I've done my first test of buying a whole pallet of filament straight from a Chinese manufacturer.

I'm curious what the shipping is like. I've looked at Alibaba and Aliexpress for buying certain items, and over a certain size, the shipping is quite punishing. For something like a side channel blower (i.e. palette sized, 15-20kg or so), the prices are a lot better in China, but the shipping eats up the difference, to the point where local vendors are competitive price wise but with faster shipping and better certification.

I imaging if I was buying a container load it would be a different proposition, but it's one at a time at the moment.

it could be all junk - but if it's usable, the price advantage is insane. Like $3/kg for PETG at the factory gate (like $5/kg after sea freight and our 24% VAT). Versus local stores which sell for like $30/kg.

Yeah that sounds about right! There's probably plenty where it's really good, and you get a massive bargain. For me, the 3D printed parts are one of the lower cost items in the bill of materials even with brand name Prusament filament.

Yeah it's weird stuff. I've done a of normal fiber reinforced composites, and to me the filaments just feel like completely normal filaments with the same kind of different tradeoffs you get switching between plastic types, such as more yield strength, lower toughness, less surface detail rather than a whole new material like the macroscopic type.

I didn't know that about glass vs carbon. At the moment, I'm printing for business reasons so I'm sticking to things where I have a reasonable expectation of being able to get more of the same filament in a year's time. This limits the amount of experimentation from smaller suppliers since I can't rely on the parts if I can't reliably get the filament.

Really it's mostly Prusament right now...

The fumes thing is overrated - typical measured levels in a room printing ABS are in the ppb range

Fair enough. I've not got any measuring kit and the printer I used most for that is not enclosed, so I erred on the side of caution.

Main annoying thing is that ABS is hard to print. I mean, it's far from the hardest, that'd be something like polypropylene or whatnot - but vs. say PLA and PETG, there's a learning curve.

I never had thaaat much problem, but I was printing my own parts, so designing in part for printability. I always went for plenty of supports and when I was printing a lot of ABS, I had a dual head printer so I used tight supports in HIPS (yay more styrene) soluble interface layers.

I'm mostly printing Prusament Galaxy Black PLA at the moment, with a bit of CF-PETG. I've got a reel of polycarbonate blend to try out.

Wake me when we can have small, cheap gas/diesel pickup trucks like the classic S10, Ranger, Hilux, Tacoma, Brat, etc.

You probably do have them, they're called "vans": I'm pretty sure Ford sell their Transit series in the US. Here, they are available in many configurations, such as standard box van, flatbed, drop side, and optionally with crew cabs too.

A drop side van is the same as a 2WD pickup with a more flexible bed (because the sides drop too) and better forward visibility.

For stuff that sits in a car and likely won't warp in the sun, I just go ABS or ASA.

Either print in a well ventilated garage or get an activated carbon filter. ABS gives off toxic fumes, so take care. Otherwise I think it's a bit of an underrated plastic.

It adds stiffness and some creep resistance. It usually adds a bit of strength, but it's not like epoxy/fibre composites where the majority of strength comes from the fibres. It's A bit more strength, maybe 50% depending on the formulation and part, but often lower. But also, it depends on if you mean yield or ultimate strength.

It's also a good way of trading toughness and stiffness and yield strength. PETG is incredibly tough, not hugely stiff and moderately in ultimate tensile strength. But the toughness is such that the ultimate tensile strength is not that useful often since it's so distorted by then. CF-PETg is rather less tough, similar ultimate tensile strength but a somewhat higher yield strength and with less creep and more stiffness. It also maintains the excellent impact resistance of PETG.

I can't speak for Europe / England and their repair laws, but everything in America is required to be approved by the FAA for use in aviation

He bought it at an airshow in America.

A part they bought at an airshow?

This is an explicit call to jail political opponents.

Why do you think the person you're whinging about for a forum post is a Trump supporter?

I don't really understand the right wing's deep need to completely make shit up. If you are strong in your belief of your worldview, then surely reality should justify it.

No one wants to see you jailed for differences of political opinion. Do get over yourself and your persecution complex.

The generation we've nicknamed the Tide-Pod generation because they were eating tidepods as a TikTok challenge? Is that the Gen-Z you're talking about?

Yeah well my generation voted for Brexit in the UK and Trump in the US. Doesn't matter what generation you are, you're in a fuck off massive glass house.

Man, I need to lay off The Untouchables after midnight.

Also the mushrooms you were eating before the late night film session.

Unleashed dog runs into street and get hit: not the driver's fault.

Driver completely ignores that and fails to stop: very much the driver's fault.

So yeah Waymo weren't the only problem here but they definitely a problem.

Somehow it's always "both sides...so I voted for the fascist", never "both sides... so I voted for the objectively less bad of a pair of undesirable options".

In other words, people saying "both sides" know one side is worse: you don't have to justify voting for something you think is genuinely a better choice.

I wonder how the UK got into their mess? Could it have been giving the keys to dumbass Tories and folks like Boris Johnson for 15 years? They let a huckster like Farage dupe them into Brexit? You're one the ones pushing us there.

The rot started earlier. The architect of the mess was David Cameron and his minion George Osbourne started dismantling the state to enrich their buddies, and also as an act of sheer performative nastiness. This created the fertile ground for all those weeds to grow. He then couldn't bare to have less power and decided to gamble the future of he country in order to get it. He, and ultimately us all lost.

And when I say lost: don't forget that the court ruled that (a) the election irregularities in the referendum were bad enough that it would warrant a rerun except that (b) it was non binding and advisory and reruns only apply to binding referenda. Fundamentally, Brexit was a travesty of democracy too.

Their model seems to be people who don't use a car enough to warrant owning one, but want the convenience of having access to one and are willing to pay a premium for it.

Premium? As a (former I suppose) member, it was very much the not premium option, rather the cheap option. For occasional use, way cheaper than owning a car, way cheaper for odd jobs than hiring one too. Also hiring cars is an obnoxious pain in the arse on the whole.