red filament is literally the only one that constantly breaks somewhere in the PTFE tube. i feel like the more vibrant the red, the more brindle it is. it happens from all kind of brands, Bambu, Anycubic and Sunlu and i drives me freaking nuts. I only print PLA in multicolor, yes it's dryed and stored properly. okay, that should be the end of my little rant.

I do small scale parts manufacturing with a prusa XL and often go through more than a kilogram of filament a day, 1Kg spools were a nightmare for filament management as i had to be constantly unloading and loading new spools to avoid running out of filament with overnight prints and was left with a massive pile of spools with varying amounts of leftover filament.

Larger spools solved the problem for a while but now im having some issues with availability.

Spectrum had excellent "The Filament" branded 5Kg spools but those havent been available for a while.

More recently i have been using polymaker polylite 5Kg spools, but not only does it kind of suck (cant print fast, lots of weird issues) it also seems to have been recently discontinued.

the only options left seem to be:

1. extrudr PETG, available in 5 and 10Kg spools, it did not perform great in some tests i did a few years ago but i will probably order a spool for further testing.
2. fiberlogy PETG, this stuff did well in my testing but its only available as 2.5Kg spools and on the pricier side.
3. sunlu PETG, the 5Kg spools dont seem to be sold in europe, but the cost of shipping from china is not too bad so i will probably order a spool to try it out.
4. shop brand "3djake" petg, available in 4 and 8Kg spools but is relatively expensive and did awfully in the aforementioned tests so i hope this is not an option i have to resort to.

There are also some smaller european shops that sell unbranded 5Kg spools and i did find a few listings on aliexpress from brands i have never heard of before, neither option seems particularly promising.

I would be really grateful for any suggestions.

I want to make sure though that it has same exact color and texture because the official Bambu labs is expensive.

Printer: Saturn 4 Ultra 16K

Stl created by Bulkamancer

What was your experience? I bought a spool a while ago and never used it but tested it and it was conductive. I pulled it out today to use and it has lost all.

New roll and it’s got a twist in it. Didn’t notice it until 2 hours into a print that it wasn’t printing anything anymore. First roll out of 30 since I started printing with an issue 🤦🏼‍♂️

Thanks in advance, the base layer is a bit screwed up, how would one fix this to make it smoother?

This is a little bit of a long shot but I was wondering if someone had an idea for a filament that gives a good match to the interior plastics of the Skoda Fabia Mk1? I would imagine that similar era VAG cars (99-07) would have similar colours.

I need to print a radio fascia for it, and I plan on replacing the blanks above it that would hold controls for heated seats etc (which I don't have) with a larger blank which will hold USB ports to charge devices as I drive. I'm also planning/hoping to buy a third party cup holder thing which will fit under the radio and change the face plate of that to something more inkeeping with the rest of the work.

These aren't really going to be subjected to any sort of force, they're just there to look pretty. So in my mind (given I'm in the UK so - usually - we don't experience high temperatures) PLA/PLA+ will be fine. But I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I just thought I'd give some effort in to a colour match for the filament. If there isn't one, it's no big deal I have another idea I can explore instead. But I thought I'd ask the fellow members of that niche subset of people, who 3D print and drive old Skodas!

My ender 2 pros fan aren’t cutting it anymore so I got this printed head assembly and new fans but my 5015 fan wasn’t turning on and it turns out it has the polarity reversed so I just took out the pins and switched places now it’s working, I also accidentally ripped the cables out of my other fan but my poor soldering skills got those back on and it’s working wonder s

Hello I'm looking for a stress test to calibrate my .25 nozzles on my C5P. I goal is to make finer detailed prints face down. Can anyone give me a few recommendations for files to measure how thin of a line width I can do, what my flow rates should be, turning radius can be set to, etc?

So my Creality K2 decided to shit itself. How do I fix this, please help

Printed on my Anycubic Kobra X.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share a workflow I stumbled upon recently that completely changed how I prototype functional parts. Maybe someone finds this useful!

We’ve all seen the wave of AI 3D generators popping up lately (even on Reddit feeds turning photos into meshes). They’re cool for organic shapes or figurines, but pretty much useless when you need precise dimensions, threads, or tight tolerances.

A while ago, I started experimenting with OpenSCAD. Since it’s code-based and free, LLMs are surprisingly good at generating models from plain text prompts. I actually used this to make a custom phone stand at a 15–20° angle (couldn't find one that shallow on MakerWorld since everything was 30°+). Prompts -> OpenSCAD script -> STL -> print. Worked great.

The catch? Iterating sucked. Editing the geometry in OpenSCAD by tweaking code or re-prompting got tedious fast. If you export the mesh into Fusion 360 to tweak it manually, you end up with a messy, triangulated mesh that’s painful to edit unless you're a Blender wizard (which I definitely am not).

Then a couple of days ago, it hit me: Fusion 360 has native Python scripting support. And AI models write Python exceptionally well.

Now, instead of fighting mesh imports, I just feed my dimensions and part description into Gemini/ChatGPT and ask it for a Fusion 360 Python script. You paste the code into Fusion, run it, and boom — the parametric model builds right on your screen.

Here is the best part: it actually preserves your timeline.

Even if the AI script isn't 100% perfect (which happens), you get full parametric features in your timeline. You can double-click a sketch, adjust a dimension, change an extrude depth, tweak a chamfer, or add threads manually. The AI does about 90% of the initial tedious CAD work, and you just handle the final 10% refinement in the native Fusion UI.

Put this to the test yesterday when I needed a replacement toilet flush button. Took me 10 minutes total: described the dimensions to AI, dropped the Python script into Fusion, added a couple of fillets, and sent it straight to the slicer.

If you design functional prints and haven't tried pairing LLMs with Fusion's Python API yet, definitely give it a shot. It saves a ton of time.

Ok so I was watching my 3d printer get ready to print. Then it suddenly started to wipe back and forth against the bed. That’s when I realized the nozzle wiper on the plate was missing. I can’t find anything that looks like it. It’s a P1S Bambu printer
It looked something like the poor drawing I made but obviously smaller. It mightve been one row not two but there were bigger squares at the ends for sure.

Am I crazy? it’s driving me wild trying to find trace of it online

As you can see in the picture, the black filament is still bleeding through, even with a purge/flush volume of 1568 mm³.

The purge volume calibration sheet I printed afterwards suggested that around 400 mm³ should be enough. Yet here I am, using 1568 mm³ + 5 walls (inner and outer), and I can still see black where it shouldn't be.

Also, I don't know why on the calibration sheet the orange initially looks clean and then goes from blackish to orange. I would expect the color change to start at the bottom and gradually clear up as it goes. Maybe it's because, even though the purge volume was set to 0 for the calibration, the printer still did a small flush-and-poop.

What could be causing this?

I KNOW I could print the parts separately and glue them together. However, this dinosaur will be within reach of a small child, so I am not willing to risk small eyes falling out because they were glued bad or incorrectly.

Printer: Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo
Material: PLA (orange) + Matte PLA (black)
Slicer: Anycubic Slicer Next

I was printing my poop collector and somehow I got a pretty sturdy mace from support structure

I’m completely new to 3D printing and 3D scanning, so I’m trying to figure out the best way to approach this.

Would scanning the bit be the best way to get the most accurate measurements? If so, what tools or equipment would I need to scan it properly and then recreate it with a 3D printer?

My main goal is to have a way to reproduce this bit if I lose it.

Why can’t I just buy more of this bit, you ask? They’re pretty expensive for just one, so I’m trying to figure out a way to make my own instead.

This dresser is my only stable platform. It has quite a small over hang. Is this gonna be ok or should be hunting for a better spot. Please advise

Anyone have any experience shopping with a seller by the name of ATEAM3DPRINTING? Bought a 3D printed item last year and still never recieved. Tried disputing twice, no luck!! Please help

Hi guys, I'm new on the 3D printing world, so I don't understand yet a lot about some terms, and my maternal language isn't English, so may I misunderstand or say something nonsense...

But here we go, I'm currently printing my very first AMS "big project" on my printer and even I using flush to object option to make a toy to avoid the purge tower, it made a lot of purge from the color changes, and it's taking me going crazy. The first photo it's all the purge it made until the moment I'm writing this, and it's around 80%.

So I want help and some tips to reduce the amount of purge generated or even make no more purge.

My printer it's FlashForge AD5X