So the best way I’ve read about is to model a small container in the bottom and fill it wit something heavy like steel marbles (but in the case of steel marbles they shouldn’t move around) they use clay but i don’t know if it’s safe to pause the print and fill the container with clay mid print.
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I use generally use nuts.
You can make room for them vertically or horizontally and they are more easy to refrain the movements than with balls. And the are a lot cheaper too.
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Depending on how many you buy, pennies may be cheaper than nuts, washers, BBs and other such items. Unlike used-up batteries, they are also stable and won’t leak over time.
Rocks from the ground are probably free but consistency can be an issue.
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Make sure no matter what you use that it is secured. I have seen some videos where people have used sand for example and as soon as the toolhead went over it the fans blew the sand into the whole printer. You can imagine how much fun it is to clean that. Sand works generally but I would always make sure to cover it with some glue.
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Yeah, @Olias posted a cautionary tale (with pictures) about using sand…
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I made a bookshelf that needed a very stable base for it. It has an access port on the side that screws open and closed. It holds about 4 kg of sand. I wanted to avoid adding anything heavy to it while it is printing so the sand is all added after the fact.
This also seems like a model that MakerWorld should love to feature as it takes several kg of PETG to print the tallest versions but so far it hasn’t been noticed.
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I have a bottle of stuff I think is called “liquid ballast”. But it’s not liquid. It’s basically really small steel balls/shot. Pours out like a liquid. The small diameter ball size means they pack together pretty tightly. Density isn’t as good as solid steel, but it gets pretty close.
Check model railroad sites for this stuff. There’s a lot that’s made from or to look like rock, so you might have to do some digging, but there are some that are metal. Good for packing the most weight in the smallest volume short of actual solid metal.
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