anybody have one? anybody use them? any recommendations?

ChrispenEvan said:

any recommendations?

be nice to your mother

i am, i’m going halves with my sister to get her and dad a plaque in the memorial garden.

ChrispenEvan said:

i am, i’m going halves with my sister to get her and dad a plaque in the memorial garden.

you’re a good lad

ChrispenEvan said:

anybody have one? anybody use them? any recommendations?

BN sells them. We made bears and other useless crap.

My brother has one. Apparently they are not really at the plug in and play type stage yet. It’s quite a lot of messing around and tweaking bits here and there to get it working well. He has made a few modification to the machine already, it works well for a while but then this bit or that bit bends or works out of position over time and the thing has to be taken apart and re-assembled.

He has made everything from telescope camera mounts for me to fake parrot eggs for the zoo,

The software is a bit difficult to learn, and is a separate skill-set. Just in planning how to print the object. You can’t have too much of a span or plastic bridge. Some objects need to be made upside down or on their side, or in several pieces which join together later.

what make and model p_p?

ChrispenEvan said:

what make and model p_p?

Dunno. I’ll ask him if you want?

yes please.

Ok, I’ll drop him an email and let you know when he replies.

I’ve got two; an Up and a Flashforge

What would you like to know?

interested in the type, sterolithography v fused deposition etc. smoothness of finished product. ease of use re software. reliability.

ChrispenEvan said:

interested in the type, sterolithography v fused deposition etc. smoothness of finished product. ease of use re software. reliability.

All the layer deposition ones have pretty much the same quality output. The software to drive them is important; the Up uses their own software and it works quite well but is limiting in many ways. For the Flashforge I use Simplify3D and it’s complex but very flexible and good to use.
To improve the smoothness of the parts you can make the layers thinner, most of them can go down to 0.15 mm thick layers now and that ends up with a pretty smooth surface. To make them smoother you can use an acetone vapour cabinet, that gently melts the outer surface and you can get some very good finishes with that process.

Sorry – Reliability.
The mechanical gear is usually pretty darn good. The only problems I have with both of mine is the filament getting clogged in the nozzle. Depending on how clogged it is, I can usually just back the filament out with a little help by hand. For worse clogs that are really stuck, you have to pull the print head apart and clean it all in acetone.

ta Bill. flashforge and davinci seem to be pretty good. the ones with inbuilt scanners aren’t an option as they don’t have good scanning resolution and would be an added cost for not much benefit. also i don’t see myself copying stuff.

ChrispenEvan said:

ta Bill. flashforge and davinci seem to be pretty good. the ones with inbuilt scanners aren’t an option as they don’t have good scanning resolution and would be an added cost for not much benefit. also i don’t see myself copying stuff.

Yeah scanners are still lagging in price-for-performance.
I use this bloke for filament here, he’s also got a good printer with a decent print volume – http://modfab.com.au/

You could try the 3d printer from ALDI. I don’t recommend it unless you’re prepared for occasional problems. Https://3dprint.com/119854/aldi-cocoon-3d-printer/

ZMorph

• ZMorph 2.0 SX for Digital Fabrication,
• Single 1.75 Plastic Extruder,
• Dual PRO Extruder,
• CNC PRO,
• Laser Module (2W),
• Thick Paste Extruder,
• Spare extruder nozzle 0.4mm,
• Heated work platform 235 × 250mm,
• Touch Probe for calibration,
• BuildTak,
• CNC table for milling and cutting,
• Transport handle for easy transportation.

I also should add that my first experience of 3d printers was before they became popular. I hired a firm to print something for me, and the results were superb, much better than more recent 3d printers. Back the accuracy was much better than 0.1 mm. The cheaper ones now available have much lower accuracy, of the order of 0.2 to 0.3 mm. And that accuracy difference makes a very very big difference in the final product.

Reply from my bother – I’ll just copy and paste

Howdy,

Mine was a kit from RepRap – however they’re no-longer in business (and I wouldn’t have recommended it anyway).

I think the two main hobbyist level ones were https://ultimaker.com/ and http://www.makerbot.com/ but perhaps there’s some others these days.

A few thoughts of top of my head:

· Some of them (like the one office works sold) I saw take the filament in a cartridge. I guess to tie you in to buying it from them (at probably higher cost). I’d go for one you can just fit bog standard reels to.

· The easier plastic is PLA (what I’m using) – although it has a lower operating temp and more hard and brittle. ABS plastic requires hotter end temp and a heated bed – so if you want ABS then look for that.

· I use the ultimaker software with my reprap and found it much nicer to use others. Although I’m not sure what comes with makerbot.

· Otherwise you’re paying for how thin the layers and the print volume. So if you’ve got in mind what you want to use it for this might be important.

· Then there’s dual (and triple) head versions that can take multiple rolls of plastic so it can print various bits in different colours. Not sure if they’re still in favour.

· Maybe some are quieter than others? A print can go for hours so that might be an issue for some.

· There are a few standard size filaments. I’d perhaps look to so where you might be buying your filament from just to make sure they’re selling the correct size.

· I found it’s not really plug and play as yet. There’s lots of settings to play with to get it to print nice. So expect a lot of the hobby initially just play with print settings and trying things.

· The other learning curve is learning your 3D drawing software of choice. There’s various free ones – but they some time learning also.

thanks p_p. reprap was a DIY build. more geek and nerd orientated. makeabot seems quite good. still thinking the Zmorph though atm.