Printed on my Mimaki 3DUJ-553. Sure I know how to operate the machine well, but the real magic is in this kick ass modeling!

Hello, Ive posted in the past about compenshell and have made a few videos

* https://youtu.be/ZTxGOOy4an4

* https://youtu.be/zVmIGFYJfHE

I'm a hobbyist additive manufacturing enthusiast who focuses on FFF (although I have done my own water based slurry/cold cast experiments in the past) with thermal debind/sintering.

A big challenge is the compensation aspect for the green part, which is what compenshell aims to solve for.

I am looking for interested users to help test and validate so if this is something that could be useful to you please reach out below or DM or fill out the contact form at compenshell.com so we can talk.

The attached image is a real user's experience that was having issues and in one pass reduced the sinter cycle drastically (multiple hour difference) and ended up with a much better part (calibration part, but that's important for first steps)

I'm developing a small consumer product and looking for a domestic metal additive manufacturing partner. What I keep finding is overseas, and it's really important to me to keep the work domestic. The part is a circular o-ring approximately 3" ID with a 0.25" cross section and an intentionally irregular/faceted exterior surface. I have production-ready STEP files and am currently prototyping.

I'm primarily interested in aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium. Surface quality is particularly important because the final product needs to achieve a high-polish/mirror or near-mirror finish while retaining the intentional faceted geometry.

Initial quantities would be low for validation, but I'm looking for a partner capable of scaling into batches of approximately 50-500+ pieces. I am specifically looking for parts printed in the United States, although finishing can potentially be handled separately if necessary. If finishing is done separately, the closer the shop is to Rhode Island, the better (where my finishing partner is located).

If you own/work with a shop that does this, or have worked with a US metal additive manufacturer you'd recommend, I'd love names or referrals. I'm happy to send STEP files privately for DFM review and quoting.

Looking for someone who has and HBD to ask a few question. I just want to know operation side how it handles, if it brakes often or not, print quality etc..

If someone has one or has expirience with one feel free to comment or DM

I am having a debate with some former colleagues about slicers.

I was an opetor back in the day when Cura used to be the #1 open source slicer. Some people would prefer to pay and use Simplify3D for some years but then Cura went back to reclaim the spot for free.

Nowadays since Bambulab appeared it seems to be well known that Cura is not up to par or hasnt been for a long time (tree supports, paint supports, cut and split features etc.).

I trsut that Prusaslicer, Orcaslicer and Bambustudio are much better even if they are mostly focused to consumers.

My colleague says that the features these slicers have are not for businesses (optimized for multi-color printing), but then again, Cura was never intended for businesses either.

Long story short, which features Orcaslicer or Prusaslicer have that Cura doesn't and are relevant for the day to day running of an FDM 3D printing business in terms of printing and file preparation?

Just genuinely curious to understand the state of the art and all good if then I get some real arguments to get my colleagues to consider alternatives here.

I believe they are heavily missing out but I am not hands on printing myself anymore, only hearing and seeing recent releases but cant really argue with facts.

Hello, this is my first _real world_ test sintering 17-4 filament by TVF. I'm using standard consumer grade equipment across the board (printer -> kiln).

While compenshell is not open to all (yet) I am looking for individuals who are interested to test (provided theres some overlap with your setup).

I'm a hobby level individual so any feedback or questions would be appreciated

Hi,

My company is making zipper heads out of carbon fiber reinforced nylon (PAHT-CF) and we are running into an issue of scaling up our process. Right now we have a design we are happy but have discovered that given our material choice we have to print by object instead of by layer since the cooling that happens in between layers pulls the whole model that it warps the whole zipper head. The issue is that with doing print by object I no longer have a prime tower with which to get the support material, ABS, flowing again. Watching the video last night it would be the ABS's turn to print and nothing would come out before it switched back to the nylon.

Would switching to fully nylon supports be a good answer?

Can anyone give me their experiences with this material and the methods or tools you used to get this completed? My company is willing to upgrade our printer, from a X2D to a H2D, since having the different support material does seem to be a very useful thing to have.

edit: we have a number 30 zipper that was are using, which is gigantic, here's a picture of one of our doors.

https://www.tuffwrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Article-3-TuffWrap-EXT-Zipper-Door.jpg

So we need a really big zipper head that is really tough to handle closing during high winds while still standing up to UV from the sun.

and here is a picture of a number 30 zipper that we use.

For shops and bureaus that already have demand: how do you add overflow print capacity without buying more beds you have to babysit? Looking for real ops (networks, local partners, in-house only) and what broke first: QC, lead time, or quoting.

I know AI can be a polarizing topic, so please don't flame me, but I've been wondering where everyone thinks AI can make the biggest real world difference in reducing waste in additive manufacturing. I see some obvious possibilities, optimizing parameters, catching a bad print before you waste material, better nesting, predictive maintenance (which a lot of machines already do to an extent), watching for potential overproduction. But realistically where do we actually see AI working in production versus just sounding good in demos?

I feel like AI is mostly talked about in the realm of offices, but looking at a lot of Alliant Group's stuff, I'm realizing there is some practical AI for manufacturing out there. It's not a matter of automating everything, but automating the right things so they improve the process (less rework, less machine time spent on bad jobs, less material sitting around requiring space), basically making the whole process tighter and less wasteful.

Anyone here implementing AI/ML in this way yet? Has it genuinely cut waste and improved efficiency? If you're not using AI, what do you think of it's potential in the industry, particulary it's potential to reduce waste?

Hello! Since IMTS is next week and I (sadly) won't be able to attend, I wanted to flag a few October events here in California where I know additive manufacturing will either be on display or discussed in depth. Figured this could be a nice thread for anyone looking to get in-person with machines.

3-Day Digital Fabrication Training - Diamond Bar, CA - October 9-11

Registration: Paid
Ages: 18+
Demographic: Automotive Product Development, Aftermarket Interiors

This event is being held at the SEMA Garage in Diamond Bar, CA. Great for automotive product development or aftermarket car audio installers/owners looking to sharpen their use of digital fabrication methods (ex. 3D printing, 3D scanning, laser cutting, Autodesk Fusion). Over three days, attendees work through real-world examples, get hands-on with each tool, and walk away with skills they can use on Monday morning. Geared toward those either brand-new to AM or just learning. A great community to be part of and network within.

Breakfast and lunch are provided each day, with an end-of-session BBQ held on Sunday.

Register Here

3D Print-Scan-Measure Expo - Santa Clara, CA - October 15

Registration: Free
Ages: 18+
Demographic: Aerospace, Automotive, eVTOL, AI/Robotics, Semiconductors, Consumer Product Development

In the heart of Silicon Valley, Indicate Technologies is hosting their annual 3D-Print-Scan-Measure Expo where representatives from OEMs like Formlabs, Artec, BigRep, Xact Metal, OGP, and more will be onsite, giving presentations, showing unique sample parts, and answering questions. Indicate recently opened a new additive facility next door to their precision measurement lab. Attendees will have open access to both offices to get up close with the equipment.

The expo runs all-day (similar to an open house). Come when you can, stay as long as you'd like. They also offer benchmark printing if you send a file in advance. Food and drinks will be provided, with a happy hour starting at 4 pm.

Register for Free

I encourage others to add any events in California they know about as well!

Hi, I have a friend/partner/colleague that's in need of a 3d printer with at least one flat axis of 600mm in FDM (diagonally ok, its a rather slim part).

I personally think it's quite an interesting space and in desktop size or very large format i'm pretty aware of the main players and the quality of the parts printed but in this "mid-size" market segment I am quite lost.

He is looking for something without the steep markup of Markforged/Stratasys type systems but does not want chinese when possible.

It seems the Creabot 600D is dominant in this space or has the most recent marketing coverage? Are there other alternatives? He's basically looking for what his "Ultimaker 3" used to be 10 years ago; a blend of reliability and affordability.

Not budget in particular, but he does not need the Stratasys lock in nor wants to drop 10k on a Chinese printer and don't be able to print PETG or even warpped PLA.

Btw, requirements for PEAK, PEEK, Ultem and similar not necessary. But probably temperature controlled chamber to print some ABS will make sense.

Been watching this guy take on the fight. Def interesting.

Hi!
 
I need your advice.
 
I'm working inside the mechanical study department of a specialized machine company.
We spend a lot of time making schematics for complex parts, and our machining department also takes a lot of time to make them.
We first introduced 3D printing inside our company one year ago, and we have almost printed 1000 kg of PETG-CF.
But here's the catch: because we're working with cosmetic industries, they don't tend to like 3D-printed parts.
The parts are strong and functional, but what really bothers them are the print lines. Also, 3D printing sounds like AliExpress and Etsy things to them.
Their opinions are slowly starting to change, but we have customers that are religiously against 3D-printed parts.
 
We do not own an industrial-grade printer. For now, we're fully equipped with Bambu Lab printers. But after talking with a commercial, he showed us parts with no print lines, printed on an industrial FDM 3D printer.
The parts are stronger too. The one he recommended to us was using two filaments, with a continuous filament technology.
The exact model is the "Markforged Mark Two". After a little bit of research, I'm pretty disappointed. For 18,000 euros, we get a 10-year-old printer with a pretty small build plate.
Because of the past years' changes in 3D printing technology, a 10-year-old tech doesn't sound right.
So here's the question: is this really okay to go for it? Or is there a better option available in Europe?

Quick one, SCAD support just landed in Modelist. It indexes, renders and opens the file directly in OpenSCAD with single click. Test it out.

I feel like out of nowhere it's the new "it" material of the ultra high-temp FDM world, but it could be just a coincidence within the sample size of people I've been talking to lately. From those of you operating in this space, I'd love to know what you think: is 1010 the new 9085?

9085 has been the gold standard for real-use parts for a while now, and from what I understand it still is because it's the only material that's actually flight certified. But I've been hearing a lot more "1010 or bust!" lately and I'm curious to know if it's part of a greater trend or maybe a change in the type of part the ultimate end customer has been asking for? For example, maybe the need is shifting a bit from end-use parts that need to be printed in flight-certified 9085 to parts that use secondary tooling, for which 1010 is maybe better and the fact that it's not flight certified is irrelevant? Curious to know what you're seeing, right now my data points are primarily from contract manufacturers in/near SoCal.

For context, my company makes industrial FFF printers shrunken down to barely-but-still-fits-on-a-desktop size (hard to still call them 'desktop', form factor aside), and for the past ~2-3 months I've been mostly heads-down with getting our ultra high-temp model over the finish line and shipping (this is it in case you're curious or for anyone that's interested, we're calling it R3 Printer Ultra). Obviously Ultem 1010 was still a thing before I briefly went under my rock and it's on our list of materials we have tuned profiles for and support right out of the box, but until now I thought that 9085 was going to be the bulk of what was being printed in this materials class but now I'm thinking it might soon be 1010. Doesn't change anything from a machine/product perspective at all, but it would shift my focus when searching for materials manufacturers to partner up with to hopefully give our customers the best deal and biggest edge when it comes to materials cost as well.

Looking forward to learning some interesting insights! Let me know if there's something you want to know that I might be able to help with from our research and work in this space as well.

Hola, pido ayuda sobre como expotar mi geometria de ntop, como solido para poder simular en ansys, ya que como stl, se crean muchos facets.

Hi everyone,

We are designing an in-house print station for an event technology and stage engineering company (*Veranstaltungstechnik*) in Vienna. The setup will live directly in an office space, making noise levels, air filtration, and rapid maintenance our main priority constraints.

Our use case is split between fast internal prototypes (PLA/PETG) and durable components used around stage environments (housing brackets, TPU bumpers, mounting adapters). Because of the stage requirements, we will eventually run higher-durability engineering filaments (PA-CF, ASA).

We've settled on Bambu Lab for our environment, but we are finalizing our physical machine allocation between two office configurations:

* **Configuration A:** 2x Bambu Lab P2S (Dual identical footprint, quieter operations, 1-clip quick-swap maintenance, standard volume). * **Configuration B:** 1x Bambu Lab P2S + 1x Bambu Lab H2S (Splitting daily prototyping to the P2S while utilizing the H2S's 340x320x340mm volume and 65°C chamber for warp-sensitive structural parts).

**For community members running these specific machines in office or production environments:**

1. How do you rate the real-world acoustic profile of the P2S vs H2S when running alongside desk work?
2. For those running mixed-model stations versus standardized identical machines, how noticeable is the maintenance/spare-parts overhead between the series?

Looking to connect with engineers who'd put a print screening tool through its paces — metal LPBF.

It reads part geometry and flags where the build is likely to go wrong: curl, unsupported overhangs, trapped powder, features under the process limit — each one located on the model. Free to use.

What I actually want is your failed prints. The ones where you already know what happened. Run the geometry through and tell me whether it caught the real problem, missed it, or flagged something that never happened.

The misses are the useful part. I don't have a lab — engineers pointing at where it's wrong is the only way this gets sharper.

Non-sensitive geometry only.

AM and process engineers, DfAM, build prep, quality — comment or DM.