3D Printer advice?

Tarchinoko said:
can you give me a bit of a review of the community for solidoodle? because the solidoodle press is something Im considering getting too! just a little put off as its so cheap with supposedly really decent specs so im unsure of build quality and whether or not it really prints to the specs it claims it can
Click to expand...

Their forum at http://www.soliforum.com/ is pretty good, and Thingiverse has lots of mod parts uploaded for Solidoodle parts. They launched their own version of Thingiverse called Solidoodles.com - not much content there yet.

I ended up replacing the carriages, extruder (jigsaw breaks inevitably), hot end for an ED3, belts for fishing line, z-axis screw for a smooth rod, and printed my own cable management, case parts, fillament guides, and the like. I've gotten some pristine prints, but I want to sink more time into it to re-replace the carriages and fishing line - starting to misbehave on me.
 
KevlarGorilla said:
Their forum at http://www.soliforum.com/ is pretty good, and Thingiverse has lots of mod parts uploaded for Solidoodle parts. They launched their own version of Thingiverse called Solidoodles.com - not much content there yet.

I ended up replacing the carriages, extruder (jigsaw breaks inevitably), hot end for an ED3, belts for fishing line, z-axis screw for a smooth rod, and printed my own cable management, case parts, fillament guides, and the like. I've gotten some pristine prints, but I want to sink more time into it to re-replace the carriages and fishing line - starting to misbehave on me.
Click to expand...

wow lots of upgrades! love it :) if the printer I get lends itself well to being upgraded Im sure I would be spending lots of time doing as many as I can as well! did you learn about all these upgrades from the forums or did you come up with some yourself? if anything I would either get a solidoodle 4 or press, i assume the solidoodle 4 is more easily able to be upgraded compared to the press?
 
From the research I have done in hopes of getting a machine one day still lead me back to the Printrbot simple machines mentioned earlier. If you are a tinkerer/builder and want to know how things work the simple makers kit is a great way to get in at a low price point. There are upgrade galore that you can print out to improve prints and upgrade the build volume.

The simple Metal, like all machines, has some issues reported but I find far more happy stories than bad ones and a gentleman on Youtube, killer57, posts up timelaps prints several times a week and is quick to respond to questions.

On the smoothness/resolution front one thing to also keep in mind is that how smooth prints look is also effected pretty drasticly by how big the print is which isn't always apparent. Small prints have their pictures taken up close which shows off the ridging much more than taking a picture of a larger print.

At this point basicaly all machines are capable of the same print quality enough though they may claim to be better. The where your money needs to find a home are the machines that are the most consistant and reliable. You can get them all dialed in to print well but if they can't make it through a 1hr + print reliably they aren't going to be much use to you. And also remember that the lower you go with resolution the longer and longer it takes to print by leaps and bounds. Yeah, our print1000 O'matic can print .05 micron! but then they don't tell you it takes 10 hrs for a 3 inch print and half the time it fails in 2.

Good luck with your search and let us know what you decide on and how things are progressing!
 
Tarchinoko said:
please dont take that the wrong way! D: i did not mean for it to be taken as the prints were bad, just that i thought the da vinci printed at high resolution and the prints didnt really look like 0.1mm resolution. i mustve missed the part where you mentioned most of those prints werent at the 0.1mm setting :p so that explains why the prints arent as smooth as i expected from the machine, i thought that was the machine attempting to print at high resolution and the machine just wasnt up to snuff, wasnt trying to say that you are at fault >.<

The print in the first post on the second page looks really good and a lot more like what I would expect from a high resolution print, but still doesnt quite look like 0.1mm although thats hard to judge without knowing the dimensions of the object printed! was that object 0.1mm?
Click to expand...

Nope, that matches my review as it builds over time now. With the standard software on a 0.1mm print, it comes out of the printer with a nice neat res but it doesn't quite look superfine. However I also haven't seen many images where a 0.1mm resolution is looking outstanding either - it may be that we all have preconceptions and higher expectations than we should have. Remember that post processing is an important part of printing also. And any angles will immediately incur overlap of layers, which try as a printer might, it will still create ripples in the surface.

Remember again, when you start using a printer, you will most likely end up printing in lower resolution so that you arent wasting money and to speed up your prints.
 
Tarchinoko said:
wow lots of upgrades! love it :) if the printer I get lends itself well to being upgraded Im sure I would be spending lots of time doing as many as I can as well! did you learn about all these upgrades from the forums or did you come up with some yourself? if anything I would either get a solidoodle 4 or press, i assume the solidoodle 4 is more easily able to be upgraded compared to the press?
Click to expand...


I'd imagine the case would get in the way of most tinkering in both scenarios, so I'd recommend the Workbench Apprentice or 3. I've borrowed from the forums, and designed some myself with Solidworks when I needed to. Always learning.
 
I have a Robo 3D R1 and I would recommend it, sure. I wanted a printer for two reasons. Print cool stuff, and learn about the printer itself. I didn't want a Makerbot that I just plugged in.
The Robo have had some problems, yes but I would say that out of the box you get a very capable printer, big print area, good quality and now days they even ship with a all metal hotend.
I did some easy mods to my printer to bring it to the next level and I've learned a ton on the way.

If I had to buy a printer all over again, I would go with the Robo again. Or a TAZ with dual extruders if I had the cash! :D
 
I've got a Solidoodle 3 as well, and I'm fairly happy with it. I did a few mods myself, but I can definitely do some more tweaking to get better prints.

KevlarGorilla I'd love to see your set up!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Fawbish said:
Nope, that matches my review as it builds over time now. With the standard software on a 0.1mm print, it comes out of the printer with a nice neat res but it doesn't quite look superfine. However I also haven't seen many images where a 0.1mm resolution is looking outstanding either - it may be that we all have preconceptions and higher expectations than we should have. Remember that post processing is an important part of printing also. And any angles will immediately incur overlap of layers, which try as a printer might, it will still create ripples in the surface.

Remember again, when you start using a printer, you will most likely end up printing in lower resolution so that you arent wasting money and to speed up your prints.
Click to expand...

yeah ill probably be doing a lot of test prints on low res first to get my machine dialed in and figure out optimal settings for it before i move on and try something at 0.1mm res
 
Kadows said:
I have a Robo 3D R1 and I would recommend it, sure. I wanted a printer for two reasons. Print cool stuff, and learn about the printer itself. I didn't want a Makerbot that I just plugged in.
The Robo have had some problems, yes but I would say that out of the box you get a very capable printer, big print area, good quality and now days they even ship with a all metal hotend.
I did some easy mods to my printer to bring it to the next level and I've learned a ton on the way.

If I had to buy a printer all over again, I would go with the Robo again. Or a TAZ with dual extruders if I had the cash! :D
Click to expand...

thats good to hear! and whats the community like with robo 3d customers? Very helpful and understanding? :)
yeah I would put a lot more 3d printers on my potentials list but most come up at over 1.25 grand which is a liiiittle bit out of my price range atm :p specially seeing as Im going to be getting it sent to the UK where I will have to pay an extra 20% VAT :(
 
Tarchinoko said:
thats good to hear! and whats the community like with robo 3d customers? Very helpful and understanding? :)
yeah I would put a lot more 3d printers on my potentials list but most come up at over 1.25 grand which is a liiiittle bit out of my price range atm :p specially seeing as Im going to be getting it sent to the UK where I will have to pay an extra 20% VAT :(
Click to expand...
Yes, the community is amazing. There are some guys there who is really committed to give free tech support!
 
Tarchinoko said:
yeah ill probably be doing a lot of test prints on low res first to get my machine dialed in and figure out optimal settings for it before i move on and try something at 0.1mm res
Click to expand...

I think you still misunderstand me. When you finally get around to completing projects for whatever they are, it is more than likely (not impossible of course) that you won't require 0.1mm prints half the time. The resolution of the printer matters of course, but it is not the be all end all - it's a very similar argument to "my camera has more megapixels than yours" etc - it's the quality of the input as much as the technology that completes the output.
 
Fawbish said:
I think you still misunderstand me. When you finally get around to completing projects for whatever they are, it is more than likely (not impossible of course) that you won't require 0.1mm prints half the time. The resolution of the printer matters of course, but it is not the be all end all - it's a very similar argument to "my camera has more megapixels than yours" etc - it's the quality of the input as much as the technology that completes the output.
Click to expand...

I see, it will probably become more apparent to me when I actually get to see 0.1mm resolution in person :p I understand that most projects probably wont require such high resolution but its nice to have the option in case I do decide to print quite small things as the stepping becomes more apparent the smaller the object gets I hear :)
 
KevlarGorilla said:
Expect to sink hours into maintenance, tinkering, mods, upgrades and all that.....
Click to expand...

And trhat´s the reason I do not even think about buying a printer atm. It´s like we´re at the beginning of the computer age, everything coming in kit form and loads of DIY. Granted, printing larger items such as helmets is cost prohibitive, but in the end I guess it´s cheaper to outsource the printing, especially with the speed of innovation cycles on those machines.
 
DaddyfromNaboo said:
And trhat´s the reason I do not even think about buying a printer atm. It´s like we´re at the beginning of the computer age, everything coming in kit form and loads of DIY. Granted, printing larger items such as helmets is cost prohibitive, but in the end I guess it´s cheaper to outsource the printing, especially with the speed of innovation cycles on those machines.
Click to expand...

I'm running the first sort of "age" of cheaper, non modification printers in the Da Vinci 1.0 - so far it's printed everything I've asked in mixed qualities with little issue. The time I'm investing in is the pre and post print stages - dealing with the files themselves. This will never change - you still have to mess around with an image to print it on a standard 2D printer - create it, modify it, or get it from someone else and put it into the format you want (jpg etc) - so we are on the leading edge with home printing in that respect. Out of the box, you can now download and print quite a few things with little understanding or input.

I get your point - but I don't believe we are that far off having very capable home printers that require little maintenance - the quality of course will drop accordingly until further innovations are brought on, but it was only 10 years ago that a cheap home 2D printer would take about 10 minutes to print a colour photo!
 
I have a Robo3D as well and it's an excellent printer for the price. Of course it has messed up several times which lead me to replacing multiple parts with ease, but if you have the slight know how it isn't a huge issue.

If you go to the forums for help when something goes wrong, you'll get a super helpful reply within just minutes. If you email the Robo3D support directly don't hold your breath. As soon as they've got your money they don't seem to care anymore. Here's a couple pictures of prints from it.
AhKGX1y.jpg

8amibEj.jpg
 
Tarchinoko said:
Looks great! how is the auto leveling on it? I read that some people have had trouble with it, also are you able to print straight onto the bed? or do you need to use hairspray and or a glue stick for adhesion?
Click to expand...
To be honest I don't use the auto leveling. Its just easier to check the first layer and adjust by hand. At lest that's what I'm used to. I use hairspray. That is really simple. There is almost no printer out there that will print reliable without any kind of adhesion I would dare say.

I know that the Robo customer support is know to be kind of bad. I have never had any problems though. I have used them at 3 occasions I think for basic questions and a broken part. All times they answered within 24 hours and they sent a replacement part right away. Again, the forums are amazing so you don't really need to contact Robo unless you need replacement parts.
 
Osmethae said:
I have a Robo3D as well and it's an excellent printer for the price. Of course it has messed up several times which lead me to replacing multiple parts with ease, but if you have the slight know how it isn't a huge issue.

If you go to the forums for help when something goes wrong, you'll get a super helpful reply within just minutes. If you email the Robo3D support directly don't hold your breath. As soon as they've got your money they don't seem to care anymore. Here's a couple pictures of prints from it.
http://i.imgur.com/AhKGX1y.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8amibEj.jpg
Click to expand...

Kadows said:
To be honest I don't use the auto leveling. Its just easier to check the first layer and adjust by hand. At lest that's what I'm used to. I use hairspray. That is really simple. There is almost no printer out there that will print reliable without any kind of adhesion I would dare say.

I know that the Robo customer support is know to be kind of bad. I have never had any problems though. I have used them at 3 occasions I think for basic questions and a broken part. All times they answered within 24 hours and they sent a replacement part right away. Again, the forums are amazing so you don't really need to contact Robo unless you need replacement parts.
Click to expand...

awesome :) robo 3d is pretty much top of my list so im likely going to get that now! thanks for all the info!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Nascence
High Quality, Static, 3D Print and Build Star Trek The Original Series Tricorder Model/Prop Replica, by StripedCatCraftsworks!
Replies
3
Views
1,506
Ant1988
A
C
3D print extrusion help
2
Replies
21
Views
477
TazMan2000
TazMan2000
Jintosh
Haunted Mansion Haunted Clock
Replies
5
Views
226
Jintosh
Jintosh
TazMan2000
EufyMake UV 3D texture printer
Replies
10
Views
874
TazMan2000
TazMan2000
DalekNim
Everyone needs a 10' T-Rex replica
2
Replies
33
Views
2,001
DalekNim
DalekNim
Back
Top