My understanding is that Prusa has been using their own printers for their own 3D print farm for years now. They're using the same printers that they sell to customers for their own print farm that runs 24/7. I would guess that is why they notoriously reliable compared to Creality for example.

Great insights, thanks for sharing. Part 2, yes please. Can highlight more challenges of this segment.

This sounds very similar to the talk a brewery owner gave me. It's not just goofing off printing random things. There are logistics and scale and reliability issues that just don't happen to individuals.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Very true. Also, home brewing vs brewery is a very good analogy.

Printing is so fun! I started with one, now I have 10.😬😄

I am curious to dive deeper into knowing why you had to make your own 3D printers. How can I find out more? I am sure you know Prusa already uses their own 3D printers in their own farm. what problems did you solve that prusa did not. That would be a great case study actually. Thanks

@NOBOX7

11 ай бұрын

cost

"Do you take a phone book and go down the line, saying 'Do you need 3D printing ? But you cant !" Wellfor a start, I would not know where to get a phone book anymore XD

@sandrobosio6847

2 ай бұрын

you can 3d print one

Super curious on if you give tours of your facilities and get some insight on how to start out with a 3D printing business. I am in the same area and would love to learn more. By the way, I love how you took over a Motive Power building, that couldn't have been an inexpensive budget decision.

I found myself agreeing with ~half of what you are saying here, for starters Prusa makes a printer that is designed around print farms so the first point is already kinda null. I can see what you are getting at with Creality and those types of printers, definitely true in that case. Additionally you CAN go to businesses around you and ask if they want parts printed, that's how a print farm/design business can get off the ground locally. And the power issue really depends on the scale, because as you said a print farm of 50-100 printers might not need that much power. Most small print farms are 20-50 printers, which is plenty to be called a print farm. By the time you need to worry about power draw you are already making enough money to afford it. Overall good video, but several points were definitely overexaggerated, you don't need to develop your own machine to get into the farm business lmao.

@Slant 3D Great video, my thoughts are the same as yours. I am a factory that makes 3D printers. Due to market changes, our production direction has shifted from personal home FDM machines to 3D printing farm-specific machines. The main focus is convenience, easy maintenance, and machines Stable, and can print a variety of different consumables

Not completely true with the off-the-shelf comment. A Prusa MK3 is designed and used in print farms. Better if you can build it yourself so you can clean and properly pack the bearings with lube, but it can print non-stop. With a few aftermarket printed replacement parts to make maintenance easier, they can go constantly with very little maintenance downtime. This is one reason you pay a premium for Prusa printers, they are designed for durability and low downtime.

On Point ! I just built up an printingfarm in Germany with +200 printers. Our two main challanges: Maintanance and „stigma“.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Yes. The maintenance is a huge issue with off-the-shelf machines

@ianvanzyl2551

Жыл бұрын

Only have 40 machines, all off the shelf, if I knew then what I know now, I may have gone a different route, they need so much reliability modifications, it doubles the cost of the system

@mebarkaouassim1324

Жыл бұрын

i didn't stqrt yet but i'm wondering what brand of machine can hadle masse production any idea?

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

We don't know of an off the shelf machine for print farms. We had to develop our own.

@ianvanzyl2551

Жыл бұрын

@@mebarkaouassim1324 there is no dedicated system, choose a system that has some reputation of reliability- or decent printing out the box, but be prepared to change anything from controller boards that can’t handle 24/7 printing to cooling fans, to HotEnds that need to be all metal, it’s a long list. But if you are aware and prepared, and work it into the business model you can make it work, after a while you will see what needs to be changed or not. When you are running a production project, you will quickly notice what components are failing (especially IM extruder housings) and then it is about swopping out and upgrading

I don't think I saw a video from you showing the design of your printers, history, design, OOOPS, fixes to improve reliability, ect

Prusa i3 printers are designed for use in print farms. So it's not true that you can't use a printer 'off the shelf'. I've used my i3 MK3 printers for thousands of hours of printing with absolutely minimal maintenance required. And maintenance is extremely easy in most cases.

@ScytheNoire

Жыл бұрын

Only one change required if you buy them prebuilt, or building your own: clean the bearings and pack the bearings with lube. The oil that comes on them is to prevent rusting, it's not lube. After that, they can go non-stop for months without maintenance.

Would love to hear about your in-house printer development. Interested in the filament production, too, but the custom machines are very interesting. I saw some 80/20 in the B roll I think? Do you use a generic microprocessor?

Compared to this company I have a print garden. And I have off the shelf printers that are highly modified and upgraded except the Bambu printers and the resin printers. And even what I have is a challenge. But I’m not sure I want to get much bigger then I am now. As long as I’m making satisfactory parts for my clients and making a profit I’m happy. Of course I’m eyeballing retirement too so I have some incentive to not get to big. And I classify what I’m doing as a side gig though it does take a considerable amount of time. There are many advantages to 3D printing but, depending on the part, I’ll have a hard time believing it’s cheaper then injection molding at least for mass produced items. An example is those little 3m hooks you stick on the wall. Have I printed them? Yep, but it would have been faster and likely cheaper to just go buy them. Not sure how many you could print in a day, but I’m well aware how many you can injection mold in a day. Lots. But I can see a day in the not so distant future where 3D printing could replace mass produced items. Instead of going to a store you’ll buy a file and create what you need. 3D printing is likely going to have a strong future, and we are fortunate that we have the ability to make and build the things we do at home with what’s available now. I see it only getting better, though I do see there being growing pains and hiccups along the road as we are already seeing. I think it’s cool these guys are making their own filament too, like he said that puts a lot of quality control in their hands.

@Freakmaster480

Жыл бұрын

That's one of my issues with the channel. I wouldn't go so far as to call it intentionally misleading, but it is certainly true that they don't properly discuss economies of scale and they seem to overestimate and oversell the scalability of 3d printing mass production. 3d printing is great when you need to have a small to moderate volume of highly diverse items. In that situation there is little to no startup cost to pivot from making one thing to another, but there is a relatively large marginal cost in materials and a very high marginal time cost. This is useful if you are doing small batch contract or hired jobs or if your parts are constantly being changed but if you designed and properly tested your parts ahead of time and are intending to do anything even resembling large scale production injection molding is the clear and obvious way to go. Even though it's startups costs are high, it's orders of magnitude faster, has lower marginal material costs and is very likely to be a stronger part due to the non isotropic nature of 3d prints.

Can you make a vid on your custom printers? What strategies are you using to increase reliability?

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

We don't show off extreme details of our machines. Especially our latest generations. But we do discuss in our other videos what is required to create machines vialbe for mass production in print farms.

@vincentpernicano3277

Жыл бұрын

Kind of confused…you are constantly talking about growing the 3d printing industry, mass adoption of 3d printing, etc…but you say there are not enough good enough printers for people to buy that are suitable for mass production, but that you also happen to make a printer that would work for mass production, but you don’t sell that printer and you also aren’t willing to share the details about it. Not feeling the advocacy here. If you want it to succeed as an industry share more knowledge then. Lots of other places to hear general business knowledge.

@vincentpernicano3277

Жыл бұрын

I’m in a mood so don’t take it personally but seriously like patent and sell your stuff or partner with rat rig or some other 3d printing company, sell them your super reliable design or license it whatever, and make money while giving people access to the tool to make 3d printing more viable at scale across the country and the world

@ianvanzyl2551

Жыл бұрын

I think Gabe is sharing a lot, and it is particularly interesting to those of us who have print farms, but you have to understand the machine they have developed takes years of experience and knowledge and that is their Intellectual Property, and it gives them a business advantage, which any company should/would do.

@Freakmaster480

Жыл бұрын

@@ianvanzyl2551 How many of the tools, techniques, and technologies they use are only available to them because of open source communities. For them to take and profit off of that while not giving that information back is something I really dislike.

You covered a prusa print farm in your other video, why are you not recognizing the mk3s/4 as a printer off the shelf ? Is the some kind of shady marketing video for your company?

Great insights! Regarding Slant building your own printers because of the lack of reliable devices: I just watched a tour through one of your large competitors fabrication (the one with the X). They say they use their large Stratasys FDM printers with nearly a square meter of a printing bed, for their extremely reliable 24/7 operation. I'm curious to hear your opinion about the industrial grade 3D printer offerings on the market and printer farms.

I have a 3dprinter in my closet and I just occasionally print orders that people were unable to delegate to bigger local makers. It doesn't bring a lot of money as I barely have customers, but it kinda covers the filament and I just do it for the love of the process rather than for the money.

I am working on designing a belt printer specifically for print farms and was curious on what your main pain points were on those off the shelf printers?

@ferriswhitehouse1476

5 ай бұрын

ya, idk why he didn't elaborate more on what he meant with that. he just said "they don't work for farms"

I have the feeling you should offer something like a video course where you describe how you can design parts for 3d printing farms. I know that Slant3D is reaching out to other regions of the world and is growing, but your videos and explanations are really helpful. But sometimes I wish you would go a little bit deeper in to the process of getting aa good looking high quality 3d printed part. Like filament preparation, design for shrin etc. Because I could imagine that not every client wants to have their stuff printed with PLA. With PLA I almost always get good quality parts. But PLA has its limitations. (Temperature, dish washer, etc.)

What do you do for dust collection? Exhaust? UFB filtration? Etc... Do you wear any PPE on thr printing floor?

Not trying to build a farm, but it was good to hear clarification on the issue of spreading myself too thin. Gotta pick my niche(s) and give them the focus they deserve so that I don't flounder fail. Half the reason I'm looking at a career change in the first place is being spread too thin!

Found y’all on google couple days ago and now I’m here too, will definitely be sending in for a quote soon

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Welcome. We're looking forward to it.

About power it may help to insulate the bed the Bambu a1 mini does that to function with its tiny power supply

I'm not going to lie. These problems were so enticing to consider that this came off as a sales pitch...

How do you handle the fumes?

Do you have a video about your personally designed 3D printers? I’m curious to hear what makes a printer mass manufacturing quality

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

We do talk about this in a number of our videos.

@sethlaske6338

Жыл бұрын

@@slant3d couldn’t find anything over the couple I watched. If you can point one out specifically I’ll give it a watch

Seems to me all the obstacles you discussed are a consequence of the process just not being appropriate for mass production.

Besides the general reliability of a printer, what are the qualities or properties you're looking for, or took care to build into your own printers?

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Reliability, Consistency, Maintainability, and Availability. Are all necesary factors when making equipment for a factory

I have a bambu lab at home and just print with PLA only so far. The most unreliable thing are the print plates. When you have a print farm, what plates do you use and how do you configure them to peel parts over and over.

@stanleyhoptroff

8 ай бұрын

using pei sheets provides great adhesion and durability

@Liberty4Ever

7 ай бұрын

From some of the videos of the Slant 3D operation, they seem to print on glass. I sell TPU parts that I designed but it's such a niche market I've only needed one printer lately. I print TPU on a textured glass print bed. I pull off the part and the prime skirt and print the next part. There is no cleaning, no glue stick, no hair spray, and no print surface degradation.

would you ever consider offering your in house material to other small print farms? i’m steadily working on growing my farm currently running 2 prusas and an ankermake m5 24/7 out of my bedroom 😅

@LiveFuckery

Жыл бұрын

i’ve been using matterhackers but quality is my goal to prove exactly what your last point in the video was it’s so hard to get people to trust the quality of my products

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Yes. We are going to release a line of filament in the near future.

To be honest manufacturing is hell. Not just 3d printing.

If you're mechanically inclined, any printer is a mass production ready machine. Most bedslingers and core XY machines are based on similar electrical and mechanical components, they're really not that complicated. Sure, the software may be a challenge when printing at scale, but it's 100% doable. You could build a print farm using Ender 3's if you want. As long as you know how to keep them in operation, they'll keep on printing. You do not need thousands of amps, that's ridiculous. My printers consume no more than 50 watts each while running. I can run 20 units inside my house on residential supply. I agree with some of the points, but not all.

@slant3d

2 ай бұрын

Our biggest print farm is set to hold 3000 machines

@AudioFabric

2 ай бұрын

@@slant3d that's going to look next-level. Cant wait to see it go live. What's your time lines for that if you dont mind me asking? Then, just on the distinction between your operation and many other operators globally. Many of your viewers are not American, which means they are likely using 220v and not 110v like in the US. If you're on 110v supply, your amperage consumption will be higher because 110v is inherently less efficient than 220v. Not sure what your industrial supply comes in at but if it's all based on 110v, then your amps consumption will be higher than a 220v farm. Also, while it is interesting to hear of your challenges, not very many companies play at the level of 3000 machines, which means your video really only applies to these stratospheric print farms. The majorit of your viewers, who are building a farm are likely to max out at far below 100 machines so the considerations applicable to a 3000 unit PF are not as impactful to cost of ops in a sub 100 unit PF. Either way, please do make a big deal of that 3000 unit farm when it goes live Bro, we seriously would like to see that, or I would at least 🤝🤝

i am from Algeria. and i have ideas for devlope 3D print to mega production, with innovate technique

One of the Main concerns in hiring a print farm is the security of the STL’s. The print farm itself may be doing a good job protecting clients STL’s. But what if they use machines that require cloud computing on their own and re-transmit that STL to who knows where. That’s why Slant 3D stands out a bit because I think you guys make your own machines right?

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Yes. We make our own machines and software. But design security is a solved problem that has existed in manufacturing since 100 years ago. It is not a new problem.

@FriendshipLights

Жыл бұрын

@@slant3d one particular new machine manufacturer requires the owner to register it with an app. It also sends data to them. Not secure in my opinion. I like open machines. No app required to use it, lol

@user-tj7xr6xd9z

Жыл бұрын

I'm not even sure how that's a problem even if one didn't have the stl files most everything can be recreated pretty easily. I guess the only way this may be a problem is if you have something unique and they beat you to market.

Running any corporation is hell. You’re running a large corporation, yet 99% of people watching this are trying to make 10-40k extra a year. Those are still farms. Not a single person watching ever considered moving into a train station. Although your points are valid for a ridiculously sized 3d print farm, your audience is typically not interested in that scale. Don’t dissuade the entrepreneurs wanting to get in to the trade.

@anthonywalker6168

Жыл бұрын

Good point. Also, a kingroon KP3S could very well run production operations right out the box, that machine is cheap, but gold nevertheless.

@Capitan1nsan0

11 ай бұрын

He isn't dissuading anyone. It's more of a "hey, make sure you realize there is more to this than downloading something off Thingiverse and clicking print on your Ender 3

@ArthursHD

7 ай бұрын

​@@Capitan1nsan0sure there is more to it. 300 watts for a single printer doesn't sound like much. Switching to Solar PV with batteries and DC only could cut like 20% of wasted energy in conversion. But at scale it is a lot of energy. 🤔 Isn't it getting hot 🔥 in a print farm? There could be hotend designed to use less energy.

@TS_Mind_Swept

2 ай бұрын

"Not a single person watching this has ever considered moving into a train station" I wouldn't be so sure about that..

@TS_Mind_Swept

2 ай бұрын

​@@Capitan1nsan0 it's alarming how much stuff on thingiverse isn't designed for the process.. I've had to make just about everything I've printed myself because very little I've found is satisfactory for printing as it is (if it even exists at all -.-)

4:24 that's true of any workplace, really, yet so few companies seem to understand it.. it's any wonder everything is awful these days NotLikeThis

Hey ! Thanks for your work. Your experiences really help me, going that path. There is so much to think about. A video about chosing or building a good machine for that task would be very helpful 😉 For the moment I only use Vorons. Thinking about building some ZeroG Ender 5s. Greetings from Germany !

@user-gk9ut9qc1o

Жыл бұрын

elegoo has some great machines, but it really depends on the user

I built a prusa farm and it works great, it manages I think 60ish printers right now. We used octoprint and custom software to manage everything. People submit prints online, algorithm checks it, then prints it. Each printer has a receipt printer that prints all the needed info to match orders to prints. We hardly ever touch machines besides pulling prints off and making them ready to accept a new print. It's as close to full autonomy as we can get right now. Last year I think was around 8k prints done without intervention.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Now take that to 800K prints and you will see the problems.

@TheOfficialDarkICE

11 ай бұрын

@@slant3d Prusas are pretty reliable and the only ones on the market it would trust in that scenario. But i bet you can built your machines cheaper internally.

Off the shelf printers can be reliable, however buy almost any printer today, tomorrow maybe parts are available maybe not. Parts can be substituted in most cases but it's not a good way to run a business, fun hobby though.

I think many viewers - like myself - are still in the enthusiast/hobby/toy space of print farms. A nice video would be to outline what your thought process should be to move into "practical" printing to offer straight to companies, and the method used to prove out part viability and ensuring farm capacity is available for a project. Awesome videos, looking forward to the next one

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

That conversation can't be a video. It would be a channel. Manufacturing is completely different from prototyping.

@christianm2779

Жыл бұрын

@@slant3d perhaps then a video highlighting what changes must be made to consumer printers to become 24/7 printers, or the theory behind building your own to accommodate that work load.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

We have a 100 previous videos of which many of them touch on those.

Why is the microphone in focus but not you ^^"

Am i missing somethiing when you say printers off the rack aren't meant for print farms? Crapality i agree with, Prusa MK3 is built with a prusa MK3 print farm.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

And how often do they swap out a machine in that farm?

@ItsDaPlumber

Жыл бұрын

@@slant3d I agree, very often.

Massive power needs. Inconsistent Filamaments. Printers aren't designed for it. Complex to operate and maintain. Stigma against 3D Printing. I'd like to know more about that power aspect. Are off the shelf 3D printers typically inefficient?

This channel is underrated. Tons of advice and info to glean from it.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

After using Bambu Labs AMS unit I would never want the hassle of having more than one of them to annoy the crap out of me.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

What kind of problems have you run into?

@Aldoor

Жыл бұрын

@@slant3d The AMS unit seems to have been designed to only work with Bambu's filament. As soon as you use anyone else's your problems begin. Pull back issues, spool size issues, loading issues, flushing when printing with only one colour, gears and components breaking because of jams. In short the unit is a dog that should never have been released on the market. Sure upgrades are available designed by others that have also had issues. My issue is with what the unit costs you would have thought it would have been fit for purpose and not required fixes to be designed to make it work as it should have from the manufacturer. I think it is rather naive that they thought we would only use their filament. The printer itself is ok but the experience has been ruined by the crappy AMS. Any suggestions of a printer that works at similar speeds and actually works as promoted. I have been looking at making the voron however being new to this it seems to be a bit of a minefield finding something that is quick and easy to set up and get running. Since getting the printer I am getting more and more work however having to baby sit the printer for hours and hours rules out making a side hussle out of it.

about training and having processes in place, The business has to be able to train people, not have people that can train people. there has to be well defined and documented processes, so that if that one person leaving its not sending the business a decade.

How about a farm of resin printers?

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Resin has a lot of problems at scale. But they are solvable

So I can't call my 3 3d printers a farm?

The Prusa model is a print farm. They use their own Prusa printers to print...well...the Prusa printers. All business models are difficult with a high failure rate. This is nothing new with business. But good information all around.

I dont understand he sate that is a hell but he have one filament is too expensive for how is made until he start making it so

Everyone and their mama thinks theyll make 6 figures off their Ender 3 now. Its not 2017 anymore.

I like the content of your videos, but your camera has a dead pixel in the middle of the frame and is ALWAYS out of focus. Please fix this

There’s no stigma with printing. At least not in the way you’re claiming. The “stigma” is rather that people keep saying you can and trying to print “anything”. It’s just not true. While it’s technically true, that doesn’t mean that you SHOULD print everything…THIS is the actual reason for any stigma surrounding 3D printing. The only way around or out of this stigma is being wise enough to say… “No, that’s not something that should be printed” So yes; if things are designed, from the start, as designs intended for 3D printing. They will do ok compared to an equivalent injection molded part. However… the problem 3D prints run into is layer adhesion. Even the very best printers, with the Best filament and the Best operator will still have an inherent weakness between layers. So as long as the stresses on the part are largely compressive. Printed parts are fine. If there is any tension on the layers. It’s exponentially better have an injection molded part. Or better yet a cast aluminum or machined part. I saw a meme the other day the read “3D printing is the sand casting of today” or something similar. And immediately I understand the concept, but also simultaneously thought that if that’s true… It’s no wonder we’re failing. We used to cast IRON and STEEL in sand casting. Now we’ve decided that plastic is better when we all know it’s not. My point here is it’s completely ok to realize that you actually cannot “print anything”. And it’s important to be able to delineate what is a product well suited to printing and one that would better serve the customer’s needs with another process or even material…

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Everything can and will be 3d printed. Design for the process. Stop printing injection molded designs

@brandoncrimmins6296

Жыл бұрын

@@slant3d right… Print me a Kenworth

You might want to consider improving your audio by reducing echo in the room with foam sound panels. Also it is worth considering a proper mic (like NT1a or SM7) with audio interface. Though this is not critical, USB mics do work, echo is more of an issue. (Wrapping a foam panel behind the mic does not work. Strong sources of echo are flat walls perpendicular to plane between you and mic and also corners)

Got real Vape Shop Bubble and Crash vibes. Every mom and pop shop thought they were going to go into MFG until the gov and market saturation shut that down. Why would someone outsource to a print farm, and pay very steep prices, instead of buying a cheap printer or asking a friend or whatever like that? The one-touch and print reliably is here, its already here. Even at cheap print costs, its still going to be cheaper to buy a printer instead of 5-10 parts from a farm. I mean really think about it. Print farms are good when the machines are unreliable. But for you to have a farm, you need reliable printers, and if you have a reliable printers, the farm is not necessary.

not giant, just sustain me

What I find interesting is how none of these print farm videos show robots going and getting the printed parts. It's always people doing that. Is "fully automated" print farming just a loser no matter what?

"you cannot use off the shelf printers for a print farm" Okay, then what is Galactic Armory doing? Your videos are good, sort of, but there's so much bull information dotted around them, like your video on not being able to get textures when making molds, which is just a total lie. Yeah, great videos if you don't actually know what you're talking about, or look any further.

Maintenance, reliabilty, MTBF, availabilty of spare parts(!), machine cost per hour ... Basically all you saied: Amen! We are not there yet.

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Have to disagree. These are all solved problems. But they have to be considered and solved for before attempting to build a print farm

I’m an electrician and I have 2 degrees in electrical as well. The highest amp draw is during the bed being heated which can reach around 12 amps This means that you should order 25amp breakers to place 2 printers on one circuit using 12 gauge wire. Your typical 200 amp panel has 40 spaces, if the panel didn’t have anything in it but 3D printer circuits then you could make use of 40 circuits powering 80 printers Furthermore you could do fine with a 400amp service on a fused disconnect and run 4- 200 amp panels off of that. All your printers won’t be earning the bed up at the same time, it only draws 4 amps when printing Someone has swaggled you with the electrical

Yup. Lol I’m up to 31 printers and everything this guy says is right on

@slant3d

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

0238, no disagree here. It depends on the quality control processes used obviously. My supplier can do so consistently thanks. Laurie. NZ. Made in NZ btw.