Because the original non-PAL line was discontinued by Planet Eclipse and because the non-PAL can be converted to PAL, we will only be offering PAL enabled bodies at this time.
This is not a full time business for us. While we take pride in our work and deliver a higher quality product than one might expect at these prices, we don't rely on this income and thus have the fortune to be able to keep our margins lower. We also print everything in-house and are not beholden to paying a third party for printing services which can be a significant added cost. Please don't hold this against other printing services as they may be dependent on this income and may have higher inherent costs.
Shapeways uses printers which are several orders of magnitude more advanced and expensive than ours. This means that their GRN products will be stronger. Appearance-wise, theirs will also me more consistent from piece to piece; however, while theirs will lack layer lines, their surface finish will be a bit rougher than ours just based on their GRN printing process.
While we do not offer any kind of formal guarantee on our product, if you do encounter any issues with your product please reach out to us so that we may work with you to learn more about the issue and see what we can do to help rectify the situation.
We use PETG, Nylon, and Resin for our components. Please see our materials guide for more information.
We have a instructions page which should help in the installation of your new components. https://www.salsa3d.net/paintball/instructions
If you are comfortable servicing your own marker then you will have no problem. If you are new to the hobby and haven't done much servicing, then it might be a learning curve but it's still pretty basic. Note: If you are exchanging the body, you will be keeping the feed neck from the previous body.
Standard Emek body weighs about 255g (9 oz) while our 3D printed bodies weight about 80-110g (3-4 oz)
Both the resin and PETG materials are able to be sanded. Expect that if you sand and polish the translucent resin pieces the you will be able to see through them. We recommend the Micro Mesh polishing kits for sanding of the resin pieces and wet sand up from the lowest grit.
We do not recommend cutting the bodies as the layers are points of weakness for high stress. If you must cut them, we recommend a Dremel cutting wheel (take your time) and sander for cleanup. If you do have ideas for modified parts, let us know and we might be able to do a custom job for you and add you to the prestigious Hall of Customs.
Roadies Paintball shared some insight into how they paint 3D printed bodies. https://www.reddit.com/r/paintball/comments/h0niko/emek_painting/ftn7e5m/
Wet sand the body with 400 grit paper.
Use a good plastic primer, 2 coats 15 mins apart.
Wet sand with 2000 grit paper.
Shoot your first coat lightly, establish a base.
Wait 15 mins and do two more coats 15 mins apart.
Finish with a clear coat “automotive works great” you’ll want to do 3 coats 15 mins apart.
Let cure for 48 hours.
We believe that open source is a double edged sword. Because of this, certain products will be released to the 3D printing community after they have been public for a few months but most custom marker designs will be kept in-house unless they receive an update in which case we may release the previous version. Please check out our download section for what is available for free and our 3D file section on our store for what is available to buy.