gt350pony66
Master Member
Any of you know of another place besides Shapeways to get stuff?
3D printing sources other than Shapeways?
- Thread starter gt350pony66
- Start date
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
I just bought some Aries 1B figures from them and they're nice.
Richard Baker
Sr Member
Are they Tony's (308 Bits)?- I have been looking at those and wonder how they look in person.
I just bought some Aries 1B figures from them and they're nice.
Regarding other sources- Shapeways is the only source I know of for just about every subject and scale. A lot of garage kit/alternative accessories companies have their own printers so searching for a particular part or accessory may work better...
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
They look similar, but appear slightly modified from the same mesh. Slightly different poses. On CG trader you get 6 figures as a set instead of individuals. I printed up a test of the CG Trader figures and they'll work fine in the model, but I'm in the process of modifying mine in Meshmixer to be more accurate and look a little more human. I started with one of the flight attendants. At 1:48 scale some of the details won't show, but Im doing a test print now.
Analyzer
Master Member
Are you looking for a printing service, or places to get the source files to print yourself?
As for printing services, there may be a few "print for hire" smaller operations, but not sure of anything that large commercially
There are lots of ETSY sellers who will sell 3-D printed stuff that they created, but not sure of any who might do custom work done by someone else
One option is someone like .JPG Productions who I believe will do custom print work
www.facebook.com
What is it you are looking for?
As for printing services, there may be a few "print for hire" smaller operations, but not sure of anything that large commercially
There are lots of ETSY sellers who will sell 3-D printed stuff that they created, but not sure of any who might do custom work done by someone else
One option is someone like .JPG Productions who I believe will do custom print work
JPG Productions
JPG Productions. 3,995 likes · 4 talking about this. Producer and molder/caster for resin and plastic scale model kits and accessories. 3D Printing services also available.
www.facebook.com
What is it you are looking for?
TDahl
New Member
I have had a few parts (of my design) printed by i.materialize.com, and I have been happy with the results. This service does not have a huge selection of pre-modeled parts for you to choose among and have printed; the major focus of the service is for people who create (or otherwise obtain) 3D models to upload them and have them printed (in a wide range of materials).
If you are looking for models, as stated Etsy has quite a bit, BigBangCollectibles and Jeffs3DCreations does great stuff. For printing, I have had very good experience with Corellia Creations and industrial3dsla which have been great to get models printed cleaner than I would on my own printers.
monsterpartyhat
Sr Member
I've had pretty decent luck ordering 3D prints via treatstock.com - it's a site for ordering from numerous independent 3D print shops. Prices (and quality) are all over the place, so check the reviews and the printers they have, but you can get good quality at a good price with the right vendor.
I used to order things from Shapeways, but they become so ungodly expensive that I'd consider them only as a last resort these days.
I used to order things from Shapeways, but they become so ungodly expensive that I'd consider them only as a last resort these days.
TazMan2000
Master Member
My advice is to find someone in your local buy-and-sell website that does 3d printing. In our city there are several guys who do CNC metal and wood, as well as several others that do 3d printing at a significantly lower price than you can find online. With a face to face meeting you're more likely to get what you want, or at least find out what you can expect to get for your money.
You're not paying a lot of overhead with some kid operating out of his parents basement, rather than someone online and you're probably not paying high costs in shipping.
TazMan2000
You're not paying a lot of overhead with some kid operating out of his parents basement, rather than someone online and you're probably not paying high costs in shipping.
TazMan2000
Now actual instruments can be had
techxplore.com
Those look like good Cygnus ship parts anyhoo
Hmm
Researchers 3D print components for a portable mass spectrometer
Mass spectrometers, devices that identify chemical substances, are widely used in applications like crime scene analysis, toxicology testing, and geological surveying. But these machines are bulky, expensive, and easy to damage, which limits where they can be effectively deployed.
Those look like good Cygnus ship parts anyhoo
Hmm
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I would love to know of a place other than Shapeways that can do high-resolution resin prints using wax or other dissolvable supports.
A lot of times people complain about Shapeways' exorbitant pricing, saying that they could print the same thing in their basement, for a fraction of the price. Which is sort of true, but:
- there's a lot of labour in handling the parts, and if you print the parts you're undercharging that!
- home printers can't do wax supports. They're either low-resolution filament printers which are useless for details. Or they're wonderfully high-resolution and smooth resin printers which only print resin.
This latter matters. The "fine detail" Shapeways prints aren't actually quite as smooth as other resin prints I've seen (like the ones from my Form 2, when it decides to work). BUT these prints have wax supports that are melted away. And since you don't have physical support sticks that you have to cut off, you don't have the problem of a) little bumps and whatnot, and b) the problem of blobs of resin forming hillocks on the underside of the print.
Sometimes you have parts which can arranged to conceal these print artefacts, or you can spend hours cleaning them up and hope that details don't get destroyed. But there are other times when those artefacts are a real problem!
A lot of times people complain about Shapeways' exorbitant pricing, saying that they could print the same thing in their basement, for a fraction of the price. Which is sort of true, but:
- there's a lot of labour in handling the parts, and if you print the parts you're undercharging that!
- home printers can't do wax supports. They're either low-resolution filament printers which are useless for details. Or they're wonderfully high-resolution and smooth resin printers which only print resin.
This latter matters. The "fine detail" Shapeways prints aren't actually quite as smooth as other resin prints I've seen (like the ones from my Form 2, when it decides to work). BUT these prints have wax supports that are melted away. And since you don't have physical support sticks that you have to cut off, you don't have the problem of a) little bumps and whatnot, and b) the problem of blobs of resin forming hillocks on the underside of the print.
Sometimes you have parts which can arranged to conceal these print artefacts, or you can spend hours cleaning them up and hope that details don't get destroyed. But there are other times when those artefacts are a real problem!
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Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
Never heard about wax supports. Time to conduct some research.
It's pretty cool. Let's say you've got a rectangular object and you want all six sides to be flawless, with no detail-obscuring bumps on one side. If you used a normal resin printer you'd have to engineer the part carefully - maybe printing it in two halves and gluing it together, or maybe having one face that doesn't have much detail on it so you can sand it flat.
But with dual-jet printers the printer lays down a wax support layer to hold the resin in place during curing. That gets melted away (or in some cases washed away if it's a water-soluble support material) after the resin has hardened, and you end up with your object, free of blemishes.
Is access to multijet resin printing worth the high Shapeways costs? For my projects, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. Depends on the design I'm working on.
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Analyzer
Master Member
The problem I find with the Shapeways printing wax supports is sometimes one side of a figure would be rough where the wax was, while the parts not in the wax will be perfectly smooth, It really sucks when it winds up going through a fine detail area
It is not as big a deal for more geometric forms though
It also can be lessened to some degree by orienting the figure so it doesn't go through the middle of the face etc...
It is not as big a deal for more geometric forms though
It also can be lessened to some degree by orienting the figure so it doesn't go through the middle of the face etc...
Yeah, that was a real drag. It has changed, for better and for worse.
The previous "fine detail" plastic used a translucent colourless resin with wax that was only used to support the print at the bottom, resulting in the issue you describe.
They then switched to "grey fine detail" and clear. I found the grey was pretty decent. It puts wax all the way around the model, yielding a consistent texture, rather than just at the bottom. But the grey process wax wasn't as rough as the previous translucent process in my test print, so that was fine. The main issue was faint print lines that need lightly removing.
They have now switched to a "tan fine detail". I'm not sure about this move. It's a dirty yellow plastic that seems to be way more brittle and easily broken, which sucks. Worse, the wax on the test print I did was much rougher than the grey, though still less rough than the translucent.
Ho hum.
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Analyzer
Master Member
Good to know about those new options! It has been a while since I used Shapeways, but I am getting close to pulling the trigger on some stuff for the 1/350 USS Nimitz
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