To 3d print or not to 3d print

General Discussion
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I was an “early” (not that early) adopter with a 3D printer and the thing just annoyed the heck out of me. I traded it for a Herman Miller Aeron chair for my office and that was the best thing I could have done. A few months later, the guy gave the printer to my son because it was so basic and he was starting a business, so the boy got to play with it, but eventually fell victim to its deficiencies as well. It’s been sitting idle for a few years.

Fast forward to today and the boy has expressed interest in getting back to 3D printing and I am looking for something to do fine detail prints as well, so there’s a good chance I’m going to take advantage of the Bambu sale. I’d be curious if anyone using FDM for scale model parts has some specific advice, but I think I’ll put that in a new thread elsewhere and after I have a unit to learn on.

All that said, I have to ask, @Egilman, just how did you print something via FDM that looks so smooth?! That’s been my biggest concern, the effort required to smooth up a small part (say, 1/48 aircraft bits).

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Bambu X-1C, ABS filament…

The pic is a 1/72nd scale Truck for a 1966 Nasa Crawler…

First bit of advise? Practice with PLA, do serious modeling with ABS…

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Make sure to get a 0.2mm hotend. If you plan on using ABS, get the hardened steel one. otherwise, get the stainless steel version. Learn what you can do in the slicer to improve the quality of the prints

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What are the benefits of ABS over PLA when modelling

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You can use simple Acetone for gluing, you don’t have to mess with Cyanoacrylate glues…

Essentially, ABS parts glue like regular model parts… PLA disintegrates after a number of years, it’s the “Eco-Friendly” filament, ABS doesn’t If you want your model to last a while on your shelf, use ABS… ABS is twice as strong as PLA for those structural parts that need to remain straight and strong…

The physical, mechanical benefits of ABS far outreach those of PLA…

0.2mm hotend is not needed, that Crawler Truck in the pic above? was done with a stock 0.4mm hotend…

This crawler was at this years National IPMS show in Virginia…

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t59wsu3q1dafmjz9vhbb4/IMG_0008.JPG?rlkey=qllipikmp0fzgdiquexrx567n&st=4pdvlzws&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/se9dc2evkbzseqypqp1g4/IMG_0009.JPG?rlkey=kifcf14pq46lnqiulev6topo9&st=abe4jms0&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/c5d020yq072ssk6jggosj/IMG_0010.JPG?rlkey=g9mi5oytls2ud9d0qv61bedsh&st=vmba0hz6&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sqrml06lludint9xtly8j/With-the-Cabs-and-Cable-Trays-in-place.jpg?rlkey=kqhv0bytvvimdia6fvul7ekmn&st=z0gjuvb0&dl=0

That was printed on a Prusa MK4S bedslinger by my partner, the Bambu Labs X1C is a huge step above what the Prusa can do…

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Thanks for that. I have been researching using ABS on a Bambu A1. It looks as if I will need an enclosure to help maintain a constant temperature on the plate and hotend. So if you have any recommendations on an enclosure to use, I am all ears.

I have been using PLA for prototyping. Is there any benefit to using PETG

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I’m following along because I’m interested in exploring the same.

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Post please, I’m learning much from this thread.

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I’ve never used PETG, for the same reasons I don’t use PLA… Styrene has been the go to for plastic modeling for the last 70 years, why reinvent the wheel? I’m a modeler, not a 3D printing hobbyist… The printer is a tool to extend my modeling to anything I have a mind to model…

All the various filaments have there uses, research what the more experienced printers are using for their parts in the area of their particular interest… Then choose what works best for you…

PLA is cheap, for me, that is it’s only benefit, for parts that are useable, dimensionally stable and will last a while, use what industry uses, and that is ABS…

Yeah there are those that have bought the A1 Mini or the regular A1 and built enclosures for them, most of them by the time they figure out what to buy, source it, design it then build, tweak it to get it to work, find out that they should have bought the X1 in the first place… It was cheaper in the overall scheme…

I did my research once I figured out that resin was not the way to go… I have a two year old Mono X that I can’t give away today… It’s already out of date… I’ve never gotten a good print out of it… so I went back to the drawing board did a LOT more research, and decided that I would try a Bambu Labs X1… I went ahead and ordered the X1C model so I have the multi color change hardware as well… The benefit of that is that I can load two reels of my prototyping filament and when the first reel runs out it automatically switches to the second roll… Fewer failed prints that way… You can also attach up to four filament changers to the X1 giving you 16 colors if you want all ready to go print something… No more filament changing…

The best thing about the X1C is it’s fire and forget, prints good parts right out of the box… you can tweak almost all the settings in it’s slicer software and you do not need to sneaker net the parts from your computer to the printer on a USB stick, it connects over wireless so you can send to the printer directly from your computer…

The best advice I can give people looking to getting into 3D printers, first decide on what you want it to do… In my case it was build models using my own designed parts the printer enhances my capabilities in that area… What I didn’t want is to tinker with the printer more than actually print… So I held off on jumping it until I started hearing, reading and seeing that people were actually beginning to use it as a tool rather than the object or the hobby itself…

THERE ARE A LOT OF 3D HOBBYIST WEBSITES OUT THERE!!!
They are no help in figuring out what is best in 3D printing… They are past their glory days now… Find the sites that address how to make one actually work for what YOU want it to do…

Commercial industry has been 3D printing for almost 30 years now, the tech is finally reaching the point where it can be done on the desktop for a few hundreds of dollars instead of 40 - 50,000 dollars for a production machine that fills a room all by itself… (you can get second hand commercial printers for a few thousand dollars now)

Figure out what you want out of the tech… Again, read, read, read… Do your research!!! I can’t stress that enough… KNOW what you want going in, and then do the leg work to find out what hardware will actually will give you that… Then buy your hardware accordingly…

Right now, for modeling purposes, the X1C is the top of the heap, the proven performer… Don’t fall for the hype and there is a LOT of it out there…

EG

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Thanks for the reply. I get what you mean about the X1C. Sadly, my budget would not stretch to an X1C or its replacement, an X1E

I have taken on board the advice on using ABS. It does make sense. If I am going to switch to ABS, I need to build an enclosure for my A1 and install a fume extraction system. I have a local supplier that will cut Polycarbonate to size for me. I’m going to use that for the sides and top. I will need to research sizes for the enclosure and how to install filtration. I will continue to use PLA for prototyping.

Did I make a mistake going for the A1 mini? yes. Upgrading to the A1 is a step forward. I still have the option to send the A1 back, as it has not yet been delivered and go for the P2S, which I could afford. I contacted Bambu EU, and they informed me that I can send it back for a full refund.

I plan to build mostly items for Dioramas.

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If you can afford the P2S I would go in that direction, that way you have the ability to print with ABS straight out of the the box… (and no tinkering) Also you can add the AMS 2 Pro at a later date…

That’s the way to go…

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@Pawel, Can’t argue with your logic about the ease of letting someone else print for you except for the lag, I’m super inpatient.
@Egiliman - can’t believe your tank is FDM looks darn close to the quality my Old Saturn resin printer put out. I may need a new Bambu printer
@MacGeorge8035 - I think youre making a wise move to go into FDM first. Resin is amazing but so are it’s drawbacks. If my Ender 3 could have printed as crisply as Egiliman’s Bambu. I likely would have passed on resin. I also like the independence to print what I want when I want it and wouldn’t like waiting on the kindness of others, free time is precious. I’d definitely learn a 3D software tool, I like Blender. It’s 100% open source & free, no cloud dependencies, lots of support on youTube, will still be around in 2 years and can run on that junky windows 7 computer in your basement. Learning curve was sharp for me but i too have a software background and knew the secret to success was not to quit. First few models were tough (I was overly ambitious) and I hated it, it does lots of things I’ll never use, and can be a stray keystroke nightmare. I spent lots of time on youTube. After a year of hobby time usage, I felt I could (eventually) build anything I put my mind to. Now after 4 years I love it and designing cool things in it, even more so than actually printing and assembling them.

Oh well, everyone’s different - Great hobby if you like to tinker and build stuff.
Still just a hobby for me but that may change - My website is: ScaleModelGuy.com I’ve got a bunch of my 3D printing projects up on there. My early ones were pretty bad, but I got better!

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Throwing in my $0.02 a bit late, but I was looking at options as well, so I figured I’d share.

The X1C isn’t even available anymore, so unless the X1E is within budget, the P2S is likely the best choice. Aside from some minor tweaks vs. the P1S, the 5” screen is apparently a game changer for anyone doing ‘production’ work (per a friend that owns a 3D printing business), and the AMS 2 Pro is apparently also a tremendous upgrade, as it has the filament heating/drying cycles available that the AMS does not.

As mentioned earlier, my son was into 3D printing for a while, but the Creality unit that we had was…well, I once used the phrase, “below budget” to indicate quality, but being fair, the unit arrived 3 months late with significant shipping damage, so it always had strikes against it. It finally just got to be nearly impossible to level and do some other work, so like any good teenager, my son quickly lost interest.

Enter the P2S. After deciding I wanted a printer to try some modeling stuff, I decided that sharing a unit with him would get him back into things and encourage him to do something other than video games! We just set our unit up (I decided I couldn’t hide the huge box until Christmas) and have been printing accessories “out of the box” and couldn’t be happier. I’m printing another desiccant box for the AMS2 as I type this, and ABS has printed perfectly with zero ‘tweaks’ on my part. Download a model, run it through the Bambu slicer, upload to the printer, pick up the part 2 hours later.

Strongly recommended, but with zero modeling experience to back that up (yet).

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For what is worth, I have the Elegoo Centaurai Carbon fdm printer, the Mars resin printer using water washable resin, and fusion 360. There are at least 2 groups in facebook that are for 3d printing parts for models.

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As usual, I’m a day late and a dollar short.

I bought my Bambu X1C in January of '23 and now have 1903 hours on it, having just printed a bunch of IKEA Skadis accessories. It’s so much better than the Anet A8 it replaced!

Along with all the usual trinkets, I’ve printed a bunch of RC cars and trucks. A 1/10 scale jeep body for a store bought chassis, 1/8 scale Land Rover Defender and Beetle from 3Dsets, and a 1/8 scale trophy truck from printables. Plus a bunch of chassis bits for other trucks.

My usual sources for files are thingiverse and printables. I’ll check out cults3d from time to time as the models are usually paid and can sometimes be of higher quality. Maker World is Bambu’s file repository. I tried it a few times but had bad luck with the profile included with the downloaded files not matching my printer which would cause all sorts of issues. It’s very likely that this was entirely my fault but I couldn’t be bothered with figuring it out and while you can just download the STLs to slice yourself, I’ve not looked at it in a long time.

I’ve tried a number of design software packages and have been unable to wrap my head around them. Usually, I struggle with the UI. Scrolling, zooming and centering are the bane of my existence. I did a little better with FreeCad but couldn’t figure out constraints. Thus my fall back to tinkercad. It’s a bit clumsy and not well loved by users of the commercial software but it has done what i needed and I swear at it much less than the others. Since someone posted a link to a free for home use version of Onshape, I’ll give it a try.

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Another place to check out for files is CG Trader. It has some nice stuff in my opinion. Also, definetely take a look at Aladdin Model. They have stuff like figures which you can send a picture of a position you want them in, and then they will pose them. Those figures are free.