The job of a Bowden tube is to guide the filament from the extruder into the hotend so that the extruder can drive the filament over here, but the actual pushing force happens at the hotend. If this printer didn’t have one, the filament would get pushed just the same, but the driving force wouldn’t be able to push it into the hotend. Makes sense, right? But not every 3D printer is a Bowden system, in fact, this guy isn’t, but I’m going to argue it’s still going to profitContinue reading
Are you printing at the right temperature?
When you start a print, how do you decide what settings to use? Of course, parameters like the solid shell thickness or the infill percentage are something that needs to be decided on a print-by-print basis, but what I mean are the settings that, ideally you figure out once and then leave as a preset for future you. But what if those presets are wrong? What if you didn’t even tune those in yourself and use whatever the filament manufacturer suggests or stick with the presets that come with yourContinue reading
Arachne in PrusaSlicer: 0.4mm Nozzles just became obsolete
I´ve used dozens of different 3D printers over the years. They look like they’re machines that are made for vastly different jobs, based on how they’re built and what they’re capable of. But they all share one thing in common: A 0.4mm nozzle. And the nozzle is one of the core things that make a 3D printer work. But why is it always a 0.4mm bore? Surely with all the different applications these printers are made for, it can’t just be a one-size-fits-all choice. And you’re right, it’s not. Honestly,Continue reading
Hands-off 3D Printing
The eternal quest for that one bed surface that perfectly sticks while printing and completely releases when cold. Many have tried to find it, many have failed, but 3DQue have finally done it. Or at least that’s what they claim for the Quinly system, which promises to turn your humble 3D printer into a global-scale production unit by adding a network gateway that controls your printer and that you can use to queue up prints, a lift kit that angles your machine so that parts can slide off once they’reContinue reading
You made me do this…
This is resonances, part 2. Last time we tried a bunch of approaches, from suspending the printer from the ceiling, bolting it to a concrete paver or sticking it onto some anti-vibration feet. And some of those worked, some didn’t, and my conclusion at the time was that you have to have some sort of dampening element in your setup for it to do anything – otherwise you’re just shifting around the excess energy that causes these vibrations instead of removing it from the system. So to test that theory,Continue reading
Review: Anycubic Photon M3 Plus
Resin printers, they’re pretty great, right? Well, they’re also mostly all the same, so I get that reviews of yet another Chitubox-based cookie cutter printer aren’t exactly interesting. So I tried to find one that was different – and that’s the Anycubic Photon M3 series. The Anycubic machines all use a custom ecosystem; this is the mid-size M3 Plus, they’ve also got the base M3, which uses a 4K masking LCD, this M3 Plus uses a 6K one and the M3 Max uses a 7K screen. The two larger machines,Continue reading
Wobbly 3D printer makes for better parts!
Getting rid of ringing artifacts is a bit more complex than it seems at first, but, good news, the solution that performed the best was also the simplest one. I tried four different setups, including bolting a concrete paver straight to the printer, and I want to share the results with you and I think I can even explain what’s happening in each one. For these tests, I thought I’d use one of the machines I don’t usually grab, so I got the Steality Ender-3 v2 out of storage. ThisContinue reading
Review Formlabs Form 3+
Before we start, I feel like I should point out that the Formlabs Form 3+ is 4400€ just by itself, making it the most expensive printer I’ve reviewed on the channel. It’s also using the most expensive consumables of any printer I’ve tested so far, and all this can make the Form 3+ seem like it’s a really bad deal compared to simpler printers that literally cost 1/10th as much to buy and run. I’m going to keep making comparisons throughout the review to some of those, but the thingContinue reading
Review E3D´s RapidChange Revo
It’s time to take an in-depth look at E3D’s newest hotend ecosystem – the RapidChange Revo. You get the new quick-swap nozzlebreaks, a new self-regulating heater, an optional smaller form factor, significantly better performance and a new patents package that makes sure nobody will ever be making nozzles or heaters without E3D’s approval. After using the Revo for a couple of weeks and putting it through one of the most extensive testing sets I’ve ever done on a product, I’ve got some thoughts, graphs, and numbers I want to shareContinue reading