Or too thin (much less than one layer height)?
HewlettHackard
joined 2 years ago
It’s not necessarily fluff; features do matter, but which ones matter and how much they matter is complicated. Do you want to tinker with a printer, or do you just want a tool that works?
If you want a tool, I recommend a Prusa or maybe a Bambu. My Prusa just does what I ask it to; I’ve done zero calibration, optimization, tweaking, etc. Cheaper printers often require understanding bed leveling, figuring out how to adjust them best, etc. or vary more copy-to-copy (so one Ender 3 might work great, while another might be a source of frustration) or require upgrades to really become enjoyable.
Do you have a budget? Or is it just about making sure you’re getting your money’s worth (so $2000 is fine if it’s 10x better than a $200 printer)?
Yup. My kid found the idea hilarious when I explained why I’d swiped a washable glue stick from the arts and crafts box.
It hangs on well, but also makes removal easier.
You could always try it…
I use PEI instead of glass and find that a thin layer of glue stick works great for helping sticky materials release.
Could you share some examples of what you’ve been able to create, and approximately how long they took?
Wow, thanks for the incredibly broad write up! That’s a crazy number of tools to try.
FreeCAD:
giving up as soon as any two edges’ fillets touch
I haven’t quite had that issue with FreeCAD; an ordinary corner works fine. Where I’ve had that issue is when the fillet is large relative to the edge sizes though, so there are definitely failure cases.
not working well if you don’t learn its definition of good design
This is so incredibly true. I’ve had to restart projects because I didn’t realize how I’d need to approach them to get FreeCAD to allow me to do what I wanted to do. That’s probably the biggest issue I have with it: you really have to know how it wants things done, and often you won’t learn that til you’ve tried, failed, and watched a couple YouTube videos from more experienced users. Fortunately, after a few projects I’ve gotten to the point where I can usually get relatively simple designs right the first time…but I have no doubt I’ll still sometimes have to start over or take big steps backward to change my approach to a problem.
Others have mentioned OpenSCAD and that’s what I started with years ago; it’s fine for simple things (or fractals/programmatically specified forms) but when designing something with more complexity I find it very difficult to manage, compared to just directly drawing what I want and then constraining it appropriately.
You’re right, 50%@70f (let’s say Texas indoor conditions) is 19%@100f, so you’re right that just heating is probably perfectly good.
You’d need a very sensitive filament to bother doing more. That said, if you did have a peltier with the cold side at 32f, you’d get 25%@70f or 9%@100f…which actually isn’t amazing since you still need to warm it up to 100f to get that 9%! Peltiers are inexpensive and I might still experiment with it one day, but…it doesn’t seem like a huge win.
It’s not quite that simple; the output drops as the temperature gets really cold, so auxiliary heat likely kicks in before the heat pump actually shuts off. They’re still great, efficient technology, but when considering auxiliary heating needs and system sizing, the reduced output at low temperatures needs to be considered.
Did they describe the types of user error that could cause this?