I can vouch for the A1 mini.
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Ok, I did some googling, looks like without AMS I would be printing in all one material, and with I could use up to 4 different colors/materials that would be able to print to make one solid object. I was wondering how that worked, very cool
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You can swap materials without an AMS it’s just a manual process.
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You can also do material swaps without an AMS or MMU. Like I make the waffle stomper without the AMS. The printer just pauses and prompts me to switch materials.
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You can also print in multiple colors by manually swapping the filament, but it works best for entire sections/layers of one color, and then another entire section/layer in a different color. The AMS (or Prusa MMU) is much better for mutliple colors on a single layer. Depending on the design, using a filament handling system can add a lot of time to the prints and waste a lot of material (it has to purge the nozzle every time it changes filament).
Edit: I guess I’m slow…
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Ask a question, get three identical answers around here 
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That white is moonstruck white satin HTPLA. It’s an excellent dupe for delrin when printed with very fine layer lines. 0.06 - 0.1 mm.
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This is how I make my MMU behave. Pegboard with rollers behind the printer. Cardboard spools get a rim added. Since moving to this setup I’ve done thousands of tool changes with only a couple failures outside of a couple filaments I learned will just never work well (anything with grit or fiber added)
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That’s the one downside to the elegoo atm the ams unit is not released yet. Hopefully by Q4 this year but who knows.
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I’m considering pulling the trigger in 2026 which gives me time to research up
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I answered my own question, disregard this msg lol
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If you’re using any type of pre-made axle system (FD, SE, etc) those alone will exceed $10 per throw, though you can reuse them on different throws if you don’t want to keep them all functional at once. The ProtoPasta stainless is about $50/kg, so can get expensive - but you probably aren’t using it exclusively if at all. Pads or flowable silicone aren’t free, but not all that much. If you’re adding metal via press-fit for looks or functionality, you’ll need to source that (but can find cheap stuff if you’re not wedded to a particular size/precision). PLA/PETG are cheap.
There’s some cost of maintenance on a 3d printer, but it doesn’t kick in for a while in my experience.
If you want commercial software that’ll be far more than $10 for annual licenses too (though there are free options that can work, it may be a time/$ tradeoff for some people).
And of course your time is probably the most expensive part of them all. The number of iterations to get something functional and feeling “right” can be rather high, and I know I like to print at a fairly low layer height to minimize the stepping (some day non-planar ironing will help I’m sure) so each try takes a while. And learning whatever design software you’re using is another potential time sink, depending on your current skills.
FWIW - I find I use my printer WAY more than I thought I would. Beyond the obvious primary use of printing yoyos 
, it’s an amazing tool for any obscure little problem in life that a bit of custom-made plastic can fix.
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I’m gonna answer anyway because I already did the math before you edited the post lol.
Most fixed axles cost me around $3.25 to make, add an extra buck and change for bearing throws. The waffle stomper costs more than most yo-yos I make. if my math is right costs me around $9.15 cents to produce one. I do go all out, importing my favorite brown TPU from Spain, etc. Really leaning into that artisanal poop joke.
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Yeah that’s about right. You can find cheaper material or much more expensive for that matter and change that number but a for the most part around 3-5 for a fixed axle is about right
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I am so glad you both saw my message before I edited, and gave such good input.
And your love for the craft definitely comes through in your work, thank you for sharing it with us
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I’ll note I won a giveaway and got a bunch of hatchbox pla free so my prints are atm like 15 cents in power consumption or something silly like that.
Pre tariffs I found some cheap pla that made my prints around 1.50 each. Sadly things aren’t as cheap now and printing material is still heavily impacted atm
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I’ll add that the $9.15 cost isn’t quite finished haha.
I paid an artist to convert Berv’s vision into “box” art, ordered bubble mailers in it and 4mm wide MR85s which I haven’t gotten possible tariffs on yet. I also plan on possibly laser cutting boxes or other swag.
But those costs are also not an actual part of production necessarily. 3d printed yo-yos don’t usually pay to commission box art
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Lol, by the time the fifth batch comes out it will ship with a branded shower cap lol
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I calculated the cost of the wedding favor yoyos at $3.64 each, which included filament, axle/nuts/bearing, silicone, custom POG caps, a drawstring muslin bag, and 2 strings. I went cheaper on some components for those than I usually do though. In general, my printed throws probably end up costing between $3 and $6 each (with a few extreme outliers, of course).
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