3D Printer Hardware

[ChefBourgeoisie]

We have a Prusa (mark 3, I think?) at work that I've never had to dick with. But maybe the other guy had it calibrated before he left. Only ever been a problem once, and I built the file with the wrong size filament configured.

Quite honestly, I'm worried more about the consumables. Been experimenting with potato starch, was only able to get it to about 4% lactic acid. Distillation didn't work, had to much start and bacterial slime contaminating it. Can't find any place that will ship tin octonoate to a residential address either that doesn't want me to buy a kilogram of it either.

 

[NKVD qt]

90 bucks on filament? I've bought printers cheaper

It obviously depends on what you are trying to make. But glass filled nylon is pretty nice to work with and quite strong. If you don't need high part strength though yeah no need to spend 45$ a kg.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

They're pretty expensive, but I like keeping my in-use rolls in one of the filament warmer boxes. Turn it on before use to make sure it's dry.

On the cheap side, put the spool on your heated bed, put a box over the spool, set the bed to the appropriate temp for while.

Use a cheap food dehydrator as a filament drier. Stick a thermometer in it to see how far off its thermostat is and you're good to go. That's what I have.

I realize this is probably a dead thread however if anyone in interested I recommend the bamboo labs a1 without the color switcher as an amazing budget jumping in point. I recommend spending the extra 8 bucks for an additional hardened 0.6mm nozzle if you plan on printing filaments with abrasive additives like my personal favorite Polymaker Fiberon™ PA6-GF25

Nylon is great material, though kind of a pain to print with, but so far I do not trust any fiber reinforced filament to actually be appreciably stronger than just the filament on its own, and they tend to leave tiny fragments of whatever is in them everywhere. Has independent testing shown that it's any stronger or more durable than the same material with no glass fiber? Does it come out covered in tiny glass fibers that shed everywhere? The shedding issue has come into the public eye recently as some youtubers did some videos on it, but it has been a concern since the introduction of carbon fiber reinforced PLA years ago. Injection molded glass filled nylon is not necessarily indicative of the performance of the same material extruded and fused by a 3d printer.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

I have a creality ender 3v2 or something like that, and it really kind of sucks, and it constantly needs babysitting. Anyone can recommend a better, and preferably faster, printer? I don't care for abrasive filaments, nor for fine detail.

 

[WhatInTheActualFuck]

Use a cheap food dehydrator as a filament drier. Stick a thermometer in it to see how far off its thermostat is and you're good to go. That's what I have.

This is a pretty great suggestion, since you can make tasty beef jerky when you're not drying filament.

That said, I do have a purpose-built filament dryer - I like it since I can feed the spool straight to the printer from the dryer with both running for long prints.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

This is a pretty great suggestion, since you can make tasty beef jerky when you're not drying filament.

That said, I do have a purpose-built filament dryer - I like it since I can feed the spool straight to the printer from the dryer with both running for long prints.

I just put mine in a dry box after drying it. I have a home made one that is a gasketed tub with terrarium heater and a bunch of silica gel beads in mesh bags in it. It fits 4 rolls of filament and each has its own bowden tube fitting which I just cap off with a small automotive vacuum fitting cap after pushing the filament back down. Seems to work well enough for TPU and Nylon. TPU is probably my most used filament.

 

[NKVD qt]

Use a cheap food dehydrator as a filament drier. Stick a thermometer in it to see how far off its thermostat is and you're good to go. That's what I have.



Nylon is great material, though kind of a pain to print with, but so far I do not trust any fiber reinforced filament to actually be appreciably stronger than just the filament on its own, and they tend to leave tiny fragments of whatever is in them everywhere. Has independent testing shown that it's any stronger or more durable than the same material with no glass fiber? Does it come out covered in tiny glass fibers that shed everywhere? The shedding issue has come into the public eye recently as some youtubers did some videos on it, but it has been a concern since the introduction of carbon fiber reinforced PLA years ago. Injection molded glass filled nylon is not necessarily indicative of the performance of the same material extruded and fused by a 3d printer.

The glass fiber largely just makes nylon less of a PITA to print with it does still have the problems fiber filaments have but significantly less warping etc while printing. It is going to be less strong than injection molded GF nylon and it might shed a little.

 

[Lil' Hog]

I have a creality ender 3v2 or something like that, and it really kind of sucks, and it constantly needs babysitting. Anyone can recommend a better, and preferably faster, printer? I don't care for abrasive filaments, nor for fine detail.

If you're still looking for one, I heard the stuff from Bambu Labs is quite good.

Tho don't expect to be able to tinker with it. It's not like the Enders or Prusas where everything is open-source and upgradeable. They're trying trying to sell their stuff as an appliance product (you unbox it and it's ready to work) rather than a printer.

 

[Belgians in the Congo]

Any recommendations on items to print that could sell?
Currently just printing snapcaps and it's been not great not terrible, I thought about holsters but not sure what else would be actually decent.

 

[Two Dollars]

I just got a Bambu Lab P1S with Tough PLA filament and have it set up in my living room (my space options are limited). I’ve heard statements ranging from “that printer and filament combo is safe no matter where you put it” to “you will fucking die of canceraids if you don’t properly ventilate”, so what precautions should I take, if any?

 

[DavidS877]

I just got a Bambu Lab P1S with Tough PLA filament and have it set up in my living room (my space options are limited). I’ve heard statements ranging from “that printer and filament combo is safe no matter where you put it” to “you will fucking die of canceraids if you don’t properly ventilate”, so what precautions should I take, if any?

But really, I'd not worry about PLA or PETG at all. ASA, ABS or others yea, I'd avoid being in the same room. Or figure out if the enclosure can be vented outdoors or filtered.

 

[Lil' Hog]

I just got a Bambu Lab P1S with Tough PLA filament and have it set up in my living room (my space options are limited). I’ve heard statements ranging from “that printer and filament combo is safe no matter where you put it” to “you will fucking die of canceraids if you don’t properly ventilate”, so what precautions should I take, if any?

IIRC they are not good for your health, but you need to be at huffing distance of those fumes for them to be dangerous since they release so little per print.

If you want to be safe, just open a window and/or buy one of those chinese table fans to help with air circulation.

 

[Slaac]

I have had a Bambu lab A1 for over a year and i have had it running sometimes for days, and for now i have not had any issues in this whole time i have had it i might have had 10 print fails. so for simplicity i would go with a A1.

and for a extra note i also use bambu filament.

 

[Richard_Wetpasta]

I have had a Bambu lab A1 for over a year and i have had it running sometimes for days, and for now i have not had any issues in this whole time i have had it i might have had 10 print fails. so for simplicity i would go with a A1.

and for a extra note i also use bambu filament.

I've got the same setup and I've been using elegoo filament pretty consistently because cheap. The generic PLA profile is good but you have to lower the bed temp to prevent peeling. The bed temp on mine when printing with it is usually 50-55. For whatever reason there still aren't elegoo profiles in orca slicer.

The biggest issue I've had was interfacing third party filament spools with the AMS lite, if the hole in the spool is too big the damn thing is extremely oppositional to spinning freely and likes to slowly push the spool off. It seems like a deliberate engineering choice to discourage third party filament use.

The workaround I have on mine was to limp it through printing these spool holders, once I got through printing these I haven't had any issue since. There are other adapters out there but these seemed to be the least bullshit out of the ones I've seen, there aren't any moving parts and it just seems to work without hassle.

I haven't bothered connecting it to wifi because shortly after buying I found out they put RFID chips in their official spools, and shortly after finding that out I found out about them getting fucky with their TOS/update service. It seems like a precursor to adding DRM to the spools and I don't think I'd go with bambu again because of it.

 

[Belgians in the Congo]

I haven't bothered connecting it to wifi because shortly after buying I found out they put RFID chips in their official spools, and shortly after finding that out I found out about them getting fucky with their TOS/update service. It seems like a precursor to adding DRM to the spools and I don't think I'd go with bambu again because of it.

This is why despite how much nicer they may be compared to Creality I'm still using Enders, I can't in good conscience recommend them to anyone who may print something funi like Glock frames as opposed to just Reddit cringe figs or household stuff.

 

[Richard_Wetpasta]

This is why despite how much nicer they may be compared to Creality I'm still using Enders, I can't in good conscience recommend them to anyone who may print something funi like Glock frames as opposed to just Reddit cringe figs or household stuff.

It's sad, they could be and likely are a profitable company without pulling this shit. It's hands down the best printer I've had. But no, you have to make a few more shekels.

 

[Waff]

This is why despite how much nicer they may be compared to Creality I'm still using Enders, I can't in good conscience recommend them to anyone who may print something funi like Glock frames as opposed to just Reddit cringe figs or household stuff.

Same but I need to figure out a solution to this printer just constantly refusing to print jack shit on any of my filaments with any of my beds (im using a ender 3v3 se)

 

[Belgians in the Congo]

just constantly refusing to print jack shit on

Can you be more specific? Like what is the issue is the plastic not coming out of the nozzle? Is it a sticking issue? Cura settings?

 

[Slaac]

I've got the same setup and I've been using elegoo filament pretty consistently because cheap. The generic PLA profile is good but you have to lower the bed temp to prevent peeling. The bed temp on mine when printing with it is usually 50-55. For whatever reason there still aren't elegoo profiles in orca slicer.

The biggest issue I've had was interfacing third party filament spools with the AMS lite, if the hole in the spool is too big the damn thing is extremely oppositional to spinning freely and likes to slowly push the spool off. It seems like a deliberate engineering choice to discourage third party filament use.

The workaround I have on mine was to limp it through printing these spool holders, once I got through printing these I haven't had any issue since. There are other adapters out there but these seemed to be the least bullshit out of the ones I've seen, there aren't any moving parts and it just seems to work without hassle.

I haven't bothered connecting it to wifi because shortly after buying I found out they put RFID chips in their official spools, and shortly after finding that out I found out about them getting fucky with their TOS/update service. It seems like a precursor to adding DRM to the spools and I don't think I'd go with bambu again because of it.

Yes, I’ve also seen that they’re adding DRM to their spools. If they go any further with it, I’ll switch brands too. For now, though, I still think they’re a decent company. Maybe Prusa would be a good option for you instead — from what I know, they usually don’t add DRM to their products.

 

[888Flux]

Yes, I’ve also seen that they’re adding DRM to their spools. If they go any further with it, I’ll switch brands too. For now, though, I still think they’re a decent company. Maybe Prusa would be a good option for you instead — from what I know, they usually don’t add DRM to their products.

It’s not DRM, it’s basically a NFC tag so when the spool is loaded into the AMS it can be recognized. It’s stupid and gimmicky but far from DRM. It’s more just like a serial number and a hash to verify the product. It also barely works lol. My AMS and others I’ve seen never recognizes the NFC tag.

The real point of contention should be the lack of third party slicing software support. The Bambu Studio software isn’t that great. While it is open source, having Cura support would be much better.