3D Printing

hello lufguss 3d print community!
i've been tasked with ordering a 3d printer for our design studio.
i'm going to order the bambu labs x1 carbon combo, but not sure what to buy in terms of filaments?
just start off with basic PLA pack and a black ABS?

::edit:: would be mostly used for printing small architectural models, etc.

Is this possible?
Could a quick response code be printed with materials that would be resistant to casual vandalism?

I'm envisaging, maybe, 2 inches square, to be affixed to a wooden sign,
to allow those that are curious to find out more about an NFM, (Natural Flood Management) project by following the QR code to a webpage.

3D-printing to allow the black areas of the QR code to be body deep.
This should mean the QR code is till readable even if attacked by a blade,
rather than printed media that is easily rendered unreadable.

You might be better off with a small laser engraver. You could burn the QR code into marine ply and it should work

I'm sure there will be other opinions, but if 3D printing is new to the studio I'd just use PLA to start with. There will be a learning curve with a new machine, and a mix of material types won't help unless you actually need the different properties ABS will offer.

Much of what I print ends up painted, so I generally use black grey or white PLA, according to preferred primer colour.

I only use ABS if I need weather resistance or I know solvent polishing is desirable, but then my machine is 5 years old and the higher temperatures needed for ABS can be a challenge in a cold workshop.

I've found pla + to have better dimensionsal accucuracy. Or at least doesn't shrink as much. But that may be entirely luck

Yes it's possible. You could print in two colours, and also use relief to aid in detection. If the code only contains a URL then you could add a lot of redundancy to make it easier to read without the code being too complex.

ok thanks. just wanted to have the basics covered at this stage.
i'll order a few rolls of matte PLA and see how we go with that.

Good counter suggestion.
A complicating factor is the location,
a SSSI woodland that is part of London's first NNR.
Natural England generally prefer more inert materials than marine ply.
I'll add 'laser engraving' to the long list of options.
Thanks.

I've already been advised to use a redirect to ensure the QR code has a short url to encode to reduce the number of blocks/pixels in the black&white matrix.

esun pla+ is a great filament for starting with. gives a nice finish and is easy to work with, can use with stock generic pla settings on the X1c

the x1c will handle petg and abs with no issues out of the box though so if you need the properties of those you'll be fine.

unless you are unlucky to have a genuine fault happen with the machine it pretty much just works tbh. i find i rarely have to tinker with anything.

i would suggest buying the textured build plate though as i find it much nicer to work with than the smooth one that it comes with as you dont have to fuck about with gluesticks or anything it just sticks.

cool. good tips, thanks for sharing.
i'm a complete noob when it comes to 3d printing (which is why i've gone for the x1c as it seems to be almost plug and play...?!)
i'll see if i can add the textured bed onto the order.

i should add, i've been doing 3d modelling for about 25 yrs so should be able to handle that bit i hope!

ignore the supplied test files, they're mostly garbage and weirdly some of the only files i've had print fails with. just download a 3dbenchy and slice it yourself in bl studio to give it an inaugural print.

then i'd suggest you print out a "purge/poop" bucket to catch the filament waste which gets ejected out of the back of the machine. i like this one...

https://www.printables.com/model/254061-bambu-lab-purgeflushpoop-bucket-for-x1-or-x1-carbo

i'd also suggest a spray bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol and a microfibre cloth for cleaning the bed before a print as oils from fingers etc can affect adhesion a fair bit if people are touching the surface all the time, might need to check the office fire safety policy for that though.

Just got hold of a 2nd hand Flashforge Finder 3 (got really quite cheap) as a first foray into tinkering with 3d printing. Won't be doing anything too adventurous, maybe some bits and pieces of RC car spare parts and mods, as well as maybe having a bash at some little toys for the kids.

Was attracted to this model as its really simple and is used often in schools etc, so the kids can tinker too when they're older.

finally managed to get my printer (well, work's printer...) set up and made a couple of test prints at different resolutions.

thanks for the tips, they were really helpful

just started printing out a poop bucket so we'll see how that goes - looks a pretty big print!

3d printing and RC cars is a great combo.

Just sorted some wider offset wheels for a cheapo car.

And some little hooks that I've looped into hair bands for the roofrack storage.

2 Attachments

To piggyback - I’ve got a P1S on the way - think it comes with the textured bed upgrade as mentioned above, and have some IPA. Is there anything else I’ll want to grab so that I can get cracking once it arrives?

you're pretty much set.

just get plenty of filament and download a bunch of files you want to print ready to go.

filament wise pla+(plus) is a good starting point as it's pretty well behaved and gives a nice smoother print than normal pla. most brands will be much of a muchness, I use eSun and sunlu as they're not the very cheapest but are often discounted down to £13/14 a roll on amazon (i have camelcamelcamel alerts setup when it drops under £15 for the colours i use most).

if you do plan to get an AMS as well in the future don't stock up too much on cardboard spools as the ams doesn't like them as they wear and cause dust in the mechanisms and can slip on the spindles it uses to turn the spools, annoyingly i think esun moved to cardboard spools now. there are workarounds like printing spool edge covers or printing geared machines that will respool onto a plastic spool but it's a faff.

if you don't plan to get an AMS (yet) I'd recommend seriously considering it anyways and maybe starting a piggy bank fund to save up for one by selling prints/print time to friends if its out of budget. the auto switch feature that jumps to another roll of the same colour if you run out mid print without interrupting it is worth the cost of entry alone as is being able to switch filament types between prints by clicking a dropdown but the multi color printing is also very nice and makes amazing stuff.

oh and get some vacuum sealable bags to keep your opened filaments in if you plan to swap between colours/filament types a lot. just stops them absorbing moisture while sitting around so you're less likely to need to dry them later on.

I've been having great fun getting to know the x1c at work.
I made this landscape map of the dirty reiver route this week as a test.
came out pretty nice! not a great photo though...
it looks pretty cool with a lightbox behind it as the light diffuses through the different heights.

1 Attachment

@bigshape check out a piece of software called hueforge. you might be able to make some cool heatmaps with it and the ams.

https://shop.thehueforge.com/blogs/news/what-is-hueforge

wow thanks, that looks really interesting!
have you made any prints with it? be cool to see how they turned out.

I bought a license and it's on my to-do list but i'm currently trying to get an ADHD diagnosis as I'm a chronic procrastinator. my buddy has done a load on his P1S though

1 Attachment

if you look on makerworld and printables for "hueforge" you'll find a number of prints people have already ran through it and setup for printing I think.

I’ve got some Sennheiser hd250bt headphone and the ear pads are too small. Some online research leads me to believe you can 3D print “something” that attached to the headphones that allows you attach larger pads

https://imgur.com/a/DLDUaUn

Would anyone be up for printing these for me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0aF8haIA1Q&ab_channel=PavloKhmel