What's Your Printer?

[marinesniper]

Congratulations on your new toy

 

[Sean Anwalt]

Congratulations on your new toy

Thank you. It's been fun so far.

 

[lordofthebombs]

I’ve been using a Bambu Lab A1 mini (184mm x 184mm x 184mm), so far I’ve printed this Mk V helmet from Galactic Armory. It’s a little too small, but I managed to make it work. I might get a P1S since I want to make able to use ABS at one point, but I wonder what others I could use that aren’t as expensive.

 

[SgtSaint]

I’ve been using a Bambu Lab A1 mini (184mm x 184mm x 184mm), so far I’ve printed this Mk V helmet from Galactic Armory. It’s a little too small, but I managed to make it work. I might get a P1S since I want to make able to use ABS at one point, but I wonder what others I could use that aren’t as expensive.

> but I wonder what others I could use that aren’t as expensive.

An Ender3 is basically the same size print volume: Its like a few mm different. For hundreds of dollars less. With less price comes less automatic features. No AMS. Its a bed slinger not CoreXY. Not on your Wifi. And you'll have to level the bed manually. After that, its still a nozzle with a hole pushing molten plastic. Amongst all my machines are three Ender3pro that are years old and still putting out customer-grade product: But obviously at a slower speed than a modern era non-bed-slinger.

But any machine in that 250mm³ is still pretty small in the context of armor. Its going to mean lots of seaming. Personally, I'd wait until you can afford something that is a significant improvement over that A1, just not an small incremental step. You can probably get a 400mm bed slinger for less than a P1S, but again it won't be turn-key, know-nothing, fully automatic.

 

[lordofthebombs]

> but I wonder what others I could use that aren’t as expensive.

An Ender3 is basically the same size print volume: Its like a few mm different. For hundreds of dollars less. With less price comes less automatic features. No AMS. Its a bed slinger not CoreXY. Not on your Wifi. And you'll have to level the bed manually. After that, its still a nozzle with a hole pushing molten plastic. Amongst all my machines are three Ender3pro that are years old and still putting out customer-grade product: But obviously at a slower speed than a modern era non-bed-slinger.

But any machine in that 250mm³ is still pretty small in the context of armor. Its going to mean lots of seaming. Personally, I'd wait until you can afford something that is a significant improvement over that A1, just not an small incremental step. You can probably get a 400mm bed slinger for less than a P1S, but again it won't be turn-key, know-nothing, fully automatic.

I see, I don’t expect to print anything large like that any time soon and will resort to using foam or something like that for the time being. What is decent printer with that kind of build volume?

 

[Hadone]

I see, I don’t expect to print anything large like that any time soon and will resort to using foam or something like that for the time being. What is decent printer with that kind of build volume?

There are rumors of a larger Bambu printer coming soon. I say rumor despite Bambu saying it is happening because I don't have too much faith we will see it this year. I'm open to being wrong though.

The P1S is pretty small (256³) but if you are smart about cutting your models, it's not that big of a deal. Its speed and accuracy make up for it. One thing I do want to note though, if you do want to print in ABS in the future, there are a lot of little things you need to do for it. Generally, people recommend an enclosure for ABS because it is very prone to warping, and keeping the entire print volume hot helps. Also, when it cools it tends to rip up build plates so lots of people use glass beds. I've printed a few ABS items with my P1S, one large, and several smaller items. If I was printing an entire suit of armor, I would definitely prefer an all-in-one solution. I had an Ender 3 Pro before I upgraded, and I was fighting it so often I was barely printing anything anymore.

 

[Drew]

1. Printer Name: Ender 3 S1
2. Bed size: 235 x 235mm
3. 
   What you've printed on it: so many useless little trinkets but also my Rakshasa kit and the ARTAIUS helmet to go with it and a very colorful sidekick
   

 

[SgtSaint]

There are rumors of a larger Bambu printer coming soon. I say rumor despite Bambu saying it is happening because I don't have too much faith we will see it this year. I'm open to being wrong though.

BambuLab is currently facing 10 lawsuits for patent infringements. I have no inside information but common sense tells me they won't be increasing their exposure by rolling out more models that also infringe on those patents until those law suits are settled.

 

[Hadone]

BambuLab is currently facing 10 lawsuits for patent infringements. I have no inside information but common sense tells me they won't be increasing their exposure by rolling out more models that also infringe on those patents until those law suits are settled.

Seeing as one of the lawsuits is use of a heated build plate, a thing that is common place in the industry, I doubt too much will come from it.

 

[SgtSaint]

Seeing as one of the lawsuits is use of a heated build plate, a thing that is common place in the industry, I doubt too much will come from it.

The thing is, its still a violation and still has to be countered in court. The holder of that patent hasn't pushed back on small at-home sized machines because they don't care to spend $1m in legal fees to recoup $10k in return or to stop the "little guys" that don't affect their large industrial demographic. There just wasn't a point because there wasn't enough cut into their business to justify it. Until Bambu.
Now you see home shops like "Shop Nation" with 50 Bambu machines making saw->vacuum adapters that once would have bought 1 or 2 of their industrial machines. **Now** its cutting in to their customer base, cutting in to their sales and so on. Keep in mind that's happening with these teeny 250mm machines. Stratys isn't stupid: If those tiny machines are starting to make an impact they need to nip this in the bud before Bambu starts making 400mm machines.

Whether they win in court is a matter for years from now - in the mean time they can keep them from wanting to being more machines to market that might cost them in court or in technology licensing fees. They can spend enough in legal fees to keep Bambu at bay for years.

 

[Spiderboy196]

Update: got two new printers to help me with my first ever 3d printed suit. They're codenames are: vulkan (elegoo neptune 3 max) and Shelia (voxlab aquila x3 plus)

 

[lordofthebombs]

1. Printer Name: Ender 3 S1
2. Bed size: 235 x 235mm
3. View attachment 352635What you've printed on it: so many useless little trinkets but also my Rakshasa kit and the ARTAIUS helmet to go with it and a very colorful sidekickView attachment 352634

The side kick turned out really good!