You Wouldn’t Download a TIE Fighter
A few weeks ago I asked what good entry 3D printer options I should consider. The tween peer pressure has increased as there’s been more fidget printing and trading this school year, and I got interested in some fun possible use cases as well.
I had long ignored the category for various reasons, but mostly just the fact that we didn’t really have a dedicated space for such a device. However, with the advent of RTO5, we’re flipping the space I had been using as a home office into more of a tween hang and guest room.
The feedback pretty much fell into two categories: get a Prusa since it’s open and EU manufactured; or get a Bambu because they’re fairly cheap and easy. There were a few other outliers. We decided on the Bambu A1 Mini, mostly on price since we’re not sure this hobby will “stick”. (Technically we thought we were getting a great price on an A1, but it was actually a Mini and we didn’t read the listing carefully enough.)
We didn’t get an AMS, in part because multicolor printing seemed more wasteful. If we love printing things I could see upgrading to something like a Prusa CORE One eventually. Another consideration was that the Mini was in stock in US, so with fluctuating tariffs that was also a factor for the price.
Of course we had to start off with a Benchy made from the sample filament that came with the printer.
And a very satisfying “impossible passthrough” fidget cube:
Timelapse!
I was curious about model making so tried a clip out and snap together AT-ST. Unfortunately something with the thickness of the layer settings that I couldn’t figure out made it so the tabs didn’t fit into one another.
After that I tried a TIE Interceptor model. I need a better tool (or some sanding) for getting the parts out of the frame. I also put two parts together out of order so one of the side flanges snapped off a bit. Lesson learned for next time.
Not sure yet what’s next. Something that is a combination of fun and useful, like a better toilet paper holder than the ones that came with our house.