I have thought about some potential changes, but as of right now this version is what I am using to evaluate my costs. Interested to see what you are thinking about adding as it might help me shape an update. Thank you!

I agree with you that some filaments are not swappable without work, but I will say since making this video I have run a lot of Jessie and Polymaker PETG with the generic filament settings in PrusaSlicer without issue. While the video tries to find a comparable filament using Prusament settings what I ended up finding is good luck with these other two. This was just my attempt at an out of the box comparison with controlled variables being everything, but the filament.

Thank you for your feedback and for raising concerns about safety. It’s an important topic, and safety should always be the top priority when using, maintaining, or upgrading any tool. I personally love the DW735 planer, but in its stock configuration, it had limitations-particularly after upgrading to a helical cutter head, which introduced challenges like clogging and poor performance due to increased chip load. While modifications can present new risks, it’s essential to understand that, like any woodworking equipment, the user assumes responsibility for its safe operation and maintenance. Caution should always be exercised, whether the machine is stock or modified. To address your concerns, here’s additional context about this modification: Safety Switch Override: The stock cover includes a lockout mechanism to prevent the machine from operating when the cover is removed. While this is a valuable safety feature, it’s crucial that users always follow basic safety protocols, including removing power sources during maintenance. For this modification: • If the cover is not cut, the safety bypass switch must be installed to operate the machine. • Regardless of safety switches, tools should always be unplugged during maintenance, as safety switches can fail. Dust Port Cover: The kit includes a dust port cover designed to prevent accidental contact with the impeller fan, improving safety beyond the stock configuration. Dust Boot Cover: To prevent objects or debris from entering the dust boot, the kit provides optional covers available in both friction-fit and magnetic setups. Personally, I use a magnetic cap to secure the dust boot when not connected to a dust collector. Unplugging the Machine: The instructions explicitly remind users to always unplug the planer: • When not in use • During installation or removal of modifications • When performing maintenance or adjustments This practice is critical for all woodworking machines, stock or modified, and is prominently highlighted in the kit’s documentation. User Responsibility: As with all woodworking tools and aftermarket upgrades, users assume full responsibility for safe operation. This includes following instructions, adhering to safety best practices, and exercising care when working with any tool in the shop. This upgrade was designed to address specific issues I encountered with my DW735 planer, particularly after upgrading to a helical cutter head. The stock dust collection system wasn’t sufficient for handling the increased chip load, and this modification significantly improved performance and dust collection efficiency. Safety is more than just a word-it’s a philosophy and a practice that guides everything I do as a woodworker. It’s something I hope every user takes seriously in their own shops. If you have further questions or concerns, I’m happy to discuss them. I take safety very seriously and strive to provide tools and knowledge that empower users to work responsibly and effectively in their shops.

Thank you so much for the comment.

Thank you!

Thanks for that comment! I can do deep dives into any one of these and almost all are listed on my Printables page for download. www.printables.com/@BuilderDadDan Do you have a specific one you want to know more about?

What printer(s) do you use?

3 Bambu A1 mini´s and an old ender 3

Excellent to know.

Your welcome! I agree with you a lot cheaper and you can easily adapt to any situation. For example I made these 3/4" clamps to solve a specific issue with locking slat style shoe racks to my bench. www.printables.com/model/793093-34-bench-dog-pressure-screw-clamp

Your welcome! Glad you are finding it valuable.

Thank you so much for your purchase! I just got it all ready to head your way and can't wait to get your thoughts on it.

@@builderdads probably one of the best purchases I’ve ever made besides the new cutting head.

That is a huge compliment thank you!

Ahh yes that's a problem. What I tend to do is have a folder for each project and I version control the design, 3D sliced model, and gcode along with the Excel sheet. That way I have one spreadsheet with my defaults that I copy for each new project and as things change I just refresh quotes and projects to ensure I am profitable. Though I may have to think this through because that is a timely process and being able to quickly update would be good. Something to think about. Thank you for the comment!

@@builderdads Hey thanks for making it, im new to spreadsheet but or id offer to do it myself and share. I may try to learn enough to copy some of the fields just to reference all the quotes made on one page. just to save some of the info from the quote. if it works out ill let ya know :)

If you want you could duplicate the sheet within the same workbook to create instances. Feel free to reach out via www.builderdads.com by filling out the contact form and we could discuss options.

Yep on thirsty wood you for sure need to give it more to allow it to soak in. For me I prefer to use a foam sponge and just recoat until it won't take any additional. Good tip!

That is good to know. I'll put that on my to try list.

Thank you so much! Polymaker PETG has been running great. I am on my 30th roll about now and the only change I made was to run a little cooler than Prusament. If you are using PrusaSlicer either the Generic or Jessie profile work great for it. If you are not using PrusaSlicer then about 240° works well. I have been buying the two packs of it in black. amzn.to/3VXMqz2

Thank you! It can be overwhelming, but if you do a little at a time it will all come together relatively quickly. Then instead of avoiding you will want to jump in and get to work. Myself I got motivated this weekend for a deep clean and funny enough I found clamps I forgot I had.

Great tip! Thanks for sharing.

I should say that I have started to like my Bambu X1C. Though that is after recent updates have fixed print issues I have had. I also only run the Bambu filament in it. I should also note that it typically only prints prototypes or does fun projects. Though for all the headaches I have had with the X1C I will say that I’d rather have had a MK4 without an MMU. I rarely take advantage of multi material and I find that while the Bambu is fast I prefer the MK4.

True and with additional drying it may have yielded perfect results. Though in comparison for this specific test Polymaker has a cardboard spool and printed perfectly using the stock Prusament settings. Since then I have dialed in Polymaker to print cooler and the results are great. I plan on giving eSun another try in the future.

Ya, for this test it was a simple test of which one performs the most like Prusament without making changes. Polymaker is the clear winner, but to be honest I print it a bit cooler after dialing it in. I am working on a follow up video to this where I dial in each filament and have temperature towers and other test prints to see performance. Trying out several different PETG filaments so this will be a much larger in depth test. Hopefully when that video releases you will like it.

Yep a greater printer to start with and to have multiple of.

You’re welcome and thank you for that feedback! That is good to know showing the product up front is a good place to start.

You are absolutely correct that the temperature needed to be adjusted on that eSun. Though in regard to stringing one of the potential causes of stringing is moisture, but I am pretty sure my issue was with temperature and retraction settings. If I would have dedicated time to figuring it out I am sure I could have corrected the problem, but the test was to find a filament that could run with stock settings on the printer. I appreciate the feedback by the way and if you have any insight on setting changes for eSun please let me know. I am thinking about doing a follow up test where I dial each filament.

@@builderdads Well... stringing is often mentioned in relation with humidity, but as a person who studied physics but was in love with chemistry most of my life, I'd say that this link is highly overrated. Though the term "unrelated" may be a bit of an exaggeration too... Anyway, the main culprit is temperature (speed and flow are in the play too, but... mostly temperature).

@artplus5757 makes sense, I actually just had a really good email exchange with Jessie filaments and they educated me on the difference is resins between them and some other brands. Sometimes you forget all that goes into what we want to be a simple string of plastic. I tell you this journey of learning is never ending and just when you think you have something figured out you realize how much more there is to learn. I also want to thank you for bringing this up and giving me a different view of the problem.

@@builderdads Hey there! I've been thinking about the humidity effect on stringing... and I FOUND the way this actually can happen! Namely, if the filament is really "wet" and you can hear the blobs popping (water vapor is exploding when the filament is melted at high temp), this affects the filament temperature and therefore the viscosity at the point of the bubble burst, which can then result in stringing. This "mechanics" sounds plausible :) So, I stand corrected! Contrary to my earlier beliefs, humidity can affect stringing after all.

@artplus5757 yep and while it may be unlikely for most brands it may happen. I know talking to Print Solid about Jessie they stated that you don’t need to dry theirs at all if you take it right out of the bag and start using it.

Thanks for the suggestion I just ordered a roll of IEMAI from Amazon to give it a try. Since this video I actually started using Jessie PETG and am in the process of recording a video about that experience and my impression of it. For me my goal is to make as few setting changes as possible and get repeatable results on the Prusa MK3S+ and MK4 printers. Right now I am achieving that goal with Jessie and the only thing I do is dry the filament. What was your process for using Polymaker and what printer are you using it with?

​@@builderdads I am trying to use the Polymaker petg on both a Bambu P1P and a Peopoly Magneto X. After wasting nearly an entire spool, I'm certain the Polymaker PETG was not meant for these machines. Especially not the Magneto. I think it would work great on an Ender 3 or similar machine. Which is probably why it works good on the Prusa. The surface quality, shiny vs matte finish, and layer bonding is entirely inconsistent unless I raise the temperature to at least 255c, preferably 265c . However at those temps the material itself starts to accumulate on the nozzle and burn, leaving burned petg blobs at random places across the print bed and parts. Maybe it just doesn't like either the hardened nozzle on the P1P or the tungsten nozzle on the Magneto. Perhaps a brass nozzle would be better for it, or maybe it's just not mean to be used as a high flow material.

@jazzcabbage_official good questions. I abandoned running Prusament on the Bambu X1C because after multiple spools and more hours than I can count of tuning, I just couldn’t get it to work. I have actually found Bambu’s brand of filament PLA and PETG to run well on it. In another comment someone mentioned that eSun was the actual manufacturer, but I did not verify on my own. Might be worth a try to see how Bambu runs? I know if I buy it on Monday in Ohio that I usually have it by Friday.

That is a great suggestion! I don't know why I didn't do that before the old CTRL + T and it looks great on my file. Thanks gain!

Well the test was to actually not spend time tuning it and to get a first impression based on use of generic settings. Who did the best job with the least amount of work. In the end Polymaker and Jessie turned out to be really good substitutes with no tweaking to switch between the MK3S+ machines and the MK4 machines. Sure I could have spent time doing temperature towers, flow, and other setting tweaks, but my goal was to not do that. I have a long thread on Reddit about tweaking Prusament to run on the Bambu X1C and after that experience my goal was to find out of the box success. I hear where you are coming from and I am sure I could have gotten any filament to work by putting work into it, but that wasn’t my goal.

Ya I wasn't happy with it at all. I was using a lot of Polymaker for a bit, but have now moved on to Jessie. So far so good the color has been pretty consistent and spool to spool good results. I am about 10 spools in with black PETG and 2 spools in with red. I am happy with the results.

@@builderdads You should do another set of reviews. I'm sure folks would love to see your results.

That is a good idea! Right now I have Polymaker in the MK3S+ and Jessie in the MK4s so that would be a good comparison the same part too!

I agree with you having a machine that just works is the most important part of this. So far now that the MK4s are dialed in they seem to be less needy than the MK3S+ machines were. Cost is a big factor though and I agree the Bambu X1C has a comparable price tag and pretty much works out of the box (as long as you don't clog the nozzle like I did with Prusament... ooops). I like the Apple to Linux analogy and I get it. I think at this moment I am still sold on Prusa, but time will tell as the X1C gets better can they upgrade it to be flawless first time | every time? I don't know the answer to it, but they are grabbing up a ton of market share from Prusa so it will be interesting to see these two go head to head for the Premium home printing solution and also for the small commercial print farms.

That is good to hear about Prusament in the EU. I know the part that kills me is the shipping on it which is why I am happy that Polymaker and Jessie filaments are working out for me. The call between Bambu and Prusa for me comes down to my experience with printing PETG and how it was a struggle for me to get parts to come out right without lots of tweaking to settings. Now that was months ago and I recently tried printing again after months of my Bambu sitting idle and things worked out better. I actually do use my Bambu again now, but it is because the Prusas are always busy. I know a lot of folks swear by the speed and I have seen a ton of videos where folks swear by the Bambu, but honestly the Prusa has been a great machine. I love the support and the ability to reach out and talk to someone about any problem. With Bambu your best bet is the user community which can sometimes be a rough place. I have seen a folks come down hard on simple questions because they felt the question to be dumb. I never really get that mentality because we all have to start somewhere and sometimes that one question might be the lightbulb moment that person needs to really get things going for them. As for problems with Bambu my issue was dialing in settings to find the perfect mix for Prusament PETG. It just seemed to not like it though I have had success with Bambu filament. For the Bambu I have had enough issues where it really just is not my go to machine. I'd rather schedule the job for one of the Prusas to do it because I know the quality will be great. Bambu just doesn't live up to the hype for me. My issues have all been surface imperfections. For the MK4 as long as you keep the print head clean I basically walk away. I have some WYZE OG Cams in the cases to watch, but honestly they run as many hours as I can run them with very few issues. I have had a couple things go wrong and I do not use the Input Shaper because it seemed to give me more errors than the improved speed could overcome. I had a few crashed and level shifted parts so I printer standard speed, but honestly PETG loves slow and steady or at least that my observation so why not keep it there. My vote is still Prusa and I know some will question my logic, but honestly despite being behind the curve a bit to Bambu I just think they will keep building quality machines that are reliable. I am actually about to upgrade one of my MK3S+ printers to a MK3.9 because I needed to do a few larger repairs like hotend and filament sensor so if investing the time I decided why not upgrade. This way I will have spare parts for my other MK3S+ to last for years. I am not a Cosplay person, but I print a lot of parts and jigs for woodworking and my go to is PETG. It fits all of my needs and stands up to all that I put it through in the shop. I have clamps printed, parts to machines, templates for routing, mounting brackets, and so much more. I would say you should be fine but depending on layer height and speed to print you might need to do some post processing so just make sure you understand the best way to get the results you need for the things you print. I hope this answer helps you out and would be interesting to see which way you decide to go for printer and filament. Event better would be 6 months or a year down the road are you happy with decisions you made. Thanks!

@@builderdads Thanks for the awesome and detailed answer! I'm giving me 2 weeks to still do more research and think about it (it's partly link to the availability of the P1S combo in my region). I love that the Prusa is perfectly tuned to work with Prusament, especially knowing the quality of those filament. I'll try to remember to keep you up on my decision and a feedback months later!

@Thagor95 your welcome and good luck with your research. In the end either way you go I don’t think you will be disappointed. I have talked to several folks who bought the PS1 and they love it so if you go that direction hopefully you will to. Me personally I am just patiently waiting for a free shipping sale then pulling the trigger on 2-4 more MK4s depending on how things are going with my business. Right now I am keeping up, but want to add some more products to my woodworking parts lineup.

Great information to have and I totally agree about the wetness. Even after 6 hours of drying it barely moved.

Good question. I’m trying to remember multi material. Does it give you a quantity for each filament? If yes then I would put the time to print under one and then treat the filament from the other as a separate part. Does that make sense? So you just calculate the filament as two parts with one carry print time for depreciation and power cost.

@dronesdirector9615 please shoot me an email [email protected] with a screen shot please.

thanks @@builderdads

No problem, if I don’t reply right away to your email let me know here in the comments. Sometime things I want to see get marked spam.

Thanks so much for the information! Great question I know I have seen mine display results below 10% but I don’t know if the lower limit is 0. I would assume it would be 0, but my house stays around 40% and I am generally OK when the reading is in the teens after 6 hours. Though I have noticed with the cardboard spools they seem to hold moisture which skews the numbers.

That is interesting. On my Bambu X1C I had problems with Prusament PETG which I love and as a result I stopped using that printer for a while. Now I am using Bambu filament and finding success.

@@builderdads yeah Bambu filament worked great for me too

@Quinnebaug I have been impressed with their stuff printing on the X1. I need to try it on the Prusa to see if I can get good cross machine results.

haven't tried Sunlu but eSUNs filament quality has been horrible for me and I'm never buying eSUN again. Arriving off the shelf at a humidity that makes the filament literally pop without drying and even after drying it for extended periods of time giving me very bad results. I'm currently looking into other brands but so far Polymaker and Elegoo have given me very good results on PLA, didn't try PETG yet though

@@huntingfighteroramara I don't print PLA so Idk how theirs is I just know their PETG is great every time never needed to dry it ever. Also Bumbu lab filament is made by Sunlu and people rave about Bambu filament

No problem glad to help.

Thank you for the compliment. That is brilliant advice! Which dehydrator do you use?

Sure no problem. It took me a minute to put this together, but I make very few changes. builderdads.com/prusaslicer-settings Let me know if you have any questions.

@@builderdads Thank You! I need models for Prusa MK4 electronic cover and psu cover. They are too hot, I would like to cool them passive with better cover.

No problem. I am curious why yours are running hot and need to be cooled? I saw this model online for a board cooling when in a case www.printables.com/model/553004-prusa-mk4-board-cooling . Found this thread on overheating. Not sure if they will help you, but worth looking into. forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-original-prusa-i3-mk4-hardware-firmware-and-software-help/possible-overheating-of-the-mk4-electronics-case-inside-an-enclosure-with-summer-temperatures/

@@builderdads Dont know why is hot. I would like to cool it passive without fans. I already printed out PSU cover from PETG to cool the PSU, so now I just need a cover for the eletronics box.

Interesting... Have you talked to Prusa support? I would be very interested to find out more about why you are having the issue.

I am glad my review helped. I actually am waiting on two rolls of Jessie PETG filament from PrintedSolid. I have heard good things about that filament and feel like now that I have two the work really well is there a third option or will it outperform either of the other two. So far I have used my 10th roll of Polymaker since shot that video and while the results have been consistent on almost all rolls. I did have 1 roll that had a portion of the spool produce bad bridges. Since I run that machine so much and it is enclosed I am pretty sure I can isolate the issue to that roll as everything else shows normal through the whole print.

No problem glad you liked it. My opinion is that you can’t go wrong with the MK4 it is a solid machine. I have been debating what should I do with MK3S+ machines as they start to have issues. Repair or upgrade and if I upgrade how far should I go. Not sure what I will do other than buy another MK4 to put in the stack.

@@builderdads Thanks for sharing your opinion. I guess it's just a question of when I get a Mk4.

@bhartissimo awesome! I am wondering what they do next once they officially idle MK3 production. I think a lot of folks feel like they are still behind Bambu so wonder what they have cooking.

@@builderdads Prusa had an Instagram post about it today. They'll stop selling new MK3 kits tomorrow and will only sell assembled Mk3s till the current stock runs out. But in the same post, they said they'll continue to "offer support, spare parts and MK3.5 upgrades, ensuring that the MK3 will be with us for many years to come."

That is great news. I know personally with my two MK3S+ printers I have to weigh printing as is or upgrading and if so which modification to go with. I guess we will see how things go with needing to replace parts and make a call then.

Thank you I appreciate it!

Awesome to hear!

I’m not sure, but I know costing is a major part of everything I make whether it is furniture, 3D printed, or other. It is also a major source of stress which is why use spreadsheets to make the process logical.

@builderdads I'm just starting to learn on my new printer, just having fun and trying to get all the filaments, trying to get friends to buy a roll and I make them some stuff lol. there's a lot to learn to be a skilled creator, hope it doesn't take too long 😅

@kevinb7551 the best thing you can do is keep doing it. The more you do the better you get and as things break on your printer you learn even more by fixing and troubleshooting. I recently took on the challenge to expand my knowledge of filaments. It was enlightening and best yet I was smart enough to film it! What kind of printer are you running?

@builderdads I jumped into the x1c... I have some experience in setting up machines for wood molding. let me tell you the versatility of our old machines was awesome, but the set up time was a killer. So I went with quick setup to print without all the tinkering to save on that learning curve, lol. But if I learn all the CAD, slicing, and coding on this then I'm probably going to get a rig to mod. Unlimited print bed and multi head interest me so far.

The X1C is a good machine. While I prefer my Prusa printers even though they a slower the X1C does have a place and it is actually right behind me. I recently gave it another shot printing some quick clamps I designed to hold a shoe rack to my bench better and I was so happy with the results. I then took a roll of Bambu PETG and decided to run a test on my DeWALT planer modification to see how it went. It was such a better experience than it was 6 months ago when I stopped using it for that part and reinvested in Prusa. Still some minor surface stuff but a solid print overall. The CAD stuff is where things really get fun. I use Sketchup to do my modeling because it was what I learned when I first got into woodworking and I know it really well now. I love my ability to go from design to finished print in a short amount of time. I to am very interested in those topics you mentioned and a Prusa XL might be in my future (if I can justify the spend).

Agree! I don’t see a problem with the cardboard with the Prusa printers at all, but won’t know about Bambu until I try it. I will say that I have been reusing my plastic spools from Prusa for a while now and have a collection because I like to buy the refills and save a few bucks.

Your welcome! It’s funny as soon as that test was done I went to Amazon picked up 3 more rolls to arrive this morning and have 2 cooking already to go into the machines later today.

@builderdads when you were comparing the packaging of the Polymaker, ".... and it comes in a re-sealable bag." Hold up! What? <goes over to a new box of PETG> sure enough. I completely overlooked that when I opened the first one. Now I'm headed to the store to get a sturdy cardboard box to enclose my printer until I can finish making the parts for the enclosure to enclose my printer to print more better parts. I feel like I'm headed down a visious spiral of maker enjoyment.

This is how you quickly go from one machine to many. Enjoy the spiral it is fun!

Wanted to let you know I am now printing Polymaker on all 4 Prusa machines. One of them is on its second roll and I have 2 drying. I am extremely impressed so far.

@builderdads Hey! That's awesome! Big money savings. I bet you're thrilled. Mine is printing way better now that enclosed it with cardboard until I get the actual enclosure built. The parts are strong and clean. I'm very happy with Polymaker so far.

Well to be honest I haven't printed anything for any pets though I did once consider doing a water bowl.

Your welcome! I am actually getting ready to run a comparison on Prusament, Polymaker, and eSUN PETG to see how they all stack up against each other on the MK4.

@@builderdads I look forward to that

Me too! I am running low on Prusament and need to validate that my choice to use it exclusively for PETG in my MK3S+ and MK4 machines has been the right decision.

@builderdads Nothing against Prusa, and I'm sure their filament is great, but I'm hoping the others do really well. I would like to avoid the $10 more per roll plus the extra shipping charge.

Exactly where I am at right now. To get the shipping cost per spool down to $6.71 for me I need to buy 21 spool an order. Which I can go through pretty quick, but that gives me a per spool cost of $36.70.

Glad you liked the video and thank you for that suggestion! I actually shot some video while I was assembling the two for the MK4s and figured out a better flow to it than I had when I assembled the two for the MK3S+ printers. It shouldn't be to hard to find something to talk about because I did print the sheet holders, the tool holder, I added fire suppression, I added cameras inside the cases and I have still to go making an LED light setup for inside the enclosure. Now the hard part finding the time to shoot the video.

I still need to make a video talking about the Prusa enclosure, but wanted to share with you this upgrade I just made for it so I could mount some Wyze cameras in the cases. www.printables.com/model/801046-wyze-cam-og-magnetic-mount

Absolutely! Metal work is on my bucket list of things to learn how to do. Hopefully I can add that as a stretch goal for my 2024 list.

That is awesome to hear you got one too! My basement is almost exactly like yours on the old side which is where the printers are now and the MK4s are running perfect at the higher temp. Funny enough the MK3S+ printers are right next to them printing perfect at stock settings, but my guess is my Z is just low enough where it matters less. I have two SUNLU driers and they do make a difference by cooking out extra moisture though mine are not plumbed into the machine directly. I print enough that I run through a roll in 2 days so I haven’t had to do any recooks yet. I do also preheat the enclosure to get things warmed up while I am prepping surfaces. Be interested to see how things change for you as temps warm up in spring so keep in touch. And happy printing and building to you too!