Filament too wet obviously /s

Pretty much all the reasons I can’t stand most 3D Printing communities on the internet. Too much basic troubleshooting answered dozens of times already and not enough cool projects.

Back in the day I used some smaller distros. Sabayon and Archbang both come to mind.

I love seeing stuff like this. So many people buy a 3D printer just to post pictures of the same useless pop culture trinkets they downloaded off thingiverse. No judgment, printing that stuff is fun, but that is pretty much taking someone else’s work and posting a photo of it. But the true value of 3d printing is being able to make something entirely new or specific to your needs.

Learning to CAD and design things is a very valuable skill to have.

This is good advice. I made the mistake of buying a cheaper “project” printer to start and hated every minute of it before getting a Prusa Mk3S. I’m sure a lot of people want the printer to be the project, but if you actually want to focus of making things I highly recommend buying a printer like a Prusa or Bambu that just works.

I know a lot of people like their Ender printers, but I worry that they are still “project” printers. Their design and construction just doesn’t instill confidence in me that you won’t have to upgrade, adjust, and repair it all the time.

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Not new at all, I primarily print with Polymaker and they started using cardboard spools a couple years ago for some materials and have switched to cardboard for PETG and PLA for quite awhile. I’ve bought a few other rolls over the past year and they have also switched to cardboard spools.

Generally I like them better as they are much easier to recycle. I do know some people don’t like them for filaments that absorb water as the cardboard is hygroscopic and difficult to dry.

This is a topic one could easily write an entire book on.

There are many things that injection molding can do that FDM printing cannot or cannot do as well. Just the range of materials available for injection molding dwarfs what is available for 3D printing of any type. In many applications the specific polymer grade you use is very important to the function of the product. The process also results in parts with isotropic properties where the orientation of the layers on a FDM part significantly affects the part properties.

Design wise you can achieve much higher detail and finer functional features in injection molding. You can’t really put a specific texture on FDM parts like you can on an injection molding tool, nor can you do fine features like snaps or live hinges nearly as well. On the other hand, since an injection mold has to open to release the part, you have a lot more flexibility in the design of a 3D Printed part to add features that would be impossible to injection mold (internal cavities, undercuts without pass cores or a way for a slider to release, etc.).

In terms of manufacturing there are a few considerations that might make injection molding or FDM more suitable. Injection molding shines when you needs thousands of the exact same part at low cost. FDM might be a choice if you need a handful of a part, or to print parts that are different each time (say a part that is sized to a particular person).

Yeah I’ve heard good things. It didn’t exist when I got my Prusa and after discovering that the textured sheet is effectively useless for printing PLA, I got a PEI smooth sheet as well and just switch depending on what material I’m printing. Not quite worth the cost of buying a 3rd sheet just to avoid changing them, but starting fresh it could be worth it if you are willing to pay a bit more.

Prusa is a great choice for a first printer. They are generally reliable out of the box and there is a lot of support if you need it.

The PEI build sheet it comes with is good to start, just be aware that it requires a bit of prep if you want to print petg on it. Filament sensors are nice to use up material on a roll and have the print automatically pause to change to a new roll. Otherwise you can end up with lots of partially filled rolls.