Some 3D printing advice to start this section

It's pretty bad when you don't even have the new 3D printer and you start adding to the list of things you want to upgrade to and just have a better set up for printing in a wider range of materials and avoid preventable issues before they happen.

So I invested in filament dryer since sales seem to be going on now. while i was at it i picked up the bi-metal heat break and a nozzle package with different sizes and materials for some more range in filament choices. cheap upgrade to be able to get more into the higher temp materials. i seen a video were all that was needed to changed was settings in the firmware. so for a few bucks in upgrade parts seemed like a good move and for an added bonus the tip set has some cleaning tools for tips.

 

Filament dryer is waste of money, you have a heated bed, set it to 50 or 70 for PETG, put a lid on it.
Heatbreak is a must, PETG likes higher temps than what the internet says, so for slow printing 250, fast 265.
And do not bother with ABS and ASA, everything besides some specialised ones are cr@p.
Use HIPS, much better in every respect and can happily print at 245, with much, much better layer adhesion.

dryer was cheap ($50) and it looked to me like it might help with keeping the filament on the spool as a bonus. other stuff was under $30 so nothing major

i have had the printer for a little bit had a chance to print some simple stuff and something a little difficult. my takeaway is getting the first layer right first is where you need to sort the temperature for the bed and hot end out first, for me the range of temp on the filament was between 190 and 230C for the PLA i'm starting with. i ended up at 220C and have had zero issues there. the bed temperature i still have set at 60C since i have had no issues on that end.

the one thing that gave me a little bit of trouble was bridging longer gaps but was able to get around it simply by changing the orientation of the part on the bed. So all and all i have had little trouble with this machine. i leveled the bed with a piece of paper after putting it together and have not touched it since.

neat little machines i should have got one a long time ago

3D printers seem to be the tool you didn't know you needed until after you have owned on.

machinedude  it's been 2 years later how has the machine held up?

my1987toyota wrote:

3D printers seem to be the tool you didn't know you needed until after you have owned on.

I bought one as i needed a case for some electronics i built for a friend, needed it quick so had no time to build one, then i bought 11 more as i kept finding them with wrong prices on a local online store, like 3 to 4 times lower than in china!!! Gave some to friends (free), dismantled some and sold some, then built 5 more Voron 2.4R2's for me and 6 Voron Legacy's for some friends.