Reviews & Features – Page 3 – The Garage Journal

A few months back, I did a head-to-head between the Bambu X1 Carbon and the Prusa MK4. When the dust settled, I admitted I liked the ease of use with the X1C, but philosophically? I’m more in line with Prusa—their stance on privacy, open-source ethos, and their overall take on the 3D printing world just feels more grounded. I’ve been in the 3D printing game since the dark ages. My first setup was a bargain-bin Ender, and back then, a 15-hour print was standard—and if it actually finished without imploding, that was a miracle. Printing wasn’t about creating things; it …

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I’ve been using an XL Moleskine as a shop notebook for damn near a decade—one a year, like clockwork. There’s a stack of them now, seven deep, lined up like the archives of a mad scientist. And yeah, there’s a kind of romance to it. Weathered faux-leather, dog-eared pages, the smell of ink and failure. I can flip back through them like old war logs—scars from projects long buried and half-won. But romanticism has a price… and it’s inflexibility. You want to glue a blueprint in there? Better grab the glue stick like a schoolboy. False starts? Irrelevant notes? Tough …

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Another one bites the dust. Finished off a shop notebook yesterday and found myself staring at the corpse like some kind of deranged archaeologist—seven dead volumes since 2015. A hell of a paper trail. But the real question is: Do you keep one? You should. A proper shop book is the nerve center, the battle plan, the sacred text that keeps the gears from flying off. Mine is a chaotic mess of to-do lists, scribbled cut diagrams, half-baked blueprints, and scattered inventories of missing consumables I should’ve restocked months ago. It takes discipline—just a little, nothing life-altering—but it pays off when …

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Coming from a vintage hot rod background, I’ve always clung to the belief that the cleaner you keep a car without messing with the paint, the better. Waxing? Rarely. Full detailing? Maybe once a year if it’s really crying for it. But by and large, I do my best to keep from rubbing on the finish too often. This approach doesn’t waver much with my late-model daily driver either. If it’s covered in filth or has taken a beating, it might see a full detail once in a blue moon. Otherwise, I just keep it clean with a quick wash …

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My odyssey into the realm of 3D printing commenced some five years back with the acquisition of a Prusa Mk3. That machine was a veritable fortress, impervious to the whims of fate. Yet, truth be told, my enthusiasm waned swiftly. The allure of the medium eluded me, lost amidst the clutter of the workshop. Once the novelty of printing sundry baubles wore thin, I cast it aside, consigning it to the depths of a closet, forgotten. Then, about a year ago, a new contender emerged on the scene. Enter the Bambu Lab X1, heralded as a paragon of speed, reliability, …

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