We didn't plan on having four 3D printers. It just sort of happened.
That's probably what every multi-printer household says, and it's true for us. You buy the first one to see what all the fuss is about, you get hooked, and then a few years later you're looking at a room with four machines running and wondering how you got here. The honest answer is: one printer at a time, each one solving a problem the last one couldn't.
Where it started — the original i3
The first printer was an old Prusa i3 clone — the kind of kit printer that comes in a flat-pack box with a bag of bolts and a laminated instruction sheet that immediately falls apart. That printer taught me more about 3D printing than anything else ever has, because half of the learning curve was keeping it running.
Bed levelling. Calibrating steps. Wondering why one corner of every print was lifting up. Replacing the hot end because something got jammed. Spending an evening re-tightening belts. It was a lot of work for what were, in the beginning, pretty rough prints. But there is something about that first printer that no later machine quite replaces. When you've assembled it from parts and it produces something — anything — you understand what's actually happening inside in a way you just don't when you buy something pre-assembled.
The i3 is still here. It lives on a shelf and occasionally gets turned on for small test jobs or when I want to run a material I don't mind wasting. There's something endearing about a printer that old still producing usable prints.
Going bigger — the Tronxy XYC 400
The Tronxy XYC 400 came next. The number tells you the important part: 400mm square print bed. When your first printer has a bed roughly the size of a paperback book, 400mm feels enormous, because it is.
That bed size opened up printing items in a single piece that previously would have needed to be split and glued together. Larger seasonal decorations. Centrepiece pumpkins at Halloween that don't have a seam running through the middle. Christmas pieces that are actually sized right for a mantelpiece rather than a shelf. The Tronxy handles the big jobs.
The trade-off is that a bigger printer is a slower printer, and bed adhesion across a 400mm surface takes more attention than a small bed. Getting the first layer down consistently across that whole area requires more careful setup. But once it's dialled in, it's reliable.
The everyday workhorse — Kobra 3
The Anycubic Kobra 3 is where things got noticeably easier. Auto-levelling that actually works. Faster print speeds. A multi-colour system that lets us load different filaments and switch mid-print automatically.
This is the printer that runs most often. The multi-colour capability is what changed how we think about decorative prints. A tulip printed in a single colour is fine. A tulip with a green stem that gradually transitions into pink petals is something else entirely — and the Kobra 3 can do that without us having to pause and swap filament manually.
Anna picks a lot of the prints that come off this machine. Seasonal things, decorative pieces for the house, items she's seen online and wanted to try. The Kobra 3 is reliable and fast enough that you can set something going in the evening and have it done by morning without worrying too much.
The precision machine — Centauri Carbon
The Centauri Carbon is the newest machine and the most capable one we have. Carbon fibre reinforced frame, fast and precise. It's what I reach for when something needs to be right — a functional part, a gift, something where the surface quality and dimensional accuracy genuinely matter.
Speed on the Centauri is noticeably different from the other printers. Prints that would take two hours elsewhere come off in half the time without sacrificing quality. The rigidity of the carbon frame eliminates the vibration artefacts you see on lighter machines at high speeds — walls come out cleaner, overhangs are crisper.
It's also the printer I use when testing new filament types. Engineering materials, different surface finishes, anything unfamiliar. It handles a wider range of materials consistently than the others.
Four printers — do we actually need all of them?
Honestly, yes. Each one occupies a different niche.
- The i3 is for low-stakes testing and nostalgia
- The Tronxy is for large prints that won't fit anything else
- The Kobra 3 is the daily driver — fast, multi-colour, reliable
- The Centauri Carbon is for precision and anything important
Having multiple printers also means you can run several jobs simultaneously. A large background print on the Tronxy, a quick decorative piece on the Kobra 3, something precise on the Centauri — the machines run independently and the throughput is genuinely useful when you have a backlog of things you want to make.
It sounds excessive until you use it. Then it just becomes the normal way to work.