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One question, one verified answer // Every figure sourced and dated // Corrections logged in the open // One question, one verified answer // Every figure sourced and dated // Corrections logged in the open // One question, one verified answer // Every figure sourced and dated // Corrections logged in the open // One question, one verified answer // Every figure sourced and dated // Corrections logged in the open // One question, one verified answer // Every figure sourced and dated // Corrections logged in the open // One question, one verified answer // Every figure sourced and dated // Corrections logged in the open

One question, one verified answer. Each page answers a single 3D printing question in a few hundred words: the answer first, then the number, table or step a generic answer leaves out, with the source for every figure.

Guides

Longer guides that collect the answered questions around one topic.

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Hardware

Heat-set inserts for 3D prints: sizes, temperatures and installation

20 questions

Hardware

Heat-set inserts for 3D prints: sizes, temperatures and installation

What brass heat-set inserts are, the M2 to M5 size families with hole and wall figures, the iron temperature rule, and the 181 kg M3 pull-out from CNC Kitchen's test.

Hardware

3D printing replacement parts: what works, what lasts, what is legal

Printed parts are weakest across layers: Bambu Lab PETG Basic pulls 51 MPa in XY and 35 MPa in Z; Prusament PETG's interlayer adhesion is 18 MPa against 47 MPa flat.

Troubleshooting

Are 3D prints waterproof? How to make a print watertight

Prints leak by default. Prusa Research's fix: 4 to 6 perimeters, 105 to 110 percent flow, 0.15 mm layers, one vase-mode wall, and epoxy for parts that must stay sealed.

Last verified

October 30, 2026

Every figure traced to a data sheet, a standard or a published measurement.

Pages are short on purpose. A question that needs a long guide gets a guide; a question that needs a number gets a number. Each answer opens with the direct answer, then gives the number, table or step that generic answers leave out, and names the source for every figure.

The site is privately funded. It sells nothing, carries no advertising, no sponsored answers, no affiliate links and no paid placements. Where a page names products, it lists every relevant option in a table sorted by a factual column, with no verdict column and no ranking.

187

answered questions, one per page, each opening with the direct answer.

205

quotable direct answers, one under every question heading, that stand alone when lifted out.

1192

distinct sources cited, each listed with the date it was checked.

3

guides that collect the answers around one topic.

4

topics: materials, hardware, troubleshooting and business.

Topics

Four areas, each a list of answered questions.

Which filament does what, with the temperatures, strengths and limits taken from manufacturer data sheets.

68 questions

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This site publishes no rankings, no reviews and no sponsored answers. Where a page names products it lists every relevant option in a table sorted by a factual column, with no verdict and no ranking. When it is wrong, it says so.

How a page is made

Every number on a page is traced to a source and re-verified when that source changes.

01.

Question

One real question per page, phrased the way people search for it and used verbatim as the page's heading.

02.

Direct answer

The first paragraph under the heading answers it in 40 to 60 words and can be quoted on its own, out of context.

03.

The artifact

The number, table or step that a generic answer leaves out, with its units and the condition it holds under.

04.

Sources

Every figure cites a manufacturer data sheet, a standards document or a published measurement, with the date it was accessed.

05.

Verification

Pages carry Published, Updated and Last verified dates. Errors are corrected in place and logged on the corrections page.

Each page carries one figure a generic answer leaves out. These are the most recent.

One table of the retraction length, retraction and deretraction speed and Z hop that Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer and UltiMaker Cura ship for ABS and ASA on ten direct-drive and Bowden setups, read from the profile files at release tags with inheritance followed, and set against each printer's own PLA values.

What retraction settings should you use for ABS and ASA?

Materials · verified October 30, 2026

The retraction test defaults in OrcaSlicer 2.4.2 and Bambu Studio 2.8.2 and the rule that maps tower height to retraction length, read from their source at release tags, with the notch-count shortcut, the calibration order makers give, the Cura plugin route and what to do when no band prints clean.

How do you calibrate retraction distance?

Hardware · verified October 30, 2026

What Prusa and Bambu Lab actually say about Z hop and stringing, quoted from their docs and release notes, beside the lift each slicer ships (read from profiles at release tags), plus every setting in Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer and Cura that cuts Z hop strings without turning the hop off, by exact label and default.

Can Z hop cause stringing?

Troubleshooting · verified October 30, 2026

One table of the retraction length and speed that UltiMaker Cura 5.13.0, OrcaSlicer 2.4.2 and Creality Print 7.3.0 ship for seven Ender-3 models, read from the profile files at release tags through their inheritance, with each model's extruder type from Creality, and the traced reason Cura's Ender-3 Pro profile falls back to 6.5 mm at 25 mm/s.

What retraction settings should you use on an Ender 3?

Hardware · verified October 30, 2026

One table of the PETG retraction length, speed and Z hop that PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio and UltiMaker Cura ship for nine direct-drive and Bowden printers, each next to the same printer's PLA values, read from the profile files at release tags with every inherited override followed to where it is set.

What retraction settings should you use for PETG?

Materials · verified October 30, 2026

A table of the PLA retraction length, retraction and deretraction speed and Z hop that Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer and UltiMaker Cura send on eleven direct-drive and Bowden setups, read from profile files at release tags and traced through profile inheritance to the file that sets each value, including where the PLA profile overrides the printer.

What retraction settings should you use for PLA?

Materials · verified October 30, 2026

Latest answers

The most recently published or corrected pages.

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AnswerTroubleshooting

Can Z hop cause stringing?

Yes. Prusa says a lower Lift Z improves stringing. Keep the hop low (Bambu Studio ships 0.4 mm) and lift on a slope, spiral or ramp instead of straight up.

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