3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or [email protected]
There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
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Is this for a business? Why not get a 3d printer and print yourself?
I don't have a 3d printer currently and will not be able to get one in near future.
Also not all 3d printing technologies are equal. Each has its strengths and limitations. FDM doesn't cover all bases.
I didn't mention what type of printer to get. If your particular situation makes getting a printer not viable, then don't get a printer. I was just asking to see if I, or someone else, could help.
Thanks!
The general issue is making working parts you can dial in to fit and dialing in to each process. Unless you already know all the details about how to tolerance and design for a process or machine, I wouldn't expect good results. If your parts are ultra simple, sure you might get away with just having someone make a thing. If your parts really need 3d printing and utilize its design possibilities, you're probably going to need many iterations. Each material behaves differently and requires tweaking the design accordingly. No service can effectively do this for you. They can add little elements to make something printable, but they can't troubleshoot and test fit with your final assembly and application. This is why I would never outsource like this. Something like machining is different. With that you can set and test tolerances. With printing, altering the final tolerances usually involves altering the design substantially. If you dial in a FDM print first, you might get away with tweaking it for another process. If you have little to no experience printing, I would greatly limit my expectations. The delay is probably because the prints failed and they just shipped the best they had.
I have decent experience using my own FDM printer and third party services using SLS, I design my own mechanical parts too. I know what you mean and I know joy and frustrations of owning a 3d printer. There's no arguing that quick turnaround helps design process tremendously. It's just currently I have to make do without one.
They (JLC) have requirements well specified and automatic rule checker rejects problematic parts. I had several virtual iterations with it before I got my parts dialed in. They should cause no problems.
As for them restarting failed prints, heh. I really hope not. Large machines tend to be loaded to the brim with multiple jobs combined and they are pretty reliable.