 4 over a Kobra X if you were seriously feeling the need for an all-in-one filament dryer solution.

The Kobra 4 Combo is only $20 cheaper than the Bambu Lab A1, which has a more established ecosystem, and $10 less than Creality’s SparkX i7 Combo, our pick for best beginner 3D printer.

While 3D printing has been rapidly advancing and the list of the best 3D printers changes on an almost weekly basis, 3D scanning technology has been making slower but steady progress toward becoming a consumer-friendly technology. With many 3D scanners dropping in price to around the cost of an entry-level 3D printer or laser engraver, it’s a great time to get started and learn about the technology. While some of these scanners launched several years ago, they remain competitive due to continued software updates and strong performance when capturing geometry.

To explain it simply: most 3D scanners work by capturing a point cloud and stitching it together to make a 3D model. This can easily add up to hundreds of thousands or millions of points, so there is a lot of data to process, align, and stitch together to create a 3D model. Some 3D scanners include an onboard computer to simplify the workflow, typically at the expense of a slightly longer processing time than a fast computer. If you’re proficient in mesh editing and 3D modeling, a 3D scanner that uses a computer for mesh clean-up offers more flexibility but may require more hands-on effort.

There’s a 3D scanner for almost every application, from CT scanners that can accurately capture the inside of a model to cell phone apps that can make a 3D model from pictures in minutes. Before buying a 3D scanner, it’s worth doing some research to understand what aspects are most important for your project. Consider what you want to accomplish, and read through some of these tips to get you started on your journey into the world of 3D scanning.

The Best Consumer 3D Scanners You Can Buy Today

Best Overall 3D Scanner

The Creality Sermoon P1 is a handheld all-in-one 3D scanner that uses both structured light and blue lasers to quickly and accurately capture geometry. The standout feature of the Sermoon P1 is the integrated touchscreen, which allows users to edit point clouds, create and repair 3D models, and even export the file just by using the onboard computer, no desktop PC required.

The bright 6-inch LCD on the Sermoon P1 is equally readable indoors and outdoors, so users can go through the entire editing process and create a 3D model without needing to put the 3D scanner down. Whether it was scanning sculptures outdoors, automotive components, or consumer products, the Sermoon P1 performed exceptionally during testing, although the color textures lacked detail.

The Sermoon P1 launched at $3,299, a price point that moves into prosumer territory and likely won’t appeal to casual or first-time users. The 22-line laser mode is ideal for scanning large parts quickly, and the ability to go back into single-laser mode to scan deep recesses makes this a compelling option for reverse engineering.

More: Creality Sermoon P1 3D Scanner Review

Best 3D Scanner for Beginners

Originally launched in 2023, the 3DMakerPro Mole uses NIR structured light to provide marker-free scanning capable of accurately capturing dark objects without any surface prep or spray. The base package for the Mole doesn’t support color texture capture, although it can capture greyscale textures which may be useful in certain applications. The Mole requires a wired connection to a computer, although an optional grip is included to connect to a smartphone.

The automated turntable is especially beneficial to beginners, and it can capture a full revolution of an object automatically. When enabled, this mode will detect the turntable, remove it from the scan data, and capture 320 frames all in a single operation without any manual work. This worked well during testing and will take out much of the guesswork around positioning for beginners.

The Standard package of the Mole is available for $649, but the extra $100 for the automated turntable in the Premium is easy to justify given the more automated workflow it enables. The Mole is ergonomically designed and easy to hold, and while the software can sometimes struggle with tracking thin objects the Mole is still worth looking at for a first 3D scanner for a beginner.

More: 3DMakerPro Mole 3D Scanner Review

Best Prosumer Laser Scanner

The Creality Sermoon S1 combines NIR structured light and blue laser scanning modes into a single unit and also includes a camera specifically for capturing color textures. The Sermoon S1 is capable of high-precision scanning and capturing deep recesses in the single laser mode, and can also use up to 34 laser lines simultaneously at a high frame rate for capturing large models quickly.

The NIR mode allows for marker-free scanning, making it an appealing choice for applications where it isn’t practical or possible to add tracking markers to a model. While the NIR mode provided high-quality geometry during testing, the color texture wasn’t up to expectations and is unlikely to be a selling point of the unit.

Available starting at $2,399, the Sermoon S1 is similar in specifications to the more expensive standalone Sermoon P1 but offers a higher FPS capture rate and a 34-line mode for the blue laser. The optional $299 Scan Bridge accessory adds a wireless mode for using the scanner without being tethered by cords.

More: Creality Sermoon S1 3D Scanner Review

Other 3D Scanners We Tested

▶️ 3D MakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan is an all-in-one 3D scanner that enables a computer-free workflow thanks to onboard processing and a touchscreen LCD. With an upper limit of 15 FPS, the Toucan worked well for small, detailed objects but struggled with tracking loss on larger objects. Sharing a name with the notably colorful bird, the Toucan unfortunately performed poorly during testing when capturing color textures.

The Toucan has two laser modes: Class 1 and Class 3R, with the latter being a more powerful laser that can capture sharp detail but is not safe for applications that involve scanning people. Using tracking markers enables very accurate scans, and the alignment in JMStudio usually works well, but getting the file off the Toucan requires a USB-C thumb drive or a transfer via Wi-Fi.

The Standard package starts at $1,499, but another $200 will buy the Premium package, which includes a portable tripod that doubles as a handle as well as a carrying case. Designed for users who put a high value on portability, the Toucan is a solid 3D scanner for general use or field work.

Read: 3DMakerPro Toucan 3D Scanner Review

Shopping Tips for the Best 3D Scanners

Here are a few important points to consider when choosing the best consumer 3D scanners.

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Bambu Lab announced a new line of PLA filament that might just be too good to be true. It’s PLA Pure, a new family-friendly, clean printing, and “food safe” material that’s UL Greenguard certified. PLA Pure is available now at Bambu Lab’s Official Store. It comes in three soft pastel colors, plus black and white, and retails for $24.99 on a spool or $21.99 as a refill.

The company says PLA Pure is the answer to rising concerns from new makers who want to keep a 3D printer in their family room, and share the space with children and pets. The concern is quite real, now that 3D printers have made the move from geeky garage lairs and workshops into the home itself. Only the manufactures know what’s actually in 3D printer filament, and few scientific studies have been conducted to analyze how printers affect air quality. Most makers shrug it off and crack a window, or purchase an air purifier to park next to their printer.

• Bambu Lab PLA Pure: $24.99 1kg spool

Manufacturers aren’t required to list the ingredients of their filament on the box or website. Even the Safety Data Sheet (SDS), which declares a product’s chemical makeup, is incredibly vague. For example, the SDS for Bambu Lab’s Basic PLA says it contains 95 to 99 percent Polylactic Acid (PLA) and 1 to 5 percent “additive.” These additives are mixed in to give the filament extra strength, flexibility, or cosmetic finishes and are a closely guarded secret.

Bambu Lab’s PLA Pure peels back the curtain a little bit and lists the five ingredients: polylactic acid, acrylic copolymer, color pigments, ethylene bis-stearamide, and talc. They further explain that polylactic acid (PLA) is from corn and sugarcane, the acrylic copolymer is also found in children's toys, the pigments are the same used in baby tableware, EBS is from food packaging, and the talc is verified asbestos-free.

The asbestos-free line ends up raising more questions than it answers. First, if this new line proudly features asbestos-free talc for the matte finish, does that mean standard matte PLA does not? And if there are five ingredients in a “pure” PLA, what on earth could be hiding in the tough PLA, the silks, or the variants with glitter?

If you’re wondering why talc could contain asbestos in the first place, the reason is sadly simple. Both are minerals that naturally form under the same conditions, and these deposits mingle together. Talc is so abundant that it's incredibly cheap, but keeping it separate while mining can be nearly impossible, especially at a commercial scale.

While this new PLA successfully passes muster as a non-toxic material, the lab tests can only speak for the spool of unprinted plastic. Once printed, you’re back to the age-old problem of tiny cracks formed by the layer lines that harbor germs and bacteria on plastic that can not survive the sanitizing heat of the dishwasher.

We should also note that raw PLA, which is derived from corn or sugarcane, is a non-toxic, food-safe material. It is only the things manufactured and added to raw PLA that raise concerns.

Bambu Lab says PLA Pure carries UL 2904 Greenguard certification, which measures particulate matter and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) for indoor air quality impact. These levels during printing fall below what's typically present in an average kitchen, living room, or office.

The company says that its PLA Basic also holds indoor air quality certification under the same standard, but PLA Pure's cleaner ingredient profile yields even lower emission levels. Testing was conducted on Bambu Lab A1 and A2L printers, without enclosure or filtration to reflect an average home setup.

The real reason Bambu Lab may have introduced this family-friendly filament is the toy safety aspect. PLA Pure passed a European safety standard, EN 71-3 certification, that governs the migration of harmful heavy metals from toy materials. This includes notably lead, cadmium, and chromium, which can be dangerous if a child puts a contaminated toy in their mouth.

Obvious PLA Pure won’t prevent toys from becoming choking hazards, and germ-trapping layer lines still exist. Bambu Lab warns that PLA can’t be used for liquids or exposed to temperatures above 60°C (like your dishwasher).

Snapmaker is celebrating its 10th anniversary by giving back to the 3D printing community in a big way. The company announced a $150,000 Snapmaker Innovation Fund that will be used to support open source developers and ambitious makers who volunteer their time creating the software and hardware that have made the Snapmaker U1 a fan favorite. $50,000 has already been committed to developers whose work shapes the ecosystem of the U1 toolchanger: Moonraker, OrcaSlicer, Klipper, Fluidd, Full Spectrum, and Surface Color Stitch.

"The U1 didn't get here alone — it stood on the shoulders of a community decades in the making," said Blayne Sapelli, Head of Global PR at Snapmaker. "This fund is how we say thank you, and how we keep that movement going. We give back, and the community builds forward — together."

Supporting open-source projects is nothing new to Snapmaker. Full Spectrum, a tool that visually mixes layers of color in FDM printing, recently launched as an experimental, open-source project. The designer, Radu (aka Ratdoux), designed it inside OrcaSlicer, using a U1 tool changer as the test bed. Bambu Lab made the tool more user-friendly by inserting a clone of it into Bambu Studio. Snapmaker doubled down by inviting Radu to Shenzhen, China, to chat with their team and then offered him a job to head up its color printing initiative. Full Spectrum, along with a new tool called Surface Color Stitch, will be included in Snapmaker Orca. Sapelli said Full Spectrum will remain open-source, which allows other companies, like Prusa Research’s ColorMix, to share advancements.

“We believe the most important innovations in the maker community come from the maker community,” said Daniel Chen, CEO of Snapmaker. “Ratdoux’s work represents exactly the kind of experimentation and creativity we want to nurture. We are honored to have him join our team."

Sapelli told Tom’s Hardware that the remaining $100,000 of the Innovation Fund will be used for an Open Competition to sponsor future projects. Phase 1 starts now and runs to September 7, and will award 20 prizes. Phase 2 will award another 20 prizes and start in October and conclude at the end of the year.

Each phase has three tiers: U1 Pioneer, Eco-Enhancer, and Active Builder.

Anyone can enter the global Open Competition. Snapmaker is looking for developers with ideas to improve or expand OrcaSlicer, the U1 firmware, or hardware, or add accessories. All projects must be open source and published on GitHub or another public page, shared in a Snapmaker community channel, and submitted through the fund's online form. Winners keep full ownership of their work.

Snapmaker is also hosting a “Make Something Colorful” model contest that will wrap up on June 16th, with winners announced on June 23. The grand prize is a $600 Snapmaker gift card. Submissions, rules, and prizes are available at models.snapmaker.com.

And of course, Snapmaker users need a place to put all their models. Sapelli told Tom’s Hardware that an official model repository, the Snapmaker Model Library, is under construction, with a public launch planned for later this year. The library will help round out the Snapmaker ecosystem, which already includes a growing line of affordable filaments in PLA, PETG, TPU, and more.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated a metal 3D printing method that stirs molten metal during the print by sending the laser along looping elliptical paths instead of straight lines. This technique change needs no new hardware and could let machines already in service blend alloys that resist mixing. The work, published in the journal Additive Manufacturing, was verified at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source, where the team fused a dense high-entropy alloy called RHEA-19 with a lightweight titanium alloy and watched the two combine into a new alloy in real time.

The technique modifies laser powder bed fusion, in which a laser melts thin layers of metal powder point by point. On a standard print, the beam tracks straight lines, and each brief melt pool blends its ingredients only slightly. NIST researcher Ho Yeung instead programmed the laser to draw loops as it advanced, churning the pool while it stayed liquid. Existing printer firmware couldn’t produce those toolpaths, so the team wrote its own control software.

Because the method changes only the scan pattern, NIST says machines on factory floors could run it after a software update. “Commercial 3D printer software can't make these patterns,” said Ho Yeung, a NIST researcher, in the agency's announcement, adding that the team had to write the software from scratch.

Confirming that the metals had truly alloyed (rather than separated) meant capturing the atomic structure as the pool froze, which happens in under a second. The Advanced Photon Source produces X-ray beams roughly 500 billion times brighter than a dental scanner, enough to read diffraction patterns off the dense melt as it solidified, and the team paired that with electron microscopy on the finished solid. NIST counts this in-situ diffraction as a result in itself, since tracking phase changes at that speed hadn’t been done this way before.

Metals carry different densities, melting points, and surface tension, which drives them to separate into weak, blotchy regions as a casting cools. High-entropy alloys, which mix five or more metals in roughly equal shares rather than one base metal with trace additions, are especially prone to it, and that’s why they are difficult to cast. Stirring during the print, however, sidesteps the problem.

The researchers reckon that the same method could feed a machine elemental metal powders and blend them into finished alloys on the fly, instead of stocking a separate pre-alloyed powder for every composition. NIST also points to grading composition continuously across one part, so a jet turbine blade could shift between metals without a welded joint that might fail. Metal printing is far more demanding than printing plastic, since alloys melt at extreme temperatures and pass through phase changes as they cool.

The paper was first published in Additive Manufacturing Volume 118 on February 25th. Separately, NIST has listed elliptical scan patterns among the control strategies that it’s studying to suppress defects and steer microstructure in additive manufacturing.

3D printing is quickly becoming embedded in most every manufacturing process these days, and today marks yet another milestone. A team of MIT researchers figured out a novel use for the technology by printing triaxial electrospray emitters—tiny nozzles that simultaneously dispense multiple liquids that solidify into three-layered droplets. These emitters are commonly used for manufacturing drugs, but their uses extend to self-healing materials and multiple other applications.

The smaller 3D-printed nozzle arrays are theoretically easier and cheaper to manufacture compared to existing techniques, and are reportedly far more efficient than conventional designs, dispensing more consistent and customizable droplets. This development could potentially boost the production rate of layered drugs, as well as other scenarios including self-healing materials, biosensors, contrast agents, solar cell coatings, and implant coatings.

The technology itself isn't new per se, but the absurdly intricate design and microscopic tolerances of these devices have historically demanded a semiconductor-class cleanroom for their manufacture. This new MIT development allows for using standard-ish 3D vat polymerization — shining UV light on resin, similar to what dentists use for filling cavities — to create an array of 16 triaxial nozzles in an area of about one square centimeter, all with their complex internal networks defined.

Broadly speaking, extant technologies of coaxial electro-spraying are either limited to two layers or can employ only a limited number of nozzles simultaneously, and the MIT's new array appears to be a significant step up, while being relatively easy to make and readily commercialized. If you're wondering what kind of printer you need to buy, it needs to be capable of layers 25 micrometers tall, or a width roughly a third of that of a human hair. The Asiga Max X27 printer the team used goes for around $13,000, an amount that is but a rounding error compared to the vast outlays that medical research usually commands.

Not only does 3D printing allows for making emitters in just a few hours, it lets the team improve the design of these devices beyond extant variants. Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, one of the researchers, goes so far as to say that "[the team] couldn’t make a device like this in a semiconductor cleanroom", further remarking that using a 3D printer allowed for rapid iteration of experimental designs. The new model also allows for highly precise adjustment to the nozzle's flow rates and voltages, in a bid to customize each microdroplet layer.

The ability to manufacture droplets with this kind of precision is applicable to a number of fields, the most obvious one being medical applications, where improved layered drugs can, for example, have a protective layer that dissolves in the stomach and a second one with the actual drug to activate in the intestine. Other than oral drugs, microparticles are useful for skin creams, gels, wound dressings, and injectable drugs, among others.

Elegoo recently released Jupiter 2, the update to Elegoo's first large-format resin printer. While this is technically the 3rd iteration of the Jupiter line, the latest feature upgrades are sure to catch the eyes of consumers looking to print larger models without breaking the bank.

At $949, the Elegoo Jupiter 2 includes an easy swap of film, a heated vat, a camera, auto refill/reclaim, and the best part, a larger build volume than its predecessor - ideal for makers who want to print bigger models or cosplay items. With these great features, combined with the price tag, the Jupiter 2 takes a spot on our list as one of the best resin 3D printers we've tested to date.

Specifications: Elegoo Jupiter 2

Included in the Box: Elegoo Jupiter 2, Box of tools, Extra 2kg Resin bottle

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 ships with a small box of tools, a metal scraper, a plastic scraper, a pair of gloves, an allen key set, a mask, filters, and a USB drive. The USB drive comes preloaded with the Jupiter 2 user manual as well as the standard Elegoo Rook test file and Elegoo's SateLite slicing software.

One thing to point out with the Jupiter 2 is the footprint of the printer. The Jupiter 2 is only 465 x 508.1 x 648 mm (18.3 x 20 x 25.5 inches) with its doors closed. When fully open, that story quickly changes to a whopping 1054.1 mm (41.5 inches) wide. However, you can still get the build plate out safely without needing to fully open the doors.

Printing Safety with Elegoo Jupiter 2

As with any resin 3D printer, the Elegoo Jupiter 2 requires that you wear the proper PPE when handling any resin or wash solvents. Uncured resin can be very toxic. It can cause irritation, itchy eyes, and breathing issues in some people. Proper gloves, like Nitrile gloves, are the best choice when handling resin.

We recommend using gloves with a minimum of 3 ml thickness to keep them from tearing while handling the sharp ends of uncured resin. Use safety glasses, preferably, a closed top and bottom eyewear, to keep you safe from any resin or wash that may splash up. Lastly, use a carbon-filtered respirator as it's the best filter for resin fumes.

Assembling the Elegoo Jupiter 2

The Elgoo Jupiter 2 is shipped almost fully assembled. You only need to add the build plate and the auto feed system. The auto feeder is a small, simple box that slots into the back of the printer. You will also need to hook up the hose to the back of the machine and attach the power cord.

This setup only allows the use of 2kg bottles to fit safely in its tray. The good thing is Elegoo does include an extra empty 2kg bottle for those who use other resins or have extra 1kg bottles of Elegoo resin around. The cool thing you can do here is you can easily mix old and new resins, and they will print just fine, or even add in your favorite flex resins to make the resin you have loaded in the bottle a little more impact-resistant.

Calibrating the Build Plate on the Elegoo Jupiter 2

For leveling the build plate, while the Jupiter 2 does have automatic calibration, in testing, we did notice it was out of spec on one of the sides of the build plate. Thankfully, there is a setting to manually level the build plate. The manual process is quite simple. Home the plate without the vat, and the screen tells you what side it needs to be adjusted.

Design of the Elegoo Jupiter 2

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 is a large resin printer, and its main focal point is large-scale resin prints. However, you can print anything you want. Sadly, this printer is a bit slower than the previous models, but the quality of the 16k resolution is stunning.

The printer is mostly plastic to keep the weight down a bit for shipping and moving purposes, but it still weighs in at 40kg (88lbs). There is a front window for viewing that is UV-protected. The auto-feed system does make the printer a bit deeper due to its placement on the back side of the printer.

The overall design of the Jupiter 2 is nice and easy to navigate, and swapping out the bottles of 2kg resin is simple. The Jupiter 2's camera is placed a little high for my taste, but you can still see what is printing and get great time-lapse footage. The auto-refill is a great system to have, filling the vat when needed. It also has a reclaim system, which can empty a vat in 5 minutes from full capacity.

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 comes with a heated vat that keeps the resin at a constant 30 degrees Celsius. There is also a way to preheat the vat for those printing in lower temp climates and want to make sure that the vat is up to temp before printing.

Slicers Compatible with the Elegoo Jupiter 2

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 comes with a copy of SatelLite slicer, which is Elegoo’s own custom slicing software. At the moment, this is the only slicer that works with this machine. (I’m sure Lychee and Chitubox will follow soon enough.) I did encounter some issues printing the elephant footing, caused by a glitch in the slicer.

Even trying to raise the print off the plate at 10mm and supporting it ended up printing into the raft. So a workaround was needed. I used Chitubox for my Workspace and exported the file as an STL and then imported it into the SatelLite slicer to just slice, and it worked perfectly. I think some work can be done on this slicer to make it a little better for workflow, but if you want a single slicer for your Elegoo resin printers, then it’ll work just fine.

Washing and Curing Your Prints

Washing resin prints is a must to ensure that you get all the excess uncured resin off your prints. Most people will use 80% or higher isopropyl alcohol. Other choices include Denatured alcohol, Simple Green, Mean Green, and if you are printing water-washable resin, you can use water.

These solutions are a crucial part of removing the uncured resin properly so that the resin print can cure and be handled properly. You can use various types of wash stations to remove the uncured resin: agitation by whirlpool effect (most efficient), ultrasonic cleaners (slightly less efficient), and spray/wash systems (limited efficiency).

After the prints are washed, it is best to let them dry out for about 10 to 15 minutes, or if you're pressed for time, you can use a blow dryer.

The next step is curing. Cure times will vary depending on print size, resin type, and whether you are printing something hollow or solid. But the standard cure time is around 10 to 15 minutes.

Also, remember that your wash solution should never be thrown down the drain. Resin and resin wash are chemicals, and pouring them into the water supply is never a good idea. Please properly dispose of the waste. You can contact your local sanitation office for information on the proper disposal of chemicals. But an easy way to dispose of it yourself is to set the wash outside in an open container and leave it in direct sunlight for a few days. The wash should evaporate naturally, and the remaining resin will cure, allowing you to dispose of it properly.

Make sure to change or filter your resin wash once it gets cloudy to ensure you get the best print results. I always suggest using a pre-wash or pre-rinse setup before going into your main rinse with old resin wash to keep your main wash from getting dirty too fast.

Sample Prints on the Elegoo Jupiter 2

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 allows you to print a wide range of both big and small prints due to its large build volume.

The 16k resolution helps a ton with this printer since it is a 14-inch screen size, making the prints turn out in the highest quality.

Both of the prints I tested (Gorillaz band pack and 50mm Mini Akumamods) were exported from Chitubox and sliced in the Elegoo slicer.

I wanted to showcase the ability to print mass batches for those looking for a larger build plate and wanting to print full campaigns of minis. This mini (below) is a 3D scan of me and scaled down to 50mm. These minis printed with no issue, and you can fill the plate with about 40 on the build plate with a little bit of room left for small items.

I also wanted to go a little bigger and printed some action figures (below). Exporting the file from Chitubox into the Elegoo Slicer, these printed super easy with no issue, and the print quality was great.

Bottom Line

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 is a nice upgrade from the previous model. The new features added to the machine make this printer simple to operate and make it a very good deal at the $949 price tag.

Features like the auto-refill system make it a worry-free printing experience for users when printing larger items. As a bonus, there is a reclaim feature, so no need to struggle with funnel and pouring a large vat back into a bottle and hoping you don't spill. While it is a longer process to reclaim the resin, it's a welcomed feature for any resin printer.

The quick-change FEP (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene) system is something the community has been calling for for a long time now, and finally, Elegoo has answered. It takes mere seconds to swap out an FEP film now - no more broken bolts or lost bolts. It’s nice to see features like this being added. The only downside is that you might be stuck with that FEP, but that’s a minimal downside for me.

Having a camera on the Elegoo Jupiter 2 is a moot point for me personally, but I know several people who have gotten used to wanting to check on the progress of the print while they are away or even show friends and family a cool timelapse of their prints. I will say that the Jupiter 2 does provide a very nice, flawless timelapse. My only gripe about it is the position of the camera. It’s hard to see what, if anything, is printing for the first 100mm. All you see is the build plate. But past 100mm, it’s smooth sailing, and visibility is great.

As pointed out earlier, I feel that users might face a challenge with the doors over time. When Jupiter was first showcased at Rapid TCT back in early April 2025, I noticed the doors were plastic, and the hinges were metal. While the doors and hinges seemed to be okay at the time, I feared that with the constant opening and closing of the doors, the hinges would sag. Sure enough, by day three of Rapid TCT, with all the people looking at it, I noticed the door became a bit lopsided. It did not affect the opening or closing of the doors, but it sure did not look very good. I hope that since then, Elegoo has taken the time to update the strength of the plastic in that area to keep it from happening to the production units.

Besides my hiccup with the slicer and the size of the Jupiter 2 when it is fully open, this printer has been wonderful to use. It’s great to see how resin printers have advanced over the last year. Ease-of-use features are making it more open for those who might have been hesitant about using resin printers in the past.

All in all, I would rate this a 4.5 out of 5 stars. The big volume and ease of use make this a powerful machine in the hands of makers. While there are some minor issues to be looked at, mostly the slicer, it has been a solid machine. Of course, if you encounter any issues, you can always reach out to Elegoo’s support team for help.

So if you're looking to get into getting a large-volume resin printer, it’s safe to say the Jupiter 2 will be a great choice. Alternatively, you can check out the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max available at Amazon for $699, which also offers high-speed with big volume (but slightly smaller than the Jupiter 2). If you are not looking to go big, the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra is a smaller machine with excellent 12K resolution and is currently on sale for $427.

Prusa Research has announced a new open-source ColorMix engine for both PrusaSlicer and its web-based EasyPrint slicer, joining Snapmaker and Bambu Lab in the race to see who can best implement “Full Spectrum” color printing. Prusa Research recently went into detail on its development in a video and blog post.

Full Spectrum is a method of visually blending FDM filaments to create an endless color palette. The technique is gaining popularity with the rise of toolchangers and similar multimaterial 3D printers. The method works best when you print at ultra-thin layer heights, which toolchangers can achieve with relative speed and minimal waste.

We doubt that color mixing will replace having individual spools of precise color anytime soon. Besides the extra time, Full Spectrum colors can exhibit rather obvious banding, especially when using opaque materials. But it can create subtle shades and hues that are otherwise difficult to find. On the Benchy’s below, I used the same 75% white with 25% purple. The boat on the left used a translucent “high speed” white, which blended much better than the standard opaque white on the right.

We tested ColorMix on a 3D Benchy using a Prusa MK4 with an MMU3, and it took over 7 hours to create a 66-gram purge tower. On a Prusa XL toolchanger, the time was reduced to 2 hours and 46 minutes, with only 22 grams of waste. Prusa’s new INDX should be able to increase print speed while reducing waste to nearly nothing.

Originally developed by Radu (aka Ratdoux) using OrcaSlicer and a Snapmaker U1 toolchanger, his technique is very much like HueForge’s color painting. While HueForge images are super thin and meant to be viewed from the top down, Full Spectrum can be applied to ordinary models and is best viewed from the side.

The challenge to "filament painting” an FDM print is that plastic filaments can’t mix together like paint or ink. Instead, you need to create the illusion of color by tricking the eye. The team at Prusa Research noticed a similarity between Ratdoux’s method and halftoning, which produces color images by spacing small dots. If you've ever looked closely at printed comic books, newspapers, or magazine photos, you’ve seen halftones at work.

Paper printing presses use what’s known as CMYK, with four standard colors of ink: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. White is provided by the underlying paper. ColorMix uses five filament colors, which the team at Prusa Polymers is currently working to standardize as part of its method. If you want to try ColorMix right now, they suggest using Prusament Azure Blue, Ms. Pink, and Pineapple Yellow. We expect Prusament’s CMYKW to be a bit translucent as well, which will further help blend the color.

Prusa Research built on ideas started by others in the open-source 3D printing community: Ratdoux’s OrcaSlicer-FullSpectrum, Justin H. Rahb’s filament mixer, and the PeggyPalette model, which makes it easy to compare results. Prusa Research is also utilizing its Open Tag project, a library full of thousands of filaments from dozens of brands, and has created the Prusa FDM Mixer to virtually create new colors from filaments you already have.

We expect PrusaSlicer 3.0 to include tools that will make ColorMix even simpler to use. At the moment, you can use ColorMix by downloading a PrusaSlicer beta version 2.9.6 and using Prusa FDM Mixer separately to estimate your color values.

PrusaSlicer has always been a little clunky to use with its multicolor machines, as it was developed for the single-color MK line. While it allows you to select colors using a Windows-style color picker (RGB and HSL values), it does not let you enter filament color by name on the spool. If you want a more precise estimate, you need to manually transfer the RGB color values from the FDM Mixer to the PrusaSlicer filament selection.

Elegoo fans woke up with a groan yesterday morning, as the new 3D printer Elegoo teased on social media was not a much-hoped-for tool changer or perhaps even a non-planar 3D printer, but rather a bizarre emoji-branded edition of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2.

• ELEGOO × emoji® Centauri Carbon 2 Combo: $489 USD

Elegoo announced the new machine as a fun and creative collab with the emoji® brand, a German company that has trademarked the commercial use of emojis on physical merch and media (remember The Emoji Movie?) since 2013. The digital emoji icons we use on our phones and social media are actually controlled by the non-profit Unicode Consortium, which maintains the Unicode Standard text used by computers and mobile devices across various platforms.

The emoji edition of the Centauri Carbon 2 Combo is indeed a more lighthearted and fun-looking version, swapping out the 3D printer’s dark metal and smoked acrylic panels for a silver finish and clear panels. The sides of the machine and build plate are plastered with grinning emojis. Elegoo rounded out the collab with a selection of 17 emoji-branded PLA colors, with RFID tags that the CC2 can automatically read. The difference between this unit and the apparently boring black CC2 is largely cosmetic. We gave the CC2 four stars out of five when we reviewed it in February. We’re especially fond of Elegoo’s support of Open Source and the inclusion of a USB port for easy, no-cloud-required, file loading.

Elegoo is pitching the collab as a way to make 3D printing more appealing, most likely to younger makers, though it is simply window dressing. The heart of the machine is still a CC2, which is an exceptionally well-thought-out and easy-to-use 3D printer. The single color CC1 is still our favorite pick for the most budget-friendly 3D printer on our list of Best 3D Printers. If Elegoo thought its black cases were too dour for young makers, wouldn’t it be cheaper to just offer case color options?

Many users on Reddit are equally baffled by the collab and jealous that the new edition has easy-to-see-through clear panels. Some said they would have snapped it up if it were a CC2 Max with a larger build volume.

The emoji edition Centauri Carbon 2 comes preloaded with exclusive emoji models, which were shared with us for the printer’s launch announcement. The models range from decor and jewelry, including a printable lamp, headphone stand and headphone covers.

"The emoji® brand has always represented emotions and connection, while ELEGOO stands for empowering creativity through technology," said Kevin Wang, VP of ELEGOO. "This partnership reflects our shared belief that self-expression should be joyful, simple, and accessible to everyone. We're excited to bring that spirit into the world of 3D printing and help users turn feelings into something real."

The ELEGOO × emoji® Centauri Carbon 2 Combo is priced at $489 USD. If an emoji-branded printer will make your family’s day, you can place an order today. You can also save $40 and pick up the boring old black CC2, which is priced at $449.

Bambu Lab is launching a new, larger-sized bed slinger, the A2L, with a 330 × 320 × 325 mm build volume similar in size to the H2 lineup, but at half the price of the similarly equipped H2S. This new printer will have a more approachable $569 price tag for the combo, with a single color A2L going for $469. Bambu has already nicknamed this machine the “H2S Lite.”

• Bambu Lab A2L 3D Printer from $469

The A2L’s 330x320mm build plate is twice the size of its standard 256 x 256mm plate featured in the A1, P1S, P2S, X1, and X2D. This makes the new machine a decent-sized printer for cosplayers, as anything over 300x300 is considered a “helmet class” 3D printer. For comparison, this is a smidge bigger than Creality CR-10, and a touch smaller than a Prusa Research XL. Our current pick for Best Cosplay printer is the Anycubic Kobra 3 Max, which boasts a whopping 420 x 420mm build plate. Once our full review is finished, we’ll need to revisit that ranking.

To compensate for the printer’s extra mass, Bambu Lab swapped out traditional stepper motors for closed-loop PMSM servo motors, which actively track position to eliminate the layer shifts that are too common on oversized bed-slingers. Additionally, it features a new adaptive vibration compensation system that runs a multi-point calibration to dynamically adjust to tall, heavy prints. Combined with two physical granular dampers embedded directly into the frame to absorb vibration, Bambu claims the A2L can achieve clean, ghosting-free surfaces that rival Core-XY print quality.

The A2L nozzle can hit 300 °C, while the bed can only reach 80 °C, a concession to its massive size and the excessive power that would be required to maintain high temperatures without an enclosure. Because this is an open-frame printer, it would not be able to reliably print ABS, ASA, or other high-temperature filaments, so the lower heat levels will not be missed. Bambu Lab does not advise putting any of the A-series printers inside an enclosure to protect the printer’s electronics, which are tucked into the base, directly underneath the heated bed. Trapping the mainboard inside a warm box would cause overheating and shorten the lifespan of the electrical components.

The A2L can be upgraded with a Blade Cutting kit, similar to what we first saw on the Bambu Lab H2D. This will include a cutting blade, pen holder, and cutting plate for the bed. Being an open-frame printer, there will be no laser upgrade.

Bambu Lab is positioning the A2L as the ultimate family 3D Printer, capable of printing home decor and the types of large crafts that delight children. The addition of a cutting tool and plotting pen will make paper crafting, sticker making, and vinyl t-shirt iron-ons a breeze.

Combos will be paired with the traditional AMS Lite, but the A2L will also be able to run an AMS or AMS 2 Pro with the addition of an AMS Hub, available for $19.99. This hub provides not only the appropriate data cable, but also a one-to-four filament switcher.

If you want to 3D print industrial-sized, large-scale models, like tables, chairs, and life-sized statues, then a pellet printer is the way to go. With a 5mm nozzle that’s more than 10 times the size of standard desktop machines, the MAMA-1000 pellet 3D printer from Modix can seriously chew through some polymer.

This is where industrial pellet printers have the advantage. Melting pellets, with their greater surface area, is faster and more efficient than melting a strand of plastic. The MAMA-1000 is equipped with a Canadian-made DYZE Design Pulsar pellet print head, which has three heating zones and a screw to push plastic granules out a 3 to 5mm nozzle with a whopping 3kg an hour throughput.

Pellets are also extremely economical, with the PLA going for as little as $2 a kilo when bought in bulk. Printing pellets skips over the manufacturing process required for turning plastic into reels of filament we feed to 'normal' sized desktop 3D printers, like many of our best picks. It’s also the same raw material the plastics industry has been using for injection molding for nearly a hundred years.

For prints requiring more “fine details”, the MAMA-1000 can swap its tool head for a Modix Griffin Ultra that uses standard 1.75mm filament and a 1.6mm nozzle. Closed-loop Nema23 Motors track the tool head with precision for greater accuracy.

The fully enclosed MAMA-1000 has a cubic meter build volume, making it capable of printing anything from PLA to nylon. Though the same size as the mammoth Orange Storm Giga we reviewed in my living room, this machine is on the small side for Modix. Modix, a company that specializes in large-format printing, has printers large enough to print a couple of Wookiees in one go.

The MAMA-1000 uses compressed air to push pellets from a hopper into the extruder. Buyers can add a 25kg dryer, a pigment mixer for custom colors, and an IDEX-style dual print head for printing supports.

“The MAMA-1000 is an important expansion of our MAMA family,” said Shachar Gafni, CEO of Modix in a press release. “Not every customer needs the full size of the MAMA-1700, but many still want the unique flexibility of combining pellet and filament extrusion in one professional system. The MAMA-1000 answers those needs by offering a more compact format without compromising on versatility.”

Those interested in acquiring a MAMA-1000 are advised that this new model starts at $35,000 and ships fully assembled. The purchase price also includes professional installation, so you can put away those hex keys.

California's Assembly has passed AB 2047, the California Firearm Printing Prevention Act, sending the amended bill to the state Senate after it was amended on May 18 and ordered to a third reading the following day. The proposal would require every 3D printer sold in the state to ship with "firearm blocking technology" that screens a design file before a print job can begin, and it goes further than parallel bills in New York, Washington, and Colorado by making it a misdemeanor for owners to disable or circumvent that system, a provision the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues would effectively criminalize third-party open-source firmware.

Introduced in February by Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, the bill would add a new title to the state's Civil Code and lean heavily on the California Department of Justice. The agency would investigate existing firearm blueprint detection algorithms and publish performance standards by January 1, 2028.

Printer makers would then file a sworn attestation for each model by July 1, 2028, with false statements punishable as perjury, and the DOJ would publish a list of compliant models by September 1, 2028. From March 1, 2029, selling a non-compliant printer in the state would carry a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per violation.

The anti-circumvention clause distinguishes AB 2047 from other efforts by states like Washington and Colorado. In its published analysis, the EFF described the bill as mandating "censorware" on every 3D printer and warned that blocking users from modifying their own machines would lock them into manufacturer ecosystems, mirroring the consumable lock-in and planned obsolescence seen in 2D inkjet printers. Authors Cliff Braun and Rory Mir wrote that reselling a printer dropped from the state's compliant list could expose the seller to misdemeanor charges, something that has already mobilized the maker community, which relies on open firmware such as Marlin and Klipper, that the clause would put at risk.

AB 2047 doesn’t require a perfect detection rate, and its performance standards must account for both false positives and false negatives. Opponents note that firearm components share geometry with ordinary mechanical parts, that minor edits to a file change its digital signature, and that analysis capable of catching either may exceed the compute available on consumer printers, pushing checks to remote servers and raising privacy and connectivity questions.

Supporters, meanwhile, argue that the measure closes a huge gap in enforcement; Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan's office, in announcing the legislation, cited a Santa Rosa seizure of three printers and 167 firearms, 150 of which had obliterated serial numbers, and highlighted an Everytown for Gun Safety report finding that recoveries of 3D-printed guns rose 1,000% across 20 cities between 2020 and 2024.

The bill exempts printers sold to licensed firearms manufacturers, law enforcement, and propmaking studios, but not consumer machines in schools, libraries, or makerspaces. It now moves to the state Senate for consideration.

A Hawaii-based startup has just submitted a six-meter 3D-printed boat for consideration by the Pentagon. According to 3D Printing Industry, Voltage Vessels used a CEAD large-format additive manufacturing system to build the rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB), which makes it easier to manufacture at forward locations. So, instead of relying on a 6,545-mile logistics supply chain (the distance between Naha Airport in Okinawa and San Diego International Airport), naval forces can just 3D print these boats from digital files as needed.

Voltage is also using another novel breakthrough in the material for its 3D-printed boats. Instead of relying on traditional fiberglass and plastic construction, these boats are printed using recycled PETG plastic combined with chopped basalt fiber. This material has significantly higher tensile strength compared to the HDPro material currently used by CEAD 3D printers for maritime use. More importantly, the basaltic material, which the company calls Eclipse X9, has no electrical conductivity. Although its transparency for specific radio frequencies is still being evaluated, it theoretically has the advantage of reducing its radar cross section (RCS), as well as avoiding interference with the various signals that autonomous naval systems rely on.

The U.S. Navy is actively looking into large-scale additive manufacturing (more popularly known as 3D printing) as a way to streamline production and manufacture components where they’re needed. There are plans to deploy 100 large-format metal 3D printers in bases and other locations across the world, which could help simplify logistics for the U.S. military’s global footprint. However, these are so far limited to components — Voltage Vessels’ proposal scales this up to include boat hulls. The startup also envisions an annual output of 15,000 metric tons. Considering that a single 20-foot (6-meter) RHIB weighs around 1,300 pounds (about 600 kg), that could mean as many as 25,000 hulls annually (although this may vary depending on the design and sizes of the boats being printed.

The basaltic fiber used in the Eclipse X9 is also an interesting solution. Other researchers have also been experimenting with volcanic material, such as this “spray-on” stealth coating designed for use on drones and other small uncrewed vessels. While RCS reduction relies on a combination of geometry and radar-absorbent materials, the diminutive size of these vehicles meant that they could gain an advantage through the use of RF-transparent materials even though their forms aren’t exactly optimized for stealth.

Bambu Lab dropped a teaser Thursday morning, announcing the A2L, a mysterious new 3D printer launching on June 1. Normally, Bambu Lab sends Tom’s Hardware review units well in advance of printer launches, but today we are just as surprised as you to hear about this machine, so let’s engage in a little friendly speculation, shall we?

Bambu Lab has been refreshing its original lineup of 3D printers, starting with the popular P2S and most recently the X2D, which we still consider to be the best all-around 3D printer you could buy. It’s a no-brainer that the A1 would be next on the list, which could put to rest concerns over design flaws in a machine that is one of the most affordable entry points for new makers wanting a color 3D printer.

I popped over to the Bambu Lab forum to see what fans were saying about the bare bones announcement, which did not show a machine but only a six-color 3D printed “baby announcement” popping out of an envelope, complete with stickers and markers.

Among the wild speculation that the new machine could have a laser, cutter, Vortek, dual nozzles, and even an open frame CORE XY build, was one user, Professional3D, who claimed to have wrung info from the Bambu Lab chatbot.

We were unable to duplicate Professional3D’s chatbot shenanigans, so it’s unknown if this is an actual leak or just someone feeding the trolls on the forum with hearsay. However, the notion that the L in A2L stands for LARGE, and using a 330x320 build plate similar in size to the H2 lineup, would follow with Bambu Labs current scheme of standardizing parts across various models. For example, the quick swap nozzle currently in use in the X2D, P2S, and H2 lines all started with the original A1 nozzle.

Fans of Bambu Lab have long pined for a larger machine, while the H2S’s massive 325x320x325mm build volume soothes that need; it comes with a noticeably larger price tag. The H2S Combo is $1499, $1100 more than the very affordable A1 Combo’s $399. For years, other manufacturers have offered super-sized bed slingers, like Anycubic’s four-color Kobra 3 Max, Elegoo’s Neptune 4 Max, and Creality’s Cr-M4.

Some forum users focused on the “creative playground” headline and the animated sticker placement, wondering if this machine could have a laser or cutter like the H2D. A laser would be out of the question for an unenclosed bed slinger, but a plotter-style cutting blade (which the H2D also has) could definitely work. The H2D toolhead, and more importantly, the underutilized Bambu Suite, can easily hold a knife or pen for carrying out Cricut-style crafting.

Other users noticed that six colors were used in the announcement and wondered if the A2L could have a Vortek nozzle swapping system like the H2C. That would be highly unlikely, unless the A2L is also a CoreXY machine. A bed slinger (like the A1) simply has no place to hang the rack needed for a Vortek. It's more likely that the A2L can use two or more AMS systems, which would expand its range to 8 colors and beyond.

18 months ago, a 3D printing enthusiast challenged himself with the task of printing a 3DBenchy in under a minute. Over the weekend, the first sub-60-second 3DBenchy output was shared on YouTube. Join Yan Roetz on the final furlong of this 3D printing journey (the 20th episode) and understand the motion, heat, and cooling challenges that had to be overcome.

Roetz was already the holder of the 3DBenchy world speed record, adhering to SpeedBoatRace rules, with a time of 74 seconds. He recognized that shaving another 15 seconds off that time would need considerable design changes to the specially designed Minuteman 3D printer. The three main considerations behind a successful under-a-minute attempt were thought to remain the same – maintaining rapid material flow, capable cooling, and an optimized motion system. However, the maker thought that the Minuteman was capable enough to achieve a sub-60-sec 3DBenchy by reworking the motion system alone.

In summary, Roetz thought the Minuteman hotend, designed to be capable of 400mm/s filament flow, wouldn’t hold back the record 3D printing attempt. Neither would its cooling air duct system, which the maker said could deliver about 400 liters of air per minute (additional cooling possible using gas such as helium). As we said above, the bed’s motion system was the current bottleneck, and the tech that Roetz said would be completely revamped for this 20th episode.

You can see Roetz get stuck into the motion system redesign process from around 11 minutes into the lengthy video above. We note that the key changes implemented were to significantly reduce the mass of the moving components (such as the pulley ‘wheels’) to reduce system inertia. The use of carbon fiber and custom-cut parts also facilitated extreme acceleration.

The first sub-minute run was achieved and documented at around 37 minutes into the episode. Then Roetz took the opportunity to iterate and fine-tune some more settings on the granite slab-mounted Minuteman to achieve the best quality.

The quality of the sub-second 3DBenchy is pretty good considering the speed. Roetz also compared it to the first sub-2-minute version he output about a year prior, and the new one was clearly better. A 3D scan of the final output is available for you to scrutinize.

A drone-loving duo just unofficially broke the drone speed world record when they achieved a maximum speed of 453 mph (730 kph or 394 kts) in a single run — for context, most jetliners cruise at around 550 mph (885 kph or 478 kts). The two drone builders, Aidan and Ben, had previously set a record of 388 mph (626 kph or 338 kts) in December 2025, but were soon defeated by the Bell father-and-son team with the 408 mph Peregreen V4. So, to reclaim their crown, they ordered new propellers for the 'Blackbird' and shared their test run on the Drone Pro Hub YouTube channel.

The team’s secret sauce is their custom carbon fiber propeller blades that were specially handmade for this purpose. These featured high-pitch blades (whose pitch angle is a secret for now) that are angled more towards the direction of flight compared to the blades used in previous attempts. This made them more efficient at high speeds as the props are more parallel to the airflow compared to other propellers with a lower pitch angle. One downside to this, though, is that it delivers less power at low speeds — like when taking off or hovering — so the motors must use more battery power during this (rather short) stage of flight.

Another finesse of the design is evident in the sawtooth leading edges found on the custom blades. These generate vortices on the surface of the blade, helping prevent the air from sliding sideways along the blade instead of flowing straight back off its trailing edge to push the drone forward. They also stabilize the boundary layer, or the thin layer of air that acts like a “lubricant” and reduces drag on the propeller itself. This is crucial as it allows the propellers to have a steeper angle without stalling (if the angle is too steep it acts more like a blender than a propeller).

These changes seemed to have pushed the team’s drone further, as it achieved 393 mph (633 kph or 341 kts) in its first test run. Unfortunately, physics got the better of them, as antenna geometry, the Doppler effect, and signal overload caused the drone to lose connection from the controller at such a high speed. The two did not bother attempting to recover it, as they knew that it was lost for good at these speeds. Furthermore, even if the drone lost connection right in front of the controller, it would have traveled miles at its current speed before it would have crashed.

Thankfully, they still had another drone available for testing and another set of their updated propellers. So, they set out again the following day and continued their tests. It seemed that they only had enough batteries for two test runs, and adverse weather was quickly approaching, so they had to set up quickly and get to flying. It was also a windy day, so they made one downwind flight and one upwind flight, and they just averaged the speeds between the two to get a rather fair result.

It was on the downwind test flight that they achieved their record 453 mph, which is above the 441-mph record that they initially hoped for. However, when they accounted for the 34-mph tailwind, this meant that the drone only had an actual airspeed of 419 mph (674 kph or 364 kts). For their final test run, the duo achieved 397 mph (640 kph or 345 kts) against the wind. They averaged the two runs, getting a figure of 425 mph (685 kph or 369 kts) — this might be a bit short of the more than 434 mph (700 kph or 377 kts) they hoped to achieve, but it still beats the current world record.

Official record next?

Their final drone was damaged a bit when it landed hard after the last test run, as the batteries ran completely flat just a few feet off the ground. Nevertheless, this is still repairable, and the two should hopefully be able to get their drone running again for an official record attempt this time. As for the first drone that crashed, the owner of the land where they were conducting the testing found it completely mangled, but that’s already expected.

If you want to make your own attempt at achieving the drone world speed record, you can actually get guidance through their Drone Pro Hub website. And while they use custom propeller blades made by a professional, you can actually 3D print the body and other components at home with one of the best 3D printers you can buy.

Bambu Lab is once more in hot water after user Moreiras3D posted a video of a melted A1 3D printer to Instagram. The footage shows an A1 with its side completely melted down to the metal chassis, but some of the key details behind the incident remain unknown. The resulting heat appears to have been powerful enough that another A1 sitting next to it has a damaged cord.

The video itself does not explain what happened, and plays a Contemporary Brazilian gospel soundtrack. The second half of the video shows a young boy unboxing a new A1 while watching an assembly video by StlFlix, who also hails from Brazil. The comments are mostly in Portuguese, but sifting through them with the help of Google Gemini to translate, we get some of the story.

“My machine has been in use for 3 months and already has recent reports from several others that the same thing happened,” said Moreiras3D. In a follow-up reply, he notes the printer was on a surge protector, but that the fire started on the machine itself, not the outlet.

At first glance, it would appear this is the result of a faulty NTC thermistor we reported on in January. At that time, YouTuber Grant Posner (3D Musketeers) was finding an alarming number of A1 printers with charred or melted cases, but none appeared as severe as this one from Moreiras3D.

The known issue stems from the A1’s AC power distribution board operating above normal temperatures and posing a risk of fire. The AC power board uses an NTC thermistor to limit inrush current and is active only while the printer is rapidly warming up. Bambu Lab responded that no fires had been reported at that time, and that its printers comply with applicable safety standards and use flame-retardant materials. The company also said it would fix the issue on printers going forward.

The red arrow in the image points to the NTC on the A1’s power board.

Some disgruntled community members on BambuLab’s Reddit are of the opinion that the A1 needs to be recalled, with Louis Rossmann echoing their sentiments with a video titled “Bambu Lab PR Dumpster fire is turning into a literal one”.

However, others are doubtful that Moreiras3D’s A1 caught fire due to the same NTC thermistor issue. For one thing, the machine is relatively new and most likely from the stock that Bambu manufactured after correcting the faulty part.

While Bambu told Tom’s Hardware in January that conditions causing the NTC thermistor to fail were rare, they had changed the hardware in Q3 2025, which could be well over 8 months ago.

Furthermore, some sharp-eyed Redditors questioned the video, filmed well after the fire, but showing a large melted plastic object under a dish towel. Below, we pieced together a series of images from the Instagram reel to give a clearer view of the whole desk layout.

“So that burned mess between the two A1 printers would point to something really big going on there, and the damage to the side of the A1 on the right could be caused by proximity to whatever happened in the middle. Without any video evidence of the fire happening, we're left to speculate with the video we have available (and some mildly annoying music). I'm not saying the A1 didn't have a failure, but I'm not going to make the evidence fit the narrative; it has to be the other way around for this to work,” said Redditor Spyglass.

Grant Posner, posting under his Reddit handle Mobius1ace5, confirmed he has reached out to the owner of the burnt machine in hopes of solving this mystery.

“Yes I am assuming it's stemming from the NTC. The rags there likely factor in some too. And no, it's at the same place I believe. It's why we have contacted the user to not only get more info but to try and buy the machine so we can have it tested. Anything else is pure conjecture,” he said.

The Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to legally protecting open-source software, said that Bambu Lab has violated the licenses that its slicer used as it looked into the company after the 3D printer manufacturer threatened to sue independent developer Paweł Jarczak.

Jarczak built an OrcaSlicer fork (called OrcaSlicer-bambulab) that bypassed the company’s Bambu Connect service, and was soon served with a cease-and-desist and a demand for the removal of their work from GitHub. According to the SFC, the company’s restrictions violate AGPLv3, the license its software is based on, which says one cannot put additional limitations on the rights granted under the copyleft agreement.

The company’s troubles began when it accused Jarczak’s fork of impersonating Bambu Studio, bypassing their authorization controls, and violating their Terms of Use. The 3D printer manufacturer also alleged that the developer used “reverse engineering” of its closed-source software and said it “could allow modified forks to send arbitrary commands to printers.” The company says that the bambu_networking plugin included in Bambu Studio, which handles all communication for the slicer, is proprietary. Because of this, it says reverse engineering the protocol that the plugin used, which Jarczak did to create their own Rust implementation, violates Bambu’s Terms of Service.

The company told All3DP in a statement, "The AGPL, the DMCA, and Bambu Lab’s terms do not permit reverse engineering that violates applicable protocols, rules, or circumvents technical protection measures protecting our cloud services." It also added, "From the beginning, our preference has been dialogue, not confrontation. At this stage, rather than escalating conflict, we are focusing on strengthening our own infrastructure and protection measures moving forward. Interim measures have already been implemented. Security will continue to be strengthened in future releases, and we recommend that users update to the latest version in a timely manner."

On the other hand, the SFC contends that because bambu_networking is required to run the Bambu Studio, it falls under AGPLv3, which the Bambu Lab’s slicer is licensed under. Bambu Studio itself is a fork of PrusaSlicer, which was also based on Slic3r. The original Slic3r uses AGPLv3, meaning every derivative under it, including Bambu Studio, must use the same license. The fact that bambu_networking is flagged as proprietary breaks the copyleft license and violates several clauses in the license agreement.

This has been going on for years now, but it’s the company’s actions against Jarczak that finally caused an uproar in the 3D printing community. Joseph Prusa himself, the chief of Prusa Research and the creator of PrusaSlicer on which Bambu Studio is based on, said that it was violating the AGPLv3 license, and that Bambu Lab’s actions raise red flags when it comes to security. Right-to-repair advocates are also rallying behind the developer, with YouTuber Louis Rossman saying that he will support Jarczak up to $10,000 for their legal expenses, with Gamers Nexus matching that amount. Furthermore, Rossman said that he’ll host the fork on his own FULU (Freedom from Unethical Limitations) Foundation GitHub and dared the company to take legal action against him.

Bambu Lab is one of the biggest names in the 3D printing industry, with the company reportedly boasting a valuation of billions of dollars and having overtaken Creality as the world’s best-selling budget 3D printer brand. This is why many enthusiasts are concerned, as it apparently moves away from open-source software and towards proprietary apps. But as long as it uses software based on AGPLv3-licensed components, it has no choice but to comply with those requirements.

As for the trouble that Bambu Lab's response on Jarczak's fork stirred, the company said to All3DP: "We nonetheless regret that our reference to Terms of Service, legal context and a potential C&D understandably came across as a legal threat. That was not the outcome we wanted."

An electronics, automobile, and DIY enthusiast has turned an old smartwatch into an interactive gear shift display in his 2001 Audi A4 (B5) luxury compact executive car. The project started as just a bit of digital bling for the gear stick, but inspired by fellow Redditor comments, Desmontei vibe coded a WearOS app to add gear indicator and media control gestures to the repurposed digital dial. The watch face was secured to the gear stick very carefully, using a 3D-printed mount with tight tolerances.

Don't throw away old smartwatches! 3D printed a custom housing to turn one into a Digital Shift Knob. ♻️🕹️ from r/3Dprinting

The video shared in Desmontei’s Reddit post shows the smartwatch display changing to match the current gear stick selection. It appears to work as expected, but it wasn’t easy to ensure it reliably reported the correct gear selection. The watch’s accelerometer and gyroscope read the angle of the stick to work out what gear the car is in. However, the data can be thrown off when going uphill or downhill, so dynamic calibration had to be added to the algorithm.

Desmontei’s repurposed TicWatch Pro 3 also doubles as an intuitive media controller. When driving, you can change tracks in Spotify with back, forward, and pause swipes on the screen. The techy DIYer intends to add yet more functionality in due course. Specifically, ‘Phase 2’ will link it up “to an OBD2 scanner via Tasker for live telemetry (RPM, Temp).”

For those who might wish to follow in Desmontei’s footsteps, there’s a lengthy (2 hrs) video to check out on the Desmontei YouTube channel. But, briefly, the DIYer “took an old TicWatch Pro 3 smartwatch and carefully cut the original casing with a rotary tool to extract just the OLED screen and motherboard. Then, I modeled a custom shift knob enclosure to house the electronics perfectly.”

The prototype’s tolerances had to be extremely tight “because I didn't want the screen popping out while shifting gears, and PLA was the easiest to test the fitment,” it is explained. If/when this prototype warps or breaks, “I'll use it as an excuse to reprint V2 in ABS or PETG,” Desmontei added. It’s a neat integrated solution, as the design bypasses the watch battery and is wired directly to the car’s 12V electrics.

Another change that may come in V2 could be the use of a second (reference) gyroscopic sensor in the car to make the gear shift position calculations more reliable. Desmontei's other exploits also include PlayStation and handheld modifications, as seen on their website.

While the internet is up in arms over Bambu Lab threatening legal action against an indy OrcaSlicer developer, Josef Prusa once again warns of sheep in wolves' clothing. Prusa, the founder and CEO of Prusa Research and proponent of open source, has often noted that his company is the last Western manufacturer of desktop 3D printers still standing after China began subsidizing manufacturers within its borders.

Prusa recently took to X to explain how the competition has been violating his company’s slicer AGPL-3.0 license since day one, and how that violation is not just an open source issue, but a security issue. While many 3D printing enthusiasts are printing flexi dragons and shelf brackets rather than top secret files, the problem still exists.

First the Open Source Problem in 3D Printing Slicer Software

Prusa Research clearly states in Prusa Slicer’s start-up screen that it is based on Slic3r by Alessandro Ranellucci, despite years of improvement that have, like the Ship of Theseus, slowly replaced the code with improvements.

Anycubic, Bambu Lab, Creality, Elegoo, Flashforge, Snapmaker, and Sovol all have slicers resting on a foundation laid down by PrusaSlicer. The family tree is quite messy, with some slicers being more directly related to open-source OrcaSlicer, which is a fork of Bambu Studio, which is based on PrusaSlicer.

“BambuStudio has been violating the PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork, with the same networking binary black box in question today. Why are they willing to burn the goodwill over it?” Prusa said on X.

PrusaSlicer is licensed under AGPL-3.0, a strong “copyleft” license that allows users to use, copy, and expand on the original software. The only catch is that you must keep your new derivative open-source as well.

“You take from the community, you give back to the community. That's the social contract,” Prusa said. He said that Bambu’s fork of PrusaSlicer is fine, but the networking plugin is closed-source, which is in violation of AGPL-3.0.

Bambu’s defense is that the slicer and the network plugin are separate works, but Prusa said the argument falls apart in practice. “BS (Bambu Studio) cannot do its primary job without the plugin. The plugin cannot do anything without BS. They are not two products that happen to talk to each other, they are one product split across two files for PR license-laundering convenience,” he said. “Under AGPL, that's still a violation.”

Prusa’s point starts to crumble a bit at this point, because Bambu Studio can technically be used without the cloud if you set up the hardware in LAN mode or move files by hand using an SD card or USB stick. But the convenience of cloud printing is a major selling factor of Bambu Lab printers, to the point that many new users are so enamored by convenience, they never learn how to use the computer interface and simply send files from MakerWorld to their printer via the phone app over the cloud.

Prusa pointed out that you can not audit the network plugin like you can with Bambu Studio. It is downloaded from a CDN and can be replaced remotely upon launching your 3D printer.

Prusa Research considered legal action when they first discovered Bambu Lab on their network in 2021. At that time, Prusa Slicer had just introduced opt-in anonymous telemetry.

“We started seeing entries in our database labeled "BambuSlicer." We hadn't heard of BambuStudio yet. Their internal builds were accidentally configured to send telemetry to our servers instead of theirs, “ he said on X. “That's how we found out a fork existed, before they publicly launched.”

In the end, Prusa Research decided to leave its fledgling competitor alone, due to the difficulty in protecting software. Without a physical product to pass through customs, it would be impossible to force compliance.

“A license without a viable enforcement path is, in practice, a suggestion. So Bambu got away with it. The networking blob kept doing whatever it did. And many “we are sorry”s later we land here today - legal threats to a small developer opening their tiny black box,” he said.

And Now the Security Problem

Prusa went on to explain something many in the West are unaware of, which is the extent to which the Chinese government is intertwined in the business and industry of its citizens. This means that even if an individual from that nation had the best of intentions, they are still duty-bound to the laws of the state.

This might be a good time to remember the case of Naomi Wu, a Chinese tech reviewer and white hat hacker with a flamboyant style of dress who once gave her audience tours of daily Shenzhen life. At one point, she was the Chinese It Girl, with her face on the Creality CR-30, a belt printer she helped to develop.

She disappeared from the internet in 2023, shortly after trying to warn consumers of spyware in a Chinese keyboard app.

Prusa went on to explain a five-law framework China has built between 2017 and 2023 that requires citizens to not only assist in intelligence gathering, but also hand over the keys to all encryption to their government.

“Together they describe a system with no neutral exits. Cooperation is required, encryption is real, but the spare keys live at the ministry, jurisdiction follows the company across borders, industrial data is in scope, and discovered vulnerabilities flow to an intelligence agency,” Prusa explained.

After outlining the problem, Prusa goes on to fully color in the picture. He believes that the Chinese government is invested in the success of 3D printing because machines are used in the very offices and workshops where new ideas are created.

“Second, 3D printers concentrate at the places where new IP is created. R&D departments, prototype shops, defense suppliers, university labs, hardware startups. The machine sits next to the thing being invented. And the slicer sits on your computer with the same data and access you have,” Prusa said.

And it’s not just 3D printers. Prusa believes these values can extend to every industry, such as cameras, cars, and AI coding models.

A keen nozzle-head has dramatically sped up their 3D printer using the portable power of a Nintendo Switch. Cocoanix 3D Printing shared a video earlier this week demonstrating the Switch-powered acceleration of their venerable Prusa MK3S. Instead of taking 90 minutes to output the famous standard 3DBenchy tugboat model, the Nvidia-accelerated MK3S took a brisk sub-nine minutes. Should you repurpose your Switch to accelerate your 3D printer? That, of course, depends…

In the video above, Cocoanix boasts about not just the increased performance but quality improvements. Using Klipper instead of Prusa’s custom firmware (originally based on Marlin years ago) delivers modern features like more extensive planning, advanced vibration compensation, and other techniques. As well as getting your output in a fraction of the time, “less ringing and ghosting” will be present in the output, according to Cocoanix.

Klipper is also a champ when it comes to configuration, with a simple and easily editable text file ready for tweaks. More traditional firmware recompilation techniques for the granular control here are thus simply not necessary. Moreover, while the printer’s motion‑control firmware is replaced by Klipper, the user interface is handled through the slick Mainsail/Fluidd web dashboard.

Thanks to the power of the Switch and Klipper, with the Prusa MK3S, the bottleneck stops being processing power or advanced features, and is instead the 3D printer’s hotend and extruder. Running the new Input Shaper, the TechTuber manages to push the MK3S “to its absolute speed limit: 400mm/s at 17,000mm/s² of acceleration.”

Modern 3D printers aren’t so short on horsepower

The touch screen Switch is a great add-on for the Prusa MK3S. However, the MK3S is of a certain vintage now, and while contemporary designs addressing the same market may suffer from similar processing bottlenecks, adding an SBC or Switch to a modern 3D printer may not be so desirable.

Here, instead of motion planning running on the 8-bit microcontroller on the system motherboard, the machine is enhanced by Klipper, farming out all the heavy compute work to the attached handheld console with a quad-core Nvidia SoC.

Users of devices like the MK3S usually employ something like a Raspberry Pi or connect to their laptop to accelerate and advance their 3D printing. The use of the Nintendo here is mostly stylish tech flair – but the integrated touchscreen might be welcomed by some.

Practicalities

A large segment of the Cocoanix video is devoted to showing folks how to install and setup Klipper on a Switch with Ubuntu Linux installed. We are then guided through how to configure and flash the MK3S to complete this project.

To witness the 3DBenchy results, you can skip forward to around 7 minutes 50 seconds in the video, where you see the little tugboat successfully printed in under nine minutes (8 minutes 41 seconds while adhering to SpeedBenchy rules, says Cocoanix).

The result looks a bit rough, but this is primarily due to how the aforementioned hotend and extruder have become the bottleneck. We’d also suggest that cooling and the bed‑slinger Y‑axis are also near their physical limits, as the design stands.

More people are taking a stand against Bambu Lab and its opposition to open source firmware, as Louis Rossmann posted yet another YouTube video taunting the 3D printing juggernaut into taking legal action. In the video, he stated the contentious fork of OrcaSlicer-BambuLab was now hosted on his own FULU (Freedom from Unethical Limitations) Foundation GitHub. This is the version of OrcaSlicer that promised to restore the direct cloud connectivity that the company stripped away in early 2025, a move that many in the 3D printing community saw as the first step in locking the garden gates for Bambu Lab users.

Bambu Lab, a company with estimated revenue approaching $1 billion USD, threatened Independent developer Pawel Jarczak with a cease-and-desist over the free program. He then took the project down.

Rossmann, an advocate for Right to Repair and fully owning the products one purchases. He offered $10,000 in legal aid to Jarczak if he would keep his code posted, and encouraged his 2.5 million YouTube followers to contribute to the cause as well. Gamers Nexus followed suit by also hosting Jarczak’s OrcaSlicer-BambuLab code on its GitHub and pledging an additional $10,000 to the legal fund.

Jeff Geerling, a respected Open Source software engineer, fan of Raspberry Pi’s, and owner of a Bambu Lab P1S, posted a YouTube video to his one million subscribers the same morning, saying that he would not purchase another Bambu Lab printer after this incident.

Jarczak was crowdfunding a modest $500 donation to buy a Klipper-based 3D printer for project testing. Despite Jarczak’s insistence that his fork relied entirely on publicly available AGPL-licensed code from Bambu’s own repository, he expressed no desire to tangle with the massive 3D printer company and took down the software.

Snapmaker has since stepped in with a donation of a Snapmaker U1 tool changer, which runs open-source Klipper, for Jarczak’s continued work. “We support creators, developers, and makers who contribute to the mission of democratizing the art of creation, develop open-source projects, and push the boundaries of 3D printing and maker hardware,” Blayne Sapelli, Snapmaker’s Head of PR, told Tom’s Hardware in a Discord private message. “We welcome them into our ecosystem and have provided machines, financial support, and engineering resources to a wide range of projects. You can expect to hear much more about these efforts in the near future.”

Bambu Lab maintains that this whole issue is a matter of structural vulnerability and stability for their cloud servers. In a blog post titled “Setting the record straight on Cloud Access and Community,” the company attempted to clarify its take on software modification. The company admitted that Bambu Studio is an open-source project under the AGPL-3.0 license, which is free to modify as users see fit.

“At the same time, a license for code is not a pass to our cloud infrastructure,” the company said. These are two separate things, and the company insists that Jarczak’s fork crossed the line by injecting falsified identity metadata into its network communication. “In simple terms: it pretended to be the official Bambu Studio client when communicating with our servers.”

The post closed with a reminder that Bambu Studio can be run in LAN Mode or Developer Mode for those who do not wish to interact with its cloud network. They also invited the community to participate in its “Bug Bounty Program,” which rewards users for reporting security vulnerabilities in either its hardware or software through the proper channels. The amount of the rewards was not listed.

A startup called Vitriform3D has developed an innovative 3D printing process that makes use of the abundance of post-consumer glass. In collaboration with experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), the fledgling firm is already making high-value products from waste glass material that may have ended up in a landfill.

In the video above, we hear how Vitriform3D collects and recycles glass from Knoxville residents and businesses to provide the bulk of raw materials to drive forward its business.

Ordinarily, glass recyclers are quite fussy with colors and grades of glass, etc., and a lot of energy is used to melt and reform post-consumer glass to make new products/packaging. Vitriform3D doesn’t seem as particular, as all its process requires is crushed bottles. We see in the video, and on the firm’s website, that it does sometimes separate certain colors before crushing, as that provides more interesting ‘inks’ for its 3D printing process.

Binder jet technology is the patent-pending process behind Vitriform3D’s products that embody a philosophy of “sustainability that sparkles.” Using this method, the firm has already enjoyed success in producing and marketing a range of kitchen countertops, floor tiles, architectural wall accents, and more.

“You take a thin layer of material, most times it's powder. It can be metal powder, it can be ceramic powder,” explains Ryan Dehoff from ORNL’s MDF in the video, embedded above. “We lay that powder out in a very thin sheet. And then we essentially take an ink jet [printer] head, and we put some sort of binder agent where we want to print or glue that material together.” From then on, all the binder jet 3D printer needs to do is repeat the process, again and again, building up a 3D object. Optimizing the binder agent's chemical formula has been one of the more important parts of this project.

It is noted that binder jet tech isn’t limited to glass. The process can use “almost any material” in powder form as the major constituent, according to the video. Glass is a particularly innovative choice, though, because of its physical properties, colors, and abundance.

Overall, the binder jet process sounds like something that would scale up well. We’d also welcome the patent-pending process scaling down to the desktop/hobbyist 3D printer space.

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a three-sided zipper that transforms 3D-printed floppy structures into rigid, load-bearing forms in seconds. The mechanism, called the “Y-Zipper,” can rapidly assemble beams, arches, robotic limbs, and deployable frameworks — potentially opening the door to adaptive robots, fast-deploying shelters, and reconfigurable medical devices.

Unlike conventional zippers that connect two flat surfaces in 2D, the Y-Zipper joins three flexible arms into a rigid 3D triangular tube. When open or unzipped, the structure behaves like soft plastic strips or floppy tentacles, with each arm flexing and twisting independently. Once zipped shut with a custom slider, however, the arms interlock to form a stiff, beam-like structure capable of supporting loads.

The concept originated in 1985 with MIT professor William Freeman, who proposed a triangular zipper system intended to rapidly assemble objects such as tents, furniture, and containers. At the time, however, manufacturing limitations made the design impractical. Freeman patented the design with the hope that fabrication technology would eventually catch up. Nearly four decades later, modern 3D printers and computational design tools finally enabled researchers to revisit the idea.

The CSAIL team developed software that allows users to customize how the zipper behaves once assembled. Depending on the design of the arms, the mechanism can form straight rods, arches, coils, or twisted screw-like structures. The system, including the three arms and the slider, was fabricated entirely by 3D printing using common polymer materials.

The engineering principle behind the system is relatively straightforward: triangles are inherently rigid. Structural engineering has relied on triangular geometry for decades in bridges, cranes, towers, and trusses because triangles resist deformation far better than flat or rectangular structures. The Y-Zipper exploits that same principle by forcing three flexible arms into a triangular configuration during closure, essentially assembling a lightweight structural beam on demand.

That ability to switch between soft and rigid states is particularly relevant for robotics and deployable systems. Engineers often struggle to combine flexibility and structural stiffness within the same mechanism. Soft robotic systems adapt well to unpredictable environments but often lack strength, while rigid systems provide stability at the cost of flexibility. MIT’s design attempts to combine both.

The researchers demonstrated a robotic quadruped with legs capable of changing height and stiffness by actuating the zipper mechanism with motors. Such systems could help robots navigate uneven terrain by dynamically adjusting limb geometry in response to the environment.

The team also tested the system in deployable structures. In one demonstration, they used the Y-Zipper to rapidly assemble a tent-like structure, with the three-sided mechanism serving as both the structural support frame and the joining system. According to the team, setup time dropped from roughly six minutes to one minute and 20 seconds because the zipper effectively snaps the structure into place.

Medical applications are another possible target. The researchers created a wrist-cast prototype that wrapped the mechanism around a wrist cast, allowing users to loosen it during the day for comfort before tightening it again at night for support.

Beyond engineering applications, the system can also produce dynamic moving structures for art and design. One prototype resembled a mechanical flower that “bloomed” as a motor zipped the structure upward.

Durability testing showed the mechanism surviving roughly 18,000 zip-and-unzip cycles before failure. According to the researchers, the structure’s elastic behavior helps distribute stress across the assembly instead of concentrating it in a single area.

The team evaluated versions of the structure made from popular 3D-printing materials, polylactic acid (PLA) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). PLA handled heavier loads more effectively, while TPU provided greater flexibility. Future versions could use stronger materials such as metal and scale to much larger sizes. Researchers also suggested possible aerospace applications, including deployable spacecraft structures and robotic systems capable of grabbing rock samples during exploration missions.

The work was presented at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in April and detailed in a paper titled "Y-Zipper: 3D Printing Flexible–Rigid Transition Mechanism for Rapid and Reversible Assembly."

The 3DMakerPro Toucan looks and feels more like a digital camera than a 3D scanner, and it even has a thumbwheel to adjust exposure. Designed for convenient on-the-go 3D scanning, the Toucan uses a blue laser structured light system with both a Class 1 and Class 3R laser to capture point clouds. These can be edited, fused into a 3D model, and exported all on-device, no computer required. The $1,699 Premium bundle reviewed in this article includes a manual turntable and carrying case and has everything you need to make a 3D model in well under an hour after unboxing.

While the name Toucan evokes the colorful bird, the Toucan 3D scanner ironically struggled most with creating color textures. Geometry is crisp and sharp using the Class 3R laser and “Ultra Mode” to create dense point clouds, but the applied color textures look unfocused and blurry. If you are more comfortable with a keyboard and mouse and want to do your editing on a computer, you can also use the JMStudio software for more granular editing on a PC or Mac.

Specifications: 3DMakerPro Toucan

Included in the Box: 3DMakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan is available in two packages: Standard and Premium. The Standard package includes the Toucan scanner, a power adapter, a calibration board and stand, a manual turntable, and a set of reflective markers. The Premium package (covered in this review) includes all of this as well as a tripod and a carrying case. 3DMakerPro also includes a silicone case and a wrist strap in both packages.

Design of the 3DMakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan looks like an elongated point-and-shoot camera from the early 2000s: silver body, LCD screen on the back, and a wheel selector and shutter button on the right shoulder of the unit. The metal body of the Toucan features a metal construction with a satin finish, recessed screws, and a small exhaust vent on the bottom of the unit, all giving a high-end feel. The rubber grip on the back is a comfortable resting place for your palm during scanning, and the diamond texture provides enough grip to keep it from slipping during use.

The wheel and button combo seems like a winner, but I was caught off-guard when I went to start my first scan: I clicked the button and nothing happened. As it turns out, the button only works in the “Single Shot” mode by acting like a typical camera shutter. This makes sense for that mode, but it was a little frustrating to keep clicking it before every scan only to have to go back and click the button on the back of the LCD.

3DMakerPro was serious about skipping the computer with this scanner: the Toucan features an 8-core 2.5 GHz CPU, 256 GB of storage, and 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. There is a USB-C port on the bottom of the Toucan for charging with the included power supply as well as a recessed power button and a thread for a tripod or other stand. Add in a 6600 mAh battery and you can see why the weight of the unit is around 735 grams, just slightly too heavy to hold comfortably with a single hand for any extended period of time.

Unlike the highly ergonomic and easy-to-hold Mole, 3DMakerPro has gone in a more aesthetically-driven direction with the Toucan. While the scanner looks very premium, the sharp edges and flat surfaces make it awkward to hold comfortably for extended periods of time. The included silicone case is a welcome addition and makes the scanner significantly more comfortable to hold, but the Toucan doesn’t fit into the included carrying case while it’s wrapped in the case. Unfortunately, the silicone case is naturally sticky and tends to attract dust and dirt which has to be wiped clean regularly.

Software for 3DMakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan uses the onboard computer to capture, process, and even export scan data and doesn’t require any other software (or even a computer) to generate a 3D model. Scan settings like laser type, frame rate, color capture, etc. can all be adjusted right on the Toucan using the large integrated LCD screen on the back of the unit. Once complete, the model can be exported as a mesh 3D file straight to a thumb drive. This onboard workflow is the primary differentiator of the Toucan, which is advertised as a portable, handheld 3D scanner.

The Toucan can also be used with the 3DMakerPro JMStudio 3D application, but it doesn’t have quite the first-party experience you might expect. The Toucan can’t directly connect to a computer with a USB connection, and instead has to transfer scan data via Wi-Fi. Once the scan data has been transferred, the project can be opened and processed like a normal scan. I wasn’t able to connect the Toucan to my computer with a USB cable, and instead had to transfer files over Wi-Fi or a USB-C thumb drive, which was not included.

Transferring scans from the Toucan to my computer proved to be a challenging experience. The Toucan doesn’t support transfer of scan data over the integrated USB-C port, which is only used for charging. Instead, the Toucan connects via Wi-Fi and the “Import from Device” operation is used to transfer scan data. I had issues with this connection dropping multiple times mid-transfer, and the Wi-Fi connection was inconsistent despite stable network conditions.

Transferring a 1.2 GB scan took about seven minutes, and another three minutes to decompress the file once transferred to my computer. At these speeds, it’s much easier to just export the file to a USB-C thumb drive and then upload to a computer from there.

The processing in JMStudio (and the onboard Toucan software) involves cleaning the point cloud, converting it to a mesh, repairing and simplifying, and then adding an optional color texture. The process is similar between the app and the onboard software, and the Toucan is capable of processing scans entirely onboard without needing to export anything to the JMStudio software.

3D Scanning and Alignment with the 3DMakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan has two laser modes: Class 3R and Class 1. Class 1 products are generally classified as safe for general use, while Class 3R laser products require additional safety considerations. The Toucan will show a warning before switching to the Class 3R laser mode every single time, something that I appreciated while using. The Class 3R laser is used for high-precision scanning and complex surfaces, while the Class 1 laser is used for more general use.

My favorite model to test a 3D scanner is a small toad sculpture because it has a high amount of surface geometry detail as well as complex paint. Using the manual turntable and the included tripod, I used the Class 3R laser in Near Mode, and enabled Color Scanning. The Toucan has a guide to indicate ideal scanning distance and will throw a warning if you are too close or too far from the model, and the brightness can be adjusted using the wheel on the top of the unit.

The Toucan kept a consistent 15 FPS during scanning, which made for an impressively fast first capture that took only about a minute. After running the Structural Optimization and Statistical Noise Removal processes, the result was a point cloud with 6.8 million points that was about 619 MB in size. This is an impressively dense point cloud, and the captured detail was crisp and clear even before converting to a triangulated mesh. The processing was done entirely on the Toucan, and these operations took under 5 minutes total to complete.

In order to create the complete model, I ran two more scans and then used the automatic Align feature to create a single point cloud with all the points aligned correctly. The automatic alignment worked well, but I had to adjust the overlap from 90% to 100% to get the best results. Once everything was aligned, the last step was converting the model into a watertight mesh and reducing the triangle count. The final model has 400,000 triangles and is only 26.5 MB in size, an impressive reduction from the nearly 1.5 GB of point cloud data used to make the mesh.

Unfortunately, the color texture was washed out and I was surprised to see blurriness on some of the surfaces and a general lack of clarity. I ran the Texture Mapping process a few times just in case I had missed something, but I wasn’t able to improve the overall quality of the color texture. A simple brightness or contrast slider would have been ideal for color textures like this, but neither the Toucan nor the JMStudio app offer this functionality.

The Toucan has a “Base Removal” tool which will automatically detect a flat surface under a model and trim the points from the point cloud. This is a very useful tool in handheld mode and also worked well when using the included manual turntable. It works well for models that are organic or curved, but it would sometimes identify flat faces on models I scanned and fail to capture those surfaces.

I only used a single rotation of the turntable to capture this scan of a concrete bunny, but the dense point cloud still had 2.4 million points and was more than enough to create a smooth mesh in the fusion step. There were a few small holes under the chin and in some of the areas that the scanner didn’t capture, but the Repair Gaps tool handled them easily. The final triangulated mesh had 499,062 faces and was 38.2 MB in size after the simplification step.

The generated triangle mesh was exported as an .stl and printed on a Bambu Lab X1-Carbon using PLA filament. The curves of the model were accurately captured, and the scale appeared perfect without any adjustment. Because I used the geometry tracking mode, the surfaces were all captured accurately and the model looked just like the original.

I wanted to try a model with a more complex surface, so I used this life-size 3D print of my skull that was made from a CT scan. This model has several deep recesses and lots of surface detail, so it’s a great test for a scanner like the Toucan which has an advertised capability of scanning into deep holes.

I used the Ultra Mode for quality and rotated the model three times to capture as many of the surfaces as I could. After removing the surfaces manually, I processed the point cloud using the One Click Process set to “High Quality”. The final triangulated mesh had over 3 million faces, and the visible banding from the CT scan is clearly picked up by the Toucan.

3D Scanning using Marker Mode with the 3DMakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan is also able to capture scans using markers, which are used for alignment on large, complex, or otherwise difficult to capture surfaces. I typically use a Milwaukee impact driver covered in tracking markers as a test because it has curved surfaces, repeating patterns, and multiple flat planes which make it a challenge for most scanners. Using Near Mode, the Toucan failed to register the tracking dots and I had to switch to Far Mode to capture the model.

The resulting scan in Far Mode had 3.7 million points, the majority of which were captured from surrounding surfaces and needed to be trimmed away before fusion. After removing the surfaces, the point cloud for just the drill was reduced to 266 thousand points, a fraction of the original point cloud. The resulting mesh lacked sharp detail and was really only useful as a rough form.

Scanned using the Class 3R laser in Ultra Mode, the detail is significantly sharper and the fused model has multiple sub-millimeter details present. The scan is so accurate that the paper-thin markers are clearly visible in both the point cloud as well as the mesh.

3D Scanning Color Textures with the 3DMakerPro Toucan

The 3DMakerPro Toucan features a dedicated 48MP RGB camera for capturing color textures, and has the ability to add color textures to a scan by simply enabling the “Color Scanning” option before starting a scan. The captured point cloud appears in full color, which is an interesting way to see a model during scanning. To test out the color texture, I scanned a banana using the “Ultra Mode” scan quality, Class 3R laser, and a high frame rate.

Unlike the other workflow steps, the texture operation on the Toucan has no adjustable parameters. The only thing a user can do is click “Texture Mapping” and hope that everything comes out as expected. There’s no brightness, contrast, UV mapping, etc. and the final texture is not editable on the Toucan.

The “Texture Mapping” operation on the Toucan can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to complete, which can feel like an eternity if you’re trying to quickly evaluate a scan out in the field. The lack of a “time remaining” estimate isn’t ideal, instead there is only a single progress bar that loads in the middle and stays there until the texture is complete. After my experience with the 3DMakerPro Lynx and Mole in the past, it’s disappointing to see that the color texture feature hasn’t been developed further in the JMStudio software.

The resulting color texture is blurry and not usable for most applications. The text on the sticker is illegible, and the seams from where the scans were aligned are present and not blended together. Given the amount of time this operation takes, I would expect the output to be at a higher quality or at least have adjustable parameters for the end user.

3D Scanning Outdoors with the 3DMakerPro Toucan

The mobile-first design of the Toucan lends itself well to scanning outdoors, so I took it to a park to test it out. The large wooden sign at the entrance of the park had deep engravings, a rough texture, and looked visually interesting enough to be a challenge to scan. Because I was outside, I used the scanner in the Class 1 laser mode in case anyone walked by or could otherwise see the laser.

The Toucan lost tracking several times during scanning, and it took me five attempts to capture the entire sign using the Far Mode. The scanner was typically averaging about 11 FPS during the scan, and I really struggled to move in a continuous motion without losing tracking. I ran into this tracking issue frequently during testing, and the scanner would sometimes drop tracking even under ideal circumstances.

The point cloud is dense and captures the visible surface well, and using the One Click Process feature at Medium quality resulted in a mesh with clearly visible woodgrain and legible text. Given the large size of the sign, the 132MB mesh has an impressive amount of visible detail. I was mostly interested in picking up the fine detail in the woodgrain, and the Toucan did a great job at that.

Unfortunately, the color texture was muddy and didn’t capture the woodgrain, paint, or other details I was hoping to pick up. For something simple like this, it would most likely be easier to use a program like Blender or ZBrush to paint color on the model.

Bottom Line

The 3DMakerPro Toucan is targeted at anyone who has used a 3D scanner and wished they didn’t need to be tethered (via USB or Wi-Fi) to a computer in order to capture a scan. The 8-core 2.5 GHz CPU is fast enough to handle most of the processing jobs in under a minute, with the only exception being the surprisingly long texture mapping operation. The onboard storage (256 GB) was more than enough to store dozens of scans, and the LCD made clean-up work and basic mesh editing a breeze. However, the tracking issues and the lackluster color textures are significant limitations for anyone using this in a professional context.

The Toucan is priced at $1,499 for the Standard package and $1,699 for the Premium package, which includes the tripod and carrying case. The $200 difference is worth it if you plan on carrying the scanner with you anywhere, as the tripod and the carrying case are both very useful additions for the price. While the Toucan doesn’t quite make the list of the best 3D scanners, it’s still very capable and worth considering for structured light 3D scanning in the field without a computer if generating a color texture isn’t a priority.

If you don’t need the integrated processing and are comfortable with a smaller maximum scanning volume, scanners like the 3DMakerPro Mole offer a similar workflow for a fraction of the price. The onboard computer and fully integrated workflow of the Toucan are compelling additions at this price point, with the similarly-designed Creality Sermoon P1 offered at $3,299, nearly double the price of the Premium package.

Louis Rossmann has officially pledged $10,000 to cover the initial legal fees for an independent software developer threatened with a cease and desist letter from Bambu Lab. He posted a video on Saturday to mobilize the Right to Repair community to back the developer and crowd-fund his legal defense. Rossmann is quite unhappy with Bambu Labs, giving the company the middle finger several times in the video and then ending it with, “And if you're watching this, Bambu Labs, go f*** yourself. Pick on somebody your own size.”

The developer in question, Pawel Jarczak, voluntarily shuttered his “OrcaSlicer-BambuLab” project, which would have restored direct control between Bambu Lab 3D printers and OrcaSlicer. Last year, Bambu Lab deemed these types of third-party integrations a risk to its infrastructure, saying its cloud servers were inundated with roughly 30 million “unauthorized” requests per day. OrcaSlicer was singled out as the main source of the rogue traffic.

“If Bambu Labs goes after you for keeping up your code, I am so confident in your case that I will pay the first $10,000,” Rossmann said in his video. “Before Pawel makes a decision, I want him to see the overwhelming support that he has from the members of the community if he goes through with this decision.” You can see the video directly below.

Rossmann is asking Jarczak to put his fork of OrcaSlice back on GitHub in defiance of Bambu Lab’s threats. “How many of you, if push came to shove, if Bambu Labs was (bleeping) stupid enough to actually take the garbage case they have to court, how many of you would be willing to put up a dollar, $2, or $5 to defend Pawel? I'm willing to say $10,000,” Rossmann said.

Rossmann’s video contained a link to the Consumer Rights Wiki to explain the issue at hand to his audience, who may not be familiar with 3D printing but are avid defenders of Right to Repair. Right to Repair is a global consumer rights movement built on the principle that if you bought it, you own it. And if you own a thing, like a Bambu Lab 3D printer, you should have the freedom to fix, modify, or maintain the product as you see fit. Manufacturers shouldn’t be allowed to gatekeep the ability to fix a product, and they should provide manuals, schematics, and diagnostic software to allow end users to fix their own machines.

Bambu Lab printers are difficult to mod and/or repair yourself, with parts that are often glued in place. The original Bambu Lab X1 Carbon was notorious for its non-replaceable carbon rods that could wear out, and a hotend nozzle that needed a screwdriver and a tube of thermal paste to swap out if you wanted to avoid buying a $35 hotend just to change the nozzle size. These difficult parts were notably replaced with more user-friendly parts with the introduction of the H2D and subsequently, the X2D.

Rossman has not started a crowdfunding site yet, stating in the comments that he wants to prove to Jarczak that he has supporters willing to put their money where their mouth is. The video had over 54,000 views so far, with commenters vowing to back the case as requested.

@sonicsam41 commented: “I'd throw in $20. Don't even have a 3D printer, just hate bullies.”

@abirvandergriff8584 commented: “I'm in for $100 - I have an X1 from before they revealed how evil they are.”

Given the immediate reaction from his fans, it appears that Rossmann may, in fact, drum up plenty of support.

Chromatic 3D materials, an advanced 3D printing materials company, recently announced it had successfully static-fired tested its 3D-printed rocket propellant. The tests, which took place at the integrated solutions for systems (IS4S) test range in Opekia, Alabama, demonstrated that the company's propellant can withstand over 1800 psi of combustion pressures without structural failure. The company describes the development as a “critical milestone in advancing resilient, next-generation propulsion manufacturing for rockets and defense applications.”

Rocket propellants, the high-energy material rocket engines combust and eject to produce thrust, are generally classified by their physical state as liquid, solid, hybrid, and gas — each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Solid propellants offer the benefits of simplicity and readiness, at the expense of efficiency and control, the hallmarks of their liquid counterparts.

These propellants allow rockets to be stored fully fueled and ready to go, unlike liquids or gases that require loading. Furthermore, solid propellants don't require mixing, so there are no complex moving parts such as valves, plumbing, or pumps. They also make it possible to store fueled rockets for decades and have them still fire reliably. These characteristics make solid propellants the only choice for missiles and ICBMs.

Traditionally, solid rockets are made by mixing the propulsion material — fuel and oxidizer — with a binder into a thick slurry, pouring it directly into the prefabricated rocket's casing, and then baking it for days to weeks to cure it into a hard, rubbery rock. A large metal rod, called a mandrel, is typically positioned at the center of the mold before casting and then removed after solidification, leaving a hollow channel for the combustion chamber.

This method, which has been the standard for over 60+ years, has several drawbacks. First, while the process has been developed to be quite precise, it doesn't eliminate the possibility of a tiny air bubble or crack near the casing that could lead to an explosion when the rocket is ignited or in flight.

There's also the matter of the mandrel. Casting around a rod and then yanking it out later is crude by today's manufacturing standards. It could lead to cracks, and more importantly, the mandrel significantly limits the shapes that can be cast — a critical limitation, as shape often determines speed and thrust. Lastly, baking and curing are energy-intensive and can take days or weeks.

Chromatics’ 3D printing materials and processes completely solve these problems and offer several additional benefits. The company's solution is a full-stack system that encompasses both advanced materials and the printing technology required to 3D print rocket propellants.

First, the technology. Chromatics had earlier developed a proprietary, chemical-reaction-based Reactive Extrusion Additive Manufacturing (RX-AM) platform that 3D prints durable elastomeric materials. Instead of melting plastic like in fused deposition modeling, the platform pumps a chemical mixture that reacts and hardens almost instantly as it is laid down.

As a material science company at its core, the second — arguably the main — part of Chromatics' big breakthrough is the material. The company did not exactly reinvent rocket fuel. Instead, it used the existing binders in standard rocket fuel and tweaked the chemistry so it stays liquid in the printer but hardens as it exits. Basically, the company took existing materials and adapted them for its RX-AM process.

In doing this, Chromatic has “opened a world of possibilities.” In a solid rocket, the shape of the hollow core in the middle of the fuel determines how it burns and how much thrust it creates. 3D printing enables “impossible” internal shapes that can't be made with a mold, potentially leading to rockets that fly farther or more efficiently.

3D printing the fuel also eliminates the long cure times and the need for complex tooling characteristic of solid fuels, making rocket production faster and more agile — an always-welcome description for the defense supply chain.

Although several 3D printing techniques have proven capable of matching their formative manufacturing counterparts in finished product strength, there were concerns about whether the 3D-printed fuel could withstand the immense pressure of launch. In the recent test, fuel proved that it can indeed handle the heat of a real launch — literally. According to Chromatic, “the propellant achieves energetic loading levels comparable to top-performing conventional propellants while delivering the structural integrity required to withstand high-pressure combustion environment.”

Beyond matching the capabilities of conventional propulsion systems, Chromatic’s technology unlocks new performance possibilities. Integrating propellant directly into structural components allows the company to reduce unnecessary mass, create more efficient internal geometries, and precisely tailor thrust behavior in ways that are difficult or impossible with traditional manufacturing methods.

Another possibility is 3D printing different types of fuel in the same rocket, to vary speed and thrust at different stages of flight. The result of these possibilities could be lighter propulsion systems with higher performance, longer range, and greater operational flexibility for future missions.

“These results demonstrate that additive manufacturing is not only viable for defense propulsion — it can drive meaningful performance gains across at least 90% of the U.S. rocket arsenal,” said Dr. Cora Leibig, Founder and CEO at Chromatic 3D Materials. “We’re showing that it’s possible to maintain compatibility with existing systems while opening the door to rockets that fly farther, hit harder, and can be produced faster.”

As defense supply chains come under growing pressure, Chromatic’s manufacturing approach could offer a more flexible and resilient alternative. By allowing rocket propellant to be produced on demand and closer to the point of need, RX-AM reduces reliance on large, centralized production infrastructure and long logistics chains. 3D printing technology continues to offer performance advantages beyond conventional systems. Last year, Korean engineers managed to 3D-print a titanium fuel tank for space travel.

Valve just released the CAD files for the Steam Controller and the Puck, which is used to charge and connect the controller to your PC. According to the Steam Community blog post, the STP and STL files are publicly available under a Creative Commons license on GitLab, making it easier to modify and create 3D printed accessories for both gadgets. A few reference files also note off-limits areas, as placing anything there will interfere with normal operations (such as the antenna and magnetic connectors).

Just like the Steam Machine, Valve envisions the Steam Controller to be endlessly customizable, at least in its physical look. Even though the Steam Machine doesn’t have a definite launch date yet, especially as it has been seemingly pushed back multiple times due to the AI-driven memory chip crisis, we’ve already seen a couple of accessories designed to customize the look of the living room PC console.

These 3D CAD files are available under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license, meaning anyone who uses them is free to share their creations provided they attribute the original creator, use them solely for non-commercial purposes, and distribute their creations under the same or a compatible license. We can already envision some of the possibilities enabled by these files, including 3D-printed smartphone holders, charging bases, table hooks, and more. But if you plan to sell your creations, you must secure a different license from Valve, as Creative Commons doesn’t cover that use case.

This isn’t the first time that Valve has released the 3D CAD files of their hardware. The Steam Deck arrived on store shelves on February 25, 2022, but the company released its official CAD files a couple of weeks earlier. This resulted in a vibrant community of 3D printed accessories for the Steam Deck on Printables, allowing gamers and enthusiasts to experiment with various builds to improve and customize their gaming experience.

Hopefully, Valve does the same for the Steam Machine, releasing the 3D files for the console a couple of weeks before its release. Many gamers were excited for its expected release in early 2026, but the RAMageddon has forced the company to push back its launch to “first half of 2026” and then to “this year.” If and when Valve releases the 3D CAD files for the Steam Machine, it’s likely the much-anticipated console will finally arrive within a couple of weeks, give or take a few days.

Independent software developer Pawel Jarczak has voluntarily shuttered his popular “OrcaSlicer-BambuLab” project following legal threats from Bambu Lab, ending one man’s fight to restore direct control to the popular third-party slicer. Jarczak’s fork of OrcaSlicer would have allowed users to bypass Bambu Connect, a middleware application that severely limits OrcaSlicer’s access to remote printer functions in the name of security.

Jarczak said in a note on GitHub that Bambu Lab threatened him with a cease and desist letter and accused him of reverse engineering its software in order to impersonate Bambu Studio. He said he was also accused of violating Bambu’s Terms of Use and bypassing authorization control. He chose to voluntarily remove the software. He insists he did nothing wrong as his fork of Orca only used publicly available source code.

“I explicitly pointed out that, according to Bambu Lab's own explanation, the reason the method still worked was simply that they had not disabled that path yet. In other words, the behavior they objected to was, by their own description, still possible within the Linux-side workflow they had not yet changed,” Jarczak wrote.

He also pointed out that Bambu Studio is publicly released under the AGPL-3.0 license, a “copyleft” Open Source license that PrusaSlicer uses. As Bambu Studio uses PrusaSlicer’s code as its foundation, it must allow the core program to remain open source.

Bambu Studio is closed-sourced at the Networking Plugin, which is the critical component that allows Bambu printers to phone home and access the company’s cloud servers.

Jarczak also maintains firmware for the Bambu Multi-Color Unit (BMCU), a DIY alternative to Bambu’s AMS. He said there is a growing risk that the BMCU will also be locked out of Bambu Lab’s ecosystem and is pivoting to Klipper-based printers. He is currently crowdfunding that project through Ko-Fi and Revolut, with links on his Git Hub page.

Bambu Lab had customer security in mind back when it labeled third-party integrations as a risk to its infrastructure in January 2025. The company reported that its cloud servers were inundated with roughly 30 million “unauthorized” requests per day, threatening system stability. The main culprit? Orca Slicer is an open source and independently maintained third-party slicer.

For many, brand-agnostic Orca Slicer was THE gold standard of 3D printing slicers. It’s a fork of Bambu Studio (which is itself a fork of Prusa Slicer), developed by SoftFever in 2022 when Bambu Lab was a young company with only one printer line, the X1, to its name. Because Orca was community-driven, it was quick to develop wild new features and offer them to users to test before they were fully stable and corporate-approved. Things like scarf seams, crosshatch infill, mouse ears, and a built-in suite of calibrations were introduced by Orca Slicer first.

It was a death blow to Orca users when Bambu Lab removed direct access to its cloud servers. Unlike other printers, Bambu Lab machines rely on cloud access to support their advanced features like remote monitoring and reading the filament in the AMS. In fact, it wouldn’t be until three months later, in March 2025, that a Bambu Lab printer would have a USB drive to facilitate moving print files without the internet. The X1, P1, and A1 series were all limited to hard-to-access microSD cards not intended for frequent access.

Though Bambu Lab offered up “Bambu Connect” to allow OrcaSlicer to send files, it severely limited users’ access to their own machines. OrcaSlicer could “see” your printer’s and AMS’s settings, but could not change anything. Changing the speed, temperature, or colors in the AMS required users to manually input data directly into the printer.

3D-printin' folks and hobbyists of various stripes can rejoice. The highly-regarded folks at Noctua have released pitch-perfect CAD models of many of the company's fans, including the NF-A12x25 G2, which currently ranks at the top of our best PC fans roundup.

Noctua revealed the news in a simple blog post, pointing interested techies to the downloads section of its website. The Austrian beige-and-brown firm says that the files in question accurately match the mounting dimensions and external dimensions of its fans, a boon for enthusiasts everywhere who may have had previous trouble with inaccurate official models. This bit of news dovetails nicely with the availability of the official Noctua-colored filament from Prusa, announced last December.

Some folks may find it concerning that Noctua would be freely offering their proverbial golden goose, but the CAD files don't include the internal frame structure, and the fan impeller geometries have been slightly tweaked, as forms of IP protection.

It bears remarking that high-precision manufacturing and tight tolerances are one key reason why Noctua's fans are so effective (and pricey, too), and that's a feature that is exceedingly hard to simulate in a home laboratory and, we'd wager, most factories. If nothing else, you'll be able to replace some parts of an existing fan, or use Noctua's files as a basis for creating your own system fans.

Noctua naturally notes that users are free to do as they with with the files, but that they cannot be used for selling or manufacturing the depicted products — assuming one would be able to reproduce the entire product accurately to begin with.

Response from the community was immediate and joyous. The tweet announcing the files had a bevy of happy replies, with one commenter noting that "every model [they] used online for 120mm mounting specs so far has ALWAYS been just the slightest bit off." While most enthusiasts are sensibly enthused, the availability of the bespoke filament and Noctua's cooperation with the maker community has already given way to some truly cursed designs.

If you're interested in downloading the CAD files and starting on your own creations, check out our roundup of the best 3D printers for recommendations. We've seen a rapid increase in quality and decrease in price across 3D printers over the last couple of years.

There comes a time for many electronics enthusiasts and tinkerers when they wish they had a custom-made PCB for a project. If you enjoy a bit of crafting, the netizens over at Feminist Hacking might have a compelling solution for PCB-needy DIYers, using real clay to produce working PCBs, as shared in a blog post headed “MaKING Printed Circuit Boards with Wild Clay.”

The hacktivists behind this project didn’t just want a craft project as a source of artistic satisfaction. This is made clear in the intro to the blog, where they ponder the “open secret that the hardware in our smart devices contains not only plastics but also conflict minerals.” However, it didn’t take long to narrow down the options to come up with the idea of clay PCBs.

Porcelain “already plays an important role in electronic components such as capacitors, piezo, resistors, and so on,” note the hacktivists. But they didn’t want to buy commercial china clay or use expensive, unsustainable, resource-draining firing techniques.

'Prehistoric techniques of firing clay'

After some research, they learned from a pottery artisan that you can use “prehistoric techniques of firing clay in an open wood fire” to do the job. After spending two days with this craftsperson, the hacktivists learned to locally source clay, work it, and fire it to make these “natural clay PCB boards.”

The blog gives tips for collecting and mixing clay, ready for working into rounds, with all air and impurities minimized. That’s important for uniform, consistent, well-behaved clay PCBs.

A hexagon shape was chosen as this cookie cutter “can be bought in most ceramic shops,” but only rough dimensions of approx 10x10cm (~4x4 inches) are required, not any particular shape. Originally, the hexagon was chosen to make the PCBs easy to connect, but that idea has been shelved as the fired tablet edges aren’t that precise.

Remember, we are working with less elastic and more fragile clay than you may get in a craft store. The hacktivists note it might be rough or split at the edges. As long as the inner cutter area removes this, it isn’t a problem.

Stamp PCB traces with a 3D-printed template, and paint traces in silver

Pressing the 3D-printed stamp into the clay needs some experience. It is important to balance pressure to get the optimal impression depth of roughly 1.5mm without deforming the surrounding areas. The pressed hexagon PCB tablets are dried naturally for a day before metal traces are hand-painted in the impressions.

The hacktivists avoided using a conductive gold paint they initially found, as it wasn’t really suitable for solder bonding, and came from a supply chain that wasn’t verified. Silver was the answer, specifically “a silver paint, commercialized by a German company, that is made with waste silver powder collected by jewelry makers.” More paint was applied to areas where you may expect to solder connections, later.

After the paint had dried, the clay PCBs were ready to fire. The blog wraps up with a detailed set of instructions regarding the prehistoric firing process. One aspect of the process that needed refinement from the hacktivists was the effects of clay shrinkage in the firing kiln. Clay can shrink 5% in firing, so there was a little trial and error in getting the stamp size and groove depth correct in finished PCBs.

Finally, this project is “totally open sourced,” so feel free to copy and share the details in the hacktivist blog. There’s even a PDF available, should you require one. The team also has a GitHub page with programming code, soldering instructions, and 3D printing files available.

David Tobin, the Executive Director of the Community Manufacturing Initiative, and producer for the 3D Printing Nerd YouTube channel, stood on the floor of the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival. He waved his arms emphatically while encouraging a group of event sponsors to take a stand against legislation threatening 3D printing. “All this will be gone! The RepRap community? Gone! Gone, if this is allowed to pass.”

As one of the country’s largest gatherings of consumer 3D printing enthusiasts, RMRRF drew nearly 6,000 people to showcase creative projects and home-brewed hardware in Loveland, Colorado. Only two major 3D printer manufacturers joined the festival, Prusa Research with a large display of hardware, and Snapmaker, whose team walked the floor to chat with makers. Both companies are vocal supporters of open source ideals, a belief that innovation should be shared freely.

That spirit of innovation is currently under threat from well-intended, but arguably ill-informed lawmakers who are working to ban 3D printed “ghost guns.” Tobin spoke at RMRRF that afternoon about the potential harm of government overreach from his home state of California, which is rapidly pushing a bill to install blocking technology on every 3D printer. California’s AB 2047 would allow the state’s Department of Justice to monitor every 3D printer in the state in an attempt to prevent guns from being printed. It would also ban open-source firmware like Marlin and Klipper that sit at the heart of most consumer 3D printers. Any machine not approved by California would become illegal, which includes every 3D printer currently used by consumers, businesses, and schools.

Current 3D printers are doomed to become e-waste, as they lack the computing power, cameras, and even wi-fi components that would allow them to be upgraded to work with the as-yet-to-be-invented monitoring systems. Most machines currently in use would be illegal to sell within the state of California.

Tobin wants to educate both lawmakers and everyday citizens on the positive benefits of 3D printing. He also wants to give 3D printing enthusiasts the tools to pick up the fight to support 3D printing without engaging in political rage bait on social media.

“It's very easy to get caught up in the emotional arguments with this. There's passionate people on both sides of it. And there's some very volatile things you can say to get people fired up. But that's bait. Don't play that game,” he told his audience. He said this is an issue about education, technology, and science.

One of the surprising things Tobin learned when he visited California’s capital to speak with lawmakers was what he characterized as misinformation being spread by a lobbying group called Everytown for Gun Safety.

“They've done some phenomenal work over the years for education in firearms and gun control and other things like that, like making sure there's locks on things, making sure you understand how to properly use stuff, all sorts of different areas.” He said Everytown has painted a target on 3D printing in their quest to banish ghost guns.

“This is not like a mom and pop,” he said of Everytown and its $57 million lobbying fund. Tobin said the real concern is that organizations like this need to keep on the campaign trail to keep money pouring into their coffers.

“I spoke with state senators that actually think there is an epidemic of weapons on airplanes right now.” He claims that lobbyists in New York are falsely telling people that it only takes a single button push to make a gun, like it’s Star Trek. “That's a conversation that's being manufactured to drive attention,” Tobin contends.

His biggest fear is that 3D printing will be removed from schools in order to prevent children from learning how to use the technology and creating harmful things. “If kids don't have access to additive manufacturing, they will not be competitive on the global stage. We will not be able to innovate and allow ourselves to grow. We will not be able to think of the most amazing things that we haven't even thought of yet.”

Tobin did an impact analysis of the California bill, which is available to download from the 3D Printing Nerd’s YouTube channel. Over 1.5 million California children and 30,000 businesses use 3D printing and additive manufacturing. He revealed a staggering $10.5 billion in sunk costs, money already invested by the state of California and its aerospace, medical, and technology giants into additive hardware and specialized software that could be rendered obsolete in a heartbeat. These businesses may be forced to leave the state to avoid having equipment banned or products flagged by government software looking for “bad shapes.”

“Can you imagine that on your network?” he questioned. “Can you imagine that in your business when you're doing your R&D, and you're trying to develop a new prosthetic or something like that, and it flags it?”

The turmoilAB 2047 could unleash on 3D printing is not restricted to California. Washington, New York, and Colorado are also exploring bills to prevent 3D-printed firearms. Historically, when California takes a stand on technology, safety, or the environment, the rest of the country follows. Manufacturers may feel it's easier to comply with California law for every printer sold in North America, effectively ending the era of Open Source as we know it.

Scrap Labs, a Colorado-based additive manufacturing startup, unveiled the Scrap 1 — a compact laser powder-bed fusion metal 3D printer — at the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival in Loveland, Colorado, which took place from April 18–19, 2026. The company is hoping to bring industrial-level metal additive manufacturing into the hands of individual builders, small manufacturers, research labs, and schools that have traditionally been priced out of the technology.

Metal 3D printing is one of the most compelling manufacturing technologies available today. It can produce fully functional parts with complex internal geometries, intricate lattice structures, and near-full material density that would be impossible or prohibitively expensive to machine by conventional means.

Despite those advantages, metal printing remains far less accessible than its plastic counterpart. The problem is that until very recently, metal 3D printing has been almost entirely unreachable for anyone outside a well-funded industrial operation. Entry-level systems from established players like EOS or Trumpf typically run well above $200,000 (£148,198), and require three-phase electrical infrastructure, dedicated floor space, and extensive safety systems for handling reactive metal powder.

Even the more affordable end-of-market machines from companies like Xact Metal, which has made a point of targeting smaller buyers, start at around $65,000 (£48,164) and still require a proper lab environment.

Scrap Labs says it wants to change that. The company describes its mission as making advanced metal printing radically more affordable and practical, while maintaining genuine industrial capability, so that builders and makers can prototype, iterate, and deploy high-performance metal parts without a six-figure machine. Scrap Labs is also emphasizing open workflows, browser-based controls, and compatibility with familiar slicing software rather than locking users into a closed ecosystem.

Its first product, the Scrap 1 machine, is a compact platform designed for workbench use. The machine uses laser powder bed fusion — a metal 3D printing technique that works by spreading thin layers of fine metal powder across a build platform and melting them selectively with a high-powered laser, layer by layer, until the complete 3D geometry forms.

Scrab Lab brings this capability into a compact machine with the following specs:

For cooling, the machine combines liquid and air systems, while a HEPA filter handles filtration. Supported materials include stainless steel, tool steel, copper, nickel alloys, and cobalt chrome, covering a wide range of prototyping and production needs. Connectivity includes Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, and a web dashboard, while the firmware is based on Klipper. The machine also supports ScrapSlicer, PrusaSlicer, and OrcaSlicer workflows.

The machine could open new opportunities for university labs, vocational schools, automotive repair shops, motorsport garages, jewelry makers, product design studios, maintenance departments, small contract manufacturers, and serious enthusiasts. Instead of outsourcing every metal prototype or waiting weeks for machined parts, users could potentially produce components in-house on demand.

As of now, Scrap 1 is not yet shipping. Pre-orders are open, with kits starting at $9,600 (£7,133) under limited-time founder pricing, rising to $14,200 (£10,522) after April 30, 2026. Fully assembled and tested systems start at $17,990 (£13,330). Shipments are expected to begin in early 2027. Prospective buyers can either place a fully refundable deposit for priority access or join a free waitlist for updates and early production slots.

The company completed its proof-of-concept phase in December 2025 and is currently in Phase 02, onboarding alpha testers and integrating early partners. Phase 03, planned for December 2026, will scale beta testing with broader field feedback. Full production launch is targeted for June 2027, with initial shipments to US customers. Hopefully we will be able to test one and see for ourselves if it makes the grade as one of the best 3D printers.

An enthusiast shared the design files for their 3D-printed retro PC case, which was inspired by the original Silverstone FLP01. u/Potatozeng shared the photos of their retro case on the r/3Dprinting subreddit, which sports a mini-ITX motherboard and an ATX power supply. They also shared links to the 3D files on Printables and Thingiverse, allowing anyone with a 3D printer to build one themselves.

3dprinting from r/3Dprinting/comments/1j8hznr/i_designed_and_3dprinted_a_retro_style_itx_pc_case

Although it has a similar form factor to the FLP01, this retro case is significantly smaller. Aside from the fact that it can only accommodate a mini-ITX mobo, it cannot support a discrete GPU, even if it’s a low-profile model. There’s also no dedicated installation slot for a 2.5-inch drive, although you can tape a SATA SSD right above the PSU. Because of its small size, u/Potatozeng said that it does not need an extra fan for cooling and that you can rely entirely on the airflow delivered by the CPU cooler and the PSU fan for your system.

The entire project consists of 17 different 3D files, for a total of 20 different parts and panels, and it took the enthusiast about 85 hours to print everything. Aside from that, you need several screws and inserts to secure all your components, as well as a couple of keyboard switches, LEDs, resistors, wires, and female jumper cables. Finally, you’d need a soldering iron to heat press the inserts and connect wires, as well as super glue to secure the joints of the PC case together. All these tools and materials make the build seem complicated and time-consuming, but the creator also included a PDF guide with pictures. This makes it easier for those who want to embark on this adventure.

The finished product looks clean and professionally built, except for the joint that runs on top of the case connecting the two top panels. Nevertheless, that is a small detail many would likely overlook because of the retro aesthetic that this 3D printed case delivers. Although its small size and lack of places for extra fans and radiators mean that you cannot put a powerful gaming system into it, it’s still good enough for lighter gaming rigs or an office PC. It could also be a great case for a non-gamer Millennial or Gen-X-er who wants to relive their care-free days playing games on the old family desktop PC by installing Windows 3.1 on modern hardware.

For years, 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP) has been an experimental novelty. Alquist 3D, based in Greeley, CO, is pushing the technology past the demonstration phase with their A1X, a robotic arm printer that lays down inch-thick layers at a whopping 200mm/s. This new approach to construction cuts down on time and wasted material, while also requiring fewer people. Alquist 3D is partnering with construction firm FMGI to build more than a dozen expansions on Walmart locations across the country using the new tech.

Alquist’s most ambitious build isn’t 30 new Walmarts or the first 3D printed house in Virginia. It’s the ecosystem the company is setting up to take 3D printing from the lab to the construction site. By teaming up with equipment distributors Hugg & Hall and general contractors like FMGI, they are solving the scalability problem that previously held back the technology and labor shortages that plague construction in general. Alquist recently sold 14 A1 Series systems, in what is believed to be the largest U.S. deployment of 3DCP.

Concrete printers are surprisingly similar to FDM 3D printers, though they don’t need a heated nozzle and cooling fans. They extrude a thick paste of special concrete packed with fibers to control cracks that could form during curing, much like FDM machines might use glass fiber in nylon to control warping. Alquist’s machines run materials by Sika, which utilize recycled fibers mixed with Portland cement.

We spoke to Andrew Lycas, Alquist’s CTO, about the machines and technology his company is developing. He told us that 3DCP is superior to traditional CMU block construction, AKA cinder block construction, because it’s much faster and requires a smaller team of skilled workers. However, the material costs more, which eats away at the savings.

Alquist 3D recently launched its A1 Series, featuring two units: the A1 and A1X. Both machines are built on a KUKA robotic arm fitted with a 1.25-inch nozzle. The standard A1 sits on a pedestal and is made for producing “smaller” items like planters and park benches. It's also perfect for educational settings to train modern construction crews on large-scale 3D printing. Alquist co-developed a curriculum with nearby Aims Community College to introduce students to 3DCP technology.

The A1X has the same robotic system, but rides on a modular rail, allowing the printer to construct buildings with basically an unlimited X and Y dimension. On the job site, the A1X has successfully constructed walls up to 20 feet high.

Printing in concrete does have its limitations. Unlike desktop 3D printers, there’s no compatible support material, meaning the A1X can print walls but not the roof. However, its super chonky line width enables a “vase mode” style geometry that can smoothly print walls in one pass. “Infill” is applied manually, in the form of heavy wire supports inserted while the concrete is soft. The wall spaces can be backfilled with insulation after electricians and plumbers insert conduit or pipe. Commercial buildings can skip this step and simply bolt utilities to the interior walls.

Early concrete printers used massive gantry systems that looked strikingly like desktop machines. These printers were difficult to transport and set up, and put severe limits on the size of the build. The A1X is a more nimble machine that can be hauled by a pickup truck in a standard trailer and set up in about an hour. Large jobs can make use of several printers working in concert to cut down on job time.

Alquist 3D is partnering with construction firm FMGI to build more than a dozen expansions on Walmart locations across the country, with each one being a little bit different. The first job was in August in Tennessee, with temperatures over 110F during the day. After a frustrating start, the team discovered that going nocturnal helped not only the workers but also the materials, which have an optimal temperature range of 5 to 35 °C, or 40 to 95F. The 8,0000 square-foot expansion only took 140 hours to print once the bugs were worked out.

3D printed concrete really shines in the winter, when it's too cold for traditional construction methods. In January, Alquist 3D built a 4,400 square-foot addition to a Walmart in Lamar, MO, that only took 17 days and 71.3 print hours to build. Temperatures dropped to 24°F with sustained high humidity, but didn’t phase the process one bit.

Bambu Lab claimed the top spot in global entry-level 3D printer shipments during 2025, overtaking longtime leader Creality, according to full-year market data from intelligence firm Context reported by All3DP on Saturday.

The Shenzhen-based company held a 37% share of the sub-$2,500 segment, with Creality, Elegoo, and Anycubic rounding out the top four. Entry-level shipments rose 47% year over year in Q4 and 26% across all of 2025, driving the broader 3D printing market out of a prolonged downturn.

In contrast, when Context published its Q1 2025 data, Creality still led the entry-level category with a 39% share despite a slight dip in unit sales, while Bambu Lab trailed in second place with 64% year-over-year shipment growth. Over the following three quarters, that growth rate widened the gap enough for Bambu Lab to take the lead. The company's MakerWorld model-sharing platform had reached approximately 10 million monthly active users by the end of 2025, with an 83% user retention rate after one year, according to data published by Bambu Lab on its WeChat channels in February.

Context's findings align with separate data from AM Research, which pegged the total global 3D printing market at $16 billion in 2025 with roughly 10% year-over-year growth. AM Research's Q4 report described the year as split into two distinct halves: the first mirrored the sluggish conditions of 2023 and 2024, while the second saw momentum return, with total market revenue growing from $4 billion in Q3 to $4.26 billion in Q4.

Chinese manufacturers accounted for more than 90% of global entry-level 3D printer shipments in 2025, according to the Context data, with China’s concentration increasing even as the market attracts more outside capital. Creality is preparing for an initial public offering, and All3DP reported that other major players in the segment are drawing investment from Chinese financial firms.

Contrasts with the professional market

The professional 3D printer segment, covering systems priced between $2,500 and $20,000, moved in the opposite direction. Shipments fell 12% in Q4 and 15% for the full year, with Formlabs holding 38% market share in that category. Midrange systems, priced from $20,000 to $100,000, also declined, dropping 6% in Q4 and 12% for the year. Context attributed part of that decline to consolidation and mergers during 2025.

Context expects growth across every price segment in 2026, with entry-level systems forecast to expand the fastest and industrial shipments expected to post near double-digit percentage increases. The firm cited loosening U.S. interest rates, strength in China's domestic market, and continued momentum in aerospace and defense as factors behind that outlook.

An inventor has showcased a “filament dryer that pays you bitcoin.” When this news popped up in our feed we weren’t surprised to see that PizzAndy from Proof Of Print was the brains behind it. It’s the same guy who created the 3D printer that mines Bitcoin. Moreover, it very likely uses the same principle of taking waste heat / watts from crypto mining ASICs for use within the 3D printing process.

A filament dryer?

A filament dryer is a desirable piece of equipment for 3D printing pros and hobbyists. It maintains the filament at a predefined controlled temperature. This stops the filament from absorbing moisture from the air. It is a more proactive step than simply keeping your filament in a decent storage box.

‘Wet filament’ problems are manifested as popping, stringing, and bubbling in the print process. Post-output, the same underlying issue may cause weak interlayer bonding and result in a poor surface finish on your objects. So, keep your filament dry, folks.

Using a dedicated filament dryer also means you don’t have to worry about “hiding from your wife that you're drying filament in the kitchen oven,” notes PizzAndy.

Is it using the same underlying tech as the 3D printer that mines Bitcoin?

Though PizzAndy doesn’t explicitly say it, we are pretty sure this filament dryer uses the same underlying tech as in his 3D printer / Bitcoin miner. In that previously revealed product the 3D printer bed was kept steadily warm because it acted as a heatsink for a number of carefully throttled BTC mining ASICs.

The prototype 3D printer / Bitcoin miner could manage 500 GH/s when the bed was at 75°C. When we reported on that hybrid printing –mining device there was already talk about scaling things up.

Looking at PizzAndy’s latest stats, the new 3D printer filament dryer that mines Bitcoins may have already implemented some of the scaling and tuning that was talked about. Remember, this dryer prototype is capable of “6 TH/s @ 140W.”

Hopefully this new 3D printing filament dryer that mines BTC and the prior 3D printer with integrated Bitcoin miner don't just remain trade show prototypes for years.

A team of researchers from Rice University has achieved a new breakthrough in 3D printing that has unlocked the construction of brand-new electronic tech that was previously impossible. As reported by New Atlas, a paper published by the aforementioned team describes a new 3D-printing process using microwaves capable of heating up nanoparticle ink with extreme precision.

This bleeding-edge microwave tech, called “Meta-NFS” or metamaterial-inspired near-field electromagnetic structure, can heat ink in a concentrated zone as small as a human hair. Further still, the microwaves can be programmed to penetrate through an object's outer layer to heat the inside layers without causing damage to the exterior.

This incredible accuracy enables the printer to fuse circuits inside a 3D printed object, something that has been impossible to do with outgoing manufacturing methods, and is a problem that has plagued the industry for a decade. Current manufacturing methods use lasers and furnaces to heat nanoparticles in circuit boards from the outside in. This works for traditional electronic manufacturing, but prevents 3D printers from making specialized electronics that interface with softer materials.

Meta-NFS also allows 3D printers to use an expanded assortment of materials, including metals, ceramics, and thermoset polymers. Further, the tech also reportedly improves production efficiency through real-time adjustments in microwave power, enabling a Meta-NFS printer to create a print (in one continuous print) without swapping materials.

Meta-NFS's abilities are enabling the creation of new electronic tech that was previously difficult to accomplish with conventional manufacturing. A few of these applications include integration of electronics onto robots with soft skin, implants, and even plants. The researchers showed several examples, including using Meta-NFS to print wireless strain sensors on biocompatible polymers and create devices that can integrate into plants for real-time growth monitoring. This was only possible through Meta-NFS's compatibility with metal and carbon-based materials.

These are just a few of the applications Meta-NFS has in the electronic manufacturing industry. But it is expected that the tech will be a critical part of many groundbreaking technologies moving forward.

A random-tech-things-tuber has answered the question of whether you can play World of Warcraft using peripherals made from processed meat products. Specifically, addison2k conceptualized and built a hot dog-based game controller. This smoky-flavored, tactile, dead-flesh device features a pair of quad-array hot dog silos. As designed, the left weiner quartet controls movement, and the right triggers abilities. It is demonstrated in action in a WoW gaming session demo video, below.

As a little backstory, addison2k admits they previously integrated a solitary hot dog into their gaming as a challenge during a camping/gaming event. However, they felt like they cheated as the solitary sausage was augmented by a gamepad controller…

So, they went back to the drawing board and used a 3D printer to output a pair of quad-hotdog silos, with each dog individually wired. That should probably be enough for a comprehensive meaty controller. It was, almost.

The controller maker’s video then moved on to designing and outputting the hotdog controller. A spot of 3D modeling later, and we see addison2k output a quad-silo base station. There are cutouts in the design for wiring, as no one has invented wireless hot dogs yet. Two of these quad-silos are output using a Bambu Lab A1 3D printer.

After the dogs are wired up addison2k configures the controller(s). As we’ve mentioned above, the maker decided on movement touch controls to the left and actions on the right.

We don’t see any troubleshooting, implying the meat-filled controller worked as intended without a hiccup. At this first flush of success addison2k was clearly excited. “I’m playing WoW entirely with meat,” they gasped.

The hotdog controller was far from flawless, though. Its crazed creator complained about the lack of camera control, for example, and missed a dodging control. Later, at around 2m 40s, addison2k would confess they “had to use the keyboard a few times.” As an explanation, they said that the breaking of their hotdog control vows was due to “my target got stuck on a dead mob, and I don't have a tab bound to a hot dog. Damn it.”

Another drawback mentioned in the video was that the hot dogs started to get warm after playing for a while. We are sure there are worse drawbacks to come if a person were to persist in using a meat-based controller. Nevertheless, the underlying message – that you can live your own dreams – stands firm.

Hotdog controller DIY tips and plans

If you want to follow in the footsteps of addison2k and make your own hotdog controller, the creator said that the sausages chosen were the Oscar Mayer brand. Even more helpfully, they linked some 3D printer source files, available via MakerWorld. On that site, you are also asked to provide feedback if you refine the original design.

Elegoo has announced the Jupiter 2 resin 3D printer, the company’s largest model in terms of print volume, but one that is still more compact than the older Jupiter and Jupiter SE. According to the company’s press release, the new Jupiter 2 features a 302.40 x 161.98 x 300.00 mm build volume, about 14.6 liters. It also boasts a 14-inch 16K LCD screen that delivers 20 x 26µm XY resolution, allowing you to print finer details and achieve smoother printed surfaces. To help ensure the success of your 3D prints, it comes with a multi-point auto leveling function and real-time data feedback for manual leveling.

• Check out the Elegoo Jupiter 2 currently on pre-order.

"The Jupiter 2 is our bold step forward in elevating the resin 3D printing experience," Elegoo CEO Chris Hong said. "We're setting a new industry benchmark by delivering a reliable, high-efficiency printer capable of handling demanding projects with consistent results." Aside from its larger build volume and higher resolution, it also comes with several new features that should help make resin 3D printing much easier. This includes a double-door design that makes it easier to access the print chamber from the front or the sides. It also has a built-in chamber camera and LED light for monitoring and capturing time-lapse videos of your 3D prints.

This resin 3D printer also reduces waste with its heated resin tank, ensuring that the material stays at the optimal temperature for consistent results. It also has a smart mechanical sensor that warns you in case of residue in the resin vat or if the build plate is not leveled. Furthermore, it has a resin shortage alarm, warning you if you’re about to run out. And when you’re done printing, it has a smart resin management system that automatically feeds and recycles resin with a detachable 2k resin bottle. This makes it easier for users to just leave the Jupiter 2 running in the background and accomplish other tasks, especially for large projects that take several hours to complete.

Transferring print files to the Jupiter 2 is also convenient with its USB & Wi-Fi connectivity, and you can easily control it with its 4-inch capacitive touchscreen on the lower right corner of the machine. Elegoo built the system with modularity in mind, which lets users replace the release film in ten seconds and the LCD screen in ten minutes — significantly faster than traditional methods.

The Jupiter 2 is currently on pre-order, with Super Early Bird and Early Bird buyers able to score discounts of $100 and $50, respectively, with the company expecting to start shipping by the third quarter of 2026. The massive build volume that this 3D printer delivers is aimed at both hobbyists and professionals who want to build large projects or do multiple prints simultaneously.

Bambu just released an update for the Bambu Studio app that gives users much more flexibility when it comes to color. According to the company’s X post, the Color Mixer Studio will let you combine two to three different filaments to create a totally new shade. Aside from that, you can also use it to print gradients across two colors, allowing you to give your 3D prints a unique look. This isn’t a new technique, and some have been experimenting with this method of color mixing for a few years now. However, Bambu acknowledged that it used Ratdoux’s approach, found on the OrcaSlicer-FullSpectrum fork available on GitHub, as the basis for the color prediction part of this new feature.

This color mixing feature is similar to the halftoning technique used in printing, wherein printers lay CMYK dots in patterns that vary in size and spacing on a flat surface to trick the eye into seeing new tones, hues, and shades. The difference here is that instead of using ink dots, Bambu 3D printers use different filaments to produce the optical illusion of a new color on a 3D surface.

“The useful concept here is often called Transmission Distance: if the printed layers are thin enough, or the filament is translucent enough, light can pass through multiple-colored layers before reflecting back to the viewer,” Ratdoux told All3DP. They also added, “When that happens, the eye does not see only a red layer or only a blue layer, for example; it sees light that has interacted with both, and the result is perceived as a mixed color.”

This technique is possible with both single- and multi-nozzle 3D printers, but it isn’t recommended to use it with the former. That’s because you’ll have to purge every time you change filament, which uses up a lot of the material and is also time-consuming. On the other hand, it would give some of the best multicolor 3D printers additional functionality, potentially even allowing you to print an unlimited number of colors with a set of CMYK filaments.

There are some limitations to this technique, though — sloped surfaces and top/bottom layers might deliver unpredictable results because of how the effect works. It’s recommended that you stick with near-vertical walls or do a test print first before committing to a final print. Furthermore, color reproduction might be inaccurate, so you might need to fine-tune your settings based on sample prints.

The Bambu Studio V2.5.3 Release Note says that a base layer height of 0.12mm and a mixed layer height of 0.2mm are recommended for a 0.4mm nozzle to get uniform color mixing results. Extreme layer height ratios should also be avoided to reduce the risk of trigger melt fracture and degraded print quality.

It’s hard to believe it's only been four years since Bambu Lab introduced its freaky fast X1 Carbon 3D printer and shook the industry out of its stupor. Just a few weeks ago, the legendary X1 line was officially retired to make way for a new machine: the X2D.

Priced at a surprisingly approachable $899, the X2D Combo enters the market $550 cheaper than its predecessor’s Kickstarter debut. It fits snugly between the larger H2 printers and the budget-friendly P2S. Rather than trying to top the X1 Carbon’s advanced performance capabilities, the X2D focuses on ease of use.

Though not a toolchanger, the X2D’s dual-nozzle setup is incredibly effective at saving time, filament, and frustration. Bambu Lab is highlighting the second nozzle as an aid for easy-to-remove supports: by mixing two filaments that do not stick, supports are much easier to remove without scarring the model’s surface.

The X2D takes an unusual approach for its toolhead. It pairs a normal direct-drive extruder on the main nozzle with an old-school Bowden extruder on the auxiliary, with its motor mounted onto the back of the machine. This, combined with a mechanical switching system for the nozzles, lightens the toolhead’s weight and keeps it nimble. While print speeds are the same as the lightning-fast X1 Carbon, the X2D squeezes out a bit more with a faster acceleration rate.

The toolhead is also much easier to maintain than the X1 Carbon or the overly complex H2 dual-nozzle setup. It uses the same tool-free, quick-release nozzles pioneered on the A1, and refined for the H2 and P2 machines. Other improvements include more durable hardened steel rods, a thermal system to keep the printer hot or cool as needed, a three-layer filtration system to remove both odor and VOCs, an AI camera for monitoring, and upgraded lighting for improved video.

Bambu Lab has perfected its formula for quality, speed, and ease of use. Combined with its $899 price point for the X2D Combo and $649 for the standalone machine, this is one of the best 3D printers we’ve seen this year.

Specifications: Bambu Lab X2D

Bambu Lab X2D: Included in the Box

The Bambu Lab X2D comes with everything you need to get your printer set up, as well as a few extra parts. You get tools to maintain the printer, spare nozzle and nozzle wiping pads. No filament was included with the machine as part of the retail package, though our test unit did come with several spools for testing.

The printer comes with test models loaded in its memory, such as a scraper you can print and assemble with parts included in the toolbox. It does NOT come with a USB stick, which you will need to take time-lapse videos. There’s a getting-started guide and instructions on how to access the slicer and phone app. The box has a QR code printed on the inside flap that directs you to an unpacking video.

Design of the Bambu Lab X2D

The most obvious improvement to the X2D is the dual nozzle, which is similar, but not the same as, the H2D. The X2D uses the same quick swap nozzles, originally inspired by the A1 but improved for faster flow. This means that all manually changed Bambu Lab nozzles are now compatible across the entire X2, H2, and P2 lineup.

Unlike the H2D and H2C, the right side nozzle is the "auxiliary," and it's got a weird little secret: it's not direct drive. Bambu Lab has gone old school and given the Aux nozzle a true Bowden extruder, which I expect to confuse the crud out of makers who started with any “modern” direct drive printer from the last 4 or 5 years. I’ll admit that even I puzzled over the mysterious gray box after opening the package. As an early reviewer, I was coming in completely blind and naturally didn’t stop to dig out the manual first.

The extruder is slapped onto the back of the printer and screwed into place, which leads me to suspect the X2 and P2 share a good bit of chassis. The new H2 style filter is also screwed into the back. Fortunately, this mess can face the wall and never be seen again.

Bambu Lab says the extruder is placed on the back of the machine to remove weight from the toolhead and remove vibrations. But that’s not all that has changed. First, the toolhead glides on steel rods, instead of the X1 Carbon’s dubious carbon fiber rods. Steel rods, which started showing up with the H2 series, should be more robust and easier to maintain.

The dual nozzles have mechanical switching, which removes yet another motor from the tool head. And, as previously stated, Bambu Lab is tripling down on the new style of A1 adjacent nozzle, which can be installed without tools. This means Bambu only needs to manufacture one kind of nozzle for multiple printers, and customers can avoid confusion when ordering replacement parts.

The X2D has a “smart thermal control system” which, like the H2 before it, can keep the chamber cool or warm to suit your needs. This solves one of my personal pet peeves: leaving the door open while printing PLA. Many new users think the door is there to keep children/cats/dust out of the printer, rather than provide a controlled environment for high temperature printing. The airflow system feeds cooler air from the room to the auxiliary part cooling fan on both sidewalls. During testing, the chamber temperature hovered around 32 °C, and I had no issue with nozzle clogs or overhangs.

When you print high-temperature filaments, the heat mode is activated automatically. The vents close and the heater kicks on, allowing warm air to circulate in the chamber.

Speaking of circulating air, the X2D has a triple-stage air filtration system with a HEPA filter and coconut shell activated carbon. The print chamber is vented through this system to trap odors and particulates.

The X2D also gets a USB port, which is one of those simple features that we appreciate. Having a USB port allows you to easily transfer files without the need for an internet connection. It's also where the X2D stores timelapse footage.

The live view camera has also been improved to a full HD 1920 x 1080 high frame rate camera, and combined with upgraded chamber lighting, gives much better results. The camera is also part of a new AI computer monitoring system that makes sure you have the same plate installed as the slicer settings and watches for nozzle blobs and spaghetti printing.

Nozzle pressure is measured with an eddy current sensor, and the machine automatically adjusts the flow rates for you. The main (left side) nozzle has the new direct drive system we’ve seen on the H2 and P2, with a PMSM servo delivering 8.5kg max extrusion force. That’s about 70% more than the old X1C. The printer also monitors the system to detect filament grinding or clogs on the main nozzle. The auxiliary (right side) nozzle uses a standard stepper motor.

Another huge improvement over the X1C is the removal of the dead zone in the forward left corner. The older machine reserved this space for a permanently mounted prong to push the cutter. Now the filament cutter levers are pointed backward, with a small metal prong mounted in the center back of the chamber to depress a button that pushes the cutter. It’s still a manual system, but now it’s much smaller and doesn’t eat up any build volume space.

The rest of the printer is largely the same: a 256mm cubed build volume and a speedy, highly accurate motion system. In case this is your first Core XY, the motion system uses a combination of belts to move the X and Y axes in tandem for smoother, faster printing. The print head stays at the top of the machine while the build plate slowly lowers. When combined with vibration-damping input shaping, the results are exceptionally smooth, high-quality prints.

The X2D Combo comes standard with the new AMS 2 Pro, a four-color Automatic Material System. This new AMS can double as a filament dryer with active venting to maintain low humidity when the lid is kept closed. It still needs desiccant packs to keep moisture at bay because the dryer doesn’t run while it prints.

The AMS 2 Pro is now easier to maintain, with the tubes exposed. This makes it a lot easier to fish out scraps of filament that might snap inside the unit.

Like all the other Bambu Lab machines, X2D needs a collection bucket for its inevitable pile of filament poops. There are various community-designed solutions to the problem, or you can just put an empty filament box back there. I do wish Bambu would address this issue.

Bambu Lab says the X2D can obtain a top speed of 1,000mm/s and 20,000 mm/s acceleration, which is twice the default speed of the slicer and likely only used for travel moves. We still have the “sport” and “ludicrous” speeds, which is 124% and 164% faster than normal, with somewhat sketchy quality results. It’s fine for a quick draft, but I’d still stick with standard speed.

When the X2D has an error, the touchscreen can show us the same helpful assistant as the higher-end machines. It will offer up a QR code you can scan with your phone and get troubleshooting advice from the Bambu Wiki, a knowledge base for operating any Bambu printer. The Wiki will help you identify and fix the problem, often with short video tutorials.

Bambu Lab Automatic Material System (AMS)

The X2D Combo comes standard with Bambu Lab’s new AMS2 Pro system: a four-spool feeder that unlocks the ability to print in four, eight, twelve, and even sixteen colors. The units cost $299 each and can be placed on top or next to the printer. You can also attach an older AMS if you have an extra or just want to save a couple of bucks.

The auxiliary nozzle comes with a basic rack, but can use another AMS 2 Pro or the single spool AMS HT.

You can program the filament colors using the touchscreen, and also change the colors or spool placement on sliced files.

The AMS unit is able to read RFID ID tags that the company installs on each roll of its own filament for easy identification. These tags tell the printer what type and color of material you have installed, and then match it with presets in Bambu Studio. If you use 3rd party filament, you’ll have to fill that information in by hand.

The AMS has pockets for descant and seals tightly, allowing you to use the AMS as a drybox for temperamental filament like Nylon. The AMS 2 Pro does double duty as a filament dryer, though only while it is not printing.

There’s also a “backup” option for the AMS, which will allow it to automatically switch from one slot to the next instead of tripping a run-out sensor. This could be handy for using up partial spools or prints that will need more than one spool. To use this setting, you’ll need to have identical spools loaded.

Assembling the Bambu Lab X2D

The Bambu Lab X2D comes mostly assembled and only needs a few things mounted onto the back, and the screen plugged into the front. You’ll probably spend more time removing all the packing screens and zip ties. The printed guide walks you through each step.

Leveling the Bambu Lab X2D

The Bambu Lab X2D has an excellent auto-leveling system combined with vibration compensation, pressure advance, and automatic belt tensioning. A thorough self-test is run after unpacking the machine to make sure everything is in working order.

Once you’re up and running, the machine will automatically run a bed leveling check before each print. This takes a few minutes, but you’re free to uncheck the option if you don’t want to take the time.

There is no need to set the Z height or Z offset. In fact, there’s no option or button to do so, because the X2D handles this setting on its own.

Loading Filament on the Bambu Lab X2D

The X2D comes with two single spool racks if you didn’t opt for an AMS. If you order the combo, you’ll get an AMS 2 Pro and one spool rack for the auxiliary nozzle. If you’re upgrading from an X1 Carbon or a P1, the side-mounted rack is so much easier to deal with than the old rear-mounted spool.

TPU is problematic. Bambu Lab recommends their harder “TPU for AMS” for the main nozzle and none at all for the auxiliary nozzle. If you want to run “regular” soft TPU, you’ll have to gerry rig a top-mounted spool and bypass all the tubing, but this is not supplied.

The X2D automatically unloads filament when it’s done printing.

Preparing Files / Software for Bambu Lab X2D

Bambu Studio is the custom slicer for the X2D and its fellow 3D printers. It’s largely based on PrusaSlicer, though the layout is a bit different. If you find the settings overwhelming, it’s generally fine to run with the default presets.

The device tab is where you can send files via LAN or the Cloud, watch videos from your camera’s timelapse and remotely tweak the speed and temperature of your printer.

A link to MakerWorld is on the homepage, which allows you to easily search for models designed to work on Bambu machines. While signed in to MakerWorld (and using the Cloud), you can also send presliced files directly back to your printer.

Printing on the Bambu Lab X2D

The X2D doesn’t come with any filament, so you’ll definitely want to check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.

The printer came with several pre-sliced files to print, like this functional scraper with a cap. The metal blade (not sharp) comes with the machine, along with screws for assembly. I printed it in Bambu Lab black and white ABS, and it turned out great.

I printed the Maker’s Muse Clearance Castle in five random colors of PLA that were hiding in my closet. The print turned out very good, with none of the parts binding up and just a bit of slop at the worst part of the drawbridge’s overhang test.

The X2D will tell you which filament to put in the aux nozzle for the best filament savings. In this case, it suggested putting the main color (orange) on the aux nozzle, which it claims saved me 111 grams of material. It still had to waste 143.4 grams in printer poop, and 46 grams in an unavoidable prime tower.

I was curious if there was a noticeable quality difference between the main and aux nozzles, so I ran two of the calibration cubes from Bambu Studio. The green PLA print is from the bowden aux nozzle and the black PLA is from the main, direct drive.

Both prints are using a 0.2 mm layer height and default PLA settings. I use Matterhacker’s Green Build Series PLA and Bambu Lab Basic PLA in Black.

The main nozzle printed the cube perfectly in 20 minutes and 35 seconds. The aux nozzle took twice as long, at 41 minutes and 59 seconds, and has a very subtle bit of waviness to the side walls. This is probably why Bambu Lab is leaning heavily on using the aux nozzle for disposable supports.

If you don’t mind the tiny hit to quality, the dual nozzle setup is a huge time and filament saver for two-color prints. I hate using a single-nozzle machine to print black and white objects due to the waste, but the X2D was able to print this herd of tiny zebras without any purge waste. The eyeballs, which are printed on the aux nozzle, look a tiny bit rougher on camera than they do in person.

This herd of 15 minis printed in 13 hours and 54 minutes, using a standard 0.2 mm layer height and default settings, wasting only 11.5 grams of filament in the prime tower. I saved 101 grams by using the dual nozzle setup. This was printed in Bambu Lab black and white PLA Basic.

The X2D was not built for printing normal TPU. The AMS 2 Pro can only handle stiff “TPU for AMS,” and it's not recommended to run soft TPU through the Bowden side for the same reason you don’t run it through the AMS. (It’s like pushing a wet noodle through the tubing.) You can rig up a top-mounted spool holder and load directly into the top of the direct drive main nozzle, but I didn’t have time to print one.

Instead, I used the suggested Bambu Lab TPU for AMS in yellow to print a purse I found in Makerworld. The purse had some design issues, making it too stiff for this kind of hard TPU, but the TPU itself printed flawlessly. I also used this model to test out Bambu’s Support for PLA, which also works with TPU. The support material can be printed while directly touching the TPU and won’t stick. It’s also a brittle material that snaps off the print easily.

To test out high-temperature filaments, I ran this part of a giant top launcher we’re working on. This piece will be under a good deal of stress, as the launcher is powered by a scooter motor. This ran in Bambu Lab’s PA6-GF, which is Nylon 6 filled with glass fiber. The fiber makes the nylon more stable and less likely to warp. It’s also heat-resistant and could be used to print parts installed in your car engine. The textured surface on this part is from the glass fiber.

This was printed with four walls for extra strength, but otherwise with default settings and a 0.2mm layer height. It took 2 hours and 10 minutes to print, one at a time.

I also ran this Rocky pen holder in PET filament by Fusion Filament, which is probably overkill, but the gold color is perfect, and the model is extremely strong. PET (without the G) is the same material soda bottles are made of, and needs to be run extra hot, but without a fan. This was printed at 285 °C, with a bit of stringing, but otherwise turned out great. This used a .2mm layer height, not that you can tell from the smooth sides of this print. The arms are a little scruffy from the stringing, but would improve after tuning. This took one hour and 43 minutes to print.

Note, the model is Chinese, where the movie “Project Hail Mary” was translated to Saving Plan, and Rocky is known as Luòjī.

Bottom Line

The Bambu Lab X2D is a wonderful example of strategic refinement while keeping costs in check. It’s a great 3D printer for the home or office, offering convenience and simplicity with a robust set of features and none of the over-the-top extras.

The dual-nozzle hybrid toolhead is an unusual solution, letting the X2D keep the speed of its predecessor while having the advantage of a waste-free second color and easy-to-remove supports when you apply a little material science.

Retailing at $899 for the Combo model, the X2D is a strong choice for anyone wanting to upgrade their 3D printing experience or start a new hobby on the right foot. You can save a bit of cash by going with the single-nozzle P2S, which currently retails for $799, or grab a real bargain by picking up the still awesome A1 Combo for only $399. If you need more build volume and four colors, the H2S Combo is our favorite large-scale pick from the Bambu lineup and retails at $1,499.

A TechTuber has constructed a bulbous 15x fan PC case side panel as a cooling experiment. If you think the mind-boggling design of the ‘Superdome’ is familiar, that’s probably because the fevered imagination of Major Hardware was also behind the custom domed 15x fans in the ‘Fanhattan Project’ we wrote about last month. How well does it scale to PC side panel use? Let’s see.

Major Hardware explains at the start of his new video that the Superdome was inspired by user comments on the prior project, suggesting the use of multiple standard NF-A12x25 120mm fans instead of tiny fans replacing a single unit. Thankfully, as the Noctua fans are $40 a piece, the cooling firm provided all the fans the project required — saving $600 for the maker. As a cherry on top, Noctua also generously provided spools of matching 3D printer filament.

The freebie Noctua fans arrived before the TechTuber had drafted the Superdome in 3D, but the idea was made to work with five fans around one on top of the dome, and nine surrounding them at the base of the dome, near the PC. Cabling routing was yet to be decided.

Next, we see Major Hardware 3D print the structure of the Superdome, and luckily, the Bambu Labs H2D and H2S build volume was just enough to prevent more design splitting than would be ideal. Still, it took days to output all the pieces.

The finished work looks great from the outside, but Major Hardware is the first to admit cable management is “a little bit of a disaster.” But it was “honestly pretty quiet,” as long as none of the cables swung into the fan blades. All the fans were configured to be intakes, so we guess that when attached to the PC, the build would have a soupçon of positive internal pressure.

Battlefield 6 gaming thermals test

The proof of any success from equipping the Superdome would come from an A/B Battlefield 6 gaming challenge, decided the TechTuber. With the standard glass panel equipped, he observed a top temperature of ~86°C in the Ryzen Master software. Swapping to the Superdome and playing a few more BF6 games, and Major Hardware saw that the CPU temps had dropped to approximately 67°C. “I dropped about 20°C just by putting the Superdome on the front of my PC,” noted the TechTuber. “This is pretty incredible, and it's not even loud.” However, sitting beside the PC, he felt “a constant breeze.”

Major Hardware has decided to share the 3D printing files on Thingiverse, so others with a Lian Li O11 case and a few spare fans can easily follow in his footsteps.

Beehive Industries, a startup jet engine manufacturer based in Colorado, just secured a $30 million contract from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to continue the research and development of small 3D-printed jet engines for uncrewed aircraft and stand-off weapons. According to the company, the USAF funding is allocated for vehicle integration, flight testing, and qualification of the Frenzy 8 — the company’s flagship engine that delivers 200lbs of thrust — as well as the possible flight demonstration of the smaller 100lb-thrust Frenzy 6. By comparison, the F-16 Viper is powered by either a GE F110 or Pratt & Whitney F100 engine, both of which develop thrust of over 29,000lbs.

3D printing, more accurately called additive manufacturing, has been used by the aviation industry for over 10 years now. In fact, GE, which makes the LEAP engine found in the Airbus A320neo in partnership with Safran, has been using this technique to manufacture jet engine parts since 2016. But despite the industry's use of 3D printing, not just anyone can (or should) start printing airplane parts at home. These require special materials and construction techniques, or you may cause an accident if you make a mistake.

However, it appears that Beehive will use 3D printing to build the engine from top to bottom. This would allow the company to manufacture all the parts that it needs to assemble a turbojet instead of relying on a specialized supply chain that could easily be disrupted. More importantly, it would reduce the time required to design, test, and deploy an engine, as well as minimize its production cost — an issue that the U.S. military is contending with, especially as it sometimes uses expensive missiles to take down cheap drones.

“By harnessing additive manufacturing to collapse complex supply chains into scalable, 3D-printed propulsion, we are providing the ‘affordable mass’ essential to modern deterrence,” said Beehive Industries Chief Product Officer Gordie Follin said. “This collaboration ensures our warfighters will have the high-volume, mission-ready capabilities they need to maintain a competitive edge in any theater.” The company is competing against established giants like GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Honeywell Aerospace for the small engine contract. This might seem like it’s disadvantaged, especially as these companies have established contracts with the Pentagon. However, all three have reported backlogs in various departments, meaning Beehive could probably deliver and maintain its engines much quicker than them.

Other nations are building their own micro turbojet engines, too. A Chinese state-backed firm showed off a fully 3D-printed design in 2025, delivering much over 350lbs of thrust at 13,000ft. Engines are one of the most expensive components on an aircraft, accounting for nearly 25% to 40% of the cost. By making cheaper alternatives to traditional manufacturing, militaries can reduce the acquisition and maintenance costs of drones and missiles, allowing them to keep their costs low and get more weapons for every dollar in the budget.

Bryson DeChambeau teed off for the 90th edition of the Masters on Thursday, in his bag alongside an eclectic mix of Krank drivers and woods, Avoda irons, and Bettinardi wedges, a golfing first: the two-time major champion will be sporting a 5-iron he fabricated himself using a 3D printer, according to ESPN.

DeChambeau reportedly confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that he'll play this weekend's tournament with a 5-iron made using a 3D printer. As the report notes, DeChambeau's nickname is the "Mad Scientist," owing to his highly analytical approach to the game.

When asked why DeChambeau had decided to break out the 3D-printed iron on the eve of the biggest tournament in golf, he simply replied: "Because they're finally ready." Per the report, the United States Golf Association (USGA) would have to approve his clubs for use before he can compete using the DIY project, but there's no reason to believe he would boldly announce his plans unless he was at least a little bit confident they would pass muster.

As reported by ESPN, DeChambeau's previous deal with LA Golf ran out in February. "There's this nature that I have about myself where innovation is a habit of mine, and I really find and take pride in that ability to learn -- even through failure, even through making a bad decision or a good decision -- what I can get from that," he told reporters on Wednesday. "We'll see where it goes. We'll see where it takes me," he added, "All I could say now is, if I don't put them in the bag, it's my fault now."

As yet, there are no specific details about the process or equipment DeChambeau has used to manufacture his 5-iron. However, given his $125 million LIV Golf Contract, it's unlikely he was using a budget 3D printer. It is also unclear whether DeChambeau manufactured the club entirely by himself, or is working with a partner or manufacturer for the 3D printing process.

As MyGolfSpy notes, choosing a 5-iron for the experiment is an ambitious and bold move, given that it's a crucial club around Augusta's 7,565-yard course. That means he'll get plenty of chances to use his 3D-printed innovation.

If you’ve ever wanted to skip the design process and just scan an object directly into your 3D printer, then Creality’s Sermoon S1 is worth looking into. This pricey bit of kit makes very good scans of small to large non-organic objects and comes with easy-to-use, AI-assisted clean-up software.

The scanner has a bit of a learning curve and takes patience to use. Its $2,699 price tag makes it too expensive for most makers to use just for the novelty of it, especially when AI modeling software can more easily make replicas from photos snapped with your phone. However, this is a valuable prosumer tool for those who need accurate and precise scans of objects as a jumping off point for CAD software or Blender.

Creality has come a long way since the frustrating CR-Scan Lizard I reviewed four years ago. It’s much easier to operate as a handheld device, though it still needs to be tethered via cable or wifi (with an optional bridge unit) to a computer. It still needs marking dots for the blue laser line mode, but often you can simply place the dots on a turntable rather than the object itself.

If you want a truly handheld, self-contained unit, Creality’s Sermoon P1 is available for $600 more. The P1 trades portability for a slight reduction in speed and accuracy.

Theoretically, the Sermoon S1 can be used on the go if you have a powerful laptop to run it. Sadly, my little web surfing laptop struggled to keep up, and I had better results when tethering it to my desktop PC. The optional Scan Bridge (currently $299) gives the S1 a comfortable pistol grip while also removing the tangle of cords for greater maneuverability.

The S1 can scan people in NIR mode, but the technique takes practice and a subject willing to stand very still for at least a full minute or two. I asked my husband to scan me and it had trouble with my hair, even when I pulled it into a ponytail. However, a skilled artist would be able to take that scan and fill in the gaps. Creality’s software offered an AI feature to fix my face, but it didn’t work due to the quality of the scan, which seems counterintuitive.

Specifications: Creality Sermoon S1

Included in the Box: Creality Sermoon S1

The Creality Sermoon S1 comes with a hard pelican case for travel, plus required cables and a substantial packet of reflective marking stickers.

We also received the optional handheld “Scan Bridge” to provide power and Wi-Fi, which comes with a soft travel bag.

Software is available to download for free on the Creality website.

Design of the Creality Sermoon S1

The Creality Sermoon S1 is a handheld scanner that weighs about a pound and looks rather like an old school landline phone receiver with a nonskid grippy surface on the back. An array of lights is on the business end of the scanner. Because there is no screen on the device itself, you will need to plug it into a computer and use the monitor for feedback on your scanning. Creality has a phone app for the Sermoon S1, but it did not work well for me.

The scanner has a play button to start and stop scans, as well as a button to adjust the lights and a toggle for zoom.

The scanner has a quick-release on the bottom to snap into the optional Scan Bridge, and a threaded screw for attaching to a tripod. On its own, the Sermoon requires a power cord for operation; the Scan Bridge has a rechargeable battery.

The computer screen will give you video feedback of the scan, as well as a shaded graphic “heat map” of the screen with an indicator to let you know if you are holding the scanner close enough to the object or moving too quickly.

Getting Started and Calibrating the Creality Sermoon S1

The Creality Sermoon S1 includes a glass calibration board that is used to calibrate the scanner before use. The calibration process involves laying the glass board down on a flat surface and gradually moving the scanner around in a controlled manner. This process takes about 10 minutes, and can be a bit tricky, so moving slowly and gradually is the best move here.

Creality offers free software for the Sermoon S1 called CrealityScan that is compatible with both Windows and macOS. This software is used for scanning, cleaning up, and texture generation.

A “User Guide” section contains helpful tutorials and best practices for various skills, as well as general information about 3D scanning and mesh cleanup.

PC or Mac

The Creality Sermoon S1 is compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Creality suggests the following configurations for Windows: i7-Gen10 CPU, Nvidia GPU (8GB VRAM), 32GB RAM, Windows 10/11(64-bit). Minimum configuration: i7-Gen7 CPU, Nvidia GPU (6GBVRAM), 16GB RAM, Windows 10/11 (64-bit).

And these configurations for macOS: M1/M2/M3/M4 series, 16GB RAM.

CR Studio saves files as proprietary project files, STL, and OBJ. STL and OBJ files can be imported to the modeling software of your choice for further touch-up or transformation.

Blue Laser Line 3D Scanning with the Creality Sermoon S1

The Creality Sermoon S1 uses blue laser line scanning for detailed geometry capture, and offers three different blue laser scanning modes: 34 crossed laser lines, 7 parallel laser lines, and 1 single laser line. The 34 crossed laser line mode is intended for fast scanning on large objects, the 7 laser line mode is best for capturing fine details, and the single laser line is intended for scanning deep holes that would be difficult to capture otherwise.

The Sermoon S1 can be used to scan very large objects, like cars, which could then be used to provide detailed measurements for custom parts and accessories. While I didn’t need to do any auto repair while testing the Sermoon S1, we did use it to scan a scooter motor. The scan was dropped into TinkerCad (my software of choice) to design an electric launcher for a giant fighting top I hope to take to Open Sauce this summer.

The scanner had no trouble with the reflective metal surface and provided extremely accurate information for placing several screws to hold the motor into the 3D printed housing. I used a small turntable that was provided with the Creality CR Lizard for this job.

I also scanned this statue of a fox, which is about 9 inches tall, using a large turntable that Yuriy Melnik (Laser 3D CNC) sent over. Melnik is a scanning expert and travels around the country demoing scanners for Creality. The table is 3D printed and randomly covered in the same marking dots that come with the Sermoon S1. The software made quick work of cleaning up the scan thanks to the table. The resulting scan was incredibly detailed and printed out phenomenally on my Bambu Lab H2D in Inland Grey PLA.

NIR with the Creality Sermoon P1

We attempted to scan a person – me – in NIR mode. The NIR is safe to point at people, and is the same technology used in your smartphone’s facial recognition scanner. The light is not visible, and my husband, who operated the scanner, had to rely on watching the computer monitor to see where it was pointed.

Our results were promising, but my hair refused to play nice and would not scan completely. There may be some trick to this type of scanning, and I should probably talk to Yuriy again before attempting any more human scans. Our first attempt was using the Scan Bridge and my laptop, which simply did not have enough memory (or battery life) to handle a large scan. Switching to the PC wasn’t a ton better, but again, a better PC or simply more practice might be needed. If I were more of an artist, I could probably fill in the gaps.

I will show you the color texture this scan produced against my better judgment; it's the last image in this set. It shows potential, but again, it's not perfect.

Bottom Line

The Creality Sermoon S1 is a powerful, high-precision tool that comes with fairly decent software. You’ll still want access to CAD or other graphic design tools to make full use of the Sermoon’s capabilities. After a few days of fiddling around with the scanner, I could really see its potential, but there is a serious learning curve to getting the best results.

Creality has made huge advancements in technology since its first foray into scanning. The software leans heavily on AI to make it easier to use, but there are still limits. You also need to make sure your computer is up to the task.

The scanner was able to handle every surface area we tried, with just the human scan being a bit difficult to complete. It did well on both flat and shiny surfaces and on objects with a lot of texture.

Researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands successfully 3D printed a microscopic robot that moves around like a single-celled organism, despite not having a brain. According to the institution, these robots measure between 0.5 and 5 micrometers and can travel at speeds of 7 micrometers per second. By comparison, human hair is about 70 to 100 micrometers thick, showing how tiny these 3D robots are. The university also noted that these devices are printed at the very edge of what is technically possible at the moment.

But what’s more interesting is how these microrobots achieve movement without sensors, motors, a processor, or even external control. Instead, they propel themselves based on their shape and how the environment interacts with that. These bots are inspired by the movements of similar biological creatures.

“Animals like worms and snakes constantly adapt their shape as they move, which helps them to navigate their environments,” Prof. Daniela Kraft, one of the researchers who worked on the project, said. “However, until now, microrobots were either small and rigid or large and flexible. We wondered if we could realize small and flexible microrobots in our lab.”

The microrobots spring into motion when exposed to an electric field, with their soft, chain-like structure moving in various ways. “We discovered there’s continuous feedback between the shape and motion of the robot: the shape influences how it moves, and its movements in turn alters its shape,” says Prof. Kraft. “This microrobot therefore senses how the environment changes its body and reacts to it, making it appear life-like. This means that we don’t need microscopic electronics for integrating smart abilities.”

Postdoctoral researcher Mengshi Wei also added, “When the robot is slowed down or even stopped, it starts to wave its tail as if it wants to break free. This happens before the elements in the back still want to move, and they can do so because of their flexibility.”

These tiny robots have a lot of potential in medicine, with their size and natural movement making them great candidates for targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, and diagnostics. Still, there is a lot of work to be done, including the need to understand what exactly causes its movement and what capabilities we could extract out of them.