Comment on Need help with printer recommendations
Bluewing@lemmy.world 2 days agoAn air fryer is an interesting idea if you happen to have one handy. But even dedicated filament dryers are a bit cheaper to buy, let alone a used dehydrator. And few people are using expensive engineering filament either to scratch build
KingRandomGuy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s all fair! For myself I use a lot of PET-CF, especially annealed. For some applications you can get away with the stiffness and the creep resistance provided by annealed PET-CF rather than needing a machined part, so for me an air fryer or equivalent is a must (for both drying and annealing). I build stuff for astrophotography, so having a material that is heavily resistant to creep and is also stiff is a must.
I’ll note that for PETG, if your print is under nontrivial load, it will probably start to deform well below the 80C mark. Continuous use I believe is about 70C. Though because PETG is so inexpensive, you can always just reprint as long as assembly isn’t too difficult.
You’re right that PLA, PETG, and TPU are like 90% of anyone’s needs though.
Bluewing@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Special needs often require special materials. You have special requirements and can use those materials. When I have special needs for materials, I just walk up to my garage and machine things out of metals. I have a lathe, mill, drill press, air compressors, and welders. But, I’m that extreme outlier your momma warned you about…Not everyone has the room, knowledge and skills to do that. So, 3D printing is a very good substitute for most people.
Still, don’t dismiss those ‘basic’ filaments either. I have made more than one bending die set to bend up to 10ga/3mm steel out of the cheapest most basic PLA I can buy. It won’t last for 10,000 parts, but I know can can get a dozen bends from it. And more depending on the material and thickness of it. And no, it doesn’t take 100% infill either. 15% or 20% infill is enough. It’s all about the number of walls.
Experiment, try, fail, succeed, and most important, have fun learning.
KingRandomGuy@lemmy.world 28 minutes ago
You’re correct about all of this, but it’s way easier to press print than machine a part from stock. I do some machining as well (I don’t own the machines, but I’m trained on the mill, lathe, and waterjet in our shop). So most of the time if I can get away with a 3d printed part, it’s worth it for the time savings alone. Plus sometimes the easiest or optimal geometry to design is not something that can be machined, but can be printed.
It’s specific circumstances where the basic filaments fall short, like creep and heat resistance, irrespective of print parameters. ASA and PET-CF work well in most of these spots, so I don’t do anything more exotic.