Hardware how does 3d printer ink feel?

Sketchy1

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After you print your object, how does it actually feel?

smooth like glass?
squishy like rubber?
hard and semi-bendable, like plastic?
flimsy like cardboard?
Bumpy and cheap like styrofoam?
Stretchy like skin?

I live in nyc, home of the first 3d printer store, but i cant actually go, so i figured i should just ask
 
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It's not ink, it's "filament." After a project is printed, it will be hard and semi-bendable (depending on how thick you make it), and very very not smooth. It prints in layers vertically and will always try to print diagonally (after the outline is established, that is) for stability reasons. If you wanted it to be smooth you would have to sand your project down or dip/spray it in/with some form of coating
 

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It's not ink, it's "filament." After a project is printed, it will be hard and semi-bendable (depending on how thick you make it), and very very not smooth. It prints in layers vertically and will always try to print diagonally (after the outline is established, that is) for stability reasons. If you wanted it to be smooth you would have to sand your project down or dip/spray it in/with some form of coating
Cool, but about this "filament"

Is it expensive?
And if it is, And if its like a filament, is it recyclable after I use it, say if I don't want that mold any more, or if it dosent come out correctly? I mean, a filament is usually plasticy, so I figured since the machine has to heat up before it starts printing, is it possible to melt it back down into this "filament?"

And how many grits for the sand paper to sand it? Or will any roughness do?
 
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You can get a small spool for like $20, but it won't last you very long/get you very far.

And no, you can't recycle it because it comes pre-wound at a very precise diameter.
 

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Depends entirely upon the material you are printing in*, the machine you are using, the machine operations you do (I can make a good machine produce a rough as guts surface finish if I set the options "wrong" and any finishing you do on it -- ABS is one of the common plastics and if you polish it with a bit of acetone (the main chemical is many nail polish removers). Given the questions you are asking it would seem materials may not be your game either, that is OK though.

*you can print various metals, though probably not on your basic home machine. You say shop and I can't be bothered to look it up but things like http://www.shapeways.com/materials exist for an overview of what is out there in the world.

I should also say CNC machines exist, and can be in the same price range as 3d printers, work with loads of other materials, also work by getting you to make a 3d model and feeding it to a machine, and actually make useful items unlike most cheap 3d printers which struggle here.
 

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Cool, but about this "filament"

Is it expensive?
And if it is, And if its like a filament, is it recyclable after I use it, say if I don't want that mold any more, or if it dosent come out correctly? I mean, a filament is usually plasticy, so I figured since the machine has to heat up before it starts printing, is it possible to melt it back down into this "filament?"

And how many grits for the sand paper to sand it? Or will any roughness do?
Filament is pretty cheap by weight. And I have seen rigs designed for recycling filament, by melting it down and stretching it out to the right diameter, but without a rig like that it's probably not possible to do yourself. You can always build one on the cheap, I've seen an instructable for it.
 

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Should be mentioned that there's also Stereolithography (laser-induced hardening of resin) if you want a super-smooth and accurate print. I doubt that your shop offers that, though, unless they get a lot of profit and expanded at some point. As mentioned, there's also CNC machining (removing material from wood/aluminum/etc), dunno if they would offer that though and it's not ideal if your model has a lot of complex shapes

But yes, most any grit will work. It's literally just plastic, so it will sand mostly like wood
 
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Sketchy1

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Filament is pretty cheap by weight. And I have seen rigs designed for recycling filament, by melting it down and stretching it out to the right diameter, but without a rig like that it's probably not possible to do yourself. You can always build one on the cheap, I've seen an instructable for it.
Could you maybe link that?
Prolly will build one, though I'm pretty terrible at assembling my own rigs :P
 

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Could you maybe link that?
Prolly will build one, though I'm pretty terrible at assembling my own rigs :P
There are multiple, take your pick: http://www.instructables.com/howto/filament+extruder/
There are also multiple premade ones.
Seems like they're designed to take pellets or powdered material though, rather than letting you recycle things you already made (pellets/powder are probably cheaper than buying premade filament though)
 
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Sketchy1

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There are multiple, take your pick: http://www.instructables.com/howto/filament+extruder/
There are also multiple premade ones.
Seems like they're designed to take pellets or powdered material though, rather than letting you recycle things you already made (pellets/powder are probably cheaper than buying premade filament though)
Well yeah, but being that its just plastic, can I not just shred it to bits after taking off all my electrojunk?
 

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For the record there a whole class of plastics/polymers that such a thing will not work for, it is whole thermoset vs thermoplastic thing you might have been bored in school by.

Granted ABS and PLA, the main choices for cheap printers, are both thermoplastic so there is that, however if I can't be a pedant about this sort of thing...

That said while I do not care for 3d printers going the way of 2d printers and trying to sell me the printing material for a markup up in the thousands of percent, possibly even trying to enforce one I am still going to say don't bother with plastic reuse, at least outside of things like
 
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For the record there a whole class of plastics/polymers that such a thing will not work for, it is whole thermoset vs thermoplastic thing you might have been bored in school by.

Granted ABS and PLA, the main choices for cheap printers, are both thermoplastic so there is that, however if I can't be a pedant about this sort of thing...

That said while I do not care for 3d printers going the way of 2d printers and trying to sell me the printing material for a markup up in the thousands of percent, possibly even trying to enforce one I am still going to say don't bother with plastic reuse, at least outside of things like

No lmao ik that only certain bottle compositions will be correctly made, anf that eventually durability will deteriorate (how recycling works) was making a joke cause at first it thought you couldn't recycle the same plastic after you made something
 
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