The 3DBenchy is an awesome model - but do you know how to use it?

Thanks to Micro Swiss for sponsoring this video! Check them out at store.micro-swiss.com/
Read the article to this video here: toms3d.org/2022/11/08/how-to-...
Models shown:
3DBenchy 3dbenchy.com
Low-poly Pokemon by Flowalistik www.flowalistik.com/portfolio
Filament/printers used:
Prusament PLA Pearl Mouse and Gentlemen's Grey go.toms3d.org/Prusament
Prusa Mini and MK3 go.toms3d.org/Prusa
Sources for CO2 emission data:
www.researchgate.net/figure/E...
innovationorigins.com/en/prod...
Product links are affiliate links - I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you)
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🎧 Check out the Meltzone Podcast (with CNC Kitchen)! / @themeltzone
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[@bracco23]

"It doesn't float" *Proceeds to toss benchy in water, showing that they do float, just upside down.*

[@Hotkife]

Glad I wasn't the only one 🤣

[@ericlotze7724]

I think "Float as a Boat Would / as One Would Expect it To" was implied...

[@alejandroperez5368]

​@@ericlotze7724 They are autists, leave them be.

[@JohnL_S17]

No but actually yes

[@conorstewart2214]

Mine aren’t very stable but they do float upright.

[@BLBlackDragon]

The Benchy *is* a good calibration print, but a lot of people don't know why, or how to use it fully. This is a nice explanation of all of that. Thank you for putting this video out.

[@jeffreyepiscopo]

"0-60 run"..."1-2 seconds on the gas" Thomas what car ya got there? Lol

[@AniviaS]

Well, he was saying that a 0-60 run emits multiple times as much CO2 as a benchy, so the equivalent of a benchy is only a fraction of the 0-60 run, not the whole run. If your car needs 6 seconds then the equivalent would be about 2 seconds from the 0-60 run

[@user-wo7rl4nm7w]

That kid named car:

[@rodryk5605]

It's always important to revisit the basics. Thanks Tom!

[@calaphos]

I love the small Blahaj on the cabinet 😍

[@Inkomstkatt]

I have printed a great number of benchies throughout my life, and saved every last one of them. It is my dream to one day use them to play some kind of tabletop war game.

[@buckaroosan5571]

Been 3d printing since 2013 and I have never printed a benchy. But, this video finally convinced me that it is worth printing.

[@darkshadowsx5949]

took me 5 years to print one.

[@paulo-kiefe]

Thanks, Thomas, for making this great video about how to use the #3DBenchy. You touched on every aspect and feature for which @DanielNoree and I designed this benchmark part.

[@techandtoystuff]

I have some very small spacing between layer lines on the top of the cargo box. But only there. Assuming I am having a slight under extrusion issue? It's only with nylon though. Other materials do great.

[@stanstocker8858]

Greetings! It was great seeing you art ERRF, and this is a very nicely done video. You've made a very concise and detailed explanation, better yet you've pointed out the dimensional issues that can lead a person to wrong or at least somewhat inaccurate conclusions. There were a few points that I didn't really appreciate until now, and a few Benchys will be made in the near future. Some subtle things I've been chasing may be slicer profile rather than klipper config issues. Seems things are getting a bit better, glad to see it. Thank you!

[@murk1572]

I appreciate that you talked about decalibration cubes. It's been boggling my mind of a while that it even caught on. *Surely* the *manufacturer* would know the steps/mm on a printer with belts that they provide? Filament extrusion is by far the least accurate part of FDM printing, relying on it to calibrate the motion system is a terrible idea. Same thing about extruder steps to a degree. The main difference between filaments is tooth engagement, which depends on the flexibility on the filament and changes the effective radius of the extruder gear. The smaller the gear, the larger the problem. Of course, it *should* be calibrated to something relevant, like PLA, but that's again calibrated to *that* PLA, not all filaments. This discrepancy should be corrected as a flow setting, but you have to keep in mind this is just a relative offset *between* filaments on that extruder specifically. Does it make sense to calibrate with TPU of you only print TPU? Probably, but you just need to understand what you're dealing with.

[@twanheijkoop6753]

Yes, printers should be somewhat calibrated from the factory. But not every buys a complete 3d printer some built them themselves. And even though creality should know what belts and motors they are using, they apparently forgot that the day they build my S1.

[@deathpony698]

back in the Prusa Mendel days, YOU were the manufacturer

[@AndrewGillard]

Even if you build a custom printer from parts (as I did in 2017; shout out to Tom's "Dolly" Prusa i3 MK2 clone series 💜) and thus don't have a manufacturer to figure out settings, _the steps/mm can be _*_accurately calculated_*_ using details from the motion components!_ Prusa's website has a web-based steps/mm calculator that makes it easy :) I can't imagine how a printer's motion system could be messed up enough that _measuring a printed part to determine steps/mm_ actually becomes a good idea... For belt-driven axes, steps/mm is a function of: • stepper motor steps per full rotation or degrees per step (typically 200 or 400 steps, aka 1.8° or 0.9°); • motor driver microstep settings (16x, 32x, 256x, …); • belt tooth pitch (usually 2mm); and • the number of teeth on the drive pulley (16 and 20 are common, IIRC). Lead screw-driven axes can be calculated similarly, using the screw's "lead" (1, 2, 4, or 8 mm - this is not necessarily the same as its pitch).

[@MadeWithLayers]

Oh, sorry, I accidentally deleted an interesting comment here :(

[@mpierce374]

Whatever floats your boat, Tom.

[@wktodd]

FYI Bow pronunciation: bow of a ship is pronounced the same as the bending forward motion on meeting a king (for instance) this has emphasized O , like the O in Ouch ! . Bow with a soft O is what you might wear around your neck as a tie .

[@AwestrikeFearofGods]

Actually, it's a besaitet blattfeder-pfeilwerfer.

[@mpoxDE]

Awesome, some really helpul infos to refer to - video is bookmarked :) Keep it up, love your stuff and the way you share infos like that.

[@Ritrixone]

Hey Thomas, I've been watching your videos for the last couple of years and finally got myself a printer. This video made so much sense after printing my first benchies A million thanks !

[@iLEZ]

Thomas, you are so incredibly talented. I find myself watching each and everyone of your videos even though the last 3d printer I owned was back in 2013, and it was a beta model Cel Robox which is pretty much trash now compared to modern printers. Thanks for the steady output and take care.

[@DejitaruJin]

I've gone so long without ever printing a Benchy, it feels like I'm committed to the bit now.

[@JohnUllrey]

In English, the bow of a boat or ship is pronounced like the way you would say "cow" or "ow" (i.e. I hurt myself). Not tying to be critical, just trying to help. Your content is always great, and your mastery of the English language is superb. Probably the best English I've ever hear from a native German (And I lived in Germany for several years back in the 80's).

[@mateogonzalezperez7726]

The best thing about the 3d benchy for me is that since it is so easy to print (by size and speed) you end up having a lot of them which allows you at a quick look to determine what you can expect from your printer or if it can do better by comparison with others.

[@WavePuntFrl]

Hello Thomas, i'm new in the 3d print world and want to thank you for your clear information (not only in this video), Thanks man !!

[@DustinGorman]

Thanks for another informative video, Tom. Constantly looking forward to more of your videos. Hoping you can find a stable and affordable studio solution so you can keep putting out videos like this. Take care for now!

[@reinux]

I had no idea the Benchy had so many measurements. I always thought it was just a cute ブリッジング test.

[@BuildItBasement]

As always great video - The format length for this topic is dead on. A little more detail on causes and solutions to issues would have been great, but again, for this format VERY difficult to fit in. I would series out this video and do in to detail, a lot can be said about tuning and additional solutions to topics like ringing. I haven't made any videos in the past six or so months as I have been installing a solar system on my home, I'll get back at it soon! You are one of my original inspirations to make videos! Thanks for all your efforts! By the way, you and Stefan need to start making more episodes of The Melt Zone! Both of you are amazing creators and a library of knowledge! Unstoppable force when you team up!

[@m_a_s6069]

Love all of the Benchys and the gigantic Benchy McBenchface.

[@davidfarning8246]

As a new printer (person learning to print) I have found the various calibration prints to be useful for learning how adjusting various paremeters affect a print.

[@mokdumoknonsharrall1868]

This is a great explanation! thank you!

[@davidb7723]

Love the new studio!

[@haenselundgretel654]

Wow! Never printed one in 3 years of 3D printing... Now I'll do it! Great video again!

[@Iisakkiik]

Also a fun fact: you can lock two bemchys together by pushing their chimneys to each others basket, or whatever that hole is called behind their cabin.

[@Linuxdirk]

I bought my 3D printer last year roughly around mid-end November and moderately often used it to print various stuff. One thing I never printed, was a Benchy. Maybe I should give it a try 🙃

[@bzqp2]

:o

[@tiestofalljays]

I credit the Benchy for teaching me the ins-and-outs of getting my old Ender 3 Pro dialed in. My Prusa has been smooth sailing basically the entire time, but the Benchy was invaluable for my Ender.

[@deathshaker0026]

Thank you this video helped me so much!!!

[@SubiCarLous]

I'm new in 3d printing and it's just great to be able to compare the print "perfomance" and just be sure that the printer is set correctly. Also you learn what different parameters cause.

[@sander915]

Benchy is awesome. Thank you for the great content.

[@tyutje]

I'm loving the Blahaj!

[@matthewrice5721]

I spent a couple of weeks over the summer really dialing in a PETG profile, since I'd never printed with it before, and I printed a lot of Benchys before I finally got a perfect one (almost perfect, anyway).

[@nine0ten771]

Thomas it looked to me like it floated just fine. Just upside down. Love your video's.

[@davelloyd8454]

Very useful. Great video.

[@CobaltGriffonary]

There's a couple audio glitches at 12:12 and 12:29, the normal audio cuts out and some random female voice plays instead.

[@shenqiangshou]

yeah I was wondering if I'd lost my mind suddenly hearing some Japanese!

[@matthewfyson3695]

Dude I've beent rying to calibrate my printer properly for ages using online guides, and you've told me exactly what's gone wrong I think. Running a second test print now to see if I've fixed it.

[@ricardopereira3461]

Great content Like always !

[@ulaB]

Wow. A Fabrikator Mini! - that was my very first printer. :)

[@joed1978]

Helpful!

[@PaulLemars01]

Benchy's are so darn useful. I print off a Benchy every time I load up a new spool of filament. I then write the filament type and the date on the bottom and this gives me a snapshot of my printer and the issues with the filament over time. I just caught the Artillery X2 having a problem with it's Bondtech clone extruder. Nothing serious, just the tensioning screw backing out. Now maybe the plastic tensioning arm is failing but I cinched up the screw and bought a replacement online to be arriving tomorrow. Would I have caught it with a regular print? Sure, but that would likely have been a large failed print not the tiny Benchy. They also look cute as nerdy garlands for our Christmas tree every year.

[@jennibgmailcom]

Excellent Tom. Thanks. BTW bow of a boat is pronounced like the word how.

[@matwyder4187]

It will definitely float when broken down to microscopic fragments, as even PLA refuses to decompose under most natural conditions. I haven't got much issue dumping plastics in landfills (reasonably, make less useless crap), but if there's any chance of this stuff ending up in natural waters, we got way bigger concerns than our CO2 footprint. Otherwise quite informative, after months of experimenting, I might finally decide to print my first Benchy :)

[@pr0xZen]

@2:55 Holy fishlegs batman! Is that an eagle's nest, or are you cooking up surprise al dente carbonara for a small army?! 😮😳

[@quinnobi42]

I use calibration cubes not for calibration, but as a quick way to gauge the actual color of a new filament. It also highlights if my nozzle temperature is really off for that new filament. Yeah, not as useful as a benchy, but when it only takes 20 minutes to print, I would say it works just fine. Also I have a jar of the cubes as a sort of collection, which works better than a jar of 3d benchys would.

[@AerialWaviator]

Good idea for doing color testing, with bonus of a decorative jar. BTW: 1/2 sized-cubes would print faster. 🎲🎲

[@alejandroperez5368]

@@AerialWaviator 1/3 sized cubes would print even faster.

[@Gepstra]

@@alejandroperez5368 No cube it is 👌

[@DL30Creations]

2:34 LMAO. Talking about car gasoline and then taking a sip. Flashback to the movie The Wraith where the dude Skank was drinking automotive chemicals and getting a rush. Toooooo funny.

[@Mando5]

your the best! thank you!

[@jimbob1er]

There is also thermal dilatation of plastic that affect accuracy. Different plastics will have different thermal dilatation also using different print bed temperature. ABS 100° vs PLA 60° etc. More visible on larger parts. Some filament manufacturer indicate contraction about 2-3 or 4%.

[@imqqmi]

ブリギング 🤣 The shot you showed with the belt tensionor cloth clip thing, bringing springiness to your 3d printer is a terrible idea. Just make sure the belt is tight! Anyway great content as always! I just refuse to print the benchy, I've always printed cubes and made a mess of my decalibration lol! But seriously when I build a new 3d printer I usually print a slab of 20x20x2mm just to dail things in. It's quick and hardly any waste. Then go on to printing my projects and adjust from there. Usually the looks don't really matter to most of my functional prints.

[@Loebane]

I was so confused as to what that was. It sounded japanese, I had no idea he was just having it read the word bridging.

[@imqqmi]

@@Loebane I did immediately recognise it, aka japanglish, I do that in my head sometimes saying words Japanese would've. I've studied a little Japanese a few years ago. It must be some kind of reference that was lost on me as well. It could be that Thomas has a love for Japanese culture, manga, anime etc. I like it anyway, adds a little layer of depth to the content 👍

[@twincast2005]

*ブリッジング And as far as I can tell, it's probably a meme taken from a video on yoga or physiotherapy etc., as a quick search turned up much more of those than of ones on 3D printing.

[@Voodoobrew101]

LMAO thanks I was trying to have google audio translate that and i got so many different results, lol the third failed attempt translated it to Dinggou = "subscribe" or "order"

[@Tomasu82]

My kid loves the benchies. Sure i printed far too many of them back when i first got my 3d printer, struggled with quality issues, did some mods and struggled a little more... But he still plays with a lot of them. Wouldnt call them a total waste for sure. Heck i like the benchies. I keep a couple around for myself lol.

[@xxorza]

Thanks!

[@MadeWithLayers]

Thank you Illia!

[@Roberto-oi7lm]

At the risk of being criticized by the great unwashed, I'll take a chance at being called a grammar Nazi. As someone who has been watching you for years, I know that you are one of the most precise people making videos. Your English language skills are superb and you are able to convey your thoughts better than most native English speakers. I'm sure you're proud of that. In addition, the educational value of your videos is second to none. I consider you the guru of 3D printing. So having said that, I'll mention that although the forward part of a boat, the "bow" is spelled the same as the bow in bow-and-arrow, it has a different pronunciation. Bow, when referring to boats, is pronounced so that it rhymes with the word "cow". I'm standing by for incoming hate-bombs from your nearly half a million subscribers.

[@Javierm0n0]

people who get mad about the "waste" of benchies should never look into the calibration materials used in industries all over the world. They might have an aneurysm.

[@meisievannancy]

Boiling a kettle at 2kW for a few minutes to make tea vs using a 250W power supply for a benchy print time when it only uses a fraction of that 250W to keep the bed and extruder at temp, also the stepper drive consumption would be a good comparison. I will do it sometime.

[@501stheavytrooper]

Love how he thought he needed to specify that he wasn’t chugging gasoline

[@Axelius89]

I like the Ikea shark on top of the shelf in the back 🦈

[@NohusBluxome]

The Benchy does float like a boat! You have to very carefully place it into calm water, but it does work.

[@DavidMulligan]

What happened to the audio at 12:16?

[@PaulRice-Charles]

I was wondering the same thing.

[@stever1412]

New studio looks much brighter, and visually nicer on screen

[@sugatooth]

our 3D senpai is back at it again!

[@ericlotze7724]

Have you made that "Smartphone Photo Studio for #3DBenchy and tiny stuff" yet? It uses a slick mechanism to get repeatable photos, would be neat for comparing this many benchies!

[@Becvar80]

I had no idea how much I needed this until now.

[@MrWizard209]

That amount of fuel is what my trunk drinks when I look at it, let alone floor it. hahaha. Great video with a ton of great information.

[@uhu4677]

To be honest, I think there are more useful prints to tune in your settings. I use specific towers to test a range of settings in one print. Saves time and material.

[@kousakasan7882]

Question. I have a cr10s all stock. I am trying to print faster. I noticed when I turn the dial on the controller during the print, I can increase the speed. With the part I am printing I turned it up to 192 percent and it turns out exactly the same as at regular speed but in half the time. Am I damaging my printer by doing this? Also, the new printers are so fast. How much better and faster is a new printer over my old cr10? Thanks for all your great videos!

[@slacksthegreat]

I love it when tech guys are secrete car guys. Subscribed.

[@stonefish98]

Quality calibration. Garrus Vakarian approves.

[@333donutboy]

What about how fast a benchy can be printed? A lot of makers don't know how long an acceptable quality benchy should take. You see a lot of the benchy speed boat challange videos and some people think that their stock ender 3 should do that too. I realize every printer is different so an exact time isn't reasonable. I was thinking that if you can mention an average time to print, that would give makers a realistic expectation of their printers capability. BTW great video and super helpful. Love the melt zone podcast as well. You and Steffan make a great team

[@Becvar80]

I don't know what's "ideal," but even sliced at 150mm/s, a benchy takes just over an hour on my Kobra.

[@3DJapan]

I just set up a new printer and printed a Benchy. There is a small amount of ringing but maybe a bigger issue is that the boat is 2mm longer than it should be.

[@bevinbell6600]

Wouldn't it make more sense to use a dial indicator to see if the machine is moving the correct amount and measure the parts to see if you just need to scale them differently for each type of material or size? That's what I planning on doing.

[@meisievannancy]

Slugs back some whiskey and says it is tea. 😂

[@KilerChese]

Would you ever suggest a rigid 3D printer made from high lead lead screws, like igus High Helix screws that can do 50, 70, and even 100mm of travel per one rotation of the screw. The original printer was built by 3D Distributed called The Workhorse a d Workhorse XL

[@marcelzuidwijk]

What's that on 12:16 ??

[@twincast2005]

A Japanese woman saying "bridging". Why? No idea.

[@Loneman_OG]

I've been FDM printing for over three years, but I've _never_ printed a Benchy and only ever done a cube (which came out perfect) once. Hmm, perhaps it's time to finally print one & take some measurements. 🤔

[@genericgoon3748]

Five years of using my printer and I'm still yet to print a benchy

[@sed6]

Every time I get a new color or type of pla I print a benchy. Tells me everything I need to know.

[@TinaDanielsson]

That's sounds like a good practice 👍💯 I'm going to see how that works out on my filaments that have been opened at different times over the years. It'll be interesting to see the results 🙂

[@MartinWolker]

You can also connect 2 Benchies together :)

[@Sttreg]

at 13:58, we can see some horizontal line that perfectly align with a change in the vertical plane, like the start of a horizontal hole. I've been trying to get rid of this issue for days now but can't find the main reasons. I have tried em tuning, belt tension, z binding, removing supporting dense layer in super slicer, tuning input shaper and pressure advance, and so on. Do you know what this could be ?

[@theKashConnoisseur]

There can be multiple causes, as I'm sure you know. Aside from those you've already looked into, it could be due to inconsistent filament diameter, fluctuations in hotend or bed temperatures, mistuned e-step calibration, or lose fasteners in your extruder assembly. On the slicer side, it could possibly be related to Flow settings, linear advance values which are poorly tuned, or perhaps extruder acceleration/jerk values being set out of optimal range. Basically, what I see is inconsistent over-extrusion. It's not regular enough to be Z wobble, and it seems most pronounced on the long sweeping curves of the bow where the printer can maintain more speed as it moves through those segments. It's possible Tom was just cranking the print speed parameters as high as reasonably possible to crank out the example models for the footage? As for your machine, I wish you luck in troubleshooting.

[@TheButchersbLock]

The infamous hull line, I was watching a teaching tech video (I think it was him) that went into a good idea why it is there. I can’t full remember but printer settings are not the cause, it is an artefact of the model

[@Sttreg]

@@TheButchersbLock do you know what the video was about? i truly need to find it to understand better and try to fix it

[@TheSanpletext]

I would arguae that Benchy DOES float. Technically. It floats upside down, but it is buoyant nonetheless. (No, I'm not invited to parties anymore)

[@sergeb7945]

0:33 A short glimpse of a forgotten past 😉

[@NOFMAF]

Thom, what is the scale of the large Benchy, also, does it need supports?

[@matthewmathis62]

Thank you for this video! I am commenting because I heard that if you comment then it greatly increases your chances of that Channel appearing in your feed again.

[@caperdoodle]

I appreciate this video a lot. But I never know how much infill to do for it. 30%?

[@ballbous]

Hope to see Thomas talk about Slice Engineering recently ramping up their patent trolling, I'm personally going to be using a non-premium account with adblock for any youtubers supporting Slice Engineering moving forward, as that's the only way I can feel like I'm not supporting something inherently amoral.

[@53Ericd]

Thomas, what am I hearing in your audio at 12:15-12:16 ?

[@Mr_Wayne]

Now I’m thinking about all the calibration I could do but don’t know if I want to get into…

[@rpavlik1]

I use a glow filament benchy as a bit of a nightlight...

[@PureRushXevus]

I still haven't printed a benchy, in all these years :I I use teaching tech's calibration page :p

[@matsmeinhardt80]

I am looking for filament color matching Bosch Professional tools. I would like to print a case for my screwdriver. The large Benchy looks like it could be a good fit, what filament did you use?

[@MadeWithLayers]

Gentlemen's Grey go.toms3d.org/Prusament

[@andys3dworld]

loving that #kitchenCore studio vibes. LTT got nothing on you!

[@j4nch]

What filament did you use for the big benchy? I love it!

[@MadeWithLayers]

Gentlemen's Grey go.toms3d.org/Prusament

[@Runoratsu]

Blåhaj in the shot. 🤔 Any deeper reason, or just showing support? ♥

[@Clon1998]

Really nice video Thomas! However, since the benchy was designed with a 0.4mm Nozzle in mind what should ppl do that ran lets say a 0.6mm one? Is scaling the bench up by 50% a valid option than?

[@Ungelox]

I think if you use the new arachne mode the scale of it doesnt matter.

[@SWREngineering]

I am having that issue right now... Ender 6, Cura 5.6.0, Armadillo TPU, 0.6mm nozzle and a normal sized benchy I have to print stupidly slow... like 10mm/s. I have printed bigger items - less fine details - at 60mm/s with the exact same settings and filament. Yes, it is a torture test, but still..

[@loltroll85]

challenge! find the best scale infill and material to make it float i believe its possible

[@thejaybacho]

😂 Not me thinking you just drank actual gasoline

[@BigManko]

Thats gread sound advice. Thank you for that. Does anyone have a link to the Calibration Sticks? This sounds like a good way to start calibrating machines that are completely out of whack.

[@MadeWithLayers]

this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5PRYpahh51pkJo

[@BigManko]

@@MadeWithLayers Thank you very much. Really appreciate it

[@jchristensen2022]

I have never printed a benchy since starting 3d printing three years ago.

[@Dieselbird]

Ive been 3d printing 4 years now, built my own printer from scratch, and i have never once printed a benchy 😂😅

[@spyke3575]

But what about thr bemchy hull line? Still trying to sort it out on my printer.

[@AmixLiark]

Last time I checked the chemical composition of the atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and almost 1% argon and way less than 1% of ANY OTHER GAS.