Got my first 10kg “bag” of SLS powder and I am just curious about your thoughts or tips and tricks so far…
The thought of it didn’t bother me but now that it is here I’m just wandering how to best get it into the Sift without making a mess.
Figured I’d cut the corner off the bag, cut the top off of an old jug of powder and use it as a funnel…
However, from experience, using the jug is super “clean” as you use the lid to cut the seal then flip it over with barely any surrounding “air contact” involved. So I am foreseeing a lot more contamination issues with micro hair and dust making its way into the Sift with this new way of packaging…
Again, the whole thing wouldn’t bother me if this meant less plastic waste and the cheaper way to package…leading to cheaper powder for the consumer…but its costing us the same amount and adding a bigger pain in the rear end. Also, with a higher failure rate do to added contamination possibilities into the fresh powder hopper…
The old super easy and nearly zero chance of contamination into the Sift way
Again…not something I thought was going to be a big deal but to those who print very large parts…and know how “one super tiny micro hair” can ruin it…will know what I’m talking about.
I may have to shave my body or at least my arm hair now just to be sure but really if you are going to make packaging easy on yourselves and cheaper but add more hassle on our end… you could have at least shared some of that cost saving with us…the users.
Thanks for sharing your experience and insights! With the transition to the 10kg bags, you can use the Fuse Sift Funnel. This funnel is a drop-in attachment that replaces the powder inlet on the Fuse Sift, making it much easier and cleaner to transfer powder from the 10kg bags. It’s designed to help maintain a clean workstation and minimize the chance of contamination during loading.
You can check out the funnel here. It should help with the issues you’re facing and make the process a lot smoother!
Let me know if you have any other questions or need further help.
I was actually just informed that we will be including one in your next powder order. Sorry for the confusion! I will also ask about if there is a mesh.
You can actually print this Sift funnel yourself. Formlabs shares the STL for this. This means that the component can also be viewed in detail. The funnel is printed with a grid structure so that no larger parts can fall through.
I was told by my service tech a few months ago that they were switching to the bags (and here they are), but to hold onto a few jugs for saving used material if you have overflow in the used hopper. We ebb and flow on packing densities and we use the jugs to store excess powder. Been quite handy to drop it into the sifter when we have really high packing densities and we’re low on recycled powder. It’s a thing on PA12 and I know it’s probably not an issue with GF.
You are right. The original packaging was much better. I would understand if a bigger new pack would be cheaper, but it’s the other way around. In our country, the new 10 kg package is more expensive than the original 6 kg package. As a result, Formlabs literally screwed with customers. He made the experience of using the printer worse and made money from it. It’s disgusting.
Yea it bothered me…then it didn’t bother me once I got the Sift grate installed…then it now bothers me again….
You can’t ever really get an entire 10kg into the Sift at once so I am left carefully trying to pour a bag into the grate, the grate overflowing occasionally dumping my fresh powder out into the Sift area with old powder… then trying to “pinch off the bag” to not over flow the hopper. Then the huge dust cloud as I try to roll up the remainder of what’s in the bag while trying to get the air out of the bag… WAY MESSIER in my opinion and higher chance of contamination into the fresh powder hopper…
I was definitely a fan of the jugs. Super clean n easy but hey… who knows.
Has anyone ordered over 150kg of powder at once? Do they ship dozens of these new bags, or they send a different container, like a barrel or such? Just curious, we have an upcoming order needing over 100kg and since our powder storage is limited I want to be ahead of what are we receiving.
Hi @Mario_Martinez, the order will come all at once, freight shipped. If you ordered PD-FS-P12G-10-01, PD-FS-P12W-10-01, or PD-FS-P12T-10-01, it will come in 10 kg bags. But if you ordered a different SKU, it will come in 6kg jugs.
I just recieved a bag of powder and i doubt this will be beneficial for us in the slightest way. I still have a few jugs left so im gonna keep those just in case. Thx for the review and thought on the bags.
Anyone looking for Powder credit? we have an OMM and the cards are not needed anymore to send jobs and operate. So every bag we buy that comes with powder credit is useless. Send DM.
I’d like to see a video of Formlabs staff filling the tank with the 10-kilogram bag. We haven’t had good results, and we don’t understand how this system is designed to keep from raising too much dust.
Perhaps if the bag included a nozzle (shaped like a bottle) it would be helpful.
Just modify and use a design for coffee dispenser you can find them on Thingiverse. I use them to transfer the powder to bottles because indeed the bags are not useful or practical.
Ive got my first bag coming since installing the grate on my sift. Is it really that bad pouring it in? If you cut the top off the bag is it not possible to gently pour it in the grate without a mess?
Yea the problem is you can’t just cut the top or a corner off the top due to the way the bags are folded/made. So the best I’ve done is cut a baseball size hole in the top side/middle…which is awkward.
Then I basically keep the Sift top down with the filter on to suck the dust at least and keep it internal. Pain to do because you’re trying to pour a big bag of powder with the lid down… but hey… better than dusting out the shop.
Then because the Sift can’t hold an entire bag…you are left trying to monitor your pour so you don’t overflow. And it’s definitely going to spill out of the grate attachment zone…so powder is wasted.
Then you gotta tryin and pinch it off so you don’t overfill while getting more powder spillage out into the sift…
Then your left trying to roll up half a bag (more dust thrown into the air) n store it somewhere it’s not going to get contaminated with dust or hair… because then you gotta try n use that same bag that’s been sitting in your shop collecting dust n hair (don’t own a dog) on the second fill to empty the entire bag.
I find it way more difficult to not add outside contamination into the fresh powder hopper versus the jugs.
With the jugs I knew once I popped that top n flipped it upside down into that hopper hole there was zero chance of outside contamination making it into that hole…unless it came from the factory n was already in the jug.
I had thought about this problem a bit because up until now I’ve transferred powder from the bag into jugs in a manner that left much to be desired. I would place a jug in the chamber bay of the sift and slice a 1" diameter hole in the bag so powder could flow into a jug beneath. It worked, but was not ideal.
It turns out there is a device used to penetrate bags with powder/grain/etc so contents can be released in a controlled way. Its called a “bulk bag dispenser.” I devised my own miniature version of this to better control the dispensation of powder into the sift. Below is my very simple version (which already needs some design refinement). Maybe Formlabs wants to pay me to develop this further!
but really if you are going to make packaging easy on yourselves and cheaper but add more hassle on our end… you could have at least shared some of that cost saving with us…the users.
