Electronics > Beginners
Buying 3D printer
Nominal Animal:
--- Quote from: brucehoult on August 17, 2018, 01:54:36 am ---
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 17, 2018, 12:56:57 am ---I'd really need a small, cheap, quiet, accurate 3D printer I could use for printing small mechanical structures in PLA.
--- End quote ---
There's no such thing.
If you can't afford a Prusa then you can't afford a practical and useul 3D printer. Even the Prusa is fiddly.
--- End quote ---
Because the Prusa i3 (including MK3) design is GPL'd, there are many derivatives. I could get a Prusa i3 reprap derivative for under 250€ (which even I could afford), but who knows how good/accurate the hardware parts are?
The Original Prusa i3 MK3 (from Prusa himself) would cost me ~ 800€ shipped. That is over my current spending limit. The reported occasional problems (frame parts needing machining to fix in particular) scare me, because I don't have access to a metal shop to fix any of them, and shipping the parts back and forth (to get them fixed under warranty) would cost quite a bit. If I had access to even a modest metal shop and dimensionally accurate aluminium extrusions, I'd have built a 3D printer to satisfy my needs ages ago already.
The electronics, even the drivers and steppers I can replace, and I can (re)write the entire software stack if I need to; it's the mechanics I'd have to live with.
I was hoping there would be practical experiences from those using/maintaining multiple printers, especially regarding the hardware side.
CJay:
--- Quote from: Sudo_apt-get_install_yum on August 16, 2018, 01:45:06 pm ---Flash forge finder (We have like 10 of them)
-High quality prints, is easy to use. You’re locked to its slicer, has a small build plate and not heated bed
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I'm not convinced you are locked to their slicer, there's at least one commercial offering that supports their machines and it seems there are a few open source/free packages that work too (I've not tried them yet, Flashprint works for me so far but I did look when I got the machine)
Unless you know different?
exe:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 17, 2018, 02:58:27 am ---I could get a Prusa i3 reprap derivative for under 250€ (which even I could afford)
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It will be nowhere as good as Prusa without putting a lot of efforts, imho. Just quality electronics, direct extruder and a few other crucial parts will cost 250 alone.
I saw people having good printing results using junk parts, but I wasn't able to achieve the same with my cr10 (I spent 3 or 4 months tuning it). Now my printer costs twice the original price, yet doesn't print well because controller board is not good. So, if I want to remove printing defects I need new brains (like duetwifi, but it costs 160euro), or I can spend another few weeks tuning firmware, playing with drivers' trimpots, etc trying to repair the original board. The funny thing is, after half a year of owning the 3d printer I printed just a few useful parts. The rest was calibration cubes, etc.
So, my advice don't underestimate cost of your time. Now I'd pay three times more than what I paid originally for the printer just to get a decent device I could trust.
Eka:
--- Quote from: metrologist on August 16, 2018, 06:13:43 pm ---All talk about the printer, but that is useless without some design to print. How do folks actually create the design, particularly complex designs?
Isn't that most significant aspect of this, and the most difficult hurdle?
--- End quote ---
I used OpenSCAD. You program your design rather than use a GUI to form it.
Sudo_apt-get_install_yum:
--- Quote from: CJay on August 17, 2018, 08:26:10 am ---
--- Quote from: Sudo_apt-get_install_yum on August 16, 2018, 01:45:06 pm ---Flash forge finder (We have like 10 of them)
-High quality prints, is easy to use. You’re locked to its slicer, has a small build plate and not heated bed
--- End quote ---
I'm not convinced you are locked to their slicer, there's at least one commercial offering that supports their machines and it seems there are a few open source/free packages that work too (I've not tried them yet, Flashprint works for me so far but I did look when I got the machine)
Unless you know different?
--- End quote ---
It might be so, I think Simplify3D has support but I’m not sure. At least with the older flash forge you were locked but it’s probably changed by now.
The slicer is good and works just fine, i just miss "advanced" features.
I really like these printers, they print 24/7 and have been doing so for a year or two and are holding up just fine. Only thing we have had to replace is the nozzle but after several thousands of hours of printing it’s kind of expected from a brass nozzle.
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