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At home, 3D printing is a highly skilled craft and takes lots of experience and expensive hardware. I have been doing 3D printing for a decade, and have been th

At home, 3D printing is a highly skilled craft and takes lots of experience and expensive hardware. I have been doing 3D printing for a decade, and have been through all the pitfalls. It was a long hard road to get consistent quality prints. Sure, if I need something prototyped really rapidly then I'll print it at home. But if I want something done with exceptionally high quality, then for me its much easier to design the part, I use OpenSCAD, and then send the STL to one of the many 3D printing service providers to be printed. My personal favorite is JLC. They offer lots of different materials, and their commercial industrial 3D printing machines do a much better job than any DIY home printer.

Aurornis 2y ago
> I have been doing 3D printing for a decade, and have been through all the pitfalls. It was a long hard road to get consistent quality prints. A decade ago, I would have agreed. The situation has changed so much in the past 2 years that it's not very difficult to get high quality prints from a modern printer. Sending files to a professional 3D print shop will produce better parts, but it's nowhere near a necessity for something like a simple Raspberry Pi case. Those projects are perfect for the latest generation home 3D printers.
- sixothree 2y ago
  I have fdm and resin. Bambu absolutely changed the fdm world. But for resin if I need something done perfect, I just send it off. I’ve had 100% success rate on all the resin prints I didn’t print myself. Anyway.
outworlder 2y ago
> It was a long hard road to get consistent quality prints. Not anymore. Modern printers will give you pretty consistent results out of the box. You do need to send to commercial 3d printing services if you need exotic materials.
- TheCleric 2y ago
  Amen. I remember spending hours getting my Ender 3 from out of the box to “decent prints”. My Ender 3 KE has been rock solid from the start.
hadlock 2y ago
Modern printers are pretty good, now. I have the ender 3 v2 and it was considered a huge upgrade over the original ender 3, but stuff from bambu labs are actually "remove from box, push print, get object" as long promised. The Bambu Lab X1 isn't cheap, starting at about $1200, but it Works As Advertised

Aurornis 2y ago

> I have been doing 3D printing for a decade, and have been through all the pitfalls. It was a long hard road to get consistent quality prints. A decade ago, I would have agreed. The situation has changed so much in the past 2 years that it's not very difficult to get high quality prints from a modern printer. Sending files to a professional 3D print shop will produce better parts, but it's nowhere near a necessity for something like a simple Raspberry Pi case. Those projects are perfect for the latest generation home 3D printers.

sixothree 2y ago
I have fdm and resin. Bambu absolutely changed the fdm world. But for resin if I need something done perfect, I just send it off. I’ve had 100% success rate on all the resin prints I didn’t print myself. Anyway.

outworlder 2y ago

> It was a long hard road to get consistent quality prints. Not anymore. Modern printers will give you pretty consistent results out of the box. You do need to send to commercial 3d printing services if you need exotic materials.

TheCleric 2y ago
Amen. I remember spending hours getting my Ender 3 from out of the box to “decent prints”. My Ender 3 KE has been rock solid from the start.

hadlock 2y ago

Modern printers are pretty good, now. I have the ender 3 v2 and it was considered a huge upgrade over the original ender 3, but stuff from bambu labs are actually "remove from box, push print, get object" as long promised. The Bambu Lab X1 isn't cheap, starting at about $1200, but it Works As Advertised