Machines are a means to an end. Not the end in and of itself. It just depends on what YOUR ends turn out to be.

There is nothing wrong with having your printer be the hobby. It’'s a valid part of of the printing hobby and the current state of 3D printing wouldn’t be it is right now. And Bambu has done nothing new that hobbyists weren’t already doing as a hobby to modify their machines. So I wouldn’t worry much about what a Bambu owner thinks.

I bought a Mini with AMS last month to add along side my old Mk3s+. It’s faster, (though not that much faster in the end), and the AMS works very well. And it was easy to setup and get running.

But it has had some basic design issues that need attention, (for which there are community fixes you can find). And even after careful tuning, it really isn’t any better than the Mk3s for print quality. It’s just easier to print in color if you choose to be wasteful with filament. Like I am doing right now.

Coming from an Ender, it will be an upgrade though. I do think the the A1 series is a good inexpensive home use printer though.

Nice work!

Making bacon.

No, .step file is an exchange format, (think .pdf files), that can be used across different CAD programs to import geometry so you can work on them.

Unlike the common .stl format, a .step file contains a majority of the internal information that was created by original CAD model. While an .stl file is just meshes and nothing else.

PrusaSlicer can use .step files directly to slice. But I’m not sure that other forks/slicers can. I like models in .step file because it’s far easier to open them in whatever 3D CAD software I’m using to make changes to a model to suit my needs. I can do .st’ files, but it’s a pain to work with them.

People who do first layer tests across an entire build plate are being anal retentive. Or they are looking for some kind of bragging rights.

Thanks to the various auto bed leveling systems out there on every printer these days, it means very little to do such extreme tests. And as long as your heat bed is flat enough to be in compensation tolerance for the auto leveling system you are using, you will never notice much.

This is not to say that it can’t be a diagnostic tool if you ever need to check for a warped heat bed. But that’s pretty rare these days to find a heat bed that’s that bad. And if you are running Octoprint, there is a plugin to map the flatness of your build plate that you can see.

*** A word of caution: One needs to understand that the “flatness” of your build plate can and will change at various temps. Just because it might appear flat at one temperature, does not mean it will hold that flatness at a different temperature.

There are a fair number of methods to join pieces into larger assemblies.

Some people have used a 3D pen to “weld” an assembly. But from my observation, it’s not particularly strong. Super glues are popular for PLA. It bonds and holds well to PLA. PETG is better glued with epoxies vs super glues. But super glue will work in a pinch. Sometimes printing threaded parts is acceptable. But issues with fitment and strength of threads can be a problem. Simple machine screws and nuts are good for somethings. Even self-tapping screws are popular. Heat set brass threaded inserts are cheaply and widely available. And can be set with a cheap soldering iron. Various “snap together couplers” can be designed and 3D printed.

These are just a few ways to make assemblies with 3D printed parts. The trick is to learn how to choose what is the best for any particular model and that’s on you.

Making a model hold water can be as simple as “the thicker is better” approach by adding more perimeters and top and bottom layers. Or it can involve applying various suitable paints and sealers. Again like fasteners, your use will most likely dictate the methods that you choose.

Edit to add: From what I can see, PrusaSlicer currently offers the best tools to create cuts and locators right in the slicer. With perhaps Cura a close second, (but I haven’t use Cura in couple of years now).

One thing that people neglect to mention when they debate “Bambu vs Prusa” is the level of support. And support costs money. Prusa’s level of support is why I chose their brand over other far more expensive printers I was looking at the time. That support level matters to a business. And they are willing to pay for it. So Prusa is well situated to enter the commercial market as a known name.

The issue I have is not that " You don’t need to reply." I don’t if I don’t care about you and your ignorance. Experience will teach you soon enough. But I have more than once provided detailed answers on subjects that I’m well versed and experienced in. Only to be insulted because the answer I provided didn’t fit what the person wanted to hear.

And when that answer pertains to a life threat level activity, then I can’t help you if you reject the answer. So hey if you choose to put an unknown 200+ year old pipe bomb next to your head and pull the trigger, then Ok it’s not my accident scene. And I’m no longer concerned if you live through the experience or not.

Oh god, I thought a wooden stake had been driven through Jeeve’s heart…

Yep, just like Kleenex, or Xerox, (a faded term for mimeograph/photocopy), Google has become a generic verb/term for search in virtually every language now. To google something is synonymous with search. It no longer implies a specific search engine. (I use Ghostery private search myself). Google has lost the war on their name and “It’s a Good Thing^tm”

But there does seem to be a greater amount of “search entitlement” these days for even the easiest of problems. People as a very general rule don’t seem to want to be bothered by the need to learn things on their own. They expect others to provide them all the answers in an effortless format.

I’ve even provided detailed answers to people on some ‘life threat level’ activities that were rejected because I didn’t simply reaffirm their ignorant and misguided thoughts in looking for shortcut answers.

Yeah, There are some maintenance things with CoreXY I’m not overly impressed with. The belts being one of them. Still, I think they are the future for consumer printers now. It’s going to be interesting to see how the CORE does in the market.

I did consider an up grade to my Mk3s to Mk4 abilities. But in the end I didn’t figure it was worth the money and effort for my needs. In the end, it might be considered slow now but it’s a tank of a printer. I am considering upgrading the control system by adding Klipper to my Raspberry Pi and flashing new firmware for the old 8bit Rambo board. It sounds like it would get me a Mk3.5 level of control and speed.

For many people the size will be fine. Most people can get along with 180 cubed for probably 80% of their printing needs. Not a lot of people need the really large print volumes.

I would assume that a CORE kit would come with Prusa’s excellent assembly instructions. Which should make it quite easy to put together.

I’m starting to think that Prusa is switching their focus from consumer grade printers to entry level pro machines and better. Prusa can’t really afford to be in that market as the race to the bottom accelerates. But there is a niche for small business use and full blown commercial use. Qidi seems to be the only player in that market right now. And the CORE seems to offer all the goodies that Qidi has with a much better reputation for reliability and support that would appeal to a small business.

I’m not so sure Prusa will go out of business. But I can see them switching focus from consumer machines to “pro-consumer” machines due to the race to the bottom with consumer machines. It’s impossible for Prusa to compete with Chinese manufacturers on price. The XL and the HT90 already appear to be moves towards that focus.

While I have recently added a Bambu A1 mini to sit along side my trusty old Mk3s+, that Prusa ain’t going nowhere. You will get my Mk3s when you can pry it from my cold dead hands…

Sounds like it’s fine for decorative pieces but less so for items that require strength if you need to place severe limits on top and bottom and perimeters plus infill.

10 cent Near beer, (NA beer today), available for us kids to buy on street vending machines.

Some of my best memories was being able to get into town in the evenings after all the chores were done and playing baseball with my friends on a hot summer evening. And when we were done, we would walk uptown to the one pop machine that had Hamms near beer in it. At 10 cents for a 12 oz bottle it was amazing. So cold and so refreshing.

People today would absolutely lose their minds over 9 or 10 kids standing around on a sidewalk drinking NA beer today.

There are a few studies starting to show up about FDM food safety. Very preliminary results seems to indicate it’s not as unsafe as everyone claims. After all, think about all those plastic cutting boards in daily use in commercial kitchens and homes across the world right now. How much bacteria gets hidden in all those cuts?

But the upshot is that more comprehensive studies do need to be done to determine just how safe or unsafe FDM printed food items are. It’s still at the point of YMMV and proceed with caution as determined by your own risk tolerance.

PETG benefits a bit from drying. Though I don’t really get too excited unless I see stringing.

Adjust your retractions. Look at your retraction settings. You might need a bit longer and faster retraction. Or you might not want any retraction at all. YMMV per machine and filament and print. I like the scarf joint over straight retractions.

Wipe at the start and during a reaction.

Lower your print speeds a bit. I find running a bit slower helps with quality.

Lower your cooling fan speeds. PETG doesn’t play well in a hurricane. Even keeping it off completely has helped me on certain prints.

Use temp towers to choose the best temp for minimal stringing.

Notice I didn’t provide any numbers. That’s because every machine and the environment it works in is a rule unto itself. But your slicer will give you a baseline to start from. It’s up to you to figure out how to tune the settings you need to get the best results for your printer. There are no shortcuts here.

That’s great! I hope you learn something new everyday!

The short story is that all materials have internal stresses when made. Whether it’s lumber or steel or cast iron, they all have stress that need to be relieved before you can expect them to hold their shape. Some materials are worse than others. And anytime you cut or machine them, they can move in unexpected ways that can make your parts not fit together as required to make a working machine.

A “green” iron casting has a LOT of internal stresses created by the rather violent process of making the casting. Even way back in the day, they understood the problems that those green castings had. And if you want your lathe to be stable enough to hold those tight tolerances to build a train steam engine or bore an accurate cannon barrel you needed to get as much of that stress out of those lathe bed and head-stock castings as possible before you carefully machine and scrape the ways on your lathe into perfection so that the casting becomes as stable as possible.

The best method of relieving those stresses from your raw castings was to repeatedly heat and cool that casting. And the easiest and best way to achieve that was to literally store those castings outside for a few years to let them naturally heat and cool with the changing seasons. If you go on YouTube, you can find videos of British steam engine manufacturing from start to finish. And at some point you will see their outside yard filled with raw castings aging in the natural heat and cold of the changing seasons.

We still age cast iron to today to make it stable enough to use. But we now use accelerated methods of stress relieving metals that are much faster, but more costly.