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by washadjeffmad 639 days ago
We run one of the largest print farms in North America. Reflecting parent's sentiment, BambuLabs' P1/X1 series are capable of substantially finer layer height and consistency (0.08mm), with SLA-quality results. We dumped all of our FormLabs because of it.

We don't sand any PLA, anymore. If we need to control the surface texture, it's largely a function of the qualities of the filament and print speed.
3 comments
SOLAR_FIELDS 639 days ago
Great to hear. I have a resin printer at home and almost never use it because it’s such a messy, sketchy (in terms of chemicals) pain to deal with. The fact that FDM is good enough now for a lot of aesthetics use cases is great. I’ll probably still have to reach for the resin printer for high pressure use cases (like injection molds) but the fact that FDM can do more than before and make commercial grade parts is really good news
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washadjeffmad 639 days ago
The physical characteristics of the print surface also change at lower layer height with high infill. I wonder if that might be good for your use case.

I'm mentioning it because we were surprised how easily our molds separated when we moved to Bambu and didn't understand why. It turned out that the combination of the layer height and high print speed that gave the prints their smooth, matte finish with standard PLA also made them functionally non-stick.

We also discovered they're also at least tough enough for a car to drive over, which may have just been because of the thickness. I also sometimes print nylon and polycarbonate automotive parts for a mechanic which seem to have excellent rigidity and durability.

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SOLAR_FIELDS 639 days ago
Indeed I suspect FDM is good enough for a significant hunk of use cases as you’re outlining.

As FDM printing evolves the number of use cases it cannot solve seems to be shrinking. Probably we need to get into physics requirements to cover the requirements that FDM does not solve these days. Which is great, it makes general plastics manufacturing super accessible to the masses when we can arrive at this. I wish there was a general FAQ thing available people would be able to use to determine what manufacturing process would be necessary at the product planning phase. Because I feel like if people knew that they could just 3D print plastics at scale that a lot more people would be willing to innovate in the hardware space, which is a space well known as being difficult to enter and fraught with all sorts of monetary and regulatory land mines.

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dlehman 639 days ago
What PLA filament brand(s) do you recommend, on Bambu?
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washadjeffmad 639 days ago
Most are viable, but Bambu filament really takes all guesswork out of the process.

We do most of our bulk purchasing through MatterHackers, but I buy my own filament through the Bambu store.

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double0jimb0 639 days ago
FormLabs really shit the bed didn’t they, Form2 raised the bar, Form3 a total bust, jury seems still to be out on Form4.
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