Maker Monday: Bambu's Nine-Tool Printer, Elegoo's 16K Giant, and Formlabs Goes Affordable
The maker world had a loaded week. Bambu Lab teased a tool changer printer with nine tools built into one machine, Elegoo announced a massive 16K resin printer, and Formlabs finally launched a resin printer that regular hobbyists can actually afford. Here is what is worth paying attention to and what I think about each one.
Bambu Lab's H3C Tool Changer Is Coming November 3
Bambu Lab is teasing the H3C, a tool changer printer that holds nine tools in a drop down rack and swaps between them mid print. It looks like the successor to the H2C and the launch event is set for November 3. No price yet, so I am holding my opinion on value until the sheet comes out, but a nine tool swap system on a consumer priced machine would be a real shift for anyone doing true multi material prints, not just multi color ones. I will cover pricing and first impressions the week it drops.
Elegoo's Jupiter 2 Brings 16K Resolution to a Massive Build Volume
Elegoo's new Jupiter 2 is a large format resin printer with 16K resolution, a two way pump for automatic resin feeding, and a double door design so you can reach the build plate without fighting the enclosure. It launched at $949 with an early bird price of $849. I run the older Jupiter SE for big format jobs and the resin handling upgrades here are the part that actually matters day to day. Auto feed means fewer resin top offs mid print, which sounds minor until you have done it yourself at 11pm. If you print a lot of large props or batches of minis on one plate, this is worth watching. Whatever resin you load, glove up and keep a respirator nearby. Nitrile gloves and a proper respirator are cheap insurance against resin exposure.
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Formlabs Form Studio 1: A $699 Resin Printer From a Company That Never Went Below $3,000
Formlabs has spent a decade selling resin printers mostly to studios and engineering shops, usually north of three grand. The Form Studio 1 changes that. It runs a new Low Force Display print engine built to be fast and low mess, it works with Formlabs' own Alpha Resins plus third party 405 nanometer resins, and it is priced at $699 with shipping starting November 16. For a hobbyist, the real story is validated settings and an open platform in one box from a brand with a decade of print engine experience behind it. Whether it beats an Elegoo or Anycubic at that price on raw value is a question I want to answer with a real print in hand, not a spec sheet, so treat this one as a printer to watch rather than a buy today call.
Prusa's OpenPrintTag NFC Upgrade Is Live for Core One Printers
Prusa's OpenPrintTag is an open source NFC standard for smart filament spools, and the upgrade kit that adds an NFC reader to Core One, Core One Plus, and Core One L printers is now available for about $20. Load a tagged Prusament spool and the printer reads material type, color, and how much filament is actually left, no cloud account required. The open source part is what makes this interesting beyond Prusa's own ecosystem, since any brand can adopt the tag format without a license fee. If Sunlu or Polymaker start shipping spools with this tag, tracking remaining filament across brands gets a lot less guessy. For now it is a nice quality of life upgrade if you already run a Core One.
That's Maker Monday
That's the maker world for this week. If any of this got you thinking about a custom print, paint, or engraving, come see what we make on the commission page. See you next Monday.
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