The latest generation of 3D printers is truly impressive. Their advances in quality and precision allow us to obtain extraordinary pieces with minimal effort, but many enthusiasts have started to pursue a new goal: speed. The latest news comes through Monika McWuff, who recently broke the world speed record by printing a "Benchy", a classic among stress tests for 3D printers.
A couple of online searches confirm that today it's possible to get an Ender 3 printer for less than 250 euros. In other words, 3D printers have ceased to be intimidating and indecipherable creatures, to become tools that deserve a place on any enthusiast's workbench. However, we also have those who never stop optimizing and modifying their printers, achieving almost impossible things. Among that group of enthusiasts appears Monika McWuff, who smashed the world record for the "Speed Benchy" category, which seeks the fastest Benchy print on the planet.
A Benchy in Two Minutes: 3D Printing Speedrunning
The first thing I thought when watching the video was "How didn't that printer disintegrate?" Its movements are chilling, and there's a lot of energy to dissipate. A conventional Ender 3 printer at a speed of 50 mm/s takes just over an hour to print a Benchy. By installing Klipper (an alternative firmware) and applying some tweaks, that same Benchy gets close to 50 minutes. The only way to reach speeds like Monika's is to make massive modifications to the 3D printer, and in this specific case we find nine motors, belts, a blower-dryer for cooling, and a 20-kilogram bumper disc as a base.
(Editor's note: Turn up the volume for the second video)
And it all started with an Ender 3 Pro that she bought for 80 dollars on eBay. A quick visit to Monika's YouTube channel reveals that this is not her first record: In fact, her official and registered mark is the previous one, at 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Obviously, the Benchy doesn't look "good", but quality is not a priority in "Speed Benchy". This presents an interesting contradiction, since the Benchy is a figure designed to evaluate the quality of a 3D printer, not its speed. If you want to know more about "Speed Benchy" and its rules, the links are below.
Speed Benchy Rules and Leaderboard: Here and here.
Source: Tom's Hardware
