Anyone interested in 3D printing?
If there aren't many 3D printer hobbyists here, still feel free to comment if your interested. It's a great hobby open to all price ranges and skill levels. If you can't afford a printer, many libraries and schools have printers open to public use.
What are your projects? What do you like to print? Materials? Printer? Etc.
I've been getting into 3D printing more seriously. I have worked with cad software for many years but only printed on occasion, never personal stuff. I bought the Prusa Mk3 kit at the end of last year and patiently waited for its mid-spring arrival. It's a fantastic printer worth every bit of waiting. I print in PLA for fun stuff & online models and PETG for functional & outdoor models.
My most recent print was a window fan mount for my car for car camping. I designed it to create some airflow to keep the car from getting stuffy while keeping bugs and water out. It's very low power, so no issue there.
I am currently printing the pangolin awareness toy from thingiverse in white PLA for fun.
What do you like to do with 3D printing? or what do you think of it?
Would love to get more into it; took a class on it a couple years ago, but the entry fee is prohibitively high for me right now. There any cheap ways to get into it?
Get into it? There is a lot of intros into 3d printing on youtube (yeah this again), I am sure that are a lot of tutorials on 3d printing on web, I would recommend starting with an actual 3D printer, I learnt a whole bunch of things like that, but my first 3D printer was a kit, so I had to assemble it first... but there are easier ways to do it if you are not that technical type of person... I heard that people are recommending Monoprice Mini 3D printer for beginners (lets say, this one: https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Select-Printer-Heated-Filament/dp/B073ZLSMFT), the ones that have heated bed are a big plus, because many prints are failing just because of "stickiness" of the print bed, and if you have heated plate than the plastic sticks better on the plate. Then just pick some models from lets say Thingiverse, then I recommend Cura for slicer software, it has simple interface for beginners, and has an advanced settings for tweaking later on when something goes wrong.
That is my recommendation, someone else might have some better advice.
If you don't need the 3D printer for work or a business (i.e. you want to do it as a hobby), I highly recommend building it from a kit. 3D printers are fickle machines, and more or less no matter which one you get you'll run into problems eventually. The knowledge you gain from assembling the machine you're working on from scratch is an immeasurably useful asset for the inevitable maintenance you'll have to do. Plus they're usually cheaper.
You don't need a printer if you can find one locally such as at a library or school. All you have to do is pay for the cost of filament (the "ink" of 3D printing). You can also send things to online 3D print services, but you won't get to interact with a printer that way. If you know CAD or other 3D modeling software you can print your ideas. If not, there is plenty of fun and useful stuff to explore on sites like thingiverse. All you need to do is find a free slicer software that tells the printer how to print your object. (Some libraries and schools do this for you or help you. You just bring them the file for the model. Online services also do this for you.) If you can afford it, printers range from $100 to $1000s. You can buy kits or pre-assembled. Kits are usually cheaper and are a great way to really get to know your printer. Just google best 3D printers. Monoprice are good fully-assembled printers for $150 to $300. Stay away from Anet A8's (they catch on fire) and XYZ Printing (they have DRM filament forcing you to use their overpriced filament). Filament itself can be anywhere from $10 to $60 (or more for specialties) a kilogram (2.2 pounds). This will last a while with smaller prints. Usually, quality filaments (no issues with improper diameter, water in the filament, cavities, consistent color and extrusion, etc.) are around $20+ a kilogram. I stick in the $15-25 range with no little issue. What you make is pretty limitless.
I do a little printing, so I'm glad to see someone else here interested. The best thing I've designed recently was a controller grip for holding a single Nintendo switch controller on its side. Mostly, I work on little projects whenever I think of or need them. I find it's a fun way to get better at using CAD software in a more creative outlet, and I'd recommend the hobby to many people.
Yeah, I picked up a maker select v2 (rebadged duplicator i3, which is I believe a pre-built Prusa i3 design) a couple years back and I've been toying with it off and on since then. Apart from the usual print-it-because-I-can stuff I get off thingiverse, I've done tabletop minis and the shell for a raspberry pi handheld. I got a spool of TPU filament so I can try out flexible prints but I haven't gotten the chance to test it out yet. Not really sure what to make with it, my phone's uncommon enough that I can't find a model for a case, and I've never done CAD or 3D modeling before.
I think 3d printing and at-home manufacturing in general has the potential to completely revolutionize the economy, especially once someone figures out a way to fabricate transistors in a desk-top machine.
TPU is on my bucket list of materials to try out. CAD software is fun to get into. It opens up an entire new world of possibilities for your printer. I'll link an article on free software. The gist of it is drawing/sketching your project and extruding it into 3D form.
Check out this article on free CAD software. Of the brands I've used, my favorite is Autodesk software. Although, I recommend choosing a beginner one to get a feel for cad. Once you know one, you can pretty much work with them all.
It's maybe a bit less practical but something I'm interested in is printing models made in VR. Google's got a program they released recently-ish called blocks, which is a model making program that's something like a cross between tilt brush and sketch up, and I've been doing some messing around in it lately. Haven't tried to print anything yet though.
Woah. That is really awesome. I just looked it up and the immersion of creating something in VR sounds really fun. What a great combination of these two technologies.
Yeah, it's really neat. If you want to give VR modeling a shot with less of an investment, you can pickup Windows MR headsets for like $200. Hand controls are a little less precise than the Vive's, but VR controls are fairly imprecise anyway.
Hey, yea, I have 2 3d printers, first one I bought is BQ Hephestos 2 Kit, and the second I have is Original Prusa i3 Mk3, I am a programmer by trade and I love this hobby it is relaxing and fun, I print something new almost every few days, I am also doing some basic modelling in FreeCAD and OpenSCAD/OpenJSCAD. I have some models still to put to Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/iMatejC/about), but mostly I print stuff for friends for free just to learn stuff, currently I am printing tiny (rubber) ducks that are not from rubber - PLA, just to annoy people at work, inspired by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5d8pVg3Qtg I am printing the third plate of them (12 per one plate). I have probably more than 10 fillaments in different colors and materials (mostly PLA, but also ABS, PETG, Flex)
3D printing is a great hobby I recommend everyone that has extra time or want a new hobby, it can be frustrating at times when the prints are failing but if you have a good slicer software you can tweak it to make it print perfect (I recommend Slic3r or Cura)
I have a Creality CR 10S. I enjoy it a lot, but it's still not perfect. I have a lot of print problems.
I have to say that I never used Creality, but many problems are just adhesion to the build plate, but I wonder what problems do you have. Can you take a picture of some failed prints, and stuff, maybe I can help a bit.
100% adhesion issues. I've done a bunch of things to try to fix it, but haven't figured it out just yet.
This printer has had a bunch of issues, including a build plate support that was pretty bent.
Was pretty bent? That might be the problem, if some part of the printer was bent (due to shipping I guess..?) it certainly can be the cause for adhesion issues, since you said that "was", I guess you resolved that issue to some degree, but since one layer is max 0.2 mm (for 0.4 mm nozzle) then the margin of error can be way higher on some parts of the build plate if its support is even slightly bent.
But as far as it goes for "normal" adhesion problems, you have few tricks
Maybe I forgot some other type of adhesion trick, but please if someone has something to add ...
Brim and raft comparison: 1
Thanks for the advice - it's much appreciated.
I've been printing at about 5 degrees under the maximum and have found that to be where I get the best results.
I usually print at 60C on the bed for PLA; I've tried a bunch of different settings here, and 60 is just about perfect.
I use a BuildTak cover on the glass that came with the printer. I level my bed frequently.
I've tried a number of different surfaces, including several kinds of tape, different roughesses of glass and this BuildTak. I've experimented with a few different hairsprays and glues as well on each of the surfaces.
Depending on the project I've had good luck with brims or rafts, but some of the things I've tried to print are too delicate for a real brim or raft; I find the removal of them to be especially difficult (not sure if there's a good methodology for that for, for example, board game pieces).
I think I've also had some clogs, and I've gotten a new hot end to see if I can prevent clogs from happening, but I also think that I'm having retraction problems.
I haven't been happy with the Creality CR-10 and while I think there are a lot of benefits to it (the huge print area, for example), I generally wouldn't recommend it.
I considered the CR 10S when looking at printers. I like that it has a large build volume.
I was considering at the time Ultimaker 3 or the Raise3D N2, and I choose Prusa because of Open Hardware/Software design, hardware upgrades to the next version of printer, and MMU - multi material hardware upgrade (for up to 5 filaments on per one model) which I also ordered, it comes in August
Edit: oh yea and because of this guy @hook (he is always on track with open hardware and specially open software)
Hehe, guilty as charged, but seriously happy it worked out for you ;)
Btw, @matejc is the hero who volunteered to print the casing for my DIY keyboard :D
I have a creality ender 3 its a cheap $200 printer but the quality you get at .05mm is amazing for the price. I bought a piece of glass for the build plate and use a glue stick for adhesion.
Mostly I print out miniatures for DND or desk ornaments.
I would like to do some printing, but I don't have anything. If I did:
I would print some lids for standard tin cans. Pet food, you know. Could probably find these online
I would see if I could print phone cases (not the silicone inner shell, the outer shell) for my phone. That would be sweet.
I would see if I could make a stand for my tablet.
I honestly don't know what else I'd make. That's probably the main reason I don't have one. If I had a whole bunch of projects to use it for, yeah, I'd probably be motivated to try it. I love fiddling with tech. But I really can't justify the cost.
Lids with threads are very easy to make in CAD, so you could try that just to see how the process works (I use Fusion 360).
Thanks!
Most of my experience with 3d printing comes from work/school.
In High School I participated in the PLTW (Project Lead the Way) Engineering program, and as part of that my school purchased a 3d printer that students were allowed to use (for the cost of materials). This was my first real intro to the technology and it was really cool, but I never did anything with it outside of one or two assignments.
In High School as well, I did an internship in the Bio-Medical Engineering department of a local university where I designed labs around 3d-printing technology. Specifically, the labs I built were focused around vacuum forming plastic around 3d-printed molds in order to quickly produce thin plastic housing for medical equipment. The real-world application of this technology is being able to easily produce these housings in third world countries without an intense manufacturing setup. I have no idea where that went since I neither went to that university nor any BME program. Most of my time was honestly spent fixing that damn printer because the university didn't shell out for a high-enough quality one.
Lastly was a job I had in college at a STEM summer camp for middle/high school students. We had a camp that used 3d printers and that was where I really got more interested in the technology, though I never did too much with them since I did not teach that camp.
I'm not currently in a good position to have one but I plan on getting when I have more space and disposable income. At the very least I can make some cool desk decorations.
I bought the i3 MK2 kit and hit some issues with assembly, so still tinkering to get it working. If anyone here had some issues with calibrating the build plate with the MK2, would love to run some ideas by you!
I'd love to try it but it's very expensive for me. There are no public(or even private) 3D printers near me and I can't really afford one