Hi,
I just have some questions regarding 3D printing. Despite doing this for 2 years I still feel like a beginner.
Questions:
I’m looking at the Ender 5 Plus and Prusa MK3S, I’ve seen plenty of people say the Prusa is better because the Ender 5 Plus requires more “tinkering”. I just feel that the Prusa is overpriced and don’t know if I should just bite the bullet and get it or something else? I want to get back into the printing game.
I live in a trailer and my room is pretty small about 30ft x 30ft, would it be safe to use my printer in my room if all I print is PLA (I’m not talking about using it overnight either since I don’t trust it). Or should I leave it in my living room?
Do you have a window? Can you create a little vented area? Maybe even put a fan on it that sucks the air outside? If you can buy or build an enclosure, even better.
Now to be clear, it’s not a huge deal if you’re only printing small things once in a while, but I’m not crazy sitting next to my printer when it’s printing in my office. I usually schedule to do my prints overnight or crack open the window.
Yeah I do have a window I’ll do that then.
I was thinking of an enclosure but I read that PLA doesn’t need it. Would it still be a worth while thing then?
PLA doesn’t “need” it to trap in the heat, but an enclosure would help in trapping any fumes and then you can add a vent to the window to suck those out with a fan. Depending upon how fancy you want to get and how much money you want to spend, you could just buy some cheap sheet metal ducting from Depot for cheap and attach it to the window and then attach the other end to a plexiglass enclosure. Some people use the LACK IKEA side table as their frame and attach plexiglass sides so you can still see the printer working. Those LACK side tables are like dirt cheap at like $15. Or you can build your own.
I’ve never bothered to build an enclosure simply because I can just change the time when I do longer prints. If its like 15 mins I don’t care too much, but if it like a 10 hour print, I’ll do it at night usually.
I’ve seen the lack tables which look really nice and might end up doing that. And I take it I’d need a small fan for the metal ducts to lead out to the window?
Also should I be fine if my printer is 12 feet away from me?