Thanks Curious.
I have a Creality Ender 5. Looks at a glance to be the same style as the Sapphire but we don't now about the print head.
Correct me if I am wrong but I would think that has at least something to do with it-
And of course the nozzle. I am using a simple 0.4 in brass. So-I am not really sure why some XY printers are faster than others--I will certainly play with mine at speeds over 50 some time if I get a chance.


But you are confirming with Martin that my times are reasonable--since I am an beginner at owning my own machine I had no idea what to expect.
We had some heavy duty ones at one of my work places and they would spend half a work-day printing 12x12 pallets of small parts..
In my case once I prototype (mostly optical stuff) I either machine it, send it to a machine shop, or get them professionally 3D printed if there are a lot and finish is not premium.
Something I believe is still prohibitive for small runs (100 items) is extrusion. But I haven't checked recently. When I worked for GE plactics we had extruders in our test labs and it was a major operation to set up for small test runs.


Your comments regarding "on end" orientation interests me. I played a bit with this early on but decided to let Fusion pick the "best" orientation. I will experiment with this.
What is "i3 setup"? New to me. I am aware of polar printers but don't want to go there.


Usually I opt for workable crude parts as you mention (I have some nozzles up to 1mm but the part here for example has to "slide" so finish matters
Once I have to go to sanding I would usually just machine the part on a mill. I have some parabolic reflectors that I need to make soon and the only easy way to get the correct equations in is via a plastics printer--I will be hand sanding them and them and sending them to an aluminum sputtering service for the mirror finish. 3D print shines here-aspheric optical structures can't be easily hand machines and our present lab has no CNCs.


Thanks again for the times--they comply in the ballpark with what I am seeing so I feel like I am not doing anything wrong.
It does amaze me that there are no intermediate books out there describing the more advanced issues of 3d printing-most of us just guess and go.


Thanks for the tip on 1st layers--another thing to investigate.
My Creality wanted to go with 200 deg/50 deg--and it did not stick. So I used the fusion defaults for my machine--220deg/60deg and everything sticks just fine.

Cheers
Frit