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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 11th, 2023

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  • About 15 years ago I looked at 3d printers for an engineering team. Between $20,000 and $50,000 range. The best option was a powder based system. Parts were fragile, print time was slow, clean up was a pain.

    One of our customers was using an SLA system…parts were fragile, print time was slow…clean up was a pain.

    Now I have a 3d filament printer in my shop that cost me less than $1,000, and doesn’t have any of those issues. Of course it’s not mounted on a robotic arm.



















  • The original story was similar: PLA is made from corn, and is completely biodegradable.

    Interested people took various parts made from PLA and put them outside for a while. Some people buried them. Some people put them in their compost pile or canisters. I think the only result was some discoloration and possibly some reduced strength.

    So now it seems PLA only biodegrades under industrial conditions, requiring elevated temperatures.