HomeForge / The list
103 curated picks · 5 pillarsThe HomeForge list
A hand-picked kit for the overlapping worlds of the smart home, the homelab, the 3D-printing bench, and running your own AI. No scraped catalogs, no filler — every item here is something worth owning, with an honest one-line take on why.
Some links are affiliate links (e.g. Amazon Associates) — if you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only list gear worth owning.
🏠 Smart Home
Local-first home automation. Bias toward Home Assistant, Zigbee/Thread/Matter, and gear you own rather than rent from a cloud.
Hubs & Coordinators
- The no-fuss way to run Home Assistant — plug in, power on, done. The default recommendation for anyone starting out.
- PoE, an M.2 slot, and a built-in Zigbee/Thread radio. The upgrade pick when you want one box on the network.
- Still the most flexible base for a DIY HA server. Pair with an NVMe HAT and it flies.
Radios & Coordinators
- The SkyConnect successor — a USB Zigbee + Thread stick that keeps your radio off the main board and easy to relocate.
- The budget coordinator everyone recommends. Flash it, stick it on a USB extension, forget about it.
Sensors & Presence
- Cheap, tiny, reliable Zigbee contact sensors. The gateway drug of home automation.
- mMWave presence done well — knows you're in the room even when you're sitting still. Zone mapping is the killer feature.
- Open, ESPHome-based mmWave presence board. The tinkerer's answer to closed-box presence sensors.
- Bench-tested: cheap, accurate Zigbee climate sensors with a display. Great for rooms, fridges, and the 3D-printing enclosure.
Switches, Plugs & Power
- Relay + power metering that hides behind an existing switch. Local API, ESPHome-flashable, MQTT — the enthusiast favorite.
- Compact Zigbee plug with power monitoring at a price that lets you buy a ten-pack. Doubles as a Zigbee repeater.
- Zigbee plug with energy monitoring that also acts as a Zigbee router to extend your mesh. Rock-solid in Home Assistant.
- Cheap, reliable Zigbee plug with power metering. Pairs instantly with any Zigbee coordinator (ZHA/Z2M).
- Thread + Matter plug with energy monitoring and no cloud or Wi-Fi — the closest thing to a set-and-forget local Matter plug.
- Whole-panel, per-circuit energy monitoring for a fraction of the utility's price. Feeds beautifully into HA dashboards.
Lighting
- Still the gold standard for reliable, fast smart lighting. Expensive, but it just works — and now speaks Matter.
- Bright, affordable smart lighting with a huge range of strips, bulbs, and room kits. A strong value pick when local control is not the only priority.
- A broad ecosystem of affordable bulbs, switches, and light strips. Check the exact device integration before buying because Tuya hardware varies by model.
- WLEDFree / DIYFree firmware that turns an ESP32 + LED strip into gorgeous, HA-controllable lighting. The DIY entry point.
Voice & DIY
- Local voice control with no cloud eavesdropping. The privacy-first alternative to Alexa/Google.
- ESPHome + ESP32Free / DIYThe framework that turns cheap microcontrollers into custom HA sensors and controllers. Where the real fun starts.
Bench & DIY Electronics
- Bench-tested. Dual-core Wi-Fi + Bluetooth for a couple bucks. Buy a 2-pack — you'll always want another.
- Bench-tested. The tiny board behind my Wi-Fi thermal-printer build. Perfect for single-purpose gadgets.
- Bench-tested. Solderless boards in a few sizes. Prototype before you commit anything to solder.
- Bench-tested. M/M, M/F, F/F ribbon cables. You will use every one of these and still want more.
- Bench-tested. Crisp little status screens for any ESP project — two data wires and you're showing readouts.
- Bench-tested. The part beginners skip and then fry a board. Bridges 3.3V ESP pins to 5V peripherals safely.
- Bench-tested. Heat-resistant surface with magnetic wells for screws. Saves your desk and your sanity.
- Bench-tested. A grab-bag of sensors and modules to learn with. The fastest way to find your next project.
🖥️ Homelab & Self-Hosting
The boxes, drives, network, and software to run your own services and stop paying rent to someone else's subscription.
Mini PCs & SBCs
- Tiny, quiet, cheap x86 boxes that run Proxmox or Docker beautifully. The homelab starter that isn't a Pi.
- Step-up mini PCs with real cores and RAM headroom — for when one node stops being enough.
- A shockingly cheap ARM box that sips power — perfect for a always-on Tailscale/AdGuard/utility node.
NAS & Storage
- The most polished turnkey NAS. Pay the premium if you want storage that your family can use too.
- The value NAS challenger — strong hardware, and you can run TrueNAS/Unraid on it if you outgrow the stock OS.
- CMR NAS drives built for 24/7 spinning. Buy from mixed batches, always keep a cold spare.
- Fast, pocketable USB-C SSD — great for Time Machine, VM backups, or a bootable rescue drive.
Networking
- Prosumer networking with a gorgeous controller. Once you VLAN off your IoT gear you won't go back.
- Pocket router running OpenWrt with WireGuard/Tailscale baked in. The remote-access swiss army knife.
- TailscaleFree tierZero-config mesh VPN that makes your whole lab reachable from anywhere without opening a single port.
Self-Hosted Software
- Proxmox VEFreeFree, rock-solid hypervisor. The foundation most serious homelabs are built on.
- Immich ⭐FreeSelf-hosted Google Photos replacement that's genuinely good now. The reason a lot of people build a homelab.
- JellyfinFreeFully free, no-account media server. Owns your movies and shows without a subscription.
- AdGuard HomeFreeNetwork-wide ad and tracker blocking. Point your DHCP at it and every device gets cleaner.
- Frigate NVRFreeLocal, AI-powered camera recording with real object detection — no cloud subscription, no monthly fee.
Power Protection
- Keeps your NAS and HA box alive through blips and lets them shut down cleanly. Non-negotiable once data matters.
Bench & Maintenance
- Bench-tested. Label your cables, drives, and bins. The cheapest upgrade to a homelab you'll actually maintain.
- Bench-tested. The reliable, non-conductive default for repasting a mini PC, NAS, or GPU that's running hot.
🧵 3D Printing
Printers, filament, upgrades and tools that earn their place on the bench — tuned toward the Bambu ecosystem but not married to it.
Printers
- The best first printer, full stop. Auto-calibration means you print instead of tinker — unless you want to.
- Full-size bed, same hands-off ease as the mini, optional AMS lite for multicolor. The value sweet spot.
- Enclosed CoreXY speed demon for ABS/ASA and engineering filaments. The upgrade most people land on.
- The open, repairable, made-to-last alternative. Buy it if you value the ecosystem and want to own your machine.
Filament
- Consistent, RFID-tagged filament that the AMS reads automatically. The path of least resistance.
- Matte finish, great color range, eco-spool. A favorite for parts you want to look intentional.
- Reliable, affordable PETG for functional parts that need to survive heat and stress. The go-to workhorse.
- Bench-tested (I go through this by the case): high-speed PETG that prints clean and cheap. My default workhorse spool.
- Bench-tested. Big-spool value PLA that winds neatly and doesn't clog. What I reach for when cost-per-gram matters.
Upgrades & Accessories
- Multi-color and multi-material without babysitting. Also just a great auto-feeding filament pantry.
- The five-dollar upgrade that saves your nozzle the first time you print carbon-fiber or glow filament.
Filament Drying & Storage
- Bench-tested — the one I use. 4-spool capacity, 3 circulation fans, 350W PTC heater to 70°C, with humidity readout. Wet filament ruins prints; this fixed my stringing and brittle parts.
- Bench-tested. Color-indicating beads (orange → green when spent) that I keep in the AMS and every storage bin. Bake them dry and reuse for years.
- Bench-tested — the airtight containers I actually store spools in. Add a scoop of desiccant and filament stays dry for months. Cheapest insurance against wasted filament.
Tools & Software
- OrcaSlicerFreeThe community slicer with the best calibration tooling. Free, and better than most stock slicers.
- You cannot design functional parts without measuring. Buy one decent pair, not three cheap ones.
- MakerWorldFreeHuge, mostly-free model library with one-click print profiles for Bambu machines. Start here before modeling anything.
🤖 AI & Local LLMs
Run models on your own hardware, and drive Claude & ChatGPT like a pro. The same 'own it, don't rent it' ethos as the rest of the list.
Run AI Locally
- Ollama ⭐FreeRun open LLMs locally with one command. The easiest on-ramp to your own private AI.
- LM StudioFreeA polished desktop app for downloading and chatting with local models. Great for non-terminal folks.
- Open WebUIFreeSelf-hosted ChatGPT-style front end for Ollama and any OpenAI-compatible API. Runs beautifully on the homelab.
- JanFreeOpen-source, offline-first AI assistant. Everything stays on your machine.
Hardware for Local AI
- Unified memory makes it a shockingly good, quiet local-LLM box. The value pick for running mid-size models.
- For local AI, buy the most VRAM you can afford. A used 3090's 24GB still punches above its price.
- A tiny always-on edge box for running small models and vision at the edge of your network.
Manage Claude & ChatGPT
- Claude Code ⭐Free / SubDrive Claude from your terminal to build, edit, and automate. The power-user way to work with Claude.
- ChatGPTFree / SubCustom instructions + Projects + memory turn it from a toy into a real assistant. Learn those three and it changes.
- CursorFree / SubAI-native code editor. If you write code, this is the fastest on-ramp to model-assisted work.
- LibreChatFreeSelf-hosted, multi-model chat UI — bring your own API keys for Claude, GPT, and local models in one place.
Learn AI
- The field guide to building real products on top of foundation models. Start here if you're going pro.
- The best illustrated, practical intro to how LLMs actually work and how to use them.
- Free, focused, hour-long courses on prompting, RAG, agents, and more. The fastest way to skill up.
- fast.aiFreeThe legendary free, top-down deep-learning course. Rigorous without being academic-for-its-own-sake.
🎒 Tech EDC
The tech you actually carry — gadgets, power, audio, and the organizers that keep it all from becoming a tangle in your bag.
Gadgets & Tools
- Bench-tested — mine runs Momentum firmware. A pocket multi-tool for RF, NFC, IR, and GPIO. The most fun thing in the bag.
- Waxed-canvas roll that keeps your bits, cables, and small tools organized and rugged. The grown-up alternative to a ziplock bag.
- The kit that opens every phone, console, and gadget. If you mod hardware, this lives in the bag.
- Bench-tested — the multitool I carry. One-thumb sliding pliers with serious clamping force, plus drivers, blade, and more.
- Bench-tested. US-made Kydex holster that carries the Dual-Force on your belt, so the tool is actually on you when you need it.
- Bench-tested. Clip-on utility holster with pockets for a multitool, pen, and small gear — keeps the loose stuff together.
- Bench-tested. A tiny ratchet that snaps onto a multitool's flat bit driver — turns it into a real ratcheting screwdriver.
Power & Cables
- One small brick that fast-charges your phone, tablet, and laptop. GaN means tiny and cool-running.
- Tells you what's actually charging and which cable is lying to you. A tinkerer's truth-teller.
- A 100W braided cable that won't fray. Carry two; you'll always need one more than you have.
Audio
- The value-per-dollar pick for calls, podcasts, and focus — most of the good stuff for a fraction of flagship prices.
Phone Accessories
- The one-handed grip + kickstand that quietly prevents dropped phones. MagSafe versions pop on and off cleanly.
- Cards on the back, flips out to a stand for videos. Ditches the bulky case-wallet.
- Bench-tested — the case I run on my phone. Built-in kickstand, MagSafe, and genuine military-grade protection.
- Bench-tested. Space-grade steel grip + stand that's half the thickness of a PopSocket and pops off for wireless charging.
iPad Accessories
- Bench-tested. Slim magnetic folio with 20+ viewing angles and auto wake/sleep — turns the mini into a stand anywhere.
- Bench-tested. Tri-fold rugged case with a built-in Pencil holder — protection without turning the iPad into a brick.
- Bench-tested. 9H glass with an alignment/install tray so you don't trap bubbles or dust. Buy the two-pack.
- Bench-tested. Stick-on holder so the Apple Pencil stops rolling off the desk or vanishing in the bag.
Apple Watch
- Bench-tested. Breathable nylon loops in every color for a few bucks each — the easy, cheap way to change the watch up daily.
- Bench-tested. Titanium link band with a steel buckle — the premium metal look for a fraction of Apple's price.
- Bench-tested. Tempered glass + alloy frame that actually saves the screen from bench dings and doorframes.
- Bench-tested. A tiny USB-C magnetic puck so you can top the watch off from any charger or power bank in the bag.
Notes & Focus
- Bench-tested — my e-ink notebook. Paper-like writing with zero notifications: the antidote to taking notes on a device that pings you every 30 seconds.
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