
PRO
dbeard
USA
Asked
— Edited
I am looking for recommendations on an entry level 3d printer. Something that I can use to print some parts but also learn without breaking the bank. Any suggestions?
Again thank you for taking the time to help me out.
Ron
PS: Some day I may ask you for more about how to do Scripting (101).
http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:1?q=solidoodle&sa=
You would just need to find the parts you want to reproduce there.
Also, I would be happy to help on the scripting. I will be away for a bit, but would be happy to help out when I get back.
Ron
There are issues with ALL 3d printing types. There are 3 different types that I know about that are mainstream. 1 of them is extremely expensive and isn't good for parts like gears and the like. This is through a powder that has resin spit on it from a nozzle. The second is the laser/resin type where laser hardens the resin on a build plate. Still pretty expensive and there is some post processing that is required. It does produce amazing prints though. This type, I would guess, would require less maintenance if it were in a very clean environment. The third is the most common where a print head moves around on rods to lay down layers of melted plastic. This is the least expensive, but I would guess it has the most maintenance required. There are belts, and pulleys, wheels, gears and bearings, along with fans, springs, motors and screws. As such, there will be maintenance to keep the printer printing at a high quality level.
Technology on these printers is improving all of the time. Unfortunately, when a company jumps out with something really revolutionary and fails, they get bashed more then applauded. Makerbot is an example. I wouldn't touch their new printers with a 10 foot pole right now, but they are trying to do some things that are needed in this area. They are trying to push to make the industry much better, but unfortunately, they came out with a product that wasn't tested enough. My guess is that they were trying to rush it to market they were purchased by another company, who wanted to get this product out of the way to work on other projects with them. I don't know what happened but it wasn't good. MakerBot's name got tarnished even though they had a great previous product line.
If you dont want to do any maintenance, and want it to work like a light switch (which sometimes break also) I would not get into 3D printing at all and pay 10X the cost to print the part. If you want to be able to print your own parts, no matter what technology you go with, you will be doing maintenance. Even computer printers, which have been around for what, 40 years or so, have springs, screws, belts, motors and many other components that go bad. The difference is that they are cheap enough to just go buy a new one so people really don't fret much about them. I used to work for a company that used very expensive laser printers to print out hundreds of thousands of documents at a time. These broke a lot and even caught the print shop on fire on a couple of occasions. The reasons for the fires were lack of maintenance on the printers.
Thank you for the information. That's pretty much what I thought. I used to build everything from scratch. Hardware, metal work, software, whatever. But I'm at a point in my life where I no longer find as much pleasure in that as I did so I look more to just buying what I need so I can concentrate on my end goal and not so much the details. Not that all that was a waste of time as I learned a lot and it was fun at the time. Still, I think I'll just pay the 10X cost and let the maker deal with the headaches. Thanks again.
hobbyking page
Sorry Dave, but the Solidoodle was not affordable and this one comes with Wifi and an SD card reader which allows stand alone printing thus freeing up my computer. Thanks for all your time discussing the Solidoodle 4.
Regards,
Ron
On a side note, the schools solidoodle is going back to the school on the 15th. I too am now in the market for a 3d printer
3D printing is still new and many changes and improvements are being made daily. I won't feel like I am throwing away big money if major changes come up down the road.
I will post my results when all is done and I am happy I will have a 3D printer to play with.
Ron
Cant wait to hear about it.
Thanks
Ken
Ron
Ron
Hi Dave,
How did your old Reprap run when you used it? Does it still live?
Ron
The solidoodle 4 has printed far better with much less headache for 1/3 of what I put into the reprap but I also learned a lot from the reprap.
Ron
I wish you the best. Let us know.
PrintRBot
Here is a review of it, showing the good and bad points.
PrintRBot Play Review
I have 10 hours of printing on my kit and so far so good. Print errors on my part, but it is running. Take a look at the thread I posted.
Ron