New counterweight.
Uses a new for me translucent PLA. This has some small tweaks over a previous version of this weight. I traded a slot on the bottom for a round and pointed cavity, and I reduced the sweep on the cuts to make the pointy bits less pointy. The main goal for the changes was to make getting the loop on and off easier.
And a Firefly in the new filament in the style of @MinerJ’s Honeycomb.
I like it!
This one is sick!
I remember a few months ago reading something about how a tube of RTV silicone would last someone a lifetime of yoyo-ing. I guess that doesn’t apply to people printing yoyos, as I just ran out, again. I think that’s one tube of Permatex ultra gray and 2 tubes of clear flowable.
I also printed some stamps out of TPU, and after a little sanding with some coarse sandpaper they work pretty well. Stamped a bunch of muslin drawstring bags to put the wedding favor yoyos in, and then decided to make some stamps for boxes too.
Are you gluing the caps in or press fitting?
They were designed to be press fit, and with cardboard POGs it works great. The printed plastic POGs snap into place just fine, but more often than not have a little bit of annoying rattle, so I’ve started adding a couple tiny dabs of flowable silicone to the shoulder they seat against.
With the silicone they can still easily be removed/swapped (by poking an allen wrench through the axle hole), and the rattle seems to be eliminated even after several swaps.
Likely been asked before, possibly by me lol, but what type of investment am I looking at should I want my own rig, and what would you recommend.
I assume I’ll need to grab a cheap laptop to make designs on, so moreso what is the best budget friendly option that will still produce quality prints?
These are my two main printers. I had to pay tariffs on importing the core one so budget accordingly if you go that route.
Prusa core one. Top of the line quality and very fast. I’m in love with it. Paid about $1600 including shipping and tariffs.
Prusa MK4s. Top of the line quality, slightly slower than the core one but still fast. Paid a couple hundred less than the core one, you can actually get these on Amazon now lol. No tariffs required.
I also have their budget printer the Prusa mini+ but am giving it to my nephews to make space. It makes nice prints but if you are a perfectionist takes a little tuning to achieve perfection.
Budget friendly options. I think @Ardeus uses a Bambu A1 mini? And his prints are fantastic quality. I think it may require a little tuning to get prints at his level but I’m not sure.
You would also want some kind of computer for design and also for what is called “slicing” which is where software prepares the model for printing and outputs something called gcode which the printer reads as instructions.
Thank you, great breakdown.
One follow up at your leisure, and excuse my ignorance
I notice that some of your prints and MinerJ, have achieved a heavier weight, correct me if I am wrong, through using materials containing steel.
Are basically all of the above printers able to use these more premium/ heavier materials?
I am considering the pros and cons of making a design and either purchasing the equipment to do it myself, or sending a design off to be printed by a company from heavier materials (if that’s even a thing, I assume it is)
Hey, thanks @AudreySickburn .
Yes, I use an A1 Mini Combo. There was a bit of experimenting and prototyping within the slicer and CAD software, but not much tweaking with the printer itself.
It’s a bit of a wait to get but the elegoo centauri carbon has been really good to me recently and is at a solid price point
Yes I use Proto-Pasta metal filled filament.
The only upgrade you have to make is the nozzle. You need a hardier nozzle than the brass ones the printer comes with.
You can get hardened tool or stainless steel, plated copper, tungsten carbide, even nozzles with a solid ruby or diamond tip. Something strong that won’t be worn down. (I just ordered a diamond tipped nozzle and am eagerly awaiting it). You also generally want a 0.6 mm nozzle with metal filled, the 0.4 can clog. I just ruined a $50 hardened 0.4 mm nozzle because I forgot to swap off the 0.4 mm when starting a run of waffle stompers)
I started printing on Prusa printers at work about 4-5 years ago, and have experience with using several other brands including Creality, Elegoo, and Bambu. The only two brands I’d really recommend are Prusa and Bambu. My work currently runs a Prusa MK3 and a pair of MK4S with MMUs. My home printer is a Bambu P1S with an AMS.
Prusa require quite a bit more knowledge and tinkering to get them to run smoothly (especially the MMUs), and are a bit slower, but they also produce great quality prints, are open source, and have unmatched customer service. Bambu are much more user friendly, and a bit faster, but they also have subpar customer service (they’ll generally make things right, it just might take a very very long time). The A1 and A1-mini from Bambu are excellent entry level options for the price, especially if you’re not interested in printing “engineering” materials.
In any case, there’s definitely a learning curve to using the slicing software, which is where you tell the printer how to print the model you want to make. There’s an even larger learning curve for CAD design. One of the biggest learning curves is really just figuring out the advantages and limitations of FDM printing, and adjusting your designs and print settings to account for or take advantage accordingly.
The metal infused filaments command a premium price, but the base material for most of them is just PLA, which is the most common and easiest to print material. Most printers should be able to handle it just fine, though it will take some tuning of the print settings. Metal infused filament is highly abrasive though (similar to glow in the dark, carbon fiber filled, or glass fiber filled), which can cause wear on some of the parts. For a Bambu printer you’d probably want to use a hardened steel nozzle and upgrade the extruder gears to hardened if you want to print a lot of abrasive materials. You also want to use either a larger nozzle, or thicker layer heights (or both) when printing with abrasive filaments to reduce the chances of clogging.
Most “premium” materials for FDM printing require higher temperatures (nozzle, bed, and chamber), which generally requires an enclosure, and depending on brand may also require some upgraded parts or add-ons or moving to a higher level model.
The MMU3 is a pain lololol. I love it and produce some good prints on it but I had to develop a whole system for tubing and rollers and stuff to get it to be reliable. When I’m not running multicolor printing I disconnect it and feed straight into the extruder.
I think he may just be referring to Premium as things like HTPLA (I’ve sent him some prints in Proto-Pasta he was a big fan of) and the metal filled.
I don’t think he’s looking to do nylon or polycarbonate or anything (@kretzschmar ?) but the Prusa Core One comes with a heated chamber and can theoretically do that. I got some polycarb and PA11 nylon on hand but am waiting on the shipment of the filtration unit so I don’t poison my air.
Yeah, after using my AMS at home, using the MMU3 at work makes me want to throw it out the window. We finally got it dialed in, but it took a lot of tinkering and still feels a bit like a house of cards. I get anxious any time anyone even looks like they’re gonna touch one of the PTFE guide tubes.
Materials like the white Dork that feels like Delrin but isn’t Delrin. I want to know what that material is if you remember.
And also whatever material MinerJ is using to get the weight on there throws, same with your WaffleStomper material.
Those would be the primary materials I would like to use hypothetically. At work and I will read through above after, thank you all for the awesome input
Edit, not the dork, the scary dork. Love this material
I’m running a Bambu X1C. I mostly print PLA and variants, PETG, and TPU. I’ve tried to stick with Bambu filament but have used non-Bambu when I couldn’t find what I wanted.
I just got my son a Bambu A1 mini and am phenomenally impressed. It’s so much better than what I started on and it’s really affordable (though small build area, but not a big deal for yo-yos).
Edit: forgot to mention I have the AMS on the X1C and the A1 Mini has no materials system but my son would like to get one.
