Don’t forget gatekeeper replies to honest newcomer questions
And the hounding if you don't get a Bambu. Somehow "Bambu printing" and "3D printing" seem to be two different things now, given the cult-like fervor.
I want to hound people for getting a Bambu. Look at the bullshit we're dealing with on 2D printers because they aren't open source with standard parts.
While good printers, the amount of waste those Bambus produce just don't make them feasible in my eyes. If you use 4 colours, they waste about 44cm of filament while you haven't even started printing.
And the hounding if you don't get a Bambu.
Where do you see that?
all very accurate but I want to add that eveb if you want to resin print in your bedroom you wont be able to. It's not only that it's toxic but the smell is so strong that, at least for me, it's impossible to be around it. My printer is outside in the garage and when it's printing you can still smell it inside the house. I can feel my cells mutating in real time
Lol the napping skeleton is the best, love when streamers just breathe in and play with that shit like it's play doh
Ok, but where do I put the ink?
I want to get started 3d printing, partially because I bought a house and farm and need to replace some little bits and bobs that don't necessarily need to be super strong. It just seems a bit too much to try to figure out right now.
I went a little crazy on 3d printing during covid. I had a single printer prior but purchased two more. I haven't printed on ANY of them in like 2 years. I end up just printing stupid shit or because I go so long between printing wasting way too much time to get everything dialed back in. Now I don't even know what my slicing settings were and I would have to probably start from scratch. I should probably just sell my printers....
I printed a lot of custom stuff that I designed for specific uses in Fusion 360 when I got my computer, and for about two years afterwards. But I don't have any more custom stuff that needs to be printed, and I don't have a D&D group any more, so my printer has been sitting for about six months. I'd say it's a success though, since I made everything I need, and it'll still be there if I ever need anything else.
This was the second half of my problem honestly, I can't for the life of me figure out how to 3d model stuff. I've gone through tutorial after tutorial so clearly it's me.
I actually have stuff I'd like to print but I'm not competent enough to model it. I'm the n00b just printing stuff I can download from the internet. Or was I suppose....
Depends entirely on the program you use.
Most CAD programs has all the features, but difficult to learn and just isn't needed most of the time.
For simple stuff things like Tinkercad and MatterControl are much better. They are basically drag, drop and rotate.
There's a learning curve for sure. A lot of the tutorials on YouTube aren't very helpful. Some are downright awful. This guy's channel really helped it click for me. You can just start by following his lessons and at some point it'll click and then you can start designing really basic stuff like drawer organizers, which are essentially just cubes, and then work your way up from there. It does take time though.
Having a 3d printer is super convenient for any home or shop repairs I need to make. I have so many curtain spacers and custom hooks all over the place now. The key is to get some hours in Fusion or some other good CAD software so you can whip up custom parts in minutes. You may get it wrong the first few times, but a couple minutes of tweaks and then you have a new part printing while you go back to working on other stuff.
The Swedish Maker just put out a video about how transformative 3d printing has been for his workflow. https://youtu.be/p2bClWmKHRM
That's fair, there is a bit of information overload online when looking into it.
If you want my two cents, find the cheapest print with auto bed levelling (mingda magicians are good and cheap) and just start playing around.You don't need to know much to start, and you learn what you need to as you encounter problems.
That's how I got into at least, and now been printing for like 5+ years.
I'll have you know the Ender 3 I found dumped behind a tent near the Dyatlov Pass is working great
Do the models appear finished before you even start printing?
They have like 236 ender 3's nowadays, ofcourse i'm not asking google as i'll end up on some website that's shilling for creality and completely ignores the other brands.
Can google be used at all for any product recommendations anymore? Anyone with a buck to make is gaming the algorithm.
No and I hate it :( Even if there are a few legit review sites still around it's near impossible to find them among all the fake reviews being pushed by search engines
I usually just use it to find some sort of peer reviewed recommendations (ie YouTube reviews) - it's usually pretty easy to tell there who's being genuine
Okay but like I was given an Ender 3 for free and idk where to go from there
Maybe the fact that the family member who gave it to me didn't want it around anymore should have been a sign
Make sure the screws are snug and the beams don't move. Level the bed, Youtube how. Then get a micro SD card and a slicing program. Slice the model, save to card, insert in printer, hit print from file and select the file.
That's like 95% of it. The other 5 is endless struggles and troubleshooting, but you can worry about that when it comes to it lol. Oh also keep filament dry.
People give the Ender 3 a bad rap all the time, but it's honestly a great little machine. I far prefer it to the $2500 printer we have at work that has "automatic everything" and can't easily be adjusted to manually correct its bad settings.
With that said, how far have you gotten with it? Do you have any software installed? Have you tried printing anything (and was it successful)? You didn't give much clue as to where you're stuck. Yes you need to take some time to learn how to fine-tune the settings, and yes it can be frustrating because there is SO MUCH to learn about 3D printing, but once you get over the hump you can start cranking out all kinds of fun things.
Not op, I got a free Ender 3 from a frustrated co-worker, and am now the frustrated co-worker. I've tried getting a new glass print surface, tried using glue sticks, tried changing print temps and speeds, tried levelling and re-levelling and re-levelling the bed, but I just can't get the print to stick for love or money. It's now been re-homed to the garage, as a parking obstacle for my bicycle.
Honestly at that point I would tear down the whole thing and use this video as a guide for reassembly. The most important thing to do is to make sure the framework is all squared up, otherwise all prints will suffer.
As for bed leveling... A lot of people think the paper test is all you need, but really that only gets you close enough to start leveling the bed. First thing is to tighten all the springs to within 1 turn of being closed, then adjust the Z switch so that the head homes to roughly that same height. After that you use the paper method to get the bed roughly level, then move on to live testing with a 5-point bed-leveling test print to dial it in. Ideally you want the nozzle gap to be about 75% of the nozzle size, so for a 0.20mm tip you would want a 0.15mm gap to get your print to stick.
As I mentioned to someone else, Creality's QC is garbage. My first glass bed had better adhesion than PEI and worked beautifully for a few years until the coating wore out. My second glass bed was trash, I never could get anything to stick to it without using hairspray, and now it sits in its box. I have a PEI bed now, which seems to have solved the problem. If you decide to try using the printer again, don't forget to clean the glass with 90% ISO. Worst case try flipping the glass over to the smooth side, clean it with ISO, then use glue sticks on that surface (you won't get any adhesion on bare glass without the glue or hairspray).
I'm laughing out loud at the skeleton picture! He seems happy about his prints! 😂
Ok but why isn't it smooth 😅? My layers look like that but I kind of just accepted it as I have a cheap printer (Anycubic Kobra Neo)
Edit: do you just need to set a lower layer height?
Lower layer height will make the steps smaller. In orca slicer you can use adaptive layer height to decrease layer height just on the top of the dome.
Choosing different printing orientation can be a solution.
Consider post processing steps if you really need smooth parts. Sandable fillers, special paints, epoxy coatings, or just a bunch of sanding. I've had good luck with XTC-3D. It's an epoxy you paint on that's specifically designed for smoothing prints.
You could also consider a resin printer if you need smooth. They are their own can of worms, but the resolution and smoothness is good.
I usually just accept the roughness.
Yep, you'll never get it perfect, but a smaller layer height will make the steps less noticeable. Adaptive layer height in cura if you use that can help, but adds a mortal age to the length of the print.
So what printer should I be looking for when I rob graves?
Where are these graves I can rob Ender 3s out of??
I have the opposite problem, my prints stick to the bed too well, I can hardly get them off!
Let the bed cool down all the way, ya little gremlin! If you absolutely can't wait, put the bed on a tile floor and your print should pop off on it's own pretty quick.
I do! Lol I've had a print stuck to my bed for the last 2 weeks.
If it is a removable bed, pop that bad boy in the freezer for a bit and the print should pop off. If not then you may want to try some glue stick on the bed before a print which will help the print release since it'll pull off the glue.
The reason that in the middle is happening is that the temperature is wrong, judging by the inconsistent thickness of extruded material and lack of adhesion. If it's a high heat filament like PETG then the printer might be stopping and resetting because its got a heat sensor with a low upper limit.
Pretty much all the reasons I can't stand most 3D Printing communities on the internet. Too much basic troubleshooting answered dozens of times already and not enough cool projects.
Make a wiki, point people at the wiki, I suppose.
One thing I did like about Reddit was the wiki feature.
Could have a bot that links to a git wiki, or even just a sidebar with knowledge base stuff would be nice for that.
The printing next the door bedroom makes me hope it catches fire and I burn to death.
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