We are a family of 4 in Bowie, MD, sharing the joy of 3d printing (and our Great Dane, Poe) with our local community.
ToyBox 3d Printer
A (not so) Long Time Ago…
2023
Santa brought a ToyBox 3d printer to the family in December 2023. None of us had seen or used one before but we delighted in making little widgets and toys on the (incredibly small, in hindsight) printer. Before long the children noticed that Dad was keeping the printer busy nearly all the time…he insisted (still does, in fact) that Santa brings gifts for the whole family.
Elegoo Neptune 4
Kick it up a notch
Spring 2024
Dad decided to get himself a printer so the kids could use the ToyBox without him constantly preempting them, and purchased an Elegoo Neptune 4 bedslinger. Almost immediately the possibilities of what we could print expanded greatly! Larger build plate, more access to different materials! The learning curve was pretty steep as this printer required more maintenance, care and feeding, and seemed to spend as much time down for some inscrutable maintenance or calibration as it did humming away….
BambuLabs A1
Another one!
Spring 2024. But slightly later I swear
Printing with a 3d printer is delightful, but maintaining a 3d printer can be taxing. In the interests of increasing the ratio of successful to unsuccessful prints, Dad upgraded to a BambuLabs A1 bedslinger, known for its reliability and flexibility. The difference was night and day! We could now keep the printer running as much as we wanted (with maintenance, of course), and create new and exciting things. Adding the Automatic Material System allowed us to do prints in multiple colors seamlessly. Lessons learned with the Neptune were crucial for understanding the mechanics of the printer and made troubleshooting on this upgraded model much easier.
BambuLabs A1 Mini
Our army grows
Spring 2024. Maybe early summer? Time is hard.
We had an opportunity to add a BambuLabs A1 mini to our burgeoning print farm for a good deal and we took it! With a smaller build plate but the same bulletproof reliability, we greatly increased our print capacity. Friends and family began asking if we could print things for them and offered to compensate us, and that got our wheels spinning…