Just posting to get on the forum try to become active. I was a long time lurker on r/fosscad. I was 80% builder initially, but have been going back and forth on 3d2a and buying a printer for the past 18 months or so. I finally broke down and bought a Bambu H2D on 26Sept, with delivery of 03Oct. I got on reddit a couple of days ago to a surprise, like many, Fosscad was wiped. Always a day late and a dollar short 😩😩. Thankfully I am in the discord and was able to find you guys again.

Hindsight 20/20 i should have been collecting build files and storing them offline just in case a issue like this arose. Anyways glad to have found you guys again. Hoping to school myself and start getting some projects running soon.

Any comments, suggestions, pointers, do’s/dont’s, hardware or software upgrades? I’m all ears!!

Glad to be here and thanks to the guys who put this all together so quickly. @TheShittinator@forum.guncadindex.com

  • digitalnimbusEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    The best time was yesterday. The second best time is today.

    Do:

    • Invest in a good filament drier, one that will go up to 70c
    • I personally recommend picking up a really good set of picks and a quality hobby knife. Sometimes supports are stubborn and are hard to remove from some tighter spots with just a pair of pliers.
    • Actively work on fine-tuning the profiles for each filament after you have dried it. You can go a long way on the default orca/superslicer/bambuslicer profiles for PLA, but ultimately no 2 spools are alike so get used to printing calibration prints and updating your slicer settings accordingly.
    • As others may have mentioned, do some other projects before diving into actually printing a firearm frame. You have built 80% frames, which is great experience for troubleshooting fitment. Now imagine working out tolerance stacking issues with your printer, filament, and parts all at once.
    • If you decide to ask for help: post pictures and/or videos along with describing the problem, things you’ve tried that didn’t work, and include your print settings.
    • If you want to participate in beta-testing: be extremely detailed about your testing and feedback on the process for the creator.

    Don’t:

    • Print nylon/abs in an unventilated space
    • Try to fire frames that weren’t printed according to the README documents.
    • Force parts together if the fitment isn’t more or less effortless. It puts extra strain on the parts and will lead to more failures of the prints.
    • sniggglefutzOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Damn! Thank you for all of that! I have been investigating filament driers, this past week. Like useing a blast oven or repurposing a airfryer / dehydrator Vs buying like a Sunlu or Creality. I will def put together tools suggested, that’s a point I skipped, thinking I have a solid garage set up with hand tools, but tools more suited to finer work I will have to scoop.

      I using a slicer program and those types of things I will heed your word and dwell there and gain experience there with tuning and calibration for clean final projects.

      I work in process automation and my oldest son has just started 3rd yr of an EE program, so the printer will not solely be used for 3D2A. Primary use is really projects and prints for him. He has experience with CAD modeling with Blender and exporting to Prusaslicer i believe. So it’s more for him, and he is somewhat familiar. But has a lot to learn as well.

      My plans are slightly different, haha. But I will plan on learning via non 2a projects until proficient and confident. I am def interested in learning as much as I can before starting to improve or success rate and really understand the process and intricacies of printing.

      Your suggestions on what to provide in a help thread, as well as Beta testing, is duly noted, that will save me a lot of heartache and flaming. The DONTS will be in the forefront for sure, when health risks are involved.

      TY again.