A 3D scanner is an amazing tool to add to your 3D printing workflow, allowing you to scan real-life objects to import into sculpting or CAD software, then print out your own modified copies on a 3D printer. In the past, a good scanner cost thousands of dollars, but Creality has finally given us a device within reach of hobby-level consumers. The Creality Pika is easy to use, with the look, feel, and size of a point-and-shoot digital camera. It can wirelessly tether to a mobile phone running a Creality scanning app, which makes scanning on the go easier than ever before.

It can also be tethered to a laptop wirelessly or with a cable for more stable scanning, but marker-free laser scanning can only be performed while physically tethered to a computer. The scanner runs on AA-sized rechargeable batteries, which are provided.

It weighs just 260 grams (just slightly over a half-pound) with the batteries installed, reducing arm fatigue when operating without a tripod. A tabletop tripod and manual turntable are included for scanning small items. While not as precise as Creality’s Sermoon series, the Creality Pika, currently on pre-order for $699, is a fraction of the price. The best part is that both use the same software, Creality Scan, which is excellent.

The Creality Pika’s portability and price make this one of the best scanners we’ve reviewed in 2026.

Specifications: Creality Pika

Included in the Box: Creality Pika

The Creality Pika comes with a very nice tripod. Also included are the glass calibration board, a manual turntable, marking blocks, batteries (including a spare), a generous pack of marking dots, and a mostly useless quick start guide. The Quick Start guide is just a packing list in eleven different languages and QR codes to Creality’s website and Facebook community.

Design of the Creality Pika

The Creality Pika is a small handheld scanner that weighs only 260 g with its battery. It has a 3-inch touch screen on the back that shows the scan in progress while paired to a phone or PC on Wi-Fi, or allows exposure and zoom adjustments when scanning via cord. There are two buttons on the top of the scanner for power and start/stop, and a selector switch for USB or Wi-Fi.

The scanner has a play button to start and stop scans, as well as a button to adjust the lights and a toggle for zoom. The front of the scanner has an RGB camera, two 3D scanning cameras, a DOE projector, a parallel-line laser, four blue and white fill lights, and four infrared fill lights. There is an always-on cooling fan with grills on the top and bottom of the scanner. Two batteries are included, which can be charged in the camera or via a USB-C port located near the top of the battery.

The batteries, curiously, have both positive and negative terminals on top of the battery. Care should be taken when carrying these to avoid shorting them together with anything metal in a purse or pocket.

Getting Started and Calibrating the Creality Pika

The Creality Pika uses a glass calibration board to do an initial calibration of the scanner. The calibration process involves holding the scanner above the board at various heights and at various angles. The process takes about ten minutes.

Installing the Software for Creality Pika

Creality Scan app can be downloaded from Creality's website, with versions for PC, Mac, Android, and iPhone. A really good user guide with links to tutorials and troubleshooting help is located on the Creality Scan homepage. The discovery tab has links to items scanned by other Creality users.

The Pika must be tethered by cable or Wi-Fi. Though the Pika does have an onboard 8-core 2.0 GHz CPU, it passes along a big chunk of computer processing to whatever it’s connected to. My iPhone 15 has just enough oomph to power the scanner, so you may have an even better experience with a newer device. Either way, using a wireless connection is slower, and using it with hardware near the minimum requirements can be frustrating.

My old laptop, with only 8GB of RAM, did not work, despite being enough to run previous scanners. Thankfully, my admittedly low-end gaming laptop, with 16GB of RAM, was good enough to run the scanner quite well. The software installed on the computer is used for both scanning and processing.

Creality Scan can export scans as STL, PLY, OBJ, or ASC files. These files can be tidied up in other modeling software or uploaded directly to your 3D printer’s slicer.

Blue Laser Line 3D Scanning with the Creality Pika

The Creality Pika uses blue laser line scanning for detailed geometry capture, with seven parallel laser lines. The provided manual turntable works well when plastered with a bunch of the included marker dots. Unfortunately, it has a few millimeters of play in the center bearing, which can lead to a rough surface texture if not careful.

The photo above shows the raw scan of a copy of Michelangelo’s David. I did get much better scans later, but even this one is easily made usable in the software. The first step is fusing the model, which allows you to remove the marker dots and noise from the scan.

After fusing, the model is much smoother. There are still some unattached pieces and holes, and the bottom of the model is not flat. The lasso tool can select and remove the unattached pieces, and a clipping plane can be generated by choosing markers surrounding the scan. The plane can then be raised or lowered to give you the best base of the model.

The next step is mesh processing of the model. In this step, you can further smooth the model, simplify it, and fill small holes shown in yellow. Don’t select “make watertight” if you have a large hole (like the bottom of a model), as it will cover the holes by ballooning out a good bit. After running the mesh processing, you will have another opportunity to simplify, smooth, and fill holes.

Use Plane type hole filling for large flat surfaces.

The final model: filled, smoothed, simplified, and ready to export for printing.

This bust of David came with an early Creality scanner, so I’ve been using it as a test model for some time now. This may be the best scan I’ve gotten of it. The main reason is that the Creality Pika is small and lightweight, and tracks well enough to scan the underside of David’s hair and chin for the most part. The software’s hole filling and smoothing did the rest, with phenomenal results.

The above image on the right was printed on the Prusa Core One L with Inland Bone White PLA. The model looks nearly perfect.

Since the Pika did so well with David, I decided to try a smaller model. This little guy (below) came with my kid’s Fisher-Price castle. He’s only 62 mm tall and was just too small to paint for 3D printing. He was also printed in Inland bone white on the Prusa Core One L.

Both the print and scan are nicely detailed.

I swiped my husband’s vintage Saint Louis University Billiken bobblehead for more tests. I had to put some sticky tack on his head to keep it steady on the turntable. Creality Scan did a terrific job smoothing out the wrinkles, and the model is perfect. I used the clipping plane to remove the logo of an old wireless company that provided the game day freebie. I gave it a quick coloring job in PrusaSlicer, but skipped doing the face.

The model was printed on the Prusa XL using Anycubic turquoise and orange PLA, with Creality white and black PLA.

NIR 3D Scanning with the Creality Pika

I spent a ton of time putting random dots on the included turntable, which made Blue light scanning a breeze. NIR 3D scanning doesn’t use them. Scanning a person seems to work well until you get hair involved. Then it gets dodgy.

I ran two good scans using NIR. This time I borrowed my husband to operate the scanner, since scanning yourself is a bit more difficult than taking a selfie. I stitched together two scans of my foot, which I’ll use later to size some TPU shoes. I was able to further clean up the scan in Nomad Sculpt, since the scan wasn’t very flattering. It works quite well for sizing, however. The shoes will turn up in a future printer review.

After the less-than-stellar scan he took of my head for the Creality Sermoon S1, my husband graciously volunteered to have me scan his head for this review. Using any of the modes available, hair just seems to flummox the scanner. Fortunately, my husband has less hair than I do, so the scan did complete, and no, I’m not going to 3D print it. 3D scans are quite brutal, but if he ever wants a custom driver for his Death Racer, we’re covered.

Bottom Line

The Creality Pika is a small and light, yet totally capable scanner. It needs a good mobile phone or fairly decent laptop to drive it. The software backing up the hardware is easy to use and really does an excellent job cleaning up the rough areas of your scans. Currently, it is available at a comparatively bargain-basement pre-order price of $699.

If you want a scanner with a little more horsepower, check out the Creality Sermoon S1, which retails for $2,069. Creality also makes the Sermoon P1, which can run completely untethered and retails for $3,299.

California is taking another swing at banning 3D-printed “ghost guns,” and this time the target is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of 3D printing filament. Polymaker LLC, headquartered in Shanghai with U.S. operations based in Houston, was named in a civil lawsuit filed October 5, 2026, by San Diego County Counsel on behalf of the People of the State of California. The complaint alleges that Polymaker marketed its filament in such a way as to appeal to gun enthusiasts and thus transform harmless PLA into a regulated “firearm precursor part.”

Under California law, a firearm precursor part is “defined to include any article marketed or sold to the public to become or be used as the frame or receiver of a functional firearm once completed, assembled or converted,” according to the civil complaint filed in San Diego County Superior Court. The County seeks disgorgement of profits, civil penalties and injunctive relief.

The complaint acknowledges that 3D printing filament itself is not illegal. But prosecutors argue that Polymaker actively cultivated and monetized the “ghost gun” community by supporting and then hiring Sean Aranda, who goes by The 3D Print General on social media. Aranda, a 3D printing expert, book author, and gun enthusiast, was banned from YouTube in 2023 over firearm policy violations. His YouTube channel at the time had 123K subs. Polymaker, which had been sponsoring his channel with a special edition creator spool of khaki colored PLA Pro, came to his rescue with a job offer. He became the Head of Customer Experience, which entailed fostering Polymaker’s online community and attending community festivals with the company. He is now a Senior Technical Account Manager for Polymaker.

Aranda is mentioned 65 times in the 39-page People v. Polymaker complaint. The prosecution implies that Aranda was specifically hired for his connection to the 3D printing gun community and not that he was simply a qualified individual searching for a job away from content creation.

The prosecution attempts to link a common marketing tactic used within the online creator community to the illegal proliferation of ghost guns: affiliate links. Affiliate links are used by content creators to promote the products they use, be it spools of PLA, energy drinks, or dog food. When an audience member clicks a link and makes a purchase, the content creator is awarded a small percentage of the sale.

Polymaker supports all manner of 3D printing content creators, and the application for affiliate links is publicly posted on its website. The application asks for your name, location, and number of followers on assorted platforms. It does not ask what type of content you create or how big your audience might be. “Whether you run a YouTube channel, a TikTok account, or a niche 3D printing blog, you're welcome here. If you love Polymaker, you qualify.”

The lawsuit is presented by San Diego County’s new Consumer Fairness and Public Protection Division. If it prevails, the ramifications will extend far beyond 3D-printed firearms. If a manufacturer in Texas can be held civilly liable in California because a YouTuber used that product to do something that is not against the law in their home state, every raw material supplier, software developer, and desktop hardware manufacturer operating in the digital age could find itself in the crosshairs.

Amazon's Big Deal Days 2026 event is here, and so are the savings on our favorite 3D printers. We've sifted through Amazon to find the best bargains you can get on brands like Bambu Lab, Prusa Research, Snapmaker, Anycubic, and Elegoo. These prices won’t last long, so you'll need to act quickly.

There are plenty of great deals on FDM and resin 3D printers, including machines you’ll find on our list of best 3D printers. We're also rounding up deals on filament and resin, so you can stock up now.

Bambu Lab A1 Mini

Bambu Lab A1 Mini: $249 at Amazon

The Bambu Lab A1 Mini is our favorite beginner printer for kids and teens because it is easy to use, super affordable, and doesn’t take up a lot of space. Right now, you can get the A1 Mini Combo for $315.50, or get a single-color A1 Mini for $249. The single-color machine comes with a bonus LED lamp kit, so you can make cool projects right away with the help of free files from MakerWorld, Bambu’s file-sharing site.

Original Prusa MK4S

Original Prusa MK4S: $1,299 at Amazon

The Prusa Research MK4S, the old-school workhorse of the Prusa lineup, is $1,299. This machine comes fully assembled and ships from Prusa’s US Amazon warehouse in Delaware for free with your Prime Membership.

Original Prusa Core One

Original Prusa Core One: $1,499 at Amazon

The Prusa Research Core One is our favorite premium 3D printer and comes fully assembled and pre-tested for the best out-of-the-box experience. Prusa 3D printers are built to last a lifetime, with updates for years to come, and can be easily repaired or modded with the help of open-source parts. This machine ships for free from Prusa’s US Amazon warehouse in Delaware.

Original Prusa CORE One L

Original Prusa Core One L: $2,399 at Amazon

The Prusa Research Core One L is a beast of a machine, with a 300 x 300 mm build plate and high marks for secure, cloud-free printing. Prusa’s US Amazon warehouse is located in Delaware, so these Prime Big Deal machines are in stock and ready to ship for free with your Prime Membership.

Snapmaker U1

Snapmaker U1: $849 at Amazon

Ranked the best multicolor 3D printer, the Snapmaker U1 is our favorite four-color tool changer. Snapmaker is leading the way on Full Spectrum printing, a way to squeeze a whole rainbow of color from only four spools. An optional lid makes this an all-temperature powerhouse.

Anycubic Kobra X

Anycubic Kobra X: was $359.99, now $299.99 at Amazon

The Kobra X is a terrific four-color 3D printer, and our pick for the best budget machine. This machine is a real steal with a price tag under $300 and would make a great gift to stash away for the holidays.

Creality SPARKX i7 Combo

Creality SPARKX i7 Combo: was $429, now $359 at Amazon

Ranked the best 3D printer for beginners, the SparkX i7 is a four-color bed slinger with an automatic material handler that can load any spool, from tiny coils up to 3kg spools.

Elegoo Centauri 2

Elegoo Centauri 2: $279 at Amazon

The bare-bones Centauri 2 does an excellent job of printing in four colors of PLA, PETG, or TPU. Coming in well under $300, this is a great machine for testing the waters of 3D printing with a full-sized 256 x 256 mm build plate.

FlashForge Creator 5

FlashForge Creator 5: was $839, now $699 at Amazon

The FlashForge Creator 5 is a no-nonsense four-color tool changer with great quality. It can handle PLA, PETG, and TPU, but can’t be upgraded to an enclosed machine for high-temperature filaments.

More Prime Day Tech Deals

Best Tech and PC deals | Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM combo deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals | Best GPU deals | Best SSD deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best CPU deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best PC building tool deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best filament and resin deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best USB charger deals | Best gaming and productivity laptop deals under $1,000 | Best laptop PC deals

Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

Bambu Lab has swung for the fences with its second go at making a laser cutter, and this time, it knocked it out of the park. The Bambu Lab R1 is a standalone, 55W CO2 laser with a roomy 600 x 300 mm work area, a bird’s eye camera for remote positioning, and a well-designed software suite. Priced at $2,499, the laser is a steal compared to other CO2 lasers of the same size and caliber.

You might recall the company’s first laser, a 40w diode packaged inside the H2D, was met with skepticism. Though the company pitched the H2D as the ultimate mini manufacturing machine for makers, many people felt a laser was too dirty to house in the same box as an expensive Core XY printer. Bambu must be listening, because they took everything that was good about the H2D’s diode system and gave it a standalone case with a massive CO2 laser.

The R1 has the same simple unboxing and setup experience as a Bambu Lab printer, making it easy to get started without a ton of prior experience. The only thing it is currently lacking is a more comprehensive set of material presets. Bambu Suite really shines in a market where good hardware is often let down by bad software.

While the Bambu Lab R1 is not a small machine, it does have a smaller footprint than other lasers with a similar work area. It requires a stout work table – and two people to cart it into position – as the machine is over 70 pounds. In its base configuration the R1 has a work area of 600mm x 300mm. With the optional conveyor and riser base, that 300mm can be extended to 3000mm, or 9.8 feet. Of course, you’ll need a lot of space in front of and behind the machine to pull that off. Bambu Lab did a wonderful job putting all of the controls and frequently used ports near the front of the R1 since you won’t want to move it much unless you are lasering something large.

The only flaw I found was the need to manually change focus lenses to cut thicker material. The process to change lenses is tedious, with six screws needing to be removed and replaced with the new lens. The two screws for the toolhead cover are ridiculously small. This process is reminiscent of the early Bambu Lab printer nozzles that required the heater and thermistor to be detached, then reinstalled with thermal paste. Hopefully Bambu Lab will come up with a quick-release lens at some point in the future.

Specifications: Bambu Lab R1

Bambu Lab R1: Included in the Box

The Bambu Lab R1 arrives fully assembled with its accessory pack bundled inside the laser enclosure. Accessories include a tool kit, exhaust hose, ventilation fan, antifreeze, funnel, laser alignment sensor, calibration board, and a material pack of basswood plywood and clear acrylic. You will need to supply 1500ml of distilled water to dilute the antifreeze. For the review, we also received the medium and long focus lenses, the conveyor and the riser needed for its use, the auto fire extinguishing system, and a smoke purifier.

Design of the Bambu Lab R1

The Bambu Lab R1 is a beast of a machine, but a well-thought-out one. It’s more compact than other CO2 lasers with the same working area, despite this, weighing over 70lbs. It’s not an easy machine to move. Bambu Lab put all of the controls, ports, and the safety key thoughtfully within easy reach at the front of the machine. The color touchscreen and start button are on top of the machine.

The automatic fire extinguisher ports, USB-C, and safety key are located on the left side of the laser.

The emergency stop button is located on the right side of the laser.

Only the power switch, the exhaust fan, and the coolant filling point are located on the rear of the unit.

Unlike most other lasers, a CO2 laser has a large, glass, liquid-cooled laser tube at the rear of the unit. Antifreeze is mixed with distilled water for the coolant to prevent the glass tube from freezing should it be kept in a garage, basement or even if you lose power in your house during the winter.

The laser fires a beam which is directed to the tool head with mirrors.

On some lasers, calibrating these mirrors can be a chore. Bambu Lab developed a laser alignment sensor, which clips to the toolhead and allows the laser to align the mirrors itself in just about a minute.

The Bambu Lab R1 has an excellent positioning system. There is a bird's eye camera on the lid of the laser, which requires that the lid be up when measuring. This takes a little getting used to since I reflexively shut the lid of a laser when I walk away from it. There is a camera mounted on the toolhead as well as a distance-measuring laser, instead of a clunky mechanical probe. The R1 tracks the toolhead position with XY encoders. The system worked great out of the box with no camera calibration needed. The camera is listed as having a .2mm positioning accuracy.

The Bambu Lab R1 is rated to cut up to 18mm wood and 20mm acrylic but doing so requires changing the focus lens in the tool head and then doing a five minute vision accuracy calibration. To change lenses, you need to remove two extremely tiny 1.5mm screws from the toolhead cover and four screws from the focus lens. It would be nice if they could develop a quick release for the lens, since as it is, this is not a process I’d want to have to do frequently.

A built-in air assist works to keep charring down and keep the laser lens clear. It is not adjustable, being either on or off, and it's powerful enough to move lightweight objects if they are not stuck down.

Given its size, the R1 is not likely to be used anywhere other than a shop or workroom, which is great because this thing is loud. The cooling fans in the laser don’t ever stop, and they are pretty loud on their own. When the laser is activated, it sounds like a jet engine spooling up. Between the noise of the laser and the air purification, it’s the loudest laser I’ve reviewed.

Assembling the Bambu Lab R1

The Bambu Lab R1 is fully assembled out of the box. Setup requires removing the accessory box, removing a cage around the tool head, and removing two stops holding the XY carriage in place for shipping. At initial power up the printer walks you through these steps from the touch screen.

There is a short calibration routine that automatically calibrates the laser’s mirrors by clipping the laser alignment sensor to the toolhead. In no time at all, you are ready to go.

The riser base comes in four large assemblies that are screwed together. You need to remove the base plate from the laser before setting it atop the riser. A data cable runs from the laser to the riser base, and requires deft hands to attach. Rubber feet on the bottom of the main laser unit hold it the correct position

The laser is cooled with a mixture of distilled water and antifreeze, which is poured into the rear of the laser with an included funnel. Pay close attention to the instruction booklet when adding coolant. The instructions call for “preparing” 1500ml of distilled water, then adding antifreeze to an indicated level on the rear sight window. But what it means is to pour in the antifreeze, then add as much of the 1500ml of water as needed to hit the correct level. Getting this backward makes a bit of a mess. After mopping up, I added the correct amount of water and coolant to the laser. The coolant must be topped off after turning the laser on, so don’t move the laser into a position where you cannot access the coolant port until you do this.

Safety Precautions for the Bambu Lab R1

The Bambu Lab R1 is a fully enclosed and safe Class 1 laser by itself. When running with the riser base and conveyor, it moves to a Class 4 laser. Operating a Class 4 laser requires laser-safe glasses that are not provided with the laser. I was not able to see any leakage of laser light through the riser base, but it is unavoidable when running with the conveyor. Laser light can cause severe damage to eyes and skin, and care should be taken to keep small children and pets away while the laser is in use.

The R1 has a number of built-in safety features. There is an equipment key preinstalled on the left side of the laser. When not in use this key can be pulled to prevent unauthorized access. The laser will not operate with the enclosure’s lid up and will quickly pause the job if the lid is raised while in use. If there is a problem with the job, the machine can be stopped from the touch screen, and for major problems, there is a red kill switch on the right side of the machine, which will quickly cut power to the machine completely. The laser has flame sensors which will stop the job if they detect any issues. Bambu Lab provided its optional auto fire-extinguishing system for the review. This unit has a replaceable gas canister and plugs into the left side of the laser.

Even with a good air purifier, some materials should not be burned with a laser due to their chemical makeup. Dallas Maker Space has published a list of safe and hazardous materials to use with their laser. The list of no-nos includes some plastics like PVC, fiberglass, and certain types of foams.

Software for the Bambu Lab R1

Bambu Suite was developed to run the lasers on the H series and also handle the cutting function on H2 and A2 printers. It might be the easiest to use laser software I’ve seen. The laser is connected to Wi-Fi from the touchscreen, and Bambu Suite connects to it just like a 3D printer. You import whatever you want to cut or engrave, choose the process type, hit Prepare, then select Measure, line up your art with the material, and pick the material you are using. Finally, you press Make and off it goes.

The only thing that the software doesn’t have is a large list of default materials. The basics are there, but hopefully more will be added over time. As it is, a number of the projects I did required internet searches and guesswork to find material settings that worked.

Makerworld is accessible directly from Bambu Suite, and it has an expanding group of shared laser projects to help you get started.

Engraving / Cutting with the Bambu Lab R1

For the first job, we used the test file from Bambu Lab that includes line drawing, engraving, and cutting on 3 mm basswood plywood. The test file did not list the settings, but the overall job took under two minutes to complete and looks really good. The cuts show much less charring than you would see on a diode laser.

Next, I tried a really intricate butterfly decoration from PabloLab on Makerworld.com. Using the default material settings for 3mm basswood, 75% power at 30 mm/s, the cut was perfect. The butterfly and the interior cuts dropped out of the material with no weeding needed. I should point out I broke off one of her antennae in handling.

The Bambu Lab R1 is rated to cut up to 18mm black walnut and 20mm acrylic, but the thicker wood requires the optional medium or long focus lenses. I tested cutting on a piece of pine lumber that is 19.5mm thick but is much softer than black walnut. There was no material default for anything thicker than 3mm. The cut on the left used the long focus lens and did the best cut at the lowest power, using 80% power at 10mm/s and 4 passes. The cut in the middle used the medium focus lens at 85% power at 5 mm/s and required 5 passes. The short focus lens really did not totally punch through the bottom of the material. The cuts are charred due to using 100% power at 4 mm/s through multiple tries.

For cutting out stickers out of sheets of sticker paper, we used the material preset for 200g kraft paper, 45% power at 250mm/s. The cuts were perfect and only took a few seconds. With a jig mounted on the cutting plate, the results are repeatable page after page.

There was no material preset for PETG so with a little trial and error we stepped that down to 65% power at 35mm/s for 2mm PETG and 20% power at 20mm/s for 1mm PETG. With air assist, the results were terrific, with just a very little smoke cloudiness at the edges of the PETG cuts. At these speeds, the cuts all took less than a minute.

Where most lasers just pass right through clear materials, CO2 lasers run at a high enough frequency to cut and engrave them. Using the shape library in Bambu Suite for the designs, we cut a bunch of blanks for use with our UV printer out of clear PETG sheets and clear acrylic. The material settings in Bambu Suite were perfect for 3mm clear acrylic at 80% power at 10mm/s speed.

CO2 lasers can also engrave glass with no masking needed, though a thin smear of liquid soap is suggested to keep chipping down. There was no material preset for glass, so a quick internet search led to settings from a competitor’s 55-watt CO2 laser. Using 30% power and 250mm/s, with air assist on, the engraving took just seconds and looks excellent.

CO2 lasers can’t cut metal, but they do a good job engraving coated metal. The Bambu lab R1has a curved surface machining mode for curved surfaces like this flask and tumblers. The auto measure function creates a 3D map of the material’s surface and shows the engravable area. Using the settings for aluminum business cards, 70% power at 400mm/s, the job took less than a minute and looks sharp and clear.

Bottom Line

The Bambu Lab R1 is an impressive step into the laser market. Good hardware with even better software makes the R1 an excellent choice for makers and small businesses needing an easy-to-use CO2 laser. It’s simple enough for a beginner to use, leaving you with more time to focus on making art, not fussing over settings.

Retailing at $2,499, the R1 is more expensive than a hobby-level diode, but a downright bargain compared to the competition. If you’re serious about making cool things or running a small business, the price is worth it.

By combining a 55W CO2, a generous 600 x 300 mm work area, and automated mirror calibration, it delivers high-grade cutting performance through wood, acrylic, and glass with minimal charring. While the manual lens swap process is a minor hassle and the operational noise requires a dedicated workspace or shop environment, its performance outclasses most competitors in its price range.

If you’re not ready to invest in a professional-grade machine, check out the Creality Falcon A1 Pro, a very capable 20W for $1,099. If you’re thinking about engraving glass or handling materials without charring, the xTool F2 Ultra UV is a great “cold” laser that runs for $4,299. If you want to take your laser with you, a portable xTool F1 laser is a heck of a deal at $819.

A Texas jury found Bambu Lab liable for patent infringement in the creation of the X1, P1, and A1 series of 3D printers, and awarded Stratasys, Inc. $27.6 million dollars in damages. The patents in dispute cover prime towers and bed leveling methods used by consumer 3D printers of multiple brands. Bambu Lab has issued a statement to Tom's Hardware about the developments.

Stratasys, Inc., invented FDM 3D printing. Its co-founder Scott Crump held US5121329 filed in 1989, for the "Apparatus and Method for Creating Three-Dimensional Objects. That patent expired in 2009, opening the doors to consumer 3D printing.

No injunctions have been placed on the machines named in the suit, which are all from Bambu Lab’s “first generation” of 3D printers. An anonymous source said Bambu Lab has been working on an alternative to prime towers should the need arise, but that information has not yet been made public.

The X1, Bambu Lab’s first 3D printer, launched in May 2022, was retired earlier this year. The P1S is not officially retired, but was nominally replaced by the P2S in October 2025. The A1 and A1 Mini are still part of Bambu’s active lineup, though a larger A2L was introduced this summer.

The first-gen Bambu Lab machines use single-nozzle filament purging, covered by Stratasys US 9421713 patent. They also rely on specific strain-gauge and force-sensor implementations targeted by Stratasys's US 9168698 patent.

The newer H2 lineup, as well as the X2, are all dual-nozzle machines, which have side-stepped US 9421713. They also employ optical sensors and re-engineered bed probing that avoid the force-detection feedback loops claimed by Stratasys.

We asked the team at Prusa Research if this ongoing patent dispute had any impact on the development of the INDX, a multi-nozzle toolchanger that does not require the use of a prime or purge tower.

“Our motivation was to have minimal waste,” said a Prusa Research rep. “In our eyes, this is a better solution than a prime tower.” The INDX nozzles prime filament by wiping tiny pellets no larger than a grain of rice into a waste cup inside the printer.

A representative from Bambu Lab reached out to Tom’s Hardware with the following statement:

"We appreciate the time and effort of the jury in considering this matter. While we respect the judicial process, we disagree with the verdict reached in this case. The law provides Bambu with the right to seek post-trial review and to appeal, and Bambu intends to avail itself of these legal processes."

Bambu Lab has a sticky situation on its hands, as this ruling only covers US patents, and thus machines sold in the United States. In Europe, the company successfully defended its use of the technology held under similar European patents. This means an X1-Carbon in New York would violate a Stratasys prime tower patent, but the same machine in Germany would not.

In April of this year, the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) The Hague Local Division dismissed Stratasys’ preliminary injunction application against Bambu Lab. The court rejected Stratasys’ attempts to broaden its claims, and Stratasys did not appeal.

The Texas judgement handed down Friday is part of a larger multi-patent dispute. Bambu Lab successfully invalidated patents US 9592660 covering the use of heated build surfaces and flexible spring steel plates. Bambu Lab argued that this is not one singular invention but a combination of designs that were later patented by Stratasys after it acquired Arevo, Inc. These designs were revealed in prior art, making them fair game.

It was also able to defend its use of networked, cloud-connected 3D printing with remote camera monitoring, covered by US 8562324.

Four more patents are still awaiting judgement in Texas. These cover RFID tags on material, remote networking, LiDAR scanning and automatic printer detection. Notably, the LiDAR has only been used on the now defunct X1 Carbon.

Stratasys filed two civil lawsuits in 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Bambu Lab for the alleged infringement of ten different U.S. patents regarding 3D printers. Stratasys was founded in Eden Prairie, MN, and has its North American headquarters there. Bambu Lab, a Chinese company, maintains offices in Austin, TX, which is in the Western Texas District Court. The Eastern District has a reputation for being friendly to patent holders, with U.S. District Judge Alan Albright at one point hearing over 25% of the nation’s patent cases.

The Prusa INDX is a revolutionary new toolchanger capable of printing up to eight colors of various materials. INDX stands for Induction Dynamic Extruder, with each slim toolhead having no moving parts, just a nozzle and filament path. The extruder, or “smart head,” does all the work.

INDX is a collaborative project between Prusa Research and Bondtech. Prusa makes the platform, in this case a CORE One+ Gen 2, while Bondtech produces the toolhead system. The two companies have a long history of working together, going back to 2017’s MK3 bedslinger. The INDX can also be purchased separately on Bondtech’s site as a DIY kit to be mounted on any open-source 3D printer you feel like modding.

There are definite advantages of going with the Prusa INDX. You can buy it ready to roll, premounted on CORE One that’s ready to print ten minutes after removing it from the box. Even purchasing it as a kit from Prusa removes a lot of hassle and headache, as the kit is custom-fitted to CORE One, with all the wiring, programming, and whatnot done for you.

Sorting through the website to figure out what combination of kit and printer you need is the hardest part of the INDX experience. If you already have a CORE One, prices start at $749 for a four-color INDX “conversion” kit. Prusa optimistically says the kit takes 5 to 6 hours to install, but it took me the better part of a weekend to disassemble my machine and rebuild it as an INDX when I tested out the early Founder’s Edition.

The Prusa INDX is the first multicolor 3D printer to ditch the prime tower, making it practically waste-free. While all toolchangers can seriously cut down on wasted material by virtue of having a nozzle for each color, they still need to “prime” the nozzles before printing. This priming creates a tower of wasted material. Prusa has circumvented the prime tower with a new wiper mechanism that quickly shoots out a tiny blob of filament that’s about 13 milligrams in size – smaller than a grain of rice.

In my testing, I found the Prusa INDX was faster and less wasteful than any other toolchanger in the workshop. I ran the same model with similar settings on both the Prusa INDX and the Bambu Lab H2C, the closest machine to a toolchanger that Bambu currently has in production. The INDX was able to run it nearly nine hours faster, with 83.58 grams less wasted material (not counting supports) and 3 more colors.

The CORE One+ INDX starts at $1,699 for a DIY kit with four toolheads and goes up to $2,119 for an assembled 3D printer with eight toolheads, plus a Buddy Cam and Advanced filtration. If you already have the printer, the conversion kit is $749 for four toolheads and $999 for eight. There is no pricing for individual toolheads at the moment, but you can start with four toolheads and later add more. Individual tools are currently $45 on the Bondtech website.

The Prusa CORE One+ INDX lives up to its reputation and is one of the best 3D printers we’ve tested to date.

Specifications

Prusa CORE One+ INDX: Included in the Box

The Prusa CORE One+ INDX we received was pre-assembled and included eight toolheads. It only needed to be unpacked, have its screen mounted, then snap on the spool holders and Bowden tubes. Besides tools, the printer comes with a full spool of Galaxy Black Prusament PLA, a USB Stick, a handbook on 3D printing with your new machine, and a bag of Gummy Bears. The USB stick contains several models, while PrusaSlicer is available for free download from the website.

We also received a Buddy Camera and several boxes of filament to perform the review.

Design of the Prusa CORE One+ INDX

The CORE One+ INDX is a Core XY 3D printer converted into a toolchanger. It has a slim, steel exoskeleton with indents on either side. The right side holds a 3D-printed waste container on the outside for the tiny bits of filament the machine drops from the wiper system inside the chamber. We’re unsure if this mod is a permanent feature or an apology bonus for being unable to deliver fully hardened steel nozzles at launch.

Like the original CORE One, the door and upper parts of the side panels are translucent black polymer. The top panel is now replaced by a “top hat” to give the multitude of Bowden tubes room to work. Since the shell is made of folded steel, it’s not exactly airtight, but so far we haven’t had any trouble printing ASA or ABS in the machine.

The exoskeleton is an interesting concept. It provides a strong, stiff frame for the printer while also minimizing materials and avoiding that cheap plastic feel that plagues many other designs. The indented sides do more than slim down the printer’s silhouette; they reduce the interior space of the printer, allowing the chamber to be sufficiently heated (when needed) by only the heater bed.

Like every other Prusa printer before it, several of the CORE One+ parts are 3D printed with PC Blend Carbon Fiber, though more pieces are moving to in-house injection molding. Most of the machine is manufactured at the main factory in Prague, though printers assembled in the United States will have some parts printed locally in Delaware.

The CORE One+ has a door that can be flipped to open on either side. And thankfully, that door can remain closed at all times thanks to an active cooling system and automatic top vent.

The INDX ditches the Nextruder extruder for the Bondtech induction-heated toolhead. The toolhead looks way too exposed out of necessity, as it picks up the passive nozzles by simply ramming itself onto the rack and grabbing the toolhead with magnets. The motion system is extremely accurate, and I had no problems with it during testing. You can see the copper coils of the induction heating system very plainly.

Unlike the Prusa XL, the toolheads mount on a rack in the front of the chamber. They take up very little space, but you will lose 15 mm of Y and 2 mm of X on the build plate compared to the CORE One+.

The rack does make seeing inside the printer a bit of a challenge, but the optional Buddy Cam has a clear view from the inside.

The wiper is located to the side, on top of the indent. In the Founder’s Edition, the wiper dumped into a small removable cup clamped to the side panel. Our review unit has a hole drilled into it to dump into a large exterior container, which is a huge improvement.

Anyone who’s had to calibrate an XL will rejoice at the new automatic tool offset calibration system. A calibration sensor sits in the front corner of the machine, and you don’t need to do a thing but keep it clean.

The CORE One+ has active chamber temperature control, which is NOT the same as chamber heating. Instead, the machine’s interior geometry is optimized to capture heat thrown from the bed to heat the chamber up to 55C. A fan and smart ventilation system likewise keep the chamber cool enough for PLA even with the door closed.

Assembling the Prusa CORE One+ INDX

The Prusa CORE One+ INDX we reviewed came fully assembled and only needed to be unpacked. Simply pull it out of the box, remove the packing materials, snap the screen on and the spool holders, and plug it in.

Once the machine is turned on, you’ll see a cartoon version of Josef Prusa to guide you through setup. However, calibration is now handled at the factory, so there’s nothing left to do but make sure you’ve removed the zip ties and carry on your merry way.

Leveling the Prusa CORE One+ INDX

Bed leveling is a no-brainer, as the Prusa CORE One+ is fully automatic. There are no manual adjustments and no need to adjust the Z offset. The printer uses a load cell sensor connected to the nozzle, which physically taps the print surface for precise measurement.

The printer trams the bed and calculates the required Z height before each print. And yes, if you need it, live Z adjustments are available in the control panel.

Loading Filament on the Prusa CORE One+ INDX

Loading filament is very simple. Simply place the spools on the side-mounted rack and feed the plastic into the reverse Bowden tube until it reaches the hotend. You’ll need to open the printer menu and tell it which toolhead you’re loading, since the toolheads themselves are passive. The carriage will zip over, grab the requested tool, and take it to the nozzle wiper to purge a small amount of filament into the cup. It will wipe the nozzle and park the toolhead when you’re done.

The inductive heater brings each nozzle up to temperature in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately, the printer only asks what kind of filament you’re loading (PLA, ASA, Flex, or more) but not what color. This is probably due to the fact that the slicer does not constantly communicate with the printer over the cloud, but I’m hoping that this feature will become available with a future firmware update. For now, you’ll have to manually enter your filament colors into the slicer. There is a remapping option on the control screen, but shifting around eight spools' worth of information in this fashion is tedious.

The spoolholders are sturdy manual devices that can hold literally any brand of filament you might be using. They even expand to hold 3KG spools.

Preparing Files / Software for Prusa CORE One+

The Prusa CORE One+ uses its native slicer, PrusaSlicer. This open-source slicer is developed by Prusa Research and serves as the foundation for many other slicers. It comes with dozens of profiles for every material and nozzle size that Prusa Research makes.

The slicer also has built- in Color Mixing, which allows you to blend two or three colors with ultra-fine layers to create the illusion of more colors.

The CORE One+ can also use Prusa’s web-based slicer, EasyPrint, to print directly from Printables, Prusa’s free library of files, or from a mobile device.

Printing on the Prusa CORE One+ INDX

The fully assembled CORE One+ comes with a full 1 KG roll of Prusament PLA Galaxy Black. If you want more colors and materials like silks and multicolor filaments, you should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.

I used some of the sample rolls sent my way, plus a couple more lying about the workshop, to Prusa’s new calibration butterfly, Otto. This eight-color sample test print took 1 hour and 14 minutes. The wings are a first-layer test and are only two layers thick. A tab on the wing slots into the body to prove that tolerances and extrusion flow are correct. The multi-colored wing segments act as a visual test for first-layer quality, belt tension, and toolhead alignment, as any tiny offset in color boundaries or axis motion will show up instantly. This is a lot more useful than a Benchy for multicolor printing, and it makes a cool decoration you can keep on the shelf.

I printed this 100%, 150mm tall, Cinderwing3D Butterfly Dragon that I could never get to stick to the bed with other multicolor machines. Sitting next to it is a small container with all the waste this print produced from 1646 tool changes: 18 grams. When you look really close, they look like Nerds candy.

This printed in 25 hours, 41 minutes, using a .2 mm layer height, 3 walls and 10% gyroid infill. It took a little longer to print because I slowed it down to 100mm/s across the board due to the precarious wing situation. The filament is Prusament PLA in Orange, Yellow, Simply Green and Galaxy Black; Inland Purple, and Bambu Lab Basic Pink.

For PETG, I printed a planter I designed. I’ve been trying to learn Nomad Sculpt, but I still need to rough things out in Tinkercad. For that reason, please excuse the rough layer line near the bottom, which is entirely a design flaw and not the printer’s fault. PETG doesn't color swap quite as cleanly as PLA, and I had to pick a few stray flecks off the print. Otherwise, it’s pretty darn good. This is printed in Prusament Galaxy Black and Yellow Gold PETG, with Deepwater Blue from Greengate. This print took 6 hours and 14 minutes to print using default settings and a .2mm layer height. There was 6.84 grams of filament wasted with 537 tool changes.

For high-temperature testing, I made these pumpkin containers, again with a mash-up of Tinkercad and my fledgling Nomad Sculpt skills. You really don’t want to see the insides of these things. But they printed really well in Prusament ASA Orange and Galaxy Black, with Ambrosia Armored Turtle Green ASA. I couldn’t find any white ASA, so I found a random spool of white ABS to fill in. The printer had no problem mixing the two materials as they are quite similar. I don’t think this photo does the orange justice; it’s possible it’s a bit fluorescent. Most importantly, there was no odor while these ran, as the printer remained closed and filtered. The large pumpkin took 13 hours and 45 minutes to print using a default .2mm layer height. It had 9.4 grams of waste over 632 tool changes.

A note on TPU: The Prusa INDX does not have an official profile for flexible materials as yet, but it is listed as being TPU-capable. I wrote up my own profile, copied from a standard CORE One+, and had mixed luck. It had difficulty with oozing and would occasionally jam up when trying to print with more than one color. This needs further work and experimentation.

Bottom Line

The Prusa CORE One+ INDX is the machine Prusa Research needs right now to compete in the modern marketplace. Is it a bit of a splurge? Yes, but the company’s reputation for reliability, right to repair, data security, and continued support through the years makes it a safe splurge.

Starting at $749 for a four-tool conversion kit and going to $2,119 for a fully assembled machine with the works, the CORE One+ INDX offers flexible price points for Prusa fans. Once assembled, the 3D printer itself is easy enough for families and school kids to use, but capable enough for small businesses and workshops. Plus, the ability to take the machine completely offline means it's a secure work partner for those who are mindful of data security or simply have unreliable internet service.

If you're a tinkerer and already have a CORE One or heck, even a MK4S, there is an upgrade path that could be a fun project that will net you the latest printer at half the cost.

If a Prusa machine seems just a bit too spendy for your budget, the $849 Snapmaker U1 is an awesome four-color toolchanger with an evolving ecosystem and a thriving community of users. The Bambu Lab H2C nozzle swapper is a touch more expensive at $2,499, but has a larger 330 x 320 mm build plate, even if it only does five colors.

MORE: Best Budget 3D Printers

MORE: Best Budget 3D Printers for Beginners

MORE: Best Multicolor 3D Printers

How do you make a really good printer even better? How about a $25 upgrade kit? Recently, Prusa Research rolled out a series of upgrades to the big three: the CORE One, CORE One L, and the XL 3D printers. Since the CORE One L is the newest printer of the batch, it only needed a tweak rather than a full overhaul to earn a “+” designation. No one was surprised by this update, as Josef Prusa has a reputation for upgrading his machines rather than letting them fall by the wayside. In fact, the CORE One L is only the third major variation of Prusa-designed printers since the company was founded in 2012.

As we were wrapping up this review, Prusa Research announced the CORE One L+ is now compatible with the Prusa INDX conversion kit, which is $799 for four tools, or $1,079 for eight. We’re currently reviewing the INDX on a standard-size CORE One + (Gen 2), and spoiler alert: it’s running spectacularly.

The Prusa CORE One L never left my workshop since its introduction nearly a year ago. In over 1000 hours of hard use, it’s been quietly printing abrasives like carbon and glass fiber, and even a pinch of Prusa Ultra Glow, with no problems. It’s been a real workhorse for practical prints.

The “plus” upgrade removes a super annoying flaw that has spoiled an otherwise perfect machine: nozzle wiping failures. Before this upgrade, all Prusa machines would clean the nozzle before bed leveling by tapping the bed, leaving little dots of filament on the plate. When you’re running higher-temp filaments, oozing is a real problem and nozzle wiping fails are more frequent. The error itself isn’t a big deal, and I would often choose to ignore it as I still get excellent prints. The problem is the time I’d lose if I wasn’t watching the printer like a hawk, as the printer would shut down bed heating while it waits for you to come tend to it.

We’ve had nozzle wipers on other brands of 3D printers for years now, and it’s a relief that Prusa has finally gotten on board. With a simple addition of a silicone brush, the CORE One L+ is now one of the few printers I trust to set it and forget it.

The Prusa CORE One L+ upgrade also came with a set of GT1.5 timing belts. The tighter tooth spacing on the belts and drive gears makes an already precise system more precise, resulting in smoother surfaces.

Another update is that this 3D printer is finished at the factory. When firing up the Prusa CORE One L+ for the first time, you’ll notice one thing right off the bat. A winking Josef Prusa pops up to help you set up your printer (as usual), but now there isn’t much set up to do. All the calibration has been done at the factory, and you get your first print going in about five minutes after ripping into the box. You can eat your complimentary package of Gold Bears while watching the first layer go down.

One thing that Prusa Research did not change is the 290 °C hot end limit. Most printers in this class can go 300 °C, with the Bambu H2S good to 350 °C and the Qidi XPlus 5 capable of 370 °C. Prusa offers an HT hotend upgrade that hits 400 °C and is listed at $199, but it's currently out of stock. 400 °C is hot enough for PEKK and more than enough for PPS CF. But I’d like to see the CORE One L+ do at least 300°C from the get go.

This is one of the few printers that can be operated entirely offline, making it the 3D printer of choice for businesses and government entities who need to keep data extra secure. Yet the machine itself is mostly online and open source, to make sure users can freely repair and mod their own devices.

Plus, the CORE One L+ has an optional Advanced Filtration Module with HEPA and Active Carbon filters to make sure whatever fumes your filament produces stays out of your home or office. That same vent can also be attached to an HVAC system.

For these reasons, we’re happy to put the Prusa CORE One L+ on the list of best 3D printers we’ve tested as the best Cloud Free/Open Source 3D Printer we’ve seen so far. The CORE One L+ is retailing at $1,999, the same price as before the upgrade. It’s only being offered as a fully built machine, no kits this time.

Specifications

Prusa CORE One L+: Included in the Box

The Prusa CORE One L+ is 99% assembled at the factory. Also included are a bag of Haribo Goldbears, a toolkit, a USB stick, country specific power cord, a PEI flex plate, a spool holder, and a full spool of Galaxy Black Prusament PLA.

Design of the Prusa CORE One L+

The CORE One L+ is a tank of a machine, weighing almost 50 lbs and built with a rigid metal frame, metal side panels, a plexiglass door, and top and side windows. The side panels jut into the interior of the machine to both allow clean lines on the outside and to get rid of useless space on the interior that would need to be heated. The filament spool nests neatly inside the recessed panel.

With a build volume of 300 x 300 x 330 mm, the CORE One L+ has a lot of heat area. This is accomplished with a thick aluminum heatbed that runs on line current, switching automatically from 110V to 220V. The chamber is heated with two fans mounted under the bed to create a convection effect, blowing cold air over the bed. The toolhead is now driven by finer-toothed GT1.5 belts that run on a linear rail for the X-axis and two linear rods for the Y-axis. The bed is driven by three independent stepper motors with lead screws.

The toolhead has a planetary-geared Nextruder, which does a great job pushing plastic. A large cooling fan is on the front, and a large parts cooling blower on the back leads to a duct that wraps almost completely around the nozzle.

The CORE One L+ comes with a .4 brass CHT high flow nozzle installed, and a bonus hardened steel nozzle included. The first thing I did after a quick test print was to switch to the hardened nozzle. These nozzles are not exactly quick release, but are fairly easy to replace. The two thumb screws on the left side of the tool head release the nozzle, which then must be unscrewed from the heater block. Care must be taken since, once the nozzle is removed, the only thing holding the heater block is the wiring. I haven’t run into any issues yet, but I’m very careful with the wiring.

The hotend can reach a temperature of 290 °C, and as mentioned earlier, there's an optional HT hotend that hits 400 °C if you really need the extra heat.

The door on the Prusa CORE One L+ has a switch, which can be disabled, to safely stop the printer if it is opened while running. I really love that the door can be mounted on the opposite side of the machine, in case that works better for your setup.

The top vent on the printer is opened and closed automatically as needed. There are two fans on the back of the case to help ventilate the chamber. This is quite enough to run lower-temp filaments like PLA with the door shut. There is an optional HEPA filter that mounts over the rear case fans.

The Buddy3D camera provides excellent video for monitoring your prints from Prusa Connect and the Prusa App. The one thing it can’t do is send a timelapse video to your computer. To record a timelapse video, you must add an SD card to the camera.

Assembling the Prusa CORE One L+

The Prusa CORE One L+ arrives mostly assembled. After removing three screws holding down the bed, you can put the tool kit away. The screen and trim panel slot into the front of the printer and are held in place with magnets. The wiring for the buddy cam is preinstalled, and the camera mounts to the printer’s inner wall with magnets. The spool holder attaches to its base with a quarter turn. The toolhead is freed by removing the cardboard holding it in place. Within just a minute or two, you are ready to print.

Leveling the Prusa CORE One L+

The Prusa CORE One L+ is calibrated at the factory. So there is no need to run through the usual 30 minutes of calibrating and leveling when powered on. The printer does check the level before each print.

Loading Filament on the Prusa CORE One L+

Loading filament on the Prusa CORE One L+ is simple. Filament is pushed past the runout sensor and into the toolhead, where it is grabbed automatically by the extruder. The printer then asks what kind of filament you are loading and heats the nozzle to the appropriate temperature.

Loading TPU is the same, but there is a switch to disengage the filament runout sensor. This really helps loading noodly TPU. I tried TPU from several companies, and 95A TPU loaded just fine. For softer TPU, I couldn’t push it past the 90 degree bend in the Bowden tube at the toolhead. I needed to remove the Bowden tube and load the filament directly.

Preparing Files / Software for Prusa CORE One L+

Prusa printers run on PrusaSlicer, an open-source slicer based on Slice3r that serves as the foundation for most of the other slicers out there. While the Prusa CORE One L+ can be run completely offline, PrusaSlicer can directly access Printables, Prusa’s vast and curated file-sharing service, and can directly control and upload files to the printer through Prusa Connect.

Initially, the buddy camera only produced still photos that were updated frequently, but after a firmware update (which was already present on the camera for this printer), the live video quality is excellent. Prusa has also developed its web-based EasyPrint slicer, which can be used for slicing files on mobile, and it offers a more comprehensive set of options than any other app or online slicer I’ve seen.

Printing on the Prusa CORE One L+

The CORE One L+ comes with a full 1 KG roll of Prusament PLA Galaxy Black. If you want more colors and materials like silks and multicolor filaments, you should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.

First, I printed an Articulated Cobra + Pencil Holder from McGybeer. I used the provided Galaxy Black PLA for the snake, and the pencil holder was run in Meta Taro Purple PLA from Sunlu. Both were printed with a .2 layer height with an average print speed of 100 mm/s. The pencil holder took 9 hours and 44 minutes to print, with the cobra taking 16 hours and 44 minutes. The snake is wrapped around the pencil holder when you’re not playing with it. Both look absolutely perfect.

I printed a plate of carpenter pencil sharpeners from Anakel. They use a standard utility blade and work really well. Printed at a .2 layer height and an average print speed of 120 mm/s, they were completed in 3 hours and 35 minutes. They look great in grey high-speed PETG+ filament from Inland.

Next, I ran two plates of weapons for our battle tops, which are listed on Printables.com. Printed in Prusa Orange ASA with a .2 mm layer height and running at an average of 120 mm/s, the plates took a little over 5 hours each. They are printed solid with a bit of overextrusion to lock everything together and look really good, if I do say so myself. The bed leveling and adhesion were perfect out to the edges of the build plate.

To test the Prusa CORE One L+ on a more technical filament, I printed a plate of clips from Afrie using PA6-CF20 from Polymaker. This is not the easiest filament to print, and one that I normally run at 300C, which is hotter than the CORE One L+ can go. Using a .2mm layer height and an average speed of 50 mm/s, the clips took almost four hours to print. The parts are print-in-place, and there is some roughness on the unsupported overhangs, but for PA6-CF they still look fantastic. After a few hours of annealing, they are in use all over my house at this point.

TPU is easier to print on the CORE One L+ than on many printers on the market today. I printed weapons for our DeathRacer combat robots using Cookiecad Witches Blue 95A TPU and white Polymaker Polyflex TPU 90A. With a .2mm layer height and an average print speed of 35 mm/s, these blades took a little over 6 hours each and look great with just a tiny amount of stringing.

Bottom Line

The CORE One L+ is a fast, quiet, easy to set up printer that is a joy to use. If it could get a little hotter on the nozzle without an upgrade, it would be nearly perfect for a wider range of practical filaments.

With a retail price of $1,999, the CORE One L+ is a significant investment when compared to the more budget-friendly Core XY machines from other brands. However, the legendary 24 hour 7 days a week, English speaking customer service and rabid fan base willing to share tips and tricks are a huge perk. So is the knowledge that when you buy a Prusa today, you’ll still be running it in 10 years or more because it is infinitely repairable and moddable.

If a Prusa CORE One L seems just a bit too spendy for your budget, the smaller Prusa CORE One comes in at $999 for a kit. The slightly more budget-friendly, but equally sized Bambu Lab H2S Combo is currently on sale for $1,399, and if you need some massive CORE XY size, the Creality K2 Plus is worth checking out at $1,199.

xTool says its new X1 laser will be the last one you’ll ever need. The machine is modular, allowing users to add every style of laser xTool makes to the system: CO2, Diode, UV, Fiber, and MOPA. It will also be xTool’s first flying-galvo unit, combining the large size of a gantry system with the speed of a galvo.

And if that isn’t interesting enough, it's also a dual-head system, meaning the galvo will sit side by side with a CO2 laser. The unit will be able to pick and choose which head to deploy for the job – both if needed.

The announcement was made at The Next Level Maker Conference in Grapevine, TX. The event is a combination of maker retreat and expo, with a wide variety of classes and motivational talks by experts who have turned maker hobbies into successful businesses.

Disclaimer: xTool provided travel accommodations for this trip. Coverage remains editorially independent.

Previous “all in one” machines have used swappable toolheads, but these have been limited to various powers of diode and IR lasers. The X1 will use a swappable backpack system to provide the different laser frequencies routed to the galvo toolhead. This means the galvo can be a wood-burning diode, a crystal engraving UV, or a metal etching MOPA.

The machine’s default build will be a powerful 55w CO2 laser paired with a 20w diode for the galvo head. No price was mentioned at the reveal, so we’ll have to wait until closer to the laser’s October launch date to learn more.

A representative from xTool said the company wanted to embrace all forms of making, and be more than “just” a laser manufacturer. To that end, they announced an upcoming embroidery machine, the SE1. The machine, capable of both normal stitching and single-color embroidery, is presented as an entry point to embroidery for those already within the xTool ecosystem. The machine can be paired with the O1 Omni to paint the threads with DTG color.

This may seem to be an overly complex way to achieve colorful stitching, until you consider that full-color embroidery is accomplished with multi-needle machines costing thousands of dollars. They are also insanely complex and require high levels of skill to manage and maintain, whereas a single-color embroidery machine can be purchased for way less and operated by a beginner.

The SE1 will also use the xTool design suite, which makes transferring designs between the sewing machine and UV printer fairly straightforward. During the demo, a piece of fabric was stitched on the SE1, removed from the hoop, then placed inside the UV printer to add color. It was finished with a heat press to set the DT ink.

xTool wasn’t the only company presenting at the show. The vendor hall was full of makers turned small business owners, something that xTool actively encourages with its products and ecosystem.

Makerflo

Marc Pendergraft and John Modi started selling laser-cut products right out of college, and now own Makerflo, a wholesaler that provides “the kind of materials we wish we had.” They sell premium laser-ready merchandise that comes with upscale gift packaging. Their booth also has several new items seeking feedback from shoppers. I was impressed with a coaster that consisted of absorbent stone with a laser-ready metal disc embedded in the center.

Marc and John also led several popular breakout sessions on running a successful laser business.

Smokey Hill Designs

Angela Cruise, owner of Smokey Hill Designs, brought pallets full of high-quality plywood, acrylic, leatherette, and other sparkly laser substrates. Most were custom printed in eye-catching designs using a diode-safe material. Her goal is to use premium materials, like natural wood and pre-finished acrylics, that require less effort to turn into amazing, high-value products. Nearly everything she sells is manufactured in-house at her company’s North Carolina shop and is held to strict quality standards for use in lasers.

One of the unique materials they had for sale was Freshy Sheets, a thick absorbent material with a colorful printed surface, designed to hold essential oil and act as an air freshener. Naturally, the sheets are designed to be cut in shapes and encased in laser-cut designs.

BurnForge Software

Aaron Pratt created BurnForge, a subscription-based business tracking system for crafters. The app lets makers track customer orders every step of the way so you stop “ruining expensive blanks.” The program helps you remember machine settings and tracks your inventory and orders. He’s offering a 30-day free trial with the code NEXTLEVEL30 for a limited time.

Brothers Elias and Isaiah Grey designed Maker Studio, a suite of apps that create custom maps you can reproduce with a laser cutter, CNC, or 3d printer. The maps come in either a layered style that looks great when laser cut and stacked, or 3D terrain relief maps that can be 3D printed or CNC carved. Their product lets makers easily turn real locations into design files without needing CAD skills.

Maker Studio is a subscription service that will soon include a box maker, a fit sheet for help with packaging, and a tumbler art maker. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial to test out the program before you commit.