Narrowing down the list of 3d printers. Purpose : Prototyping Helmets and Armor

[Nwerke]

I haven't found an enclosure to be vital, FWIW. Certainly not enough to warrant an extra $1000; if I was going to spend that I'd probably look at a Taz, for the bigger build volume.

I went for the kit version M2 and saved more $$$ - not only because I'm cheap, but because these are *all tinkerer machines*, at this stage. I figured if I'm going to have to tinker with it anyway at some point, building it myself will probably be a worthwhile investment of time.

It was. The kit, documentation and support are all excellent. It took four evenings and I was printing. It's enabled me to troubleshoot much much much much MUCH more effectively than I would have if the guts of the thing had all been a mystery to me.

 

[swgeek]

I don't have a ton of experience with printers, (printed parts, yes) but, we just got an Ultimaker 2 at work, and so far I am very impressed. No fails, yet, and the prints, even on a medium resolution have turned out really nice.

 

[Nwerke]

For things which are basically robotised hot glue guns which operate almost totally 'blind', what they can do is fairly amazing.

 

[Caille]

Decided on and Ultimaker 2. Buying it this week. Already have a few .stil files ready to go. Including a simple helmet (Jedi Temple Guard)

Pretty excited.


Caille

 

[Chaank]

Did you buy yours here Nwerke or from their site?

 

[flimzy]

As the Ultimake is an open source printer there are load of community hacks .
3mm filament is 2.85 . I had the same problem when I started till I found out you just order 3mm. there is a E bay PTFE tube the convert the Ultimake to run on 1.75mm Filament that people have had great success with but as it works out of the box perfectly well with the 3mm (2.85) theres no need. this is a part I've just printed at standard settings. it took an hour. larger part I print a fast setting because I know its easy to topstop fill and sant if you don't need super detail. This is a part of my 6th scale spinner project you can find here on the site.

 

[star-art]

Great tips and advice, thanks all!!

 

[Nwerke]

Chaank I went via their site, there is no Aussie dealer AFAIK. Makergear couldn't have been more up-front - they were worried that I'd struggle without local support, and stressed they couldn't ship warranty parts with free postage overseas which I thought was fair enough. The one time I had to make a claim was for a faulty fan (I couldn't find the right spec at the time locally, but have done since - I wouldn't have bothered them otherwise as they're hardly expensive). I paid shipping, but Makergear shipped me about four fans instead of just one.

 

[flimzy]

the best tip I was ever given was, 1-10 PVA dilution mix with water painted on the glass. perfect adhesion every time. I have 2 sheet of glass so I can swop them out wile one is cooling down ( increasing my printing time) I painted my glass a year ago and still no need to wash it off for another coat. no messing about with hair sprays- glues or tapes.

 

[Nwerke]

I've got hairspray on kapton. I just use an old can with a stuffed nozzle, it piddles out as a liquid. Spread it around by hand, it dries as the bed warms. Same result - you rarely need to re-apply and you get amazing adhesion. Great idea to have that second sheet of glass!