Ordering 3D prints

I have a 3D printer, it is pretty good, but I decided to try ordering some 3D prints from JLC.

Price

The most obvious issue is price, and actually, it is good. I have 2 part 3D printed cases for my Faikin boards for $0.47, but the postage is actually more, making $1.52 delivered, (£1.13+VAT). This is actually pretty good.

Quality

This is perhaps more important - could I have printed myself better - well NO, really NO! The quality is amazing. Resin prints are always good compared to FDM, and these are post processed with sanding.

The precision is also amazing. These designs are made with exact edges, no margins. I thought this was a good test. Well they fit smoothly, and just stick, but not very firmly. This means the dimensions of the print are, well, pretty damn exact to tiny fractions of a millimetre.

The result is quite impressive.

Improvements

My case design are auto generated from the PCB, so as to make sure they fit exactly. I have now done a load of work to tweak these, adding 0.1mm more to the edges that lock and a tiny angle to snap to place. So will be trying those. Will be interesting to see if I can make it a tighter locking edge now.

But, for now, a tiny spot of glue makes a nice case, so selling these on Tindie.