I made this about a year ago and it’s one of my favorite creations. Even though I made a mistake in measuring the bottom and had to cut out some slots. One day I’ll print it again, but it used a ton of filament and took forever last time.
Are you trying to melt and then stick together like glue? I place the 2 pieces together and then run a soldering iron down along the seam and “weld” the 2 pieces together while they are touching eachother.
Oh! Yup, that’s exactly what I was doing, melting them and then trying to stick them together. Is the seam invisible when you’re finished, using your welding method? Does it require touch-up? Is it strong enough, considering only the outer edges are fused?
Yeah, it will harden way too fast to do that. Like the other commenter said, use glue to stick them together, then you can weld the seams, and also add some extra filament if you want a smoother seam. I just welded that print as it’s all held in pretty tight in the drawer. There’s almost no gap around the outside at all. I just welded and there is a visible seam, but it’s minor and I don’t need it to be perfectly smooth. If you wanted it to be perfectly smooth, I’d add filament and then sand it flat and possibly paint if you felt inclined.
As far as strength, like I said for this print it didn’t need to be, but it really depends on what you’re making. Use your best judgement, CA glue bonds very well. I use clear gorilla glue myself. It doesn’t expand like normal gorilla glue. But yeah, I use a combination usually depending on what it is. Like I said, just use your best judgement and definitely keep the parts together and weld along the seam instead of melting and trying to stick together, lol.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !3dprinting@lemmy.world
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at:
!functionalprint@kbin.social
or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at:
!cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
Do not create links to reddit
If you see an issue please flag it
No guns
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
How did you print such a large item? Is it glued together somewhere?
Yes it’s 6 pieces “welded” together. I use a soldering iron to “weld” along the seams.
I’ve tried that before, but it always hardens before I put the pieces together. How do you do it?
Are you trying to melt and then stick together like glue? I place the 2 pieces together and then run a soldering iron down along the seam and “weld” the 2 pieces together while they are touching eachother.
Oh! Yup, that’s exactly what I was doing, melting them and then trying to stick them together. Is the seam invisible when you’re finished, using your welding method? Does it require touch-up? Is it strong enough, considering only the outer edges are fused?
Yeah, it will harden way too fast to do that. Like the other commenter said, use glue to stick them together, then you can weld the seams, and also add some extra filament if you want a smoother seam. I just welded that print as it’s all held in pretty tight in the drawer. There’s almost no gap around the outside at all. I just welded and there is a visible seam, but it’s minor and I don’t need it to be perfectly smooth. If you wanted it to be perfectly smooth, I’d add filament and then sand it flat and possibly paint if you felt inclined.
As far as strength, like I said for this print it didn’t need to be, but it really depends on what you’re making. Use your best judgement, CA glue bonds very well. I use clear gorilla glue myself. It doesn’t expand like normal gorilla glue. But yeah, I use a combination usually depending on what it is. Like I said, just use your best judgement and definitely keep the parts together and weld along the seam instead of melting and trying to stick together, lol.
Thanks for all of the tips! Sticking multiple pieces together has been a real sticking point for me.
Haha, nice!