There’s a moment in every marketplace scroll where your brain does the math before your fingers can type “is this still available?” Two Ultimaker 3 printers. One standard, one Extended. Thirty rolls of filament. All from one listing.
The seller was an engineering company clearing house after switching to Bambu Lab. He mentioned one had a “locked up” extruder, called the machines “finicky,” and said the filament was “waterlogged.” He also didn’t seem to care whether I showed up or not.
I showed up.
First Impressions
Both machines are dusty but structurally solid. The Ultimaker 3 uses a composite panel frame, not thin aluminium extrusions, so there’s no rack or twist even after years of storage and a car ride home. Both boot. Both heat beds and hotends. Both home all axes. The mechanical nozzle lift — where the inactive nozzle physically clicks up on a spring-loaded hinge — works perfectly on both.
The total cost was less than a single genuine Ultimaker Print Core. For two machines and enough filament to last a year.
The Specialist Role
I already have a Prusa MK3S+ that handles 90% of everyday printing. The Ultimaker doesn’t replace any of that.
What it does is fill a very specific gap: complex geometry with soluble supports. Load PLA in nozzle one, PVA in nozzle two, and print parts with internal cavities, crazy overhangs, and print-in-place mechanisms. Drop the finished part in warm water overnight, the PVA dissolves, and you’re left with something that would be physically impossible to clean up with standard break-away supports.
The 300mm Z-height on the Extended version is the cherry on top. Because the bed only moves on the Z-axis, tall parts stay perfectly still. No wobble, no layer shifting at the top.
The 80-20 Take
Sometimes the 80-20 move isn’t about buying the best new thing. It’s about recognising when someone else’s “obsolete” is your perfect specialist tool.
Next up: the full teardown — rod polishing, PVA blob removal, firmware updates, and the first dual-extrusion print.