3DPrinting

Originally asked in the TTRPG community and was suggested to ask at a printing community, so here I am. Hello.

I'm looking for someone or some place (Australia based if possible) that prints miniatures. I'd be supplying the file. I've never sent anything to 3d print and I must be awful at searching because I can't find a single site that has like a rough quote for minis. Of course I understand they would give me a different quote once I supply a file, but so far I have absolutely no clue on what to expect. $20? $150? Do you get a better deal if you print multiple items? Does it matter if they're different or all the same?

That, for starters. Next - what material should I be getting these prints on? (I hear that's resin?)

What resolution/parameters do I need to keep in mind for my files?

Is there any way to make sure the printer won't be reselling my work? (ie., printing my custom made models and selling them elsewhere)

Does anyone have any recommendations for Australia?

Thanks

I'm looking into 3D-printing some props for a cosplay and stumbled upon a pretty handy listing on Etsy (if I'm not allowed to post the link, I'll edit it out).

Now, I'm a complete beginner to 3D printing and know barely anything, so I've got a couple of questions.

1. How safe is it to buy files off Etsy? Apparently, STL files are a little too large to be uploaded to Etsy, so upon making the purchase I'd get sent a txt file that includes a download link to the required files. Is that trustworthy?

2. Are there any file types that I should steer clear off for commercial 3D printing places? I've got a place to go in my city, I think, but I'm not sure if there are any limitations to which file types can be printed at all.

3. How likely is it that the arm prop won't fit? The listing does not specify if there are different sizes, and I'm not sure if they are even needed in the first place. In case it wouldn't fit out of the box, how difficult is it to scale the file to fit my arm proper?

4. How expensive would printing be? Probably hard to answer unless I know where I'm going and what they are charging, but I'd imagine the cost of material is probably not too high, right?

5. I think the seller also has the same files over on Cults 3D. Would buying there be preferable to Etsy for any reason (apart from pricing)?

That should be it. I hope my post is an ok fit for here - I'll post somewhere else if it isn't.

Thank you guys in advance!

i know this isnt really the right place to post this but i cant find an active laser cutting community on here. if there is one please point me to it!

i made a laser cuttable version of something on thingiverse and went to post it as a remix but at some point thingiverse started requiring a 3d model file to post things? quite disappointing. i tried printables too and they have the same requirement. does anyone know if theres a "thingiverse for laser cutting"?

0.25mm nozzle, clear PETG, Prusa, 6mm standard headphone jack, upcycled broken bluetooth headphones, three times larger battery, snap fit with no hardware, FreeCAD, 2nd print iteration, listening to it now, no tricks - it holds together firmly and is usable and actually sounds better than the original by a long shot from better headphone drivers I guess or proper soldering, oh and power button built into the flex of the design, OC only posted on Lemmy

I print figurines for D&D adventures with my kids, both monsters and player characters, I've also done a few scenery items and player trinkets. So far I've just used whatever PLA I had around, but was thinking that maybe there were some brands (or other filament) that are better for this type of thing? Preferably also easily paintable since they've started to want more than just plain solid colour.

I'm using a 0.2mm nozzle for these, and detail is actually pretty decent.

I have my Bambu A1 set up in a very tight space, so I made use of the AMS Micro by emics to mount my spools vertically.

The printer is able to reliably load and unload filament from all four spools, but during printing (especially slot 4, the topmost spool), particularly after retractions, the extruder will be unable to re-insert the filament and will throw an "extruder is not extruding normally" error. I can manually push the filament in until it's grabbed by the extruder after which the print will continue normally until the next retraction.

The spools spin freely on the stock AMS hubs and the PTFE tubes are short and not worn. Any advice would be most welcome

The latest PrusaSlicer versions require OpenGL 3.2 and my machine only supports OpenGL 3.1.

Anybody knows if other slicers can generate gcode or bgcode files for Prusa printers? If so, which would you recommend?

See original problem here

So I played with all kinds of settings in PrusaSlicer. Nothing changed anything.

The only things that did improve the outcome some was:

• Forcing the letters to be printed first: then the letters are smooshed and bleed into the background instead of the other way round, which arguably looks better / more legible. Nothing to write home about though.

• Dropping the first layer's height to 0.1mm (the other layers are 0.2mm high): that improves the letters a bit.

• Dropping the first layer's height to 0.05mm: because the first layer is so thin, it becomes kind of translucent and the wider white letter beneath it sort of show through. The net result is that it drops a kind of gaussian blur onto the lettering, which actually improves them - especially at a distance.

Other than that, there's just nothing for it. And half of the suggestions I got concern other slicers, and I couldn't find them or equivalents in PrusaSlicer. Oh well...

I guess that's as good as it's gonna get.

I'm looking for a multi-material printer that can also handle TPU.

AFAIK are most multi-material systems not made for TPU, so printers like the BambuLab P1S with AMS or Anycubic Kobra with the ACE Pro won't work (I would like to have a printer where I can just load TPU without disconnecting anything. And I know BambuLab has a TPU for AMS, but 40€ for 1kg is a little much).

The only printers for hobbyist that really support it are the Prusa XL or BambuLab H2D, or did I miss any?

I'm printing those little cable pull tabs on our Prusa XL printer. In the models, I added markings to identify the type of cable, printed directly into the tabs with a different color PLA loaded on head #2.

The problem I have, as you can see, is that the white letters are "overrun" by the back surroundings.

I have to print those parts face down: when the first layer is laid down onto the bed, the black surrounding is printed first with head #1, leaving empty space for the symbols, then head #2 comes in and fill in the spaces after the head change:

The problem apparently is that the black material gets "smooshed out" on the bed and partly fills in the void, and then the white PLA doesn't have enough space to make nice, sharp letters.

It wouldn't be a big problem with larger letters: they would just look like they have fuzzy edges. But those letters are 3.5mm in height and only two 0.4mm-wide lines at the most, so it's basically all fuzziness.

It doesn't happen when I print face up. But then I have to have support for the tabs' walls, and since I print those things by the hundreds, I'm really not keep on having to remove support on hundreds of tiny parts. So it's not an option.

I tried printing slower but it doesn't change much of anything. Not to mention, again, I have to print those things as fast as possible to print as many as possible overnight.

And of course I can't increase the size of the letters: they're as big as the tabs' size will allow.

The letters are readable enough, but they don't really look great. Is there any trick to reduce or eliminate this? I was thinking of trying to print the white first with head #2, then the black with head #1, but I can't find an option in Prusa Slicer to invert the order in which the heads are used.

I'm printing those little cable pull tabs on our Prusa XL printer. In the models, I added markings to identify the type of cable, printed directly into the tabs with a different color PLA loaded on head #2.

The problem I have, as you can see, is that the white letters are "overrun" by the back surroundings.

I have to print those parts face down: when the first layer is laid down onto the bed, the black surrounding is printed first with head #1, leaving empty space for the symbols, then head #2 comes in and fill in the spaces after the head change:

The problem apparently is that the black material gets "smooshed out" on the bed and partly fills in the void, and then the white PLA doesn't have enough space to make nice, sharp letters.

It wouldn't be a big problem with larger letters: they would just look like they have fuzzy edges. But those letters are 3.5mm in height and only two 0.4mm-wide lines at the most, so it's basically all fuzziness.

It doesn't happen when I print face up. But then I have to have support for the tabs' walls, and since I print those things by the hundreds, I'm really not keep on having to remove support on hundreds of tiny parts. So it's not an option.

I tried printing slower but it doesn't change much of anything. Not to mention, again, I have to print those things as fast as possible to print as many as possible overnight.

And of course I can't increase the size of the letters: they're as big as the tabs' size will allow.

The letters are readable enough, but they don't really look great. Is there any trick to reduce or eliminate this? I was thinking of trying to print the white first with head #2, then the black with head #1, but I can't find an option in Prusa Slicer to invert the order in which the heads are used.

So I finally got an opurtunity to get a 3D printer, and i want to buy a Voron. I found a V2.4 with 350mm build volume for 770€. Is it worth it? How reliable is a Voron? Have any of you got any experience? All input welcome.

(Edit) I forgot to clarify, the printer is new, not second-hand.

Lots of people seem to like custom keyboards and programmable HID widgets. Saw this and it seems interesting. Being Adafruit it is commercial on some level but also well documented for replication and mods that are more useful than the average shared project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8RW3y0CIgw

YT description:

Build a 3D printed USB chorded keyset inspired by the original Doug Engelbert "Mother of all Demos" keyset from the 1960's. This 5-finger keyset lets you type without moving your hand, entering full words and phrases by pressing multiple keys simultaneously as a chord. Read more link below

Learn Guide https://learn.adafruit.com/usb-keyset

USB Keyset Learn Guide: https://learn.adafruit.com/usb-keyset/