3D Printing Zone

The Bambu Lab Effect: How One Company Reset What a 3D Printer Should Be

In 2022 a two-year-old Shenzhen start-up founded by ex-DJI drone engineers put a printer on Kickstarter and raised about seven million US dollars in a month. Four years l

Silk, Matte, Glow and Speciality PLA: What Changes and What Doesn't

Walk into any filament shop, online or otherwise, and plain PLA is surrounded by cousins: silk, matte, glow-in-the-dark, wood, marble, carbon fibre, sparkle, rainbow, col

This Week in 3D Printing: California's Gun-Blocking Printer Law, Bambu's Matte PETG, Prusa Goes to 400 °C

The week of 26 September to 4 October 2026 in 3D printing, for makers and small businesses. California signed a law that will one day require printers to recognise and re

Printing Replacement Parts: Fix the Thing Instead of Replacing It

A dishwasher basket wheel snaps, a fridge shelf clip crumbles, the bracket on a roller blind gives way, and suddenly a perfectly good appliance is heading for the kerb ov

MakerWorld, Printables and Thingiverse: Who Gets Paid and What You Can Print

Millions of free 3D models are a click away, but where do they come from, who pays the people who design them, and what are you actually allowed to do with a file once yo

Buy a Printer or Use a Service: The Honest Cost Comparison

A capable 3D printer now costs less than a mid-range phone, so why would anyone pay a print service? And if services exist, why would anyone buy a printer? This episode r

Resin Printing Explained: Liquid, Light and the Finest Detail You Can Buy

Resin printers build objects upside down, out of a puddle of liquid, hardened one hair-thin slice at a time by violet light. The result is detail that filament printers s

Multicolour 3D Printing: How It Works and Why the Waste Bin Fills Up

Multicolour 3D printing looks like magic: one machine, one nozzle, and a figurine comes off the plate already painted. This episode opens the lid on how that actually hap

3D Printing File Formats: Why 3MF Is Taking Over from STL

STL, OBJ, 3MF or STEP? The file you upload decides whether your print arrives the right size, the right colour and without a "non-manifold" error. This episode walks thro

Layer Height Explained: What Finer Layers Really Cost You in Time

Two identical tugboats, same file, same printer, same plastic. One took an hour and a half to print, the other nearly three hours, and the only setting that changed was l

Infill Explained: What the Percentage Really Buys You in Strength, Weight and Cost

Every 3D print is mostly air on the inside, and one number in the slicer decides how much. In this episode we pull apart the infill percentage: what it is, why printed pa

Choosing a 3D Printing Material: PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU and Nylon Without Regret

A phone holder that slumps on a Sydney dashboard, a garden fitting that goes chalky in one summer, a "flexible" case that snaps: almost every disappointing 3D print is a

How FDM Printing Works: From Spool to Part, One Layer at a Time

Most desktop 3D printers are, at heart, a very precise hot glue gun on a robot arm. In this episode we follow a spool of plastic all the way to a finished part: what fuse