3D Printer / Printing discussion

[Mockle]

So what is the best Quality vs.price Printer out there? Solidoodle S4 does the job,But bad Quality. tried different high end to low end filament ABS to PLA all come out the same.

Any takes on the Zortrax M200? good Bad.

I for one enjoy that I can go to 123D make what I need and Print. Can find tons of STL files out there. Yeggi.com is a great start.

 

[Friskythehutt]

Ultimaker2 or makerbot2 hands down, ready to print out of the box.

 

[KrangPrime]

my printer has been sitting here unloved since I got threepio. it's a makerbot. excellent support. just a pain to try and calibrate and get used to, and I haven't really had the time to do it.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Many people will say the Taz 4/5 will knock the socks off most FDM desktop printers, but it's on the higher side at $2k.

I've got the Solidoodle 3 and it's been great for me for almost 2 years. The heated bed just went out though, so I've got some repairs to do before I can get printing again.

 

[Darksyde13]

My research keeps leading me back to the Printrbot products for a slightly lower budget.

Quality wise is a bit of a hard thing. If you mean out of the box, plug it in and hit print, quality there are definately winners and losers.

If you are talking strait up print quality there really isn't much of a difference at this point once your machine is 'properly set up'. Now, had much time it takes to 'calibrate' or set up your machine and keep it that way is where some machines start to rise to the top. I've seen amazing prints from a 200$ machine but it was much fussing and couple custom printed parts later so it still depends a lot on how much time to want to invest in the tinkering or if you just want to be up and printing asap.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Looking into an entry level model myself. So many out there, tough to know what to choose.

 

[Triton]

Get the Folgertech Reprap Prusa I3. Yes, it requires hours of tinkering...coding...and calibration. But in the end, you get a printer that can out perform all the out of the box printers for under $300 SHIPPED in the US.

Not only that, but you KNOW how to use, calibrate, and take care of your printer. You know literally, EVERYTHING about it, and how to make it do EXACTLY what you want it to do. You can upgrade it to make it even better/faster...you can print ANY filament size, or type on the market.

3D printing literally at this point ( and I don't see this changing ) is NOT a out of the box type of hobby. It's a nerds hobby. It's a makers hobby. It's a tinkerers hobby.

If you're not one of those people, spending more money to get a nicer printer IMHO, is just you throwing money out the window. Once something goes wrong with it, you need to calibrate it, etc...it becomes a paperweight. A lot of people will tell you the same thing. Just my .02.

 

[ubcs86]

I've been having a great experience with my makerbot replicator 2. Older model now, but the thing has been cranking out parts and hasnt (knock on wood) needed anything replaced outside of the heat sink fan, which was my own fault. The firmware updates have made it a solid piece of equipment. My only beef is that my older model doesn't have a 'filament empty' detection system, so if i'm close to the end of a spool i have to watch it like a hawk to pause the print and re-load. I've had it for...2? years and just went through and tightened a few things up to quiet it back down. Minor greasing where it tells you to every so often and it's been great.

 

[JohnnyNeutron]

I have a Printrbot Simple Metal and I think for the money, it is hard to beat as an "out of the box" ready to print printer. Also, the print quality is great! I am not saying it is the best printer out there, however; it is a great bang for your buck.

 

[targus]

not the most inexpensive, but i have a Lulzbot Taz 5 ... it is a great FDM printer with a large build volume. It is almost ready to print out of the box ... you have to attach the base assembly and connect some wires and then it good to go. https://www.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-taz-5-3d-printer.

 

[Atomsk85]

In my opinion it is best to just build your own. I built mine out of Openbuilds Parts Store items, an Arduino and Ramps, and 6 custom cut pieces of aluminum. It has a 15"³ build area that I can increase the Z axis to whatever height I can get a set of 4 Vslot rails and ACME threaded rods in. Will set you back around $500.

It was originally one of the Kickstarter Cobblebot kits, but they were so unstable that a complete redesign was the only option, also had to replace all the electronics. For the parts that are still Cobblebot specific, there are only 3. The gantry, the Z axis mount to the bed, and 6 vslot wheel mounts (I am sure that LCD mount exists out there somewhere). I am working with Openbuilds Parts Store to have replacements for these parts avalible in their store to improve the rigidity of my own and make it easier for others to build their own. I can get down to .04 on this thing with almost no visible print lines. Here it is printing at .1 just for speed, and because I am going to have to sand down joins and edges from the mesh not having enough polygons. Also ignore the two print line errors I got a new chair last night and had to put a dowel under my mat because the wheels are too easily moved, so I collided with the printer.

 

[JJ Griffin]

not the most inexpensive, but i have a Lulzbot Taz 5 ... it is a great FDM printer with a large build volume. It is almost ready to print out of the box ... you have to attach the base assembly and connect some wires and then it good to go. https://www.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-taz-5-3d-printer.

Seconded on the Taz 5. The customer support is also amazing. Great company with a great product. Get either that or an Ultimaker 2 if prop-making is your goal.

 

[pseudodigm]

As a slightly less expensive alternative to the Taz, I will throw in my vote for the Lulzbot Mini. I did a bunch of research and found a lot of apples/oranges comparisons. It was kind of frustrating. I was looking at the Flashforge Creator X, the Printrbot Metal Simple, and the Lulzbot Mini. In the end I eliminated the Flashforge simply due to personal preference - right or wrong, my philosophy tends to be this: If two things cost about the same amount of money, I will usually opt for the item with *fewer* options/bells/whistles. My thinking is that what it lacks in "extras" it makes up for it in other ways. I don't know if that's always true but it's what I go by.

My mini printed right out of the box with just a little set up. I had a bit of an issue with the hot end and customer service helped me out and even went in depth with why the problem occurred. I feel like because it's a reprap machine, while it was kind of "print out of the box", I can still take it apart and put it back together and learn about it. I can learn from it without getting overly frustrated and discouraged. Now, the next time I buy one I'll probably get a kit because my confidence has been boosted.

 

[Radical Gordon]

Does anyone have any experience with the Makibox 3D printer?
I've seen them in kit form pretty cheap, almost too good to be true cheap.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Any opinions, experience, or concern with Makerfarm.com products?

They seem to have sturdy frames and good build volumes for the price, but I'm hardly the expert on that.

 

[Krats]

I got a Flashforge Creator Pro a bit over a month ago. It's worked almost perfectly straight out of the box and the quality has been brilliant. I'd been looking at the Prnterbot Simple Metal but getting one with a heated bed is kinda tricky here in the UK. Anyway, very happy with the Flashforge, works a treat.

 

[Darksyde13]

Any opinions, experience, or concern with Makerfarm.com products?

They seem to have sturdy frames and good build volumes for the price, but I'm hardly the expert on that.

I have heard good things in the past but a gaming buddy of mine got a prusia i3 8 a year or two ago and had issues with it pretty much out of the box and finally gave up on it a year to two later.

 

[KrangPrime]

I have heard good things in the past but a gaming buddy of mine got a prusia i3 8 a year or two ago and had issues with it pretty much out of the box and finally gave up on it a year to two later.

puts hands up, points out earlier post and yep, same boat. I hate to throw it away after all the work it went into, b ut it's taken up space, I havn't gotten around to messing with it in months... and wonder if it'll ever get to the point of where I want it to be.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Darksyde13 @NeilT

In that case, any recommendations?

 

[Darksyde13]

@Darksyde13 @NeilT

In that case, any recommendations?

As mentioned before I cannot speak from personal experience. If I had the money right this moment for a machine and I didn't need any larger than 6x6x6 inches I'd most likely go with a printrbot simple metal. I like what the company has done and how it has grown and like every printer in the sub 1000K catagory there are people that have had issues with them but looking at online reviews and you tube videos they seem to be quite in the minority. Once the sensor is set up the auto calibration works a treat and off you go printing. As mentioned by someone else the upgrades can get spendy but you do have the option to add a heated bed for play down the road and with a couple more upgrades increase the print volume to 9.5x9.5x6.

If you just want to try out 3d printing and are on the fence if you want to invest even that much then the Printrobt play has also grotten a lot of really good reviews and uses the same auto level and can be upgraded to a heated build plate for pla if you wish and has a build plate upgrade that bumps it from 4x4x5 to 4x8x5. The other 'get your feet wet' entry level machine is the M3d Micro which is play only and a print area of 4x4x4.5 roughly.

If you are willing to wait a little longer and want to try something 'completely different' you can keep an eye out on the peach printer. It is a resin based printer that cures resin floating on water with a laser. The base kit is 100$ for pre-order and the prit size is based on the size of the tanks you use. It is not shipping yet and no official ETA but pretty cool to keep up to date on.