Anyone have experience with 3D printers?

[Jwest7788]

I'm looking into purchasing a basic 3d printer to get my hands wet with the tech. I know it will be an avenue to learn much about cad, cam, steppers, etc.

As I am a total beginner to this field, looking for recommendations on bare bones beginner printers.

So far I have M3d as a ready made setup, or Folger Tech's Prusa i3 as a kit based setup.

You'll note that both of those are below $400 all in. I'm aiming for as inexpensive as I can to see if it's something that will continue to hold my interest like metal working has. I would hate to invest much more just to later decide it's not for me.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

P.s. I made an off topic section for this post, haha.

 

[Tom O]

I have a Makerbot replicator 2 they can be quite useful but it does require cad experience mind you learning the basics isn't that bad or you could print off of thingiverse. Instead of throwing hundreds at it I'd join protospace and learn on theirs and take their cad course it is a win in my eyes.
That way you could see what you want in a printer and what they are capable of doing. There are other considerations too mostly the size of print the machine is capable of and if it uses support material for overhangs which requires a two head system.

 

[Mphenley]

So far I have M3d as a ready made setup, or Folger Tech's Prusa i3 as a kit based setup.

Fixed your links. Forum doesn't handle true html code, you have to use the BB Code versions of link tags, and not all the options are available.

P.s. I made an off topic section for this post, haha.

I'd thought to do that earlier... obviously didn't do it though ... nice thinking. Though I don't think this particular thread is COMPLETELY off topic, since it's still CNC. Video gaming or cycling threads might be off topic though.

 

[Jwest7788]

Fixed your links. Forum doesn't handle true html code, you have to use the BB Code versions of link tags, and not all the options are available.
I'd thought to do that earlier... obviously didn't do it though ... nice thinking. Though I don't think this particular thread is COMPLETELY off topic, since it's still CNC. Video gaming or cycling threads might be off topic though.

Thanks! I have HTML hard coded in me, can't help it sometimes, haha.

I have a Makerbot replicator 2 they can be quite useful but it does require cad experience mind you learning the basics isn't that bad or you could print off of thingiverse. Instead of throwing hundreds at it I'd join protospace and learn on theirs and take their cad course it is a win in my eyes.
That way you could see what you want in a printer and what they are capable of doing. There are other considerations too mostly the size of print the machine is capable of and if it uses support material for overhangs which requires a two head system.

Great thoughts. Yeah, I have 0 cad experience, but am somewhat of a pro software learner. I still think about protospace after the recent meetup, but it's basically 1.5 hours there and back to my home, and I typically only get an hour or two, here and there for working on hobbies, so it's not practical for me at this time!

 

[Mphenley]

If I get the gibbscam download that Rick mentioned on the embedded machine, you can borrow it and twiddle. I can always setup a VM on my local cluster to play with it here.

 

[PeterT]

I'd join protospace and learn on theirs and take their cad course.

What cad system are they using/teaching & what does the course entail?

 

[Tom O]

It was solidworks / fusion 360, it is a one day course where you make a computer plug. Both of these programs can run the cam software for the tormach mill.

 

[Johnwa]

I'm looking into purchasing a basic 3d printer to get my hands wet with the tech. I know it will be an avenue to learn much about cad, cam, steppers, etc.

As I am a total beginner to this field, looking for recommendations on bare bones beginner printers.

So far I have M3d as a ready made setup, or Folger Tech's Prusa i3 as a kit based setup.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

P.s. I made an off topic section for this post, haha.

I have a prusa i3 that works ok. There are two things I would like to fix on it.
1. The frame isn't that sturdy and seems to shake quite a bit when printing infill.
2. The height of the bed seems to drift. It is mounted on a "X" shaped piece of ABS that seems to change shape over time.

I haven't addressed either of those yet as my prints are adequate for my purposes.

The M3d appears to use a custom roll of 1/2 pound filament. I don't know if it will work with a standard 1kg roll. It does use standard 1.75 mm diameter filament so you could roll your own spools. 1.75 mm is available locally for about $35/kg,

The Folger doesn't come with a heated bed which you will need if you print ABS and doesn't hurt for PLA. It also doesn't come with the glass plate to print on. They suggest regular plate glass. You should use birosilicate glass with a heated bed. Heated beds and glass are available for reasonable prices from China.

The prusa hardware and software is open source and can be easily modified. Spare hot ends, extruders and other parts are very inexpensive. You can only get M3d parts from M3d.

From the one YouTube review it looks like the M3d will work right out of the box. From my experience the prusa needs a bit of care and attention to print reliably. Once you have it set up and a good first layer printed though, you can leave it unattended.

Personally I'm glad I bought the prusa as I enjoy the building and assembly and like to know how things work. If you just want a printer that works the the M3d might be a better choice.

 

[PeterT]

Johnwa, what do you use for 3d Cad software? And then what's the next step to get that Cad file actually printing in the Prusa? (ie. separate 'cam' equivalent program?). I'm new to all this too but a bit intrigued. Or if its easier, maybe you have some suggested links/forums that discuss all this. Would like to see some parts you've made one day.

 

[Johnwa]

Johnwa, what do you use for 3d Cad software? And then what's the next step to get that Cad file actually printing in the Prusa? (ie. separate 'cam' equivalent program?). I'm new to all this too but a bit intrigued. Or if its easier, maybe you have some suggested links/forums that discuss all this. Would like to see some parts you've made one day.

I use auto desk inventor. My wife works at MRU so we get its free for non commercial use. 360fusion is free too until you start making money from it.

I export an STL file from inventor.
I use pronterface/slic3r to print. Slic3r cuts the STL solid model into horizontal slices and writes the gcode. It is an amazing piece of free software. Based on the parameters you set it determines how to fill the interior, adds support material, sets bed and nozzle temperature etc.
Pronterface (free) interfaces with the printer. It allows you to manually start the bed and nozzle heaters, move the xyz axis(useful when levelling the bed), initiates slic3r and then feeds the gcode to the printer. The printer software, Ramps in my case, takes the gcode and executes it with the appropriate acceleration and speed.

An alternative to pronterface/slic3r is repetier-host. I use it sometimes to modify the orientation of the object and how it is sliced.

Some of the models on thingiverse include SCAD files. OpenScad is a free 3d modeller. You write the model as a series of commands and then execute them like a program to generate and see what the model looks like. I've used it to modify a few things I downloaded from thingiverse.

Other than for the lack of really good documentation the free software is quite good.

 

[Johnwa]

I think I've attached a picture of a couple of items I printed. The blue object is an early iteration of a dual gopro mount. It is used for shooting 3d.
The black item is a mount for an Arduino uno.

The gopro mount took about 5 hours to print.