3DPrinting

Hello, all. Apologies if this post is redundant or goes against any community guidelines or general best practices. I'm looking to buy my first ever 3D printer, and I came across some listings for the Entina Tina2 and its variants. It seems like an attractive option for me because of the price and the minimal setup required. I should also add that I don't plan on doing any very serious printing; I'm talking about fairly light usage. So I am fully aware that this printer is quite limited and basic. I don't mind that. What I'm asking is this: is it a complete waste of money? Does it do what it says on the box, or is it all scammy marketing? What red flags am I missing? Thank you in advance for your responses, and again, apologies if this post is inappropriate in some way.

I'm new to the world of 3D Printing. What do you recommend for creating STL files from pictures? What I am hoping to do is generate them and mod them as needed.

I feel conflicted. On the one hand, Prusa seems to be a good and reliable brand. On the other hand, it seems overpriced compared to the competitors. Bambu seems to be a no-go but mostly for ethical open source reasons, not for price or quality reasons. At the same time, I've seen this article that says Prusa is even falling back on their open source principles. But not sure how up to date that is any more.

If we look beyond Bambu or Prusa, there's a variety of smaller brands that I have trouble distinguishing. With these other brands, it's hard to tell whether they're worth anything or just cheap knockoffs.

If we do consider Prusa, there's also the question of MK4S vs Core One. The Core One is much more expensive, to the point where it is ridiculously expensive compared to the competitors. The MK4S is slightly cheaper, but it seems like Prusa is focused on the Core One development going forward, so I'd be slightly worried of being "left behind" with the MK4S.

What do you think? Which printer should you get in 2026? Or perhaps there is some upcoming release or something to wait for?

Needed a tool drawer thingy but nothing I saw online was the right size. Ended up buying some serving trays from IKEA and printing this rack for them. Ended up going with PLA, seems strong enough. 4 perimeters with a 0.6mm nozzle.

Prusa have shared on their blog the upcoming version of their slicer which is intended to make colour printing easy using CMYKW for 5 colour printers and CMYW for their 4 colour systems

I think it's finally time to upgrade from my Ender 3, and the market has... grown substantially. I'm a bit out of my depth.

Definitely looking at a coreXY, and definitely prefer a multi-color system (multi-material really). My budget is around $600, but that's a bit flexible.

The Elegoo Centurion Carbon 2 looks attractive, and it's on sale. But I've heard good things about multi-head systems, particularly when it comes to waste from purging. Granted, that stretches my budget a bit.

What's the move? It seems like so many of the options (coughcoughBambu) have pretty gross anti-consumer practices. Are there any good options out there?

Update: Alright, I pulled the trigger on a Snapmaker U1. It seems like it's going to be the Ender 3 of tool changers: the open source darling that becomes the de facto standard for the mod community.

Ideally no paint as buying an entire bucket if white paint for a white print seems wasteful.

Is there any sort of filler I could use to hide the seams between the parts I have glued together?

Will standard stationary glue work (Elmer's, Kokuyo, or similar), or does something stronger need to be use? Additionally, I also need to glue in magnets into my 3D prints. What is the best kind of glue for this use case, or will any do fine?

They will only be used for a few prints, so I would like to avoid very large containers. Small bottles and syringes are ideal

edit: I will probably go with cyanoacrylate (CA) glue then. 3D Gloop has also been recommended, but is not sold by any local retailers and international shipping will take too long for the project I need to use it for. Could be a neat option for some people though. Thanks, everyone!

Somebody has also suggested acrylic/plastic cement for chemically joining plastic parts together, but in my experience with laser cut acrylic, it's difficult to apply and can also affect the appearance of the print if you mess up. It also has a very short time window between application and fusing. I'm sure it works fine, and it will probably hold up better due to the plastics being chemically fused, but I will go with CA glue.

EDIT NOTICE: I accidentally wrote "A1 Mini" in the meme instead of just "A1" out of habit. There's no proof for the Mini to also be affected yet. My bad, sorry. It's the A1 that might burn your house down.

From the guy that gave a snake legs: a 3D-printed prosthetic tail for chickens!

UPDATE: turns out the issue was the mode l was trying to print!

After lubricating everything, removing then retightening screws from all over, cleaning the bed, scrubbing the nozzle, it looks like my issue was actually from the model I was printing with. It had a razor thin edge as its base, and the printer either a) printed a very thin line of filament, which could easily shift due to having no structural support or b) did not print a first layer as the bottom may have been seen as not touching the base. Either way, my fix was moving all my print files down by 4mm, creating a flat base for the print as it cuts off the thin edge! For my use case, this was fine as shaving off 4mm from the bottom does not affect the functionality of the mask.

This also explains why the smaller models I tested printed fine (a Benchy + a controller mount), as both had very flat bases.

original post:

When trying to print larger models (in PLA), I run into an issue where the filament does not correctly adhere to the printing bed. I have tried cleaning the nozzle with steel wool and washing the build plate, but the issue still occurs. It is probably something to do with the settings on larger prints, as smaller models (controller mount, Benchy) all print perfectly fine.

In all occurances, it seems like the first few layers do not correctly join together, and the print becomes a thick web of filament string (not a fine web, but a thick one where the strings are about the thickness it was printed in)

Does anyone have an idea on what could be causing the issue?

the models I am trying to print:

• https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6783537/files (the mask of the Hollow Knight guy)
• https://www.printables.com/model/19648-channelled-nail-from-hollow-knight (his big sword, at around 0.6x scale all dimensions)

I am using OrcaSlicer and a Bambu A1 (note: I no longer recommend Bambu printers, this was bought before the firmware updates that blocked third-party software support outside of LAN only mode)

My slicer settings are close to default, but with gyroid infill, 3 walls, and tree supports. Those settings work with smaller prints, so I'm decently sure they are not the problem. My printer was sitting unused for a few weeks with the filament exposed, so perhaps the filament became too wet? But small prints work fine. No idea what is causing this issue though.

edit: I have printed a large first layer test print, and I see many imperfections on the surface. What does this mean?

on the print bed

on the floor

edit 2:

Tightening the four small screws behind the heating assembly did not fix the issue. What else could be going wrong?

Edit - more in depth explanation https://youtu.be/gJS-XkTEq-A

original post:

I am trying to 3D print a Hollow Knight channeled nail, but when the handle was nearly done printing, the whole thing fell over and I had to cancel the print. There are these burn marks and such on the print, what does that mean?

Do I need to make the model smaller, or is there something wrong with the print settings?

https://www.printables.com/model/19648-channelled-nail-from-hollow-knight (model I am trying to print)

edit: I am now trying to print a different, smaller model to test. I have cleaned my nozzle with some steel wool I had, and I also scrubbed my build plate, and now my printer is running into a different issue. The filament is stringy and doesn't stick well for some reason. ~~This only occurs with white filament, the orange printed fine for a small print. Is my white filament too wet?~~

I tried it a second time, same result (ended the print earlier):

It seems like the first player does not stick to the build plate...

edit 2: nope, printing the same model using orange PLA instead of white nets the same thing.

What am I doing wrong???

edit 3: Wait a minute, I just realised that OrcaSlicer was set to Smooth High Temp Plate instead of Textured PEI Plate. Whoops! I will change that now and see if that fixes anything. That is probably why filament is not adhering to the plate, but it does not explain the weird burn mark of my initial failed print.

edit 4: Nope, that still doesn't fix the issue where the filament doesn't want to behave. :(

Could the filament be too wet? Or is there something else wrong, could the printer settings be configured incorrectly?

Insanity is when you try doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.

edit 5: My printer is able to print a standard Benchy with no problems, so there could be something wrong with the models I want to print and/or I have the print settings for my models done incorrectly? Very strange. Or maybe it's just an issue for relatively large models, IDK. I will look at my print settings to check what could be going wrong...

I will be going to Germany for a school trip soon, and one of the locations we will be visiting is a castle, and we have to bring a costume that fits a monarch kind of role (think kings, queens, that sort).

What are some good costume ideas where I could easily 3D print some nice accessories (like a staff)? I believe it can be costumes of fictional characters too, as long as it's related to the theme.

I only have white, orange, and purple PLA filament, but I could look into painting some parts. I will need to pack for the trip in a couple weeks time, so something that is quick to print is ideal. My printer has a build volume of 256mm in all three dimensions.

I would prefer a costume that isn't ridiculously over the top or royal. My initial idea was to look like a modern day monarch, but the suits and ties they wear are expensive and uncomfortable too. I would rather go with fictional characters who live in castles and are monarchs, as they usually have more interesting designs than the stereotypical "red robe and furskins with golden crown".

edit: Somebody has already suggested the Lego Knight, and I think stuff like that is pretty cool! Not stereotypically over the top with very simple designs that are relatively easy to print (big shapes, limited colours, etc.)

Hollow Knight characters also sound really cool, I like the games and the designs are very easy to recreate, especially since I already have white filament.

Does anyone have similar suggestions that have good, simple designs that are easy to print?

Kinda had it with ABS. Trying to do large prints and the warping and cracking is driving me nuts, that is if the print doesn’t peel off the build plate and fail altogether in the first place. I’ve done what I can as far as print settings to have the best possibility of success, but even then the prints will often split.

I print car parts and things that are exposed to heat and chemicals occasionally, so ABS has been the easy choice, but are there any filaments out there that have comparable qualities but aren’t as likely to warp?

Hey guys,

I am using Bambu lab sunflower yellow. I have dried it, and washed my plate. With this particular filament the first layer looks like shit, but the rest of the print turns out fine. Other filaments have proper thick lines of equal height and so on.

I only have a problem with this particular color sinw opening the filament. Is it just the filament being shit or you can think of anything else I could check?

The parts came out perfectly fine, and there was no damage to the mag sheet 🤷👍

I know you can disable the prime tower at a trade off in quality, but why not poop out the priming instead of wasting build plate space?

Am I missing a setting in Orca?

For whatever reason, the top piece warped despite what appear to be basically perfect supports.