I am looking to buy a 3D printer which will be used in my small business size of about 20 people. We sometimes need little parts made for holding littles pieces of equipment and after seeing a similar lab to us use 3D Printing to make little holders for their antennas, we are looking at buying one ourselves.
What can you guys recommend? So far I have seen this video which suggests the Bambulab P1P, or the Prusa mk3S+ Kit.
I think we will most likely buy the Bambulab P1P as this guy suggests. However he did say that its not great for fixing. “Fixing or replacing parts does not appear to be anywhere near as user friendly or even possible in some cases”
How hard is it to build the Prusa mk3S+ Kit yourself in case we decide we want to have the Prusa given it is more easily fixable? We would prefer the Bambulab as it prints faster and is slightly larger, but might not get it due to the fact its not as easy to fix stuff.
OrcaSlicer is a slicer program: a piece of software that turns a 3D model into a series of commands for the printer. Its main competition would be PrusaSlicer (which is not limited to Prusa printers) and Cura.
As for metal printing, it looks like Bambu makes a special faux-metal filament (looks like but isn’t metal). Other than that, it can probably print the same metal-infused PLA filaments as any other 3D printer.
So to run the Bambulab I have to use my own 3d modelling and then a slicer?
Also I dont really get metal filament. People say you can get a metal-plastic filament and after you’ve modelled it you melt away all the plastic. Wouldnt that require the metal to be melted ? (2000+ degrees celsius)
Well, you can also download models from a number of websites rather than creating them yourself (Thingiverse is probably the largest and most mature site; there’s also Printables, Cults3D, MyMiniFactory, and a few others). A slicer is kind of required, yes; my printer shipped with get-started software that included a slicer, but it isn’t a Bambu and I have no idea what that company might provide.
As for the plastic/metal filaments, It’s Complicated. I’ve seen one variety that invites you to send the printed pieces back to the filament’s manufacturer, who will then anneal it for you in an industrial furnace that can probably get hot enough to melt bronze, copper, or iron (~1200C for iron, ~1000C for the other two—very few metals need a full 2000C!). Tin should melt, or at least soften, in an ordinary stove (<250C melting point), so you could successfully melt a tin-filled filament at home. And melting most of the plastic out while leaving behind just enough to act as glue can be done in theory. However, many metal-filled filaments are not intended to be annealed ( Here’s a product page for FormFutura copper-filled filament—you’ll note that the post-processing suggestions do not include melting out the plastic). These types are more “for the looks”.
If you’re looking to print physically strong parts, you may be better off working with PC or nylon than trying to get metal out of an additive printer. Full-strength metal parts are best produced by a subtractive process, for example on a CNC machine.
Thanks for the info. Yeah I dont think we will be printing anything with metal. I just heard theres some process that does that but I am not sure how that would work