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i3 kit set for delivery next week 😎 Just installed & starting playing around with Fusion 360. Anyone use/rate that Space Mouse thingy for designing?
I don’t really like tinkering with the machines. 3D printing isn’t the hobby for me – it’s creating/prototyping/designing things. I want the machine to ‘just work’, or as close as I can get for my budget.
I have a Wanhao Duplicator 5S Mini and it does just work with no setting up required between prints. I haven't leveled the bed in 6 months, if not longer. I just turn it on, dust off the bed and start printing. I'm also sure I could get a lot better prints, if I could be bothered to spend hours and hours adjusting settings, but its good enough for prototypes/models/jigs.
I have Simplify3D too, I bought it a few years ago when most of the other slicers were pretty rubbish. It seems a lot of the other slicers offer similar features to Simplify3D now.
Space Mouse looks interesting but expensive.
Anyone use/rate that Space Mouse thingy for designing?
Do you mean one of those 3DConnexion navigator things?
We use them at work - some people get on with them really well & other people don't. I don't.
It's not that I don't like it, I just don't find it any better than using the mouse, whereas one of my colleagues uses his all the time.
IMO, not worth the price for a hobby-ist user, but if you can afford it, then why not.....?
i3 kit set for delivery next week
Prusa? A bloke at work has just bought a mk3 Prusa & really rates it. Took him longer to build than he thought it would, but I don't think he had any specific issues.
He bought in a few sample bits & they did look very good.
Yes Prusa mk3. Kit is a fair whack cheaper than the built version plus I thought I might learn something while doing it!
Yeah looking at the 3DConnexion device. Don't have a middle button on my Apple Magic Mouse (although apparently one is addable via some software jiggery-pokery) which I think might get real old real fast!
How’s the mk3 build going?
Great! Built it over a couple of (long 😃) nights. Enjoyed the build, really impressed with how professional the kit is, everything went together very well & the instructions/support is excellent. Printed a few calibration objects but nothing needed adjusting, it was all perfect out of the box! The default settings for their slicer work great with the PLA supplied in the kit so haven't had the need to tweak anything yet, just been rattling out bits & bobs off of Thingiverse all weekend.
The removable build plate is excellent, as long as I degrease it properly with IPA I've not had any problems with adhesion (not needed anything else like glue sticks etc) and because it's flexible not had any problems popping objects off of it when they're done either. It really has been plug & play which is great as I didn't want to have to sod about trying to get the thing to work properly!!
Overall it's actually exceeded my expectations with how good it is & how much potential it has. I ordered some PETG with the kit but haven't actually gotten around to trying it yet - and might not for a while as I've been really impressed with the supplied PLA (seems strong & not actually managed to snap anything yet!). Going to be ordering a load more PLA today in different colours, etc so I can do some more interesting prints (multicolour etc)!
Good stuff!
Not surprised you don't need glue sticks with their base. My PIE plate is great too with PLA. In fact just very clean glass was excellent too, but when I was trying to print PETG in a cold shed last winter, I had problems with warping. Thankfully Elmer's glue fixed that. I've also now got a semi-enclosed home for it, which helps with PETG.
PLA really is a doddle though. So thankful for it. Haven't had a failure in aaaages (he says while getting a print going and touching some wood).
couple of recent pics..
Love a good first layer
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Wine bottle holder
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It sits on a base not in shot.
I just use a mirror, no glue/hairspray etc. Pops off itself when it cools down.
I requested a Creality for Christmas, arrived a couple of days ago, I've got a couple of weeks to wait before I can start playing with it though 🙂
Getting to grips slowly with F360 and printing out all manner of stuff off Thingiverse in the meantime. Quickly bored of figurines but love the toys/gadgets that do something especially the ones that print-in-place (i.e. fully working joints, hinges etc and require no assembly). There's a great one called "Print in place Iris Box" which is a real marvel of design skill. It will definitely test how well you've got your printer dialled in though - mine worked but is a bit rough.
Also got some more colours of filament now so have been experimenting with manually changing the colour during the print. Amazing how just one extra colour makes the prints so much more striking.
https://imgur.com/a/298DRwY
https://imgur.com/a/RoSPtrH
Just had my RPi & camera delivered so mission tonight is to finish printing the articulated arm for the camera and set up Octoprint!
Those are really nice prints
OK so, guilty admission, I got totally fed up with my Anet delta- it basically never picked up an enthusiast community so there's no aftermarket support for it and it kept doing annoying things. So I've put it in a box, and I bought an Ender 2. spoiler alert- it's really good, but has a small bed, if you want to experiment with 3d printing it is a superb choice, more later.
Anyway, the thing that really blows me away isn't the printer itself- though it's amazing, for the money- but how it all highlights the progress in such a short time. My Tarantula was a full kit, and was essentially the first really affordable metal framed prusa clone at a time when if you wanted to go under £300 it basically meant all acrylic frames and pretty shitty parts. And it was a full kit, from nuts and bolts up, and basically you needed to be a decent toolsist and solve some problems to get it to work. And to get good usability and good prints almost totally required you to customise and adapt. But for its time it was a breakthrough, and I'd say the first DIY printer that I'd really have been able to deal with and get good results from.
I got it to the point that it was printing high quality prints, but had become a bit of a race car, it'd work brilliantly for a day then need a load of setting up etc and I couldn't be arsed. And basically my mechanical and printing goals outran my programming skill and the machine couldn't really be the reliable workhorse I wanted while also producing the quality of prints I wanted.
So, I got the Anet A4, one of the early cheap-good Deltas,to be basically a simple production machine. And it was obviously a generation or two ahead- large preassembled parts, all of the wiring etc was premade, the build was an evening's work. And it wasn't like the Tevo where the build had to be followed with days of testing and calibrtion and snagging, I got my first usable print out of it that evening. It was from the generation of printers that were still enthusiast items, but didn't need that combination of technical and mechanical and programming skill to make it viable.
But, tbf I just didn't print much for a while, I ran out of enthusiasm. Then I got a sale offer for the ender 2 for IIRC £105 from a uk supplier. Yes please. And it's yet another massively different generation- they call it a kit but it came in about 7 or 8 significant parts, every working component like an extruder or bed carriage was fully preassembled-it's realyl not far from an Ikea wardrobe. And setup? I levelled the bed and printed a reasonably detailed PLA part, first time. It lacks a part cooler, fine, printed one out- a bit more challenging in ABS but still basically easy. It's not far away from building a bike out of a box.
It's the first time I've felt like you could buy an affordable one of these for a mate that was curious, without worrying about it. Or that someone who's a good designer but not that practical could reasonably expect to get good results. It's not quite domestic level, it's still enthusiast stuff but what progress... Ace.
Oh aye, a review. It's really good. The single tower design seems to be no disadvantage for small parts, the heated bed is just a little underpowered and struggles to get to 100 edgrees in a cold room but that's no biggy, the hotend performs well, the extruder is pretty much perfect, and it's all pretty solid and very well thought out. I am just massively impressed. If you're printer curious I can't see much argument for anything else unless you need the volume.
Aside; I also got a cheap chinese flexible bed kit, which unfortunately couldn't deal with ABS temps and died, but was totally brilliant for PLA. Worth considering for anyone that only prints pla, I think I'll try and find an ABS and PETG-safe one.
Sounds good Northwind. I had a few teething troubles with my CR-10 which needed a new fan and heater cartridge, but apart from that it's been very very reliable. I sometimes don't even watch the first layer. I haven't levelled the bed in about 10 prints either!
Having it so obedient definitely makes it a different kind of tool. It's no longer exciting to see parts printed, but it is exciting to get things made with the parts!
I really hope my CNC is going to end up being as reliable. Still some soldering and calibration to do on that before I can cut wood.
papamountain - some clean looking prints there. I keep meaning to get round to printing a fang and swapping out the stock part cooling fan for a bigger one.
zilog6128 - the multi material looks good. Again, it is something on my to do list, but not found time to try it yet.
I find F360 works well, with just the odd frustration. I find the body/component style of assembly design quite hard to get my head around, as the other 3d cad systems I am more familiar with use different methodology.
Northwind - the printers seem to be really coming on in leaps and bounds! A colleague of mine who bought a CR10-S is already looking at buying a second printer and going for the Pro version.
AlexSimon, I'm looking forward to seeing some videos of the CNC in action!
I've still got loads of things on the go, but finding time to do it is proving tricky.
Currently doing some motoX style hand guards for my daughter's balance bike, as she has bashed her hands a few times and I figured they might also keep the cold winter air at bay. She wants them in purple, so I need to buy some new filament.
Also doing some replacement baffles for the ports on my speakers. They had an acoustic foam over them that over time has degraded and basically fallen apart.
I have made a honeycomb mesh baffle and did a trial fitting this evening. They look good, but could perhaps benefit from a small tweak here and there.
I thinking of getting myself a "cheap" 3D printer.
The Ender 3 seems to get some good write ups.
Is it worth going for the slightly higher spec one?
Also, can I use RHINO to produce models? I have access to it through work. I take it that after creating a design you need to put it into "slicer" software?
gobuchul.....
From what I have seen, the Ender 3 is now the 'go to' budget machine. Have a hunt around on Youtube & you will find plenty of information.
I bought my printer (a CR10-Mini) from Gearbest.
The delivery times can be a bit extended (up to a month) but mine only took 6 days.
They currently have the standard Ender 3 for £145 - if it is just something you are dipping your toes into, that is a pretty unbelievable price. There is a bit of assembly to do, but nothing too major.
I am not sure about the upgraded PSU thing. I suspect for printing PLA, the standard PSU will be fine. It might take a bit longer to heat-up, but generally by the time I have loaded filament & auto homed the bed, the nozzle & bed temperature are established.
I am not familiar with Rhino. I use Fusio360 to create models. Fusion360 is free for hobbyists...
There are plenty of free models avaible to download on websites like Thingiverse & myminifactory. I have only used Thingiverse.
And yes, you will need some slicing software. Simplify3D is a paid for version that a lot of people swear you need to get good results. But, you really don't.
Cura is free to download from Ultimaker & works well.
Ideamaker is also free & I found it easier to get started with - the setting interface made more sense to me, than Cura - although I think Cura gives better results so have switched back to it now I have more experience.
Unless you are already an expert with Rhino I'd just install/learn F360 at home. As above, it's free for hobby use, because of that there is a HUGE amount of info/help/youtube videos etc.
Another free option for slicing is Slic3r. Has it's quirks but I've been getting good results from it. They all have their pros & cons I think.
Thanks for the info gents.
Think I will go ahead with the Ender 3. Mrs can get me it for Christmas.
Where do you get your filament? Is it worth paying a bit more for it or should I just get the cheap stuff off Ebay?
Not used any budget filament - decided the potential wasted material (& more importantly time!) is just not worth saving just a few £/k. YMMV.
Been using 3dfilaprint's premium PLA which I've been very happy with. You get free next day delivery if you order 2+ & for every full spool you order they will send you a few metres of another colour so you can check it out. They also do lucky-dip sample boxes for a few quid, just received one today which contains small amounts of wood, copper & various sparkly PLAs!
Not been doing this long enough to recommend any other brands or suppliers!
I've only used PLA and fairly cheap stuff at that.
Hobbyking own brand PLA is good and if you buy a few reels at a time it is free delivery. I think the last time I bought some it worked out at about £11.50 a reel.
3DQF also do good filament and it's manufactured in the UK. They charge about £15 a reel delivered.
I've got some Technology Outlet Silver which looks good, but haven't printed with it yet.
And I've just bought some Ziro translucent purple from Amazon, but again I haven't tried it.
A bloke at work uses Surreal PLA from Amazon and that prints well.
It's probably worth staying away from filaments like wood, glow-in-the-dark and metallic filled stuff until you gain experience.
I've used very cheap filament and it can be a headache trying to nail down your settings, you end up chasing settings and using more filament and even more time.
I use ColorFabb as its really consistent, I haven't had to change settings for different colours/weather/etc. I would go on someones recommendation, as above, if you want a cheaper filament.
I use Filamentive recycled PLA and it's great, but only when they have 40% off the price!
Otherwise, I've used all sorts of cheap stuff and it's all worked.
The original stuff that comes with the creality was like butter (in a good way), but it's not very easy to see details in the white as it's quite translucent. I think that's cctree brand.
Others I've tried. Anet on offer from Gearbest (great). BQ on Amazon (fine). Hobbyking (great). Das Filament (great). Matteforge (layer adhesion problems).
I'm fussy about my black, white and grey colours. Das Filament white is good. I'd like my blacks to be matterer, but I haven't found one yet as I've had problems with Matteforge (still experimenting).
Anyone have any experience with the resin type printers?
Bloke at work had one delivered today from Amazon - looks pretty good.
Only other time I ever saw one was when I had a tour of the Renault F1 factory about 14 years ago and they were prototyping oil tanks - really cool to watch it emerging from the resin.
I'm guessing the hobby ones are a fair bit slower on the prints though.
Nope, there has been a lot of chat online about the Anycubic Photon though (assume it’s that one) since Amazon dropped the price to £399!
Yeah think that's the one he's picked up.
OK. So an Ender 3 ordered and some Hobbyworld filament ordered.
I'll see if I can get it to work and actually print something!
Anyone have any experience with the resin type printers?
Messy, toxic and expensive consumables. But great fine details.
Not really for functional printing - more if you need fine details and smooth finish for figures/chess pieces/etc.
Tried a couple of test prints today with the Ziro translucent purple.
It seems to print easily and is a nice colour.
Well built my Ender 3 this morning, didn't get the bed levelled before I had to break off to cook dinner.
Now had a couple of glasses of wine, so I will finish tomorrow.
Well I got it working.
and....?! Where are the pics?
What was your first print? A benchy?
Failed to link to the pics.
My first print was a small "cali dog", 2nd another dog, much bigger, the code came with the machine and is set at very fine detail, got 3.5hrs into a 5hr print, all looking good and then it decided to move. Not sure why? Very frustrating!
The little "cali dog" that printed OK.
Headless Dog Beast
What are you using for bed adhesion?
Does the Ender3 come with a rough build plate surface, or just plain glass?
What bed temp were you printing with?
The prints look ok to be honest, although the foot of the headless dog has some stray bits so it looks like maybe your first layer adhesion wasnt great.
The hardest thing i found to get started was the bed levelling and the gap between the nozzle and print bed at the zero position (at zero Z height). If your first layer is too high, it will not adhere well and as the print progresses, there is a risk it will detach.
What are you using for bed adhesion?
I din't for the first 2.
However, I went and bought some hairspray which seems to of done the trick.
Printed the 1st part of a Sherman tank this morning, hull printing now, seems OK.
As above, something not right with that first layer on the failed print. In my limited experience, the first layer is key so watch it carefully & if it isn’t perfect, abort the print, recalibrate, then try again.
Also if there’s a limited contact area with the bed on the first layer, use your slicer to add a brim which effectively makes the first layer a lot bigger. This has helped me quite a bit with trickier prints.
Properly got the 3D printing bug now! Here are a couple of bigger projects I was killing time with over Xmas (not my designs).
I've also done quite a few of the community recommended hardware mods/add ons, the best of which was definitely adding a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint (awesomely useful program) as a print server/remote webcam thing. Initially didn't want to become a "3d print guy" who spent loads of time printing stuff for the printer, but I've actually got really into it & since I've moved it to work I like to keep it busy the whole time so people can see it working when they come in, so at least it's making useful stuff rather than random crap that's just going to end up in landfill 😃
Been trying a few different filament types too, been most impressed by Ninjaflex so far, really cool. Got a sample of a copper one to try but apparently need a hardened nozzle for that so haven't tried it out yet.
https://imgur.com/JW0Ur54
https://imgur.com/E4cMTQw
Wow! How was the T-Rex to print? It's on my to-do list, but looks like there are many potential areas for failure.
I haven't really done any mods - the only one was a knob that attached to the z-axis lead screw so you can wind it up & down easily.
I have several in the pipeline, but no time to do them. I want to swap the cooling fan to a fang design, which apparently helps a lot with cooling on the CR10. I also want to modify the control box to add some large PC fans underneath & get rid of the noisy ones in the control box itself that run on bushes - one of mine is on the way out, so I should probably do that soon.
How many colours of filament have you got now?! I am slowly building up some stock - I have white, black, red, green, blue, silver (still unused) and translucent purple! All PLA.
I've not tried PETG or anything else yet. Have you?
The only 'trinket' print I have done so far was a sabre tooth tiger skull on Thingiverse that turned out really well. Someone has done a remix of it with column supports that worked perfectly.
[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1834/30031273378_c2690d0f13_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1834/30031273378_c2690d0f13_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/MKL8iu ]IMG_20180729_214009[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/me96kka/ ]STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr
I won't lie, the T-Rex was trouble! It was the first tricky/big thing I tried to print & I had a lot of failures. I used the remix "T-Rex fixed & printable" (or something) rather than the original but it's still probably a perfect example of what shapes you [I]don't[/I] really want to 3D print - loads of overhangs, tiny narrow bits etc. It was an excellent learning experience though, in bed adhesion for tricky prints, using brims/supports, etc.
Part cooling definitely has an impact on print quality so it's worth looking at, although it's mainly cosmetic I think. You can tell which way round certain things have been printed on mine, particularly if there are overhangs on the back!
Got quite a few different colours now, I've bought 6 or 7 spools in basic colours but I've got loads of 10m ish samples from 3dfilaprint in colours I wouldn't (yet!) want a full spool of like luminous pink, sparkly blue, etc etc. Bought a full spool of Polyalchemy Elixir gold though which is expensive but REALLY nice. I've successfully printed in some basic PETG that I got with the machine, trying my first print literally right now in Spoolworks Edge which they say is a "PET/Copolyester blend" and apparently much stronger than regular PETG. It's not cheap but I need to make some strong clips for a commercial job so hopefully it'll be up to it!
That skull came out great, nice level of detail & only a minimal bit of banding on the fangs from what I can see. Some of my T-Rex bits are not that nice if you look closely! (That's the advantage of a massive print though, people go "oooooh!" and don't look to close lol)
That skull came out great, nice level of detail & only a minimal bit of banding on the fangs from what I can see.
Yeah, there is a bit of banding, but for some reason this really seems to be emphasised in pictures. It's not really that noticeable in the flesh.
It's definitely a print to try if you want something to impress people. The teeth print separately so need to be glued in, but fit well & have sensible sized sprues on the main skull.
I would probably print it larger than 100% to give it a bit more impact.
Regarding materials other than PLA - we have tried all sorts of things at work on our Ultimaker - the main protagonist for getting a work 3-D printer is trying to get it used for production parts, so it looking for 'engineering plastics'.
Nylon prints well, but you need to keep it dry. We bought a Makerbot dry box which made a massive difference.
We've also had good success with PETG & polycarbonate, although polycarbonate was a bugger to get off the build plate & we had some warping problems.
Each material requires a whole new learning period for good results that I just don't have the time (or inclination) to bother with at home. I'll get round to trying PETG one day, perhaps!
Yeah the reason I've mainly stuck to PLA & PETG is they're very easy to print. I have actually got a nylon sample to try but not gotten around to it yet. TPU is tricky but I wanted to try it because it's unique. It's virtually indestructible I think because of the give! I'll get a spool of one of the harder/hybrid variants at some point which are supposed to be almost as easy as PLA to print although a lot less flexible than e.g. Ninjaflex.
Couldn't find the Makerbot dry box when I googled - is that one that actively dries the filament? On the forums I've seen a lot of home-made versions using food dehydrators (which are a lot more popular/cheaper in the US). I bought a Polymaker Polybox which is basically something you could knock up yourself (I just wanted something I could start using quickly). It's just a box with some bearings to hold the spools & some big packets of desiccant to keep it dry, with PTFE tube coming out. I printed a reverse-bowden (think that's what it's called!!) setup for my printer so the whole run from the Polybox to the extruder is in PTFE tube.
The best thing about the Prusa (I'm sure it's the same for other popular hobby printers too) is there's a massive community driving it forward, with a wealth of knowledge so I haven't had to figure too much out myself via trial and error. Been spending way more time on the Prusa FB groups than here at the moment! For example, someone was able to come up with modified firmware a couple of weeks ago that upgraded the automatic bed-levelling algorithm from 3x3 points (good, but still requires manual bed levelling for most people to be able to use the full bed consistently) to 7x7 which has made a MASSIVE difference to the full bed print quality on mine without the need for any manual levelling. (So much so Prusa are integrating it into the next official firmware release!)
Couldn’t find the Makerbot dry box when I googled
HA HA. It's a Polymaker Polybox....all these names sound alike after a while.
It's a lot of money for a plastic box with some bearings in it, but I suppose it's an all in one solution. It's definitely improved the printability of PVA for support material.
That's the exact one I bought! It looks smart & it works really well. Yeah you could build a cheaper one but I weighed up buying a decent box, bearings, rods, desiccant, PTFE tube, grommets, hygrometer, plus printing & assembly time then clicked a button and one turned up next day 😃
Pretty pleased with myself now! A couple of new bearings & a new blade which I modelled, printed in PETG & superglued on and I have saved myself the £150 a replacement fan unit would've cost!
£150 for a fan!
Holy Shit! My printer only cost £225!
Good job though!
It’s not for a 3D printer, it’s for a 40W laser 😀