Seeking recommendations for ABS printing

[Raymond Gaskins]

Hello again to the Aloft forum! I have been sidelined for a while due to my wife’s serious illness and work demands, but am lining up time to devote to my RC hobbies. I am planning to do some ABS prints to hold my stabilized receivers, etc. and have a Prusa MK III and parts to upgrade to MK IV and an enclosure. However, I have been impressed with what I have read about the Bamboo Labs printers and ease of use. I bought my Prusa several years ago based on recommendations in this forum and printed several of the Plane Print Planes successfully. I note in a cursory reading of this forum that Aloft has switched to the Bamboo Labs printers. I don’t mind spending the money to change if quality of print and ease of use would justify the investment.
Any recommendations are appreciated and I look forward to becoming more involved with the forums again.
Thanks,
Raymond Gaskins

 

[Wayne]

Raymond - Good to hear from you again. Sorry to hear the news. I figured something had changed.

The Prusa are great printers, and really no need to replace it for this sort of tasks.

My first suggestion is don't mess with ABS for this application. PETG is fine and prints far easier, will handle the heat of a hot car or trailer, etc. Heck, even PLA could probably be fine for a receiver mount, but might as well go with the PETG.

 

[RafaelAvila]

Hi Raymond,

I'd be happy to share my thoughts with you.

When I first got into 3D printing, I started with the famous Ender 3. I think many people here started the same way because it was affordable and helped make 3D printing accessible to almost everyone. That being said, it was slow, noisy, and honestly not the safest printer out there—some of them even caught fire!

Then Prusa came along, bringing much better quality, reliability, and safety. They were still relatively slow compared to what we have today, but they were already a huge improvement over the Ender printers. For many years, we at Aloft used Prusa machines.

Then one day, Bambu Lab came onto the scene. We were curious, so Wayne bought a P1S for us to test and see if it really lived up to all the hype.

I still remember the day we turned it on for the first time. Everyone at Aloft gathered around just to watch it print. The difference was incredible. The speed was on a completely different level. At the time, we were running four Prusa Minis and two Prusa MK3s. I think about a week later, we had already started selling our Prusas and slowly replacing them with Bambu Lab printers.

I only mention all of this to give you some background on our 3D printing journey here at Aloft.

Today, our small Bambu Lab farm consists of two P1S printers, one P1P, one A1 Mini, and one H2D. At home, I have two X1 Carbons, two of the new X2D printers, one H2D, and a Snapmaker U1.

As you can see, the majority of the printers we use are Bambu Lab machines, and every single one of them consistently delivers excellent print quality.

I've never regretted making the switch. They are truly amazing printers.

If you are looking for a recommendation, I would suggest the Bambu Lab X2D Combo. If you want something larger, the H2D Combo would also be an excellent choice. Both are flagship machines that deliver outstanding speed, print quality, and ease of use.

They come with many well-tuned presets, making them very simple to operate. Since you already have experience with Prusa printers and 3D printing in general, I don't think you will have any problems moving to a different ecosystem.

Regarding ABS, it is honestly not my favorite material to work with. It can be challenging to get perfect results because it requires the right temperatures, slower print speeds, and a properly enclosed printer. Ideally, active chamber temperature control is a big advantage. Both printers I mentioned offer that.

With printers that only rely on the heated bed to warm up the chamber, you may run into issues such as warping, especially with larger parts.

Personally, I prefer printing with PETG HF for most applications, PCTG when I need more toughness and chemical resistance, and Nylon for demanding functional parts. Overture makes an excellent Easy Nylon that is surprisingly easy to print compared to many other nylon filaments.

One last thing—and I think this is something many people underestimate—is filament storage. In my experience, keeping your filament dry is just as important as having a good printer. A quality filament dryer can make a huge difference, not only in surface finish but also in the strength and consistency of your printed parts.

Between the printers at Aloft and the ones I have at home, I've logged well over 15,000 hours of printing.

Well... I think I've talked enough for one post!

I hope this helps! If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. I'd be more than happy to help.

Here are the products I mentioned:

Bambu Lab X2D Combo:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/x2d

Bambu Lab H2D Combo:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/h2d

Overture Easy Nylon:
https://overture3d.com/products/easy-nylon-filament

3D-Fuel Pro PCTG:
https://www.3dfuel.com/products/pro-pctg

Filament Dryer:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F7Q65GCW

Vacuum Storage Bags:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQCMF8XV

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

Raymond - Good to hear from you again. Sorry to hear the news. I figured something had changed.

The Prusa are great printers, and really no need to replace it for this sort of tasks.

My first suggestion is don't mess with ABS for this application. PETG is fine and prints far easier, will handle the heat of a hot car or trailer, etc. Heck, even PLA could probably be fine for a receiver mount, but might as well go with the PETG.

Hi Wayne,
Thanks for prompt reply. I am gratified to see Aloft doing well and look forward to resuming my RC adventures!
Raymond

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

Hi Raymond,

I'd be happy to share my thoughts with you.

When I first got into 3D printing, I started with the famous Ender 3. I think many people here started the same way because it was affordable and helped make 3D printing accessible to almost everyone. That being said, it was slow, noisy, and honestly not the safest printer out there—some of them even caught fire!

Then Prusa came along, bringing much better quality, reliability, and safety. They were still relatively slow compared to what we have today, but they were already a huge improvement over the Ender printers. For many years, we at Aloft used Prusa machines.

Then one day, Bambu Lab came onto the scene. We were curious, so Wayne bought a P1S for us to test and see if it really lived up to all the hype.

I still remember the day we turned it on for the first time. Everyone at Aloft gathered around just to watch it print. The difference was incredible. The speed was on a completely different level. At the time, we were running four Prusa Minis and two Prusa MK3s. I think about a week later, we had already started selling our Prusas and slowly replacing them with Bambu Lab printers.

I only mention all of this to give you some background on our 3D printing journey here at Aloft.

Today, our small Bambu Lab farm consists of two P1S printers, one P1P, one A1 Mini, and one H2D. At home, I have two X1 Carbons, two of the new X2D printers, one H2D, and a Snapmaker U1.

As you can see, the majority of the printers we use are Bambu Lab machines, and every single one of them consistently delivers excellent print quality.

I've never regretted making the switch. They are truly amazing printers.

If you are looking for a recommendation, I would suggest the Bambu Lab X2D Combo. If you want something larger, the H2D Combo would also be an excellent choice. Both are flagship machines that deliver outstanding speed, print quality, and ease of use.

They come with many well-tuned presets, making them very simple to operate. Since you already have experience with Prusa printers and 3D printing in general, I don't think you will have any problems moving to a different ecosystem.

Regarding ABS, it is honestly not my favorite material to work with. It can be challenging to get perfect results because it requires the right temperatures, slower print speeds, and a properly enclosed printer. Ideally, active chamber temperature control is a big advantage. Both printers I mentioned offer that.

With printers that only rely on the heated bed to warm up the chamber, you may run into issues such as warping, especially with larger parts.

Personally, I prefer printing with PETG HF for most applications, PCTG when I need more toughness and chemical resistance, and Nylon for demanding functional parts. Overture makes an excellent Easy Nylon that is surprisingly easy to print compared to many other nylon filaments.

One last thing—and I think this is something many people underestimate—is filament storage. In my experience, keeping your filament dry is just as important as having a good printer. A quality filament dryer can make a huge difference, not only in surface finish but also in the strength and consistency of your printed parts.

Between the printers at Aloft and the ones I have at home, I've logged well over 15,000 hours of printing.

Well... I think I've talked enough for one post!

I hope this helps! If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. I'd be more than happy to help.

Here are the products I mentioned:

Bambu Lab X2D Combo:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/x2d

Bambu Lab H2D Combo:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/h2d

Overture Easy Nylon:
https://overture3d.com/products/easy-nylon-filament

3D-Fuel Pro PCTG:
https://www.3dfuel.com/products/pro-pctg

Filament Dryer:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F7Q65GCW

Vacuum Storage Bags:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQCMF8XV

Thank you Rafael for such a detailed reply. I will check out the links you supplied and do some research!
Raymond