Hi Owen, thanks for replying.
I'm aware of the initial accuracy and adapting the model to suit, which is why I'm not concerned with accuracy at all.
You make a good point about not changing things when printing.
It's starting to sound very promising.
Yeah, I had the impression that PLA is more brittle, which is a cause for concern since practical prints would typically need to support loads in one way or another. I'm just curious as to how brittle it really is. Will PLA shatter when dropped on a hard surface? Maybe similar to acrylic?
I've seen some of those pics before. But seeing pictures doesn't really tell me how well they work, which is why I was hoping someone with personal experience can share their opinions on this.
Going off topic for a bit, has anyone tried polishing PLA prints before? I'm thinking that if all goes well for me, I may want to DIY a vibrating tumbler to polish parts. Probably will need some experimenting with slightly over-sized prints to account for material loss if I need accuracy.
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owen 19
Repeatability is no problem except where warping happens or if you starting at a different height.
The initial accuracy may not be there but you can adapt your model to suit.
For example printing holes turn out smaller than intended and so you may have to make the holes bigger in your model to get them right.
As long as you don't change certain things after this, like recalibrating or printing at a different speed etc., it should repeat the same print.
You may find ABS better for Gears at it is less brittle. Gears would be OK if they weren't too small in PLA I think.
There are plenty of gears printed and used on Thingiverse. http://www.thingiverse.com/tag:gears
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