# 3D Printing > General 3D Printing Discussion >  Workbench: Let's See Your Setup

## T-MAC

First post here,

I'm running a Replicator 2 with a heated build plate (kept rep2 single extruder as it prints PLA and ABS without issues), aluminum arm wraps, and some other random small things. I've redesigned the active cooling fan mount so it doesn't have the top cover going over the extruder.  To hold the guide tube in place I made a new lever arm that has an input to hold it in place instead. The extruder is easier to service and the motor probably sheds heat a little better. No complaints with this setup other than getting a process dialed in to prevent warping. 

Here's my setup. I live in a small single bedroom apartment and this area in the back of the living room acts as my workbench and garage haha. Just a single bench with my rep2, and a toolbox with necessary tools and some spare parts. I store filament in ziploc bags below. What is your workshop/area setup?

IMG_20141206_150708533.jpg

Here's a close up of the extruder with the modified fan mount and lever arm that I referenced earlier:
IMG_20141206_153029930.jpg

----------


## Zhall

We are running 2 Replicator 2's one above the other on a metal rack.

The best part is... that the older machine (with 1,000 hours on it) runs better than the newer machine, go figure. Thanks MBI

Below those is about 30 pounds of PLA plastic, with the final holes in our rainbow (teal and brown) arriving soon.

20141208_213343.jpg

This is probably shameless self promotion, but check us out at www.artforcestudios.com

..and yes that's a creeper.

----------


## T-MAC

Sweet setup, looks like we both have the same shelf, just didn't build mine all the way up.

Your site looks good too.

----------


## soofle616

I had a huge workbench in process in my basement workroom but last night I finally gave up and accepted that the state of my floor slab is so bad I will NEVER get anything to sit even remotely level or stable. Plan B is to bolt the main spars to the wall directly and brace the cantilever surface with angled legs also attached to the wall.

----------


## Zhall

> Sweet setup, looks like we both have the same shelf, just didn't build mine all the way up.
> 
> Your site looks good too.


Ah I didn't notice that.. Nice

and thanks for the compliment for my site.

----------


## LyalC52

Replicator Z18 sitting on a washer/dryer base. The drawer holds all my extra filament spools.
Wall bracket shelf to hold the 10lb spool box. IMG_20141209_081820_493.jpg

----------


## soofle616

Christ that's a big machine

----------


## BaudR8

Here's my current workbench-ish. Have since painted the Robo3D a different color. Also looking to get another table or desk of some sort, love the current desk in the picture, it's a great size, but the printers have taken up too much space at this point and I can't use it as my work desk anymore since there's no space for my laptop! Unfortunately, last I checked ikea doesnt carry that exact model desk anymore  :Frown:

----------


## MiniMadRyan

5 PRINTERS?!?!??!?! I thought I was feeling special with 2! Will post my smallish set up tonight though....

----------


## BaudR8

> 5 PRINTERS?!?!??!?! I thought I was feeling special with 2! Will post my smallish set up tonight though....


it's an addiction :P

----------


## Zhall

> 5 PRINTERS?!?!??!?! I thought I was feeling special with 2! Will post my smallish set up tonight though....


Dang, same here...

----------


## Zhall

> it's an addiction :P


Indeed it is.

Do you mind sharing how much you have invested?

I've got 3k into my printers and about $500 into filament

----------


## BaudR8

> Indeed it is.
> 
> Do you mind sharing how much you have invested?
> 
> I've got 3k into my printers and about $500 into filament


Probably around $3.7K-ish in printers? A lot of overhead on my first build (mendelmax 1.5) and extra parts for when stuff breaks/broke and my mendelmax is on its third hot end. The Robo3D printer I actually was given for free by my co-worker since it was broken, but I fixed her up and now shes humming away just fine. No idea how much I've spent on filament, but this is my current stock of filament:



So probably all of that filament + a dozen or so spools I've burned through in the past. Countless countless hours of my time lol

----------


## Zhall

> Probably around $3.7K-ish in printers? A lot of overhead on my first build (mendelmax 1.5) and extra parts for when stuff breaks/broke and my mendelmax is on its third hot end. The Robo3D printer I actually was given for free by my co-worker since it was broken, but I fixed her up and now shes humming away just fine. No idea how much I've spent on filament, but this is my current stock of filament:
> 
> 
> 
> So probably all of that filament + a dozen or so spools I've burned through in the past. Countless countless hours of my time lol


Man, what happened to that blue spool on the left?

It's a hobby worth wasting your life on c:

----------


## richardphat

> Man, what happened to that blue spool on the left?
> 
> It's a hobby worth wasting your life on c:


Spaghetti monster!

----------


## dklassen

Simple but effective.



desk.jpg

----------


## jimc

here is mine. 

IMG_3766.JPGIMG_3767.JPG

----------


## Mjolinor

You certainly have a lot of sterile enviroments:



Too much time tidying up and not enough time playing.

----------


## Roxy

> You certainly have a lot of sterile enviroments:
> 
> ...
> 
> Too much time tidying up and not enough time playing.


My setup isn't as spacious or complete as yours... Yours looks 'sterile' compared to mine!   But I'm glad to see the clutter.   Shouldn't there be a half ate pizza in the picture somewhere?

----------


## jimc

omg i have a knot in my stomach looking at that. i would go nuts. maybe its due to my time in the military but i have that belief of "a place for everything and everything in its place" burnt into my brain lol.

----------


## Mjolinor

> My setup isn't as spacious or complete as yours... Yours looks 'sterile' compared to mine!   But I'm glad to see the clutter.   Shouldn't there be a half ate pizza in the picture somewhere?


Can't you see it? It's near the Coke can.  :Smile:

----------


## soofle616

> omg i have a knot in my stomach looking at that. i would go nuts. maybe its due to my time in the military but i have that belief of "a place for everything and everything in its place" burnt into my brain lol.


I'm sort of with you but not entirely. I'm OCD about certain things (like making sure the kitchen knives have their handles pointing in the same direction in the block or always using the same kind of pen) but a place for everything. etc. etc. to me just means that everything has a place. It doesn't mean that that place is neat and tidy looking. My fiance and I get into this all the time (jokingly). Whenever I have projects going on I tend to leave stuff all around. To her it's a giant cluttered mess, to me it's everything I need within easy reach. I know where everything is because everything is where it needs to be. Of course with longer term projects she eventually gets sick of the mess and gathers it all up into a pile and that's when things go awry. The project will come to more or less a stop because while I know everything is in that pile, I don't know WHERE in that pile the specific thing I need at that moment is. That leads to digging through looking for it instead of making progress. Same with the next thing I need and so on. As I find them they go back to their place where I need them to be and where I know I can find them later when needed.

Now MJ's spot is definitely a bit worse than mine typically is and I would certainly have a chuckle with him about it but unless he's losing stuff all the time I would just assume he's like me and knows exactly where every little thing is in all that.

----------


## Mjolinor

My problem is somewhere to put things I am not using. It's been about 5 years since I did any EMC work but the spectrum analyser and the antennas are sitting here because I have nowhere to stick them. The big grey box in front of the red tool trolley thing contains a log periodic antenna, being used as a table. Since the picture was taken the box has moved being the PCB mill that is on the right and the place is infinitely more cluttered now than it was then but I still know where everything is. It's a no wife zone so a suitable depth of crumbs and cobwebs on the floor along with all the dead spiders that lived and died thinking it was there place, so mistaken they were.

----------


## bford903

Clean and tidy is sort of a relative term here.  :Smile:  

IMAG0354.jpg

----------


## Mjolinor

Get some oil on that Unimat!!!!!

----------


## beerdart

Effective.

----------


## bford903

> Get some oil on that Unimat!!!!!


That one is retired for the time being. Got an Unimat 3 on the bench in the back for larger jobs and a Boley watchmakers lathe for smaller stuff and watch jobs.

----------


## Mjolinor

> That one is retired for the time being. Got an Unimat 3 on the bench in the back for larger jobs and a Boley watchmakers lathe for smaller stuff and watch jobs.


Not an excuse.  :Smile:

----------


## bford903

> Not an excuse.


Yeah, but.....*huff*  :Smile:

----------


## My Thing in 3D

Mine is kind of likeMjolinor's accept mine is in the familyroom of my apartment:
workplace.jpg
My Form 1+ can be seen in the center.

----------


## DonaldJ

I'm in a studio apartment, so once I start printing I unplug the USB, let it print from the SD card, and I wheel the whole thing so it's out of the way.  There's about $800 total (give or take) in the printer w/mods, and another dozen or so spools of filament elsewhere in the room.



.setup.jpg

----------


## Geoff

> it's an addiction :P


haha it _so_ is..  I thought I would stop at 2... now 4 and building #5...

Currently in the middle of making a new workshop so for now,  will post some pics when it's done... my man cave has been ousted by the wife.. (I knew it was coming...) but the good thing is the new workshop will have room for several more printers  :Smile:

----------


## Mjolinor

Hmm, mancave - wife, mancave- wife, difficult choice.

----------


## richardphat

> Hmm, mancave - wife, mancave- wife, difficult choice.


Lol, how about turn her into 3D printer lovers? You get both.

----------


## old man emu

This is my workbench.

My workspace.jpg

 It's a stand alone set-up with no Internet or LAN. I managed to set up a squat in the closed-in patio at the back of the house. The computer here is not up to doing the necessary preparation work for a print, but it runs the printer, no probs. Being outside the house proper, it is at the outdoors ambient air temperature. That's why I have been reporting bed temps in the 30C range. Notice how I have my roll of filament suspended from the ceiling. That overcomes twisting on the spool. I do all my other work on my office computer which is in the office inside the house.

----------


## Geoff

> Lol, how about turn her into 3D printer lovers? You get both.


Well, I talked about them constantly for a year, then bought one and now 3 years later she is ALMOST coming around... I have printed insanely complex things and the most I can muster is "oh.. nice" ... 

I don't know what I need to make to wow her (and no... get your mind out of the gutter...don't even go there .. )  :Smile:

----------


## Mjolinor

> Well, I talked about them constantly for a year, then bought one and now 3 years later she is ALMOST coming around... I have printed insanely complex things and the most I can muster is "oh.. nice" ... 
> 
> I don't know what I need to make to wow her (and no... get your mind out of the gutter...don't even go there .. )


It's good that she holds you in such high esteem that you can't wow her really, she considers it normal because she knows how capable you are.

----------


## curious aardvark

Now that's what i call a REAL workshop :-)



See my workshop is shared between the IT business, the food curing and smoking, the sling making and full size balearic target(s), sling bullet making, 3d printing and assorted other interests. 
So really, all things considering, it's quite tidy lmao







IF you look at the last picture, at the back of the workbench there's a small wooden box. That's got the mini-itx based computer in it. To the left of the bencn is a fridge, exalibur food dehydrator and about 15 kg of assorted filament. 
I'll have to take a pic of that later.

----------


## Mjolinor

No pictures, I assume one needs to have an account with smoked meat.

----------


## old man emu

> I assume one needs to have an account with smoked meat.


Dude! Your dealer runs accounts!?!?!?!?!?. Man, if I want a joint to smoke, it's cash on the pill-box lid.

*CA,*

Is that an aluminium framed CNC machine I see on the right of the picture? What controller board are you using?

OME

----------


## johnschneider89

The setup in our shop! IMAG1593.jpg

----------


## beerdart

Oh my!!!..

----------


## Timaz

My little workshop in Shenzhen:

workshop-wide-low.jpg

http://panoself.com/Workshop/ (Spherical Panorama)

Up Plus 2 and Leapfrog Creatr, plus you can find a Printrbot Simple in the panorama. 

I would not go out of my way to recommend the Creatr to anyone, but after about a year I’ve dealt with it’s quirks and it’s now pretty well dialed in and reliable. I can fill up it’s 230x270mm bed with a bunch of prints and just leave it running for days. Up Plus 2 is a workhorse- never jams, never fails. Small bed and not Open Source though. One of the nice things about living here is you can get decent filament delivered within 24 hours for about $10 a roll.

----------


## Mjolinor

> Is that an aluminium framed CNC machine I see on the right of the picture? What controller board are you using?
> 
> OME


Assuming you are referring to my picture (I still can't see CA's) it was originally a TEP router but now has lots of mods including Z and A axes  and uses either a PIC controller with TB6560 drivers or, more often I just use LinuxCNC. I use it mainly for PCBs. I do have a proper milling machine and lathe in my other workshop.

----------


## Roxy

> The setup in our shop! IMAG1593.jpg


This looks deviant.  I bet there is a full time technician dedicated to keeping things looking good.  Probably this room is on the tour for important customers and investors.

----------


## curious aardvark

> No pictures, I assume one needs to have an account with smoked meat.


ah wondered about that - I'll upload pics seperately - was just trying to save some time :-)

----------


## GOC

> ...
> Now that's what i call a REAL workshop :-)
> ...


Absolutely! Mine is just as chaotic, and at the same time I still know where everything is. Its crazy how that works :-)

----------


## LambdaFF

> Can't you see it? It's near the Coke can.


You got me there, I actually looked.
I prefer when things are tidier. Added bonus, it gives the impression to the wife that things are under control.
2015-03-22 12.17.30.jpg

----------


## Mjolinor

Wife never sees it, she aint allowed up there.

----------


## dklassen

Old thread but I'll throw in a new pic. Moved to our new house and got my own 3D room.  :Smile: 

IMG_3135.jpg

----------


## Mjolinor

> Old thread but I'll throw in a new pic. Moved to our new house and got my own 3D room. 
> 
> Attachment 7897



Eek, the walls in your new house are warped.

 :Smile:

----------

