Hey Captains, Bought a prusa I3 mk3 and am learning fusion360. What else should I be looking at for our hobby? Where to buy filiment (amazon), what brand name is "most trouble free"? Do I need a dryer or nice to have? Basically I see some issues where quality has a role to play, so I am looking at what I can do to have "some" first successful prints by getting tools/methods to minimize as much as possible.
Start with PLA. Hatchbox has been good and I'm having a decent time with Matter Hackers recently. The stuff from Prusa is probably really good but, I don't think we can buy it in the US yet? A drier is not necessary. Just keep open spools in ziplock bags. Pro tip : weigh a new spool before you use it and you can figure out how much filament is left on it later.
On filament, don't skip around buying the cheapest possible. Pick a decent brand that you can print reliably with and stick with it. I like using ABS myself, but it can be a bit of a pain and can smell pretty bad if you're planning on doing this in your house. PLA is probably the easiest to get started with. A lot of people like petg, I don't. YMMV. Paramount makes good filament, though they're actually made in China and imported to the US, so their price might be about to get jerked upwards. Filastruder sells Veracity filament produced by Keene Village Plastics and it is good stuff. I used to recommend PushPlastic, they're US made, but they've increased pricing, decreased sale discounts and Greg and I have both had less than satisfactory customer service experiences with them. Atomic makes good stuff (its actually MatterHackers suplier for their Pro filament line I believe) Filament drying necessity is going to depend a lot on filament type, where you use the printer, where you store the filament and how fast you go through a roll. I've never bothered to dry any but I have had a roll that clearly needed it. If you're not using the filament bag it up and put it away, you do not want your filament collecting dust, it will get in to the hotend and clog and you will have a bad day.
I'm a big fan of Atomic. I didn't need a dryer until I had been printing PETG for a while; after about 6 months of not bagging my clear PETG it started sizzling and popping in the hotend, leaving a rough print surface. I found a food dryer at the local thrift store, cut out the drying racks, and now I can dry two spools at once.
Getting the diameter data for the spool is enough reason for me to use filastruder, as it is vastly more accurate than I can measure at home, and gives actual for entire spool
Amazon the best place for ordering, or are there certain sites that also might list discount codes for filament?
The I3 Mk3 is a really good printer - and there's a strong community of enthusiasts behind Prusa products. I would recommend you go to the Prusa boards and ask for a good starter filament and material profiles (the settings necessary to print that material, which includes temperature, retraction, speed, etc) - you can have a great filament but if the printing profile is incorrect you won't get a good result.
Lou, When you say 'bought', do you mean 'ordered', or 'received'? Because if you meant 'ordered', you have about a month to figure out what you want, and more if you ordered the 'black' version. That said, the printer will come with the accessories to get you started, they even include some cute li'l needlenose pliers. It will also come with a roll of their in house brand filament which is very nice. Very, very nice. Did you order the kit? If so, watch some youtube videos for assembly hints. If not, take it out of the box and you'll be ready to go in just a few minutes. (I have no hints here, I bought pre-assembled) First thing to print is 'benchy' from the included SD card. It should make a cute little boat with smooth sides and details, and nicely readable letters on the back. If not, you have a little work to do. Again, no hints, mine came out fine. Next up, download the cute little lifeboats that rcengr uploaded. The British steam launches are especially cute. Print one or two and see how you like it. I can't speak to Fusion, it baffled me, and I stuck with stone knives and (free) bearskins. As to filaments, don't get carried away and spend too much. The Amazon house brand filaments are adequate, and available in a variety of colors. Hatchbox is also nice, and about the same price. I've tried some others, but my results have been mixed, and I don't want to talk down this or that brand only to have someone else say that it works great for them. I'll just say that I've had good luck with those two so far. (knock knock). Good luck, and hope you enjoy your new toy! (And don't forget to actually work on your boat rather than just make doodads for it. I need to do that sometime soon.)
I had some issues with Amazon's PLA being excessively brittle compared to other brands. I'm using their PETG almost exclusively now. For the price, it can't be beat, not sure how it compares vs other brands though in terms of strength.
Thanks Chris, printer is already in the workshop (kit form). Wanting to get whatever I need to start before I open the box and start building the kit. I have joined the prusa FB group and getting as much information as I can. Really don't want to make this another hobby, yet more of something that can support my existing hobbies. Eventually I will get more into the cad side as time permits. As to the boat, I outsourced to an excellent builder so I should have something more reliable at nats this year.
Everything you need is in the box. Don't worry about other stuff. I'm so tempted to snark, but I don't want to throw certain people under the bus. I hope it works out well for you (and for them). Regarding PLA, knowing what I know now (did some live fire tests on various materials), I wouldn't use PLA for anything I wanted to last longer than one hit. It looks pretty, but that's about it. Just got some 'marble', I mean 'cookies n cream' PLA for giggles, I'm making coasters from it for myself and my co-workers, for amusement. I may have to post a pic or two at some point.
Otoh I make cannons from pla and the have taken plenty of beating and work. Granted I use 3d850 or 3d870 pla due to superior properties even unannealed, but it all comes down to good layer adhesion, if you don't get that, nothing works.
Still trying to understand everything at this point, are you referring to PLA like this?: https://www.printedsolid.com/products/materio3d-3d850-pla-filament-1-75mm-x-1kg
Thanks Chris, have not opened it yet under I understand a little bit more on the hobby. Snark away, the skin is tough. Are you going to Nats this year?
From my experience and the rocketry forum I am in, Pla is the weakest, ABS, better, and PETG top of the trio for strength and break resistance. they all need careful tweaking of print speeds and temp control and the ABS benefits from an acetone vapor bath +/- acetone wipe for best strength. High impact polystyrene (HIPS) and ABS mixed with polycarbonate are the next level up and what we are using more and more. Again, full enclosure of machine and fan control and heated bed temp control all play a role in good bonding and nice prints.
I use printedsolid 3d850, filastruder 3d870 and abs. there is a huge variation in material properties between different types of each common material. some PLA is really brittle, some is not.
I can understand that. I'm just the type who had to open it and start playing immediately. Of course, I ponied up the extra cash and got one pre-built, so the startup was painless. I would suggest that if you have a friend nearby who knows the ropes, bribe them with some pizza and invite them over to help. Otherwise, lurk the reddit/prusa/whatever forums and learn stuff, but really, it's not so hard. I'm hoping to, but I just found out today that our next software release is scheduled for the week of Nats, and if it's anything like this one, it's going to be, er, exciting. Of course, my stuff has been working for weeks now, but I got dragged in to help try debugging someone else's code. Joy. That could end up happening again. At this time, I'm preparing to go, but anything can happen. We'll see. As to snark, I was going to suggest that here I thought <battler whom I will not actually name> was all booked up this Spring, but that wouldn't be nice, so I won't. I'm still working on getting my NC back together after 6 years of neglect, which is somewhat of a lie, because I could have her battle ready in a weekend, I've just decided to do some 'special things' for her since it's going to be her 21st birthday. Huzzah.
You picked a great printer in the Prussa. I have one and just bought another at work. The best part is that the Slic3r software they use is really dialed in. As others have mentioned, PLA or PETG are great materials. And you can run just about anything using the "generic PLA" or "generic PETG" profiles and have great results. In my view, this is the greatest strength... no real need to "Dial it in".
