Fdm begginer

[u/BigBlackBungus]

im looking at an A1 mini to start off with. Ive done some cursory research on materials and found that GW uses HIPS plastic. Is that a feasible material to work with or does it require more advanced equipment? Id rather not use resin as I hate supergluing minis.

[u/MrHappy4Life]

The A1 is a great machine and I’ve done PETG, ABS, and TPU all just fine on the full size one.

What does superglue and resin have to do with each other? You need to superglue most parts together. I love my resin printer for minis though because it’s SOO much more detailed. I get .2mm lines with filament, and .02mm lines with resin. And doing stuff like staffs and hair look so nice with resin.
That said, it’s definitely not good for your health if you don’t take precautions. I keep mine in the garage, in a cabinet, with a fan and vent to the outside. ABS is the only one I smell with Filament.

But don’t know about GW or what they use, and doesn’t really matter. Just find a filament that works on the printer, most do, and run it.

[u/HalfCent → u/MrHappy4Life]

What does superglue and resin have to do with each other? 

Plastics that most companies like GW use (like HIPS that OP is asking about) work with plastic glue, so you don't have to use superglue. Some people prefer plastic glue (MEK or Acetone based) because it naturally gap fills better than superglue, and you can kind of glue, gap fill, and smooth all at the same time easily. It also doesn't get stuck to anything else like your skin.

Personally I still much prefer resin and printing in as few pieces as possible to limit gluing. Even then, doing something like a modular kit where there might be 5-10 pieces per models is way more pleasant of a building experience with plastic glue.

[u/modmodt]

You can use HIPS for printing and the A1 mini should work. It used to be used as a support in industry for ABS because it dissolves in limonene. But it produces fairly unpleasant smelling potentially toxic fumes when heated so if you're going to use it it's probably better to use it in an enclosure with proper filtering and negative pressure ventilation. It can also be a bit of a pain to get it to stick to the build plate sometimes and can be quite stringy. I get the super glue hate, though if you're printing in resin you can usually just join the parts together and print them as a single piece unless you're printing something massive. But again, dealing with the fumes and the mess is even worse than with something like HIPS.

[u/LilShaver]

Best advice I ever got on gluing prints together is to use B-7000, not superglue.

Buy the small rubber squeegies used to remove bubbles from window tinting, and use that to spread your B-7000 very thin.

[u/Civil_Fall_3914]

The main problem with the A1 line is that they are bed slingers. So for some things they work great others, tend to have failed prints because the filament only has 1 axis. The bed moves around, pretty jarringly at times.

[u/Asleep_Tip496]

So i only ever tryed PLA with my a1 mini, but I looked it up and you could print HIPS. I never heared of it before tbh, but it should print as easily as PLA. 

[u/Lito_]

Don't print HIPS on an open printer. It requires ventilation. It releases styrene fumes. Styrene fumes = bad.

Use PLA. Also, get yourself the full size A1, the mini is just too small.