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People ask what’s actually in my shop. This is the short list — the gear on Amazon that keeps my print farm running day to day, plus the cheap tools I reach for constantly. No sponsored filler: if it’s on this list, I use it.
The printers
1. Bambu Lab A1 (with AMS lite)
The A1s run the farm day to day. If I was starting today, this is the one: the highest-quality entry machine for the price — reliable, fast, and multi-color out of the box. For most people, get the A1 with the AMS lite.
Check the Bambu Lab A1 with AMS lite on Amazon →
2. Bambu Lab A1 mini
Same ease of use in a smaller footprint — and easier to automate plate changing, which matters a lot when you’re running more than one machine. The trade-off is print area.
Check the Bambu Lab A1 mini on Amazon →
Automation
3. Chitu Systems PlateCycler C1M
An auto plate swapper for the A1 mini. It ejects a finished print and starts the next one, so the printer keeps running unattended. This is the difference between “a printer” and “a farm.”
Check the PlateCycler C1M on Amazon →
Filament & storage
4. Bambu Lab PLA Basic
My default PLA. The AMS auto-recognizes it via RFID, the color is consistent, and there’s no drama.
Check Bambu Lab PLA Basic on Amazon →
5. TECSONAR Matte Rainbow PLA
A fast color-change gradient with a matte finish. It’s behind a lot of my most eye-catching prints. Generic PLA settings in Bambu Studio work fine — no special tuning.
Check TECSONAR Matte Rainbow PLA on Amazon →
6. LANDU Silk Tri-Color PLA
Red/blue/green silk rainbow. The sheen on this one prints beautifully.
Check LANDU Silk Tri-Color PLA on Amazon →
7. Filament storage rack
The rack I started with to keep spools organized and off the floor. Once you’re past a handful of spools, you need somewhere to put them. (Want to build your own instead? Here are my free DIY filament rack plans.)
Check the filament storage rack on Amazon →
Maintenance & finishing tools
8. AFA Deburring Tool
M2 blades. If you finish 3D prints and don’t own one of these, fix that.
Check the AFA Deburring Tool on Amazon →
9. Brass wire brushes
An Amazon Basics brass set — nozzle cleaning, surface cleaning, general abuse. Cheap, and on a farm you go through them.
Check the brass wire brushes on Amazon →
Filming the farm
10. CyberBrick Time-lapse Kit
It triggers the shutter in sync with the printer over the Bambu Bus cable, and it’s what made my time-lapses consistent. Grab the variant for your printer.
Check the CyberBrick Time-lapse Kit on Amazon →
Quick-reference table
| # | Gear | What it does in my farm | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bambu Lab A1 (AMS lite) | Daily-driver multi-color printer | Amazon |
| 2 | Bambu Lab A1 mini | Compact printer, easy to automate | Amazon |
| 3 | PlateCycler C1M | Auto plate swaps on the A1 mini | Amazon |
| 4 | Bambu Lab PLA Basic | Default PLA, RFID in the AMS | Amazon |
| 5 | TECSONAR Matte Rainbow PLA | Matte gradient for eye-catching prints | Amazon |
| 6 | LANDU Silk Tri-Color PLA | Silk rainbow sheen | Amazon |
| 7 | Filament storage rack | Spools organized, off the floor | Amazon |
| 8 | AFA Deburring Tool | Cleaning up print edges | Amazon |
| 9 | Brass wire brushes | Nozzle + surface cleaning | Amazon |
| 10 | CyberBrick Time-lapse Kit | Synced time-lapse capture | Amazon |
Off-Amazon farm upgrades I also run
- BIQU CryoGrip Pro Cool Plate — the cool-blue plate I did a whole video on. It grabs PLA hard at just 45–55°C, then flex-and-pop release with no cooldown wait. Double-sided; fits the A1/mini/P1/X1. Check it at BIQU →
- BIQU BMCU-370 — an open-source AMS-lite alternative for the A1/mini/P1. I skipped the AMS and regretted it; this fixed it, and it’s smoother and quieter. Check it at BIQU →
Keep track of it all
Once the farm grows, keeping track of prints, filament, and printers gets messy. I built PrintShelf to track every print, filament, and printer in one place — it’s free to start.
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