I went with the A1 mini while it was (actually still is) $200 on their website. That’s about as much as we spent on our sewing machine gathering dust, a bit more than our vinyl cutter doing the same, and around the same as I’ve invested so far in mini painting.

To be fair to me, I have so far kept up with the miniature painting.

I have a tendency to get into hobbies for a month or so and then drop them, too, so it being easy to set up and use should help me stick with it a bit more. The relatively low initial investment should soften the blow if I do drop it, too.

Just downloaded all of his sample models and bought another 5 on top of that. I wish that sand worm came with assembly instructions, but he’s getting built one way or another.

I actually just found his channel a couple days ago. I haven’t looked too much more into him, but his designs look great. Thank you for the recommendation!

They did. The nozzle actually arrived days before the printer, which was somewhat funny. I plan on trying it out a bit tomorrow.

That’s exactly what I decided to go with. Looking forward to learning

Do you think a cigar shop would be a good local way to find at least the desiccant? Thank you for the advice.

My space to work is not extremely well ventilated, and my cats could get in if a door is properly closed, so I’m leaning heavily against resin. I understand 3D printing is not without its risks no matter what material or type you use, but resin seems to be more than I can handle in my current setup. In several years, potentially in a new house with a garage, I may reconsider.

Its good to hear another recommendation for this one. It sounds like a good one.

Bambu Studio does appear to be open source and available on Linux, though, which were my first concerns. I’m not sure I would need to switch to Klipper or something similar in that case even if I could.

The results from resin printers look fantastic. My only work area is inside with cats, so I’m concerned about ventilation and contamination (especially since shutting them out of the room will reduce ventilation further). Also, miniatures are just one of the things I wanted to make. Planters, cross stitch hoops and tools, and those neat sectional fidget toys are all things I plan to make, and it seems resin isn’t ideal for those. I don’t mind sanding the result to make it smoother, and I understand the results won’t be as high detail as a purchased miniature when I do make them.

I have not yet learned much about stepper motors vs other options, but otherwise it sounds like the main thing that has changed in this price range is an increased number of valid options in it.

Yep, right there. Missed it entirely. Haha.

That model appears to be the most frequently recommended one for beginners, from my couple hours of research. Is it just the ease of use, or is the quality there, too?

I looked into resin briefly, but I don’t think my work area would be able to be ventilated enough for it to be safe from what I have seen.

I don’t mind tinkering, as long as I can find the info to help do so somewhere.

That does appear to exceed my budget by $100 even on sale, though. Unless I’m missing something.

I am seeing that suggestion a lot elsewhere, too.

Yeah, it didn’t seem like it could handle detail at a very small scale. However, making something in the 5-6 cm range would still be wonderful for painting. How do you have to keep it happy?

That’d be me. Nobody else I know does it, either. I try to explain it and they’re like “yeah, I try to look up at a light to help sneeze” and that’s just not it.

In my coffee. Haha. I weigh out the amount of coffee I need before I grind it. That said, I also exclusively make cold brew, so I’m typically making enough for a few days.

I thought my cat was strange for this same behavior. I should have known he wasn’t the only one. He will borrow under the blanket himself if I don’t have an entrance for him. Or paw at my leg until I make him one.

A lot of the tiny critters responsible for decomp are aerobic, though, right? So once the air in the suit ran out they’d die, too.

I wonder what decomp would be like on the Moon. I imagine at worst this dino would be a mummy, but it’d be pretty wild to find a barely rotten T Rex.

I received a small (6-ish spaces) hydroponics kit two Christmases ago, and grew a few strawberry plants in it last year following the instructions that came with it. We never really got any strawberries off of them, but the plants themselves did wonderfully until the cats got to them.

This year I’d like to try something more “useful”, like fresh herbs or micro greens (both of which are rather expensive to buy where I live). Does anybody have tips for how to start these, and places (in the US or that ship to it) that might carry seeds for the micro greens? I’m also concerned about running out of the “fertilizer” that came with the kit.