In my previous post, I mentioned 3d printing as my most exciting project/hobby in 2026. I wanted to walk through in a bit more detail how it all broke down on day 1 and what was the first thing I printed. As I mentioned, I live in a small apartment and of course, space is a premium. The other issue is that this machine isn’t a small thing and it makes noise, shakes, and is generally something that needs to sit on something a little sturdy. I watched a ton of YouTube videos regarding 3d printing and noticed that the majority of the folks I watched put their printers on workshop shelves so I hit up my local Home Depot and bought one. It was already late in the afternoon and by the time I put the shelf together it was a bit late so I decided to wait until the next day to set things up. Unfortunately, I also work a part time job on the weekend and I worked the next day as well. It wouldn’t be until the afternoon when I got to it. So there it sat, on the newly built shelf.
The Bambu A1 with AMS Lite
Sitting patiently waiting to be set up
Filament!
The next day I was restless at work as I anticipated getting home, setting things up, and printing out my first 3d thing! After an excruciatingly long 8 hour shift, and another 45 minute drive home, I finally got to putting it together. The instructions were pretty simple, and there weren’t any real gotchas. Everything was set up and ready to go in a bit over an hour. Let’s do this!
With all the research I did, one thing that I had to really put some thought into was what I was going to print first. Most people print this test print of a boat called benchy, and I thought about doing that as well. But I also thought, what am I gonna do with it once I’m done? Just put it in a drawer and forget about it? No. I wanted something memorable. Something that I would always look at and remember fondly that it was my first. So I did the most memorable (and probably most people would also think) nerdy thing possible: I printed out a poop bin. Yes, it’s called a poop bin. And no, it’s not for actual poop. These printers constantly flush out unused melted filament, especially when you print out multi-colored things. That unused melted filament is what is affectionately known as poop. And the mechanism to remove this poop from the printer is a little metal plate that launches the poop away from the printer so it doesn’t get into the print. It’s actually hilarious to watch the first few times. But having all this stuff all over the floor isn’t too fun. So I printed out a poop bin.
It was actually three parts, so I guess technically the first thing I printed was the Poop stopper. Essentially when the A1 launches the poop, this stopper is there to stop it from launching away and instead forces it to drop straight down into the poop bin. The poop net catches the poop and since you can remove it, you can twist it just in case some still melted poop falls and sticks to the net. Otherwise, you’d have to scrape it off of the bin which is a little tough. Then there’s the self explanatory poop bin. Soooooo… not the story I would exactly share to others to get them excited about 3d printing. But I do look at that bin every time I print something and remember that was the first thing ever. It started it all and continues to help grow my interest.
It’s only been a few days, but I can assure you that isn’t the only thing I’ve printed. First non poop bin print was a little cute lucky cat for my wife. It was a lot smaller than the pictures showed so she wanted something else. She ended up finding a horse figurine that she wanted for the year of the horse (she’s into all this astrology stuff) so I obliged. I also ended up printing a desk organizer which I’ve been hunting for the past few months. Those things are hard to come by nowadays, and this one had almost every element I wanted in one small package. Hopefully I’ll have more cool things to show off in the future. If you’re into 3d printing, what have you printed? #3dprinting
