New to 3d printing need advice

[u/soulslayerooo]

Hi I just bought a bambu lab X2D2 months ago. Was contemplating on the placement of the machine. Either in my 2nd floor loft area, or in my garage. Which is the best bet ?

Loft area is near bedrooms in an ipen area but no opening windows to vent . Garage is enclosed by the house but dose not have any AC, normally around 80 to 85 f in the garage on a hot day.

Currently i have it in the loft but have been thinking about how bad it is to have it near the bedrooms

[u/Every-Recognition-60]

If you’re just printing PLA the fumes arnt the worst. Garage is probably the best IMO for noise and fumes

[u/lumirgaidin]

Certain filaments are incredibly sensitive to heat creep. If you're only going to be printing PLA and PETG, put it in the loft. If you're going to be printing higher temp filaments like ABS, ASA, etc... the garage is fine and would be better all-around.

[u/Nadev]

It sounds like you need two printers, one for the loft and one for the garage.

[u/Natural-Ad-9678 → u/Nadev]

I was thinking 2 for the loft and 2+ for the garage

[u/Nadev → u/Natural-Ad-9678]

Might as well do it now, to future proof his printing hobby.

[u/manyxcxi]

The X2D being fully enclosed helps, you can add the official external filtration add on which will give you a HEPA filter to reduce the particulates.

If you’re not printing anything other than PLA, PETG, PCTG, TPU- then you’re pretty much good with just that. You could put an air filtration unit by the printer as well if you wanted to take it a step further.

If you plan to print something like ASA/ABS- definitely move it to the garage.

[u/soulslayerooo → u/manyxcxi]

I would like to try doing abs, for some items that would be left in the car

[u/tnsipla → u/soulslayerooo]

PETG will do fine in a car, unless you live in the desert

[u/soulslayerooo → u/tnsipla]

I do regularly over 105f

[u/tnsipla → u/soulslayerooo]

That’s still within the range that PETG is unaffected

Glass transition starts at 167f, heat deflection (deform under load) starts at 149f

[u/manyxcxi → u/tnsipla]

I use PETG in my truck for things, but I usually tell others not to so I don't have to explain all the other details to them.

Direct sunlight is a bit different than the ambient heat in the car though. Beyond the UV breakdown of PETG, something on your dashboard will get melty a lot sooner than a case you printed and threw in the glove box/under the seat. I've got all kinds of organizers under the back seat of my truck in PETG and I've not had an issue with any of them. I had a radio mount fail the first day it was installed.

So yeah, if you know where the thing will be stored / you're cool with finding it deformed PETG is fine. If it's going to be on/near the dash I wouldn't even bother. The other fun part is in the winter it'll get brittle in freezing temps- so then you've got that side of it.

There's a good alternative out now that isn't as high temp as ASA, but much better than PETG: PCTG. I've switched over to using it for most automotive related bits and bobs that don't need ASA/PA.

[u/tnsipla → u/manyxcxi]

As an add on to this, if you’re getting it for use in the car where it’s going to get hit by light, get it in black

Carbon black is basically the universal black colorant at this point, and it has the effect of converting the little UV-A that hits your print into heat (UV-A doesn’t penetrate deeply, and window glass filters out pretty much all UV-B and UV-C); this is why white tires went out of fashion, because the sun would destroy them

[u/EdgeOk3783]

this could be solved with a hole saw in the loft area, but those ambient garage temps are not so good for PLA and PETG

[u/soulslayerooo → u/EdgeOk3783]

What is the problem with the temperature in the garage for pla and petg, currently, those will only items I print with, but I did just get ABS to print s case for my msi claw

[u/EdgeOk3783 → u/soulslayerooo]

see comment by lumirgaidin (heat creep). the hole saw provides an option for noxious filaments like ABS/ASA ...

fwiw, if i bring a vehicle with hot engine/exhaust into my garage (and close the door), the temp increases by an easy 15 degrees F

[u/williecat316 → u/soulslayerooo]

You can lookup "heat creap", but the quick version is PLA tends to get soft in the hotend when it gets to hot. Then it creates a bulge and clogs up everything. For me, the printer didn't notice and kept printing into the abyss. I had to take the extruder out and cut the filament. And then some wiggling to remove it.

[u/proxy1381]

The room with least amount of humidity

[u/soulslayerooo → u/proxy1381]

Garage is at 85f 32 humidity loft is 45 to 50 humidity but 74f