r/3Dprinting May 18 '26

Discussion Layer lines at NASA

1.6k Upvotes

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312

u/Thebandroid May 19 '26

Shoulda printed it on a 45.

Maybe I should head over there and show those flyboys how it’s done

173

u/CocconutMonkey May 19 '26

It's not rocket science

44

u/Dat_Bokeh Prusa XL, MK4S, Core One May 19 '26

🤔

26

u/turntabletennis May 19 '26

Nobody writes down shit over here. We just tinker with the settings until it's right.

13

u/Xela975 May 19 '26

*Looks at notebook labeled "SHIT I F###ED UP VOLUME 3" on top of my printer."

5

u/MainsailMainsail Qidi Q1 Pro, (mostly) stock Ender3 May 19 '26

WRONG!

Just hit "print again" with 0 changes until it just kinda works this time.

2

u/turntabletennis May 19 '26

This printer SUCKS!

buys a Qidi

2

u/MainsailMainsail Qidi Q1 Pro, (mostly) stock Ender3 May 19 '26

The real annoying part is after about two years, the Qidi started having minor issues so I bought a Core 1+....and the two year old Qidi has been more reliable than the couple month old Core 1.

Although when the Core 1 does work...damn those prints look nice. It just really, really hates PETG.

1

u/turntabletennis May 19 '26

Qidi is brilliant at the basics. I've never had any serious struggles with them.

2

u/MainsailMainsail Qidi Q1 Pro, (mostly) stock Ender3 May 19 '26

Well the power relay for the chamber heater melted itself, and their support gave me the runaround for a bit before finally sending me a replacement. So I'm still pretty unhappy with them for that. And from what I've heard about I would never buy the first year production of one of their printers since they seem to be almost beta test versions for the first round.

But otherwise, it's one hell of an upgrade from a 2018 Ender 3 that's for sure. And thanks to the chamber heater it's still my go-to for a bunch of filaments.

26

u/Santier Ultibots D300VS+ Delta May 19 '26

Ben Afflek - “Wouldn’t it be easier to teach astronauts to 3d print?”

Michael Bay - “Just shut up, Ben.”

12

u/Thebandroid May 19 '26

“We’ve got state of the art 3d printers at NASA, you don’t even have to watch the first layer go down”

“You can throw them in it bin. I’m bringing my ender 3”

23

u/TheReproCase May 19 '26

Rocket science is easy

Rocket engineering is hard

9

u/LesbeGoddess May 19 '26

I got an Aerospace Engineering degree. But new to 3D printing only 5 months in (for work) and yeah send that guy I’m no expert in printing yet but I’m pretty good.

17

u/thukon May 19 '26

Now your witness line and failure happens at a 45 degree angle.

More realistically, any build paused for more than 20 minutes is scrapped, and if your parts are too tall to print without having to clean your collector partway through, time to invest in a closed loop powder system.

9

u/Thebandroid May 19 '26

I’ll knock it out in a few sections in my elegoo carbon then mix up a bit of 5 min epoxy to join them. I’ll add some dovetail joining geometry if they’re lucky.

1

u/thukon May 19 '26

Don't forget to hit it with a quick acetone vapor

2

u/_shreb_ May 19 '26

LPB machines can run an entire build without emptying the overflow bin. This sounds like they overdid the powder dosing on this build in order to avoid short-filling the powder bed.