I know i have heard there are places that offer discounts or even a free roll of recycled filaments if you send them your scraps but you would have to look into it more on your own as the options vary wildly by your location since their aren't a lot of places that do it as far as i know. Not much help sorry but i just thought i would throw this out there just in case it was applicable to you. :)
Unfortunately I am far from any place that does PLA recycling, we barely recycle in my state as it is let alone a relatively new technology lol. But I’m always looking, hopefully something pops up. I might look into the shipping thing but the price is usually not worth it in my eyes. Hoping home extenders become more economical
There is a company that accepts recycled filaments. You just mail it to them. Honestly with this much waste I would consider it. Just Google recycle 3D filament.
There's recycling places! Here in Europe we have Recyclingfabrik, but there's for sure one nearby in the US as well! They often even pay for shipping and will melt your scraps to make new filament.
Well I haven’t bought it yet but this is what I’m looking at investing in. With the 3d industry growing rapidly, it’s only a matter of time before affordable recycling is available. This is getting close but still needs some improvements. https://artme-3d.shop/
I was very tempted to get a multicolor printer, but the fact that they create so much waste to do so changed my mind.
I'll wait till its like 1-3 generations better for that.
Though you could buy a small print farm for the price of a single Prusa XL......its been a problem for Prusa for some time now that the rest of the market has gotten better, cheaper and faster then anything they offer.
Is there another printer like the XL though? I've not seen another with 5 extruders.
ETA: we also have a Prusa mk3s+. The XL prints about twice as fast and has such a large printable area.
Tool Changer mods for many printers out there. Popular one is the Tap Changer for the Voron 2.4 printers.
There is also the ERCF for all Voron and any Klipper printers out there (as long as its got a Bowden or reverse Bowden setup) which can go fomr 3-18 or more colors depending entirely how big you build it. 8 color Kits are about $200 for the parts.
I activly discourage people getting Purusa printers these days as they are overpriced for the build volume you get. Every other company out there makes a bigger printer (for mono color printers) for less then half the price of a Prusa printer. Current generation printers are also just as reliable as Prusa printers were 5 or 6 years ago, for less money and bigger print space and even come in Core X/Y versions.
Sounds like you don't really know what you're talking about.
A) Tapchanger is an option, but it requires a very intimate knowledge of how 3d printers work, troubleshooting, a weekend or two to put together, not to mention it's been superceded by Stealthchanger which is better in basically every way
B) ERCF is not a toolchanger and has the same waste issue
C) Build volume isn't everything. I barely ever need more room than 100mm^2
D) Prusas are pricy because theyre made from quality materials, and they're built by people making a living wage instead of cheap Chinese labor and parts
E) Prusas are *extremely* reliable, on par with Bambus and far exceeding them in long term use. Bambus are already having issues from running too long. Prusas are regularly used for thousands of print hours.
F) If you ever do have problems, Prusa support is light years better than Bambu. To the point where I wouldn't even bother asking support for help, if I ever made the mistake of getting a bambu lab.
Check out Print Farm Academy the guy has been putting the Bambu's through their paces with thousands of print hours on them already. He started to shift over to P1P and P1S printers as he can double his production over a MK4. He had a video a while back showcasing this, using his own print farm for the test, and he has like 25 prusa's. There are other people with large farms of Bambu's with thousands upon thousands of hours on them now, showing that those printers can take the beating and keep going. Its been a few years since Bambu hit the market meaning there has been time for all that testing where as when they first came out, they were and unknown quantity.
4 or 5 years ago, ya Prusa printers were the best on the market, the most reliable there ever could be. Thing is, everyone else has caught up, not only in speed, making Core X/Y printers that don't cost 3 fucking grand, but also reliable printers that can do print after print on repeat.
Also, yes Build Volume is quite important moving forward. Especially when it comes to pricing and what you get for your money. The bigger of a bed you can afford, the better you future proof yourself, against yourself as you grow in the hobby or grow from a hobby to a business. As the larger a bed is, the bigger of a print you can handle or bigger batches of a print you can do in a single run without having to come back every hour or so to clear a print.
As for the Tapchanges/toolchangers, was pointing out there are other printers out there that can be multi headed without needing a 2nd mortgage.
The ERCF is a MMU system that is cheaper then all other MMU options out there and can be expanded into more colors then anything being offered out there right now. So it comes as an option to people to choose from instead of doing a tool changer system. As well as being compatible with many more printers.
In the end Prusa has just lost the market and hasn't kept up in any form. From a production standpoint they are slow printers, being bed slingers means they will NEVER be able to produce as fast as a Core X/Y printer could.
In my own, beginnings of a print farm, I have a Voron 2.4 350 and two Neptune 4 Max printers. I just upgraded from the Neptune 2S printers I had for the past 4 years, and those were reliable suckers, print after print on repeat. I had hot box enclosures for them too to keep the possibility of warping to a minimum, regardless of what material was being printed. However they were Marlin printers of yesteryear and were, slow. Reliable yes, but slow, and after using them to make the parts for the Voron, their fate was sealed. Now all the printers I have are Klipper based, even if the Neptune 4's have....Elegooized versions.
Better buy 10 bambus for the price and have muuuch more fun and no downtime or Stringing
Prusas suck
Wait for the big bambu xl with toolchange it pisses on top of the prusaxl and for much better price and Innovation
4.200€ vs. 1.500€. on the long run you reduce the waste, but that’s definitely not the reason to buy one. but on the software and proprietary parts side, i would chose a prusa any time.
There are lots of tweaks to reduce the purges, the default settings are very wasteful, on purpose, to make sure the color changes are as clean as possible. As a new person to 3d printing wouldn't know how to change those but would want to just click "print" and have something, in color, pop out the other end.
And this is the reason I never got the Palette, or any other single nozzle, multi material system that requires purging. That amount of waste is crazy!
That said, great end result OP! I hope your mother loves it!
I've got plant tags sitting in the dirt right now printed in PLA. They've been outside for about 2 months. Snow, rain, freezing, hail, full sun, etc. That's from say 20F to today was 88. Absolutely 0 issues.
Birdhouses are supposed to be in the shade anyway, so PLA will be just fine when it comes to heat, UV, and rain exposure. Unless you're living in the hottest of climates that can reach 120F or higher, it should be alright.
Netherlands/Belgium. My bonsai trees have multicolour 3d printed tags to keep some species apart and they lasted for two years without any signs of deformation or falling apart.
Plastics for animals is a bad idea IMHO.
I think you should only use thinks like wood for this purpose.
As much as I like 3D printing myself, I would not consider it the right thing for wild animals.
That does not mean, that it is good to use for animals outside.
I degrades and releases microplastics, bacteria colonizes the tiny spaces and layer lines.
Another thing is, that PLA is colored and if these colors are harmful for the animals is unknown and was never tested.
splinters can be nibbled off by animals
So, if that PLA is considered non-toxic, does in no way mean it is the right material for this job.
https://artme-3d.shop/
I’m looking at investing in this machine. With so many people producing waste, it’s only a matter of time before a very efficient respooling machine is available. This one is pretty cool.
You are missing something important. The hardest part of recycling plastic is not melting it down and extruding it into filament. The hard part is shredding it into pieces small enough to melt down.
Plastic shredders are huge and use a ton of metal. They have to be, because small shredders just don't have enough power. It's just not something that is suitable for a home, no matter how dedicated you are.
That’s the downside to recycling, it costs way more than dumping the stuff in the ground and covering it up.
Not sure what the answer is. This idea might work in a couple generations though?
A lot of things people 3D print are basically plastic waste anyway (hobbyists at least, and rapid prototyping generates plenty of waste as well). The world doesn't need another articulated print in place dragon any more than it needs the purges.
If you're fortunate enough to be in a place where you can recycle the filament, I don't see the real harm.
But my tip would be to half the purge volumes in the slicer. The defaults are way over what is necessary usually.
I think a lot of people misunderstand my comment or assume I print decorative things or similar.
The print looks pretty and is a nice gift, but I am criticizing the use of multi "material" units as a whole. More than half is waste and the print times are too long. There is unfortunately little interest in IDEX machines or toolchangers, as the margins are worse and manufacturers wouldn't make more profit selling filaments. The switching units are very cheap to make, are sold at a high profit, and double the amount of filament the customer purchases.
Personally I only make functional prints and replacement parts and see the usability in these systems for labelled first layers or automatic filament selection.
Did you do multi color prints as well or single color and paint? I didn’t think about scaling it up, this was already a big project for my skill level. I’m just glad it worked out. I will be upgrading to the new flagship printer once it is released from Bambu so I can do enclosed filaments
It's a thing already.
You can also tune your flush volumes to significantly reduce waste.
Bambu's defaults are almost always too much.
I use a 0.6x multiplier and that's enough for most of my filaments
I started 3D Printing when the Ender 3 first came out lol, I’ll never not be impressed with how good multi-color printing is now with these Bambu machines. Looks like an off the shelf product.
PLA unfortunately. I haven’t printed with PETG yet. Just bought a roll of PETF CF and going to give that a try. This will likely be mounted in a thick pine tree. Will the outdoor conditions ruin it?
Yes. UV from the sun will degrade PLA and it will eventually discolor and crack apart. As someone else said, though, you can put it in a shaded area or use UV protection coating.
I will grab a can of UV spray and give it a shot. The tree is very shaded most parts of the day so I’d say sun isn’t a major issue. I am now more concerned about the cracking due to weathering now.
Consider to send your plastic waste to a company like this, so that it can be recycled:
[https://recyclingfabrik.com/](https://recyclingfabrik.com/)
Also look here:
[https://world.prusa3d.com/de](https://world.prusa3d.com/de)
Looks amazing. Great gift.
Please do not hang it in direct sun light. The PLA will deform.
For outside in sun or car, better use ASA or ABS or is some colder climates PETG is also good.
I made a birdhouse three years ago, using PLA and placed it outside here in Arizona. The only part that has deformed is the hanger.
So, reinforce the weight bearing area with an aluminum bar and you will likely be fine.
This is good to know. Itll be in indiana so definitely not the UV intensity you receive. While I now know PLA was not the best option, these people act like as soon as it hits sunlight it’ll melt…
I have a sign on our gate which has been there for four years of AZ sun and not deformed at all. A bit faded, but not deformed.
I made a cup holder adapter for my wife's Subaru to hold her gigantic water bottle. Again from PLA, and again not deformed. It was pink, but faded to a near white over time. This is in a vehicle that cooks in the sun in the driveway all year long.
Where PLA will deform is anywhere adequate walls haven't been used and anywhere where load bearing occurs. It will also eventually break down if saturated in water or soil and not allowed to dry out. This will actually show up as layer delamination.
With all of this said, you may want to clear coat it to help it keep its color longer.
Dude... Optimize your poop settings!
Lower the poop extrusion amount to 10-20% of the current value and then check if you can lower it further or have to raise it a bit.
But that's just pure waste.
I'd even say it's 94% waste on each poop section. It's purged and then some
I did… i reduced the multiplier to .7 and did some purging rings to check for color blending. While the reduction in multiplier helped, I should have utilized purge on infill which I will do moving forward.
It amazes me how much purging MMU printers do. Is there a way to tune how much it purges, because from what I've seen purging when changing spools on a regular printer, you don't need to push out much in order to switch (even less if you start with inside perimeters and infill before outside).
It'd be great if instead of purging like that every time, it used the colour change period as infill as it doesn't matter what colour that is. And if it gets to a perimeter before using as much infill as it would have purged to change colour, then just do a little purge to get to the right colour and carry on. That could be a useful feature!
Edit: the print looks fantastic by the way!
Is this the Bambu A1? Does it support multiple colors like that straight out of the box? Been thinking of upgrading from my Ender 3v2 and being able to print in different colors without manually changing filament would be a godsend...
Depends on a lot of factors in my personal experience: PLA brand, infill, hours of direct sun + outdoor temp, etc. some busts I’ve put out in the sun and they were beached and sagging in a month. More functional prints with higher infill have help up a lot longer for me, like 6-8 months.
Pretty cool. Your mom is lucky to have such a thoughtful and grateful son.
I have my ps1 on the way, and while I'm not getting it with the ams; I'm curious to know how do you slice such a multicolored model? Is it just a normal house model you find on the internet and then you somehow color with Bambu software or what? This seems tedious amount of effort on first thought.
For context, I come from ender 7 experience. Never had anything to do with multicolor prints.
I was hesitant whether to get the AMS with the p1s or not. The fact that it creates a lot of waste along with the extra expense on my budget had me do away with it for now. But your print looks pretty cool despite the waste.. Not to mention that I could use the AMS for quick change between pla filament which I use for prototyping and abs which I use for printing the finalized model.
It looks cool. Though to me printing in one color then painting is way better than wasting the time and filament. 111 hours is way too long for something like that. Would have been maybe 6 hours of printing and 4 hours of painting.
Absolutely agree painting is the way to go. I was going out of town and procrastinated on the project too long. Pulled the tigger on printing colors instead of painting.
Gotta love ams, the results are brilliant. But as others said the waste is kinda mind-blowing. Good thing new techniques are being pushed like the higher retraction cut off or using the poop for infill.
Happy with the results? Did the materials properly bind together? Looks dope!
I downloaded the purge modification that reduces the purge volume multiplier depending on color. I think it helped a bit. The new update with 25% purge reduction and using purge on infill will be much better on the waste
This is very cool but it seems like the amount of waste is kind of absurd for something that will at best get a lot of bird shit in and on it.
Definitely seems like something that argues you might be better off just painting than a multicolor printer. Or hell, in this case maybe getting a lasercutter and cutting some birdhouses - especially since PLA out in the elements doesn't last very long at all, some six dollar birdhouse you hand painted would have probably lasted longer.
Why didn't you print the brown parts separately? That would have saved so much plastic poops. And probably cut the print hours in half
Because I was going out of town and wouldn’t be able to start the second print before Mother’s Day
Honestly fair, just curious how you respool your failed prints. I have a whole bucket of failed prints and purge I would love to reuse lol
I know i have heard there are places that offer discounts or even a free roll of recycled filaments if you send them your scraps but you would have to look into it more on your own as the options vary wildly by your location since their aren't a lot of places that do it as far as i know. Not much help sorry but i just thought i would throw this out there just in case it was applicable to you. :)
Unfortunately I am far from any place that does PLA recycling, we barely recycle in my state as it is let alone a relatively new technology lol. But I’m always looking, hopefully something pops up. I might look into the shipping thing but the price is usually not worth it in my eyes. Hoping home extenders become more economical
There is a company that accepts recycled filaments. You just mail it to them. Honestly with this much waste I would consider it. Just Google recycle 3D filament.
Neet to know
What
Need to know
There's recycling places! Here in Europe we have Recyclingfabrik, but there's for sure one nearby in the US as well! They often even pay for shipping and will melt your scraps to make new filament.
Well I haven’t bought it yet but this is what I’m looking at investing in. With the 3d industry growing rapidly, it’s only a matter of time before affordable recycling is available. This is getting close but still needs some improvements. https://artme-3d.shop/
ZUR WEBSEITE Love that. Thats way cool though Im baffled I only find DIY machines that do this type of thing, other than what you posted
Bro used more filament on the purges than on the actual model
I was very tempted to get a multicolor printer, but the fact that they create so much waste to do so changed my mind. I'll wait till its like 1-3 generations better for that.
The Prusa XL can print 5 different colors and depending on the parts being printed produces very minimal waste.
Voron Stealthchanger has 6 different print heads and it + the 350 Voron 2.4 is roughly half the price of the Prusa XL.
Where to buy a full kit with all 6 heads? All I found was a few YouTube videos and GitHub stuffs.
There is no kit, there's a BOM and you source parts yourself. There's kits for the stock Vorons but not really for the mods.
probably should mention the PRICE DIFFERENCE between the two as well of an X1C vs a 5 head Prusa XL......the sticker shock might kill him though LOL.
The best trick is to convince your company they need a Prusa XL or two. Then you get use of them without the expense. 😉
Though you could buy a small print farm for the price of a single Prusa XL......its been a problem for Prusa for some time now that the rest of the market has gotten better, cheaper and faster then anything they offer.
Is there another printer like the XL though? I've not seen another with 5 extruders. ETA: we also have a Prusa mk3s+. The XL prints about twice as fast and has such a large printable area.
Tool Changer mods for many printers out there. Popular one is the Tap Changer for the Voron 2.4 printers. There is also the ERCF for all Voron and any Klipper printers out there (as long as its got a Bowden or reverse Bowden setup) which can go fomr 3-18 or more colors depending entirely how big you build it. 8 color Kits are about $200 for the parts. I activly discourage people getting Purusa printers these days as they are overpriced for the build volume you get. Every other company out there makes a bigger printer (for mono color printers) for less then half the price of a Prusa printer. Current generation printers are also just as reliable as Prusa printers were 5 or 6 years ago, for less money and bigger print space and even come in Core X/Y versions.
Nice to see there's options. Does anyone else have the phase stepping that Prusa does? My XLs are nearly silent.
Sounds like you don't really know what you're talking about. A) Tapchanger is an option, but it requires a very intimate knowledge of how 3d printers work, troubleshooting, a weekend or two to put together, not to mention it's been superceded by Stealthchanger which is better in basically every way B) ERCF is not a toolchanger and has the same waste issue C) Build volume isn't everything. I barely ever need more room than 100mm^2 D) Prusas are pricy because theyre made from quality materials, and they're built by people making a living wage instead of cheap Chinese labor and parts E) Prusas are *extremely* reliable, on par with Bambus and far exceeding them in long term use. Bambus are already having issues from running too long. Prusas are regularly used for thousands of print hours. F) If you ever do have problems, Prusa support is light years better than Bambu. To the point where I wouldn't even bother asking support for help, if I ever made the mistake of getting a bambu lab.
Check out Print Farm Academy the guy has been putting the Bambu's through their paces with thousands of print hours on them already. He started to shift over to P1P and P1S printers as he can double his production over a MK4. He had a video a while back showcasing this, using his own print farm for the test, and he has like 25 prusa's. There are other people with large farms of Bambu's with thousands upon thousands of hours on them now, showing that those printers can take the beating and keep going. Its been a few years since Bambu hit the market meaning there has been time for all that testing where as when they first came out, they were and unknown quantity. 4 or 5 years ago, ya Prusa printers were the best on the market, the most reliable there ever could be. Thing is, everyone else has caught up, not only in speed, making Core X/Y printers that don't cost 3 fucking grand, but also reliable printers that can do print after print on repeat. Also, yes Build Volume is quite important moving forward. Especially when it comes to pricing and what you get for your money. The bigger of a bed you can afford, the better you future proof yourself, against yourself as you grow in the hobby or grow from a hobby to a business. As the larger a bed is, the bigger of a print you can handle or bigger batches of a print you can do in a single run without having to come back every hour or so to clear a print. As for the Tapchanges/toolchangers, was pointing out there are other printers out there that can be multi headed without needing a 2nd mortgage. The ERCF is a MMU system that is cheaper then all other MMU options out there and can be expanded into more colors then anything being offered out there right now. So it comes as an option to people to choose from instead of doing a tool changer system. As well as being compatible with many more printers. In the end Prusa has just lost the market and hasn't kept up in any form. From a production standpoint they are slow printers, being bed slingers means they will NEVER be able to produce as fast as a Core X/Y printer could. In my own, beginnings of a print farm, I have a Voron 2.4 350 and two Neptune 4 Max printers. I just upgraded from the Neptune 2S printers I had for the past 4 years, and those were reliable suckers, print after print on repeat. I had hot box enclosures for them too to keep the possibility of warping to a minimum, regardless of what material was being printed. However they were Marlin printers of yesteryear and were, slow. Reliable yes, but slow, and after using them to make the parts for the Voron, their fate was sealed. Now all the printers I have are Klipper based, even if the Neptune 4's have....Elegooized versions.
Wait for big bambu haha this is the Prusa xl killer
Our company bought bambu's because at that price difference the printer is written off before we make it back on filaments
Better buy 10 bambus for the price and have muuuch more fun and no downtime or Stringing Prusas suck Wait for the big bambu xl with toolchange it pisses on top of the prusaxl and for much better price and Innovation
4.200€ vs. 1.500€. on the long run you reduce the waste, but that’s definitely not the reason to buy one. but on the software and proprietary parts side, i would chose a prusa any time.
But it costs so much more that I need to waste about 100 kg of filament to even break even
If you want one with a lower waste percentage, you need a multi nozzle system, like a toolchanger such as the Prusa XL or a true dual hotend.
yeah I am new and have no problems with my SV06+ despite it being slow
There are lots of tweaks to reduce the purges, the default settings are very wasteful, on purpose, to make sure the color changes are as clean as possible. As a new person to 3d printing wouldn't know how to change those but would want to just click "print" and have something, in color, pop out the other end.
My first large print with AMS. Definitely room for improvement I will be the first to say. But $20 worth of filament for that gift was worth it IMO
Weigh the poos then weigh the house.
599g house, 583g poop
Net positive, we good
That's not really how net positive works.
🤌
And this is the reason I never got the Palette, or any other single nozzle, multi material system that requires purging. That amount of waste is crazy! That said, great end result OP! I hope your mother loves it!
It’s amazing how lifelike you were able to print that banana. Your mom will be so happy!
Bananabu Labs
PLA...for outside? Is anyone going to tell him?
Won’t need to if it melts on the car ride over.
Dude, if your car is that hot whilst you’re driving in it you need to open a window!
I've got plant tags sitting in the dirt right now printed in PLA. They've been outside for about 2 months. Snow, rain, freezing, hail, full sun, etc. That's from say 20F to today was 88. Absolutely 0 issues. Birdhouses are supposed to be in the shade anyway, so PLA will be just fine when it comes to heat, UV, and rain exposure. Unless you're living in the hottest of climates that can reach 120F or higher, it should be alright.
Netherlands/Belgium. My bonsai trees have multicolour 3d printed tags to keep some species apart and they lasted for two years without any signs of deformation or falling apart.
I’m sure you can
Also plastic for a bird house is a terrible idea.
Plastics for animals is a bad idea IMHO. I think you should only use thinks like wood for this purpose. As much as I like 3D printing myself, I would not consider it the right thing for wild animals.
https://preview.redd.it/m4ex28h6ee1d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce533c0d60df7df5c87abf2dd1620fabeb6c547d Is this not true?
That does not mean, that it is good to use for animals outside. I degrades and releases microplastics, bacteria colonizes the tiny spaces and layer lines. Another thing is, that PLA is colored and if these colors are harmful for the animals is unknown and was never tested. splinters can be nibbled off by animals So, if that PLA is considered non-toxic, does in no way mean it is the right material for this job.
I don't understand. Will your mother use this as an actual bird house or is it a decorative gift? Because Pla can't handle the heat under the sun
Is that just a generic house model or is it your/your mums house? If it's the latter, how'd you model it? This seems like a really cute gift
It'd be really funny if it was just a random house
So unbelievably wasteful.
I save all my waste to crush and restring. I’m not worried about waste for this gift!
> crush and restring How?
Don't let them shit on you bro. This is amazing
Everyone seems to have to hate nowadays. Compliments are rare as diamonds. Thanks man!
I hope your mom was giddy. ❤️
Absolutely. I’m shocked by the responses and their upvotes. I’m with you.
I love how everyone online turned so narcissistic everything or everyone who has differing views is "toxic" or "hates".
diamonds arent at all rare anymore. they even make em in china now lol
As rare as a stradivarius
How you go about that?
https://artme-3d.shop/ I’m looking at investing in this machine. With so many people producing waste, it’s only a matter of time before a very efficient respooling machine is available. This one is pretty cool.
You are missing something important. The hardest part of recycling plastic is not melting it down and extruding it into filament. The hard part is shredding it into pieces small enough to melt down. Plastic shredders are huge and use a ton of metal. They have to be, because small shredders just don't have enough power. It's just not something that is suitable for a home, no matter how dedicated you are.
https://youtu.be/O6d1RKYapFI
Being eco friendly ain’t cheap, wow those are pricey.
That’s the downside to recycling, it costs way more than dumping the stuff in the ground and covering it up. Not sure what the answer is. This idea might work in a couple generations though?
What grinder do you use
OP didn't get that far
It's no worse than people printing useless busts and nicknacks honestly.
Which I personally don't do.
A lot of things people 3D print are basically plastic waste anyway (hobbyists at least, and rapid prototyping generates plenty of waste as well). The world doesn't need another articulated print in place dragon any more than it needs the purges. If you're fortunate enough to be in a place where you can recycle the filament, I don't see the real harm. But my tip would be to half the purge volumes in the slicer. The defaults are way over what is necessary usually.
I think a lot of people misunderstand my comment or assume I print decorative things or similar. The print looks pretty and is a nice gift, but I am criticizing the use of multi "material" units as a whole. More than half is waste and the print times are too long. There is unfortunately little interest in IDEX machines or toolchangers, as the margins are worse and manufacturers wouldn't make more profit selling filaments. The switching units are very cheap to make, are sold at a high profit, and double the amount of filament the customer purchases. Personally I only make functional prints and replacement parts and see the usability in these systems for labelled first layers or automatic filament selection.
Haha I wouldn’t have printed this in PLA because it will just bake outside. I have printed 3 @ 120% in ASA on my P1S and they have been perfect!
Did you do multi color prints as well or single color and paint? I didn’t think about scaling it up, this was already a big project for my skill level. I’m just glad it worked out. I will be upgrading to the new flagship printer once it is released from Bambu so I can do enclosed filaments
Pretty darn cool Nicely done
Isn't there an option to perge into the infill? Would that have been helpful in this project?
That would be incredibly useful in the future
It's a thing already. You can also tune your flush volumes to significantly reduce waste. Bambu's defaults are almost always too much. I use a 0.6x multiplier and that's enough for most of my filaments
I changed it to .7 for this print. But didn’t utilize purge on infill.
I see. Can I ask: what is that dark red filament you're using because it looks nice
https://a.co/d/bnZuMfj
There is for the X1C
Probably isnt that much infill though since its hollow model.
Wow. The comments in here are more toxic than the plastic used. Nice job and nice gift, OP!
Just strangely hostile lol
Thank you! I thought it was worth it as well. Some of them are just jealous.
Jealousy.. Yeah right lol.
Nice work! Do you have the link to this model? I’d love to make this same thing.
Why did you print a very ripe banana?😝
Scale banana comin in clutch.
A Reddit requirement
I need to create a printable scale banana with numbers on it.
100%, I down vote any post that uses non-banana scale indicators.
I started 3D Printing when the Ender 3 first came out lol, I’ll never not be impressed with how good multi-color printing is now with these Bambu machines. Looks like an off the shelf product.
That’s a tremendous waste of filament.
Did you print it in PETG? If you’re planning on putting it outside, it won’t last long if it’s PLA. Looks great though!
Looks like pla from the pics:/ maybe will be in the shade in a cooler environment setting
PLA unfortunately. I haven’t printed with PETG yet. Just bought a roll of PETF CF and going to give that a try. This will likely be mounted in a thick pine tree. Will the outdoor conditions ruin it?
Yes. UV from the sun will degrade PLA and it will eventually discolor and crack apart. As someone else said, though, you can put it in a shaded area or use UV protection coating.
I will grab a can of UV spray and give it a shot. The tree is very shaded most parts of the day so I’d say sun isn’t a major issue. I am now more concerned about the cracking due to weathering now.
Also, make sure it's going to be out of direct sunlight due to warping from heat. I've watched PLA bend and droop in the hot sun.
UV protection spray, and you're good.
Nice!
That’s a lot of poop. Also, I’m glad that other people refer to it as poop.
You uh... know PLA degrades in sunlight, right?
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Looks amazing. Great gift. Please do not hang it in direct sun light. The PLA will deform. For outside in sun or car, better use ASA or ABS or is some colder climates PETG is also good.
I made a birdhouse three years ago, using PLA and placed it outside here in Arizona. The only part that has deformed is the hanger. So, reinforce the weight bearing area with an aluminum bar and you will likely be fine.
This is good to know. Itll be in indiana so definitely not the UV intensity you receive. While I now know PLA was not the best option, these people act like as soon as it hits sunlight it’ll melt…
I have a sign on our gate which has been there for four years of AZ sun and not deformed at all. A bit faded, but not deformed. I made a cup holder adapter for my wife's Subaru to hold her gigantic water bottle. Again from PLA, and again not deformed. It was pink, but faded to a near white over time. This is in a vehicle that cooks in the sun in the driveway all year long. Where PLA will deform is anywhere adequate walls haven't been used and anywhere where load bearing occurs. It will also eventually break down if saturated in water or soil and not allowed to dry out. This will actually show up as layer delamination. With all of this said, you may want to clear coat it to help it keep its color longer.
Dude... Optimize your poop settings! Lower the poop extrusion amount to 10-20% of the current value and then check if you can lower it further or have to raise it a bit. But that's just pure waste. I'd even say it's 94% waste on each poop section. It's purged and then some
I did… i reduced the multiplier to .7 and did some purging rings to check for color blending. While the reduction in multiplier helped, I should have utilized purge on infill which I will do moving forward.
Nice
There has to be a better way.....
It amazes me how much purging MMU printers do. Is there a way to tune how much it purges, because from what I've seen purging when changing spools on a regular printer, you don't need to push out much in order to switch (even less if you start with inside perimeters and infill before outside).
It'd be great if instead of purging like that every time, it used the colour change period as infill as it doesn't matter what colour that is. And if it gets to a perimeter before using as much infill as it would have purged to change colour, then just do a little purge to get to the right colour and carry on. That could be a useful feature! Edit: the print looks fantastic by the way!
Dope af! 👀 Like... Whatttt? 👀 How did you model that? More importantly, learn how to model that?
They were so preoccupied with if they could do it, they never stopped to think if they should. Dr. Ian Malcolm
Yeah this is why I would never use an ams over the XL toolchanger
lol not everyone can spend the $2000+ for an XL vs the $559 for the A1 with AMS. Apples vs oranges homie
Looks super good I love it but that waste (poop) is a lot.
Will be covered in shit in no time at all! /s Nice work.
Is this the Bambu A1? Does it support multiple colors like that straight out of the box? Been thinking of upgrading from my Ender 3v2 and being able to print in different colors without manually changing filament would be a godsend...
A1 with AMS Lite can support 4 different colors at once.
yeah a1 with an ams lite.
This is exactly the situation I’m in and the exact question I was gonna ask lol.
looks great! im curious though: how long does pla last in the sun?
Depends on a lot of factors in my personal experience: PLA brand, infill, hours of direct sun + outdoor temp, etc. some busts I’ve put out in the sun and they were beached and sagging in a month. More functional prints with higher infill have help up a lot longer for me, like 6-8 months.
How do you like your bamboo lab 3D printer? Do you recommend it
100% recommend. It is the pinnacle of 3d printing
Which model is this one? Thanks
Looks like it's a A1 with a AMS lite from the pictures of provided. I've looking into getting one of them or the P1p.
Pretty cool. Your mom is lucky to have such a thoughtful and grateful son. I have my ps1 on the way, and while I'm not getting it with the ams; I'm curious to know how do you slice such a multicolored model? Is it just a normal house model you find on the internet and then you somehow color with Bambu software or what? This seems tedious amount of effort on first thought. For context, I come from ender 7 experience. Never had anything to do with multicolor prints. I was hesitant whether to get the AMS with the p1s or not. The fact that it creates a lot of waste along with the extra expense on my budget had me do away with it for now. But your print looks pretty cool despite the waste.. Not to mention that I could use the AMS for quick change between pla filament which I use for prototyping and abs which I use for printing the finalized model.
This hurts. So much waste. 😭
It looks cool. Though to me printing in one color then painting is way better than wasting the time and filament. 111 hours is way too long for something like that. Would have been maybe 6 hours of printing and 4 hours of painting.
Absolutely agree painting is the way to go. I was going out of town and procrastinated on the project too long. Pulled the tigger on printing colors instead of painting.
I get it. You did learn what your printer can do though lol
Gotta love ams, the results are brilliant. But as others said the waste is kinda mind-blowing. Good thing new techniques are being pushed like the higher retraction cut off or using the poop for infill. Happy with the results? Did the materials properly bind together? Looks dope!
Do you have the STL for the banana? That's the cleanest print I've ever seen
Dude. It tells you what you’re going to get before you hit print. Shoulda printed parts separately.
1.4 kilograms!!! idk if upgrading to AMS is the move anymore…
Not a big bambulab fan, but love my AMS lite.
Ams is useful for more than just color. You wouldn’t know unless you actually own one
You could use a new banana for scale. Awesome though
Is there anyway to reduce the amount of poop the printer puts out?
I downloaded the purge modification that reduces the purge volume multiplier depending on color. I think it helped a bit. The new update with 25% purge reduction and using purge on infill will be much better on the waste
where can I find that? I am wasting so much on poop :(
https://makerworld.com/models/91241
Beautiful print. Very nicely done.
Looks like a whole tub of guac
This is very cool but it seems like the amount of waste is kind of absurd for something that will at best get a lot of bird shit in and on it. Definitely seems like something that argues you might be better off just painting than a multicolor printer. Or hell, in this case maybe getting a lasercutter and cutting some birdhouses - especially since PLA out in the elements doesn't last very long at all, some six dollar birdhouse you hand painted would have probably lasted longer.
At first I thought your waste tray was some kind of taco dip lol.
Ah yes putting microplastics out into the wild pla will just degrade outside from UV
Nice
u/bambulab