This is my cup of tea. I have been 3D printing for almost 7 years now.
I bought my first 3d printer: Anycubic Mega Zero when I was 12 years old.
I made a lot of designs, upgrades and even my own 3D printers. Let's go!
Cocoanix Printer One is a scratch-built CoreXY 3D printer, three years and four full revisions in the making. It started as a remix of Rolohaun's open-source Rook 2020, scaled up to Ender 3-sized print volume with beefier MGN12H rails and a leadscrew Z-axis for extra rigidity. It's run through a top-hat frame, a full acrylic enclosure hitting 55°C chamber temps for ABS printing, a stint with a Stealthburner toolhead (later reverted), and a rebuild of nearly every motion part in ABS after PETG parts warped from heat. Now on V4: enclosure removed, electronics relocated to an external box, Pi Zero 2W brain, and a lavender color scheme — rebuilt as a lean, reliable speed machine, with another custom enclosure already designed for its next chapter. Watch video to learn more!
This Anycubic Mega Zero started as a cheap, limited printer with no heated bed and slow speeds. Now it runs Klipper firmware on an SKR Mini E3 board, controlled remotely through a Raspberry Pi running Mainsail. Linear rails on X and Y cut wobble and unlock higher speeds. A belt-driven Z axis eliminates binding and sag. It has a heated bed for ABS and PETG, a water-cooled Bambu Lab X1C hot end, a dual gear extruder, and an ADXL bed scanner for flawless first layers. Total upgrade cost: $140. Over 200 hours in, it's faster than a Bambu Lab A1 Mini in every test, with only one failure — bad filament. Watch video to learn more!
A 7-year-old Anycubic Mega S converted into a working vinyl cutter for $8.40. Runs an $8 Roland-style drag knife whose offset pivot lets it self-align without a spindle — no firmware changes needed. Toolhead is a full custom replacement, designed in Fusion 360 and printed in PETG, held down with a rubber band for consistent blade pressure. Cuts SVGs converted from PNGs via free open-source software (PolyCut), which generates G-code the printer runs natively. Vinyl is held with de-tacked double-sided tape for clean lifts. Cuts stickers, decals, iron-on vinyl, and small signs — results comparable to a $500 dedicated cutter.
The Cocoanix Printer Zero G+ is a fully custom-built 3D printer combining a MadMax magnetic toolchanger, a TriDra independent triple-Z bed with addressable RGB, and AWD XY motion for speed and precision. It runs Klipper on a Makerbase Monster8 v2 with CANbus toolhead control, dual power supplies, and a 12V-bed relay setup on a 24V board. Housed in a TronXY X5SA frame with Voron-inspired 3D-printed skirts, it also features a repurposed iPad 3 panel as a 2K touchscreen display. Every subsystem was sourced, adapted, and integrated by hand — a true one-off machine built for clean multi-material printing. Watch video to learn more!
This is something that I had to learn to make these things possible. I designed lots of toys, useless models but some of them are real gems. Let's go!