FDM Shopping advice wanted

[lawnor]

I’m toying with the idea of getting an FDM printer for making terrain so I can try out games like Ranger of Shadow Deep and 1490 Doom and I have a few noob questions I was hoping people could answer.  I already have a resin printer that I don’t use so this is clearly something I should not buy.  I don’t use my resin printer for 2 main reasons.  The dangerous fumes, and the short shelf life of the resin.  If I could buy a bottle and print a model or two every few months and the bottle was still good 5 years from now I’d probably use it.  Right now buying 1l feels like commitment to rapid print out as many models as it will let me, whether I want them or not.

My questions are:

1. I believe filament does not have a shelf life.  Is this true/  Can I sit on a reel for 20 years and still use it?
2. How are the fumes?  Safe?  Smelly?  Any considerations there?
3. Do I have to temperature control the printer like with resin?  That fails if it’s below 20C, which is an issue in England.
4. I want to print terrain.  It’s large.  I want to paint it fast and lazily, which means fat brush drybrushing where possible.  How easy is it to reduce the layer lines to the point where that will work without every one being highlighted and what is required of me?
5. Which one would you recommend?  I’ve heard Bambu labs being mentioned a lot over the years, but are they still the best value for money and still get quality product?  Which model
6. Anything else I should buy?
7. How soon after printing can I start work on a piece?
8. How long would it actually take to print a tower of similar dimensions as a kitchen roll while still reducing layer lines and keeping quality?  A few hours?  Overnight?  2-3 days?
9. Do I need to buy new, or is 2nd hand from ebay as reliable as buying any other electronics?
10. What am I not thinking to ask?  What did you learn that you would have liked to have known before buying in?
11. Has the whole AI data centre thing affected the market and prices at all making now a bad time?
12. Does anyone know of a likely black Friday deal that usually appears I might want to look out for, or have any discount codes or anything?
13. Any safety considerations, beyond keep it near a smoke alarm?  Does it set the alarm off falsley?  Would you leave it on unattended in your house and go to work?
14. How noisy is it?  Would you sleep in the next room, or would I want it on the opposite side of the house?
15. How cheap is the filament actually, in terms of what you make from it?  And the electricity usage?  Once I’ve paid for a kitchen roll sized tower stl file is that pennies to print?  A pound or two?  £20?  Is it actually cost effective as opposed to just buying physical objects, especially if I don’t plan on constantly printing until it dies?
16. How easy is it to get off the bed once done?  My resin printer needed a box cutter and a paint scraper and often did not want to shift.
17. How messy is it?  What type of mess?  Drippy liquid plastic that permanently sticks to things, or just dust and solid fragments that can be hoovered up?
18. How big should I actually be looking to buy if I’m budget conscious, but don’t want to find I’m a little too small for the prints I want to do.  I am looking at this for terrain.
19. (From @limburger ): How easy is it to get parts and supplies locally? For me, that’s England.  How often am I going to want parts and supplies, beyond more spools?  Does anything wear down or break easy?

I may come back and add more questions, but that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head.  I’m off for coffee and lunch now.

• This topic was modified 13 hours, 32 minutes ago by lawnor.

[limburger 22636xp 1]

The questions you have are all aspects I’d want answers to as well, because it’s the sort of stuff few appear to talk about .

One thing that should be on your list is : how easy is it to get parts and supplies locally ?
Did you look into that aspect ?

There’s enclosures to keep spools at temperature / humidity.
I’m not sure if they work as advertised, but to me that tells me that you won’t be storing that stuff ‘forever’.
I must admit that how long those materials stay useful is a good thing to keep in mind, especially if you’re not sure how often you’d be printing.

Bambu Labs have managed to get a bit of a negative reputation.

Bambu Lab at the Heart of Controversy: An Update that Divides the User Community

It’s like greed corrupts everything eventually.
Similar stuff happened to Ultimaker (sp?) which was one of the initial wave of manufacturers for FDM printers back when it was ‘new’ (and expensive).
Somehow companies seem to think that they can abandon the open source concepts that a lot of the tech is based on in order to squeeze out a few extra pennies.
The tech itself isn’t super advanced. Most of the cost appears to be in the quality and tolerances of the materials used.

[lawnor 25990xp 0]

Sounds like Bambu want to be the Apple of 3D printers.  Their stuff will only work if you buy their software and their filament and will not work with anything else.  They can then control everything and raise the prices.  Doesn’t look good.  Thanks for the warning.

Also, they called a printer the P1S?  The piss?  Really?

[sundancer 44879xp 1]

I know not much about the ones-and-zeros machines but I do know a little bit.

I believe filament does not have a shelf life. Is this true/ Can I sit on a reel for 20 years and still use it?

No, certain filaments are affected by moisture. That’s why some people keep it vacuum sealed or have a filament dryer.

How easy is it to reduce the layer lines to the point where that will work without every one being highlighted and what is required of me?

Depends on the complexity of the print. A simple geometric form should be easy to “make work” with filler and build up primer. Complex structures like piles of rubble will take a long time. Better to make print lines thinner but that will raise print time exponentially. It’s a trade off.

How long would it actually take to print a tower of similar dimensions as a kitchen roll while still reducing layer lines and keeping quality?

Depends on the printer, settings, diameter of the tower and much more. Nobody can give you a universal number here.

How noisy is it?

Depends on the printer. Also you can have enclosures for printers which make them more quiet and keeps the temps stable for them.

How messy is it?

If a print goes well not very messy. Aside from the usual filing, cutting etc. But if your extruder clogs all bets are off. If you don’t notice it, the printer has no fail safe and the job is a big one for over night you might return to a huge blob of filament.

It’s a hobby in its own right and unless you have someone locally who is willing to help you start your journey you need to spend a lot of time.

Maybe go an read some blogs over at Fauxhammer. He’s been doing 3D printing in our hobby for some time now. He also has a YouTube channel

@FauxHammer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.youtube.com/ @FauxHammer

https://www.fauxhammer.com/blog/

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