I’ve recently been looking into investing my money into a 3d printer for myself, since it would cut the costs down a lot as previously, I had been ordering prints off of Treatstock, which A) can get pricey and B) it takes forever and I’m an impatient man…
I’ve been having a look online (Amazon) for printers that I can use, since I only print ABS and TPU and I stumbled onto the Flashforge Adventure 5m pro, is this a good printer for such a purpose? I just want to be sure I’m making the right decision in purchasing a good printer that will suit my needs, and i’m trying to make sure i get something that works just fine for its purpose without much tinkering being required (and also i don’t want to end up dying from inhaling toxic fumes)
To clarify, the reason why I use ABS instead of other alternatives such as PLA+ ST is due to the fact it is lighter, and changing to that filament does make me wonder if it will cause a lot of my bots to be overweight… So i’m just sticking to what I know works well for me. Any other advice for getting into such a thing would be very much appreciated since this isn’t an area I’m all that knowledgable of
The Elegoo Neptune 4 is cheaper, and may be better for your uses, as I use it to print PLA+ and TPU. If you’re concerned with weight, print your robots out of PA-CF. Note that CF parts need to be soaked in water to be stronger for whatever reason.
I would say it’s whether you want your 3D printer to be a hobby in itself or a tool.
I’m not familiar with that brand specifically but if you’re open to the tinkering a lot (eg - regularly replacing nozzles etc) then it probably would be fine.
Personally used to hate 3D printing because my Ender 3 would so regularly need something fixing or tweaking to print properly. If you want reliable care free prints it’s worth going for one of the brands with a reputation for that such as Bambu or Prusa.
It is worth mentioning ABS is one of the more demanding printer filaments (it loves to warp / shrink), and has nasty fumes so having an enclosure like the printer you’ve mentioned and good ventilation is a good idea.
you can pick up a bambu p1s for the same price as the adventurer if you, as joe says, want the printer to be a tool you use and not another hobby itself in maintenance/upgrades. i am firmly in the ‘tool’ boat and im enjoying my cheap bambu a1, though that won’t print abs.
I’ll have to watch a couple of reviews of the printer perhaps to gauge what the pros and cons of it are, i’m familiar with Bambu Labs but outside of that i know very little about printers unfortunately…
I wouldn’t mind having to do so whenever needed, I’m sure any costs involved with that would be better than having to order everything online via treatstock anyways
With this printer its advertised as being able to print ABS and TPU, which leads me to (hopefully) believe that such issues shouldn’t take place? i’d like to think at least… I mainly went for it for that reason of it mentioning being for ABS specifically. I’ll check out some reviews and see if its worth buying for sure. I’m just hoping for something that won’t require too much tinkering around to set up (Replacements and stuff are fine, just don’t want to have to do so much before i actually get to print anything decent with it)
Tool would be ideal, but if its nothing too tedious then i wouldn’t mind it too much. I’m hoping to stay with ABS for the time being but i’ll definitely keep that in mind! I wish i had the spare weight on my bots to make such a change
If the Bambu P1S is the same price as what you’re considering, we’d definitely recommend that, used by so many robot builders and yes it’s almost definitely going to be less maintainance to print with. (and it does support ABS)
Sounds great! Is there anywhere online to buy a good Enclosure & Extractor for that printer? And also do you reckon i’d need to change anything on the printer to make sure it handles ABS just fine?
Just asking to be sure so i know what to sort out for when i order it
While I only own the Bambu P1S I can at least point to OrcaSlicer as a good slicing software. It works with a lot of different printers and acts as an alternative to Bambu Labs if you aren’t too keen on the idea of uploading your 3d models to their cloud service.
FWIW you can use Bambu printers without the cloud services. Set the printer to “LAN mode” and it just works in bambu slicer - nothing forcing you to sign in, nor does it upload anything to the internet. You lose the ability to use the app or send prints over the internet but I’m fine with that.
I regularly print ABS, and if the parts are small (antweight) and the bed can go sufficiently hot (I run mine at 115C) or it’s got a heated enclosure. then the parts come out really rather nicely.
My printers are also quite large and I’m printing with probably more than 5cm between the edge of the bed and the part which probably helps keep temperatures stable and stops warping.
Fumes aren’t bad, but if you ever overheat or burn filamant they’re really nasty.
I print in a shed so it’s no problem, but I’d really not want to be in the same room for a long time.
Thought i’d post an update to this since ive been having considerations about what i want to do at the moment when it comes to buying a printer
I’ve been kind of on the fence on buying one since i unfortunately don’t really have much room at home, i can have one in my room, but having an ABS 3d printer in my room doesn’t feel too smart since i’m in there quite often, even with ventilation i’m not sure if thats a good approach. I guess i could leave it to print whilst i’m out of the house at work?
Theres a shed in the back garden i can always put it in but i’d have to see if theres even room for that since its mainly a toolshed, and quite a rammed one at that…
The other option i have is just switching to PLA ST i guess? but the issue with that is its a heavier fillament (i’m pretty sure) and with some of my robots bordering 150g with ABS i assume i would have to do a lot of redesigning to account for that…
Buying a printer to use would make life so much easier, but i’d like to also be able to by one without endangering my life in any way. Will definitely keep considering my options until i figure out whats right for me and my situation, thank you to everyone for their advice and opinions, definitely bearing this in mind as a decide on something that works for me!
Even if ABS is especially toxic you shouldnt really be inhaling any printer fumes ( I say this as an absolute hypocrite). I do recommend redesigning to fit PLA-ST or Overture super pla+ in weight, as whenever I’ve fought or really seen a primarily ABS bot it’s not fared all to well against even small spinners
I’ve mainly had quite a good wrap with ABS in the past tbf, seems to do the job quite well to me but thats probably due to the fact that the ABS parts never really get hit, its usually the TPU that protects it and takes the worst of everything…
Where do people usually order those filaments from? I was trying to look around before but couldn’t really find much.
The main thing that puts me off redesigning is that Somatic Damage for example is really dialed in as having as little weight in the body as possible, but even then the bot weighs 149g, and i feel like its going to be quite tough to get too much weight off of the bot atm
