I recently dove into the 3D Printing money pit Hobby after seeing the 3D Printers - Must Print Items? thread in the Lounge.

After receiving my printer about a week ago, it has become pretty addicting. Since "The Lair" is "An area for discussing common interests--Film, literature, music and hobbies I thought I would start a thread here for folks to discuss the hobby more, ask questions, share creations, advice, deals, bargains, etc.


Let's see what every has and is doing!


I ended up getting the Bambu Labs P2S with 4 Color AMS (Automatic Material System) and I already have 19 different spools of filament (mostly PLA in various colors, some PETG, a spool of TPU, and a spool of ASA).

Mostly have just made little things to learn/teach myself the process and with a week in and almost 50 hours of print time under my belt I am now starting to branch out into bigger and more useful projects. It will spend the next couple of days grinding out a "GridFinity" organization system for a drawer to hold mic printer related stuff and then one for my terminally messy nightstand drawer.

Between functional stuff I am sure I will find little distractions for something more entertaining.

While I didn't buy this with any intention of it generating "income" but my wife has already lined up a few customers after showing them a cross I made for her.

Anyway, here are a few pics of the more "impressive" (to me, at least) stuff I've made so far, would love to see what others are doing with their printers and hopefully there are some wise masters that can share knowledge on fixing quality issues etc.


Cat Jewelry holder for a friend. My son started doing 3D printing a couple months ago and made one of these for my wife which helped her ease into the idea of me getting one.




Cross with Philippians Verse I did for my wife:




Chopsticks




And a display stand for my Kabar:





Once I get the drawer system finished I am going to do this EDC Dump tray. Original file was just Black with White graphics, but I figured out how to change colors to jazz it up a bit.

To me, the best thing is just the handiness of it all. I was re-doing the watering system for my indoor plants when I thought:

“I wish I had a stake that would go into the pot and hold a 1/4” drip line.”

“Oh, wait, I own a 3d printer.”

A quick search on thingiverse and find someone had the same problem. 20 minutes, I have stakes.

I have a pretty basic printer, the Bambu Labs A1.

I use it 99% of the time making parts for my models in various scales. I've also created a few 1:64 scale farm machines from scratch. If interested at all, you can see some of my stuff here.

My first 3D printer was a Sunlu in 2020. It was basically a big Creality clone. Also a giant pain in the ass. I had to constantly dick around with the bed leveling, filament adhesive strategies, and setup. Then the heat block cracked, the nozzle deformed and I almost said all of this is stupid and not worth it.

I sold it cheap to a friend and bought a Prusa Mini. We had a Prusa at work that was very reliable and hassle free.

Now the Mini is almost 5 years old. Despite the tiny 7" cubic capacity, I rarely see things that are too big for me to print.

I print a variety stuff on a regular basis, from random crap on Thinigverse to some of my own designs in F360. I've probably gone through a dozen spools of PETG and I am still using the original nozzle and drive belts. I built up a decent racing simulation rig last year and the printer has been awesome for whipping up attachments and mounts for all of the crap that you end up dealing with on that endeavor.

The only downside is that it is not a multi-spool/color printer so I can't do fancy multi-colored prints, and some of the newer printers like you guys have can do some really neat stuff.

I've printed a ton of widgets.

Poop chute for the back of the P1S
Screwdriver bit holders
Gridfinity silverware trays [that my wife doesn't like] and the grids for them
8 round 9mm Altoids box inserts
Barn door guide for our pantry [need to reprint in white. Test printed in orange]
Karambit style handle-less 'box opener'
Desiccant boxes for the AMS
Watch pin tool, to resize 3 watches I got for my birthday. Takes a screwdriver bit & we had some tiny pin sized bits at work that did the trick.
Expanse Razorback Bookmark
Wireless charger stand for my phone
AAA battery AR15 magazine
Watch stands

Wow, looking through my print history, I've done more than I thought.

I purchased a Elegoo Centauri Carbon last fall - I've got just over 1500 hours on it now. I print mostly functional things (lots of CF filaments including nylons) and have designed quite a few for fishing/my boat with tinkercad.

I did print 300 'toys' for toys for tots through a program with IC3D.

Now when I'm looking for some solution to something my first search is the file sites vs amazon etc.

It's great having a fast printer that is capable of engineering grade filaments!

Well, about 85 hours of pint time and all of a sudden I am having an issue.

Using PETG with a bed temp of 88c and nozzle temp of 255c I am getting random “extrusion motor overload” errors. Learned the process of tearing it apart to clear it and it worked long enough to finish the print though there is an obvious line where the restart layers didn’t really bond to the previous.

Started another print, same material and settings and it failed again same thing on the 2nd layer. Managed to clear without having to tear it apart this time, then started and successfully completed a 45 min print without issue.

Went to the next print and son of a gun if it isn’t giving me the error again! This time it errored in the start up sequence before even getting to the first layer.

Filament is dry, has been used before without issues. After the second time clearing the jam I upgraded firmware and did a full calibration.

Issue happening with two different spools of same type/brand filament in two different AMS locations. Seems to pull smoothly through the tubes.

Bit hesitant to keep starting prints only to have them fail and waste time/material.


Thoughts?

Will be watching on that. Planning on getting some PETG for some items that need more strength than PLA

I’m about to dive in to PETG as well.

Do you dry your filament (a general question not troubleshooting) and if so how do you dry it.

I’ve had no issues except a spaghetti print or two out of many many prints.

I have read about some of the toxins produced with 3D printers. Do you keep a fan on the printer and place it near a window to push those fumes outside?

quote:

Originally posted by Creeping_Death:
I have read about some of the toxins produced with 3D printers. Do you keep a fan on the printer and place it near a window to push those fumes outside?

From what I've read, PLA & PETG aren't as bad as things like ABS.
I don't plan on getting into any of the noxious filaments with how my setup is currently.

I have seen some setups that run what looks like a dryer vent to outside, not a bad idea if you're going to be doing a lot of filaments that produce a lot of fumes.

Yes, I dry my filament. Bought one of these Sunlu 4 spool dryers and once I open a spool it goes in for 3 hours or so.

The AMS unit also functions as a dryer when not printing, so the loaded spools stay dry. I also have some HD vacuum bags that I put opened spools in when not in use.


PLA is actually plant based and neither it or PETG produce toxic fumes as I understand. ABS and TPU do produce VOC’S and require ventilation. After a lot of searching, I think I’ll avoid ABS and use ASA for anything super durable as it is comparable to ABS qualities and more UV resistant.

My printer is set up in a spare room, close door and open window to exhaust if needed, though I haven’t noticed any strong or foul smells with PLA and PETG

I'd seen ASA as an alternative to ABS, good to know it may be less noxious.

My printer is in my garage/office, next to my desk. Never noticed any significant odor with PLA so far.

I need to get my desiccant boxes installed in my AMS & get a hygrometer.

I'm having a very difficult time getting a glossy black PETG filament to work with my Bambu A1. Matte PLA filaments all do fine with the same models.

Otherwise, I accidentally let an entire spool of filament come off while trying to switch spools. It is so tangled that I have to cut and use it shorter lengths.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: YellowJacket,

OK, printer seems to be working well now. A couple of issues as I worked on it this morning...


A) Still getting extruder overload error. Opened up the head and extruder motor didn't seem to be binding at all. In opening the head back up I realized. had mis-positioned the filament cutter when reassembling yesterday. I don't think that could have added to the overload error but an issue none the less.
B) Tried switching to PLA material to rule out the filament as the cause - still getting error
C) Opened up the head a third time today, without the nozzle in place it easily let me push/pull cold filament through it.

Could it be a nozzle clog? I didn't think so as the first time this happened I swapped to a new/unused nozzle. Thinking a new nozzle would rule out the clog being an issue and meaning I could be lazy and avoid the Nozzle declog process.

After ruling out filament, extruder gear/feed path as being the issue only thing left would seem to be the nozzle.

When through the process of heating up the nozzle and giving it the old gonorrhea swizzle stick. Put it back together and it is now successfully printing with PLA!


Hopefully it was a nozzle clog after all, once this print is done I will go back to PETG and see if the problem is resolved.

Had an AMS feed error, the Bambu software wasn't overly helpful in clearing. It just said to extract the filament, snip it flat and feed back in.
Nothing was working, then I found a buried 2nd error that there was an AMD communication failure. Guess the plug got jostled.
Reseated both ends and it picked right back up

My extruder overload error seems to be thing of the past (knock on wood) have had nothing but success since my last post regardless of material.


Here are some shots of my recent prints:


Razor blade dispenser/storage:




My USMC EDC Dump Tray:



It didn't come out quite as "refined" as I was hoping. I think it might look better with regular PLA instead of "Silk" for the Red and Gold. Will probably print again down the road using higher quality settings and maybe a .2mm nozzle for better detail.


Totally useable as is, wife thinks it looks good but sometimes I fixate on minutia. All in was only $2.65 in filament cost, printed while I was asleep so not like there was a huge investment.


Put a pic of my Steering wheel Tablet easel up earlier, here it is on its "shakedown cruise" while I was surfing SF while my wife was having her nails done. Works perfect!




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Got a couple more AMS failures today, seems to be losing power & seeing it as a fail to feed.

This has all been with HobbyLobby PLA, not sure if that's related.

Left a long print going overnight....I need a bigger poop bucket.
Thought setting it to purge to infill would reduce the discard. Woke up to a full bucket, and a stopped print.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Left a long print going overnight....I need a bigger poop bucket.
Thought setting it to purge to infill would reduce the discard. Woke up to a full bucket, and a stopped print.

I just cut an opening in a filament box and put it up against the back of my P2S against the wall. Haven't emptied it yet..