Teaching Tech Is Closing the Chapter: Michael Laws Returns to the Classroom After 8 Years

If you've spent any time fine-tuning a 3D printer, there's a good chance you've followed one of Michael Laws' guides. Whether it was his bed leveling walkthrough, his temperature calibration towers, or his now-legendary online calibration tools, **Teaching Tech** became the go-to starting point for hundreds of thousands of makers worldwide. On 2 January 2026, Michael posted a video titled *"I'm returning to full time teaching — Reflecting on 8 Years of Teaching Tech."* After five to six years as a full-time content creator, the Australian-born educator is heading back to the classroom. ## Eight Years of Making 3D Printing Approachable Michael started Teaching Tech around 2018 as a side project while working as a teacher in Victoria, Australia. His background in education was obvious from day one — the tutorials were structured, methodical, and built for people who'd never touched a printer before. That's rarer than it sounds. Over time the channel grew into something the community genuinely relied on. His calibration site at **teachingtechyt.github.io** became a first-stop resource for dialling in new printers — offering tools for PID tuning, retraction testing, linear advance, resonance compensation and more, all in one place. It's still live and still gets referenced daily in subreddits and Discord servers. His other standout contributions include: - **The bed leveling masterclass** — A thorough, no-nonsense walkthrough that remains one of the most-watched 3D printing tutorials on YouTube - **Bambu Lab coverage** — Michael was one of the first major creators to seriously benchmark and critique Bambu's machines as the brand exploded in 2022-23, bringing nuance to conversations that often tipped into tribalism - **Ender 3 and Klipper guides** — His entry-level tutorials helped countless people upgrade from stock firmware and get more out of budget machines By the time he wound down content creation in early 2026, the channel had accumulated well over a million subscribers. ## Why He's Leaving — And Why That's OK In the video, Michael is candid about his decision. Content creation at the level he was operating required something close to full-time hours, and after nearly a decade, the pull of his original profession was strong. He was a good teacher before YouTube, and he'll be a good teacher after it. Importantly, he isn't burning the archive. All videos remain online. The calibration tools site stays live. The printer calibration guides, the troubleshooting walkthroughs, the material tests — all of it is still accessible. The Next Layer podcast featured Michael in **Episode 79** (published 19 February 2026), where he reflected on eight years of maker education in a longer-form conversation. It's worth a listen if you grew up on his content. ## What This Means for the Community Teaching Tech's departure leaves a genuine gap in beginner education. Not because no one else is doing it — creators like CHEP (Filament Friday), The Next Layer, and 3D Printing Nerd all cover similar ground — but because Michael had a particular gift for the fundamentals, the kind of clear, unhurried explanation that actually helps a first-timer understand *why* a setting matters, not just *what* to enter. That said, his back catalogue doesn't disappear. If you're new to 3D printing and haven't discovered Teaching Tech yet: - **Start with his calibration site** — [teachingtechyt.github.io](https://teachingtechyt.github.io) — it remains one of the best single resources on the internet for getting a printer properly tuned - **His bed leveling video** remains the definitive guide for most FDM machines - **His Bambu Lab playlist** is useful context for anyone considering a first serious printer purchase The 3D printing community has built something unusual over the past decade: a robust ecosystem of volunteer educators who've made the technology genuinely accessible to people who'd never describe themselves as engineers. Michael Laws was one of the people who made that ecosystem real. He's not gone. He's just teaching a different classroom now.