3D printer recommendations please...

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › 3D printer recommendations please...

Talkiet

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Topic # 224289 10-Nov-2017 21:19

Sooooooooooo much information out there, fast evolution of the space etc... What I want...-

Method of prototyping small cases, mounts and production of PCB and sensor holders etc etc. classic 3d printer stuff.

- Print volume space (I'd like at least 20*20*20, I can't see much bigger being useful for me at this stage).

- Material. Would like to be able to use ABS in addition to PLA

- resolution. Finer the better

- print quality - good to very good. Doesn't have to be the best

- dimensional accuracy - excellent

- speed. Don't think I care.

- Support. Not afraid of Chinese imports if it's a mostly known quantity with spares available.

- Noise/size : Don't care, I live alone and have a huge garage

- Features I know I want? Um, self levelling bed, heated obviously? I think I need an enclosure for ABS? (I would consider giving up ABS or enclosure as well)

- Budget? I'd like to keep it under a grand

So, where should I look? So far the Creality CR10s, FLyingbear Tornado and Tevo Tarantula look appealing - with the Wanhao D4s/d6 looking really good.

There have to be some enthusiasts on here with relevant input. Please speak up - there's the huge 11/11 sales all over ALiexpress and Banggood tomorrow :-)

Cheers - N

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Reply # 1899084 10-Nov-2017 21:46

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G4m3r

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Reply # 1899098 10-Nov-2017 23:35

Have been borrowing a Wanhao d6 for the last few weeks to build electronics enclosures so couldnt really be called a enthusiast.
Havent had much experience so far but heres just a few observations.

Level and smooth build plate is everything. If its not smooth or level prints will stick and then get ruined trying to pull them off.
Its possible to do abs without a enclosure but it would be better with it.

The printer itself:
             The UI is simple and easy to use.
             Relatively care free once it is setup and running properly.
             Earlier models had a issue with a faulty relay causing it to sop working. I read on a forum this was fixed with the newer models. A fix to this issue is to replace the relay or solder a wire across it.
             Comes as a single unit and is easy to move around and set up again.
             Build very solid.
             All the sensor and motor plugs have been hot glued into their sockets to avoid them coming out while the printers working.
             Im happy with the print quality and have only had it up to medium quality so far.

Overall I like the D6 although I havent got anything to compare it too. It would most likely be my choice of printer or maybe something with a bigger buildplate depending on what I want to print.
Make sure you get a good CAD program if you make your own models.

Talkiet

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Reply # 1899140 11-Nov-2017 09:47

G4m3r:

Have been borrowing a Wanhao d6 for the last few weeks to build electronics enclosures so couldnt really be called a enthusiast.
Havent had much experience so far but heres just a few observations.

Thanks for that. Very useful. You wouldn't be able to share the sort of results that a newbie use is able to get could you? Any warping, missing layers etc?

I think I'm probably going to buy something before the end of 11.11, but not sure what yet.

Honestly I expected a lot more response on this question... I thought if any general purpose NZ online community would have something to say it would be this one :-) Maybe there's a better local community for 3d printing and CNC stuff?

Cheers -N

G4m3r

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Reply # 1899222 11-Nov-2017 12:07

I'll try get some images sorted after work. Warping is minimal. Lost a layer once but my last serries of prints has been smooth and problem free.

Have yet to find a good online community for this but havent spent much time looking. New technology with limited number of people having printers i think.
Would be good to get one started here.

blakamin

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Reply # 1899257 11-Nov-2017 14:13

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Talkiet:

Honestly I expected a lot more response on this question...

Same... I keep seeing them advertised everywhere (even Officeworks here in Oz), but don't know which one to beg the Mrs for.

mrdrifter

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Reply # 1899292 11-Nov-2017 16:39

I had a DIY Mini Kossel Delta printer for a while, excellent quality and high print speeds.

I had a few problems early on with warping, but a heated bed fixed that issue. an enclosure would have been a good addition as well.

As was mentioned above, ensuring the bed is smooth and level is the key to nearly everything working correctly. Oh you can never calibrate enough.

frankv

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Reply # 1899293 11-Nov-2017 16:47

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3D printers now are like PCs in the 1980s. I spend a lot more time fiddling with them and learning about them than actually making stuff. Even when I'm trying to make stuff. If making stuff is what you want, then you're probably better off to get someone else to do it for you.

Another way to look at it is that a 3D printer will cost you $1000 minimum; if you pay less for it up front, you'll pay with your time (at $1 per hour) getting it sorted out. For example, the cheap Chinese printer I bought is now printing quite nicely, a year or more down the track. As delivered, it could NOT possibly work. It had parts that interfered with each other. It had 3D-printed parts that were too weak.

Some rules of thumb:

Start with a single extruder, single nozzle Cartesian printer (e.g. Prusa i3); you don't need the other complexities (yet).

If you want to print ABS, you'll probably need a heated bed. But PLA is probably just fine for 99% of what you want.

Anything that doesn't have a metal frame will get worse to unusable within a year or two.

Auto-bedlevelling is nice, but not necessary. It does NOT compensate for inaccurately built printers.

If you're going to have the printer in the garage, get yourself a RPi3 with OctoPi and a camera. You'll probably want lighting too. If possible, you do want a dust-free garage.

There's a big learning curve in CAD design; start with printing stuff other people have designed. (Thingiverse is a good start).

Big things take a long time to print. Therefore reliability is a *big* issue. If half your 5-hour prints fail, a 10-hour print is pretty unlikely. Initially, you may struggle to get a good 1-hour print.

Talkiet

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Reply # 1899302 11-Nov-2017 17:32

frankv:

3D printers now are like PCs in the 1980s. I spend a lot more time fiddling with them and learning about them than actually making stuff. Even when I'm trying to make stuff. If making stuff is what you want, then you're probably better off to get someone else to do it for you.

Another way to look at it is that a 3D printer will cost you $1000 minimum; if you pay less for it up front, you'll pay with your time (at $1 per hour) getting it sorted out. For example, the cheap Chinese printer I bought is now printing quite nicely, a year or more down the track. As delivered, it could NOT possibly work. It had parts that interfered with each other. It had 3D-printed parts that were too weak.

Some rules of thumb:

Start with a single extruder, single nozzle Cartesian printer (e.g. Prusa i3); you don't need the other complexities (yet).

If you want to print ABS, you'll probably need a heated bed. But PLA is probably just fine for 99% of what you want.

Anything that doesn't have a metal frame will get worse to unusable within a year or two.

Auto-bedlevelling is nice, but not necessary. It does NOT compensate for inaccurately built printers.

If you're going to have the printer in the garage, get yourself a RPi3 with OctoPi and a camera. You'll probably want lighting too. If possible, you do want a dust-free garage.

There's a big learning curve in CAD design; start with printing stuff other people have designed. (Thingiverse is a good start).

Big things take a long time to print. Therefore reliability is a *big* issue. If half your 5-hour prints fail, a 10-hour print is pretty unlikely. Initially, you may struggle to get a good 1-hour print.

Thanks - that's great stuff... At the moment I am leaning towards either

- Anycubic I3 Mega

- Creatility CR-10s (definitely 's' model)

- Wanhao Duplicator 6 (with cover)

Currently in that order of likelihood. I'll look into Octopi. I think I have seen it used on some youtube reviews - I presume it's some sort of control and monitoring platform? I have a Spare Rpi3 I retired after figuring out that Odroid C2s blew them out of the water in every way...

I have never done any 3d work, but knocked this out in a couple of hours a few nights ago...

Which is the sort of thing I would be after initially. 123d design seemed pretty easy to get into.

I am hearing everywhere that reliability and Gooooood setup is key, so I'll definitely take that onboard.

Any specific thoughts on the printers I mention?

Cheers - N

G4m3r

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Reply # 1899325 11-Nov-2017 17:55

This is what my printing gets me. A very simple case nothing too complex at this stage.
Has a few holes in the side for switches and a few other things.

frankv

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Reply # 1899431 11-Nov-2017 22:09

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Talkiet:

I am leaning towards either

- Anycubic I3 Mega

- Creatility CR-10s (definitely 's' model)

- Wanhao Duplicator 6 (with cover)

Currently in that order of likelihood. I'll look into Octopi. I think I have seen it used on some youtube reviews - I presume it's some sort of control and monitoring platform? I have a Spare Rpi3 I retired after figuring out that Odroid C2s blew them out of the water in every way...

I have never done any 3d work, but knocked this out in a couple of hours a few nights ago...

[snip]

Which is the sort of thing I would be after initially. 123d design seemed pretty easy to get into.

I am hearing everywhere that reliability and Gooooood setup is key, so I'll definitely take that onboard.

Any specific thoughts on the printers I mention?

Beware that what AliExpress calls a "Wanhao Duplicator 6" or whatever probably isn't that; it'll be a something that resembles it, with cheapest-available bearings and extruder and so on.

Printers with moving platforms (Anycubic, Creality) take up twice the bench area compared to ones with moving XY axes (Wanhao). There's also opportunity for the bed to run into stuff on your bench.

Enclosed printers offer a more controlled temperature and therefore are probably better for ABS. Should also be quieter.

Creality's claims of "patented technology" are probably bogus. Mostly open-source designs are better than closed-source anyway.

Don't be swayed by the Creality's large print volume; it's unlikely that you'll print anything that big. (I have a 200x200x300 printer and haven't pushed that boundary). Not to mention that it'll take days, and require you to probably use more than one spool of filament, and cost a fortune (at every attempt, of which there will likely be many).

Do these have nozzles/thermistors/heater cartridges that can be replaced? Typically nozzles come with an M6 thread. These are cheap as from AliX. Some hot-ends integrate these things into a proprietary module.

The downside of an enclosed printer is that it's more awkward when it comes to clearing jams.

The Anycubic and Creality printers use Bowden tube to guide the filament to the hotend. Don't know about the Wanhao. Bowden is good in that it moves the weight of the extruder and its motor off the moving platform, reducing weight and allowing faster acceleration. The downside of Bowden is that it makes it harder to control filament oozing.

If I was choosing between those 3, I think I'd go for the Anycubic (make sure it is the ultrabase model), just because the Prusa i3 design is well-known and proven.

It would be interesting to know what electronics and firmware comes with these printers; most likely they're all some Arduino Mega2560 variant running open-source Marlin or Repetier. If a printer was running proprietary firmware, I wouldn't touch it.

Octopi is Octoprint packaged for the RPi. It provides a web front-end to your printer. You can control it from a browser on a PC or phone on your LAN, or from the Net if you set up port forwarding and so on. If you don't have Octopi, you'll have to use a PC connected directly to the printer by USB. Or transport files to and fro using an SD card. If you have a spare RPi3, it's a no-brainer.

Talkiet

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Reply # 1899433 11-Nov-2017 22:12

frankv:

[snip]

If I was choosing between those 3, I think I'd go for the Anycubic (make sure it is the ultrabase model), just because the Prusa i3 design is well-known and proven.

[snip]

Well, that's lucky :-) That's exactly what I just ordered 30 minutes ago :-)

Got a roll of PLA included and ordered a kg or ABS as well. It is the Ultrabase model.

Obviously I'll report more when I get it but I found very little negative about it. A couple of people complained the plates weren't as flat as they should be, but they also said replacements were shipped quickly.

Cheers - N

frankv

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Reply # 1899437 11-Nov-2017 22:18

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Talkiet:

A couple of people complained the plates weren't as flat as they should be, but they also said replacements were shipped quickly.

Put down a layer of blue masking tape (available from Bunnings) to print PLA. Build up layers of tape in the hollows to make the surface flat. Or if it has a heated bed, get a sheet of 3mm borosilicate glass to fit it. Cheapish from AliX, and I've had 2 shipped to me so far without breaking. :)