It’s certainly cheap, but a couple of things jump out that would make me think twice:

  • 0.7mm nozzle. They tout this as a positive as it makes the printing fast, but the down side they don’t mention is that the flip side is resolution. It means you can’t print a line less than 0.7mm wide.
  • Very small bed size. The max size you can print is 80×80×80. I think this would be pretty limiting. For comparison a 200×200×200 print size is not unusual. You might think you never print anything big, but once you have one you start seeing opportunities. The lamp shades in the hall and kitchen are 3D printed. This easily lets you have a very modern look for pennies.
  • It looks like it’s exclusively app controlled to work. This concerns me, especially for a new company. Without maintenance an app vanishes, and then you’re left with a useless piece of hardware. Apps also cost money to maintain, and at some point they will come looking for revenue. Perhaps a charge, or they discontinue support. It’s a fact of life that if you own something app controlled or that relies on the cloud it has a definite shelf life.
  • A lot of 3D printers go onto crowd funding sites and don’t make it

That doesn’t mean it would suit a particular persons use case, and it’s certainly cheap, but I’d make sure I was comfortable with those limitations.

At the minute the sweet spot for a ‘cheap’ printer is about £200 (such as the Creality Ender 3), that’s what I’ve got. In reality if you get into printing, you’ll spend far more on filament than £200 in a year. But I agree 80 × 80 × 80 is pretty limiting. I’ve seen some very good small printers with a 120 × 120 × 120 volume and that would probably suit 80% on my printing, but every now and again I find myself wanting larger than the 220 × 220 × 250 I have at the moment.

I use a dosing funnel designed to fit my eureka zenith 65e grinder, it’s a simple thing but does save a lot on spillage, and by a lot I don’t really mean so much the amount of coffee but the time and hassle of keep cleaning it up. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4773071

@SiblingChris I’m still trying to find the perfect funnel for my Niche. I have several that are close but no cigar. I think the answer is to design my own but I’m not there yet as far as Fusion 360 goes and Tinkercad might not have the capability. I’m not sure yet, though, as I’m still learning my way around.

    Thanks @SiblingChris. I haven’t seen a few of those. Others I’ve tried. I use a Decent portafilter holder and it throws most funnels off. I’ll give a few of the ones I haven’t tried a whirl.

    19 days later

    I got sick of my WDT tool and niche brush cluttering up the top of my espresso machine.

    10mins of design, and then 4 hours of printing and I came up with the following.

    It’s basically just two tubes of the correct size and a small lip so that it can hang of the side of my machine.

    You can see it on the back left. I’ve also taken to hanging my dosing ring on the side too.

      I was looking at getting a 3d printer but wondered how hard it would be to learn and what I would make if I could work it all out So I looked at some sites and found some of the things people make looked really useful. Maybe we should have a section just for 3d printing especially coffee related tools and accessories. Getting one is still on my list, and convincing the wife how useful one would be and how all gadgets I could make which would make her life so much easier.

        hornbyben Very clever. I’m going to look at doing something like it. Thanks for the idea!

          Meldrew There is a learning curve but it’s all so much fun and folks on most forums are very helpful. My big thing was which printer to buy.

            dutchy101 I’d be more than happy to share the file if you have (or have access to) a 3D printer. Drop me an email and I can send it over.

            Meldrew I find my 3D printer really useful, but unless you just want to print trinkets off the internet I think it’s essential to learn CAD. Being able to design something for just your need is what really makes it useful.

            If you’re interested you could have a go at learning CAD and then once you’ve gained the skills get a printer. I use OpenSCAD (http://openscad.org/). It’s completely free and runs on Linux, windows or Mac. There’s a bit of a learning curve, as you program the model. This makes it really precise though, and very efficient as you can reuse code. You can also load in libraries of other code. Don’t just install it and try to figure it out though, as that would be very frustrating. Instead follow the tutorial in the documentation and you’ll have the basics in no time (https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_Tutorial).

            To give you a feel of what it took to design the holder I did the following.

            • model the tools
              • The WDT tool was just cylinder of the right diameter and height
              • The brush was a cylinder of the right height and diameter joined to a truncated cone to flare out the end for the brush (in Openscad this is just a cylinder where you specify two diameters, one for the top circle and one for the bottom). This was then moved across a bit so they are side by side.
            • Create the holder
              • This was just two cylinders a few mm larger than the largest of the tools. There is a function (called hull) that joins objects together.
              • Add the lip that hooks over the edge. This is just two cuboids.
            • Remove the model of the tools from the holder
              • This is done with a function called difference. It removes one object from another.

                  hornbyben Thanks for the info, It’s just getting the old grey matter into gear. I will take a look at the software and see how I get on. I hope to get a new Mac soon.

                      hornbyben I’d be more than happy to share the file if you have (or have access to) a 3D printer. Drop me an email and I can send it over.

                      Yes please mate. I’ve got one at work and i need a sheath / something for my wdt tool to sit in. This looks perfect. Will drop you an email now - thanks

                        5 days later

                        I love the idea of printing my own accessories. Any recommendations on which printer to go for?

                        Large bed, small nozzle, any other major factors to consider?

                          I have a 3d printed pf holder on the wall. Keeps things tidy

                          Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

                            BaggaZee I’m still using the same printer I bought 8 years ago, so can’t recommend any specific models, but here are some things to consider:

                            • Print volume
                              • Don’t go too small. Mine’s 20×20×20cm and I wouldn’t want much smaller. While most things aren’t massive, larger objects can be useful. Some examples I’ve printed are: lampshades, chimney cover, beer fridge drip tray, nespresso capsule holder (don’t judge me 🤣). Even the niche brush holder I shared above isn’t that far under 20cm
                            • Think about the materials
                              • I only print with PLA, as it’s renewal, biodegradable (eventually), and doesn’t give off any nasty fumes when printing. This is the standard material. You might want to think about others though depending on what you want to do with it.
                            • Watch out for proprietary lock in or planned obsolescence
                              • A friend of mine got a printer at a “really good” price. The only issue was you could only use their filament as they had nfc chips on. The manufacturer positioned it as “works seamlessly”, “the printer knows the settings” etc. In reality it meant you had less choice and overpaid. Plus if the company goes bust or decides not to support that model your printer is useless.
                              • If the only way to use it is via an app or cloud website then at some point the manufacturer will need to charge you a fee, or will stop supporting. App maintenance and cloud computing cost money, and it’s simple economics that they won’t support for ever.
                              • I’d take a good luck at the reprap printers. These are all open source, and designed to be made out of 3D printed parts. This means that you can upgrade or repair parts easily. One of the brackets on mine broke. It was in a place where I could hold it together with a cable tie and print a replacement.
                            • learn to CAD model
                              • It’s already been mentioned on this thread, but being able to model is key to getting the most out of a 3D printer. It opens up precise, cost effective and bespoke solutions for your needs. I have a leaning towards open source, and can definitely recommend OpenSCAD, but their are others.

                            Good luck

                                DavecUK it’s definitely a potential disrupter in the construction industry.

                                House building is one of the few things left that is completely hand built rather than mass produced. 3D printing could make house building much cheaper. Even more exciting is the shapes possible. Curved shapes are much stronger, as corners are weak points. This is likely to become even more important in many parts of the world as climate change causes stronger and more frequent storms.