3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
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I would set my goals to mastering PETG next. It's easy to get and inexpensive in price. It offers more toughness, (do not confuse toughness with hardness), plus it's more heat and UV resistant also, (though PLA has surprised me with several outdoor repair parts I have made) . But it can suffer from creep in assemblies. It can make durable car accessories like phone holders or a cup holder cheap and easy to design.
ABS/ASA really needs a heated enclosure to print reliably day in and day out. And the fumes they give off during the print process are dangerous to your health. And you must have proper ventilation to use them safely. I keep as spool around, but I very seldom find the need for ABS anymore.
TPU, while a fun material to play with, is pretty much a one trick pony. The vast majority of things you will print will seldom require TPU. I try to very hard not to print just one item in TPU because it's not worth the effort. I try to line up several projects that need TPU to make it worth my while because there is hours of drying time involved before printing.
If you want branch with different materials, you will need to add a filament dryer. You can get a purpose designed unit that can quite spendy or you can get a cheap food dehydrator and get the same results in the same amount of time.