3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing
Functional prints, custom enclosures, and firmware tweaking.
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Print Lab Philosophy I view 3D printing primarily as a tool for practical problem solving. While printing miniatures or tabletop pieces is fun, 3D printing truly shines when it is used to repair broken gear, upgrade existing equipment, or manufacture custom mounting brackets for microcontrollers and radio nodes.
I've shifted my setup away from high-maintenance bed-slingers like my old Ender 3s and AnyCubic Max. My primary daily-driver is now an offline, LAN-only Bambu Lab A1 Mini —prioritizing speed, reliability, and tight dimensional accuracy for functional parts.
Printer Fleet & Specs
Machine
Type
Status & Practical Uses
Bambu Lab A1 Mini FDM / CoreXZ
Active (LAN-Only). Primary tool for fast prototyping, sensor enclosures, and custom brackets. Kept strictly isolated from cloud services.
Creality Halot One SLA (Resin)
Active. Monochrome LCD SLA printer reserved exclusively for ultra-fine detail prints like custom keycaps and high-detail minis. Rinsing agents are filtered and reused to avoid waste.
AnyCubic 4 Max Pro FDM / Enclosed
Retired / Sold. Served well for enclosed printing, but lacked the modern dimensional accuracy and speed required for tight-tolerance parts.
Creality Ender 3 Series FDM / Bed-slinger
Retired / Sold. Great learning platform for custom Marlin compilation, firmware debugging, and hardware retrofits.
Workbench Logs & Custom Firmware Builds
Project Log: Ender 3 V2 Firmware & Extruder Upgrade Task: Overhauled and configured a friend's new-to-them Creality Ender 3 V2.
Hardware Modifications: Replaced the stock plastic extruder with a 3:1 dual-gear BMG clone (retaining the Bowden setup with Capricorn PTFE tubing). Fabricated and mounted a 3DTouch auto-bed leveling sensor using a bracket printed on the AnyCubic.Firmware Overhaul: Compiled custom Marlin 2.1.x firmware on a Chromebook. Enabled advanced processing options including Input Shaping, Bed Tramming, and Linear Advance .UI Flash: Flashed the LCD screen to bypass the dumbed-down Creality stock interface, restoring clean Marlin menus focused on raw data and speed.
SLA Resin Workflow: Creality Halot One Resin printing delivers unmatched surface finish, but requires careful chemical management. I limit SLA usage strictly to high-detail components where FDM layer lines would cause mechanical binding or poor aesthetic finish.
Key Applications: Custom keyboard keycaps, miniature props, and micro-scale gears.Chemical Recycling: IPA/rinsing agents are passed through multi-stage filters and UV-cured to settle contaminants, allowing the wash solvent to be reused repeatedly with zero chemical waste.
Archive: AnyCubic 4 Max Pro A look back at the older enclosed printer. It was a decent workhorse for a period, but required frequent manual bed re-leveling and mechanical tweaks compared to modern bedslingers and CoreXY systems.
