Comment on What are some dumb mistakes you have made with 3D printing?
klankin@piefed.ca 10 hours agoDo you know if thats just for medium to large machines?
Kinda my dream to get some smaller ones to build a small printer/CNC farm
Comment on What are some dumb mistakes you have made with 3D printing?
klankin@piefed.ca 10 hours agoDo you know if thats just for medium to large machines?
Kinda my dream to get some smaller ones to build a small printer/CNC farm
Thorry@feddit.org 10 hours ago
The smaller ones are usually hobby/self built. There is nowadays something like Carvera, but those seem like a lot of hassle and expense for not a lot of functionality.
In my opinion there’s no such thing as a small CNC. I have a tiny one 40x30cm working volume, I use it to create PCBs from blank copper coated plates. It’s better than what I used to do with laserprinted resists and chemical etches. But these days ordering PCBs from one of those online fabs is fast and better quality, cheap as well. I can’t get the blank copper coated plates for cheap anymore, since copper is so expensive. But small CNCs often lack the power and speed to be useful and the limited working space is a big downside as well. So when I bought one, I went big, with a lot of power, speed and working surface.
Also don’t snooze on the dust extraction required, all the material a CNC or laser removes gets turned into gas and dust particles. You need well and proper dust extraction and filtering. Especially if you do soft woods and stuff like glued panels like mdf or plywood. The glue gets in the air and rains down everywhere. This causes dust to cake up and be hard to clean. It can ruin the machine and make a mess of your workspace. It’s also very unhealthy to breathe.
People doing 3D printing forget about this as well. Sanding plastics or using materials with carbon or glass inside. The dust that comes off of that isn’t good, so proper dust protection and extraction is a must.