About 3DBite

Who I am

I am a lifelong tech enthusiast with an engineering background and a career in IT that spans over thirty years. I head up IT for a property company, but 3D printing has been a steady part of my life for more than fifteen years. I built my first printer, a RepRap, from a kit at a time when the hobby was still a bit unpredictable. It needed constant tuning and the success rate was low, but it taught me the fundamentals of how these machines work from the inside out. We’ll look at that machine in more detail another time as I still have it!

Today the ecosystem is very different. Printers like the Bambu Lab A1 are fast, reliable, and predictable. They let me focus on design, usability, and solving everyday problems rather than fighting the machine. I enjoy practical prints for the home, useful gifts for family and friends, and small engineering projects that scratch the creative itch.

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Why I started 3DBite

I started by keeping notes of my prints, successful or otherwise, in a text file. This notebook become unwealdy so having had the 3DBite.com URL for more than 10 years, I decided that 3DBite should become my workshop log. I plan to record real projects, materials, and results in a way that will not only server as my own record but in a way that I hope just might be useful to others. When I first got into 3D printing, practical information that sat between beginner and expert level was hard to find. Most guides were either very basic or extremely deep. The goal here is to cover the middle ground. Straightforward, technical when needed, and always based on things I have actually printed.

3DBite will grow as I add new projects, materials, guides, experiments, and tools. I’d love for it to become a useful resource for anyone who prints at home, whether they are using an A1 or something else. Everything published here is something I have tested myself.

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What I print

• Practical items for the home.
• Small engineering and utility prints.
• Useful everyday pieces that solve small problems.
• Gifts for friends and family, particularly around Christmas.

I often adjust or redesign models to improve strength, tolerances, or ease of assembly. The design process is as interesting as the print itself. Also having an early Bambu Lab A1 with AMS Lite has really opened up a world or possibilities for multicolour models.

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Materials I work with

I mainly use PLA and PETG because they are fast, predictable, and suitable for most use cases. I use TPU when I need impact absorption or flexibility, and I occasionally dip into resin printing when extremely fine detail is required. Resin is slow and messy, so most of the time I prefer the cleaner workflow of FDM.

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My approach

My engineering background means I like to be methodical. I track settings, make notes, and try to understand why a print succeeded or failed. Rather than chasing high speed benchmarks, I focus on getting consistent, repeatable results. If I share something here, it is because it has been tested.

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What you can expect from 3DBite

• Guides based on real prints and real failures.
• Clear notes on materials, profiles, and workflow.
• Projects that solve practical problems or make useful gifts.
• Advice grounded in actual behaviour, not just datasheet theory.
• Downloadable profiles and project files as the site grows.

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Thank you for visiting

If you want to get in contact, suggest an idea, or share something you have printed, feel free to reach out. The community side of 3D printing has always been one of its strengths and I am happy to be part of it.