Whatever the nuances are surrounding the reported taking down of remixes derived from the famous Benchy 3D printer stress test, it was inevitable that in its aftermath there would be competing stress tests appear under more permissive licensing. And so it has come to pass, in the form of [Depep1]’s Boaty, a model that’s not a boat, but a bench. Sadly this is being written away from a 3D printer so we can’t try it, but we can immediately see that its low bed contact area from having spindly legs would be a significant test for many printers’ bed adhesion, and it has overhangs and bridges aplenty.

It’s always interesting to see new takes on a printer stress test, after all we can all use something to check the health of our machines. But the Benchy saga isn’t something we think should drive you away from the little boat we know and love, as it remains an open-source model as it always has been. We don’t know the exact reasons why the derivatives were removed, but we understand from Internet scuttlebut that the waters may be a little more cloudy than at first supposed. If there’s any moral at all to the story, it lies in reading and understanding open source licences, rather than just assuming they all allow us to do anything we want.

Meanwhile it’s likely this model will be joined by others, and we welcome that. After all, innovation should be part of what open source does.

Missed the Benchy takedown story? Catch up here.

Thanks [Jeremy G] for the tip.