I Tried Building an Industrial 3D Print Farm

See how I transformed an empty room into a 3D print farm featuring (25) Prusa i3 mk3S+'s! I walk you through how I did it, what drove my choices, and finally what I think of it all so far. Running a print farm can be hard work but with the right approach we can make it efficient.

My current Print Farm printers:

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This video is sponsored by Eufy Security.

#3dprinting #3dprinter #sidehustle

[volksbugly]

You can fit more in the space if you take a tip from libraries, instead of just putting against the wall, have racking come out perpendicular from the wall and completely remove the racking parallel with the wall. If you 3d model it out you can see the difference. I found this out when doing storage design to maximize some garage space. Also you could build some cheap enclosures by cladding the racking with some 4x8 sheets of something and then hook up some air purification or venting. NICE job though taking the steps to get to where you are! Love seeing the electric put in proper. :)

[venados]

Neat setup, don't forget to put smart plugs on each printer that way you can shut it off/on when you see a print failure from home.

[original_pnoa]

I'm an efficiency expert. One thing you can do to increase uptime on your machines is to have two sets of plates. The moment you pull a plate off one of the machines, put in a blank one and restart the next print, move onto the next machine, and repeat. At the end, when you've restarted as many machines as possible, THEN you pull the finished prints off the plates you just removed (and wipe down the plates). This will save you a few seconds per machine, but over the aggregate, your "uptime" (amount of time the printer is actually doing work) will increase substantially. This is called Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). The idea is that you limit the amount of time a machine is idle as much as possible.

[joshuarowe]

More 3D printing related videos please! Would like to see how you manage your print farm for efficiency on the software side of things.

[davidcheever]

Every year you do a YouTube profit review.... would be VERY interesting to see a Print Farm Profit Review .... taking into consideration cost of machinery, supplies, power, shipping, etc. and then measure that against this is fascinating (and I know absolutely NOTHING about 3D printing)

[stevewright]

Just wanted to say that i have finally installed the dust collection port you sold to me and it worked GREAT!!
Hercules 12" sliding compound miter saw Cheers!!

[carltonwbrooks]

I have 12 printers in a room. I ran some compressed air lines behind the rack as well as a 2.5" line with multiple ports for a shop vac. I live in the Southwest desert where it can get very dusty. This has helped me keep my printers on a regular maintenance schedule. I also bulit a trough (like a gutter) in front of each shelf, again to help with keeping things clean.

[taylormcintyre]

This video has literally nothing that applies to my situation, but I enjoyed it!!

I think something that would be a good project for both “The Lab” and a video, would be an upgraded shop cart with your garbage can, print tools, cleaning/prep supplies.

Thanks dude!

[venados]

Do more research on your sponsor Eufy. I don't think you want your subscribers to be recorded and watched unknowingly. This company claimed to encrypt your stuff which is a lie.

[grizzlybuilds]

You should have considered UniFi Protect for cameras - no cloud storage, 4k quality, even HDR. Great for timelapse footage and no creepy Eufy folks accessing your data. They even have a DSLR security camera for really high quality. And they have PTZ cameras

[kongchho]

One thing I did for a prusa print farm was mount the spool in front of the printer on the rack bar.

[stoormer]

I recommend installing a deflector on the air conditioner to divert the flow of cold air from the printers to the ceiling. and also install an automatic humidity and temperature control system.

[bronzekid]

Your gonna love the Bambu lab, it’s awesome!!

[PrimalEdge]

I’m jealous!! 😂😂
I’ve got so many questions, no idea where to start.. I’m loving this journey you’re on!!

[krehbein]

11:17 Ha! You finally got the Bosch gliding miter saw. After seeing your video about the rigid I tried it thinking it can’t be as bad as some people say. Tried it and just couldn’t live with the play left to right. So got the Bosch for a couple hundred more. Glad I did, I’m sure you’ll like it too.

[tuesboomer]

Wow. Look at you go! Continued best wishes. Your attention to detail and uncluttered setups have always been two of your top strengths.

[weekendinteriors]

A buddy just picked up the Bambu X1. After seeing it in action, I'm very tempted to pick one up myself. You're gonna like it. Love the videos, one of the best channels I follow; keep it up!

[skunkprints]

13:46 I am a proponent for Enders. My whole farm is made of 25 Enders S1s and they kick ass. Thanks for making us feel included though even if it’s just to rag on us.

[michelraizenne]

I bought one of your 3d printed dust collector adapter for my 12'' Bosch miter saw, it works great.

[XeroShifter]

As the owner of an Ender 6 I feel that last comment pretty hard. Its a great printer (once you replace the cooling fan), but there is a lot of work to do to them before they're farm ready. The top end for my 6's performance is miles ahead of anything Prusa has to offer (assuming you get to spend the initial investment difference on fixes for the 6), but when you have to do 30+ printers it can be quite the chore to update the firmware to Klipper, print new fan ducts, replace fans, replace the x-bar, extruder, and hot end, as well as replacing the build plate with magnetic PEI, and add a bed leveling probe. Not expensive really (about $260-$300 in aftermarket stuff), just time consuming first time around. Still, printing at nearly 1 meter per second of real filament extrusion at the same quality as a stock prusa reliably is a huge increase in printer capacity.

If any hobbiest is looking for a half decent core xy platform the 6 is pretty good though. The machine says its $560 or so but you can get them for $430 pretty easily, and assuming you're good willing to spend $3 on blower fans and use the included filament sample to print a new fan duct you're in business with a decent machine pretty much right away. And as previously mentioned if you want to upgrade it over time you can find guides in a few places and with very little modification you can use stuff made for some of the best printers out there (Voron 2.4, HevORT, VZbot).