What to buy alongside a new enclosed FDM printer — for someone who just ordered one and would rather not spend money they do not have to. Part of 📝Getting Started with 3D Printing.
Buy it with the printer
- Take the AMS bundle — Automatic multi-material feeding is most of what makes a modern machine pleasant. Bundled is cheaper than adding it later, and you will not go back to single-spool.
- Then buy filament, not accessories — Past the AMS, a new printer needs filament and nothing else. Every other purchase should wait until a specific print demands it.
- Skip the vendor finishing kit — Manufacturer-branded finishing kits carry the same contents as a generic printer tool kit at a real markup. The contents are fine; the price is not.
Get the three tools that earn their place
- Digital calipers — Non-negotiable. Every model you design, scale, or fit to something physical starts with measuring that thing accurately.
- A scraper — For lifting a stubborn part off the plate without gouging the PEI surface or your palm. The one in any generic kit is adequate.
- Flush cutters — For clipping supports, brims, and purge stringing close to the surface without tearing the part.
- A 70-plus-piece printer tool kit — The cheapest route to calipers, scraper, and cutters in one box. Treat the rest of the kit as filler you will occasionally reach for.
Make prints stick
- A basic glue stick — Elmers or any school glue stick. Nothing printer-branded, nothing expensive, and it lives next to the printer permanently.
- Glue stick for PETG and fine detail — 📝PETG and small first-layer features adhere far more reliably with a thin glue layer under them.
- Wash the plate when adhesion fails — Parts stop sticking because of skin oils on the plate. Dish soap and hot water, dried completely, fixes it more often than any setting does.
- Glue also protects the plate — On smooth plates, a glue layer stops PETG bonding hard enough to tear the plate surface off with the part.
Keep hardware on hand
- An M3 hex socket screw assortment — 6mm through 30mm with nuts and washers. Most printable models that use fasteners assume M3 and assume you have them.
- Small disc magnets in several sizes — A large share of printable accessories assemble magnetically. Buying an assortment once beats stalling a print for a week.
- 2-gallon Ziplock bags and indicating silica — The storage half of the filament problem. Details in 📝Filament Storage and Drying.
Gotchas
- Maintenance arrives before failure — 420 hours in, one clog. Cleaning and lubrication took 30 minutes after watching a video. Learn the routine before something jams, not after.
- Filled filaments destroy brass nozzles — Carbon- and glass-filled materials abrade a brass nozzle within a spool or two. Hardened steel is mandatory, not an upgrade.
- Calipers are the tool people skip — They look optional next to a printer that self-calibrates. They are the one tool that decides whether a designed part fits.