3d printers
- Thread starter Tatooinetako
- Start date
evapilot01
New Member
What kind of software is being used out there for actually creating the 3D files?
My only experience with 3D computer modeling was in college (20 years ago) using 3D Max. Lets just assume I forget everything about that by now
Assuming you mean modelling then anything will do. As long as it can save in STL format it should work. You will need a slicer (which usually comes with the printer or an opensource alternative).
The thing is your model must be "watertight". To learn more check youtube or google.
Personally I use a Makerbot 2X. Its great for what it does but its not the best (anymore) in the market and it didn't work right out of the box. I invested in quite a bit to get it to be a little more reliable. Aluminium Arms, Extruder feed upgrades and a filament sensor and my most important upgrade was a glass print bed. But the nice part is upgrading and figuring out what works.
The thing about 3d printing is its a weird art. No matter what you are gonna have failed prints or wasted afternoons fiddling with some setting that works the first 20% of the print and just goes utter mush the other 80% (or worst the other way around).
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If you only print very small things the OLO is live on kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/olo3d/olo-the-first-ever-smartphone-3d-printer
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/olo3d/olo-the-first-ever-smartphone-3d-printer
Valcrow
Active Member
I'm skeptical about this as I am for most KS projects.
-Bottles of resins are displayed in a clear bottle. These things run on a type of daylight resin, if a phone screen is sensitive enough to cure the resin, ambient sunlight and room lighting will also do the same. Photo-resins, UV or otherwise is always stored in thick black containers.
-Daylight resins have a hard time curing. I've used some daylight printers before and these things are way more difficult to fully cure than UV resins like the formlabs printers. I left it out in the sun, in a UV/LED box for a day and a week later it's still tacky.
-They are washing their parts in water without gloves in the video. Big safety no no, and you will get resin sticking to everything.
Wait and see the reviews on this and all other KS before you decide to pledge please.
I use Solid Edge for most of my CAD work, but I couldn't afford it myself outside of work.
For free, Autodesk 123D Design is great. It is a fully solid modeler with optimizations for 3D printings. SketchUp is okay depending on what your modeling, but making water-tight models can be difficult if you don't know SketchUp already.
Lately I have been using Meshmixer (also free from Autodesk) to optimize 3D prints and it has been amazing as analysing and optimising. It actually has some organic modeling features also, good for organic modeling, or as the name implies, mixing models together.
You also have to keep in mind what type of 3D printer you are using when designing parts. FDM and SLA printers have their own sets of rules about what geometry will be successful. SLS printing can typically make any geometry you can imagine, but costs quite a bit more. Don't get hung up on making everything in one solid model either. Use multiple parts. Don't be afraid of mixing in real materials. Don't 3D print a screw when a real metal screw costs only five cents.
The best modelers treat 3D printing like its a DIY model kit from a hobby store. When you get your print, it is not done. You still need to do some finishing work. There are way too many people making super cool 3D models in the computer, and then print out crap that doesn't look much better than a cheap plastic toy.
For free, Autodesk 123D Design is great. It is a fully solid modeler with optimizations for 3D printings. SketchUp is okay depending on what your modeling, but making water-tight models can be difficult if you don't know SketchUp already.
Lately I have been using Meshmixer (also free from Autodesk) to optimize 3D prints and it has been amazing as analysing and optimising. It actually has some organic modeling features also, good for organic modeling, or as the name implies, mixing models together.
You also have to keep in mind what type of 3D printer you are using when designing parts. FDM and SLA printers have their own sets of rules about what geometry will be successful. SLS printing can typically make any geometry you can imagine, but costs quite a bit more. Don't get hung up on making everything in one solid model either. Use multiple parts. Don't be afraid of mixing in real materials. Don't 3D print a screw when a real metal screw costs only five cents.
The best modelers treat 3D printing like its a DIY model kit from a hobby store. When you get your print, it is not done. You still need to do some finishing work. There are way too many people making super cool 3D models in the computer, and then print out crap that doesn't look much better than a cheap plastic toy.
It might be overkill, and I do not know how well it supports 3D printing, but Fusion 360 is free for hobby or start up that is making less than $100k/year. Basically 123D on steroids. I started using it because of the built in CAM that I will need if I ever finish reconfiguring my Shapeoko.
Gimpdiggity
Master Member
I agree with the folks here saying that there aren't really any printers that are "print out of the box" right now. Even the ones that say they are can still stand to use a bit of calibration and setup.
If you're willing to put in the work to maintain and calibrate one, I think you can get pretty good quality prints from quite a few printers out there.
I bought my first printer back in January, and after a ton of looking around and decision making, I ended up going cheap with a DaVinci Jr by XYZPrinting. My thought process was that if I really enjoyed the hobby I'd end up spending more money on a much nicer piece of equipment later this year, so if I spent $600 on a first printer, then $2k later this year, I'd be in $2600...but if I spent $300 on the first printer, and $2000 later I'm in for less total investment.
To that end, I've REALLY enjoyed my cheap little printer. I've printed tons of stuff...nearly 500 hours worth of prints in the two months I've had it...and much of it after getting it set up has looked nearly as good as the prints I see other people making with printers that cost more in the $700 range.
I did have to do a LOT of calibration and setup on the machine...which it said it wouldn't need...but I went in knowing that I was going to have to do that.
Here is an Alien Chestburster that I printed, fresh off of the machine with no finishing or processing in PLA.
Here's the same model, scaled up a bit, and with some finishing work to smooth out the lines before I end up putting paint on it.
Here is a very small version of the T-Rex skull that's so popular on the 'verse.
About a 2" long model of a GI Joe MOBAT tank. I'm building a bunch of these for my father and myself, as we sold our full collection last fall to free up some space in his house.
This is the Kongotronic 3000 Time Defender clock...it's made from quite a few parts with a working clock inside of it.
Here's a "Last Crusade" Holy Grail that I'll be finishing and painting.
All of these were done on just the "good" setting on my printer, which I BELIEVE does the prints at .2mm layer height, but I may be wrong as they just updated the system to give me more control and I notice that "good" is now at .3mm layer height, so it's possible that it was .3mm before.
Any way, I've been really happy with the prints, had a lot of fun with it, and a bit of frustration. I've had a few times where I've just had to step away from the stupid thing for a couple of hours and then go back to it because I was getting frustrated with it not doing what I wanted it to do...but the thing is, these times I was able to track the error back to something that was actually on MY end...not unloading filament correctly, adjusting my z-axis without remembering that I had adjusted it and causing some extrusion issues...things like that.
I think if you're willing to put in the effort, you can have some real fun with just about anything.
There are only two things that I wish my DaVinci JR had that it doesn't...I wish it could do ABS because I'd like to be able to print in ABS and use Acetone to smooth the prints (along with this I'd like a heated print bed) and I'd really like to have about 50% larger print volume...but I haven't really run into anything that I need that extra real estate for yet.
If you're willing to put in the work to maintain and calibrate one, I think you can get pretty good quality prints from quite a few printers out there.
I bought my first printer back in January, and after a ton of looking around and decision making, I ended up going cheap with a DaVinci Jr by XYZPrinting. My thought process was that if I really enjoyed the hobby I'd end up spending more money on a much nicer piece of equipment later this year, so if I spent $600 on a first printer, then $2k later this year, I'd be in $2600...but if I spent $300 on the first printer, and $2000 later I'm in for less total investment.
To that end, I've REALLY enjoyed my cheap little printer. I've printed tons of stuff...nearly 500 hours worth of prints in the two months I've had it...and much of it after getting it set up has looked nearly as good as the prints I see other people making with printers that cost more in the $700 range.
I did have to do a LOT of calibration and setup on the machine...which it said it wouldn't need...but I went in knowing that I was going to have to do that.
Here is an Alien Chestburster that I printed, fresh off of the machine with no finishing or processing in PLA.
Here's the same model, scaled up a bit, and with some finishing work to smooth out the lines before I end up putting paint on it.
Here is a very small version of the T-Rex skull that's so popular on the 'verse.
About a 2" long model of a GI Joe MOBAT tank. I'm building a bunch of these for my father and myself, as we sold our full collection last fall to free up some space in his house.
This is the Kongotronic 3000 Time Defender clock...it's made from quite a few parts with a working clock inside of it.
Here's a "Last Crusade" Holy Grail that I'll be finishing and painting.
All of these were done on just the "good" setting on my printer, which I BELIEVE does the prints at .2mm layer height, but I may be wrong as they just updated the system to give me more control and I notice that "good" is now at .3mm layer height, so it's possible that it was .3mm before.
Any way, I've been really happy with the prints, had a lot of fun with it, and a bit of frustration. I've had a few times where I've just had to step away from the stupid thing for a couple of hours and then go back to it because I was getting frustrated with it not doing what I wanted it to do...but the thing is, these times I was able to track the error back to something that was actually on MY end...not unloading filament correctly, adjusting my z-axis without remembering that I had adjusted it and causing some extrusion issues...things like that.
I think if you're willing to put in the effort, you can have some real fun with just about anything.
There are only two things that I wish my DaVinci JR had that it doesn't...I wish it could do ABS because I'd like to be able to print in ABS and use Acetone to smooth the prints (along with this I'd like a heated print bed) and I'd really like to have about 50% larger print volume...but I haven't really run into anything that I need that extra real estate for yet.
Over the weekend I thought about getting one of those Dremel Idea Builder printers that you are supposed to be able to buy at Home Depot. Only none of the Home Depots in Central Florida seem to carry them or even filament. Neither did Best Buy or (shudder) Walmart. Which is probably a good thing, at least for me. Turns out the Idea Builder is a relabeled Flashforge Dreamer. For $100 more you can get the Dreamer and it comes with dual extruders and supports ABS and probably a lot of other filaments that need a heated bed. On the other hand, supposedly some of the parts are upgraded on the Idea Builder. I ended up ordering a Flashforge Finder on Amazon and it gets here tomorrow. If I don't like it I can always eBay it.
Welp, don't buy a Solidoodle.
http://makezine.com/2016/03/30/solidoodle-bows-3d-printing/
http://makezine.com/2016/03/30/solidoodle-bows-3d-printing/
Edit: I am rewriting this entire post. I wrote a longish review of the Flashforge Finder on Amazon yesterday and noticed the price had dropped $200. I asked Amazon about arefund for the price difference and they said no because it was from a third party seller. I contacted Flashforge and they will price match. So for $499 I think it is a pretty good printer, at least for the first week and only a few prints. Just make sure you can live with the build volume.
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endo500
Active Member
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xl97
Master Member
Redman99
Active Member
hi xl97,
Not yet, still building it
But started work training myself on blender, slic3r, etc.
Going to move pep IM MK7 onto it and will update with results ASAP.
xl97
Master Member
Cool!...
There are TONS of 3D printers at my local makerspace (of all varieties too).. but I have zero 3D modeling skills.. (means I'd be reliant on other peoples models) <-- Yuk! haha
Any reason you chose Blender as your software? (free? community support? or other reasons?)
I looked at some prints from a Ultimaker 2.. they looked 'really' nice IMHO... (as I really dislike the 'lines' you get on most FDM printer/results)
curious to see how to turns out.
Thanks
There are TONS of 3D printers at my local makerspace (of all varieties too).. but I have zero 3D modeling skills.. (means I'd be reliant on other peoples models) <-- Yuk! haha
Any reason you chose Blender as your software? (free? community support? or other reasons?)
I looked at some prints from a Ultimaker 2.. they looked 'really' nice IMHO... (as I really dislike the 'lines' you get on most FDM printer/results)
curious to see how to turns out.
Thanks
