MeshPit
Start with what you want to print
Pick the printer for the things you'll make, not the biggest thing you can imagine making. For a hobbyist or a small shop, those things are usually small:
- A lithophane from the Lithophane Maker is 100 mm wide unless you change it.
- A name light from the Light Box Maker starts with 40 mm letters, so a short name fits on almost any bed.
- A project box for an Arduino or Raspberry Pi is smaller than a phone.
- Cake toppers, hooks, clips, keyrings and desk organisers are smaller still.
A small printer is enough to start
A printer with a bed of about 180 × 180 mm prints everything in the list above. Small printers cost less, take less room and heat up faster. A small bed doesn't mean worse prints, because the nozzle and layer height that set the detail are the same as on a big printer.
A bed of about 250 mm is the step up. It fits long names, larger signs and big lithophanes, and lets you fill one plate with several copies of a product. The Light Box Maker warns you when a name light is bigger than a 256 mm bed.
When something is too big, you can usually split it and glue the parts. If you sell, a second small printer often beats one big one. It doubles what you can print in a day, and when one printer is down for a nozzle change, the other keeps your orders moving.
The kinds of 3D printer
Brand matters less than type. Every well-known maker sells good printers of each type, and the types differ more than the brands.
| Type | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Open filament printer, moving bed | The cheapest way in. Prints PLA and PETG well, and a small one fits on a desk. The bed moves back and forth under the nozzle. | Tall, thin prints can wobble at high speed, and it needs room behind it for the bed to travel. |
| Filament printer with a fixed frame, open or enclosed | The head moves in X and Y and the bed only drops, so it prints fast and steadily. Often sold with a lid or full enclosure. | Costs more than a moving-bed printer of the same size. The enclosure only pays off if you later print ABS or ASA. |
| Resin printer | Very fine detail on small parts, such as miniatures, figurines and jewellery masters. | Every print has to be washed and cured, the resin needs gloves and ventilation, the parts are brittle and the build area is small. |
For home and Etsy prints, buy a filament printer, also called an FDM printer. Either of the first two types works. A moving-bed printer is the cheaper start, and a fixed-frame printer is faster when you print the same product over and over.
You mostly need PLA and PETG
PLA is the easiest filament to print. It comes in the most colours, barely smells and holds fine detail. PETG is tougher, takes more heat and survives outdoors. PLA starts to go soft at about 60 °C, and PETG at about 80 °C. Between them they cover nearly everything a hobbyist or small shop makes, including everything MeshPit's tools design:
| Filament | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| Lithophanes | White PLA | Pure white PLA shows the most tones when lit. Use LEDs behind it, because a hot bulb softens PLA. |
| Name light boxes | White PLA for the letters and front, any PLA for the walls and lid | The white parts have to let light through. The light is an LED strip, so the box never gets hot. |
| Cake toppers | PLA | Prints crisp letters and stiff stakes. Treat a topper as a decoration, and wrap the stakes in food wrap before they go into the cake. |
| Project boxes | PLA indoors, PETG in a car, in the sun or near warm electronics | PETG takes more heat and bends instead of cracking, which suits snap-fit lids and screw bosses. |
| Hooks, clips, brackets and holders | PETG | These carry weight and flex every day. PETG is tougher than PLA and holds up in a bathroom or outdoors. |
The Cake Topper Maker and Mounts, which design toppers and hooks, clips and brackets, are in MeshPit Desktop.
Because both print on an open printer, you don't need an enclosure, a hotter nozzle or a heated chamber. Those matter for ABS, ASA, nylon and carbon-filled filaments, which most home prints never need. If you want flexible parts such as phone cases or bumpers later, TPU prints best on a printer whose extruder sits on the print head, called direct drive.
What to look for in the printer
- Automatic bed levelling. The printer measures the bed before each print, which saves the most common cause of failed first layers.
- A removable, flexible steel plate. Flex it and the print pops off. A textured plate suits PETG, which can stick too hard to a smooth one.
- A nozzle that reaches 250 °C and a bed that reaches 80 °C. That covers PETG with room to spare. Nearly every current printer meets it.
- A 0.4 mm nozzle. It's the standard size, and the defaults in MeshPit's tools, such as the Light Box Maker's wall widths, are set for it.
- A filament runout sensor. It pauses the print when the spool runs out, instead of finishing a long print with nothing coming out.
- Support in OrcaSlicer or Bambu Studio. The Light Box Maker exports a multi-colour 3MF that opens in both, and they include profiles for most printers.
Do you need a multi-colour printer?
No. A multi-colour printer changes filament for you, and that saves time if you sell many two-colour products. But a single-colour printer can make the same things. A name light prints as separate pieces, so the letters print in white and the lid in your box colour. The box itself needs one filament change at a set height, which any slicer can add as a pause. The name light box guide shows where.
If you sell what you print
- Reliability matters more than top speed. A printer that finishes ten prints in a row without help makes more money than one that is faster but fails one in five.
- Stick to a few filaments you know. Printing the same PLA and PETG every day gives you settings that work and a stock that's easy to keep.
- Check the licence of any model you download before you sell prints of it. Many free models don't allow commercial use.
- Downloaded models sometimes won't slice. Run them through Mesh Repair first, which is free and runs in your browser.
- Keep your files where you can find them. The free MeshPit Desktop library shows every STL, 3MF and STEP file on your computer with a thumbnail, so you can find a product's file when it sells again.
Your first prints
Once the printer is set up, these guides take you from a blank screen to a finished print:
- How to make a lithophane from a photo, free and in white PLA.
- How to make a name light box, a popular gift and shop product.
- How to design a project box for electronics.
- How to repair an STL file that won't slice.
Questions
What size 3D printer do I need?
A bed of about 180 × 180 mm prints most gifts, decor and small-shop products, including a 100 mm lithophane, a name light with 40 mm letters and a project box for an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. A bed of about 250 mm adds long names and larger signs. Anything bigger can usually print in parts and be glued together.
Should I use PLA or PETG?
Use PLA for anything that stays indoors and out of the sun: lithophanes, name lights, cake toppers, decor and most project boxes. It is the easiest filament to print. Use PETG for parts that get warm, go outside, carry weight or bend, such as hooks, clips, brackets and a box that lives in a car. PLA starts to go soft at about 60 °C and PETG at about 80 °C.
Do I need an enclosed 3D printer?
Not for PLA or PETG. Both print well on an open printer, and PLA prints better with the lid of an enclosure open. An enclosure matters for ABS, ASA and nylon, which warp and crack as they cool in a draught.
Should a beginner buy a resin printer or a filament printer?
A filament printer. Resin prints finer detail, which suits miniatures and jewellery, but every print has to be washed and cured, the liquid resin needs gloves and ventilation, and the parts are more brittle. A filament printer prints PLA and PETG straight off the bed.
Can I run an Etsy shop with one small 3D printer?
Yes, to start. Most products that sell well, such as name lights, lithophanes, cake toppers and organisers, fit a small bed. When orders outgrow it, a second printer of the same model doubles your output and keeps you selling while one is down, which one large printer can't do.