28
votes
Any other 3D Printers here?
I’ve casually discussed with several of other printers on here, but would love to casually chat about the hobby
What you print with, materials, settings, slicer, etc.
Me personally, I use a heavily modified Ender 3V2 that runs klipper with a dual z axis and direct drive extruder hotend (orbiter 2.0 on a V6)
I print a variety of PLA, PETG, and just recently got into ABS and ASA
I’m currently working on wiring up a stealth burner setup for the X axis though (in preparation for my Voron build 👀)
And I just recently finished printing the Input Labs Alpakka controller! (which is super duper cool)
But yeah I’m down to answer any questions or talk about anything 3D Printer related
I've had a Prusa Mk3 for years, making its way through the S and S+ upgrades, and adding the Revo extruder. Earlier this year I bought a MK4 with the Prusa enclosure and have enjoyed the improvements so much that I'm probably going to try to sell my MK3 and get another one.
Unfortunately last weekend I was not feeling well, so I wasn't as vigilant as I should have been printing with a new filament and I ended up with the blob of death. I think all it got was one of the fan wires, but I need to get the extruder apart to find out for sure.
Printwise I mostly do functional prints, though I did post earlier in the summer about modelling cake toppers for a friends wedding. I do a lot of augmentations to games – trays, holders, cases, etc.
For the past year or two, I have been designing new parts for the Hadley telescope framework with a friend whose (98 year old) Dad is an astronomy nut, which has been really fun. We built a whole refracting telescope based on that design and designed around a large primary lens he found. I have been putting off building one for myself because I would really want to build a tracking system to go with it, and that's too big a project to take on right now.
I spent most of the summer doing parts for "replacements day" at my daughter's Montessori school and other schools in the area. It was a lot of puzzle pieces for map puzzles, but some other works as well. One of the more interesting requests (that is still in the design phase) is a DNA model that can actually be disassembled to do the transcription / replication process by hand. I have the basic structures mapped out, but still need to work out some details around the mechanical joints and print some prototypes.
My printables profile is here. I recently won a contest, so that was a fun boost. I'm saving up my prusameters to contribute to a second MK4 with MMU.
Hmm my husband could probably use that pencil holder you got that award for. Thanks for that design!
An award for a pencil holder? How special could it possibly- oh. Oh. Damn, that's cool. My partner needs to hurry up with his printer tinkering.....
That’s super cool! I love how you’re involving the hobby with your daughter
How is she taking to it? I don’t have kids of my own yet, but I am very much hoping that introducing them to things like 3-D modeling, and printing will do a lot to foster their creative sides. Definitely going to use the idea of a replacement day at the school as well. That sounds like an excellent way to help them out, while making a lot of friends
I had linked to my printables profile elsewhere in the post, but I don’t have too much going on. I do have several models I re-created that have been fairly popular however and it always makes me excited when I get a rating 😊
Right now her interest is mostly in what I make for her, rather than designing things herself, but I hope to entice her interest in modelling for herself eventually. Something like Tinkercad is probably within her grasp technically already, but temperamentally she is much more of a people person than I am, so she is most interested in things she can do with other people. I hope a problem emerges that will motivate enough interest in either programming or solid modelling so she will want me to teach her, but she's only nine, so I'm letting her set the pace.
I'd love for her to have a solid modelling and/or programming foundation by the time she graduates high school so that she has that as a tool to use in whatever she chooses to study. But parenting is (IMO) largely a process of letting go of my own expectations and fostering her talents in the directions that appeal to her. So I hold open the possibility that none of that will happen, but that she will make her own completely different way in the world.
Very well said. Thanks, I’ll keep that advice in mind
I bought a Bambu A1 + AMS a couple weeks ago. Put it together, got through 1.5 (very small) prints and it died on me. They are sending me a replacement USB cable, and if that doesn't fix it they'll let me send it back for a replacement printer.
Here's hoping I can start printing soon!
That's so sad! I wonder what died. Printers are surprisingly simple when you start thinking about the circuitry and how it all goes together
I splurged on a Bambu P1S + AMS not too long ago and it's been worth every penny. I spent a really long time learning how to get the best prints, but I have to say, the Bambu is super reliable and the preset filament profiles are really well optimized. I almost never have to fiddle with anything, and if a print fails, it's because I fiddled too much or forgot to clean the plate or something. The two mods I've made is to the part cooling fan duct, since the original appears to be really bad, and a CHT nozzle for better melting which let me speed up printing (30mm/s^3 for PLA and 20-25 for PCTG, in most cases). With a drybox and filament dryer, I'm all good to go, and I don't want to fiddle with anything any more.
I bought it mainly because I wanted to get into robotics. That has been on hiatus since getting into printing as a hobby in itself. I've taking the time to learn as much as I can about CAD, including the theory of design, especially for FDM manufacturing, proper slicing and also 3D sculpting in Blender. At times it's been overwhelming but now I'm pretty confident in designing almost anything I want, both functional or artistic (and sometimes a blend) in a reasonable amount of time and with pretty good results on the first print. I occasionally still look for tutorial snippets on how to do something more efficiently.
Most of my prints so far have been small functional items around the house and some nice decorative items, about 2/3 of my own design but I regularly look at online repos for existing parts or inspiration. I very often find out someone has already made a design, and sometimes it's better and sometimes I want it a bit more bespoke. At any rate, I want to get back into the robotics very soon, which requires more studying of motors and other electrical components.
I gotta say though, using LLMs like Perplexity has dramatically improved my learning and troubleshooting rate. I think I've used it a few dozen times a day on average since getting into the hobby.
One thing I will say, and maybe ask people here for their comments on, is I was rather surprised and disappointed with the fairly large amount of waste. If I had any other printer that wasn't printing as reliably as the P1/X1, which I hear is the case, I probably would have spent my money on another hobby. Even with almost zero failed prints on most projects, the iterative design process of drafting even just segments of the project can seriously stack up. Thankfully, I found a recycler in Europe that will accept 'failed' prints and melt it back into recycled filament, that you can then buy again. But, they only accept unmodified PLA and PETG. My failed silk or PLA+ prints have to be trashed, and same with PCTG.
I've been following lots of great YouTuber's in this space (especially the English-speaking German ones, the Germans seem to be really systematic and rigorous about it) and one interesting thing I learned recently was that PLA is actually a really robust material. Unless it's exposed to a lot (some is still fine) of direct sunlight/UV, soaking in water or chemicals, it's the way to go. Most modified PLA can also give some flex to reduce catastrophic failures of normally brittle PLA. I mention this because I thought I'd need to get some nylon eventually, something the P1S is supposed to handle rather well, but I probably won't need to.
The amount of waste in 3D printing is absolute peanuts compared to most other forms of manufacturing, for what it's worth. It takes a lot of stuff to build stuff.
I truly wouldn't worry about recycling it, either, and I say this from the perspective of someone who is an environmentalist. PLA in landfill is another word for carbon sequestration, and isn't hurting anything, and it is quite unlikely that it is a net benefit to ship back and forth to recycle.
//
On the nylon front, I have an X1C, which I originally purchased specifically for a job that required CF Nylon parts. It worked, but I have since managed to replace every nylon part with either PC, ASA, or some PETG variant. ASA in particular has been great- almost as easy to print as PLA, but with UV stability.
Could you elaborate on that? I thought the problem is the creation of new plastic and the filling up of landfills with said plastic.
//
Regarding nylon, what was your application? I want to get into light payload robots. I’ve been doing my research and it seems like enhanced PLA (like PolyMaker PolyMax PLA or the other Pro PLA), not PLA with CF or GF, seems like a viable option for many parts since it can in some dimensions be even stronger and more resilient than all the other materials (assuming no extreme heat or chemicals or UV for prolonged time, which would be rare anyways).
How do you like ASA and PC? I don’t want any styrene fumes in my home and PC seems not the best to print with, but I suppose it has good rigidity which is a plus? I haven’t considered it seriously. I thought I’d use PCTG as my go to engineering filament, since it’s PETG but better, but i was surprised at how flexible it still is under loads. I suppose proper part design can overcome that.
On the engineering plastics: The applications were drone hardware and replacement parts for some industrial machinery. The CF nylon did its job in both, but the post-processing annealing to get the best strength out of the parts really put a crimp on throughput, and it didn't perform as much better as simpler plastics than I'd hoped. The hygroscopic nature of the nylon was a bit of a problem. Straight PC turned out to be a better choice across the board, with minimal redesign required. The lack of the annealing step really helped. (You can anneal any 3D printed plastic for significant benefit, but some are much more necessary than others, and nylon is close to the top of the list.)
ASA has completely replaced ABS and some of my PC and PETG parts. It's second only to PLA in terms of ease of printing. Low creep + UV stability has been a big plus. It does leave a styrene scunge on the inside of the printer, which requires more maintenance to clean, and of course I don't want that in my lungs, either, so I do those runs in the garage, under my vent hood. PETG, PLA, and PC have all been fine indoors.
On plastic waste: Creation of new plastic isn't a problem, as long as it ends up either burned or buried in a landfill at the end of its lifecycle. If it's burned (properly), it's no worse than any other fossil carbon source, and if buried in a properly-run landfill, it's no problem at all. We are not running out of landfill space. We are never going to run out of landfill space. The problem is using landfills in the first place, or not.
The vast majority of plastic in the ocean is emitted from rivers that pass through countries that have minimal waste collection. https://ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics is a great, detailed read, but the short of it is that most plastics reach the ocean from land sources because there is no waste collection involved, with the remainder being from discarded fishing gear. (which is a huge amount of the total. More than a quarter on its own!)
Plastics as used in places where they are then thrown away in to a landfill quite likely a net benefit, as they are lighter and cheaper than alternatives. This isn't a guaranteed conclusion, but it's closer than you'd think.
Regarding the waste: huh, that’s rather counterintuitive but indeed, my country does burn most of its waste and the rest of what you said makes sense. I guess I’ll just keep up with reducing prototype mass.
I’ll consider PC in the future as well. I think my plan will be to use enhanced PLA from PolyMaker until something fails and then switch to PC… I don’t have a garage so if do have to use ASA I’ll have to make one of those “Bento Box” boxes closure filters.
For what it's worth, ASA is definitely less smelly than ABS. It doesn't trigger alerts on my air filter sensor like ABS does. The scunge is real, thus my concern, but it appears to emit less than ABS. If you do make a Bento Box filter, I'd be interested in hearing your opinions about it. It'd be nice to not have to shuffle around the printer if the in-place filtering works well!
The nevermore system is very good, if you are also interested. Originally a Voron mod but it has been adopted to be more useful to other printers. The only thing I don’t particularly like about it is the jalousie, which is difficult to print.
Thanks for the rec. I hadn't heard of it before, and I'll check it out.
There's the Filastruder, which can recycle plastics at home. But plastic degrades as you recycle it, so you have to mix new plastic in when doing this.
Personally, I just prototype in PLA even if I'm going to print the final thing in something else. At least it's
biodegradable andcheap.PLA is technically biodegradable, but only in industrial composter conditions, and there's no guarantee that any additives or dyes used will also be. For most cases, I think it's better to think of PLA as pretty similar to any other type of plastic. PHA shows potential in this regard, but it's still too early to really say for sure.
Welp, you appear to be right. I did that thing where I heard something out of context a decade ago and committed it to memory forever.
I have Ender-3 V3 KE (who the F comesup with the names there?) since this June that I modifiee to be quiet using Noctua fans. I have severely impacted cooling by doing that, which in turn means I get like 4x the printing time that I had before. I'm pleased with it though, as I can print through the night and it stays quiet.
I have printed my share of toys for kids like octopuses, dragons etc. But I have made quite a few useful things in those two months too - holder for garage "open door sensor", adapter for pool cleaner, case for LCD display, thingie to keep planter (the thing you have plants in indoors) from tipping over, Steam Deck charger thing to fit in the Steam Deck case pouch, pencil stand for daughter with drawers for erasers and sharpeners, box with small dividers for daughter and of course I also printed adapters for fans mentioned earlier. In a bit over two monhs I have run a fe kilograms of filament through the printer already.
Now I'm stuck at getting Prusament PETG printing nice. It prints kinda ok, but I can't seem to be able to print fine details. I will come back in a few hours with some pictures. But just to be able to print first layer unifromly I had to set flow to 1.3 for the first layer. The rest must be under 1 or it starts to glue to the nozzle and burn there. But I still have problems with space between walls, like it doesn't have enough material there... Not even with flow set to 1.1, which I don't understand. I print at 250 degrees and 80 on heated bed.
With Creality PETG I have printed without stringing and perfect prints (at least by my standard) everytime.
I have also printed birthday cake (slices of cake) with PLA that my daughters gave to everyone who attended. I have printed a lot from PLA but went for PETG now as it would bemore durable in longer run and price is comparable. I still have to try ABS or ASA.
You can check my Printables profile, but there's not that much to see.
Yeah idk who came up with the naming scheme either. Are you still using the stock hotend, or is it the modiied one on your printables page? I use a 24V Noctua 4010 that does a good job cooling my V6 in a HeroMe setup. The guy managing that (MediaMan) does a good job on an easy alternate to the stock setup. I'm currently running it now with no issues :)
My parts fan is then a 5015 radial blower that does a good job
Have you tried drying the PETG? I keep mine in a drybox that maintains around 20% Rh (rH?) but even with new spools sometimes I'll pop them into my tiny convection oven at 120F/50C for 2-3 hours. Too much moisture increases the amount of filament that is pushed out on the finer details in my experience. Moisture vaporizes to steam, and then physically pushes excess plastic out, which then causes there to be less in some spots too
What slicer are you using as well? Could also try reducing temp. I do 245C first layer, 240C afterwards
Give ASA a try sometime! It's like ABS with less fumes. For me it prints very nicely onto a textured PEI plate
Here's my printables profile too! I don't have too much, but I reconstructed some model files that people seem to be really enjoying
I use the hotend from the photo on Printables. It has severely limited cooling that may be part of my issues. I'm down on 30mm/s printing speed though which should be fine. I print with Creality PETG and it's perfect!
I have dry box for filament and I print directly from there. Humidity is around 30% and the filament was new from factory, not really humid. I reckon this isn't the problem.
I'm using Creality Slicer as other software didn't recognize the printer over wifi. I have tried lowering temps but I think 240 is even worse, which is kinda strange as from what I found it helped many people. Higher temp doesn't work either.
But through trial and error I managed to tune it to my liking. It is not perfect but I'd call it 90% there. The thing is I have problems with Prusament but none with Creality original. But I will use Prusament heavily (I'm Czech, Prusa is Czech...) so I want it to work.
What I have ultimately changed was flow rate to 0.97 but left 1.3 for first layer. I have fiddled with Z retraction and I'm currently at 1.4mm length, 0.4 Z hop spiral, 30mm/s retraction speed and 3mm dostance threshold. I print at 30mm/s at 250 degrees on 80 degrees hotbed. Details are ok now but I get stringing - not much though, a little bit of heat and it's gone.
I use Prusa Orange now. Once octopus is printed I will try different Prusa PETG color.
I haven’t had time to work on any projects lately, but I enjoy building things and a 3D printer is great for making things to help with them. Recently I saw someone had a (for sale only) 3D printed loom, and as someone who likes old fashioned machinery I am very tempted to buy it and make it.
My main printer is a lightly customized Voron 2.4 that is by this point quite out of date but I don’t want to do any upgrades to it because it’s very solid and stable, and the quality of life upgrades that have been developed since aren’t worth the effort - even the stealthburner. If I were to upgrade the hotend assembly at all I would probably just swap from clockwork to an orbiter or some other high-performance extruder - though I do admit that I’ve been long tempted to get Tap. The only real problem I have with my printer is the remarkably poor printing surface. I’m pretty sure I’ve got fake PEI on it. I’m just too cheap to get a replacement.
I mainly print in ABS. It basically works for everything. It seems that a lot of printers are coming with enclosures, so I hope that ABS becomes more of a choice option for the greater design community.
You'd appreciate the galileo 2 extruder then if you're interested in an orbiter
How was your Voron build? I am currently planning on that as my next printer, so it can be something that just "works" with minimal tinkering (once arduously set up lol)
I was scared of ABS for the longest time, but now that I have a nice textured PEI surface it's actually not that bad at all. I've also been getting into ASA more as of late
The build went fairly well, but I used an early Formbot kit which had a few low quality parts that needed to be replaced prematurely. The screws are also the lower quality ones which will likely rust over time. I actually got kind of lucky in a way because I bought it right before the Raspberry Pi shortage and when they were recommending removing the second linear rail from the X axis, which was great because one of them was defective. It was also before they started supplying premade wire harnesses, so I had to do that myself. Formbot is supposed to be better these days but I would probably still recommend the LDO kits. You could still self-source but the kits are likely to be cheaper.
Besides all of that, it was perhaps one of the most satisfying build I have ever done. It was a massive leap forward from my Ender 3 even with its extensive upgrades, and good enough that when the Bambu X1 Carbon came out I wasn’t super jealous of it. It did take a lot of tinkering, but that was fun to me. I’ve done a handful of upgrades over the base at the time but none of them are dramatic - klicky probe, webcam, lighting, and nevermore filter.
I've got an anycubic printing in PLA. I'm slowly getting back into it. My last project was a blue shell from Mario kart, only I replaced the spikes with holes to make an impractical pencil holder.
One thing I'm having a terrible time with is painting. I'm using acrylic paints that say they should work on plastic but it's been a frustrating process. I've tried using primer but it's not much better. I feel like I'm slopping layers and layers on here just to get a bit if colour.
Just guessing here, but the layer lines seem like the culprit to me; they greatly increase the surface area of the print, and a lot of the paint could get stuck filling up crevices. Sanding is one solution, though it sounds like you haven't had much luck with that. An epoxy coating is one thing I've heard of people using, to fill in all the layer lines. Some filaments can be chemically smoothed, though that can involve some expensive setup and unpleasant chemicals. If you do want to explore that route, ABS/ASA can be chemically smoothed with acetone, while Polymaker's Polyshur filament can be smoothed with isopropyl alcohol. Check out this video for some tips on preserving part quality if you take this route.
Good luck, and I hope you find a solution.
I've been painting as well, and don't seem to have the same issues with acrylic paint, without primer.
I use very little water, though. Also I print sculptures printed with a 0.2mm nozzle and 0.06mm layer height, so the surface is quite smooth.
You’re using a single color primer, right?
The few times I’ve painted my models I have had no issues, but it’s literally just a few times. I’m sorry to hear that you are having such bad luck though
I'm using a paint set similar to this one https://www.amazon.ca/Daler-Rowney-Simply-Acrylic-Paint/dp/B073V4N3DV/?th=1
It worked pretty good on purchased DnD minis but when 3d printing It's like it doesn't stick at all. I've tried two types of primer, but I just tested on a few scraps and honestly it doesn't look much different from an unprimed piece.
Have you tried sanding the print, or cleaning with alcohol?
I've sanded them but then just rinsed them off with water.
At the beginning of this year, I got a Bambu A1 mini, and I just love it. I don't want to bother with tinkering. I just want to print as easily as possible. Bambu is great for that.
Right now I've only printed with PLA, but I have a spool of PETG and I really want to try TPU as well.
One thing I really enjoy lately, is printing small sculptures (the 0.2mm nozzle is just crazy) and painting them. Mostly related to books and games I like.
I got a Qidi Q1 Pro a few months back, because I tend to get a bit too fixated and overspend when getting into a new hobby. Overall it's been a pretty good printer (some issues with PETG, but has printed ASA and TPU with no fiddling on my part), but in retrospect I think I would've been satisfied if I had gone for a cheaper option.
The most used things I've printed so far are a cupholder expander for a car that fits a big water bottle while still allowing the original cupholder to be used for smaller bottles, and and a vacuum hose attachment to get into really tight spaces (found out that the lint trap on my dryer was only walled off on one side, with the other emptying into the bowels of the dryer. Come to think of it, I could probably print a wall for that actually...). There have been a bunch of little odds and ends, for me and for some other people in my orbit.
My next project, which I've been putting off because I'd have to commit to design decisions, will probably be some modular desk/bedside table organizers. Figuring out what dimensions and how exactly they should attach to each other aren't big decisions, but I haven't been in the right mood to tackle them. Somewhere down the line, I'll probably give one of those fancy ergonomic keyboards a try, but that's a deep rabbit hole to dive down.
The gridfinity system is pretty cool. It might provide inspiration even if it is not a perfect fit for your application.
Thanks for the recommendation; I'll be sure to check that out when I have some free time
I gridfinitied my workshop last year, its remarkable how much more productive I am when all my tools are in predictable places.
Got around to watching this. It's not a perfect fit for what I want (I'd rather not have empty grid taking up desk space, and don't want to print a new one every time I change configurations), but it is a great starting point and gives some good design principles to keep in mind. Thanks again.
For the ergonomic keyboard, I highly recommend trying out this tool called cosmos: https://ryanis.cool/cosmos/beta
It allows you to do hand scans and gives you a good starting point for building a custom keyboard that's shaped specifically for you. The configurator is pretty easy to use as well. I'm currently iterating on my first build :-)
Oh, that is interesting. I was vaguely considering a svalboard, as it seems like it's about the theoretical maximum for keyboard ergonomics, but this wouldn't require nearly as much relearning, would offer a fair bit in the way of customization, and likely works out to substantially cheaper even with the self print option. Thanks; I'll definitely be keeping this in mind when I decide to commit to the keyboard project.
I love the approach you take. What modeling software do you use?
I’ve dabbled in Fusion 360 for various things with decent success
Thanks, though I think you may have responded to the wrong person. I don't feel like I talked much about approach in my post, and what's there seems fairly generic to me.
I use OpenSCAD, and am only faintly aware of how Fusion 360 works. OpenSCAD works a lot like writing code; you generate simple geometry using commands, examine the resulting shape, and then go back and fix the obvious mistake you made. The nice thing is that you can set up all your measurements as variables really easily, and then if you need to tweak anything later it's as easy as editing a number, so long as everything was designed with variable measurements in mind.
Overall, it's been fun designing things; figuring out how exactly to get things to work is a bit like figuring out a puzzle, fueled by vaguely remembered algebra and geometry. My most ambitious thing yet was for a Printables contest for hiking stuff IIRC. The idea was to create a parametric cable retractor, like those ones for ID badges or keys, that could be used for various knick-knacks; the specific thought that inspired it was something for a water pack nozzle, so you could grab it, take a drink, and it'd automatically retract back into position. The code for generating the spiral spring was really satisfying once I got it. Overall though the project ended up petering out; the design worked, but it was a bit too janky for me to want to figure out all the various remaining bits and bobs. It was a fun project, and I don't regret doing it or stopping where I did either.
Fusion 360, from the little I know of it, does seem to have a ton of nice features. I've heard there's some sort of stress tester and a gear generator, plus I'm betting it's got some easier ways to do some things which are annoying in OpenSCAD, like rounding corners. What's your experience with it been?
Ha, I totally did. My apologies, but I genuinely appreciate you sharing further! Guess that's what I get for trying to read so many interesting posts on mobile 😅
My background is not even close to engineering/3D modeling, so when I first started using Fusion I honestly had no idea where to start. I think one benefit to the program however is its' sheer popularity, as for anything I have wanted to do to my models, I can find a tutorial to help me figure it out. Highly recommend trying it out if you're wanting a nice modeling program. I have the educational version for a limited amount of time, but will likely transition to the free version for non-commercial use if they ever realize my student email is old
I think I used SCAD once or twice for a parametric auto-spool rewinder, and it was super interesting how everything is just generated by editing the formula/numbers!
Sorry again for the mix up on my response. This post got way more attention that I had expected, but I wanted to go through and try to respond to everyone that took the time to post something 🙂
I used to have some kind of FDM printer but the output quality was nowhere close to good enough for my needs (some of which are jewellery grade). Most of my prints were mods for the printer in an attempt to make it work better.
I currently have an Elegoo Mars 4 but I don't consider 3D printing a hobby. No more than I think of milling or using a bandsaw as a hobby. It's just a tool I use to make things. A particularly fiddly and sticky tool.
Also I cannot overstate how much I dislike using FreeCAD. So the bar of effort I need to clear before I even turn the printer on is pretty high. I am very good at finding other ways to solve fabrication problems. The other week I used modelling clay and toothpicks to do in twenty minutes what would have taken hours in cad and print time.
I own a Bambu X1C - it’s not cheap, but gosh dang it if it hasn’t handled any task or file I’ve thrown at it. It’s incredibly fast, versatile, and just a joy to use. Used an Ultimaker and a Replicator before that, and nothing comes close to the speed, precision and convenience of the X1C. Finally feels like I can focus on my designs as opposed to wrangling the printer.
For people whose hobby is the printer itself, there are a ton of good options. For people whose hobby is the things they can make with the printer, the X1C is where it's at. I got one a little more than a year ago, and by the end of the first month I had already printed more useful stuff than what I had managed with my old Rostock Max V1 delta printer the previous 5 years.
I'm tempted by Prusa's multihead, but it's Bambu's inevitable large-format printer that will be the instabuy for me when it comes out.
For posterity, I’ll add that the P1 series is also an excellent option. Essentially the same performance as the X1 minus a few bells and whistles, for a few hundred bucks cheaper (can buy the multimaterial system with the difference). At least that was my calculus.
You're right, and I probably just should have said any Bambu printer, really. Even the Mini that I picked up as a lark is stunningly capable compared to what I had beforehand.
Yeah? In you experience does it perform just as well with e.g. PLA? I bought the P1 for size, enclosure and drybox/enclosed AMS. But it seems like a damn good premium-entry-level printer for those who just want to print for fun.
I'd say both bedslingers perform at about 90-95% the level of the Core XY machines with PLA. It's really close; much closer than I would have initially expected. If you run at slightly slower speeds, the difference is even less. The mini in particular is so much better for the price than any other entry-level printer out it's hard to state it accurately without sounding like hyperbole.
I am an ex 3d printer, but I wanted to chime in anyway because I had a riot with the thing.
I bought a Tevo Tornado in 2016 and it was fine.
I spent years modding the thing until it was a Frankenstein's monster. I replaced the board twice, the x and y steppers, added a second z screw, replaced the bed, swapped out the extruder for one of those cool guys I forgot the name of now.
Honestly by the end all that was left was the frame and it was printing some shockingly good quality stuff until the final upgrade I did on the thing in maybe 2021 when I updated the firmware on my board and it started to crash when it got to a specific layer number. Basically made it unusable and I ended up throwing the lot in the dump.
But I had a lot of fun with the hobby, I printed some dumb stuff and learned a lot in the process, but I think if I ever got another one I'd probably splash out for a model that's actually pretty robust from the get go like the Pursa's rather than buy a cheap Chinese brand again.
Heavily modified ender 3 pro here, belted dual z, old micro swiss direct drive extruder with custom fan shroud, klipper in an external electronics enclosure, and cable chains installed. (just about the only thing original on this printer is the aluminum extrusion and the xyz stepper motors)
I mostly print PLA and PETG, PLA for cosmetic stuff, PETG for anything structural, such as printer upgrades.
Currently, due to an international move in progress, Im having to try to pack this thing up in a way that will make it somewhat safe to ship overseas. Its proving harder than expected.
My buddy gave me an Ender 3 that needs some work. He has an auto bed leveling thing that apparently doesn't work, so I need to figure out how to get it to work or take it out. Also needs a Y-Switch mounting adapter, which I just haven't gotten around to printing with my other printer and getting the correct Euro Spec T-Nuts to fit it. Haven't had the motivation to figure it out.
But I also have an Anycubic Photon S; it's pretty small, but I've used it loads to print mini's for the variety of wargames I play, as well as a few for D&D here and there.
Everything here, with the exception of the tank second from left, is 3d printed (and painted) by me. Everything in this album was 3d printed (technically the orange Troll is half 3d printed. I found some files that mate to unused pieces from a real kit) . Here's how I have my setup in my utility closet with a vent to the outside, otherwise it stinks up the house.
I don't do anything terribly handy with mine, like printing brackets or whatever, but it's saved me a lot of money printing my own models. Plus I can use rare or obscure things in my wargames, as I can fairly easily find something to print.
Printing your own models is super cool on its own. Especially when you do such a great job painting them!
I like the workspace too in the closet. I assume you have a hose to vent outdoors? I’ve stayed away from resin partially because of the smell, but mostly the fact that most of my printing is for functional purposes, although I would love to do more aesthetic prints like yours! One project my wife and I are super interested in, is printing a 3-D settlers of Catan board that she will have printed. My FDM pieces come out OK, but don’t compare to SLA
Enders are super straightforward to troubleshoot. If you ever get serious about wanting it to work feel free to PM me and we can chat on discord
Thanks for the offer! I probably will take you up on it at some point, just gotta get off my lazy butt and get the bracket and nuts, then I feel like I can finally jump in to figuring out what's up with it.
Resin is very nice, but it's definitely pretty involved by comparison to FDM. Or at least, it seems like FDM takes a lot of tinkering to get things right, while resin just requires a lot of safety precautions. That picture was my initial setup, but yeah, I have a vent fan connected to a dryer vent in that box and it feeds out the window. The black box itself works perfectly to keep the smells out of the house when it's closed and the fan is running. Printing with resin itself is definitely a process though, I wear gloves, make sure I wash everything with alcohol, etc, etc. But I love the prints I get out of it.
I spent almost 4 years fighting with the Ender 3 (first generation, base model - not a v2 or Pro or Neo) that my friend got for me. For the first year or so, 2/3 of my prints would fail, usually due to bed adhesion. I tried tape, glue, and a treated glass plate to try to improve my results. I would re-level again and again because I assumed that was the problem. I invested in a Y-frame leveling setup and a better heating element to ensure more consistent bed temperatures. My last upgrade was a magnetic PEI build plate which helped a lot, but I still had 1/3 of my prints fail. None of my friends with base model Ender 3's had issues like I did, and none of them understood why I didn't like using my printer. Finally, I decided I was caught in a sunk cost fallacy and replaced my Ender 3.
I now use a Sovol SV-06 Plus. It cost me less than an Ender 3 v3 which would have had all the same upgrades, but I wanted to break away from Creality. The Plus model has several improvements over the base SV-06 as well as a bigger build volume, and the experience has been so much better. I still get a few failures from being over-ambitious about my prints, but they're far fewer and don't feel as discouraging. I'm suddenly excited to print out tools, gadgets, and toys to play with all over again, and the range of items I can print is bigger due to the better print quality and bigger volume.
Other than that, my print setup is pretty basic. I use PLA and slice with Cura, although the settings depend on what I'm trying to print and how large it is. I use an 8mm brim on smaller prints but usually skip it on larger ones, and I usually default to 0.12mm layer height because it's smoother than the 0.2mm I used to do without being slower than my Ender was.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing
I want to build a Voron, but I’ve been impressed by the offerings of Sovol. I’d easily recommend them over reality right now
Haven't printed anything in a couple years, but I was going strong on a Monoprice Mini v2! Great little machine with a big nodding community. I was having some issues with bed alignment / my gantry arm was a bit wobbly, and then I moved twice and haven't unpacked it since. I inherited a Lulzbot recently, not sure its worth the time or effort to set up though. Mostly would use for teaching. Was always interested in resin printing for tabletop gaming but seemed like a big effort
I bought a used DaVinci 1.0 A from a friend of mine in 2016 and threw repetier on it. In 2017 I built my first i3 (Prusa Mk2 clone), that thing was my main workhorse until last year. I printed over 5km of filament through the homebuilt machine. Last year I built a Voron 2.4r2. Just slowly upgrading, refining processes, and using printers as a force multiplier for other hobbies.
How was your voron build?? Km currently working on setting my stealth burner up on my Ender, in preparation for the rest of the printer
I really enjoyed building it! I printed the components on my aging workhorse. Went with a Phaetus Rapido hotend, and I installed a CANBus board on the toolhead to reduce mechanical complexity a bit. Also got the Hall effect endstop switches for the XY gantry, and a Euclid for the bed probe. Just about all of the upgrades are worth it in my mind.
I own a Prusa MK4. I'm a huge Prusa Fanboy, I love it, but It's taking a lot of space, I'm considering building and printing my own CoreXY printer from scratch out of 3D printed parts and extruded aluminium profiles. I basically want an enclosure that takes less vertical space. (the bed slinging is what leads to huge enclosures on the XY axis). I don't care about vertical space. I love what this guy did, except the welding + angle-grinding. I would prefer to make it more repairable with bolts, screws and T-slots.
What have I printed recently? Hm... I recently printed reinforced feet for a heavy workbench. I love using OpenSCAD to design my parts, and tweaking the infill density for some area thanks to modifiers. I swear, I don't work or don't have any financial relationship with Prusa Research. I'm just a Fanboy, because the printer is great, and I love their open source tooling and their repairability.
I only print stuff that I mostly design. I rarely print stuff out of the thingiverse or printables[dot]com, unless the nieces and nephews ask for a toy :) . I don't design toys, only functional prints :P
I've had a CR-10 for 5 or 6 years maybe. Made a variety of things, but not much. Biggest project was a Master Sword, which turned out well (just a bit of painting left to do). Mostly PLA, but did experiment with some TPU. Remarkably, it has kept a level bed the whole time, even after moving it around a few times. I think a 30hr print is our largest so far. shrug
I have been 3d printing for about 5 years now. I started with a gen1 Anycubic Photon DLP printer doing statues and D&D miniatures. I had been interested in 3d printing for a while, but was not satisfied with the lower resolution/quality of FDM prints at the time, and this was the first printer that could deliver the detail I wanted and was actually affordable. It was definitely a bit rough at first though. The biggest pain was learning how to properly hollow, vent, orient and support models in a way that was resin printer friendly. At the time, the Anycubic software was very early in development and was basically unusable except for slicing. I ended up adopting a rather klugey workflow of importing models into Meshmixer first, where I would handle all of the orientation, hollowing, and adding of vent holes. From there I would import it into B9 Creator, where I had custom created profiles for different supports and would manually go through and support every island (Nowadays auto supports are kinda OK, but back then they were absolute trash) After supports, then it would go into the Anycubic Slicer, before finally going into a Validator program that someone in the community made for finding flaws or unsupported islands etc. It is my understanding that the in-house software has been dramatically improved since, but I'm stuck in my old ways and still use the same convoluted workflow whenever I need to fire up the resin printer, just because it's the method I trust to work.
I have also recently picked up an Anycubic Kobra Max large FDM printer, and have been less pleased in comparison. I bought it to be able to design and print parts for my aging car with OEM parts no longer available. Ideally, my goal is to be able to complete large ABS prints and then acetone smooth them to minimize the need for sanding and other post processing. Unfortuately I keep encountering problems with cracking and warping, especially with large parts where the print head is growing further and further from the heated plate. My prints start perfect, then slowly degenerate into cracks and eventually filament spaghetti. I have even hooked up a chicken coop heater to a temperature control module to keep the ambient temperature in the enclosure higher and constant yet it still happens. I've been considering converting it to direct drive and getting an E3D V6 hotend so I can increase the print head temp beyond 240, but more realistically I probably just have to give up the dream of ABS smoothing and switch to a different filament, though I really dislike sanding.
My favorite print so far is probably a cosplay sword - Gourry's sword from Slayers. I designed it from scratch in TinkerCAD, sliced it up into about 10 different parts so it would be printable on my resin printer, and when finished I resin glued them all together. The inside of the hilt is hollow and fits an LED controller that feeds an LED strip in the transparent resin sword blade. It was a real project to think through the design and was so fun to make it come to life.
A close second would be the magnetic Catan set from thingiverse. I printed one of each piece in resin, then made silicone molds of each with Smooth-On Mold Max, and poured resin into the molds to duplicate all of the pieces. I wanted to paint the full set but parenthood took over and now the full unfinished set is sadly just sitting in a box in the garage - maybe it will eventually become a father/son paint project.
Magnetic Catan is actually on my list. I’ve printed a few pieces, but dang they sure take a lot of time lol
The hotend is definitely your issue. I print ABS at 250 first layer, 245 all layers after. 240 was too low on my temperature tower
I've got a few printers:
Prusa i3-MK3S+ Revo - The old reliable, strongly considering the 3.5 upgrade for input shaping as its probably the second slowest printer that I own now.
Prusa Mini+ Revo - Updated with input shaping firmware and a Revo, this thing rules for short, quick prints.
Voron Switchwire/Enderwire - This was originally an Ender 3 v2, my very first printer. Overhauled to a Voron Switchwire, this thing rules. Klipper is awesome. Using a Voron Revo nozzle.
Frakenstein Klipperized Ender 5 Plus - This thing has gone through the ringer, the only thing stock on this is the motion system. I have printed an Omnibox to hold all the electronics. Klipperized it recently after getting frustrated with Marlin. Considering overhauling to Mercury One for more standardization. Using a Revo. Used for helmets/props.
Qidi X Max-3 - Klipper powered fully enclosed, heated build chamber. This thing can do 350mm cubed. I use it to print full sized helmets/props. I strongly dislike its Klipper implementation and some quirks of how to print on it, but its a cheap way to print some engineering materials.
Bambu A1 Mini with AMS - The latest addition, I wanted to try the AMS and the deal recently was really nice so I picked it up.
What comes next? I am considering getting a Prusa XL 5 toolhead config and whatever Bambu releases as a large format printer. Also considering getting a resin printer, but I am concerned about VOCs.
How’s the voron switch wire enderwire? My Ender 3v2 runs klipper (and is awesome) and other things I have are a liner x axis, dual z, and direct drive orbiter 2.0 on a v6. Don’t know much about the enderwire
I would only recommend the overhaul if you are comfortable with doing some minor wiring work (I eventually discovered the amazing world of Wago connectors), working with somewhat unclear instructions/parts (since Enderwire isn't exactly the same as a Switchwire BOM), and fiddling with Klipper.
All that said, it is an even better printer now, CoreXZ is a pretty sweet motion system and it can do a pretty okay 17 minute Benchy with ease. I went with the fully enclosed configuration and I believe that I should be able to print nylon in the chamber. Ultimately I decided to do the conversion because I wanted a Voron haha
Also a couple changes I made: I printed an alternative raspberry pi mount because I didn't like the original positioning. I printed wiring ducting and mounted it on the aluminum extrusions. And I used a BTT HDMI display instead of the suggested TFT nonsense, it was much easier to integrate with the PI.
I don't 3d print yet, but I do have a question: are resin prints able to be sturdy enough to stand up to the kind of repeated use that PLA prints see at times?
At my work we are attempting to develop a small, handheld electronic device that needs to tolerate being carried in a pocket and fumbled around, but which also needs to not look like the typical 3d printed tool. Injection molding is, at this phase, out of reach due to cost. My boss has given me a budget to buy a 3d printer, but sanding and filling for hours will probably not work for us. Would a small resin print (say, a videogame controller) hold up to frequent use or be too brittle (or have some other problem I'm not aware of)?
I don't know much about resin printing, so take this with a grain of salt, but IIRC most resins aren't biocompatible, meaning they're liable to cause irritation and other effects on prolonged skin contact. I believe there are some tough, biocompatible resins out there, but be sure to check the instructions, as ensuring biocompatibility often requires some additional processing work I believe.
One potential alternative would be using an FDM printer to print ABS/ASA and then vapor smoothing it with acetone. See this video for some more details and tips on ensuring dimensional accuracy. ABS/ASA are far less brittle than PLA, so no worries on that front.
Thanks for the heads up! I'll definitely consider both of your points as we figure out how to get this done.
YMMV depending on both design and the specific resin you use. There are many resins on the market and they all have different properties. I don't do resin myself, but I have heard good things about Siraya Tech's Blu resin for toughness, and unless you are doing very thin walls, most common "tough" resins should work for your use.
But if this is an in-house tool or a prototype you are building, why not just use FDM and not worry about visible layers?
Thanks for the info!
It's in the prototype stage currently, where we are buying a current product and hollowing it out to repurpose for our design. We would like to produce several to sell to clients, but on the order of dozens, not thousands. I figure that a resin printer might just work for our production needs while being affordable enough to be able to feasibly try. I just feared moving in that direction only to find that the prints would be unusable for some reason due to the nature of resin prints, whether because of fragility or some other unforseen issue.
Thanks again for the insight!
Depending on your industry and clients the imperfections of FDM might actually be more forgivable than you'd think. But let's not go there since it's not what you're asking.
With a few exceptions, every 3D print job will need some sort of post-processing labor for it. For small enough batches, resin will probably work fine enough, but if you want the best of all worlds you might want to invest into an SLS printer. Those are the ones that use fine grains of polymer (PA12 nylon is the most common, to my knowledge) that are spread out in a fine layer and sintered together by a high powered laser in a heated chamber. Parts made by this method need no supports, are very strong, and the only post processing is dusting off the unused powder.
That being said, they are extremely expensive, both in terms of the printers and the materials it consumes, and that powder is quite literally 100% microplastics - a potential health problem we don't fully comprehend yet, in a form that's extremely easy to breathe in. The powder that goes through them but doesn't get cured into your object has very limited reuse potential because the polymers break down in the ambient heat required for the printing method to work.
So yeah, resin is probably your best bet. Just be patient while you're iterating through your designs because you will have to learn some of the practical design constraints. Personally I have been eying the Prusa SL1S for a very long time but you might be served better by one of formlabs' models.
That's awesome information, and yeah those sls printers are wildly expensive. Our end users are accustomed to fairly polished products, but if we can get the postprocessing labor to be fast enough then it might not be too big of an issue to consider FDM. And the versatility that I understand to be available in the number of filament materials offered could be worth considering.
You've given me some food for thought. Thank you.
I have a home electronics lab and have wanted to add 3D printing capability to it for years now. I actually found a good deal on a set of 3 Prusa printers with lots of upgrades and spares - a Prusa MK3S and two Minis. Bought those over a year ago.
Unfortunately the seller... put them all in one large box and packed them with packing peanuts. ONLY packing peanuts.
They arrived destroyed, or rather most of the 3D printed parts holding the printers together had cracked or shattered.
Sourcing replacement 3D printed parts and fixing / reassembling them has been on my to-do list for a long time, but I was kind of disappointed and depressed at what happened and just shelved the whole project into storage for some time when I have the mental energy to tackle it.
Aside from general utility, I wanted to have the printers to be able to manufacture my own components for some of the electronics I test and refurbish. One specific example is older Kikusui products - they are well known for having bright blue plastic grating on the front that covers the air inlet and filter, and also well known for that blue plastic grating for getting brittle over time and shattering, so I wanted to fabricate replacements to restore these instruments to their former glory.