What we print on: the machines in the Polymer & Pine workshop
A look at the actual printers we run, why we picked them, and what they're good at.
Maker-community people occasionally ask what we use, and we're always happy to share. There are no industrial machines here. The whole workshop runs on consumer FDM printers that you or anyone else could buy off the shelf.
The print farm
Right now we have:
- Bambu Lab P1S — our main workhorse. Fast, reliable, enclosed, handles PLA and PETG beautifully. Most fidgets you buy from us came off one of these.
- Prusa MK4 — slower than the Bambu but exceptionally consistent. We use it for parts that need maximum dimensional accuracy (functional brackets, custom prototypes).
- A second Bambu P1S — added recently to handle order volume. Identical to the first.
Total throughput is about 12–15 hours of print time per machine per day, batched by color so we don't waste time swapping filament.
Why Bambu Lab and not Prusa for everything?
Honest answer: speed. The Bambu is roughly 3x faster than the Prusa for typical fidget geometry. That difference adds up when you're trying to fulfill made-to-order parts in 3–5 days. Prusa quality is at least as good, sometimes better — we just couldn't run a workshop on Prusa speed alone.
We keep the Prusa because:
- It's more forgiving with weird filaments
- Its slicer (PrusaSlicer) is what we use for design work even on Bambu prints
- The first-layer reliability is unmatched on small functional parts
- Honestly, we like Prusa as a company
Why FDM and not resin?
We wrote a whole post about this: FDM vs resin: why we don't print fidgets in resin.
Software
- PrusaSlicer for slicing
- Fusion 360 for design
- OrcaSlicer for the Bambu-specific tweaks
Our profiles aren't anything fancy — mostly the manufacturer defaults with a few tweaks for specific filaments (heat-creep settings for the cheaper PLAs, retraction tuning for PETG).
What about resin / SLA?
We don't have any. If you need a resin print, talk to a local maker — there are several people in Rochester who do resin work and we're happy to refer.
What about CNC / metal?
Same answer. We're a plastic-and-FDM workshop. For metal parts, we send people to a local machine shop.
Want to see the workshop?
If you're in the Rochester area, drop us a contact form note. We'd love to host other local makers.