North Dakota engineer unveils 3D printer that mines Bitcoin while printing

PizzAndy, a North Dakota-based mechanical engineer, has developed and demonstrated Proof of Print, a prototype 3D printer that replaces a resistive bed heater with Bitcoin mining ASIC chips mounted under the build plate. The hashing workload generates heat to maintain bed temperature while producing mining output, aligned with common targets for materials such as PCTG.

The current build places four BM1362 chips beneath a bed measuring about 110 by 110 millimeters. At a setpoint near 75°C during printing, the system averages around 500 gigahashes per second. During warm-up, output can approach 1 terahash per second before dropping as temperature stabilizes. Hash rate can rise again as more material is deposited because the added thermal load prompts higher clock speeds to hold the setpoint.

Instead of running the chips at a fixed frequency, the printer modulates clock speed to regulate temperature. No fan is used to cool the bed; thermal control comes from frequency adjustments. Mining runs on CGMiner, linked to the printer controller through a custom script. A graphical interface was shown as a mockup, while the active setup operates through command-line controls.

The prototype uses a GeckoScience hashboard repurposed from a coffee-warming device and coupled to a custom heat sink that serves as the heated surface. The motion system draws on the open-source Voron design, and both firmware and hardware development are built on open-source stacks.

The target users are print farms that run continuously, where power bills is a key cost. In his words: “It only makes sense if you do it at scale,” with viability depending on whether long-term mining yield can offset hardware and power costs. Electrical design for the modular hashboard is being co-developed with an engineer known online as Unknown Audi. Commercial options under review include modular heated beds, complete printers, retrofit kits, or bulk-modified machines for farm deployment. A pre-production engineering sample of the modular system is planned in about a year.