3D Printer

[avionix]

What is the size of the impressive T-33?

Wingspan is about 8-10". Don't have it with me at work to measure.

[save]

A friend of mine bought a Prusa3d, he use it to replace damaged parts for cars with ABS filament.

[tmetal]

I've got almost 7 years experience with 3D printers from home/hobby grade printers on up to industrial grade printers.   A few suggestions or advice if you want them.

If you do get another printer I would highly recommend getting one that has a duel extrusion print head.  One extruder set up for your model material and the second extruder set up for a water soluble support material.  You can print much more delicate or smaller items without the fear of breaking them during the support removal post print process. Submerge the item in a bucket of water over night then just rinse it off in the morning; no potentially damaging manual picking away of the support structures.

PLA material works great on most models, is easier to print with, is generally cheaper, leaves a semigloss surface finish, and comes in many more colors than ABS; but because it is a plant based material it doesn't hold up to weather exposure as well as ABS does.  So if it is something that will be outside during much of its life go with ABS or if you're stuck with PLA then hit the finished print with at least a few coats of paint to help seal it up.

The FDM method of 3d printing (the 3d printing method your printer and 90% of all printers use) almost always causes inner dimensions of features in the models to be slightly undersized and outer dimensions to be slightly oversized; for example if you have a .25" diameter printed rod that is meant to fit in a .25" diameter printed hole they wont fit together without some post print sanding.  The rod will come out somewhere around .252" diameter and the hole will come out around .248" diameter.

The layer to layer adhesion will almost always be the weakest part of any print that you do so sometimes you will need to change the print orientation of an object in order to minimize this weakness in your finished print.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby!

[SysError]

I've got almost 7 years experience with 3D printers from home/hobby grade printers on up to industrial grade printers.   A few suggestions or advice if you want them.

If you do get another printer I would highly recommend getting one that has a duel extrusion print head.  One extruder set up for your model material and the second extruder set up for a water soluble support material.  You can print much more delicate or smaller items without the fear of breaking them during the support removal post print process. Submerge the item in a bucket of water over night then just rinse it off in the morning; no potentially damaging manual picking away of the support structures.

PLA material works great on most models, is easier to print with, is generally cheaper, leaves a semigloss surface finish, and comes in many more colors than ABS; but because it is a plant based material it doesn't hold up to weather exposure as well as ABS does.  So if it is something that will be outside during much of its life go with ABS or if you're stuck with PLA then hit the finished print with at least a few coats of paint to help seal it up.

The FDM method of 3d printing (the 3d printing method your printer and 90% of all printers use) almost always causes inner dimensions of features in the models to be slightly undersized and outer dimensions to be slightly oversized; for example if you have a .25" diameter printed rod that is meant to fit in a .25" diameter printed hole they wont fit together without some post print sanding.  The rod will come out somewhere around .252" diameter and the hole will come out around .248" diameter.

The layer to layer adhesion will almost always be the weakest part of any print that you do so sometimes you will need to change the print orientation of an object in order to minimize this weakness in your finished print.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby!

Do you have any specific brand/model printer(s) that you would recommend?


P.S.  Is there anything that you would stay away from?

[tmetal]

Do you have any specific brand/model printer(s) that you would recommend?


P.S.  Is there anything that you would stay away from?

Like many things, you get what you pay for.  There are hobby grade printers that are very cheap and you can get some "good" deals where they include a few spools of material with the purchase but many of these printers can be easily thrown out of calibration and a lot of times the customer service after purchase is little to none; but for many people who don't expect to do a lot of printing these kind of printers can be a good way to "dip a toe" into 3D printing without making the bank account beg for mercy.

Ultimaker makes a good printer along with handy printer accessories and material management systems but they are somewhere in between home/hobby grade printers and industrial printers in both print quality and price (around $3 to $7k if I remember correctly)  3DGence is another company who has a printer (the Double p255) that falls into that same category as Ultimaker.

Unfortunately I have the least personal experience with home/hobby grade printers because i have free access to more capable printers through my work; but if I had to list what I would look for in a home printer it would go like this (in order of priority for me):

Duel extruder print head
print bed movement that is controlled with long worm gears rather than belts
print area size
reviews of customer service/ tech support after the initial purchase period
material sensors (printer senses when it runs out of material and pauses the print until more material is added)
ease of use of the slicing software UI
print head tips/nozzles that are easy to change/replace
heated print bed
enclose-able print area
enclosed/climate controlled material bays

I have heard almost nothing good about the Makerbot line of printers as well as the Prusa line of printers.  Part of Pursa's marketing is that many of the parts on their printers are 3D printed so the customer can print out their own replacement parts as they wear out. Problem is that several of these parts are the drive gears for the movement of the print head and if those start to wear out you are going to have a hard time printing out a replacement that is clean and accurate enough to not still give you problems (i would rather have parts made out of metal or molded plastic that aren't going to wear out anytime soon).  Makerbot has a reputation of poor manufacturing quality control and even worse customer/tech support.

There are companies out there that deal in used 3D printers as well, so you might be able to get a very capable printer for close to the price of a new yet less capable printer.

FDM printing is the most common type of printing right now and is tried and true, but SLA printers are really starting to get affordable and the quality of the finished product is several orders of magnitude better than anything a FDM printer can manage.

[SysError]

ty

[tmetal]

anytime