3D Printing
Hardware
My 3d printer is an Elegoo Neptune 4. It's been great so far (a few months), and really impressed me with its speed and print quality.
The Neptune 4 is my second printer, which I bought after my first printer (Anycubic kossel whatever) decided it was done trying to do it's job. Now that I finally have a 3d printer that is actually useful, Iv'e been really getting into the whole FDM process including designing parts using CAD.
The first print I did on the Neptune 4 was the standard 3DBenchy in a sample white PLA provided with the printer, and it printed in about 15 minutes.
Software
I use OrcaSlicer as my slicer of choice because of it's open source nature, and also it's great capabilities.
And for CAD, i've been using onshape to design a bunch of cool stuff. I've also tried using FreeCAD, however it felt like a huge downgrade from onshape.
Filaments
The filaments I've collected so far:
- PLA x9
- PETG x4
- PVB x1
- ABS x1
My experience with these filaments so far:
PLA
PLA (Polylactic Acid) is undeniably the easiest filament to print with. It sticks to the build plate well, and has basically no warping, and it's biodegradable to some (debatable) extent. However, I often find myself put off from using PLA because of how it can fail when exposed to harsh conditions, and how it creeps under load (bad for any clips or fasteners). Overall, PLA is great for asthetic parts that don't need to last forever, or for easy prototypes that won't experience any serious use.
PETG
PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol) is great! I like using it for most things I do because of its strength, which is similar to PLA, and for its resistance to UV light and heat.