7 Sanity Saving 3D Printing Tools To Keep Next To Your Printer

Hey folks! My name is Yasu! I’m a professional propmaker, youtuber at Hiro Creations, and semi-frequent collaborator with Sainsmart on a few projects they are sponsoring me on. They asked me to share some of the tools and gear that have helped improve my quality of life in my print room on a daily basis.

Cut gloves: After nicking and cutting myself by accident a few too many times, I decided to invest in a good pair of cut gloves to wear for everything ranging from removing stubborn parts from my bed to removing supports with a palette knife. Where safety glasses can keep your eyes safe, cut gloves can keep your hands protected from errant sharp objects.

cut gloves

Vice grip and adjustable wrench: These two tools are honestly the easiest and safest way I found remove nozzles from a heater block while the hotend is heated (when you need to clear a jam. The vice grip holds the heater block safely (and not put any strain on the thermistor or heater cartridge wires) while the wrench easily unscrews the nozzle.
Vice grip and adjustable wrench

Butane Cooking Torch: This tool has saved me a ton of money in not having to buy new nozzles when they get jammed. I simply unscrew my jammed nozzle and then use the torch to burn out any stubborn plastic from inside and outside the nozzle. Just don’t heat it for too long or you may risk deforming or melting the metal as it becomes red hot.

Digital Calipers: A bread and butter staple that stays close to my printers or modeling computer. In addition to checking calibration cubes to ensure reasonable dimensional accuracy, I also use calipers to measure and resume failed prints at the correct z height by editing the gcode.

digital caliper

Ball tip allen hex wrenches: These wrenches make adjusting or tightening any metric hardware on your printer so much easier especially when you can only access the bolt at an angle which is frustrating with a regular hex wrench. Get a cheap set and thank me later.

Sainsmart TS80 soldering iron: I got one of these earlier in the year, and love it for doing spot soldering in all the hard-to-reach places that a printer that a standard solder station would invariably have difficulty reaching. The fact it heats up and cools down super fast is an added bonus when I need to do a few quick solders.
TS80

Sainsmart Toolpac ES121: This was a game changer for quickly screwing on and unscrewing various housings on my printer and even quickly screwing on delicate things like the wiring terminals on my control board/mosfets, the ES121 works really well to quickly (but gently) fasten any flathead or phillips screw on your printers.
es121