Noob Looking to Print Delrin - Advice on Getting There

[curious aardvark]

I'm scared about losing support/community/slicer compatibility etc over time?

most 3d printers are all using the same parts , some are just put together better than others.

And assume that you're on your own - well apart from places like this and the mixed blessing that is youtube - from day one and buy a machine based on the machine and NOT the brand.

Yes you can get aftermarket heated beds.
Or: heated beds, as we call them.

Should you want to you can indeed build a prusa clone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVWLpvekby0

So yeah you can do that :-)
And josef prusa makes all his machines opensource, because he knows that very few people actually will.

Now if I had the money for a prusa mk3 I would buy one of these instead: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TENLOG-TL-D...6702930&sr=8-5

And be amazed that I had so much change :-)
This has all the crucial prusa design features: direct drive extruders, side bed supports and dual z axis screws.

But it then goes ahead of pruusa in almost every single aspect.
This has linear rails on all three axis (x & y definite, i have yet to zsee a back shot of the gantry, but there are no wheels in evidence on the z axis - so the smart money is on rails). - better than prusa who has none anywhere.
Idex extruders - better, 'cos there are two and they work independantly of each other.
a 300c hotend - better, because, well it will print polycarbonate and a prusa won't. :-)

32 bit motherboard - prusa are atill using 8 bit I think. They use 32 bit boards for the mini, but they hadn't switched over for the mk3 last i heard. They might have done by now.

Prusa are using 'better' stepper motor drivers, but all you gain is sensorless homing, and personally I like a physical endstop. I can adjust it with an allen key/ To adjust sensorless homing is a lot more complicated. And as it works by the print carriage crashing into the frame and then reslising that's what it's done. I'm just not convinced that this particular wheel needed reinventing.

So basically on paper the tenlog is better than a prusa in almost all respects, And it has a much larger print volume too.
It uses standard parts, so fixing, modding and upgrading is not going to be a problem.

The hotbed will hit 110c - but that you can upgrade if you want to.

As far as printing pressure bottles goes - I know one of the forum members has done so - hopefully they'll chip in as I can't remember who it was.
I;d guess either roberts_cliff or fred or airscapes, but could easily be someone else. :-)
I think they either painted the print with resin or wrapped in fibreglass tape. But again I'm not 100%.

The other way to go - honestly I can't find anything better at the moment.
With the tenlog you can upgrade the bed and build an enclosure and still have change from the price of a prusa. to buy this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magigoo-MKi...6703792&sr=8-3

I'm a big fan of printing adhesives in easy to apply sponge topped bottles.

And they last !
The 50ml of dimafix i got free at a tct show about 5 tears ago, is still over half full.
The bottle of magigoo I 'acquired' the year after is 90% full and the 500ml bottleof something just called: 'printer glue' I got the year after that - if I've used 10 ml I'd be surprised.

For the delrin I reckon the magigoo specifically for nylon, should work well, as nylon and pom have very similiar properties.
pom is harder, but both are 'slippery'.

So that's what I'd do.