3-D Print General - Feeding Printers Filament

[Archeops]

Oh right, here’s a pic of the completed Omniwrench. The silver portions were printed with Elegoo’s silver Silk PLA, the black portions with Sunlu’s Matte Black PLA, and the blue portions with CC3D Sapphire Blue Silk PLA.

And here’s a piece of key art of the same Omniwrench.




Considering the differences between the key art and the finished print I probably would’ve had an “easier” time printing it in a “paint-friendly” PLA color and doing the whole sanding-priming-painting-sealing process to it. That said I like it enough to consider it a successful print.

But there are some minor issues, most notably these visible gaps in the prints.

If you can manage not to toast your fingers like so many tasty hotdogs, you can really do a lot with PLA welding once you get a little practice. I have even rewelded some BattleTech figures with a bent 9usd Weller "soldering iron", so it's a skill worth learning because you can salvage a lot of 'ruined' prints.

I’m pretty handy with precision so I think my fingers will be safe with a soldering iron. I also realized that a soldering iron could also help me combine spools of like filament from the same manufacturer. I managed to do that with a nice $10 filament splicer tool and a lighter but I just can’t seem to do that with the other filaments I have.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

See this is what I mean that 3D printing is not for everyone:



Got stumped by a user agreement page.

 

[indomitable snowman]

See this is what I mean that 3D printing is not for everyone:

View attachment 6342983

Got stumped by a user agreement page.

In his defense, I suspect he has a 720p laptop screen and the creality software was never tested on low res screens.
He just needs a external monitor and I hope one of the comments suggested that.

 

[Rekeita's Kidneys]

Wondering if there is such a thing as "cheap bulk recycled filament", most prints I'm doing are for storage/utility shit so I don't exactly need the finest filament possible. Any clue where I could find such a thing?

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Wondering if there is such a thing as "cheap bulk recycled filament", most prints I'm doing are for storage/utility shit so I don't exactly need the finest filament possible. Any clue where I could find such a thing?

No idea about cheap recycled filament, but pla and petg can usually be found for about $7/kg in bulk on AliExpress and Ebay

 

[Rekeita's Kidneys]

No idea about cheap recycled filament, but pla and petg can usually be found for about $7/kg in bulk on AliExpress and Ebay

For sure, I figured I'd go recycled, would be better for the environment

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

For sure, I figured I'd go recycled, would be better for the environment

Ah, yeah don't think you'll find any cheap, and could even cost more. People would have to send their waste to someone with the ability to shred the plastic, and then extrude it. Most likely smaller operation than the companies making huge batches of new stuff, so economy of scale comes into play.

 

[OwO thats not a gun MrATF]

Ok, here are good settings use them for fdm functional parts not so much for high resolution game pieces etc. I prefer Arachne on orca slicer, 1.5mm layer height, 3 wall loops, 100% rectilinear infill. Next step is to turn all your speeds down to 50. These are my personal starting settings for ASA when making functional parts that need to withstand pressure etc. No ironing generally but it can be used to make your print look nicer but you will need to turn down the flow.

 

[Zjierb]

If there's one thing I don't like about the K1C is that I'm restricted to using one spool of filament at a time, if I want other colors on my models I'd have to paint them on.

I'd recommend checking out the 3D Chameleon if you're really looking into a multicolor system. It runs off of gcode that you can generate from the 3d chameleon site and works pretty well. It's not strictly the best, but price to performance it works great. Oh, and it's compatible with any printer, so if you get a new one down the road you can just move it over. If memory serves I think it's like $160 USD all told

 

[Betonhaus]

hey, is there a docker image I can run on my main server that gives me a password-protected access to my 3d printing computer running mainsail and klipper? so instead of exposing a moonraker api to the wild internet I can just access the container on my main server which communicates with the print server securely?

 

[Justanotherguy]

What about resin printers? Do they get love?

 

[Zjierb]

hey, is there a docker image I can run on my main server that gives me a password-protected access to my 3d printing computer running mainsail and klipper? so instead of exposing a moonraker api to the wild internet I can just access the container on my main server which communicates with the print server securely?

I've heard of most people just using a VPN to control their printers as if they were home. I don't have any recommendations personally, but Wireguard and Tailscale would probably work well for that.

What about resin printers? Do they get love?

I have 2 resin printers (Form 2 and Saturn 4 Ultra). They're nice and make some great prints, but the post processing is a massive pain and the build volume is more limited than FDM.

If asked which printers are more utilitarian I'd go for FDM all day. The sheer spread of different materials with different strengths make it far better. If you need something to be dimensionally accurate within a micron or so then SLA/SLS is the way to go.

 

[Justanotherguy]

I have 2 resin printers (Form 2 and Saturn 4 Ultra). They're nice and make some great prints, but the post processing is a massive pain and the build volume is more limited than FDM.

If asked which printers are more utilitarian I'd go for FDM all day. The sheer spread of different materials with different strengths make it far better. If you need something to be dimensionally accurate within a micron or so then SLA/SLS is the way to go.

Hell yeah, good printers.

I agree fully, I am autistic and play 40k so I need the resin printer for detail.

 

[Zjierb]

Hell yeah, good printers.

I agree fully, I am autistic and play 40k so I need the resin printer for detail.

Oh for sure. I've been way more impressed by the S4U than I expected given the price tag. I could probably pull off something this small on one of my Vorons but none of my others would be able to manage the detail.

Pro tip: get an ultrasonic cleaner for your resin prints. Makes washing them loads easier.

Edit: rotated the image because I'm regarded

 

[Justanotherguy]

Voron

Pro tip: get an ultrasonic cleaner for your resin prints. Makes washing them loads easier.

Bro, props on building a Voron!
I agree, the ultrasonic is great.

Protip, use lots of safety: You can get your alcohol back by distilling it at 83°C.
Use a vevor water distiller.

 

[Viper the rappah]

Has anyone tried/ is it possible to make an action toy type of model with limited mobility?
I have seen someone made like octopus or shark so i though if theoretically i could at least make some character resembling a toy with at least arm being able to move
I just wanna personally 3d model and print myself anything but mainly transformers or my characters

 

[Catch The Rainbow]

I agree, the ultrasonic is great.

Protip, use lots of safety: You can get your alcohol back by distilling it at 83°C.

Just being clear here. Don't use IPA or any flammable liquid in an ultra sonic cleaner, it can catch on fire.

What you do is fill a mason jar with alcohol then put the resin model in the jar. After that, put the jar in the ultrasonic cleaner. Fill the cleaner with water and use as normal. The vibrations will transmit through the glass while making it impossible for the alcohol to catch on fire

 

[Zjierb]

Just being clear here. Don't use IPA or any flammable liquid in an ultra sonic cleaner, it can catch on fire.

What you do is fill a mason jar with alcohol then put the resin model in the jar. After that, put the jar in the ultrasonic cleaner. Fill the cleaner with water and use as normal. The vibrations will transmit through the glass while making it impossible for the alcohol to catch on fire

I've been using plastic bags, but same principle. I've also heard of people using Simple Green to clean their prints but haven't had any luck with that.

 

[Justanotherguy]

Just being clear here. Don't use IPA or any flammable liquid in an ultra sonic cleaner, it can catch on fire.

What you do is fill a mason jar with alcohol then put the resin model in the jar. After that, put the jar in the ultrasonic cleaner. Fill the cleaner with water and use as normal. The vibrations will transmit through the glass while making it impossible for the alcohol to catch on fire

Ah, my bad, yes you're correct. My alcohol is in another container I put in the ultra.

Has anyone tried/ is it possible to make an action toy type of model with limited mobility?
I have seen someone made like octopus or shark so i though if theoretically i could at least make some character resembling a toy with at least arm being able to move
I just wanna personally 3d model and print myself anything but mainly transformers or my characters

Yes sir! There's lots of action figures.
This is my favorite : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:116571

 

[Nick Obre]

Has anyone tried/ is it possible to make an action toy type of model with limited mobility?
I have seen someone made like octopus or shark so i though if theoretically i could at least make some character resembling a toy with at least arm being able to move
I just wanna personally 3d model and print myself anything but mainly transformers or my characters

There's a lot of those, but I particularly like (in concept at least, I've never actually printed one) the ones a guy came up with that use zip ties to bind the articulations.

https://www.youtube.com/@3DZipGuy

Here's the tutorial of how he puts them together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTMr584t-nI

And he sells* kits to turn the base figure into various characters. Spidey, Superman, Saitama, Magneto, Green Lantern, and so on. Recently he's also been releasing kits for characters not based on the base figure, like Wonder Woman or Luffy.

*Some are free I think and all are free if you know where to look