Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Year of 3D Printing

brookehatton.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 122 posts

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#41

Post by proee »

VladVladikoff wrote: post #14

I still have mixed emotions about 3D printing. I do love the idea of being able to print a part when I need it for something. But I do hate myself at the same time for creating more plastic junk. PLA is not really getting recycled, when it fails someone throws it in the trash and it goes to a landfill. Maybe some really diehard enthusiasts are ensuring all their failed prints and broken parts get properly chemically…

Seems there is a market for a truly biodegradable print material, if even for doing a prototype before committing to a full plastic print. Or a real recyclable method to take old prints and reuse the material again.

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#44

Post by linsomniac »

LeafItAlone wrote: post #11

All of this was on a Bambu A1 Mini? These are the types of things I want to print. My Ender 3 was so finicky, I only got a few out before I gave up.

I had an Ender 3 Pro, and it was also very finicky, ~18 months ago I replaced it with a Bambu P1S and that thing is just a (nearly) fire and forget machine. I've been super happy with it. In the 18 months I've had it, I've probably gone through 10-20 rolls of filament, in the 4 years I had the Ender I went through maybe 3-4 (because every time I wanted to print something I knew I'd have to spend an hour fiddling with it). A coworker has the Ender 3 though and his has been reliable, so it seems YMMV.

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#45

Post by jagermo »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #2

Awesome. This person got way busier than I did [1] (I think I focus more on creating original designs on the printer). When I first got the Bambu in 2024 I did the whole Gridfinity thing. Very fun. As their post makes clear (even to me) there are actually a lot of things out there you can 3D print. Something I printed last year (and did not even bother to post) was a center-console "compartment" for a 1995 Mazda Miat…

I have the same feelings about Bambu. I really like what Prusa is doing for the community and how they drive it forwards - but the Bambu simply works without fuzz. I also came from an Ender and its just so much fun.

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#47

Post by numpad0 »

Can't help but wonder looking through the gifs, am I actually insane that I MUST fillet, chamfer, or chamfer AND fillet basically every single one of those edges[1] with with tangency weight of 1.5 where possible, until the shape takes a generic apple/bauhaus/lego/ikea style? I'm aware that doing so don't necessarily improve load distribution, but I just can't stop rounding those corners.

Am I really the only one?

1: http://numpad0.com/imgs/2026-01-23%20001128.png

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#48

Post by brookke »

jasonblick wrote: post #42

Hello, what are you using to render the models in the webpage? and what format did you export the models as to do that? It looks very nice!

Hey! It's using three.js with rapier for physics. The models are being loaded as STLs using the three.js stl loader https://threejs.org/docs/#STLLoader.

https://github.com/Brookke/brookke.github.io/blob/main/src/c...

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#49

Post by dangus »

IgorPartola wrote: post #13
dangus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the person you’re replying to, but I can see the appeal of PLA. It has more color options and prints way easier. I personally run all PETG because it is ultimately better material post-print, and once you understand how to print with it, it’s not really much harder to deal with. The day I discovered that I should just run my dryer with the PETG inside while printing was revolutionary. Of course, that requires you…

I wish I knew how to dial in PETG fully. It prints fine for me but I still get globbing and stringing so the surface finish just isn’t that amazing.

That's definitely still where I see the appeal of PLA, and once I get through the too much bulk PETG that I own I may mix up my future purchases to have more PLA where I don't need load strength and won't have issues with high temperature usage.

I am getting reasonably consistent prints but they aren't perfect.

The long version of my tips for using PETG are:

- A Bambu Lab printer doesn't hurt since it's so nicely calibrated and idiot-proof

- Clean the build plate with dish soap and dry fully. I haven't found any need for glue stick on a textured plate.

- Using a filament that has a profile available from the manufacturer for Bambu lab printers

- Printing with the filament in the dryer with the dryer running during printing

Re: A Year of 3D Printing

#50

Post by jacquesm »

noo_u wrote: post #37
jacquesm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not my experience. PETG should be utterly problem free, super fast to print and has a much lower fraction of failed prints due to various adhesion issues. The big trick is to make sure the filament is dry, if it is not you will be in for a world of trouble. But properly used prints will last much longer, and are mechanically (much) stronger. On top of all that we can buy PETG in bulk for about a third of the…

Calling PETG "utterly problem free" is quite a stretch lol. PLA is pretty objectively much easier to print than PETG, and perhaps than all the popular filament types out there, especially if you are trying to print anything where precision/detail matters. . PETG is just oozier and stickier by default, so stringiness is almost guaranteed to happen, bridging at a greater risk of failure, etc. It is tougher, so unless y…

When you print objects with 10's of printers 'tuning your 3D printer' is no longer an option other than to tune it to be 'in spec' You can only tune your designs and the profile for your filament and for a particular model of printer but then all of those have to be close to identical. As soon as you start tweaking your design or filament profile to offset possible issues with the printer you've lost reproducibility.

Incidentally, a lot of the stuff on thingiverse and other similar sites suffers from those kind of issues. They are tuned for PLA on a particular printer without realizing it.

Post reply on HN