Practical 3D printing, one project at a time
I share the prints, ideas, and experiments that work in real homes. From small gifts to useful everyday tools, this is my workshop log.
What I am printing right now
Big news on the bench this week: there is a second printer in the workshop. The Anycubic Kobra X arrived after a 10% Amazon discount dropped it to £234 — a price that was impossible to argue with. It is set up, calibrated, and already pulling its weight. The first test prints have been clean, it is noticeably quieter than the A1, and the touchscreen and app integration are better than expected. A full head-to-head comparison with the Bambu A1 is coming — but first impressions are very strong.
Having two printers on the desk has already paid off. The Yoshi figure — printed as a follow-up to the Mario and Luigi figures that went down so well with my godson — ran colour jobs on both machines simultaneously, cutting the overall build time considerably. Yoshi is now on the shelf completing the Super Mario set. The questions about what comes next in the series have already started.
The Grinch is also progressing. ENIQUE3D’s Not-So-XL build is a substantial multi-day project and it is still in progress — parts are accumulating and assembly is being planned. It will be worth it. These seasonal builds always are.
On the radar this week: the Anycubic Kobra 4 has been announced, sitting in a confusing position alongside the Kobra X with the older ACE 2 Pro external system rather than the integrated ACE Gen 2 architecture. The post is up if you want to dig into why that is an odd move. Also watching the Bambu Lab vs OrcaSlicer situation closely — the ecosystem closure concerns are real and worth understanding if you are a Bambu user.
Head to the Projects section for the full build logs, settings, and honest notes on what worked and what did not.
What’s New & Worth Knowing
Printers, tools, and products worth knowing about. Honest editorial from an experienced hobbyist — covering new releases, considered purchases, and anything on the 3D printing radar worth your attention.
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PlainMesh Fill & Split: The Browser Tool That Turns Any Coloured 3MF Into Printable Parts
The case for printing each colour separately and assembling the parts by hand — rather than running everything through the AMS in one job — is something this site has covered in depth in the multi-part printing post. Cleaner colour separation. No purge waste. Each part in its optimal print orientation. Repairability. The argument holds…
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The A2L Has Arrived: First Impressions From Two Weeks In
The A2L is on the desk. After two posts working through the announcement — the initial underwhelmed reaction and the deeper specs and strategy analysis — and after the Kobra X experiment ended in a return, I have placed the order and the machine has been running for two weeks now. This post covers why…
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Self-Hosted Tools That Make 3D Printing Better — My Take
How-To Geek published a piece this week — 5 self-hosted 3D printing tools you should download today by Tim Brookes — that I read nodding along rather more enthusiastically than usual. Not because the tools are new, but because reading a list of five things that would make my workflow better while knowing I have…
Recent prints from the workshop
A mix of functional home items, small gifts, and experiments. All printed on the A1 unless noted.
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A 3D-Printed Bambu Lab Status Display Using a £10 Touchscreen — Where Two Hobbies Collide
This post is directly inspired by a piece published on the Adafruit blog on July 9th 2026, which featured the CYD Desk Buddy project by MakerWorld designer annaglyph. Full credit to Adafruit and annaglyph for the original — the links to both are at the bottom and I encourage anyone interested to visit both. What…
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Eight Colours on the A1: Why I Bought Two BCMUs and What I’ve Found So Far (Part 1)
This is part one of what will be an ongoing multi-part series. I have just bought two BCMU units, the A1 has detected both of them as AMS A and AMS B, and things look very promising — but I am not far enough into the setup to write the definitive guide yet. What I…
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Building the Filament Drybox for the Eight-Colour BCMU A1 Project
Two BMCU units arrived this week and the printer reshuffle they are triggering is bigger than I expected when I first mentioned trying them. The plan, now firmed up: the new A2L keeps the existing AMS Lite for its multi-colour duties, and the A1 becomes the dedicated eight-colour machine, running two BMCU units side by…
Materials I use every day
I print mostly in PLA and PETG. TPU when needed, and resin only when the job requires very fine detail. These notes come from practical use and real results, not datasheet theory.
PLA
Reliable, versatile, and ideal for most home prints. Easy to dial in and great for gifts.
PETG
Tougher and more temperature resistant. Useful for mechanical parts.
TPU
Flexible and fun. Ideal for bumpers, grips, and soft components.
Guides and workflow notes
Short walkthroughs based on real use. Settings that work, slicer approaches that help, and fixes that save time.
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What Is a Cold Pull? How and Why to Do One
A cold pull is one of the oldest maintenance techniques in FDM printing and one of the most underused. It solves the majority of clogged nozzle problems without buying anything, without removing the nozzle, and without the risk of damaging a hotend that a needle or a torch carries. The technique also sounds slightly counterintuitive…
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Tips for Perfect Bridging 3D Printing Settings Guide
A bridge is the one place in FDM printing where the nozzle deposits filament into thin air and expects it to stay where it is put. Every other extrusion move lands on something solid underneath it. A bridge does not — it spans between two anchor points with nothing beneath the middle, and the only…
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Why Does Print Orientation Matter So Much?
The same STL file, printed in two different orientations on the same printer with identical settings, can produce two parts with meaningfully different strength, different surface finish, different print time, and a different chance of the print actually completing successfully. No other single decision in the slicer has this much leverage over the outcome, and…
About 3DBite
I started 3D printing more than fifteen years ago with a kit that needed constant tuning. Modern printers like the A1 make things far easier, but the engineering mindset still helps. 3DBite is where I share the projects, the materials, and the workflow that have worked for me.