3-D Print General - Feeding Printers Filament

[seri0us]

what's the most interesting things to print? I've just been doing stuff like an infinity cube and fidget gears and a USS Enterprise stand for the Google Home

My favorite prints are a desk-mounted headphone holder and a charging station. Neither are super interesting, but I do get a lot of use out of them.

 

[Archeops]

I’ve been considering getting into 3D printing ever since I got my gaming laptop and, now that I'm planning on building a display rig for said laptop, I may be able to squirrel in some scratch into a 3D printer.

My only concerns are should consider filament or resin? I can do either (space isn't an issue) but I remember reading that resin printers are more expensive than filament printers.

I was looking at this AnkerMake M5C printer at my local Best Buy and being fairly impressed with it but I want to know if there are better options (I can put more into the printer by being cheap with some parts going into the display rig).

 

[seri0us]

I’ve been considering getting into 3D printing ever since I got my gaming laptop and, now that I'm planning on building a display rig for said laptop, I may be able to squirrel in some scratch into a 3D printer.

My only concerns are should consider filament or resin? I can do either (space isn't an issue) but I remember reading that resin printers are more expensive than filament printers.

I was looking at this AnkerMake M5C printer at my local Best Buy and being fairly impressed with it but I want to know if there are better options (I can put more into the printer by being cheap with some parts going into the display rig).

Printing with resin gets messy, and the liquid resin itself is also not skin safe and shouldn't be disposed down the drain.

 

[Archeops]

Printing with resin gets messy, and the liquid resin itself is also not skin safe and shouldn't be disposed down the drain.

Considering I have pets in the house I'm removing resin printing from the list, I can't risk their safety or mine if it's not safe.

The AnkerMake I linked in my previous post looks interesting but I've also heard that Creatily's Ender series printers are pretty good too.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

I'd stick with filament for functional items. Plastic is much easier to work with mechanically and the tolerances are better.

What's your budget?

 

[Archeops]

I'd stick with filament for functional items. Plastic is much easier to work with mechanically and the tolerances are better.

What's your budget?

I haven’t finalized it yet since I’m figuring out the costs of the display rig (I have the speakers squared away and the desk and any additional shelving are pretty easy to get, the real issues will be the monitor and keayboard/mouse), that‘s why I’m looking at budget models for now.

 

[Betonhaus]

I really wouldn't use a resin printer unless it was in an isolated workspace with its own ventilation, like a garage.

 

[Casshern]

UV RESIN​

• More expensive (low-end resin is about the same price as mid-end filaments)
• Messier (as its a liquid it gets everywhere and needs to be properly cured before it can be disposed of. Water washable does NOT mean drain disposable.)
• More irritable (inhalation can induce throat irritation and can cause rashes on skin if exposed)
• Finer detail (can reliably make parts within the µm range)
• Internally consistent parts
• Faster (as MSLA prints an entire layer at once, I can print 30 pieces in one go at the same speed it would take for one piece).
• Smaller print area at same price points
• Less versatile (it’s a screen, a single-axis motor, and a 405nm UV LED with a touch screen controlling it. A one-trick pony, in that respect).

FDM Printing​

• Cheaper (some filaments are as low as $10/kg in bulk)
• Less messy (all filaments are solid at room temp and any waste can be stored away or thrown without worry)
• Less irritable (however fumes can still be a problem, especially with ABS and I believe Nylon, and should be considered. Neither form of printer should be ran without ventilation, especially around birds).
• Less detail (the finest detail you can achieve will still be less than a resin printer)
• Internally inconsistent parts (unlike UV technologies, which can nearly guarantee internally consistent parts, FDM is far more complex and shear at the layer lines)
• Slower (Using the former example, it would take 30x the time to print 30 parts)
• Larger print area for the same price
• More versatile (aside from Bambu Labs and probably other brands I’m not aware of, it can be modified to do a lot. Pen plotting, minor CNC work, laser cutting, even turned into a filament recycler)
• Fire hazard (multi-hundred °C hotend can quickly lead to problems if a print goes particularly wrong)

I enjoy both and find FDM great for large pieces and practical parts (especially food grade, as PLA + a food safe varnish is pretty close, although who tf knows what the hotend assembly has been in contact with). Resin is good for small load-bearing parts with ABS-like/tough resin and fantastic for finer detail (say 32mm) models. I use my Elegoo Mars 3 Pro for miniatures, and my Ender 3 v2 is for my bulk terrain and (most) practical prints.

I haven’t finalized it yet since I’m figuring out the costs of the display rig (I have the speakers squared away and the desk and any additional shelving are pretty easy to get, the real issues will be the monitor and keayboard/mouse), that‘s why I’m looking at budget models for now.

If you want to tinker and learn on a cheaper machine, I would suggest an Ender 3v3 SE (~$100), maybe even the 3v3 KE (~$200). If you’re looking for something more mid/high end, maybe check out some of Prusa’s offerings. Or Bambu Labs, but be aware they’re very anti-consumer with their designs compared to Prusa, as they essentially want to be the Apple of 3D printing. Their printers are fast and capable, with accessible multi-material printing (which is the future of FDM), but do so in a closed source fashion, and their printers are not repairable, with some components being glued in (and not the annoying hot glue on some machines, this is like JB-Welded in).

And if you’re patriotic/anti-Chinese (or less commonly, anti-Western), it should be noted Creality and Bambu Labs are both Chinese and Prusa is Czech.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

You can still buy creality if you have a higher end budget. Newer K1s/k1 max are pretty good and compete well.

Agreed on KE for lower budget. Have one, it's great. Some fairly light modding can have it printing faster.

I also 100% support creality allowing their printers to be open sourced to klipper. Good shit.

If someone is fine shopping on Ali, there's good deals to be found currently.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Considering I have pets in the house I'm removing resin printing from the list, I can't risk their safety or mine if it's not safe.

The AnkerMake I linked in my previous post looks interesting but I've also heard that Creatily's Ender series printers are pretty good too.

If you're starting out, definitely consider the Creality Ender 3 V3 SE or KE. I made the mistake of getting the cheapest printer I could get and of course the z probe thing was doa with no easy way to get spares. Been using the KE since and have clocked close to 100 hours of prints running great. PLA is a good way to learn the basics, but I recently switched to PETG since I need functional parts. The Creality brand PETG is the cheapest right now and oddly has much better dimensional accuracy than the twice as expensive Inland PLA+ I was using. I would opt for a Klipper based printer out of the box. It's just so easy uploading your gcode file from your slicer and controlling the printer through a nice webui.

A mainstream FDM printer will be more than enough. There are people who 3d print RC airplanes with your basic bitch Ender 3 printers.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

It's just so easy uploading your gcode file from your slicer and controlling the printer through a nice webui.

It's a thing of beauty. Don't even need dedicated screens for printers anymore. Just load up klipper on any web browser and there's all your printers in a single UI. Makes me want to buy a cheap tablet to leave near my printers and control them all through that.

If only resin printers had this level of openness/ control. Then people buy shit like Bambu who want to make it closed down just like the resin printers. Kinda sickens me a bit, ngl.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Landed a preorder for one of those creality K2/mms combos. Felt like it was finally time to get a big enclosed printer. My new setup has a 240v line that will be perfect for it.

 

[Archeops]

After fiddling around with my layout and budget I’ve decided that I’m going with the Creatily K1 printers. That said I’m genuinely confused about which of the models in my budget (the K1 and K1C mostly, the K1 Max AI is a coin flip) and any of the combos on Creatily’s site, specifically the ones with the accessories (filament dryers and ceramic heating block kit/quick-swap nozzle kits) in addition to the filament spools.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

After fiddling around with my layout and budget I’ve decided that I’m going with the Creatily K1 printers. That said I’m genuinely confused about which of the models in my budget (the K1 and K1C mostly, the K1 Max AI is a coin flip) and any of the combos on Creatily’s site, specifically the ones with the accessories (filament dryers and ceramic heating block kit/quick-swap nozzle kits) in addition to the filament spools.

From what I understand, the K1C is a K1 with all the fixes....though the K1 has had some revisions since first launch that also seems to have ironed out the bugs. K1 max is there if you need the size.

As for the extras, filament dryers are kind of overrated and not really needed depending on material you use/ environment you print in. I left PLA and PETG out in my house for months and worked just fine. Worst case I hear cheap food dehydrators can make a good dryer.

Ceramic heaters are pretty cool, but not needed until you get more into what you're doing. Same with stuff like quick change nozzles. The base price for $460 for the K1C is solid. Cheapest I see them go on US sales is about $450. Normal K1s can drop to $300 if you catch an amazon sale. K1 max sometimes a tad below $700.

Oh, the creality site usually tosses you a coupon to use,

 

[Casshern]

As for the extras, filament dryers are kind of overrated and not really needed depending on material you use/ environment you print in. I left PLA and PETG out in my house for months and worked just fine. Worst case I hear cheap food dehydrators can make a good dryer.

And if you need a quick DIY dryer, set your bed to 60-70°C, make a cover out of the filament box, and let it sit for 6-8 hours to dry out.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

And if you need a quick DIY dryer, set your bed to 60-70°C, make a cover out of the filament box, and let it sit for 6-8 hours to dry out.

I've heard about that trick, too. I just bought a dehydrator off amazon for $25 that someone stuck a 5 gal bucket over to hold 4 spools. Want to give my open filaments a dry before putting them in my new storage box.

 

[Rekeita's Kidneys]

Well, the A1 kicks fucking ass. Probably gonna just sell the old ender, fucking Chinese junk.

There's something magical about just actually fucking printing and not spending hours tweaking bullshit.

 

[anustart76]

I've been trying FreeCAD out, and it's complicated, but boy does it bring back memories. Nice to be able to do precise shaping.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

I've been trying FreeCAD out, and it's complicated, but boy does it bring back memories. Nice to be able to do precise shaping.

Once you get used to the workbench workflow, I think it's easier and faster than openscad if you're a visual modeler.

 

[Betonhaus]

I'm used to Mastercam design where you could sketch your blueprint then extrude it into a 3D shape, I've been frustrated that I can't find free software that does that. I've been trying to learn FreeCAD but it's just so alien