I’m a Bambu user (sorry). My Dad bought me a ln A1 Mini for my birthday 6 months ago, and I’ve since bought a second mini with the AMS, and a big-boy A1. I have them set up in a converted garden shed along with my laser (Laserpecker 4). I insltalled AC, radiant barrier, and insulation. and put up a bunch of Skadis wallboard, added some workbenches along 3 sides of the room, etc. Turns out the previous owner had seriously screwed up the electrical service to the building (plugs would operate at different voltages depending on how many breakers were turned on - scary stuff), so last week I ran new electrical service from the pole to the building (about a 300ft trench).

I’ve printed hundreds of hangers for the skadis wall and laser ventilation systems, etc. I’ve designed custom mounts for my laser accessories, custom conduit for some of the electrical lines (nothing exposed to the elements), and more.

I’m worried because my project for the past 6 months has been creating the perfect hobby space, and I’m almost done.

I don’t know what to do after that…

Yup, in my case I know the 3D priter is the hobby. Like were the telescopes rather than the astronomy, or my Hi-Fi rather than the music. Nerds gotta nerd.

Anyone else in this boat?

It’s called a benchy, dude

Gods damn it I hate when the proprietary bootlickers are right…

I think everyone with a 3D printer starts like this (it is a self-replicating hobby after all!), but eventually I grew out of it. Making your own better printer out of the one you already have is awesome, I’m glad I did it! You learn so many new ways of failing, sometimes it’s a miracle these things work at all.

For me though I managed to stop after 3 printers (gotta have a backup while working on the downed printer!). I mostly use my printers for functional stuff though, complimenting my other hobbies when I need something super specific. It’s great to have the skill to troubleshoot when things go wrong, but also great to just hit Print and know it will work! I am thankful for the CAD skills I picked up with this hobby.

For the first year or two I was just constantly upgrading this or that on my lousy printer, then getting new problems due to those upgrades… I’m glad I don’t do that anymore 🤣

Thankfully my « printing trinkets » phase did not last too long. So many benchies…

Definitely a valid thing to have. Imo, as long as it provides value to you creatively or intellectually, then it’s a worthwhile hobby. It sounds like you are using it as well, so that’s just a bonus really.

I’m halfway into that mindset, but got myself a bambu after fighting an Ender 3 for so long and for now at least I’m content to just have a working printer instead of a half assembled one 80% of the time. So many calibration cubes.

As someone that uses the exact same comparison. I do try to make it clear that they are both valid hobbies but you need to be honest which your hobby is when picking a printer. For a lot of the Ender and similar printer owners they really do have a 3D Printer hobby specifically.

I don’t have this problem, only because I’m actively working to avoid it. I tweak video games and get too tired to play them, I upgrade my motorbikes until I have none working on a sunny day. I’m aware of my faults.

My ender 3 has been working hard while I work even harder to ignore it’s minor faults.

Sweats “looks at Sovol sv08 under the christmas tree” fingers itch

That’s definitely me. I wouldn’t be surprised if I have spent more man-hours working on my printer than hours spent printing. But I can say, I probably have one of the best Anet A8s around

That’s what hobbies are, my man. It’s cool to be into something and you’re out sharing what you’re learning with others, letting them benefit from your experience so they can focus on the aspects of 3D printing they’re interested in.

Keep enjoying yourself; that’s all that matters!

Also the Twystlock is crazy cool and it’s really awesome you shared it with the community!

Listen, is it really a 3d printer hobby if you don’t have 5 or 6 printers, none of which could actually print anything, and five boxes of parts laying around for you to fix your printers?

Oh also see above while planning another printer project, because none of those printers will do something you might want to do.

(/s, kidding, etc, but there’s That Guy somewhere, and you know who you are.)

That’s been a thing for years, though it used to be ultimaker or prusa before Bamboo.

Just like there are people who race with cars, and there are people who fix and tune cars, there are people who just want to print stuff, and others that really like tinkering with 3D Printers. Not many people around with inkjet printers as their hobby, and some people see 3d printers in the same light - just a tool that should do what they want it to, and that’s it.

And I also love the tinkering part more - be it 3d printers, rc cars, airguns, electric scooters, game console, you name it - once I’ve modified something to be exactly like I want it to be, I’m much more likely to move to another tinkering project than actually use what I’ve just built :P

Man I dunno I have an Ender 3 (S1) and while I did do quite a lot of fiddling and a few upgrades with it I’m done at this point and basically just have to replace a belt or nozzle once in a while I dunno it’s been pretty stable for a year or two now

Dude was just gatekeeping you and assigning you labels. Do what you enjoy, ignore the haters

A hobby is a hobby, anyone who poo poos other hobbies really just had that as a hobby.

And yes, I enjoy making the printer work