If you had 5 printers would you sell them all to get a bamboo?
- Thread starter hotponyshoes
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That links to another thread on here??
Have you got a link . I Have some time (in the wrong place) next week so some research would not go amiss.
PhillipM
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Not particularly, I print loads for various engine and exhaust mounts, I happily do 1mm wide, 0.4mm high extrusions at 40-60mm/s - you just need a short drive path, well tuned retraction and acceleration compensations, a lot of heat and a high flow nozzle.
The easiest upgrade to an old printer is to stick a bigger CHT nozzle in it and crank the temps (with DRY filament. TPU's mechanical properties if you overheat it when wet are terrible. And worse, the part will look just fine until you use it)
ajlelectronics
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Screwdriver
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Why would I want five printers?
tflnemesis
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hotponyshoes
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I've just had a quick fiddle in cura (without actually printing anything and swapping from a 0.4 ot a 0.6 or 0.8 nozzle does indeed speed things up dramatically.
I'll get some orders up and see what the printer can cope with
I'll get some orders up and see what the printer can cope with
ajlelectronics
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But then the quality goes down doesn't it?
iNf
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Not necessarily, it depends what you want to do. If you're printing small intricate things maybe so but for more 'engineering' practical things you're probably not going to notice much and does it matter? Prints can also be stronger as you've less layers to tear apart.
hotponyshoes
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Never tried it?
I'd expect the surface finish to be rougher?
I don't have any tiny details in the parts or need a high level of accuracy.
I'd like to think the part strength should be at least the same?
I'll let you know when the nozzles arrive.
Screwdriver
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Ultimately it comes down to the efficiency of your hot end and capacity of your power supply. At some point the heating element simply won't be able to keep up with the flow rate.
0.6mm is a good spot for the Ender3 for example but go up to 0.8 or 1mm and you have to turn the travel speed down so the hotend can keep up...
hotponyshoes
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I guess this will be obvious as I'll just see the nozzle temp drop below target though?
Dev
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Think of it like milling - a 10mm tool is no less accurate than a 5mm one so long as theres no internal features smaller than the radius but the time saved can be significant.
PhillipM
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Which is why you switch to a CHT nozzle or similar so you can crank heat into the filament faster - the limit for most printers is getting the heat from the nozzle into the plastic, not the heating element.
A volcano is cheaper but not a straight swap and the longer extrusion heat zone can cause issues with keeping TPU at elevated temperatures for a while - same as injection molding the longer you keep TPU up at full melt temps the worse its properties get.
These were both done with 1mm wide extrusions, more than high enough quality for their intended use:
(edit - as some were talking about it, larger extrusions are generally stronger as you have less stress risers and the interbond temperature is kept higher from the higher thermal mass)
Screwdriver
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Yep, there is that too, efficiency covers a multitude of sins. Once you go down that rabbit hole it is an endless voyage of discovery.
For tinkerers I say knock yourself out, have fun playing with 3d printers in some horiffic never ending voyage.
For the dedicated professional or commercial application it is an onerous task offset only by the fun to be had playing with someone else’s money so that you can get more of it back.
In the middle ground are people like me who just want to make things with a printer that just sits there and works. I came really close to building a Voron just to get the minimum level of performance that you need for prototyping. Then the X1 came out and there’s not that much of a trade off with either price or performance.
i guess it just depends on how much time people are prepared to spend making something work as opposed to getting on with work.
I guess it also depends if people have any work to be getting on with.
I have yet to find anything people want printed. Horse shoes are about the biggest niche product you could get I reckon.
It would be nice to be able to make a few quid selling 3D printed stuff but I still think the most important part is the design. If you can design you have half a chance but most stuff on thingiverse etc have limits on commercial use (obviously). If anything else existed others would be able to.print it.
I have a Voron, but will admit it's not really economically viable from a business perspective. I built it, because I wanted a core XY printer. At the time, it would have made more business sense to spend that money on a few Enders (Bambu wasn't available at the time). I'm currently considering getting a Bambu, as I'd like the AMS for multi-colour prints, at which point I may have to cull another printer to create some space.
The only way to make any reasonable money from 3D printing, is by being able to design something yourself. If the model is available on the likes of Thingiverse, then there's always going to be somebody who'll print it cheaper for pocket money.
As for TPU printing, I actually upgraded my first Ender 3 to direct drive as I was going to print some TPU, and have had a roll of TPU on the shelf for quite some time, but I've just never had a need for it yet.
The only way to make any reasonable money from 3D printing, is by being able to design something yourself. If the model is available on the likes of Thingiverse, then there's always going to be somebody who'll print it cheaper for pocket money.
As for TPU printing, I actually upgraded my first Ender 3 to direct drive as I was going to print some TPU, and have had a roll of TPU on the shelf for quite some time, but I've just never had a need for it yet.
