3DPrinting

I used to be able to print things. Now for the past 6 months or so I've wasted spools upon spools trying to print anything and this always happens. I'm just about ready to sell this machine and give up on the whole thing.

Is there anything glaringly obvious that springs to any of your expert minds?

This is an article from 10 years ago but so far I have not seen any 3D printers actually use this.

Currently I'm designing a new toolhead for my 3D printer and I want to make the footprint as small as possible to maximize the usable print area. I'm redesigning an Ender 5 so that the bed of an Ender5Plus fits into the frame of the Ender5 and that most of the area is accessible by the nozzle. The toolhead is one obstacle.

My current toolhead has two 5015 blower fans, one on each side, and they add a significant amount of bulk to the toolhead. The fan ducts are also quite bulky.

Have any of you tried a small aquarium pump with a length of Bowden tubing and perhaps a blunt syringe tip at the end? This way you can precisely direct airflow to the plastic flow and not cool the nozzle down too much, which is unavoidable with blower fans.

I'm thinking towards those cheap 5v USB aquarium fans that you can buy for a few euros from China.

I'm doing a large print, and about 1/4 of the way through, I started hearing this horrible, intermittent noise. Sounds very close to nails on a chalkboard. Naturally I assume something is starting to wear out (belt, roller, motor, etc) or there's some parts rubbing together that shouldn't.

The print seems to be going along fine, though, so I let it be until I couldn't stand it anymore.

Finally sat down and watched it, and the culprit is the extruder fan blowing into the large, hollow tree support bases which was acting like a whistle. lol.

I've only been 3D printing for a little over a year, and this is the largest print I've ever done so far, so if this is normal, it caught me totally off guard.

https://youtu.be/7sAm3RtWh4M

Investigation discovers the surprising result that slicers introduce more error into prints than the printer itself.

I have my A1 plugged into a soecial surge protector that provides power to the rest of the outlets if the one trigger outlet draws enough power. So the printer is always on so that I can send stuff to it but doesn't draw a lot of power. When it's heating up and printing the power draw increases enough to trigger the rest of the outlets and a desk lamp turns on so I can see what's being printed better. This is especially helpful at night when the desk lamp is the only light in the small office my printer is in. It's been set up like this for 2 years and it's been great.

This morning I was not actively printing anything and I went into the office and the desk lamp was on. I looked at the printer and it wanted to update the firmware, so I did so. Afterward the lamp stayed on. I rebooted the printer multiple times and while it's rebooting obviously the lamp is off and when it boots back up the lamp stays on.

What is causing this increased power draw? Any ideas or insights?

For now I'm leaving it fully off but I'll have to manually go in and turn it on before sending something to print which is less convenient.

I've printed hundreds of prints over a few years. Now I haven't printed in a few weeks but this is the first time I've had a problem like this. This is supposed to be flat. What's happening?

Bonus video: https://drive.proton.me/urls/74XZH4FVSM#1QqSvXK3MJCF

The audio might be a clue for you to help me troubleshoot

I recently printed a vermicomposter in PETG. It consists of a bottom reservoir which is supposed to catch leachate from the above compartments. I'm not sure the rate at which this will fill up, but the leachate is supposed to be diluted with water and used as nutrients from plants.

However, the reservoir leaks from the plug and from the front leg slots, at least when the reservoir is filled completely up with water. The leak from the plug I seem to have fixed with a combination of an o-ring and some PTFE-tape, but for the other leak I've been thinking of coating it with epoxy resin.

My challenge is actually finding such a resin, where the finished, cured product is food safe (since it will eventually find its way into the plants I intend to eat). Locally, I've not been able to find anything that is certified food safe, only various epoxy fillers and primers for boats.

The local 3D-print shop recommended this product which I could get through them: https://siraya.tech/products/siraya-tech-aegis-coating-systerm-for-resin-filament-prints But I've found some less than favorable reviews for that one in particular.

Anyone with experience water-tightening containers like this?

It's something that I often wondered. Acetone, even diluted as nail polish remover, does a great job of cleaning prints and, unlike IPA, doesn't leave the piece with an awful smell.

Is it mainly price, or are there other reasons?

I'm designing a new toolhead for my heavily modified Ender 5. At the moment it uses a MicroSwiss all metal hotend with dual blower fans, a tiny 404010 fan on the heatbreak (barely enough) and on top of it an Orbiter 1.5 extruder.

It has been working quite well but I want to get something with higher flow capabilities to push print speeds. Perhaps even dual Orbiter extruders and two hotends.

After I'm done modifying the Ender5 it will have a 314x314 bed which should allow for dual hotends without losing too much space.

Ideally I end up with a new toolhead so that the old one may be kept as backup.

I have been eyeing the Orbiter V2 with the Phaetus Rapido UHF but I'm open to suggestions. What have you been using and do you have any advice? There are a ton of options.

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!