Quality and construction? Cetus mk3

ease of use? definitly not a Cetus mk3

1. It does expire.

2. I used resin that had expired for a whole year.

3. If it doesn’t print/cure properly it is “expired”. Shouldn’t cause any serious harm to the printer or additional safety hazard. So just go for it.

DRM They limit who can talk what to their printers.

Most noticeably you can only send and start prints (g-code) with their own program over the network. Either bambu studio or a “cloud” gateway from BambuLab. It is no longer possible to do this from within Prusa- or OrcaSlicer.

my take:

1. ~~ for the X1C they allow to install X1Plus firmware. The community asked for it. BambuLab allowed it back then and still does.~~ At the moment rooting an X1C isn’t possible. Either it is a broken promise (“We will give customers the choice to install third party firmware and root system at their own risk.”)or just a temporary issue.

2. BambuLab sad that this will come. Only now that they have done it, most people are starting to notice.

If you have to mix it use mechanical interlocking parts. Like a PLA cavity that is filled with PETG. The PLA & PETG won’t connect/bond but due to the mechanical design, it will still hold together.

Samples.

Order each color as 10-20g sample.

Air leakage isn’t an issue. Based on the enclosures I already have they do a pretty damm good job of keeping the nasty ABS fumes inside.

Just quick math but I should be able to do it. Given that a lot of enclosures can reach 40-50°C without active heating and insulation I guess 70°C passive is realistic when you do 6cm of XPS. I probably will go with an overshoot and cool down the air for the temperature control approach.

Big & bulky isn’t an issue as the stock printer is already big and bulky with lots of space for insulation (originally used for the 4 filament spools but they live in a dry box so it is free real estate): The printer already has 60mm extrusion I can fill up with so no additional bulk is added. The bottom plate will be 2cm to keep as much print volume as possible in the z-direction. Maybe I can squeeze also 5cm there with some 3D-scanning and milling pockets.

Even manufacturers of high end printers accept the they will only get ‘good enough’ and that they need to have the heater cycle on and off to keep a steady temperature.

Some heating or cooling is required to keep it stable. Don’t matter if you need heating or cooling just something for regulation.

The enclosure for the other printer is slightly more complicated as I am aiming for a 150°C chamber temperature (135°C is required) there which means stainless steel or aluminum inner lining and rockwool insulation that can’t be milled to shape like XPS.

Is it really worth it for the small gain in finished product?

Half the fun is pushing limits and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

It’s fine.

Not great but won’t cause issues. Might have a look at the configuration to check that the matching thermocouple type is selected/configured.

I don’t know why Solid Edge doesn’t get more love.

No free hobby license like Autodesk does for fusion360.

There is a free hobby version.

AFAIK at launch they didn’t and now the tutorials and people have firmly settled into Fusion360. Unless Autodesk screws up or removes the hobby license it won’t change. People are lazy and learning that fusion360 exists is so much easier.

Yeah. PP doesn’t stick at all to PEI print beds. Issue is Prusa neither sells HDPE or PP. Neither do they sell printer cable of Printing these materials (build surface).

For Polypropylene: e.g. Eryone is 26€ for 900g (should be more “length”/volume than 1kg of PLA). Fiberlogy is 50€/kg. Not that expensive without the Prusa tax.

For me it feels the polar opposite (ify ou mean with consumer space prebuild 3d-printer it would be a low):

• For the hobby price class, there are better parts than ever to choose from e.g. Orbiter v3 extruder, bacon bed leveling probe, Klipper + Mainsail, good budget linear rails, affordable high thread angle ballscrews, low-cost servos (e.g. JMC motor) and so on.
• projects like the ERCF seeing a big push in popularity
• ToolChanger is on the verge of being mainstream (slicer & firmware support is getting better) [jubilee printer, Voron mods, RatRig vcore mod, Prusa XL, …)
• significant attention to push beyond classic FDM/molten plastic

None of this will be at FormNext this year as it is a business. It isn’t an enthusiast/hobby convention like RMRRF. Maybe in three years, it could be in the first commercial consumer 1machines.

China. That’s where you can still get the Cobalt indicator and subsequently on Amazon, Aliexpress or ebay.

The upside is the fantastic color change, which is why some still prefer it and why it is probably still being made.

In Europe there is an alternative blue indicator that is cobalt-free, but it is more of a blue to brown/very dark red colour change, so not great either especially after a few drying cycles.

the granules are blue when dry and turn purple/red when they no longer absorbs humidity.

Don’t buy those. Orange gel is the “new” blue.

The reason why the blue gel was phased out decade(s) ago is the CoCl2. Along all of the hazards are H350i and H360F (cancer and reproduction [aka. your plan to have kids might not turn out that great]).

While orange gel doesn’t have as good of a color change it is significantly lower risk and shall be used.

Nice to see Piocreat improved this printer. Last year they used V-roller on a $2k+ printer.

Was very interested in it but decided against it as the price didn’t matched the hardware.

3D40 at couple hundred bucks? Absolutely not. 3D40 for $50? No. 3D40 for free? Yeah. Just don’t expect much out of it.

Go the other way and buy 3mm tubing and see what it does :)

Fair enough bowden has a lot of issues like filament compression (which can’t be fixed with tubing) making it difficult to maintain a steady flow when conditions aren’t steady (e.g. acceleration and so on).

With larger diameter tubes the issue of filament compressing gets worse. In a nutshell, a larger tube diameter for “rigid” materials somewhat is similar to the effect of a softer filament/material.

With direct drive, I would say it doesn’t make a difference.

For bowden there is a benefit.

I also think that direct drive is superior to Bowden setups in nearly every situation. The current generation like the Orbiter v3 is a very light direct-drive extruder.

Don’t buy anything you can’t afford. Sounds like you already got that part right. :)

If so good 3D-printer are lower cost than ever. Sure you could pick up an used Ender 3 and the like for $50 and put in the elbow grease to learn like it was done in the old days. Alternative is spending $200 on an BambuLab A1 and skip most of the learning curve.

If you can handle frustration than a cheapo used printer could be a good option. Please ask before purchasing as not every $50 printer is a good deal/option and as a newbie you can’t distinguish the good from the bad.

Use ASA. PETG will creep.

ASA will creep significantly less. If you have fibre-filled materials they also excel in this regard but are probably overkill here.

PETG will creep even at temperatures below 80°C and the higher the temperature is the faster the process is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(deformation)

I have a small collection of parts that all experienced creep (as a showcase). Structurally they where all fine in simulation and practice. Over time they all failed due this deformation.

JLC3DP