Author: Perfect First Layer

No new questions this week from the audience! So we have a great discussion about Nathan attending Formnext, The Bambu A1 Mini, Prusa and Bambu marketing styles and future of 3D Printers. Send us your questions! perfectfirstlayer@gmail.com

This Episodes Questions:

Hello Guy, JJ, and Nathan,
I was wondering if you could discuss the idea that the 3d printing “hobby” has come full circle from the early days of the Stratasys machines to the current crop of machines from BambuLab, Creality, Qidi, Flashforge and the myriad other manufacturers that aren’t making “Open Source” machines. Also what are you thoughts about keeping some parts closed while open sourcing other parts, i.e. BambuLab Slicer VS their firmware. I know Guy couldn’t give a crap, as long as it prints, but what effect do you think this “partial Open Source-ing” will have on the hobby long term? I mean no one cares that their microwave isn’t open source, so does it even matter?
Thanks for the podcast and your opinions.
-John D Strand

Howdy howdy! First off, love the show, thank you for the awesome content. So I’m semi new to printing, semi tech literate, very mechanically inclined, just as a back story haha. Anyway I have an e3v2, been upgrading it a bit and I am at the inevitable crossroads of hotends. I believe y’all have touched on some but I haven’t seen a complete episode on them ( or at least titled as such, sorry still catching up on all of them ). So here are my parameters, e3v2, converted to direct drive, cr touch ( with no reservations on moving it ) and I would like to print hot materials. Sorry for the long winded letter but any help or perspectives would be great! Thank you in advance.
Justin

Hi guys,
Thanks for such a great podcast!My 2 part question is this, I have an old Qidi Xplus that I modded with the icarus 2 mod from Printables. I absolutely love it. However, recently, I needed to change the heartbreak. I am using a Phaetus Dragon standard flow with an Orbitor 2 extruder.
I somehow managed to damage the 4 tiny posts that go into the dragon. I have ordered replacements from numerous places online like Ali Express and Triangle Labs. For some weird reason, I have been having issues with receiving these after ordering multiple times. Other items arrive, just not these stupid posts. So I was wondering if you knew of a hack I could use to replace them with? Such a strange design in my opinion. Any advice is appreciated. I now understand why Nathan threw one of these Qidi printers in the trash.
If you have time to answer this, I would also like to put a better main board in this machine. Any suggestions?
Cheers and thank you in advance!
Jesse from Burbank,CA.

This episodes questions:

Based on a previous question you guys helped with, company I am consulting with purchased a Bambu X1 Carbon. We are successfully producing salable nylon/carbon fiber parts for ultra light canoes. Very happy with our purchase.
So – next question. Thinking of second printer. What are the gains you would get in the $1500 to $2500 range. Is it speed, robustness or reliability? The X1 checked all the boxes with good build, easy to learn slicer and reliable prints so far. Just trying to understand why we would make the next jump up, and if it is really necessary.
Thanks for all the info – it has been invaluable so far!
Gary Ratajczak

Hi guys,
Hope you are all well.
My question would be: do you guys have any tips for printing larger prints for a bed slinger dimensions 220x220x250? I have an Anycubic Kobra 2. I intend to print helmets which are generally a lot larger than my print bed dimensions. And What are your thoughts on SLA printing?
Thank you all for this great podcast!
Kind Regards,
Carson, Southampton, UK (place where Titanic set sail if it helps haha)

Hello all! Since you all have one of those fancy new Enders, is that the X-Motor on the back of the gantry? I keep wondering in all the reviews I see. Any thoughts on why they moved it to the back? What’s the belt path look like?
Thanks Guy(s)! ha ha! Love the podcast!
JohnDStrand

This Episodes Questions and Comment:

From: Michael Banicki
Listening to your last episode I heard you talking about the labor intensive art of creating profiles for different slicers for different printers and materials. One thing I have found is that many of your 3D model websites like printables will also have downloads for different slicers and materials and printers on them as well. Such as you can search for k1 Max profile on printables and many different things come up. Thought this may be a helpful suggestion for yourselves, or other listeners that may be new to setting up custom profiles and slicers and needed a little bit of help.

Hey Guy, JJ, and Nathan.

I am at that stage in my life that I have a printer I no longer need/want. It’s an Ender 3 Pro, with some mods and upgrades. There’s an organization, locally, that I can donate it to so that it will hopefully help someone else get hooked on the hobby.
My only reservation is that it was my FIRST PRINTER, I don’t have any sentimental attachment to it now… I think… but wanted see if you’ve ever had any regrets about gifting, selling, getting rid of a printer.Thanks a lot,
Jon LaRue, Kirkwood MO.

From: Carter
Subject: Analysis Paralysis – I’ve got it bad

Message Body:
Hey guys, listening from Canada (sorry for all the smoke), I love the podcast and have learned quite a bit from your deep dives. Keep up the good work! Nathans humor and total lack of give a f**k makes my sides hurt.
I was hoping you could point me in the right direction for my situation. I am trying really hard to ignore the hype built up around these next gen printer speeds, but I think there is some merit to them. On one hand I’m not sure I’d gain anything as fast part cooling typically = weaker parts. On the other, rapidly printing prototypes would speed up workflow.
I am printer shopping and stuck in analysis paralysis. I currently have a highly modified Ender 3v2 (Dragonflt BMS, fans, Jyers firmware) and have gotten it dialed into the point where I can click send to printer and walk away. I now need something to print ABS,ASA and maybe CF nylon for functional prints so having a built in filter is a huge plus. High speed PLA or PETG would be a bonus but not absolutely necessary. I also don’t have an immediate need for a bigger build surface but maybe not a bad idea to get for the future.
My current choices are as follows:
Budget ~$1500cnd + or – $300

• Another Ender 3v2 (or 2 or 3) on sale $289 + mods will cost $500cnd total with a custom filtered enclosure. Sticking with what I know is appealing to keep the workflow the same but maybe not the most reliable choice for making functional parts even if its in an enclosure. It’s also outdated so I’m not sure that’s a good use of my money. They also take up a lot of space.
• An Ender 3v3se + an enclosed Prusa Mk3s+ (fast printer + a workhorse)
• Bambulabs P1S – $900 + $80 hardened parts for CF
• Creality K1/K1 Max – $700-$1250
• 1 or 2 Prusa mk3S+ – $879 ($450-700 used with an enclosure.)
• Prusa Mk4 $1400 + enclosure too expensive for what it is?
• Any other suggestions? I am not apposed to buying 2 printers, so long as it fits within the budget.
  I am inclined to lean toward a K1 Max because I feel like once the source code is released retrofitting parts would be much easier and the community will embrace it more. Probably not to the same extent as the E3v2, but the ability to fix any deficiencies with the machine long term would be nice.
  Sorry for the length, please feel free to cut this down to save recording time. Thanks for all that you guys do to keep us nerds entertained on long drives and at work.

This episodes questions:

With the new addition of podcasts to youtube music, do you guys have any plans of uploading podcasts to that platform on a separate channel?

Shortandstumpy

A month ago one of the capacitors on the mainboard exploded. It stunk quite bad but the whole 3D-Printer still works. I did use it for a long time but I didn´t do any upgrades or changes on it. Can I still use it?
Love your podcast!

David

So I’m relatively new to the 3D printing community and I’ve been able to acquire a few printers from an auction site here in Vegas where 3D printers go extremely cheap. An Ender 3 S1, Flashforge Adventurer 3 Pro and Phrozen Mighty 8K resin printer. I’ve also been lucky enough to find an original stock Prusa i3 MK2 for $100 through the Marketplace. If you were to choose between the MK2 and S1 which would you choose and why?

Linus

something that JJ mentioned in this episode was power outages (whilst printing a helmet for example)… I don’t really understand when/who needs an uninterrupted power supply. These power outages that people talk about, are they momentary outages that cause print failures, or are they longer outages? I ask because I am about to buy my first 3d printer, and I’ve never owned any kind of battery-based power supply protection. Using my computer, I never notice any power outages other than the longer outage kind. So my question is, what kind of power outages are you referring to and are they common? I would guess the sort of very short power interruptions that commonly occur but most people never notice, are usually handled by capacitors for small electronics. But I’m supposing the power consumption of a 3d printer means the capacitors they have for the motor drivers are not specified to provide much power supply protection… please could you discuss the topic of power supply, the sorts of power outages that people can commonly expect, and who really needs to invest in power supply interruption solutions. Great podcast, thanks in advance.

Tom