3d printing... thinking of buying one

Hey guys. I've been thinking about this for a whole and I think I might invest in a 3d printer. I'm not talking about a giant commercial one. The one I'm looking at prints about 9"x6"x6" in abs plastic. (Legos material)
My problem is trying to come up with ways to get a return on my investment. I'm thinking about doing some hip pods and other iron man detail pieces. Maybe an arc reactor. (no, iron man parts aren't my only reason for buying one! )
My question is; is there any smallish parts that you guys (or people elsewhere) would want to buy?
I just need more reasons to make the purchase other than "OOOOH!! I WANT THAT!!!!"

Nothing? I'm not asking anyone to buy anything. I'm just asking for ideas of thins to make! Haha

If the prints come out smoother than Shapeways and you can provide a competitive price, I'm sure you could find a market here.

Risu said:

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If the prints come out smoother than Shapeways and you can provide a competitive price, I'm sure you could find a market here.

Smoother than Shapeways? How's that? If your stuff isn't smooth from them it's not the print it's the model you submitted. And no way that a home machine will even come close to touching the Shapeways print for resolution, there machine is upward of $275K

Yes How about a "Fountain" Emitter for all the Klingon "beaked" disruptors?
Also an accurate spiked pommel from ST3?

My most recent experience with Shapeways was a piece in their new super detailed frosted material and while half the print was smooth, the other half came out rough. Maybe it was a bad print (two technically, I ordered it twice) but the model itself was flawless.

While I'm not saying that a home machine can outperform a large commercial printer, the resolution really isn't much of an issue now. The printer I am looking at prints at the .1-.3mm accuracy range. The main things large (read "awesome) commercial printers have is 1; size of prints. 2; full color prints. And 3; printing speed.
The problem with those big machines is they create a lot of overhead that goes on to the price of prints.
While I am certainly not saying I could buy a printer and out perform shapeways. They do do some nice work. I believe I could make prints on par for less money.
We shall see. After all I dot have the printer and the quality of the prints largely depends on the skill of the user. I think I'm going to order it and try printing some stuff. I have a few things I have built in autodesk inventor that I'd like to hold in my hands anyways ;-)
I'll let you guys know what I come up with. Either way, I feel like it would be totally worth owning a 3d printer! Haha

It would be great if you can come close SW printes for sure, I just don't see it.
What printer are you looking into getting? Like to see what the prints look like, must be some examples somewhere?

Helagak said:

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The printer I am looking at prints at the .1-.3mm accuracy range.

That's accuracy, rather than resolution though. A filament-based printer (Which most of the hobby machines are) generally takes a filament between 1.75 and 3 millimeters. So the resolution tends to be the accuracy plus 1/2 the filament diameter. (Though for certain detail elements it takes the whole of the filament diameter to account for the resolutions)

...if it's NOT a filament based machine, now that would be interesting.

The real question of economic viability comes down to this: would a hobby-printed piece PLUS cleanup and filling be cheaper, quicker, or more efficient than the same piece from one of the commercial providers? If the answer is yes then by all means run with it. Just don't think that the machine will print money for you.

-Nick

The machine I looking at is the makerbot replicator. Yes it is filiment based. You can google it and find all kinds of pieces made. Or go to you tube. Here are some chess pieces printed by the makerbot:

Some Mario's and other ransoms:

And a little robot dude:


While I don't expect a printer to print money, my only hope was to possibly make back a bit of the money I'd have to invest.

These are just some good examples. You can also find bad prints. It comes down to the user. Figuring out the correct speed and temperature settings.

I saw the Makerbot at SDCC. It was about $1000 if I remember right. Tempting, but I didn't like the resolution it printed at. You could very clearly see the grooves from where it laid the material down. The guy was too busy to really talk to me, but he said that there was a setting that printed higher resolution at the expense of time, but I didn't see any samples that looked worth the investment to me. You would still have to fill/sand to finish. BUT if you really want one and you have the budget, I certainly will be visiting your posts! The only thing that really stopped me even with the quality of the objects was price and lack of space.

What I actually want is a 3D print of my body, since I can't find a dress form that is shaped close enough to me, and the plaster of paris method makes me pass out (twice). So, make your makerbot do that and I'm in

Failie, the makerbot is $2000 (with dual extrududers) and yes, at the cons they they print at .3-.5mm layer height for speed. The bot can print at .1mm by default but onciously takes longer. Tey said they are working on firmware upgrades and have been able to print as small as 40 microns (less than the thickness of a human hair!) and hope to have that firmware out soon. But generally you will want to do some sanding tem a quick acetone wash and those lines disapear. As far as printing your body, first I would need a detailed scan of it. Come on over. We'll figure it out! after that technically its possible. It would just har to be printed in A LOT of small pieces and reassembled!

Eric: that is more than possible. I should be up and running this October. Keep en eye right here.

I decided to start modeling some of the parts I want to make. I started with the iron man hip pods. What do you think?

Ref pic:


First renders:




An with finished details:


Obviously I can't vouch or print quality yet, but look for more info come October!

You could also make some cool Daft Punk gauntlets/gloves with the makerbot.

Finhead said:

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Smoother than Shapeways? How's that? If your stuff isn't smooth from them it's not the print it's the model you submitted. And no way that a home machine will even come close to touching the Shapeways print for resolution, there machine is upward of $275K

You may be right, but I've had stuff printed at Morpheus and at Shapeways and the Morpheus prints were leaps and bounds ahead of Shapeways. Now, maybe Morpheus tweaked something in my file before printing, though if they did they didn't mention it, and I'd hope that if Shapeways noticed something wrong with my file they'd have brought it up.

Shapeways and morpheus i've both dealt with and yes, there print quality is very good.

i've also seen/dealt with several "hobby" 3d printers. and to give the OP some fair info.

the makerbot is a very nice, cute toy. great for well tiny things and honestly the first real entry into the concepts of home manufacturer that the group at MIT were envisioning.

But honestly. 2grand i would never pay for one of thier machines. yes the are pretty and look commercial, and yes they do keep pumping the latest innovations the 3d printer community come up with into their designs.

but before you drop that much money on it, might i suggest you look into the reprap community. those are the guys who grew off the original MIT project and which the "makerbot" was drawn from. Frankly, i've seen those guys spinning out improvements months ahead of makerbot, and their machines built cost 1/4 the price, and having assembled it all yourself, you have total control over printing area etc.

And frankly, I've seen "reprap" models printed that are on par with SW models, at least as far as solids go, don't think any ones pulled off transparent materials as well with a filament based machine.

- just my 2 cents -

You can get translucent pla. But nothing transparent.
Im not trying to say a reprap/makerbot or any other printer can compete with the high money printers in terms oh high detail. But that hip pod for example, with a properly calibrated and balance machine, printing at 0.1mm, then with some light sanding and an acetone wash, it would be MORE than serviceable. Plus I could print the much thinker, thick enough to use on a costume and still sell them for no more than half of what shapeways would sell the cheapest thinnest print they could make. So I think there will be people interests in getting some. Regardless, I want some!! Haha!! Also I found a model iron man helmet made to be printed on a maker not size machine. It's all. Broke up into pieces. =D

Hey chicken, I'm not real familiar with daft punk. I know the helmets but that's it. You mind posting pics of what your talking about?

Here's a small model of Yoda that was printed on an Ultimaker at .02mm (20 micron) layer height. There was a bit about it on Hackaday-

ultimaker - Hack a Day

Wow! 20 microns! That is amazing detail for an extrusion printer!

I've wanted a 3D printer ever since they first came out, but not close to justifying the cost yet. I would just have it for my personal use, unless I can convince my boss to get one for work that would be mine to use.

I work for the engineering department for a city. I've been trying to get them to order me a *real* 3d printer for years. Does t seen to be happening. So hell with it! I'll get my own!

Helagak said:

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I work for the engineering department for a city. I've been trying to get them to order me a *real* 3d printer for years. Does t seen to be happening. So hell with it! I'll get my own!

My boss is the type to get a sweet "toy" like that as long as he has a decent excuse. That's how I ended up with a $12,000 engraving table.

I have an amazing dual action pulley system hidden blade model that is 200 mm long and 50mm wide and about 20mm tall. If you print a few of the parts (the ones that can be printed plastic) I am willing to let you keep the first one. If you are interested private message me

We've actually discussed getting a 3D printer for a few challenging costume pieces, so I'm very interested to see how yours come out. (And realistically, if someone here had a good printer, we'd probably just order our models from them unless we needed some ridiculous number of things printed.)

faille said:

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What I actually want is a 3D print of my body, since I can't find a dress form that is shaped close enough to me, and the plaster of paris method makes me pass out (twice). So, make your makerbot do that and I'm in

Faille, have you tried making a duct tape dummy? It's less than $10 in materials, and you don't pass out if it's done correctly. I build costumes and armor on my duct tape body double all the time. (And once I buckled it into my passenger seat and drove it cross-country with a suit of armor on it because I couldn't pack the armor flat in a suitcase.)