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Thread: 3D printer- What are your views ?

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    Default 3D printer- What are your views ?

    I'm ready to buy a 3D printer but it's a minefield to figure out which one to get.
    Being my first printer, it would be good if it was easy to use and set up, but I guess if the learning curve isn't too steep I might get away with it..
    I have seen videos where the parts made are not very strong and the guy can pull them apart with his fingers, is this normal or is it possible to print strong parts ? ...There wouldn't be much point if I bought and used a 3D printer to make something like a new knob for the heater control in my car and it just smashes the first time I turn it.
    Also, is it possible to get good results with a cheap printer like these ? ... They are around my current budget.






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    I would also be interested to hear any comments about the above. Prices certainly are much better than what they were a couple of years ago.

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    The printer itself I dont think plays any part in the structural integrity of the made part, rather it is the medium used that determines that I would think.
    If whatever the medium is made of only comes in one grade, then your stuck with that and can only make what is capable of forming within certain design parameters.
    In the picture it shows an Owl or an eagle with out stretched wings which if you didnt design them correctly in thickness or made them too long it could make them easier to break or damage.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    they've come down a lot in price, we paid USD 2K for ours 2 years ago, use ABS not PLA if you want better results

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    If you're looking to print something like a knob or any other kind of part that you actually want to use, you have to look at Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers using some form of ABS plastic, have a read of this page...



    ...which also has a list of printers and their compatible production-grade thermoplastics at the bottom.


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    Quote Originally Posted by jok11n View Post
    they've come down a lot in price, we paid USD 2K for ours 2 years ago, use ABS not PLA if you want better results
    Which one did you buy ? and are you happy with it ?

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    we've got one of these

    we use it for prototyping and it works well for our purpose, before when we'd make a product design and we wanted to check it we'd wait 7 days for a hand made mockup cut from a solid block of ABS, now we can print it up in a few hours, check it, if we want to make a change we can print again and have another look, just a huge timesaver for us

    if you only wanted for occasional printing just use Shapeways to print for you

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    I was talking to a bloke at the Royal Adelaide show, this year. His main observation was that the cheaper thermoplastics from China and the like are not up to the standard of the more expensive (but, supposedly, identical) local stuff. He was actually demonstrating some quite complex printing projects. One of the older, and more simplistic printers was actively printing a case for an iPhone designed by one of his kids. He had just finished printing a small goblet on the main demo printer while I was there and the finished product was certainly robust enough. The upshot of it being, it matters not what brand the printer, but, the raw product used to print what you needed.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    good quality material is important, you can buy good or crap from anywhere though, the PLA is rubbish regardless of where you buy it from, but it's cheap

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    Ok well another question : What are the advantages of having a dual extruder model ?

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    Getting fantastic results from my Robox 3d Printer


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    Quote Originally Posted by INFO View Post
    Getting fantastic results from my Robox 3d Printer

    Looks nice, unfortunately a bit out of my budget.

    I bit the bullet today and ordered the second one in my original post. I found there's a big following for it in the net so plenty of help and described mods, videos etc. ... I've read that it's currently the second best selling printer.

    I almost bought one of these \/ Then I found out the company is untouchable when you've got problems.


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    We use a CEL Robox at work and works quite well, the bed gets tacky when heated up and allows the material to stick, when the bed cools the part just comes off the bed. I also hear that they are working on a milling head that you can swap out.

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    There are a number of 3D printer forums on the WWW with useful discussions.

    I recommend which is an offshoot of CNC Zone forums ().

    Others...







    ...and many more.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tristen View Post
    There are a number of 3D printer forums on the WWW with useful discussions.

    I recommend which is an offshoot of CNC Zone forums ().

    Others...







    ...and many more.
    WOW lots of good info there.
    Thank you

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    Bought one of these off eBay.



    Took approximately 3 to 4 weeks to build so all wiring was neat and tidy.
    No true instructions are available as many versions exist.

    Steep learning curve however great results with either PLA or ABS.

    PLA is by far the easiest to print.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Krustyone View Post
    Bought one of these off eBay.



    Took approximately 3 to 4 weeks to build so all wiring was neat and tidy.
    No true instructions are available as many versions exist.

    Steep learning curve however great results with either PLA or ABS.

    PLA is by far the easiest to print.
    If you like printing in PLA get your hands on some PLA/PHA from ColorFabb

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    So another question arises : Where is the best place to get top quality filament ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by loopyloo View Post
    So another question arises : Where is the best place to get top quality filament ?
    Never had a problem buying my filament from 3d Printer Gear


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    Hi LoopyLoo,
    I recently went down the same path. After much research I eventually settled on this printer from Geeetech. It's based on your typical Prusa design, but I selected this on because it has an Aluminium Frame.

    Being my first printer, the learning curve was steep. Construction was the easy part, getting it to work correctly was the hard part. However after much frustration, I now get excellent prints 99% of the time and when a print does go wrong, I can recognise the problem. As a result of overcoming all the hurdles, I learnt a lot about 3D printing and I've come to the following conclusion: If you just want to print objects straight out of the box, get a MakerBot or something similar that's higher up the consumer ladder. If you want to learn about 3D printing though, get one of the many "assemble-it-yourself" printers. -Hope that helps
    Last edited by GavinSV; 07-12-15 at 07:37 PM.
    “There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary – and those who don’t”

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