3D Printing

You just need to make some hot-chip cookies now!!

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Any one printing here with any non-brass nozzles? I have some PETG which is being super sticky and looking at various nozzles for the Prusa MK4. Not sure they’re worth the extra?

For a little print I made recently… My cat is getting older and her balance going a bit - she’s started falling off her cat tree :cry: so I made her a little 3d printed barrier so she doesn’t roll off the edge.

Resurrecting this thread a little.

@BritishLibrary and anyone else - is there a specific branded filament that you use?

I’ve been busing Creality filament and need to purchase some more and just wondering if I’m getting the best quality or not.

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Depends on what you’re planning to print I suppose, and if you need any specific properties…

But I’m a big fan of…

Prusament (high specced, often great colours, a bit spendy)
Extrudr - both their NX2 range, and their matt PETGs are great to print and have a lovely finish.
Filamentum - for special finishes and a wide range of colours
Fiberlogy - have a good amount of well priced colours and ranges - all “easy” to print
Polymaker and FormFutura - also have good ranges; matt pastel colours, wood effect, etc - I’ve not hugely got into them though.

I generally get filaments from 3D Jake, if not direct from the manufacturer

Ps, what are you printing at the moment @AlanDoe

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Thank you!!

I’m still getting to grips with Blender at the moment to create my own models - I successfully merged two models and the print worked so I felt on top of the world haha.

Printing some goth themed plantpots for the house. Been using thingiverse for the files but need to branch out so any suggestions welcome :pray:

What about you?

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Have you made any cookies with your cookie cutter yet?

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I did! but I accidentally burnt them haha.

I’ll give them another shot soon and post the results on here :cookie:

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Multi colour you say :eyes:

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Dual tone Chip

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On a plus side of having a 3D printer (and the partner approval factor) I can now print Christmas decorations!

(Print head is moving fast hence the blur)

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What do people do about drying filament?

I’ve ordered these to keep rolls in once they’ve been opened and some silica gel sachets with colour indicators to put inside each bag, but I know a lot of the guides I’ve been reading say to make sure the filament is dry before printing.

Do people dry their filament, or is it generally not a problem as long as you look after it?

I didn’t know if it was worth investing in something like this, but I wouldn’t want to use it to print from, just to dry and it’s not clear how effective it would be to do that?

(Or is it worth just drying it on the hotbed of my printer? although I can’t print while I do that :see_no_evil: )

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It depends on the filament tbh.

I have the exact same bags (the elegoo variant) and they work like a treat.

If it’s PLA I don’t bother drying it as it just prints perfectly fine. PETG,TPU,TPE,PC,PVA 100% dry or it gets stringy and fails.

I chuck the PETG on the headed with the box it came in over the top minus the lid of the box. Then chuck it in the AMS. I also have a EcoAir dehumidifier in the room the printer is on and whack it on high mode whilst printing

At some point I want to try PPA-CF

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Can I assume that the PETG etc is dry enough to print with when it arrives? Reading through the Bambu guidance isn’t clear!

I ordered the Bambu PETG HF, and I dried it before use. In my eyes its a bitch to print with in general.

The PETG-CF is a lot better but not required to dry although I did.

For reference I print using the new Bambu Lab SuperTack plate, on the X1C with AMS

Thank you! I think I’m going to order a filament dryer thing :joy:

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It is faster than the bed drying I think :slight_smile:

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I’ve got a couple of Sunlu dryers (albeit an older one which was cheaper!) and can really recommend them especially if you’re swapping filaments a lot.

PETG suffers more from moisture than PLA, but both can benefit from drying if you’re in a humid environment.

I have a cheap moistureometer or two I keep around my print space, broadly speaking my ambient environment can hover up to 55-60% depending on time of year, with a dryer the inside can get to about 30%.

It drastically improves the print quality in my experience.

The silica route and airtight bags are ok - but they won’t drastically reduce the moisture - really only maintain dry filament.

One challenge with those approaches is the outer layers will be dryer than the inner, so if you’re doing a big print by the time you get to the inside of the spool it can be much higher than you thought - and PETG will absorb moisture from the air while you’re printing

The dryers often have a hole you can feed through so you can print whilst drying simultaneously.

If I’m doing a medium sized PETG Print I’ll give it about 3-6 hours in the dryer, and then continue to dry whilst printing - and it works pretty well.

I have seen people make their own active heated dry boxes from big storage containers with 4+ spools in which are great if you are printing a lot - and you can connect hookups and Bowden tubes to connect to your extruder.

Typically PETG will want to dry about 55oC ish for 6-12 hours to really dry it out, with PLA around 45 for up to 6. And you should be careful of the drying temp as it can make the filament brittle if you go too high for certain filaments.

You can also get cheap food dehydrators that will do the same thing!

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Thanks everybody - much appreciated :heart:

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Also with PETG it can be an incredibly fussy material - it tends to be super sticky and can easily leave burnt bits in your prints.

It’s worth making sure you nozzle is as free from any build up as you can before you print (a good brass wire brush is handy) - and keeping your print bed extra clean.

Otherwise the filament can catch and burn on the extruder and occasionally deposit them mid print.

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Decided to get a filament printer. I love my resin printer but due to a change in living situation I no longer have a good space to print resin, which you need really. Haven’t printed for a while now and I’m running out of things to paint.

Likely one of the Creality Ender 3 varients. I will keep my resin printer in the hopes I can occasionally use it for high quality prints for high value models but in the meantime churn out some lower quality minis to slap some paint on to keep the hobby going :smile:

I can also just buy the models I guess but it gets expensive.

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