Longtime lurker willing to enter 3D

[stratman]

Please, keep away from the 3D subforums

Reverse psychology does not work on me.

If you fall at last, I'll be forced to buy another printer.

But humor might.

Don't worry. You'll not need to buy another printer on my account any time soon.

 

[Redbrickman]

It's a form of therapy and works in two ways. You spend hours trying to get good quality the first layer of a print, that stresses you out, then you get it working and sit mesmerised for hours watching it print

 

[Artur5]

And when you think that the print will end nicely ( no need to watch for hours) you go away to perform your daily tasks in confidence. Then, retuning later, you find out that the filament got entangled in the spool, the extruder couldn't pull it and everything was feckin' ruined.
Of course that happens always when you're not watching and can fix it before it's too late. ( Murphy's laws seems to be very fond of 3D printing ).
On my printer, I also found out that PLA is prone to get blocked in the teeth of the extruder if the temperature raises too much. Not a problem in winter but right now it is. Releasing a bit the tension of the gears, solves the problem, but not before you've wasted a few meters filament trying to figure out what happened. Some brands of PLA are more vulnerable to this problem than others. The gear tension that works OK for Sunlu is troublesome with Esun.or viceversa.
All considered, I'd say that 3D printing is more stressful than sedative, but your mileage may differ.

 

[The Hat]

Then, retuning later, you find out that the filament got entangled in the spool, the extruder couldn't pull it and everything was feckin' ruined

If you are getting your filament all tangled up on the spool, then there must be something very wrong with either your delivery or the filament spool itself.

To stop the chances of your firmament getting tangled, you should make sure you have some sort of restraint on it, and not allow it to spin freely, or if it comes tangled then buy another brand of filament, this shouldn’t happen..

Once the first lair of filament is laid down, there shouldn’t be a need to baby sit the printer, it should be able to work independently of you and finish out your project without you been present.

I sometime make 6 or 7 test prints before I start to make a whole object, that way I know it’s going to fit when its finished, I go down to my shed after breakfast to see how she looks…Very seldom it's wrong..

The only time I visit my printers when their working is to change the filament for a new reel. The longest run I did was 108 hours.. 1 reel change..

I can get a bit stressed when waiting for something to finish, to see if I got all my measurements correct, otherwise its pure heaven to have them printing something, or anything useful, if it gets Fubar, then I do it again, and only time is wasted..

P.S. it keeps my little brain cells occupied and stops them from fading away..

 

[stratman]

To stop the chances of your firmament getting tangled

Who knew 3D printing is a religion!

Once the first lair of filament

Doesn't Mrs The Hat calls your printer shed your "lair"?

"Animals that live in lairs include bears, bobcats, cougars, wolves and tigers."

https://www.reference.com/science/animals-live-lair-67fda33578eec871

 

[Artur5]

@The Hat, your argument about entangled filament makes all the sense, but I'm afraid that most manufacturers (specially Chinese brands) don't care much about costumer satisfaction.
For instance, I purchased a spool of eSun white PLA. It arrived perfectly winded and with a resealable plastic bag, to store it free from humidity when not in use. No nasty surprises during the prints. Everything came out nicely.
So I thought that I'd found my cheap, good and reliable brand and ordered another spool of the same brand and color. This time no resealable bag; the 'cold white' was rather ivory/vanilla instead of cold and the filament was terribly messed in the spool. No way to tell beforehand when/if one thread would appear entangled below another and havoc will occur.
How can you leave the printer working overnight in confidence ?.
Unwinding several turns of filament and letting them just a bit loose ( I said 'a bit' ) it helps to prevent entangling for short periods of time but not for hours.
To tell the truth, the first PLA spool that I used came free with the printer. Made by Fillamentum and it was perfect in all aspects. Not so the first spool of PETg ( Polymaker brand). There I had my first problems. The first eSun perfect too. The second troublesome. My first (and only ) Geetech PETg very good, no problem. My first Sunlu .. comme ci comme ça.
Chinese brands seem to be totally inconsistent in their quality control. Every time you buy their filament it's a lottery.

Now I ordered a couple of spools of Prusa's own brand PLA, to see if the loudly advertised '0.02mm tolerances and perfect winding' are true or just hype.

 

[The Hat]

but I'm afraid that most manufacturers (specially Chinese brands) don't care much about costumer satisfaction.

If you were not satisfied with the quality of the filament you should have used the dispute button, and that way you could get you money back or another roll of filament, you can now also return it for free..

I had the opposite experience to you regarding Chinese filament, all were perfect and most were purchased from Creality and sent Via Poland (15 rolls on special offer @ €9), but I did got one shower of bastards that took my money for 5 rolls and did a midnight flit, AliExpress never caught them..

Next time there an issue with tangled filament, rewind it yourself onto an empty spool, it take a bit time but then you’re sure it’s ready for use..

P.S. Since the Pandemic there has been an noticeable increase in the price of filament.

 

[Artur5]

After almost five months dealing with PLA, PETg and a bit of flex. now I feel the urge of challenging the tough guys.
So, I ordered a pack of 50gram samples of Nylon, Polycarbonate and PLA flexible to see how my printer and I manage this stuff.
If this is a fiasco, the loss won't be much but anyway I'll let you know the results in a few days.
I'm curious about flexible PLA. They claim that, apart from being flexible, it's much more resilient than normal PLA concerning heat and mechanical strength.

 

[The Hat]

So, I ordered a pack of 50gram samples of Nylon, Polycarbonate and PLA flexible to see how my printer and I manage this stuff.

I look forward to the satisfactory progress you can make with this stuff, but above can you put it to any practical use and if so what ?

I’m very flexible..As you know...

 

[Artur5]

Well, there’re things that require more toughness and heat endurance than PLA or even PETg.
For instance, the first thing I’ll try will be a shroud for the layer fan of my printer. The current one, made from PETg, it’s already a bit deformed. Polycarbonate seems a better choice for this part or for anything being exposed to heat for longs periods of time.
Also, small figures or models made from PLA are easy to break if they have thin long parts ( arms, legs, tails, etc..). Polycarbonate or, posssibly flexible PLA, could be the answer. I don’t know yet.
Nylon would be fine for small gears, screws, gaskets and so on.

I have no intention of using these filaments for anything big. To begin with, they’re very expensive and also 80-90% of my needs are already fulfilled by PLA or PETg.

P.S.
Flexible PLA is the stuff you need for lampost MkVI.