Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas just shot down an ATF ruling requiring part kits that can readily be converted into functional weapons, frames or receivers, to be subject to the same regulations as complete guns. The case has a dramatic impact on the 3D printer market, as several states, including California, Colorado, New York, and Washington State, are taking action against ghost guns by putting bans and limitations on 3D printers. According to The Hill, the judge said that the rule “contradicts the actual historical tradition of personal gunsmithing” and its vagueness violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

“After the Revolutionary War, ‘gunsmithing was a universal need in early America, [and] many early Americans who were professionals in other occupations engaged in gunsmithing as an additional occupation or hobby.’ Id. at 66. ‘Regulations on self-built arms are not longstanding. In fact, there were no restrictions on the manufacture of arms for personal use in America during the seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth centuries.’ Id. at 78. Thus, the Court cannot conclude that the Final Rule’s imposition of ambiguous and far-reaching regulations, which would restrict access to component parts thereby inhibiting home gunsmithing, comports with the Second Amendment,” O’Connor wrote in his legal opinion [PDF].

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) enacted this rule in 2022, which required retailers to run background checks on anyone purchasing parts kits that could be used to build a firearm. It also clearly defined what a firearm frame or receiver is and noted which gun parts are required to have a serial number. Gun sellers and gunsmiths were also required to add a serial number on the 3D-printed guns and other non-serialized firearms, as well as extend their records from two decades to the entirety of their license. These rules were supposed to help keep “ghost guns” in control, which are increasingly being used in crimes and are harder for the authorities to trace.

The U.S. Supreme Court actually upheld this ATF regulation in March of last year, after gun rights groups and manufacturers challenged it. They alleged that this ruling overstepped the authority that Congress placed on the ATF, but the majority, in a 7-2 vote, said that the agency was within its rights to do so. But as for the constitutionality of the order, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion, “Future cases may present other and more difficult questions about ATF’s regulations. But we take cases as they come and today resolve only the question posed to us.” It’s likely the O’Connors ruling will be challenged before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, before eventually making its way before the Supreme Court once more.

The restrictions have caused some uproar in the 3D printing community, especially as the proposed rules could make it harder or even impossible for enthusiasts to print parts that might look like guns. These could also cause issues among open-source printers and small manufacturers, especially as they often do not have the resources needed to implement the regulations that these states are considering. Nevertheless, 3D printing manufacturers and platforms recognize the threat of ghost guns, and some of them have started using AI to detect and eliminate gun designs.

It's a safe bet that 3D printer aficionados would definitely own an industrial SLM (Selective Laser Melting) printer if they could, as the creative possibilities granted by them are endless. One such possibility is making actual working rocket engines, as Indian startup Othisis just demonstrated with a stationary test-fire of its fully cryogenic rocket engine, after a few failed attempts.

As a broad description, SLM printers work by depositing a layer of microscopic metal powder on a base, and then firing a laser that melts the powder into solid at specific places. The base then drops down a fraction of a millimeter, a new layer of powder is deposited, and the process repeats. All told, this results in layers around just 0.05 to 0.06 mm thick, made of metals and alloys that traditional consumer 3D printers can't quite handle. Here's an illustrative video of the process.

Othisis' engine doesn't yet have a name, but it's a 5 kN fully cryogenic design, meaning that it uses both liquid oxygen (LOX) and methane as propellants, kept chilled in liquid state. As expected these days, the firm intends this design to be a VTVL (vertical take-off, vertical landing) reusable design. The Othisis design uses the chilled-fuel loop for cooling, plus both LOX and methane can be theoretically manufactured in-situ from CO2 and water.

Additionally, the burn is stronger than the commonly used Kerolox, while leaving behind almost no residue, lowering maintenance time and improving reusability turnaround. Drawbacks include lower fuel density (thus the need for larger tank sizes), trickier storage due to the low temperature, and potential hazards for handling.

Othisis has reportedly signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) to carry payloads into space, even though it's only been formally in business for two years. The company is the brainchild of Syed Affan, the creator of the Rocketry India Discord server, who founded the company while pursuing his undergraduate degree.

If you want to see the bleeding edge of 3D printing tech, you go to FormNext in Frankfurt, Germany. If you want to see the latest in consumer electronics, you go to CES in Las Vegas. If you want to see what it’s like to microwave your own head, you go to Open Sauce in San Mateo, California.

The decidedly quirky maker festival marked its fourth year a few weeks ago, bringing together inventors, makers, artists, cosplayers, YouTubers, and yes, a number of sponsors. Founded by science YouTuber William Osman, the festival has become a must-see event for the maker community.

I attended this year’s festival as an exhibitor, with my “freakishly large, 3D-printed fighting tops.” For full disclosure, Prusa Research sponsored my travel costs and also partnered with me on a contest hosted on Printables, where I provided the example model and was on the judging panel. Polymaker sent an insane amount of filament for printing the tops and arenas.

We received some amazing and creative entries; even YouTuber and maker Jeff Geerling stopped by to join in on the fun.

Besides the obvious 3D-printed robots, 3D-printed printers, and 3D-printed violins (see above), a lot of exhibits used 3D-printed parts as an easy method to prototype and manufacture their project. Here are a few gems we found on the show floor.

Positron 3D

Even with a modest display, you still can't help but notice Positron 3D's amazing LDO Positron upside-down 3D printer. Designed to fit into a 1kg filament box, this printer can be folded down to 200 × 200 × 70 mm in size, making it easy to store or travel with.

PrusaWire

Also from Positron, 3D printing enthusiast @joescalon brought his Prusawire R1 project to the show. For the full assembly guide and 3D configurator, go here.

Unlayered 3D

Although still in the development phase, seeing Unlayered 3D's non-planar 5-axis 3D printer in action is very impressive. It defies the traditional FDM layered printing process with its tilting print head and rotating bed feature, eliminating the need for supports. This results in a stronger, smoother output.

Now, for the professionals.

Prusa Research: the INDX and Killer CORE One+

Prusa Research’s booth was a hub of activity, with the new CORE One+ INDX on display, next to Prusa’s CORE One L, MK4S and XL machines. They also brought along several creators and their projects, such as a giant cardboard Core One+ (with a working touchscreen) photo booth and an axe-wielding CORE One bot that printed while it zipped around the venue.

Elegoo: emoji x Centauri Carbon 2

Elegoo booth featured some amazing creations, like a functional “web harp” and a battle bot built by the University of Washington Advanced Robotics team using the Centauri Carbon 2 and Elegoo filaments. They had an emoji x Centauri Carbon 2 on display with many emoji-themed props for visitors to use for selfies.

Snapmaker: U1 toolchanger

Snapmaker brought their U1 toolchanger, which printed this mostly 3D-printed, fan-made Star Wars speeder bike, built with an electric scooter cleverly hidden underneath so it appears to float along the road. See it in action here.

The Snapmaker team also showed off the latest from the Full Spectrum project, which can mix four filaments into an unlimited color palette with no obvious layer lines by using subdivided layers. We’ll be checking that one out soon.

Three for UV

UV printing is an industrial technology just now landing on home users’ desktops in the form of somewhat affordable machines. It’s like a cross between 2D photo printing and resin 3D: it uses UV-cured ink to print photographic color on nearly any material you can place inside the machine’s compartment. This can be flat stickers and photos or “2.5D textures” that are generally limited to a few millimeters in height. Some machines are even venturing into full color 3D printing.

The tech is very new, with most machines still at the prototype stage or lurching its way through Kickstarter.

We are aware of five companies making the attempt to shrink these $50,000+ machines down to something a small business or garage-based entrepreneur can wrap their budgets around. Three of the companies were at Open Sauce: xTool, EufyMake, and Morpho.

xTool: O1 Omni Printer

xTool had the largest visible presence of any of the sponsoring companies, with a huge display of hands-on stations in front of the outdoor stage, which it sponsored. The company brought out all its lasers and creator tools, with plenty of team members standing by to run demos. I was particularly interested in the new xTool O1 Omni, a four-in-one UV printer that can print on any material you can stuff in the print zone.

We’re waiting on a production-quality review unit for the Omni, which should be arriving soon. However, this one looks pretty good and is backed by xTool’s tremendous experience in similar categories. Machines start at $1,699 for a single UV head and go up to $3,969 for the works.

EufyMake: E1

EufyMake, formerly known as AnkerMake, was the first company to get a desktop UV printer to market. Unfortunately, being first is not always best when it comes to technology, and the company had some supply chain issues when their Kickstarter was overwhelmingly successful. We reviewed the E1 last November.

Morpho

Morpho is the dark horse in this race, with one of the best-looking machines we’ve seen. The unknown startup took a modest booth in the main hall and brought their founder and CEO, Brett Wang, to personally demo the unit. Wang comes from DJI, where he was the former VP of R&D and founder of the company’s camera division. If that sounds familiar, Bambu Lab’s CEO, Dr. Tao, headed up consumer drones for DJI before launching his own 3D printer company. We’re looking forward to reviewing this open-source UV printer as soon as it’s ready.

But this was Open Sauce, and though we love to see what's coming to our retail shelves, the real draw is the projects. From the experimental to the unexpected, they are all incredible creations.

Resin Printing in a Flash

Students from UC Berkeley showed off an experimental method of resin printing their department has worked on since 2017. Dubbed OpenCAL, the open-source resin printer uses a video projection method to project an entire model at once, and flash-cure it in a special resin in just a few minutes.

The specialized resin will be commercially available through FormLabs, and the printer’s specs are available online for anyone who wants to push the science forward.

Recycling All the Plastics

Some projects were a little less high-tech, but just as worthy. Peninsula Precious Plastics showed how they support STEM and the arts with a focus on sustainability. They demonstrated how plastic can be shredded, melted, and injection-molded into new products. This certainly gives me some ideas for recycling my failed prints.

Mini 3D Printers

@TheBasedDoge came out with an array of mini 3D printers he designed, from an Encore Mini Core XY 3D printer with a 3D-printed chassis to miniature 3D printers made with DVD motors and CD drives.

A Different Kind of Engineering

Sometimes it's not even obvious which projects were 3D printed, like this giant 1/8th scale model train, large enough to take twenty adults for a ride. This built-from-scratch train had tons of 3D-printed parts to give the steel body detail for a cheaper price: the lights, the numbers, the latches, air tanks, suspension, and more. If you want to see how it’s done, you can watch a video here that shows how the train is painted and detailed.

A research team from Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Microbiorobotic Systems Laboratory (MICROBS) has developed a “sound-powered engine” that uses the resonant frequency of a specially shaped 3D-printed cavity to “energize” the air inside it and use it for thrust. The researchers then 3D-printed two small drones that were propelled by sound.

Sound waves at specific frequencies made the air molecules in these objects oscillate much more strongly and are then pushed out a specially designed nozzle as a concentrated jet.

“Instead of pushing devices around with sound waves, we have created acoustic resonators that are tuned to harness sound at specific frequencies to generate directional thrust and controlled motion,” MICROBS head Selman Sakar told the publication. “Our work shows the feasibility of transforming a simple, cleverly designed mechanical piece into robot matter.”

The team has created three practical applications of the “engine.” One is a boat that used three resonators — one placed at the rear of the boat and tuned to 540 Hz for propulsion and two on either side for navigation — while the other two are microfliers or tiny flying machines powered by ultrasonic frequencies.

The first microflier has three cavities, all facing downward, allowing it to lift off the ground like a rocket. The second flier has three blades connected at a central point, like the rotor of a helicopter, with the base of each blade equipped with a resonator pointing backward. When the resonators are hit with the exact frequency that drives them, they deliver thrust that allows them to rotate at over 12,000 rpm and cause the entire thing to hover. Note that ultrasonic frequencies are inaudible to humans, meaning these devices can hover practically noiselessly.

While not exactly the same as xMEMS’ fan-on-a-chip cooling solution, it follows the same principle of using vibrating air molecules to cause airflow. The biggest difference here is that the fan-on-a-chip uses an ultrasonic piezoelectric membrane to excite the air and cause it to move to a desired direction, while the “sound-powered engine” uses a specific cavity shape and resonant frequencies to achieve the same effect.

Even though the team has successfully used it for experiments, the microfliers’ maximum altitude is less than 5mm while the boat weighed next to nothing. Nevertheless, now that they’ve proven that the concept works, the next step is to scale it up to carry payload. If they can make it work, it could potentially be used as propulsion for a micro-drone, like this mosquito-sized unit from China.

Privacy concerns and multiple incidents have led many citizens to take it upon themselves to block or disable Flock cameras. They often do this either by placing black trash bags over them or by spraying paint or insulating foam onto their lenses. Now, the former can be dangerous, especially if you don’t have equipment, as you need to reach high enough to cover the camera and secure the plastic bag over it. The latter can get you into deeper trouble, as paint or foam can damage the camera. So, 3D printing enthusiast SquidInk decided to create an easy-to-use model that would take seconds to install without damaging the camera and posted it on Maker World.

While the public was initially concerned about their privacy with Flock’s AI-powered cameras, this concern eventually turned into outrage after it was discovered that some police officers had been misusing the system. There were also a couple of high-profile incidents where procedural errors led to the mistaken apprehension of innocent people. Because of these incidents, some jurisdictions have voted to remove these cameras, to the chagrin of some of their most ardent supporters. As for towns and cities that voted to keep their Flock AI cameras operational, some citizens are taking matters into their own hands and deliberately blocking these cameras to prevent them from capturing video. Note that actions like these are probably illegal and will get anyone caught doing so in hot water. Possible charges include vandalism, criminal mischief, property damage, tampering with public infrastructure, obstruction, and more.

The Flock Sock itself doesn’t encourage anyone to commit a crime. Its description says, “The Flock Sock is a slip on cover designed to help protect a Flock camera from the harmful radiation of the sun. Your city spent their very own hard-earned tax dollars scattering these cameras everywhere to keep you safe, all it cost you was a little privacy. The very least you can do is help protect these valuable civil servants from getting a bad sunburn.”

The creator also said that Flock commonly uses three different models, and that they’re working on profiles for the other two so that there’s a 3D-printable Flock Sock for every Flock camera you may find in the wild.

Aside from being easy to print, it’s also easy to use and deploy. It slides onto Flock cameras in seconds, and you can easily lift it into position with a 1-inch broom handle through the built-in adapter. They also highlighted that it’s 100% non-permanent, saying, “No glue, no screws, and zero structural changes. Because it pops off instantly with absolutely no damage caused and costs exactly $0 to revert, it conveniently avoids some of the troublesome labels that Uncle Sam might stick to you. It's just a removable accessory.” While SquidInk recommended using ABS/ASA for its excellent heat and UV resistance, they also suggested using PLA “if you prefer your Flock Sock to develop a long term relationship with the summer heat.”

Again, tampering with Flock cameras in your city may get you in trouble, as it most likely constitutes a crime or misdemeanor. Nevertheless, public anger at Flock and its misuse has reached the point that a few are taking physical action against the cameras.

During a two-week transit to RIMPAC 2026 in Hawaii, a containerized factory aboard the USS Essex 3D printed a dozen flight-ready drones, as well as over 1,000 parts including vital spares for Apache helicopters. 3D Printing Industry reports that this was the first maritime run of the xCell expeditionary manufacturing platform from Firestorm Labs. Furthermore, production wasn’t halted by the rough seas and up to 12 ft waves endured during the journey.

In Firestorm’s words, this additive manufacturing milestone using the xCell platform “just proved expeditionary manufacturing works in real conditions.” The 3D printers on board produced a plethora of useful things during the journey, on demand.

xCell’s containerized production line takes up just two expandable 20-foot ISO containers, or a single 40-foot equivalent. Inside are industrial HP Multi Jet Fusion polymer printers alongside semi-automated assembly stations.

Our headlining pick from the range of products that were manufactured at sea was the twelve quadcopter drones. These were Squall FPV drones, one of Firestorm Labs’ key products. The NDAA-compliant Squall is designed for U.S. forces to “Print. Build. Fly. Dominate.”

Squall has a range of up to 20 miles, a flight time of up to 42 minutes, a top speed of 80 mph, and can carry a 5.5-pound payload. These same drones were flown as adversary aircraft in a counter-UAS exercise when the USS Essex arrived at RIMPAC.

Drones might be the most newsworthy output from xCell, but other essentials that the crew printed en route to Hawaii included printed Apache helicopter rotor droop‑stops, designed to prevent $500,000 rotor damage during at‑sea operations. Another spare part highlighted by the source that was needed during the exercises was a 3D-printed custom vacuum‑hose coupling for life preserver testing.

Making up the 1,000+ 3D-printed parts and spares were crew-requested gadgets and gizmos like covers for electrical fittings, a bracket for mounting Starlink, gauges for checking deck tie-downs, and lots more. “Every part xCell printed on deck is one that doesn't need to be flown or shipped across contested waters — cutting the fuel, aircraft hours, and personnel it takes to keep a ship operational,” boasted Firestorm on social media. “Repairs that once meant days or weeks waiting on a resupply run can now happen in hours, on station.”

If you’re feeling sad that you can’t afford a new 3D printer this summer, perhaps you can swing an upgrade instead? Prusa Research just announced that its “entire lineup” of 3D printers is getting second-generation upgrades and a “+” designation. This includes the XL, Core One, and Core One L.

All “plus” upgrades will be automatically added to printers being sold today. If you have an order in progress, you will receive the plus version at no extra charge. Prusa Research is not increasing the price of any machine receiving a “plus” upgrade.

Upgrade kits will soon be made available for Prusa owners. The components can be purchased à la carte if you want to pick and choose your upgrade. Prusa Research said all upgrades will be available on its webstore by September.

The bedslinging MK4S was notably left off the list, but while the descendant of Josef Prusa’s original i3 printer may have hit the end of the upgrade line, the company has not pulled support for the machine. Prusa Research supports every machine they’ve made for years.

“If there’s one thing worth knowing about how we develop our printers, it’s this: we don’t expect you to replace a working machine just because we’ve come up with something new. Most tech becomes obsolete over time. Our printers keep getting better,” said Mikolau Zuza, the Head of Content at Prusa Research, in a recent blog post.

All three machines will now have a nozzle wiper, which Zuza says is the most requested upgrade. There have been several community mods to do just that, but these also require adjusting your slicer’s g-code to teach the printer to use it.

The XL has received several small tweaks and firmware upgrades since its release in 2023, but this is the first major upgrade. Prusa’s original large-format toolchanger will get the same 360-degree cooling system introduced on the MK4S. It will also get the INDX’s Tool Offset Sensor for toolhead alignment to replace the cumbersome pin tapping. The eddy-current sensor is 20 times faster and will be permanently mounted to the machine. It is also compatible with the Silicone toolhead showcased last October during Prusa Day, which will be released this fall.

The XL will also get GT1.5 belts to improve surface areas, and new machines will ship with high-flow nozzles standard. Prusa is also upgrading the optional XL enclosure with a chamber heating and better seals.

The Core One+ (Gen 2) will receive the same nozzle wiper and GT1.5 belts as the XL+, plus improved heatbed mounting, and the same snap-on top panel as seen on the larger CORE One L.

The Core One L is Prusa’s most recent design and will get the new GT1.5 belts and integrated nozzle wiper.

An optional HT Hotend for the CORE One lineup will be available in September. This hotend is specifically designed for finicky engineering filaments, which are often brittle and require higher melting temperatures. The swappable hotend hits 400°C, which unlocks materials such as PEKK-CF and PPS-CF.

• HT Hotend Upgrade (for CORE One/+ and CORE One L) pre-order for $199.99

Zuza said Prusa Research has been working on upgrading the entire user experience for all of their 3D printers. This includes not only hardware, but firmware and slicer software as well. Prusa Slicer 3.0, also teased last October, will be released in a few weeks. Lastly, connecting your Prusa 3D printer over LAN will be easier with the introduction of Prusa Connect Local. This will replace the outdated PrusaLink.

The QIDI Plus5 goes toe-to-toe with Bambu Lab’s H2 series for nearly half the price. At first glance, the QIDI Plus5 looks pretty much like the QIDI Plus4, but it’s so much more. With TARDIS-like engineering, the Plus5 has a smaller footprint, yet gains 18% more build volume than the previous model by comparison. The Plus5 can go a little hotter on the nozzle, up to 370 °C, which makes it great for tackling engineering-grade filaments.

The UI on the Plus5 is sleek and feels like a more expensive printer. It has a helpful status light on the bottom of the bed, which you guessed it, looks a lot like the Bambu H2 series. If QIDI could just get their QIDI Box to swap colors consistently, Bambu will have a serious fight on their hands.

The debut price of the QIDI Plus5 is $749, which is $50 less than the Plus4 was at launch, and is considerably less than a Bambu Lab H2S, which is currently $1399. This is definitely my favorite high-temp workhorse and one of the best 3D printers we’ve seen.

Specifications: QIDI Plus5

QIDI Plus5 : Included in the Box

The QIDI Plus5 comes with everything you need to get started. Included is a tool kit for assembly, a scraper, a glue stick, and a USB stick with a copy of QIDI Studio and a PDF copy of the quick start guide. A paper copy of the manual is also included.

Design of the QIDI Plus5

The QIDI Plus5 is a nice upgrade to the QIDI Plus4 with an extra 20mm of print area in all dimensions, with nearly the same footprint. The Plus5 is a hefty 64lbs, so you may need some help to get it in the door.

The Plus5 has a Core XY motion system, driven by a beefy 9mm 1.5GT belt, riding on a linear rail for the x-axis and linear rods for the y-axis. The z-axis runs on 4 linear rods and is driven by stepper motors turning two independent lead screws. The Plus5’s tool head is compact with an all-metal nozzle, which is shared by the QIDI Q2.

The nozzle includes the heat throat and features a hardened steel insert. The filament path is accessible in multiple locations, which should make clearing jams easy. The toolhead includes a cutter with a nearby waste chute and nozzle wiper, in case you want to try your luck with a QIDI Box for multimaterial printing. We were not provided one for this review, but we did test it out on the QIDI Q2 and found it lacking.

A black plastic tube is attached to the toolhead for an optional active cooling system dubbed the QIDI Polar Cooler. This is a little AC box which can be strapped to the side of the printer and pump cooler than room temperature air directly on the extruder. This is meant to prevent heat creep when you need to keep the rest of the chamber toasty. We didn’t get to test this add-on, but it sounds intriguing.

The chamber heater and the air circulation fan, with an activated carbon and HEPA filter, are located at the rear of the printer. The HEPA filter keeps the fumes from ABS and ASA trapped inside the machine. A large parts cooling fan on the left side augments the fan on the toolhead.

The QIDI Plus5 has an excellent 1080p chamber camera, which is accessible for monitoring the printer from the device page in QIDI Studio and from the QIDI Maker app. It can be used to make time-lapse videos and is for AI anomaly detection (aka the dreaded spaghetti monster).

The printer has a glass top that is designed to slide back for ventilation while printing lower temperature filaments like PLA and PETG, and the glass front door opens a full 180 degrees. This is a simple feature that I wish more companies would adopt.

Running lower temperature filaments in the PLUS5 seems like taking a race car on a shopping trip. With a bed that heats to 120 °C, an active chamber heating to 65C and a hotend capable of 370 °C, the PLUS5 was made for PPS, PA, and PC.

Assembling the QIDI Plus5

The QIDI Plus5 is almost completely assembled. The only thing you need to do is attach the spool holder to the rear, then attach the bowden tubes to the spool holder and tool head. If you are assembling the printer in low light conditions, take care to avoid attaching the filament line to the inlet for the optional cooling system – they’re the same size.

The UI on the QIDI Plus5 does a great job of walking you through the removal of the packing screws and the shipping material, so you don’t forget anything.

Leveling the QIDI Plus5

The QIDI Plus5 auto levels as part of the initial calibration and offers to relevel at the start of every print. The system worked perfectly.

Loading Filament on the QIDI Plus5

Loading filament on the QIDI Plus5 is both simple and frustrating. QIDI really took pains to make the UI on the PLUS5 intuitive and simple. Two clicks from the touch screen, and loading is right there. The annoying part is reaching around this behemoth to load filament into the Bowden tube located at the back. The filament will almost always catch on the coupler, which needs to be uncoupled to allow the filament to pass through it. Then if you are using a full spool, it’s super awkward to push a few centimeters of filament at a time toward the tool head.

Preparing Files / Software for QIDI Plus5

QIDI included a copy of QIDIStudio, which is based on BambuStudio, which is based on PrusaSlicer. If you are familiar with Bambu Studio or ORCA Slicer, you will feel right at home.

The device tab in QIDI Studio allows you to control the printer and monitor printing through the camera. It also allows you to skip parts of your print that might have failed. The QIDI Maker App offers the same functionality on your mobile device.

Printing on the QIDI Plus5

The QIDI Plus5 does not come with a sample coil of filament, which is just as well. You’ll want to pick out a spool of filament from our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.

To get warmed up, I printed the pre-sliced Benchy provided by QIDI using red Creality Hyper PLA. The print completed in 32 minutes and was technically flawless, with just a little stringing.

Next, I printed a vase I whipped up in Tinkercad, using a mystery spool of Fusion Filament PCTG. If you like the color, too bad, Fusion mystery spools are created when they change colors on their filament lines and thus are unique. It’s worth the gamble because these spools are also about $10 off, dropping the price from $26.99 to $16.99. This is printed in vase mode, with a .28 layer height and a chunky .65 line width. At an average speed of 65 mm/s, the print completed in 3 hours and 11 minutes. The quality of the print is excellent, and the PCTG makes it flexible enough to withstand use.

QIDI sent us a spool of their TPU GF 67D for the review, and I used it to print a plate of parts for my RC Death Racer. Using a .2 layer height and running at an average speed of 50 mm/s, the parts took 4 hours and 25 minutes to print. Using only 2 walls, the parts are light, yet very hard and darn near indestructible. These parts are, by their nature, a stringing test, and despite this, the quality is really good. I was pleasantly surprised when the supports popped right off, a blessing from the glass fiber.

I printed this bird feeder I found on Printables using faded desert brown and armored turtle green ASA from Ambrosia. I whipped up the hanger in Tinkercad. Using a .2 layer height and running at an average of 120 mm/s, the base of the bird feeder was completed in a little over 7 hours. The top took 5 hours 30 minutes running at an average of 100 mm/s. The hanger took only 2 hours running at an average speed of 180 mm/s. The print quality is really good, with just a little rough patch on the top where better supports could have helped. It’s currently hanging outside my office window, so I can see how well ASA holds up to the sun…and squirrels.

Jumping into the deep end of the pool, I printed this sanding block I found on Printables using QIDI’s PPS-CF filament. The Plus5 takes a while to heat up to 350 °C on the nozzle, 100 °C on the bed, and 65 °C on the chamber. I got out an infrared thermometer to read the temp on the printer’s top glass and decided not to store PLA there while the machine ran. It read 56C. I should point out that I did not get good results with the QIDI Plus4 when I tried to run this filament. The Plus5 printed this just perfectly, with a glorious surface finish and without a hint of a warp. The texture is from the carbon fiber, which also helps the PPS stay flat on the bed.

Bottom Line

The QIDI Plus5 printed everything we threw at it and is the best 3D printer we’ve seen from QIDI. This hits the sweet spot for makers and engineers who need a serious high-temp 3D printer without breaking the bank. The lack of color capability won’t disappoint you when all your filament only comes in black anyway.

At its current price of $749, it’s an attractive addition to the large-format printer market. Filament loading could be better, but it’s a trade-off we’re willing to deal with for a machine that’s otherwise very pleasant to use.

If you like what you see in the QIDI Plus5 and you want to compare notes, then check out the Bambu Lab H2S, which is pretty similar but with a more robust ecosystem and a functional AMS system. It’s $1,399 for a Combo and $1199 as a standalone printer. If you need a printer that’s just plain big, the Sovol SV08 Max with an enclosure can handle practical prints the size of a hubcap (500x500mm) for $1,298. And if you just want a bit of elbow room at an affordable price, then you should check out the Bambu Lab A2L, which can do four colors on a 330 x 320 build plate for $569.

Bondtech, the inventor of the INDX toolchanger system used to create the highly anticipated Prusa CORE One+ INDX, admitted to a significant mistake. The nozzles, which are nitrocarburized steel, do not meet industry standards for “hardened steel” as advertised.

Prusa Research has pumped the brakes on the INDX project, and has delayed shipping INDX conversion kits until mid-August. They issued a statement on Reddit:

“Bondtech has recently confirmed that the nozzles currently supplied with the INDX system are surface-hardened rather than fully hardened as originally planned, and has not yet finalized the compensation plan for affected customers. We believe it is better to wait until both we and you have clearer information, rather than ship the kits while this important question remains unresolved.”

r/prusa3D

The statement was also emailed directly to everyone with an active INDX order in the system. The company said this delay will also give customers a chance to cancel their orders if they wish. As an olive branch, Prusa Research INDX conversion kits will included extra hardware free of charge. The statement didn’t say what the gift would be, but that specifics would be shared before shipping.

Prusa engineers immediately began testing the INDX nozzles and determined that little wear could be seen after running five kilograms of carbon fiber PETG through the nozzles. However, after just 100g of super-abrasive Ultraglow filament, the protective coating began to fail.

Nitrocarburized steel is tougher than the standard brass nozzles that come with a stock Prusa CORE One+, but not as durable as hardened steel. The real problem is not that they went with a lesser nozzle, but that they kept the “hardened steel” wording in promotional materials. If Bondtech said from the beginning (or before customers locked in their pre-orders) that the INDX shipped with ordinary steel nozzles, no one would have blinked.

Information on the nozzle quality began to surface after a Reddit user posted a support email from Bondtech founder, Martin Bondeus. The email stated that “during production, we encountered manufacturing challenges that prevented us from machining that material reliably – the cutting tools simply did not withstand the process. Rather than releasing a product with inconsistent quality, we decided to supply the nitrocarburized version for the time being.”

These nozzles are not of poor quality, but they fall short of the standards set for hardened steel. According to a statement by Bondtech, the Founders Edition shipped with nitrocarburized steel, which is steel treated to obtain a hard shell. They’ve batch tested the nozzles and found them to be around 30-32 on the Hardness Rockwell C scale (HRC). For comparison, true hardened steel lands at 55-60 while an everyday brass nozzle comes in under 10 HRC.

For most users, and most materials, these mid-tier steel nozzles work exceptionally well and will last for an extremely long time. But once you start to feed your INDX abrasive filaments like glass-fiber, carbon-fiber, glow in the dark and metal filled filaments, things get dicey. The treated steel nozzles will last longer than brass, but Bondtech said they will experience “accelerated wear” when printing abrasives.

Bondtech has stated on its website that a “concrete solution” to the problem is not ready and that manufacturing truly hardened INDX nozzles could take months. They are also not offering any form of compensation before knowing the cost of the replacements. They are requesting that customers hold off on returning the kits and simply enjoy using non-abrasive materials until a solution is found.

The INDX takes a bespoke induction heated nozzle that has no off the shelf replacement at this time.

The news has hit the Founders Edition buyers quite hard, as many have already found difficulty with the kits they so eagerly purchased months ago. Some assembly problems can be expected with such a product, as they are being mounted on CORE One printers already in service. The INDX is a separate upgrade kit, and it requires stripping down a CORE One, removing the Nextruder and replacing it with the INDX carriage, then mounting a rack to hold the eight tool heads.

One “founder” was so upset he vibe coded an entire website in protest: Nozzlegate.com. The website outlines what the perceived problems are with Bondtech, and what consumers can do about it. We contacted the website owner, who asked to go by his handle “Daddie0.”

He told me that, like others who purchased Founder Edition kits, he’s disappointed in the quality of the product. He said his INDX was suffering from multiple mid-print crashes and layer shifts, and after two weeks of troubleshooting, it was finally fixed with a firmware update from Prusa. “Then nozzlegate hits. My EU right-given two-week return window ends a day after the news breaks.”

Realizing that his window for a standard, hassle-free return had closed on a machine he felt was a lemon, he shifted strategies. He began digging into Bondtech’s official documentation to see what recourse he had for a defective product.

What he found sparked a new battle. Disagreeing with Bondtech’s listed 90-day warranty policy, which he claims misleads consumers by failing to mention Sweden's mandatory multi-year consumer protections, he channeled his frustration into the NozzleGate website.

The INDX kit is a collaboration between Prusa Research and Bondtech, with the first wave of Founders Edition kits a limited edition run going to early adopters.

Tom’s Hardware received a Founders Edition INDX kit, which we installed on a Prusa CORE One we previously reviewed. Though the build took over the kitchen table for an entire weekend, our resulting INDX is printing non-abrasive filaments with excellent quality.

We're quite familiar with Sovol 3D printers around these parts, having reviewed several models over the years and finding that pretty much all of them produce high-quality prints. The company is now stepping up its game with the Sovol M1D, an open-source, independent dual-extruder (IDEX) printer with two nozzles and seven toolheads, a maximum print volume of 300 x 300 x 350 mm (11.81" x 11.81" x 13.78").

This bit o' kit can operate its nozzles in true independent mode (rather than alternating between them), letting users copy prints for easily printing duplicates and mirror them for doing left-right versions. In multi-head mode, each nozzle can output a different material. The first nozzle has a fixed toolhead, while the second can swap between heads independently. The open-source nature of the printer ought to let it be easy to mod, and as expected, it relies on the OrcaSlicer software by default rather than proprietary software such as Bambu's offerings.

The M1D comes in two variants, Essential and Advanced, with the higher-end model having the same basic specs but coming in a heated enclosure that keep inside air at 60°C (140°F). Sovol says each nozzle can print at up to 600 mm/s, and accelerate at 10,000 mm/s². The nozzle-and-toolhead interface seems quite nifty, as the M1D ought to swap toolheads in just five seconds, and keeps the standby heads warm so they're ready for printing the second they attach to the nozzle. One of the heads is fixed, and the other six are interchangeable.

The combination of the speed and tool-swapping technology has Sovol claiming the M1D can perform multi-colored prints five times faster than "others," displaying what appears to be a Bambu P1S in the comparison pictures. Likewise, said multi-color or multi-material prints supposedly produce "almost zero waste."

The M1D has a number of measures to prevent failed prints, including automatic bed leveling with nozzle Z-axis compensation thanks to an eddy current sensor, X/Y nozzle cameras, vibration compensation, and a 720p chamber camera that will have AI obstruction and spaghetti detection in a future firmware update.

The seven toolheads allow for easily integrating water-soluble materials for printing sacrificial supports and molds, movable mechanisms, and hollow parts, while the enclosure of the Advanced version lets the M1D print particularly resistant materials like ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate), PA (polyamide), and PC (polycarbonate).

The Sovol M1D is available through a Kickstarter project that's already pulled in over $2.8 million — many times over the initial $191,254 goal. Buying into a crowdfunded project frequently elicits concern, but Sovol's track record has historically been pretty good. With early bird pricing and not accounting for shipping costs, the M1D Essential goes for $1,299, while the Advanced version with the heated enclosure costs $1,599. The printers are expected to start shipping in November.

In the 3D printing community, there’s a common saying: buying a 3D printer is easy—learning modeling, mesh repair, and slicer settings is the real challenge.

While AI-powered 3D generation has made it possible to create detailed models in minutes, turning those models into successful prints still requires significant technical work. From mesh repair and model splitting to print optimization and multi-color workflow management, many AI-generated models never make it beyond the screen.

Hi3D was built to close that gap between AI creation and physical manufacturing. Over the past year, the company has expanded beyond AI model generation, developing an end-to-end workflow designed specifically for 3D printing.

Today, Hi3D has established partnerships across the digital fabrication ecosystem, including Creality, MakerWorld within the Bambu Lab ecosystem, and xTool. These collaborations enable deeper integrations for printable model generation, AMS multi-color workflows, enhanced 3MF output, and broader digital manufacturing applications.

With its anniversary release, Hi3D takes another step forward. Automated part separation, multi-color optimization, color cleanup, material-saving algorithms, intelligent model orientation, and print parameter generation are now unified into a single AI-driven workflow.

The result is simple: tasks that once required multiple software tools and hours of manual work can now be completed automatically—helping creators move from image to printable object faster than ever before.

Hours to 2 Minutes: Auto Character Split with Built-In Print-Ready Tolerances

For makers printing large models—or working with smaller build volumes such as the A1 mini—model splitting is often one of the most time-consuming steps. Traditional workflows require manually cutting meshes, creating connection structures, and adjusting tolerances, often resulting in assembly issues after printing.

Hi3D’s Auto Character Split automates the entire process:

1. Intelligent Topology Recognition – Automatically identifies heads, torsos, limbs, and other structural components, generating optimized printable segments.
2. Watertight Mesh Generation – Every separated part is exported as a closed, watertight mesh ready for slicing and printing.
3. One-Click Joint Creation – Users can instantly add snap-fit connectors, mortise-and-tenon structures, or articulated ball joints for movable figures.
4. AI-Optimized Assembly Tolerances – Mechanical clearances are automatically calibrated for FDM printing, enabling reliable assembly directly off the build plate with minimal post-processing.

Tasks that previously required hours of manual modeling and adjustment can now be completed in just a few minutes.

Deep Integration with the Bambu/AMS Ecosystem: From AI Model to Print-Ready 3MF

Multi-color printing often requires extensive manual color painting and parameter adjustments, especially for complex AI-generated models. Color data can be lost during export, and preparing a print-ready file typically involves multiple software steps.

Hi3D streamlines this process through deep integration with the Bambu Lab ecosystem, featuring an official filament library, automatic color mapping, and enhanced 3MF generation.

Once a model is created, Hi3D automatically maps on-screen colors to official Bambu Lab filament profiles and exports an optimized 3MF file containing print settings such as temperatures, layer heights, infill density, wall parameters, and support configurations.

Instead of manually preparing files in a slicer, users can send the generated 3MF directly to Bambu Studio or OrcaSlicer and start printing immediately.

Reduce Multi-Color Waste by Up to 50% with AI Color Cleanup

For users of Bambu AMS and other multi-material systems, excessive filament purging remains one of the biggest challenges in multi-color printing. AI-generated textures often contain tiny color fragments and gradient noise, triggering unnecessary filament swaps that increase print time and material waste.

Hi3D addresses this with its Color Cleanup algorithm:

• Noise-Aware Color Merging – Automatically detects and removes insignificant color fragments generated by AI textures.
• Reduced Filament Swaps – Minimizes unnecessary color changes during slicing.
• Lower Cost, Faster Prints – Reduces purge waste by up to 50% while improving print efficiency by 30–50%.

Smart Build Plate Layout for Higher Print Success Rates

Model orientation is often the deciding factor in print quality and reliability. Hi3D’s Smart Build Plate Layout system automatically analyzes geometry, center of gravity, and support requirements to optimize model placement.

• Surface-First Mode – Prioritizes visible surfaces to reduce support marks and post-processing.
• Eco-Support Mode – Minimizes support usage while maximizing bed adhesion and print stability.

By automating decisions that traditionally rely on maker experience, Hi3D helps users achieve better print quality with less trial and error.

Bridging the Gap: From Beginner-Friendly Creation to Advanced Manufacturing

Beyond advanced tools for model splitting, multi-color optimization, and print preparation, Hi3D also lowers the barrier to entry through its Maker Templates. Users can upload a photo to generate printable figurines, pet models, or custom keycaps that are automatically optimized for 3D printing.

With its anniversary release, Hi3D is expanding beyond AI model generation into a complete AI-powered workflow built specifically for physical manufacturing. By combining AI creation, print optimization, and hardware-aware automation in a single platform, Hi3D helps creators move from idea to finished object with significantly less manual work.

As AI 3D technology continues to mature, the industry is shifting from simply generating models to generating manufacturing-ready models. Hi3D’s latest update represents another step toward that future, making 3D printing more accessible for beginners while providing greater efficiency for experienced makers.

Ready to experience a smoother workflow from AI-generated models to successful 3D prints? Visit Hi3D.ai and see how AI-powered creation, optimization, and printing come together in a single platform.

New users can receive 300 free Hi3D credits through the link below and experience the complete AI-to-3D-print workflow for themselves—from concept generation to printable 3MF files.

Get started here：Hi3D.ai

MRI machines are life-saving medical devices that can let doctors and radiologists diagnose various critical conditions, but they’re also insanely expensive. Brand-new models start at $1.1 million and could go as high as $3 million per unit or more. The Open Source Imaging Initiative recognized this limitation and has been working on the open-source OSI2 ONE MRI scanner, which had already been replicated multiple times globally. However, this portable device, which has a 3D-printed core, has a limited field strength of just 50mT (compared to the 1.5T to 3T used by full-sized units). This gave them lower spatial resolution and lower signal-to-noise ratio, but tech analyst Brian Roemmele said on X that AI can overcome this and make it usable for medical diagnoses.

“Low-field MRI has historically been limited by lower signal-to-noise and greater field inhomogeneity. That is exactly the regime where modern AI thrives,” Roemmele wrote on the social media platform. “Image reconstruction becomes dramatically better when deep networks trained on high-field data or physics-informed models denoise, correct for inhomogeneity, and push resolution beyond the raw acquisition limits. Real-time sequence adaptation can adjust gradients and RF pulses on the fly as the AI monitors signal quality.”

Note that this isn’t just a general run-of-the-mill AI that everyone uses but a specially trained model on high-field MRI (1.5T to 8T) data or using the actual physics of the MRI machine so that it can create a more accurate picture. Scientists have already been using this technique for years, with some researchers training an AI model on 1.6 million brain scans to make it more accurate in detecting dementia. If an institution does not have access to anonymized patient data used to train the specialized AI, it can rely on synthetic data generation because of the open-source nature of the OSI2 ONE MRI scanner. Since all the information about the machine is publicly available, researchers could use this instead to build a physics model that the AI model can use.

Some people commented, saying that this won’t work in the highly regulated medical environments usually found in first-world countries. Nevertheless, Roemmele said, “No one can stop us from building in garages.” It also seems to be targeted for regions that have low access to technologies like these or do not have the financial capacity to purchase and maintain a full-sized device (even refurbished MRI machine units start at $100,000, and you also have to spend more to set up the specialized room that will house it).

While a portable MRI scanner like the OSI2 ONE will never have the resolution of the expensive, full-sized machines, it’s arguably better to have something that doctors can use for diagnosis without costing millions of dollars if the specialized AI model turns out to be effective and accurate. With that, even less wealthy hospitals and clinics could have access to this imaging device and save more lives. It also shows how the medical industry and even patients use AI to save on costs.

Printed Solid, the Delaware-based filament manufacturer acquired by Czech Prusa Research in 2022, is now known as Prusa USA, Inc. I chatted with Prusa Research team members at Open Sauce, who confirmed the name change was largely window dressing, with nothing changing in the company’s day-to-day operation. Josef Prusa will remain CEO of both companies, with a new Marketing Officer moving up the ranks internally.

During the changeover, Printed Solid will be known as “Printed Solid, a Prusa Company”. The website now proudly states that Prusa Research is a “European-American” company with U.S. production capabilities. The company has a duplicate print farm at its 100,000-square-foot Delaware factory for the production of 3D printers and filament. The printers are not yet fully “Made in the USA,” as some parts are still needed from the factory in Prague. This helps overcome supply chain issues for American customers.

Josef Prusa states, “We wanted to be closer to our customers. Expanding to America was the natural next step to support the most important market in the world.” His booth at Open Sauce proclaimed Prusa to be the biggest 3D printer manufacturer in the USA. Though Prusa Research ships well over 10,000 printers a month from both Prague and Wilmington, it’s a fraction of what its Chinese competitors produce overseas. 3D printing is simply getting bigger as more businesses and individual makers discover the ease of additive manufacturing.

The change comes at a difficult time for 3D printing enthusiasts, as several anti-3D printing bills are sprouting up around the country. These bills are trying to impose government oversight by installing spyware on new 3D printers to prevent the machines from manufacturing firearms. This is the antithesis of Prusa Research, which stands firmly on the side of Open Source, the right to repair, and proudly produces 3D printers that meet the high security needs of the US military and government agencies. Delaware, Prusa Research’s new home away from home, has just introduced House Bill 399, which would place so-called “blocking technology” on all 3D printers.

The Wilmington, Delaware facility manufactures Original Prusa MK4S and the Prusa CORE One+ 3D printers, plus Prusament and the Jessie line of PLA and PETG (named after Randolph’s dog). When we toured the facility in 2025, only three filament lines were established, with a massive space left clear for future expansion.

It is also the American fulfillment center for Prusa Research’s Amazon sales and the official US Service Center for printer support, which includes repair and maintenance.

The corporate restructuring follows some major leadership changes at Printed Solid. David Randolph, the former CEO of Printed Solid, stepped down in February, and Chris Pelesky, the company’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, stepped down earlier this month. Both veterans are still deeply involved in 3D printing, with Randolph taking the reins at Cocoa Press and Pelesky still leading 3D Printopia, one of the biggest consumer-focused 3D printing expos set to take place this fall in Philadelphia.

Mere weeks after dbrand announced it would have to shelve its Steam Machine Companion Cube because it didn't get permission to use Valve's intellectual property, a 3D printing enthusiast has created a DIY version that you can make for yourself at home. Printables user Jaron's Steam Machine Companion Cube Case is "An unofficial Portal Companion cube case for your Steam Machine" that you can create using a single-extruder printer, if you have the right model.

According to a user post on X, the fan-made tribute to the dbrand project was made "from scratch," and is based entirely on images of dbrand's design. Ironically, whether that will incur any copyright wrath from dbrand itself remains to be seen.

As you can see, the project looks exactly like dbrand's companion cube. According to the Printables listing, it can be printed using a single-extruder printer as long as it lets you pause at specific layers to swap filament for other colors. Jaron says a slicer is required to get the multi-color look for the panels, but otherwise provides an extensive parts list of screws, inserts, and magnets you can acquire from Amazon to piece the project together. You will, of course, also need a Steam Machine for the full effect, as well as a soldering iron, tweezers, and a couple of screwdrivers. Helpfully, they even list the specific Sunlu and Overture filaments used to get the look.

At first glance, this is definitely not a beginner 3D printing project, but Jaron has provided extensive assembly instructions as well as multiple YouTube videos to detail the assembly process. As you might expect, popping a 3D-printed shell on your Steam Machine might impact thermals. Jaron says that they have not done any extensive thermal testing of the design, but has ensured that no airflow or vents are blocked. In fact, the additional vent in the faceplate may even aid cooling.

dbrand unveiled its Companion Cube on November 12, the day of the Steam Machine's announcement. Following extensive interest, the company says it poured thousands of hours into industrial design and injection molding, as well as promoting the Companion Cube. Unfortunately, it forgot to ask Valve for permission. "They stated that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property, for which dbrand does not have a license," the company admitted in a statement last month. Despite appeals, the company in the end gave up and shelved the project.

Valve's Steam Machine is the company's somewhat beleaguered in-home console alternative, which finally launched last month. The diminutive desktop gaming PC is a lot pricier than Valve had anticipated, owing to the AI pricing squeeze on RAM and SSD parts. As such, at $1,049, it's decidedly more expensive than console alternatives, somewhat limiting its appeal. With a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 six-core chip, RDNA3 graphics, 16GB of DDR5, and up to 2TB SSD capacity, it's pretty good value when compared to equivalent PC hardware.

If you have got your hands on one and would like a version of dbrand's Companion Cube to match, this enthusiast 3D-printed project — which Jaron says is not affiliated with Valve or Steam, nor features any official assets from any game — could be a fun way to spend a weekend.

One thousand Prusa CORE One INDX Founder’s Editions have shipped, giving a lucky few first access to Bondtech’s revolutionary toolchanger mod. The Founders Edition is a special limited run, intended for early adopters and Prusa fanatics.

The INDX toolchanger promises multi-material printing without the headache of prime towers and massive purge waste. Since toolchangers have a dedicated nozzle for each filament path, they don’t need to clean out the nozzle between color or material swaps; however, they do need to “prime” the nozzle to make sure the filament is flowing at the right pressure. Before the INDX, this meant printing a smallish, unavoidable prime tower. The INDX has been precisely tuned to purge only tiny crumbs of waste into an internal tray, then wipe the nozzle on a silicone pad.

The INDX, invented and patented by Bondtech, uses an induction heater to rapidly bring each nozzle to temperature in a few seconds. This allows the Prusa Core One with INDX to have some of the fastest color swap times we’ve seen.

Tom’s Hardware was sent an eight-tool kit so we could share our first-hand experience with the INDX. It took the better part of a weekend to strip down our existing CORE One and modify it. This involved completely removing the Nextruder, replacing it with the INDX carriage, then mounting a rack to hold the eight tool heads. Eight spool holders were mounted on the sides, using preexisting screw holes. A calibration sensor was mounted to the front corner of the build platform, and an internal waste catcher was installed.

Prusa requested that we not conduct a full review of the Founder’s Edition, as it is merely a taste of what’s to come. The final retail INDX will be a more refined version, with a few tweaks (like better visibility through the front grill) and firmware upgrades. Prusa Research is taking feedback from Founders to improve the retail launch.

Prusa Research is expected to launch the retail version of the INDX for Prusa CORE One + by the end of July. A 4 tool kit will cost $749, while an 8 tool kit will run $999. Bondtech is offering a Development Kit that can be installed on Vorons, Sovols, or whatever you can hack, with a starting price of $487.50 for one toolhead.

So why is the Founders Edition considered unfinished? Bondtech’s original INDX concept was designed as a generic add-on to any compatible 3D printer, not as a bespoke Prusa mod. We first saw a Bondtech demo of the INDX at Rapid/TCT in April of 2025, mounted on a Voron 0. The partnership with Prusa Research was announced seven months later at Formnext, with a functional CORE One sporting eight tool heads.

The CORE One was not built with the INDX in mind, and it’s a testament to Prusa’s ingenuity and Open Source moddability that such a collaboration can work at scale. Prusa Research has always maintained a close connection with its user base and encourages owners to creatively tinker and customize the machines they own.

Unlike previous purpose-built toolchangers we’ve reviewed, the INDX is an upgrade kit. This is not a beginner-friendly piece of hardware to install, and Prusa Research is looking into issues that Founders are having with assembly to improve the retail experience. They may need to offer a fully assembled “Prusa INDX” to properly compete in this era of dumbed-down “just push play” 3D printers.

Though our “definitely-not-a-review-unit” had a few hiccups, most issues were solved by a firmware update and a second run through the calibration program. We’ve not had any issues with print quality, and our first calibration print turned out flawless.

Meet Otto, the Eight Color Calibration Butterfly

Prusa published a new calibration print just for the INDX. This eight-color sample test print took 1 hour and 14 minutes. The wings are a first-layer test and are only two layers thick. A tab on the wing slots into the body to prove that tolerances and extrusion flow are correct. The multi-colored wing segments act as a visual test for first-layer quality, belt tension, and toolhead alignment, as any tiny offset in color boundaries or axis motion will show up instantly.

Our Otto printed perfectly on the first try.

A new Nintendo Switch dock shell has been designed to mimic the sleek undulating curves of the classic Nintendo 64 (N64). Dubbed the 64BITDOCK, this Switch accessory kit can be bundled with an 'N64 cart' that will help you keep your Switch Game Cards tidy. The 64BITDOCK is available now direct from the maker on Etsy, priced from $89.

In the assorted images of the 64BITDOCK from Nintendo Switch accessories specialist Krasivoe, you can see that the ‘N64’ cradles the Switch (Nintendo Switch / Switch 2 / LCD / OLED) horizontally, so the upper curves of the ‘N64’ are uninterrupted. Pleasingly, the ‘N64’ cart slot is actually useful here as a Nintendo Switch Game Card silo if you buy the optional magnetically secured storage receptacle (with 6 slots).

● Check out this product on Etsy

This is a cosmetic kit for your original Switch Dock

The 64BITDOCK is basically a snap-on cladding kit for your existing original Switch Dock. What you are buying is a set of “custom plates inspired by the iconic 64-bit console… [which] snap onto your Switch dock in seconds, transforming it into a nostalgic centerpiece while keeping all sides open to prevent overheating.”

The Krasivoe 64BITDOCK is available in light grey and ‘original’ charcoal finishes, with matching Game Card storage receptacles. For the dock plates alone, the Etsy store asks $89. If you want a Game Card cartridge holder, the price rises to $103. Worldwide shipping is $6.99.

This isn’t Krasivoe’s first retro-inspired Switch Dock makeover kit. It also sells the 8BITDOCK, 16BITDOCK, and CUBEDOCK. Fans of retro Nintendo consoles will surely know what those look like.

The market is overflowing with Nintendo Switch docks, so Krasivoe has cannily sought to offer some eye-catching differentiation in the form of this 64BITDOCK. Its $89 starting price is quite a premium offering, though, as it doesn’t even include docking hardware – it’s just a cosmetic 3D-printed shell for your original Nintendo Switch Dock. We see that you can get basic, fully functional Switch docks from $20 or $30 on Amazon, with original ‘toaster’ style replacements priced at about $40.

The Flashforge Creator 5 is the best budget tool changer currently on the market. Of course, there are only two other true toolchangers out there right now, three if you include the Bambu Lab H2C nozzle swapper. At the time of this review, the Creator 5 is on sale for $699, after a $100 discount. For that, you get a solid, open-frame Core XY machine with a 256 mm cubed build volume and four speedy toolheads that won’t waste your filament budget.

The Creator 5 is not perfect. It purges an insane amount of material when it loads, and the required prime block is surprisingly large. If you don’t use the Flashforge filament profiles, you’ll be in for a shock at the heft of the prime tower. Why? They only adjusted the filament profile for their own material. Everything purges at single-nozzle AMS levels. This setting is buried pretty deep in the slicer, and it took some time for me to find and correct it.

The printer handle high temperature materials well, which is more relevant if you opt for the enclosed Creator 5 Pro. It's still useful on the open frame machine because it loads and unloads at a higher temp to avoid clogging.

Being an open-frame printer, the Flashforge Creator 5 is limited in the materials it can print. We used the basics, PLA, PETG, and TPU for most of our prints. Since the hot end temperature can go all the way to 320°C and bed can get to 120°C we did try some higher temp filaments like PET-GF which printed fine at 310°C.

There’s no upgrade path to take the Creator 5 to an enclosed Pro, something that other companies might offer. Even though it looks like Flashforge uses the same case for both machines, there’s no fan behind the exterior grill for extra cooling, and no way to install one. However, if your plan is to print in multicolor PLA, PETG, and TPU, this is a good, no-frills machine for your workshop. It's one of the best 3D printers we’ve seen this year, and I highly recommend checking it out for your next multicolor machine.

Specifications: Flashforge Creator 5

Flashforge Creator 5: Included in the box

The Flashforge Creator 5 arrives mostly assembled. The tool heads are pre-assembled with a mounting plate. The spoolholders, touch screen, toolkit, filament coils, and quick start guide are included.

Design of the Flashforge Creator 5

The Flashforge Creator 5 is a fast Core XY open-frame printer with a simple grey case that prioritizes mechanical simplicity to keep the price down. We mainly see this in how filament is manually loaded to each tool head and requires picking up each head to physically hold down a lever while you push the material through to the nozzle.

The build volume is 256 mm³, which is a fairly standard size when compared to most 3D printers. The removable flex plate is two-sided and coated with a common PEI textured surface, which gave us no problem.

As I mentioned previously, the open frame case is not meant to be upgraded with a door or top lid. It appears to be the same one used on the Pro version of this machine, which is a great cost-saving method for Flashforge, but disappointing to the buyer when you notice there are no fans behind the vents in the body.

The X and Y axes run on beefy 8mm belts with a linear rail for the X axis and linear rods for the Y. The Z runs on three linear rods, driven by three lead screws belted to a single stepper motor.

The tool head carriage includes the extruder motor and parts cooling fan, which are shared by four very lightweight tool heads. Each tool head has a manual cutter, hot end, and cooling fan. The tool heads attach to their base with magnets and are picked up by the tool carriage mechanically by gripping the circular protrusion on the back of the tool head, and aligned by mating with three pins on the tool head carriage. This is less complex than motorized latching pins that other machines use, but during our testing, it proved to be a very reliable system.

The hot end includes the thermistor and heater, and is replaced as a unit. This is not a quick-release system, and you will need tools and a bit of patience to change out the nozzles.

The Flashforge Creator 5 has basic, static, spool holders which allow for the use of a wide variety of spool types from sample spools and coils to oversized spools and spools with dinged up rims. Since the Creator 5 does not automatically unload filament, these work just fine.

Assembling the Flashforge Creator 5

For a complex machine, the Flashforge Creator 5 is very simple to assemble. The 4-inch touchscreen plugs into a socket on the printer, with no ribbon cable to fuss with, and attaches with two screws.

The tool heads are prewired and attached to a plate, which is screwed into the right side of the printer, and the tool heads dock magnetically, also on the right side of the printer.

The spool holders are attached to the right side of the printer with a single screw each. Four nozzle blockers slot into the right side of the printer to prevent oozing. There is one cable to plug into the toolhead carriage, and it attaches with two screws.

Before calibration, there is a nice reminder to make sure you’ve removed the three screws holding the bad in place for shipping.

Preparing Files / Software for Flashforge Creator 5

The Flashforge Creator 5 requires a download of Flash Studio, which is based on Orca Slicer, which traces its lineage to Bambu Studio and Prusa Slicer. Flash Studio is stable and works fine for connecting to the Creator 5 in either cloud or LAN mode. The filaments input from the printer itself show up on the device page, but have to be manually chosen in the slicer as they do not sync up automatically.

Flashforge does not give access to the printer directly from a browser using the IP address, but does offer LAN mode if you want to avoid the cloud. Files can also be transferred manually via a USB drive.

You can access Voxelshare, Flashforge’s file sharing site from the home page of the slicer. While not as deep as some of the other file sharing services out there, it is a good place to start looking for something to print.

Flashforge does have a nice series of guides that can be accessed directly from the slicer. Information is a little light on the Creator 5 largely because it is still in pre-order status.

Leveling the Flashforge Creator 5

The Flashforge Creator 5 sets Z offset and levels the bed as part of its initial calibration, along with vibration compensation and extruder offset calibration. It calibrates the four tool heads by tapping a calibration disk hidden underneath the build plate. This takes about 40 minutes, but only needs to be done when the machine is first set up.

The printer offers to recheck the level at the start of each print. Since the printer sets the level using the tool head carriage, without the need to level each individual tool, it’s quick enough to just let it level each time.

Loading Filament on the Flashforge Creator 5

Loading filament in the Flashforge Creator 5 is a very simple, though oddly manual, process. Each tool head has a manual cutter, triggered by a lever, which also releases the extruder. To load filament, place the spool on the holder, push the end of the material into the appropriately numbered port, and hand-feed the material to the tool head. You then remove the toolhead from its dock, press the lever to release the extruder tension, and feed the material until it stops. To unload, you reverse the process.

The loading routine on the printer nicely sets the hot end temperature to match the last filament loaded, 250 °C for PLA and TPU, and 270 °C for PETG. It will then purge a rather large amount of material onto the floor of the printer.

Printing on the Flashforge Creator 5

The Flashforge Creator 5 comes with four small sample coils of basic colored PLA, which are too small to be of any real use. You should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing to stock up on filament before using the Creator 5.

For my first print, I decided to jump into the deep end of the pool. I used Creality’s Cube Me tool to make a model from a photo of Dave Hasselhoff from his Knight Rider days. I used the .12 mm layer height default profile, which set an average print speed of 160 mm/s. I tilted the model 90 degrees backward to avoid supports on Hoff’s face and stuck with the default values for tree supports. The supports were very stout, but were removed with very little trouble.

The print took 8 hours 28 minutes to complete and looks fantastic. The purge block generated by the defaults was massive on this model, weighing in at 44 grams, more than the model’s 33 grams. This purge value can be adjusted in the slicer and should be refined in future software releases as well.

I used Anycubic PLA Plus in peach pink, cyan, and black. The white is Microcenter’s Inland PLA.

I wanted to test the ability of the Creator 5 to push TPU, so I loaded up some FiberFlex 40D from Fiberology. 40D is a little bit softer than standard 95A TPU, and many of the printers I test have a hard time handling it. To make it more interesting, I gave it a difficult model, the TPU air duster from Dan the 3D Printing Dad on Printables. This file will fail at the first hint of underextrusion. Using a .12mm layer height and an average print speed of 50 mm/s, the print completed in 2 hours and 9 minutes.

The duster printed great, with no leaks in the bellows, but did fail ¾ of the way up the straw. That soft TPU was way too wiggly at the top, where the model was very small.

Sadly, the extruder clogged, which required disassembling the tool head to clear.

I wanted to give the machine another shot, so I loaded up some CookieCad Sunset TPU, which has a shore hardness of 95A. This time, I was prototyping a phone bag I made in Tinkercad.

This printed at a .2mm layer height, with an average speed of 50 mm/s. The print took a little over 10 hours to print. The quality is very nice with just a little bit of stringing on the interior of the bag, which just means I should have dried the TPU before printing with it.

For PETG, I printed a Fidget Grabber I found while browsing MakerWorld. Using a .2mm layer height and an average print speed of 120 mm/s, the print completed in 2 hours 57 minutes. The print looks really good in Polymaker Silver PETG, and all of the print-in-place joints came out super clean. It’s not the most functional print, but it’s certainly fun.

Bottom Line

The Flashforge Creator 5 printed everything we threw at it (except softer than soft TPU) and did an excellent job. It will be even better if Flashforge can tone down the purge waste when loading and on the prime block. The slicer could be a little less clunky and sync filaments directly, but again, this is a small issue.

$699 isn’t exactly the cheapest price for a 3D printer, but it is currently the best deal you’ll get on a tool changer. If you want to print in four colors, but hate wasting your filament, the Creator 5 is worth a look.

Right now, our options for tool changers are limited. The Snapmaker U1 has a bit more polish and can be upgraded to be fully enclosed by slapping an IKEA tub on top of it. It is currently $899. The prosumer Prusa Research XL, which has a larger print volume and five heads, is $3,899.

Ivan Miranda has released the design files for the Mirandetta, a 3D-printed electric motorbike that breaks down to fit inside a suitcase. He has re-engineered the vehicle so that every part prints on a single 300mm x 300mm bed. The files cost $40 through his website, ivanmiranda.com, and the redesign targets makers who want to build their own rather than admire the one-off he rode at Prague Maker Faire.

Miranda built the original in roughly 10 days as a "travel hack" — the smallest motorbike an adult could ride that still packed into checked luggage. To achieve this, he relied on aluminum wheel axles and an all-metal steering column assembly, and now the released design replaces both with printed parts.

Miranda also standardized the lighting on off-the-shelf T10 automotive sockets and bulbs instead of the salvaged components in the original, cut the number of distinct screws, and constrained every part to a 300mm x 300mm build volume. He says the redesign took more work than building the first bike from scratch. The reference printer is the Prusa CORE One L, a 300mm x 300mm x 330mm machine that we've reviewed previously. Anything smaller, including the standard 250mm-class CORE One, can't fit the largest parts in one piece.

The wheels use lawnmower tires, which are normally too flat-profiled to lean on, and Miranda printed the rims narrower than standard so the tire's internal bead rings sit closer together; once inflated, the sidewalls can't splay outward and the tread rounds into a profile usable for cornering.

Braking uses floating motorcycle discs rather than the bicycle discs because the floating discs can be deriveted to open up a wider center bore that a printed axle passes through without shearing. Meanwhile, a belt drives the rear wheel, and the throttle is a 10K linear potentiometer mapped through an Arduino to the motor's electronic speed controller.

Power comes from two 36V cordless tool battery packs, making them hot-swappable and simpler to carry through airport security, while a DC-DC converter steps the 36V down to 12V for the horn and lights. Without the batteries fitted, the finished bike weighs a little over 14kg.

Users won't be folding up the assembled scooter and packing it away, though; that's only possible when the bike is fully assembled. Regardless, Miranda won the suitcase-build contest at Prague Maker Faire with the machine and plans to show it at Open Sauce. Miranda is selling the files as-is with no support, and the bike isn't intended as a production design; Miranda describes it as a "complicated hobby build."

Bambu Lab announced a major collaboration with the camera brand Insta360, featuring a “Let’s Make It” Luna Ultra Design Challenge on MakerWorld. The two companies invite fans to design and 3D print custom hardware to fit the new Luna Ultra, a dual-lens 8K gimbal camera built for vlogging. This is the first camera brand to establish an official presence on MakerWorld, the home of Bambu Lab’s file library and maker community.

Up for grabs are $11,160 in prizes, including Luna Ultra cameras, 3D printers, and gift cards. The most intriguing part of the contest is a “Mystery Grand Prize” that will go to the most inspiring concept and could be selected for development as an official Insta360 product.

Though the Luna Ultra uses AI-powered software, AI-generated designs are not welcome in the contest. Each model entry must be a new, unique, human-created design that is printable on an FDM 3D printer. Designers can download a mockup of the Luna Ultra to precisely fit their creations to the camera without needing to own one first.

• Insta360 Luna Ultra : $769.99 at Amazon

MakerWorld – and other 3D printing file sites – are already full of useful camera mods for all sorts of cameras. Tripods, clips, grips, boom arms, dollies, stands, cases, and storage systems abound for every kind of camera. Type “Insta360” into MakerWorld, and over a thousand files pop up for the company's older camera models. Most files are born of necessity, then shared for free by the photographers who designed them.

Insta360’s decision to embrace the 3D printing community and encourage fan-made mods is a refreshing change from standard corporate behavior. We’ve seen many cases of brands being overprotective of their IP and shutting down the "unauthorized" use of their name and image. Rather than presenting Bambu Lab users with a cease-and-desist letter, Insta360 is leaning into the fandom. By providing official 3D-printable mockups of the Luna Ultra only a few weeks after the camera’s launch, they are asking users to become active participants in the hype train.

“We see a shift where creativity doesn’t stop at capturing images—it extends into building and shaping the tools themselves. This collaboration between Insta360 and Bambu Lab brings together imaging and the maker community for the first time in this way, bringing creators the freedom to push the boundaries of what's possible,” said Max Richter, Co-founder & Vice President of Marketing at Insta360.

The two companies hope the contest encourages users to “move past the limits of off-the-shelf parts” and build custom gear uniquely designed for each photographer’s shooting environment.

You don’t need to have an Insta360 camera or even a 3D printer to enter the contest. The contest consists of two tracks: one for 3D printed models posted to MakerWorld and a second for creative ideas posted to social media.

For the model design challenge, contestants need to upload an original creation that fits the Luna Ultra and mark it with the hashtag #PrintForLuna.

Track 1: The Model Design Challenge

For the core model track, contestants need to upload an original creation that fits the Luna Ultra to MakerWorld and tag it with #PrintForLuna.

Three grand prizes will be awarded for physical designs:

Most Original: Wins an Insta360 Luna Ultra Creator Bundle and a Bambu Lab X2D Combo.

Best Functional: Wins an Insta360 Luna Ultra Standard Bundle and a Bambu Lab A2L Combo.

Best Aesthetic: Wins an Insta360 Luna Ultra Standard Bundle and a Bambu Lab A2L Combo.

Models must fit the Luna Ultra, and be printable on an FDM printer. Each participant can submit up to five entries per contest, and each entry must be a new, unique design. AI generated models and remixes are not eligible. Models will be judged by a committee based on relevance, printability, uniqueness, visual appeal and functionality.

Track 2: The Social Media Campaign

The social media contest is for creators who may be new to 3D printing and lack design skills to actually design and print their ideas. Entries can be based on idea concepts, sketches or written descriptions shared on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, or Reddit (r/Insta360) with the hashtags #PrintForLuna #BambuLab #Insta360LunaUltra.

Two grand prizes will be awarded for social media posts:

Most Creative Idea: Wins an Insta360 Luna Ultra Standard Bundle and a Bambu Lab X2D Combo.

Most Practical Idea: Wins an Insta360 Luna Ultra Standard Bundle and a Bambu Lab X2D Combo.

Submissions will be open from July 10 to August 9, with winners announced on August 20, 2026

Save for the occasional deal, GPU prices are so high these days that they might even get you wondering if you couldn't just roll your own. As it happens, renowned hardware hacker Matthias Balwierz (more commonly known as Bitluni) elected to do precisely that, enlisting the help of a total sum of 8,192 RISC-V microcontrollers (MCUs) for this enterprise.

He originally planned to create a display of some sort, but after careful consideration regarding costs and difficulty, he elected to solder an RGB LED directly to each microcontroller chip, effectively turning his GPU into a GPU-and-monitor combo, if we're getting technical. Going for a 1920x1080 resolution would require over two million chips, so Balwierz aimed for a final-project resolution of 320x200 with 64,000 chips — familiar figures to anyone who played games in the DOS days.

Balwierz opted to make boards with 16x32 "pixels" each, in a circular arrangement reminiscent of the Cray-1 supercomputer, though with far more blinkenlights. His option to directly solder each light onto each MCU was borne out of budgetary restrictions, as the addressable-RGB variant would also prove too expensive.

For this initial stage of the project, Balwierz stuck with "only" 8,192 chips, though he made plans for the whole shebang. Perhaps the most impressive figure is the power draw, at a total of 2,161 W, or around 655 amps at 3.3 V. Each MCU only draws 10 mA, a figure that looks innocent enough until you do the actual math. To feed power into the beast, he enlisted the help of a Corsair WS3000 ATX power supply unit along with custom-designed converters to go from 12 V to 3.3 V at high current.

As for the chips themselves, they're QingKe CH570 RISC-V units, each with a 32-bit RISC-V CPU with a limited instruction set, running at up to 100 MHz. The diminutive chip contains an impressive amount of hardware, including a USB controller, a 2.4 GHz transceiver, and Bluetooth 5.0 LE support. Each of these set Balweirz back $0.13, once again a measly looking figure that will add up to well over $8,000 in chips alone for the final 320x200 array. Each set of 32 MCUs is controlled by a beefier CH32V unit.

As habitual, Balwierz custom-designed every single PCB, power delivery circuit, interface board, and testing board himself. This is apparently the first time he's designed a six-layer PCB, and he actually ran up against design limits of the JCLPCB service. He originally planned for the whole project to use immersion cooling, but decided against that for the time being due to environmental and cost concerns, though he did spec out the appropriate acrylic container for it.

Balwierz goes over each chapter of the process in detail in his video, and one of the most clever bits is how he made a 3D-printed three-prong fork-like tool to program each MCU. He then took said tool and attached it to the 3D printer's carriage, and used a Python script issuing direct G-code to the printer to precisely aim it at each MCU in the board.

It'll take a while before this is a functional CPU that can threat Nvidia, but we're looking forward to seeing Doom displayed on it. Also, it's kind of funny how one guy in a lab designed a better power delivery mechanism than the firm's 12V-2x6 connector... using just parts from AliExpress.

F/A-18 Super Hornets and other jets that require advanced composite parts can sometimes remain grounded for a protracted period due to the lack of available parts. The U.S. Navy now wants to solve this issue by giving maintenance sites around the world the ability to 3D print these parts on site, instead of waiting for deliveries coming from thousands of miles away through an extended logistics chain. According to the Department of Defense’s information distribution service, this 3D-printing repair method will allow the U.S. Navy to repair and replace advanced composite parts at forward operating bases, cutting repair time by around 50%.

"Our goal is to put capability directly into the hands of the Fleet," Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Commander Rear Adm. Todd Evans said. "By simplifying a complex repair so it can be done forward, our engineers would get aircraft back in the fight faster — it's a smart solution that makes our squadrons more self-sufficient and directly improves operational readiness."

Composite parts are more difficult to repair than traditional aluminum parts and require specialized experience. This new technique allows troops to 3D-print composite patches and apply them directly on the aircraft, instead of having to order and wait for complete replacements of damaged panels. Laboratory and ground tests have already proved the viability of these 3D printed repairs, so the next step is to see how these repairs will perform in the field under the stresses of real-world operations.

Other military branches and divisions are also experimenting with 3D printing to streamline operations and logistics. One Hawaiian startup submitted a 3D-printed rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) for the Pentagon, which used radar-absorbent material (RAM) to reduce its radar cross-section (RCS) and make it harder to detect. The U.S. Army also introduced a three-week course called the Unmanned Advanced Lethality Course (UALC), which trained soldiers how to operate and 3D print drones in the field, as well as 3D printer maintenance and other necessary skills related to 3D printing. The U.S. Marine Corps also developed its own modular 3D-printed drone that had no China-sourced parts capable of achieving various missions, from reconnaissance to one-way attack duties.

3D printing is quickly becoming a crucial manufacturing technique for these military branches, especially as the U.S. faces a threat across the Pacific. If ever a conflict arises in this area, it would face a near-peer adversary at the tail end of a logistics chain thousands of miles long. By giving forward bases the ability to 3D print their own parts and supplies, it will reduce their dependence on a vulnerable supply chain while also allowing them to speed up maintenance and repairs.

Ampera, a nuclear tech startup, just revealed its first full-scale, 3D-printed nuclear reactor module that it says could be used to power AI data centers. According to the company’s press release, this module is the “world’s first subcritical, solid-state, factory-built thorium nuclear reactor.” It’s also the nuclear part of the company’s Integrated Energy Architecture, which comes with a Waste Heat Recovery module that could also be paired with either this 3D-printed nuclear reactor module or a Conventional-Fueled Power Generation module.

"This next-generation nuclear core and pressure vessel sets the foundation for factory-built, mass-produced nuclear energy," said Ampera CEO and founder Brian Matthews. "The advanced technology and additive manufacturing used demonstrate a clear commercial path for new nuclear technology coming to market in an accelerated manner."

The company’s description for its groundbreaking product is quite a mouthful, but it shows how advanced this nuclear reactor is. Subcritical means that its fuel does not reach criticality on its own, requiring an external source to jump-start the fission process. This is inherently safer because it reduces the chance of a runaway reaction that could lead to a meltdown. It also features a “solid-state” core, meaning it does not have any moving parts, making maintenance and operation simpler.

Factory-built suggests that the nuclear module could be manufactured relatively quickly in a production line. This would make it easier to scale for mass production and transport via shipping containers, thus cutting production costs to make it more affordable. Lastly, it uses thorium as its primary fuel source. Thorium is more abundant than uranium, so it’s easier and cheaper to acquire. It’s also not inherently fissile, requiring an external neutron source to produce protactinium-233, which then decays into U-233. While it could still be used for nuclear weapons, it’s relatively harder to do so, which is why the World Nuclear Association says that it “is sometimes promoted as having excellent non-proliferation credentials.”

While the startup unveiled the finished nuclear module, it didn’t mention turning it on and producing electricity with the system yet. This is in contrast to Valar Atomics, which turned on its Ward 250 nuclear microreactor recently and produced electricity to power an Nvidia RTX Spark desktop. Its CEO, Isiah Taylor, also announced that it’s partnering with Nvidia to power a 30MW data center using its technology.

Ampera is also targeting a 30MWe output with its complete system using a proprietary closed-loop, supercritical CO2 Brayton-cycle turbine to produce energy. One advantage of its modular approach to developing its power solution is that customers can purchase them as necessary. It can match the turbine module with its Waste Heat Recovery module to supplement power production in data centers, or it could attach a Conventional-Fueled Power Generation unit to the entire unit as a site’s primary power source. Once the nuclear module becomes available, operators could then easily swap that out to reduce their carbon footprint.

The company did not give a timeline for when it expects to start producing power with their solution, but it seems that they’re confident that they could deploy it soon in various applications. "Our reactors are built for the markets that need power the most: AI data centers, defense, industrial and maritime," Matthews said. "We expect to be the first company to industrialize factory-built nuclear power with near-term deployment timelines."

Creator Zac Builds wanted to hide a desktop PC in plain sight in their living room setup. But instead of just placing a discrete mini-PC behind their TV, they decided to build a custom case that allows them to mount it on their living room fan. They shared the project on their Facebook page, where they started with a Dreo 519S Tower Fan as the base of the unit. Aside from serving as the perfect hiding spot for the computer, the setup also served a secondary purpose by adding more air cooling to the system. At its maximum setting, the Dreo 519S can hit wind speeds of 28 feet per second, which is more than enough to help keep the mini-PC’s fans slow and keep the system’s temperature in check.

The first thing that Zac Builds did was to disassemble the mini-PC — an AtomMan G7 PT — to take measurements and 3D-print the base that will hold the components to the back of the fan. They then disassembled the fan’s rear cover and 3D-printed four heavy-duty brackets to hold the mini-PC’s base to the fan while also guiding the airflow through the computer. While the initial base was a single flat sheet of plastic with standoffs to hold the various PC parts, the final version had cutouts to help improve airflow.

With the computer mounted on the Dreo 519S, Zac Builds 3D-printed the brackets and external case that will protect the components and ensure that air goes through the system. They initially made this into four parts (two parts for the brackets and two more for the face plates) but discovered a gap between the two face plates where air could seep through, thus ruining the flow. So, for their second iteration, they 3D-printed the face plate as one single unit and also added vent holes over the PC’s heatsink for more efficient cooling. The face plates also feature five I/O ports to allow the PC to connect to their TV and other peripherals, although we imagine that they preferred wireless connectivity as it’s kind of weird to have a bunch of wires plugged into your living room fan. Finally, to avoid having a power brick dangling from the back of the appliance, Zac Builds added a 3D-printed base that hid the power unit and threaded the mini-PC’s power cable inside the fan’s housing.

The completed build successfully hid the mini-PC, with the only hint from the front that there’s something different with the living room fan being the tiny box attached to its side and the single HDMI cable connecting it to the TV. It also had the added benefit of reducing the computer’s fan noise by around 10 to 15 dB because of the additional airflow that the stand fan brings to the table. The only issue that we see here is that you can’t use the fan elsewhere if you want to play games on your living room TV.

You can watch the complete build here:

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.

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."