FreeCAD definitely has a steeper learning curve and a few rough edges, but to me it was absolutely worth it to learn. I really don’t like my files subject to the whims of Autodesk.

Sure, you can print minis with an FFF machine. But there’s a reason the mini printing folks primarily use SLA. For that particular application, it’s significantly better. I say this as someone who uses an Ender 3 and is quite happy with it. If my main goal was printing minis, I would probably want an SLA machine instead.

If your goal is to make mini figures, what you want is an SLA machine. They are much better at making small detailed objects than FFF. However, it will definitely cost more than a cheap FFF machine like an Ender 3.

The Ender 3 variants are cheap and a great platform if you are OK with tuning/tweaking things. If set up properly they work great and are pretty reliable. But of you want something that works out of the box and doesn’t need any tweaking/tuning, you will probably be disappointed with it.

Immutable/offline backups. If you backup to local physical media (HDD/tape), physically disconnect/eject it and store it somewhere safe. If you back up to cloud storage (S3, etc), many of them have immutability options. If configured properly nobody (not even you) can delete or modify the backups (within the specified time period).

Adding a wireframe modifier is pretty simple - I’m sure you’ll do fine with that.

If you want to get into modeling in blender, I highly recommend the donut tutorial series by blenderguru. It’s on YouTube.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/generate/wireframe.html

Alternatively, if you just want a render of it and not a 3D print, then there are also various ways to do it with shaders and renderer settings.

While ZDI reported the vulnerability to the Exim team in June 2022 and resent info on the flaw at the vendor’s request in May 2023, the developers failed to provide an update on their patch progress.

Yikes. Sitting on a critical RCE in internet exposed server software for a year. That’s a great way to destroy trust in a project.

Thanks - I didn’t realize that crtouch is optical.

Looks like it’s got a jam. Did you reduce retractions with the direct hotend? If not, you are probably retracting way too far, which will cause filament to solidify in the cold area and jam up.

The architecture is a bit different than octoprint. Fluidd and mainsail are purely client side UI’s, while Moonraker provides the server side API for them to connect to. So any additional functionality would need to integrate with Moonraker - not Fluidd/Mainsail.

A lot of functionality that is plugin based in octoprint is core to Moonraker and fluidd/mainsail. Things like cameras, mesh bed tools, gcode viewer, UI layout customization, power device control, etc are all included.

Spool manager is not something I’ve personally needed or used, but this would probably be a good option: https://github.com/Donkie/Spoolman

I highly recommend switching to fluidd or mainsail. They don’t require any more CPU power than octoprint (possibly a bit less, actually). They are more modern and polished interfaces than octoprint.

CR touch and BL touch are the same. It’s just creality’s name for it.

Inductive probes are probably the cheapest option. I paid around $5 for mine and it works great.

Pinecil works OK for small things, but struggles on larger joints because of it’s low power and small thermal mass. Personally, I’d prefer one of the many Hakko/Weller clones for a cheap solution.

Have you tried 3D printing enclosures? There’s a bit of up front cost if you don’t have a printer already, but after that the material costs are pretty cheap. It’s really cool to be able to make a custom enclosure with all the cutouts, integrated standoffs, panel markings, etc all in a single print.

If you like mechanical pencils and want some color, look up clutch pencils. I apologize in advance for fueling your addiction.

Getting a model printed is pretty straightforward. There are many online services where you can send a 3D model file and they mail you a print of it. The bigger challenge is the design. Paying a professional to design something for you is going to be very expensive. However, many 3D printing enthusiasts design their own models as a hobby and make them available for free. I would suggest looking on sites like printables and thingiverse for something that suits your needs. If you can find it there, then you can just send the file to a printing service and have it made. Other options would be spend time to learn modeling/design yourself, or find a kind person to do you a favor and design something custom for much less money than a professional would charge.

There are many that can be reflashed with open source Tasmota firmware. Sonoff is one of the popular ones.

In my experience, moisture will cause excessive stringing in PETG long before it is saturated enough for popping/hissing.

Running it in a dedicated VM is usually the more expensive option, particularly with something simple like DNS.

IPA for quick wipe-downs. Dish soap and water with a nylon scrub brush for occasional more thorough cleaning. I wipe with IPA after doing dish soap to ensure there’s no soap residue left.

Definitely no acetone.