I received an order to print two wands. One was the Elder Wand 1 from thingiverse, the other had a section 5mm x 6mm, 136mm long. i was asked to print these in ABS. After making a test print to see what the surface finish looked like using support, I decided that the surface finish wouldn’t be very good, and it wouldn’t be easy to clean up. To me, the only reliable way to print this is either split into two long halves (5mm x 3mm) or on end. Even then, I’d want to make the parts shorter than 20cm.
On a test print of the smallest cross section, I noticed that after a couple of cm, the print was very flexible and would wobble around the extruder - so I’d need to add support ribs manually. My prpopsal to do this made the price no longer appealing to my customer.
Is it sensible to print this sort of part vertically, given the risk of delamination? Should I have suggested using PLA instead (I seem to be able to get better bed adhesion with PLA, and am more comfortable with cooling it).
Would others be comfortable in taking on an order like this given that its hour long print runs, with what seems like a high risk of failure?
Indeed, it is pretty strange that the customer wanted this specifically in ABS, I think printing in PLA would have been a much more sensible solution. They might have only been relying on the colour of material and didn’t really care about the material type.
I would have suggested printing this in PLA instead of risking with ABS.
Be careful about printing things off thingverse for sale. Contact the creator for permission. Also pla would be the best for that type of print to avoid warping and delamination. Also splitting the parts and making a peg and hole in between the parts to ease assembly will reduce print time also. Noticed in the thing files there is a split model. also use a raft avery minimal one and some support lay it on is side. If possible use cura or simplify3d to print it. The supports in them slicers will come off easy and will not make marks in the parts if your printer is optimized correctly.
Point noted about rights on items from thingiverse. I only identified the source quite late on, it wasn’t obvious from the order. At least now I’m free to experiment in my own time and see if I was too cautious!
