3D Printer Advice Request
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Posted on 06/02/2016 8:56:04 PM PDT by ghosthost
I am looking to purchase my first 3d Printer. I assume I have waited long enough for the bugs to have been worked out. Ha. I would like one with a good-sized stage/printing platform and I don't want to invest in a clunker or off-brand. I don't even know what the good brands are.
Any advice from you good folks would be appreciated. If you can include links, that would be wonderful. The plastic resin-type ones are fine. I don't need to print metallic objects. Just something sturdy with a good warranty as I assume they break easily? Also, I would appreciate any info on the resin material with pricing. I assume that you can go through tons of that stuff quickly. Thank you in advance!
(Excerpt) Read more at staples.com ...
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bkmk
That's an extremely great question each buyer should ponder. If you are not focused on making money with it, it will be fun to experiment with. I've seen people focused on making little toys for themselves and children. Fine, if you want to spend hours printing something at great cost when you can buy toys at a store for a buck (or less from a gumball machine). I've made some great toys for my grandkids, best seem to be whistles and slinky toys.
My focus was on making items that are difficult or expensive to obtain. I've made replacement parts for tools, special wall-mount brackets, camera tripod brackets, light-fixtures and add-ons to exercise equipment, among other things. Some of these items I made out of ABS, particularly because PLA can easily degrade outdoors and is brittle. You can polish ABS items to a shine by placing it in an acetone mist (I use a rice cooker for this). You can also "glue" ABS parts together with solvent to make larger items than your print-bed allows. ABS parts can be relatively brittle and break if it has sharp turns and bends.
For more durable parts, I print in nylon. Nylon is extremely tough, you can twist it without it breaking and it holds up very well under stress. You can create brackets that snap on without breaking the bracket. An additional benefit of transparent nylon is that you can dye it pretty much any color after printed. I've made some pretty items in different colors by dipping the items in dye.
I recommend giving much thought to what a buyer wants to create, because that will greatly influence the choice of 3D printer. They are not all alike.
Let us know which one you purchased and your opinion of it after you have played around with it a bit. Might make for a good vanity thread.
Ping-a-ling...
I’ve always found pictures of the stuff that comes out of 3-D printers quite disturbing and kind of gross. However, if you’re up for that sort of thing, good luck!
I don’t get it. What you plan to do with it?
There is a Robo3D in our lab here we use to make test fixtures and small parts,, its cheap and cool.. .
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