So, I finally got my first batch of parts, more than a week past my scheduled delivery. It was really exciting to open the box. I had no idea what to expect.

The parts were three pairs of upper arms shot in two different materials. It was pretty apparent which material to move forward in, especially since I broke one of the black sockets without even applying much pressure.

Surprisingly, the hi-detail prints, which are the more expensive choice, are actually less detailed than the ‘strong and flexible’ plastic. Since I had already ordered more parts, I got extremely lucky that I selected the ‘strong and flexible’ over the ‘detail’ plastic stock. The strong and flexible stock seems to be a styrene of some sort. For ball joints that need a certain amount of flex and grab, it seems to work perfectly.

As far as the function, the tolerances of parts seem pretty much without too much distortion. There seems to be a bit of shrink built into the process. My ball joints are measuring at 5.9 mm instead of the six I spec’d. I can also see that I need to make the balls a bit larger to stretch the socket a bit, which seems to make for a better fit. Next round will build a larger ball.

Oddly enough, my next order cam just two days after the first even though they were order two weeks apart. As disappointed as I was that my first order was crazy late, it was spectacular to have more parts in hand to compare to the first batch.

The second batch consisted of two torsos- one with a Xevoz-compatible square socket arrangement and another with the squares at tilted at a 45 degree angle (more on why that might work better in the future). I also had a Xevoz-compatible forearm set-up and another with the tilted square plug. I also tried a new set of upper arms with a through hole in the ball socket to minimize the material usage. The open socket might work with a thicker wall, but in this round I also reduced the wall thickness on every socket, as well. The socket just doesn’t have enough material for a robust snap.

I order several different colors to see how much variation there is between formulations, granularity of the print and the saturation of the various colors. Its likely an optical illusion, but the white does seem to have the cleanest print of them all. I like the two colors- red and a ‘cornflower’ blue. Even the gray of the torso part is decent but they all seem to be much more granular than the white. I’ll continue to order in white for now. It seems to be the better material.