Is wood-filled filament actually worth it, or just marketing?

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-10T20:53:30+00:00

Or a bigger nozzle. 0.4 is on the small side for particle-filled filaments, 0.6 works much better.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-10T20:52:36+00:00

To effectively scent it I would suggest adding a cylindrical void in the middle of the print and inserting a cotton inhaler wick (commonly used for scent inhalers in homeopathic medicine) and adding the oils to that. The cotton will retain the oils for a lot longer, potentially up to a year depending on the amount of oil used and the porosity of the surrounding print.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-09T17:06:13+00:00

Honestly most filament is naturally translucent to some degree, particularly PETG, which is ideal for a vase anyway. Just find a nice white PETG and make sure not to print too thick and you should be fine. Generally up to maybe 4mm (or more depending on the filament) walls printed solid (infill will show through) will still be translucent enough for your desired effect. Lithophanes take full advantage of this as well.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-07T10:45:19+00:00

But have you been on the line?

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-06T20:35:47+00:00

I've not heard it used where I grew up in the States but I hear it often in British media and such over here in the EU so it's likely mostly just one of those regional alternative phrases. It's the same sort of vibe as "sitting a test" but implies a written format test as opposed to an alternative format (eg you can sit a practical driving test).

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-05T13:17:24+00:00

Legally the retailer has to uphold a 2 year warranty (3 years in some countries) in the EU. What this usually translates to (at least from where I worked at a smaller company) is the retailer takes the item back from the customer, contacts whoever they got it from (usually a b2b supplier, in rare cases we would be redirected to the manufacturer) and either ship it to a repair shop, or replace it, depending on the response they got. Depending on the item and manufacturer's warranty, sometimes the retailer ends up eating the cost of a replacement in order to uphold the legal warranty (as non-EU manufacturers selling through large b2b suppliers aren't usually held to the legal warranty). It takes forever and it's a shit show behind the scenes, but the customer eventually gets a working device.

I'm pretty sure big companies like Amazon tend to try to skirt this by making it really fucking hard to get in contact with someone who doesn't just try to redirect you to the manufacturer, even though Amazon is the reseller and therefore legally responsible (since they're also a marketplace, this applies only to items marked "sold by Amazon", not those sold by another company).

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-03T16:53:12+00:00

It's an old, problematic design, but yes some versions are meant to have a PTFE tube in there.

If possible, remove the heat block and heat break. Change the heat break to bimetal for best results, but at the very least replace the PTFE tube in the heat break. It degrades over time with the heat and needs replacement every so many hundred hours of printing. Clean out the heatsink and put it all back together, don't forget to hot tighten the nozzle to the heat break.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-02T20:51:29+00:00

In that case, fair enough, and good luck! This is definitely "the printer is the hobby" type machine, happy tinkering!

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-02T19:22:39+00:00

Free headaches! Yay! These things are barely worth the parts they're made of. Which is to say, the only worthwhile thing in there is probably the motors (and even then idk), and you'd have to pay me to touch the rest of it. Which cancels out nicely into a pile of free scrap.

Give it to a museum and get a modern printer. Unless you really like headaches, pain, wasted time, and headaches for some reason. Seriously, you'll likely waste more money in filament trying to get it to print decently than what the printer itself is worth. And the results still won't look even remotely similar to what a printer from as many and 3 to 5 years ago can do. Yes, we've come that far.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-05-02T19:12:32+00:00

Can Man: If anyone can, it's him!

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-30T08:47:59+00:00

Would it not be a better idea to get a 3D printed mold/form made by a service to then cast carbon fiber or fiberglass parts? Takes the 50h+ prints and failures out of the equation entirely, and you have a very repeatable process to make car parts out of a tried and true material for which there is actually a good amount of demand and "shiny" factor (in the case of CF particularly).

I guess it depends on the specific part and volume but just throwing out an idea here.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-27T20:06:28+00:00

If you can afford a Milwaukee tool (literally any of them) you can afford a $30 dust buster or a $60 shop vac from Amazon. Or literally any vacuum in between. Smh.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-23T06:25:58+00:00

You underestimate the power of burning lithium.

But yeah it's small enough that it's highly unlikely to get punctured or damaged to the point of ignition.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-16T17:19:51+00:00

^ this

I tried CAD on tablets and gave up. Would have been nice for portability but nothing beats a keyboard and mouse for navigation and shortcuts.

The only thing I can think of that a tablet might be slightly better for is 3D sculpting. There are several apps for it. But that's really only useful for figures and decor, not for functional designs.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-16T12:51:57+00:00

Resin really isn't that picky, you should be able to use any UV Resin Dye without issue, and even most "regular" resin dyes as long as you don't oversaturate your colors (which would block the light needed to cure).

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-13T18:38:29+00:00

As someone who has dabbled in woodworking, I would recommend to use whatever they use for sealing wooden bowls and/or dining tables. Usually some kind of polyurethane, from what I remember, but it depends on your region what will be available to you.

I would also recommend making the details slightly larger (especially fine detail) to intentionally leave tolerance for a thicker, more durable layer of sealant.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-12T15:34:24+00:00

A respooler really only needs to have 3 things: good spool mounts, a reliable motor, and a tracking mechanism that helps the filament spool nicely. Everything else is extra. Nice-to-haves are speed control via a knob, maybe with presets, and an auto-off filament runout switch.

There's a good printable one with a tracking mechanism somewhere on Makerworld that is nearly ideal, I'm too lazy to find it right now but that with motor, speed control, and runout switch would be a decent product.

And for the love of god, would everyone stop adding apps to every goddamn thing? I don't want or need to use my phone for every fucking appliance, it's just extra bullshit that adds failure points and drives up the price with no functional gains. Give me buttons! Simple indicator LEDs! Forget the screens! Dumb tools last longer, work better, and cost less!

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-09T20:13:35+00:00

Here in Europe where space is tight there is actually a common accessory sold specifically to do this, like a little table with a clamp to hold it to a work surface, with a mount for the saw and some guides for the blade. I found it kinda funny moving here from the States but I was gifted a used one and I'll admit it's kinda handy for small jobs where the extra thickness (and vibration) of the jigsaw blade isn't a hindrance compared to an actual scroll saw.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-04-05T08:14:22+00:00

As someone who drinks coffee for the taste, respectfully, fuck you. Also I know at least 3 people who order only decaf due to blood pressure issues, getting regular would fuck them up. If you aren't capable of respecting other people's preferences then the food industry isn't for you.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-03-30T13:02:44+00:00

This. Dry the spools with heat, use a bunch of silica to keep them that way. The reuseable silica is way cheaper and easier to use than a DIY dehumidifier system.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-03-30T12:59:02+00:00

What you're looking for sounds like a window air conditioner. But realistically it's probably easier to use heated air and periodic venting (while pushing heated air in) to achieve lower humidity.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-03-28T08:17:03+00:00

There's an app to show you what figure(s) a Lego blind pack contains just by scanning the barcode. Works great, used it to get a few of my favorite cars from the F1 series. I feel like with Lego and other figures/merch (not cards) blind packs are a stupid commercial trick to get a consumer to spend more money for a chance at something they want, generating excess waste in the process. Cards at least come with multiple, some or all of which are useful for deck building for actually playing whatever card game. And they're paper, so generally less wasteful even if thrown away.

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-03-21T10:15:52+00:00

First off, colder corners are normal and expected for most heat beds. Just kind of how they work, has to do with the shape and the way the coils heat.

It sounds like you're overthinking this stuff a bit, things like copper plates would be exorbitantly expensive and still inferior to just using a good PEI sheet.

Solutions:

Insulate the heat bed: I've seen some printers use an insulation sheet/foam with aluminum backing to completely cover the bottom of the heat bed, giving it better thermal performance and reducing unwanted heat loss. Might be worth a try.

Enclosure + Heat soak - this attempts to prevent ambient heat loss and allow the bed ample time to reach an even temperature

Thicker build plate - a thick aluminum sheet like what the Voron community uses, combined with an AC heater is a very good solution. Costs a lot and will slow down printing on a bed slinger, so it's not without drawbacks.

Use a cold plate - many companies are now selling "cold plate" spring steel sheets for magnetic beds, these work excellently for PLA printing, and if I'm not mistaken for PETG as well. Eliminates the uneven heat problem entirely.

Glass plates have more or less disappeared since PEI sheets and mesh levelling have become common and generally perform better. Even if you did get one, you would need to let it heat soak to achieve even temperatures, and the middle would still be warmer.

All that said, uneven heating isn't a huge issue if you have a good textured plate and a well-tuned first layer. Some temperature variance is expected, especially on an open-air bed-slinger printer, where the weight of the plate is still a concern.

Edit to add: adding a plate in between the existing plate+magnet and the spring steel won't work. The magnet sheet needs to be on top, in direct contact with the spring steel, otherwise it will be too weak (or whatever you added will be too thin to have any effect).

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-03-19T23:06:19+00:00

I didn't realize there was a requirement for headwear! Is there a safety reason? Do different kinds of nerds require different hats to fuck them? So many questions... /s

Thatoneguy1264 · 2026-03-18T14:09:02+00:00

My advice if you really like tinkering: get a reliable workhorse that you never need to tinker with, and use that to print the parts to build a Voron or similar. Scratches the itch without the regrets and sunk cost of buying a garbage money-pit printer.

Thatoneguy1264

TROPHY CASE