My 3D Printing Farm 

“Package all the shi-“ that part had me 😂😂

Good info - to improve profit margins, or reduce cost you could try: No stringing (sanding) + faster print -> use larger nozzle (eg 0.8mm) and print in vase mode with thicker layers. If you want a double walled part, make the model two nozzles thick, then remove a 0.03mm vertical slice (so it's like a chain link). Tune the flow, jerk & accel settings to get a strong yet minimal seam up the side. Thicker vase parts with internal structures are also possible depending how you make cuts. Harder to describe, but think of it like scoring the surface with a knife: you do 0.03mm cuts (smallest gap i've found is still recognised by Cura) in to one surface that stop 2 nozzle widths from the opposite skin, a bit like this ├│. You can imagine the slicer printing the outline, with every gap a double wall. Visual differences (gloss/matte) -> suggests slight temp difference between the hotends as Petg shine increases with extruder temps. Could measure and tune print temp for each of them. Old stock PLA parts -> perhaps a semi-insulated bag inside the package to save wasting them. Power/layer issues -> maybe on some machines the stepper drivers vRef is set a bit higher, causing them to run hotter. Cheaper Filament -> usually the manufacturer lowers costs by not drying (properly). Could use the warm printer cabinets to dry new spools. With a larger nozzle size, slight variation in filament thickness isn't noticeable.

I love seeing this! I also started with just 4 printers, and have since expanded to 20 ender 3v2s with the product I designed. I can relate to what you're doing here. Much success in your future designs and business!

Good change with dropping PLA. I believe the magic formula here was your designs-these exhausts are super simple for a slicer, which lowers your risk at all stages! Good job

I used to have false power loss issues on a cheap CNC milling machine, I resolved the problem by powering the drill with a separate power unit and leaving the electronics on the original power unit. The stepper motors generate quite a lot of EMF disturbance that could be an issue for the microcontroller and the communication with the PC, try shielding and grounding.

Congratulations! It’s fun to see hard work paying off!

"blue tape aged 3 months"...perfect! 😂btw, 100% on spot man, especially on the choice of quality filament

Great video. I'm researching 3D printers (there are way too many of them LOL) more for hobby, but watching these and seeing you can build a business around it makes it even more intriguing!

The Extruder Mount is one of the best ideas i‘ve ever seen. So easy and really good!

Good for you! I’m really impressed with your attention to detail and recognition of what customers see when they receive your products.

I love the simple fix for the extruder to prevent filament scraping/breaking.

Love learning about your process! Design, printing, process and logistics - very illuminating. Thanks! 👍

Nice job on your process and streamlining production. Thanks for sharing.

HINT: Number the printers with the date they show up and go into service plus any letters or product id's.. That keeps it all in order by when they went into use as well as age etc.

thank you for this started a print farm myself as well this year and is already taking off like crazy, really great to see some of the innovative ways you are creating a better work flow! gave me some ideas as well!

Please consider keeping your printers with the same numbers they have but in each group change them to A, B, and C and do 1A, 1B, & 1C, etc. That way you'll be able to keep them separate. Just a thought. I'm not sure it's a good idea, but my printers are colored in other words I printed fan shrouds in blue, red, orange, and green. So my printers are called blue, red, orange, and green in Octoprint themes for each printer. That way I know which one I'm attached to when I'm sending a job.

Very inspiring video! Just bought the voxelab aquila few weeks ago used needing repair and finally got it running at 100%. Just now opening up Pandora's box of possibilities. Excited about starting up as a small business to supplement the income. No rush. Just excited to see where this goes.

Awesome job man, very inspiring. I’m about to start getting into this very soon.

To deal with your powerloss issues I'd look into running all machines on a UPS, because it filters all the incoming power from sudden spikes or drops, since it's constantly fed through the battery in them, so that way you're protected from 'dirty' spikes, which can cause these powerlosses.

Massive well done to you sir, love how meticulous you are with your business

1. It could be spikes in peak demand dropping voltage for a split second just enough to trigger the warning. 2. The probability of getting an error increases with frequency and quantity. The more you use the printer(s) and the more you have, the more likely you are to experience an issue.

Loved your video! So I started out with one 3D printer from Aldi, an i3 duplicator rebadged. After a few years or printing random things I needed, a mouse plague came along here in Australia and I was printing auto reset traps 24/7. I went from one to 4 printers to keep up with demand. The last printer I purchased was a CR30 which has been a challenge to get working... But it's is now. Your video has inspired me to get more productivity from my printers, it was a great watch and good workflow stations.

I appreciate the video man, it gives a lot of good tips as well as motivation to really get into the industry. I've been printing for personal use for a few months now and am already looking to expand and actually manufacture parts for sale after some success selling to local individuals.

Amazing video, thank you for all your insight and advice. I am in the process of starting my own farm and this is the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you again.

I really love this video, brother. Thanks for sharing your experience and setup. I'm trying to ramp up my printing capacity after having developed a few tools for potters. This really helps! Thanks! -mj

My Snapmaker Original printer just arrived today. It's a trainer for printing, engraving, and carving. Thank you for showing where effort can lead. And more important, thank you for being a company that believes in quality.

I've been looking for a way to house my 3D printers. That Ikea cabinet will work great. Thanks for the information and the process looks awesome

Thank you very much for putting this video together. It's very informative!

I'm so happy for you I hope you have greater success

Amazing video, perfect explanation of an home factory

The video was helpful, thanks for sharing

PETG is plenty.. We print gun parts and they hold up just fine. We also use ASA but you need to be more concerned about VOC's with that material. ABS is pretty much obsolete unless you need a bunch of pretty colors. ASA prints more easier, has the same or better mechanical properties, and has a nice matte finish. We use 3DXTech for most of our filaments. Edit: We also print with ASA on scotch brand blue tape. 85C bed.

Thanks for the tour

This is giving me ideas... I see another side hustle in my future.

Looking to start a 3d print farm too. This is so cool to see!

Very informative video, thank you for sharing! I am literally in the beginning phases of starting my own 3D printing business focused around lighting décor. I'm going to be buying my second printer in the next couple weeks to keep up with demand. I built my own 3D printer enclosure myself but I love the IKEA cabinet idea.

I think this is so cool. It's amazing that we can manufacture parts with affordable machines at home now like that

Thanks for sharing. This is vauable info.

Bumped into this video since I just bought my first 3D printer (Ender 3 V2) and have been binge watching 3D printer videos. Although I am not into a 3D printing farm your video was a very nice video to watch. It is always nice to see how someone's business starts with a concept and flourished into a nice at scale operation. Wishing you good luck for your continued growth in 2023. Since you have these many printers running continuously, a couple question if I may - what changes have you made to your stock printers to ensure quality and reliability. Like I keep hearing about replacing stock bowden tube with better quality Capricorn tube, all metal hot-ends, metal extruders etc. Also it will be nice if you can put together a video showcasing some routine maintenance. Thanks and good luck.

Great video and awesome print farm

Nice! I wouldn't imagine such 3d printer class would be good for this "proffesional"/commercial usage.

Don't switch to ABS!!! The whole ABS is stronger than PETG thing is a big old myth that as been busted by Stephan from the RU-vid channel CNC Kitchen. ABS requires much higher print temperatures wich is going to cause many problems on your stock Enders (trust me I ran 5 enders on ABS for a while and it was a nightmare). What Stephan showed is that not only PETG is similar to ABS (strenght and temp resistance) PETG ended up having stronger layer adhesion than ABS. ABS was one of the first filament to be resistant and that's why it's got this reputation but it's just a myth now.

Thanks for the info. Appreciate seeing your process. Developing mine. Just have to find my niche... 🙂

i mostly do abs, for adheasion, just hard hairspray and 110/120 degree bed. ( heated/enclosed chamber) will also help. 90 degree straight edges into the bed really need pads

So much opportunity to jump into different industries with 3D printing

G-10 for print bed for ABS. Its amazing. No warping even with no brim, and when the bed cools, the part separates on its own!

Thanks bud appreciate ya!

Inspiring video! Thanks for sharing. I would be really interested to hear how you optimized your slicer file. This is something I would like to get better at.

Thanks for putting this together, it is inspiring. I'm curious about your reasons for 3d printing this part vs injection molding once you got to some scale

Very inspiring....there is so much a person could do these days for self income. I love the manufacturing side... 3d printing, cnc, laser ect. All right there, anyone can do it, you need patience, desire and integrity. Loved your video, wishing you prosperity with your business! I wonder if you get issues with your powersupply lifespan running abs temps in cabinets, they will only have warm air to cool them..? If an issue you may need to punch 2 holes in the cabinets per printer, for a cool air intake and exhaust, in a contained system as to not alter your hotend & bed temps. The power supplies are probably of not high quality, I had one fail in just 6 months of moderate use. Cheers

Good for ur business

congrats! been thinking of starting but I'm kind of lost. never created anything like this. I'm an innovator and a computer geek so I'm sure I'd figure it out fast.

6:42 if you still have this issue you might wanna get a frequency filter for these printers. it might be possible that they send some interference into the power lines creating stuff like voltage sparks (negative and positive). I had this issue too with my fridge and pc monitor being pluged in on the same curcuit and everytime my fridge started cooling my monitor restarted

Thanks, you have a great process it seems. Some good ideas if I ever wanted to sell something I designed. I think other people have mentioned the electronics overheating as likely causing your issue. Running electronics at higher temperatures also reduces their life expectancy, so there's added cost beyond just failed prints. Maybe move the electronics to a separate cooler area from the heated chamber to extend their lifetime and improve their reliability. There are also fire hazards with 3D printers, both from the electronics and the heated printing area. Less likely these days but still possible. Maybe replace or at least line your wooden enclosures with cement board on all sides. Cheapest option I've found for building a fire resistant enclosure. Separating the electronics means they should ideally get their own enclosure(s). Also maybe add a fire detecting automatic fire extinguisher. I've seen them on Amazon.

Great video, that was really interesting, thanks for sharing. I have a couple of suggestions that you might like to try. First of all, when printing ABS, try out a PEI bed. It will stick perfectly, and release easily when it cools down. I print a lot of ABS, and I put down my first layers at 75mm/s on PEI, no adhesive required. Also, consider trying klipper firmware on a test printer, it has far superior kinematics. That translates to much faster printing without loss of quality, as a rule you can expect to double your print speed just from installing klipper alone. My standard print speed using klipper on my Ender 3 V2 is 150mm/s. You need to use a raspberry pi which adds expense, however you will be able to substantially increase productivity of each machine, so you won't need to spend more money on extra printers, or space and cabinets to house them. I don't run a print farm yet, but I hope to soon (printing car parts in ABS or ASA), but those are things I do on my personal printer (which pretty much runs 24/7) and so will definitely implement on other printers. Having said all that, I don't know how much printing faster will add to wear and tear on the printer, and whether the benefits outweigh the cost/downtime that comes with that, but I aim to find out :) Thanks again for sharing.

Valuable info!

if you are having voltages issues , try looking a UPS system , same system we use in data center IT serves that need clean stable voltages

Very informative, thank you

Good for you man. It's good to see nice guys , that are also talented get ahead. I hope you become a millionaire my friend.

Thanks for this video! I am looking for a different career choice and I think I have found it in printing parts! Drones, rc cars, fan ducts, fishing lures, etc. There is enough to go around for all... I realize I have to open my mind to new hobbies to see where the deficiencies are, for instance is a drone manufacturer making replacement parts or have them available on their site? One thing I couldn't tell is how you communicated to all the various printers. I assume you have a bunch of Octopi running the show, but is there something better? An octopi server running multiple printers instead? I need to do more research on this.

Super Awesome. I just subscribed bud

I saw someone else with a print farm using UPSs to smooth out voltage peaks, he had good experiences with it

I run ender 3 farm too, try the "carborundum" glass plate, aka Anycubic Ultrabase. Works extremely well, and doesn't really care at all if it's a bit greasy, dusty etc. works just the same. Before first use wash it. They sometimes come dirty and prints don't stick. They also get slightly better with use.

Fantastic!

thank you. its nice

Congrats!! wishing you the best to come!!!! ✨🙏🏼 ...have you tried the Prusa printers? Thanks

What a great guy!

Dude, That is great. I would have an overtemp and smoke detection with Raspberrry Pi / Arduino and a relay. I am not sure about these days but many of those boards shipped with thermal runaway protection disabled by default. Thermal runaway will save ou if a thrmistor cable breaks or the thermister falls out but you really also need something to guard against shorted hotend and heatbed mosfets failing short circuit - the micro would be unable to shut them ff as they would be 'fused' on. Only way to deal with that really is either a raspberry pi with temperature failsafe and smartplug or relay plugins of a custom job using something like an arduino. Great to see it took off.

Man almost slipped up "package all the shit for me" 🤣 Great video man keep it up

Currently working a job at Pizza Hut and it’s fun but I’d rather use my skills and knowledge for something more useful. I’m certified in these modeling softwares, just need to get a printer and begin learning because 3d printing while making money sounds awesome. This video is giving me a lot of inspiration to start!

Saving up for an ender 3 pro right now. Hopefully will be a full farm eventually

Very nice setup you have for your printers. Do you have instructions on how to move the extruder to the top rail like you did? I would like to do the same with mine.

Use capricorn tube and if it strings use a bit of olive oil with sponge box to have no stringing Sometimes filament is not dry enough so drying filament could be a solution

I am really inspired by this video and would like to start a 3D printer farm.What do you think is the best product to start off with?

How do you print PETG on an Ender 3??? Do you use an all metal barrel??? Excellent job!! Congratulations!!

You can try to use arc welder (G2-G3) to improve your print surface.

Awesome. Thank you for sharing. How do you research market need?

This was a such cool video and an Inspiration. My dad actually got me into 3d printing about 6 years ago. I work in IT but want to start my own 3d printing business and have just bought a Ender 3 S1 Pro which I just bought for this reason. An upgrade from my 6 year old printer. At the moment I printed some really cool stuff which I pay someone for so I can print and sell with their permission so will be start selling this weekend on Etsy and see how they do. But I am trying to learn Fusion 360 so I can make my own products. What I would like to know is how you get your product ideas?

You could be experiencing differences in part shade for a couple of reasons. Usually this is due to inconsistencies in reading and different PID tuning settings for each of the printer. Silicone socks could have various different amount of use and wear. I'd suggest if you try to get the most consistent printing temperature and consistency, to make sure all nozzles are from a consistent manufacturers, and the heater cartridges and thermistors are all inserted with thermal paste (boron nitride thermal paste from slice engineering works great). Don't forget to PID tune each of the prints with their part cooling fan on at the speed the filament of use will print at, and try to PID tune each of them with the door closed and the other printers running to simulate a real environment.

Why don't you have them on a ups. First thing I'd do if I had a print farm. Line conditioner and battery backup all in one. Degree of time you'd want it to stay up in case of power loss would determine the price obviously.

Enjoyed the video. Happen to have an STL you would not mind sharing for the fan mod. I run 5 Ender-3's and have the issue with the strings sucking up in the fan. Over time, causes a decent issue :)

Thanks for a lot of great info. PETG has been my favorite material for a long time, but if it sits out for a few weeks you have to dry it to get rid of the stringing. Recently I have discovered PLA+ and it seems really good. I have been afraid to try ABS because of the smell/fumes, how are you dealing with that for your ABS parts?

People don’t usually know that power at your outlet can any from 95 volts to 130 usually and a task specific Uninterruptible power supply is really required for sensitive hardware and long duration tasks. I learned this from box mining with graphics cards.

Great video and information! Did you list your items in the Amazon Handmade category? I'm curious where you list your 3D printed adapters.

I would have just gotten those ups battery backup things. I have 2 of them and I run my pc and mining rig through 1 and 2 printers through the other. Got 2 printers out in the garage that don't run through one yet but never have that problem so yea that is really an odd problem to have. Has to be something to do with your fuse box or something.

Hey! Great video! Hoping you see this as it’s an old video now but I couldn’t help but wonder since you are printing lots of the same part (and clearly shifting volume) why you don’t go the route of having it tooled and injection moulded on the well established parts. The part cost would be less after you get over that initial say $1500 tooling cost and you wouldn’t have defects or sanding to deal with. Then you can use your farms to run new product lines before committing the next successful one to tooling. You could also then go the Amazon FBA route on those parts so your dealings would be manufacturer straight to Amazon warehouse and nothing for you to deal with and easier to scale. Either way great video and super happy for your success!

That you've been able to do this with Ender 3's is super impressive.

Possibly already said in this post but check the serial number to the site you might be able to post organize the printers according to age.

Very interesting on your amazon comments. I've heard good and bad about FBA stuff.

Great video, couple of questions. What is your print failure rate? And what brand of filament are you using?

I really like the cabinet setup. Any issues with your electronics overheating? Also are you using the stock PTFE tube? I had to switch to Capricorn PTFE when I use PETG. The stock tubing degraded quickly for me with higher printing temps. Great video!

Absolutely love your content and it has truly been a huge inspiration and motivation to move forward with my 3D print business. I know this is an old video and you may not have the cabinet anymore lol But, the Kia cabinet solution you showed will fit and work well on my current situation. At what measurements did you placed the shelves? And did you install anything underneath to provide some extra support for the printers sitting on it?

You have a really nice setup. I have noticed I to am looking to get into the 3D printing business. A lot of people have asked me for specialty parts. Is it best to just find parts that you can print in bulk? How do you have all the printers linked? I use Octoprint with raspberry Pi 4 running wireless on mine with Cura as the slicer. Your printing ABS parts with stock Ender is down right amazing. I look forward to seeing more of your content and hearing back from you. Great job on your business and content.

Increase your retraction speed and or distance to reduce your stringing. Also, look at reducing your temp because they are in a cabinet. You may be melting it too much.

Just wondering if it is easier to make a mould of the parts since they are quite simple and just injection mould a load of them?

You need input filters. 3D printers use stepping transformers they can back feed interference into the power grid. As delivered there is no filter. Its actually required by code in many areas for just this reason. One machine will interfere with another. And possibly anything electronic plugged into the grid.

Very well done. Did you say you have some type of cooling or filtration happening in the cabinets?

at 5:00 minutes you show a cooling fan duct upgrade that you made, do you have a link to the upgrade?

I love my ender 3... as your comment about odd things going on with your "ghost in machine" I had my ender 3 for 2 years now.. but for the past couple months my printer seems to like adding it's own personal touch. It print stuff that's not part of the model.. it's random.. yesterday was the most interesting print were the printer added it's own creativity. What it printed was the shape of the model but everything else was not part of that model. What was most interesting to me was the very first couple layers the bottom or floor of the print. It completely looked like a piece of plastic you see on your purchases household items, there were no lines what so ever... it was a very strong, yet thin print that had a semi glossy shine which the white filament used was flat white. It's definitely the type of results I would love to get from my prints.. but my ender 3's not willing to tell me it's secret..

Fantastic mate👍. How was the conversion from PLA to PETG. I'm currently on 4 x Prusa MK3 printers using PLG and was thinking of going down the PETG path although the extra cost of PETG vs PLA would hurt a bit along with having to re test every part again which is an enormous task.