Considering making the plunge into 3d printing after a few years of being on the fence. What is a good way to set realistic expectations of what your selected printer can do and what is achievable? What are standout specs that say, nope that can't be done etc? i.e. if I were looking to print objects such as the below, what specific printer specs (beyond bed size and max height) should I be looking out for? https://i.all3dp.com/cdn-cgi/image/...6819f972364cc86b8daf8d7572b_display_large.jpg https://i.all3dp.com/cdn-cgi/image/...920/2EDF7C38-F8B9-47FA-8D78-5070A09090A1.jpeg https://i.all3dp.com/cdn-cgi/image/...3f42fcb7b3e60b931b11128cfa4_display_large.jpg
Those are pretty standard stuff a FDM printer such as Ender 3/5 etc. can do fine. You will need to do some sanding/puttying if you want the finish to be smooth, but otherwise if it's just function that you're after, just about any modern FDM printer with appropriate print area will do those easily.
Fantastic! I have been eyeing off the Ender 3 V2 + and octoprint setup and some other mods I can print myself once it is up and running. https://www.fpvfaster.com.au/produc...mGuHhuVZa--JDJWXjKY5vh-LbylE043QaAi4mEALw_wcB This appears to the cheapest with free delivery that I can find for the printer alone
For Creality printers I'd suggest people join this facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/3DPRINTINGALCHEMY Then message Mark Lomas the admin. He can get them for you at significantly cheaper price than anywhere else.
Splendid. He's quoted me about 55 cheaper than the cheapest I've found it online, just waiting on stock Picked up a BLtouch kit brand new off of marketplace for $30 tonight. Looking into sorting out a raspberry pi 4 to run octoprint and also spaghetti detective (will run server side on my NAS) Any suggestions on cheapest place for a pi4?
Just FYI for that price, if its not sold by someone who bought and never isntalled its almost certainly a clone for that price. Some clones are ok but some are reportedly flaky - I know the ADVII forums have a few people who have had issues with clones.
So I have full approval from the director of finances to get a 3d printer and Ive got my sights on an x1 sidewinder. 2Questions whats a good & cheap supplier for filament? What upgrades /mods should i look to get done asap? I was thinking auto bed levelling
I have brought a few spools from https://aurarum.com.au/ You undoubtedly can find cheaper filament but these guys are legit and sell decent stuff (they are also the australian distributor of official bltouches). I also like how they put the print and bed temps on the case. You can get filament up to $10 cheaper from places like ebay but the printing hassles arent worth it. Amazon stuff can be ok, if you get from themselves and I wouldnt touch ebay or chinese sellers like aliexpress as the quality is very patchy.
Oh, fwiw I think thats a good choice of price, and printer size with a decent feature set. That said I would probably recommend also doing some upgrades very early on. I am not sure if the artillery has them, but I would recommend (ive bought three of these for my 3 printers): Automated bed levelling (this makes life so much easier) via bltouch or something similar Flexible build plate - this is a no brainer as very very cheap and saves a lot of headaches with prints stuck down. if you are going to print ABS or other higher temp filaments, you might want to put in an enclosure - and Im not sure what the existing hotend is, but it if is not - all metal hotend
By far some of the best cheap filament is eSun, https://www.cubictech.com.au/ sell a big range of it, really easy to print, pretty forgiving to shitty settings, the silk filament is really nice as well, it likes hot temps to get the best results. Not sure how Aurarum compares to eSun now but when I used Aurarum a few years ago it was the worst filament I'd used, horribly stringy, couldn't get the moisture out of it and printed pretty crappy. A BLTouch is good to have but not 100% needed, if you have a flat bed and level correctly you'll never have an issue. A BLTouch only really works if you have a semi level bed to begin with. WhamBams are pretty much a must I'd say, so much easier than prying at the bed and damaging the surface. All metal hotends are good but you need to have damn good cooling on the heat break or you'll jam it and if you jam it with PLA it's all but impossible to clean out, you'll have to chuck it out and get a new one, been there, done that. I'd stick with a normal hotend until you know how to print then move onto all metal.
Does anyone have recommendations for matte finish pla that won't break the bank? Spidermaker has great reviews and range of colours, but at 50 bucks for 700g, I can't justify it.
Monocure have some, only black and white, had a sample print somewhere but dunno where it's gone, $38 per KG and printed alright.
I found cleaning my all metal hotend if it jams pretty easy, I use the metal canes to clean them out it without taking out of printer works brilliantly (I dont get many jams though) Oh, and I have used esun without issues as well - also recommend them as well. I tell you what though, dont buy random rolls without labelling them I have like 11 rolls of intererminate origin of varying qualaties, frustrating when hacing to dial stuff in. When you find a good supplier it pays to use the same one for most stuff as you dont need to dial in new filaments all the time.
Anyone done much annealing with a sous vide? I tried it over night after finishing my batch of meat and did 70c probably left it there for like 10 hours. I cooled it down to 55c (for my next batch of meat) though I probably should have cooled down the water closer to room temp. Anyway I took it out and the part was fairly warped (sunglasses visor clip wanted to see how much better with heat resistance after annealing it) - is still functional just looks a bit ugly (slightly twisted). Is it because I didn't cool it down enough before taking it out of the water? It was hard for me to see if it was already warped before taking it out as between the water and the vacuum sealed bag (not vacuum sealed) it was kinda distorted so is hard to see.
No, I dont feel comfortable using stuff with food and filament, due to possible residues and suchlike, though I understand lots of people do. I have an old oven available to use in my shed for the purpose (amonth other things).
