The 3D Printer Thread

[Yazza54]

You'll find there's a lot of tweaks to temps, speeds, extruder tension and so on for different filaments. It's not just a case of loading a new one in and it'll print perfect.

Also make sure you really study the sliced file in bambu studio, it'll show you exactly how the printer will build it up so you can identify any potentially weak points, where maybe you want more walls, or more infill, different infill pattern and so on.

I've found that the modelling of the part is the easy bit..

Btw - Someone mentioned ordering a PEI plate but my Bambu P1P came with that as standard.

[Bullett]

Anyone printed any ASA? Found a practical part on thingyverse and the designer is recommending ASA.
It’s this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5804081 so will be exposed to vibration, heat, rain, sun and probably kerbs grass and swearing.

I’ll try a test print in pla+

[Polly Grigora]

Is there a step by step in this topic for those that know little about what's involved?

[Yazza54]

Bullett said:

Anyone printed any ASA? Found a practical part on thingyverse and the designer is recommending ASA.
It’s this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5804081 so will be exposed to vibration, heat, rain, sun and probably kerbs grass and swearing.

I’ll try a test print in pla+

Yes I have.. what do you wanna know

[Yazza54]

For anyone who bought a P1P without the camera and LED light, they are now making the P1P come with these as standard, as a result I've just received an email from bambu lab saying I can have them for free... Just ordered them with the code they sent me and it all went through. Had to pay postage but that's a nice little upgrade I wasn't expecting.

[Bullett]

Yazza54 said:

Yes I have.. what do you wanna know

Any tips tricks or issues, which brand did you use, what settings? Looks like it needs a high bed and hot-end setting with the part fan off to avoid warping.

[Yazza54]

Bullett said:

Yazza54 said:

Yes I have.. what do you wanna know

Any tips tricks or issues, which brand did you use, what settings? Looks like it needs a high bed and hot-end setting with the part fan off to avoid warping.

Yeah print it hot. I used formfutura Apollo X ASA. It prints very nicely but you gotta print hot and keep it hot with a hot bed and ideally an enclosure, this prevents warping and aids layer adhesion. If you print this stuff too cold it might come out looking absolutely fine but split easily between layers. It's the biggest conundrum we all face in 3d printing IMO...the filaments that are more difficult to print because they ooze or string are generally the strongest because they have mega layer adhesion - conversely some of the stuff that's easiest to print can be the weakest.

Start with 100 on the bed, 260 on the nozzle and ideally in an enclosure. I only run with the fan on for overhangs with ASA. As that part you want to print is flat I'd leave the fan off. Use a decent brim, like 5mm.

Enclosure wise, I use a pop up one I got off Amazon.

Comgrow 3D Printer Enclosure Fireproof and Dustproof Tent for Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro/Ender 3 V2/Ender 3 Neo/Ender 3 V2 Neo/Ender 3 S1/Ender 3 S1 Pro, 3D Printer Cover Storage 635x535x750mm https://amzn.eu/d/eMx1AZ6

Edited by Yazza54 on Tuesday 4th April 11:26

[Bodo]

Bullett said:

Anyone printed any ASA? Found a practical part on thingyverse and the designer is recommending ASA.
It’s this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5804081 so will be exposed to vibration, heat, rain, sun and probably kerbs grass and swearing.

I’ll try a test print in pla+

Yes, ASA can cope with outdoor conditions, while PLA won't for long. Just print ASA like you would print ABS ie. with enclosure and high bed temperatures. Get a pre-setting from, for example Prusa Slicer, they usually work well when your printer does.

Shrinkage is a topic with ABS/ASA, so you might want to compensate that after printing a test piece. I usually do between 100.5% - 101% shrinkage compensation for ASA when I want more accuracy.

[geeks]

A handy guide for filaments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSwumoSlZTo

[LimaDelta]

Hi, anyone got a recommendation for a printer for a solid-ish component roughly cylindrical 150mm x 40mm diameter. I have outsourced production of some prototypes through an online printer but the unit cost is quite high - any ideas what DIY printing costs (and time) of something that size might be?

Also looking for material recommendation (or at least directions to a good guide) given the component needs to be load bearing, weather resistant and ideally producible in different colours.

I thought the experts on here might save me a bit of blind googling.

[Yazza54]

LimaDelta said:

Hi, anyone got a recommendation for a printer for a solid-ish component roughly cylindrical 150mm x 40mm diameter. I have outsourced production of some prototypes through an online printer but the unit cost is quite high - any ideas what DIY printing costs (and time) of something that size might be?

Also looking for material recommendation (or at least directions to a good guide) given the component needs to be load bearing, weather resistant and ideally producible in different colours.

I thought the experts on here might save me a bit of blind googling.

What actually is it?

[ARHarh]

Yazza54 said:

LimaDelta said:

Hi, anyone got a recommendation for a printer for a solid-ish component roughly cylindrical 150mm x 40mm diameter. I have outsourced production of some prototypes through an online printer but the unit cost is quite high - any ideas what DIY printing costs (and time) of something that size might be?

Also looking for material recommendation (or at least directions to a good guide) given the component needs to be load bearing, weather resistant and ideally producible in different colours.

I thought the experts on here might save me a bit of blind googling.

What actually is it?

Without knowing sizes, loads and many more criteria it will be difficult to help. But if there are really prototypes and have a short life span for testing only then it will be easier to help. But it sounds more like a small production run of a component that needs to survive a while. If that is the case then printing may not be the best solution. Something like CNC machining may well be more suited.

[geeks]

ARHarh said:

Yazza54 said:

LimaDelta said:

Hi, anyone got a recommendation for a printer for a solid-ish component roughly cylindrical 150mm x 40mm diameter. I have outsourced production of some prototypes through an online printer but the unit cost is quite high - any ideas what DIY printing costs (and time) of something that size might be?

Also looking for material recommendation (or at least directions to a good guide) given the component needs to be load bearing, weather resistant and ideally producible in different colours.

I thought the experts on here might save me a bit of blind googling.

What actually is it?

Without knowing sizes, loads and many more criteria it will be difficult to help. But if there are really prototypes and have a short life span for testing only then it will be easier to help. But it sounds more like a small production run of a component that needs to survive a while. If that is the case then printing may not be the best solution. Something like CNC machining may well be more suited.

I'll take a blind stab.

I ran up a 150mm tall and 40mm wide solid cylinder in tinkercad. Threw it into a slicer with 4 walls, 4 top/bottom layers and 70% infill and it comes out at around 185g of filament, ABS/ASA is about £20 a kilo (brand dependant for load and weather ABS+ from esun is what I would use others will have their own preferences) so you can do the the print for around £4 of filament BUT really its the time, on my Ender 3 Neo with a few tweaks and a 0.6mm nozzle its going to take about 12hrs to print. I reckon on one of the P1Ps floating in the thread it would be half that but the printer is 5x the cost.

[LimaDelta]

geeks said:

ARHarh said:

Yazza54 said:

LimaDelta said:

Hi, anyone got a recommendation for a printer for a solid-ish component roughly cylindrical 150mm x 40mm diameter. I have outsourced production of some prototypes through an online printer but the unit cost is quite high - any ideas what DIY printing costs (and time) of something that size might be?

Also looking for material recommendation (or at least directions to a good guide) given the component needs to be load bearing, weather resistant and ideally producible in different colours.

I thought the experts on here might save me a bit of blind googling.

What actually is it?

Without knowing sizes, loads and many more criteria it will be difficult to help. But if there are really prototypes and have a short life span for testing only then it will be easier to help. But it sounds more like a small production run of a component that needs to survive a while. If that is the case then printing may not be the best solution. Something like CNC machining may well be more suited.

I'll take a blind stab.

I ran up a 150mm tall and 40mm wide solid cylinder in tinkercad. Threw it into a slicer with 4 walls, 4 top/bottom layers and 70% infill and it comes out at around 185g of filament, ABS/ASA is about £20 a kilo (brand dependant for load and weather ABS+ from esun is what I would use others will have their own preferences) so you can do the the print for around £4 of filament BUT really its the time, on my Ender 3 Neo with a few tweaks and a 0.6mm nozzle its going to take about 12hrs to print. I reckon on one of the P1Ps floating in the thread it would be half that but the printer is 5x the cost.

Thanks all. It is a handle, to fit around something. Some good figures there geeks, thanks. Is the Snapmaker high-speed any faster or is it just marketing? I don't mind spending a bit on the printer if it will give good results. The tooling costs for injection moulding are significantly higher, but I think 3d printing is the way to go for now.

FWIW the unit cost for an online printer was over £20 (plus 4-weeks), so around £4 and 12 hours is fine for now.

[Russ35]

I've just done the same as geeks but for a P1P, using the default slicer settings for each material other than walls, infill and nozzle size geeks mentioned and 0.3mm layer height

PLA - 3h40m 176.67g
PETG - 4h19m - 175.41g
ABS - 2h51m - 143.65g
ASA - 3h40m - 143.82g

That's at standard speed, so could be faster.

[Yazza54]

Russ35 said:

I've just done the same as geeks but for a P1P, using the default slicer settings for each material other than walls, infill and nozzle size geeks mentioned and 0.3mm layer height

PLA - 3h40m 176.67g
PETG - 4h19m - 175.41g
ABS - 2h51m - 143.65g
ASA - 3h40m - 143.82g

That's at standard speed, so could be faster.

I don't understand why your ASA and ABS are different speeds, guessing it's a default slicer setting, maybe the volumetric speed.. but IMO they ought to print at the same speed fine.

[Russ35]

Yazza54 said:

I don't understand why your ASA and ABS are different speeds, guessing it's a default slicer setting, maybe the volumetric speed.. but IMO they ought to print at the same speed fine.

Just compared the profiles and you are correct, Max volumetric speed for ABS is 16 and 12 for ASA

[geeks]

Russ35 said:

I've just done the same as geeks but for a P1P, using the default slicer settings for each material other than walls, infill and nozzle size geeks mentioned and 0.3mm layer height

PLA - 3h40m 176.67g
PETG - 4h19m - 175.41g
ABS - 2h51m - 143.65g
ASA - 3h40m - 143.82g

That's at standard speed, so could be faster.

9hrs 34 is how I shake out without much tweaking, what I critically forgot to do was raise layer height, so yeah there you go just over1/3 of the time better than I thought for the P1P, I'm impressed.

[LimaDelta]

Is the P1P a decent shout for a printer?

[Yazza54]

LimaDelta said:

Is the P1P a decent shout for a printer?

Yes.