3D printing...

[victorzamora]

Wait, what? $360 gets you a functional 3D printer worth owning? One that can produce, say, 6”x6”x6” parts of decent quality?

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve looked. Last I looked, they were well into four figures even with a great deal of self assembly.

I don’t want to hijack the thread, but I just want to confirm: you can get a fully functional 3D printer worth owning for $400? And a CR-10 is a good place to start my research?

Edit: Like this one? https://www.creality3d.shop/collections/3d-printer/products/creality-cr-10-3d-printer-prusa-i3-diy-kit-aluminum-large-print-size-300x300x400mm

Yeah, 3D printing went from "well-into-four-figures" to "couple-hundred-bucks" territory in no time. I've been following FDM technology since ~2005 and there was a major dropoff just a few years ago.

And, to answer your question without entirely derailing the thread, yeah....the Creality CR10 you linked is a fantastically capable 3D Printer for ~$400 with a print volume of ~12"x12"x15.5" print volume.

My in-laws got me a 3D Printer a couple years ago for Christmas (smaller but easier to run). If I were buying my own, it'd be the CR10 you linked and I'd build an enclosure for it.​

 

[kelemvor]

There are two owned among the Gainesville Hackerspace, so I have local peeps who use it successfully. One of the "hot" mods for it is a Rasberry Pi loaded with octoprint. Apparently, it does a better than decent job of slicing and can give other operational mods as well like remote checking (wifi), controlling and alarms. You can add a camera for a visual as well.

That's nice! At Tampa Hackerspace, we're expected to be present when a print is running. Obviously people aren't abiding by that 100% of the time or nobody would ever get a long print job run. However, I've never seen a printer running when I was the only person in the space.

 

[WarrenZ]

Looks like a great new toy for you Pete. Now I am thinking about whether or not I have space for one myself.

Next you will be looking at one that can do metal as well.

 

[-JD-]

Fail!
​

The snowflakes warped near the edges so I stopped the print. Grrrrrr.

I've been following this thread since I've been considering jumping into this stuff for a couple years ... so, caveat, no specific experience here.

First a question: Both snowflakes seem to have failed at the same relative location, so I'm assuming at the same part of the extrusion pattern. Was it where the extrusion started or ended for each layer on those parts?

Concept (for critique by those more experienced): Instead of a full raft, what if you put a short, relatively narrow cylinder (ID a bit larger than the OD of the snowflakes) around the snowflakes and bridged it to each tip of the snowflake. Think of an old plastic model sheet with all of the sprues to individual pieces. That should help stabilize the tips so that they don't curl in or up and the start/stop transition would likely be elsewhere, hopefully in a more stable or less critical location. Should add limited time/material and also be trivial to remove and clean up.

 

[JohnnyC]

OctoPI is great. Tons of awesome features and super useful. One of the guys at work is super into it and when he's running his personal printer he's always got it hooked up. He doesn't use its slicer, so I can't comment about that, but the "emergency" features have saved his prints on more than one occasion.

I've been following this thread since I've been considering jumping into this stuff for a couple years ... so, caveat, no specific experience here.

First a question: Both snowflakes seem to have failed at the same relative location, so I'm assuming at the same part of the extrusion pattern. Was it where the extrusion started or ended for each layer on those parts?

Concept (for critique by those more experienced): Instead of a full raft, what if you put a short, relatively narrow cylinder (ID a bit larger than the OD of the snowflakes) around the snowflakes and bridged it to each tip of the snowflake. Think of an old plastic model sheet with all of the sprues to individual pieces. That should help stabilize the tips so that they don't curl in or up and the start/stop transition would likely be elsewhere, hopefully in a more stable or less critical location. Should add limited time/material and also be trivial to remove and clean up.

Good idea, but it doesn't really work the way you think it's going to work. Adding "sprues" isn't going to prevent part warpage and lack of adhesion issues. It will just warp in the same manner, and you're going to potentially damage the print trying to cut them off. Rafts are printed differently from the rest of the print. They're printed thick and slow so that they provide a stable platform off the build plate in order to promote positive adhesion and prevent warpage. A sprue system would simply be an extension of the print, and if your prints are having issues with warpage, there's a really good chance that your sprues will as well.

That's not to say it's not worth trying if nothing else works, but realistically speaking, it's got a pretty low chance working.

As for starting and stopping each layer height, the software will let you choose to either randomize the layer start height, or start in a specific place. I like the random start myself.

 

[The Chairman]

Edit: Like this one? https://www.creality3d.shop/collections/3d-printer/products/creality-cr-10-3d-printer-prusa-i3-diy-kit-aluminum-large-print-size-300x300x400mm

In my mind, there are only a few differences between the CR 10 and the Tornado. Both are clones of a Prusa Printer, but the Tornado went with an AC heated bed. Not only is the heat far, far quicker, but it's also more reliable and less affected by ambient fluctuations. Also, the extruder on the Tornado is not proprietary, but one that is sold often as an upgrade. If I buy, I'm going with the Tornado, which seems to be a bit cheaper as well.

OctoPi is a really cool setup

I just ordered a 3B+ with a fan integrated case. Sure, I could have printed one, but with two fans already integrated into it, I'll be spending almost as much to buy the fans as I did for the pre-made aluminum case. I've also ordered a Pi camera so I can take advantage of being able to see what's going on. I think that using the Cura Slicer plugin may actually make the MakerBot Replicator 2x usable.

 

[The Chairman]

OctoPI is great.

Mine will be here Saturday!

What slicer do you use???

 

[ScubaBunga]

View attachment 502621
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Fail!
​

The snowflakes warped near the edges so I stopped the print. Grrrrrr.

I missed where you went from sizeable clips to just snowflakes - how are you intending to hold the top and bottom together? Still have a full bar up the center?

 

[The Chairman]

I missed where you went from sizeable clips to just snowflakes

I've been calling them snowflakes all along. They'll still be 30mm tall snowflakes when I get them printed. I had started that print, let it make two passes and went to an early dinner. We got back @ 45 minutes later and could see the elements closest to the edge were curling. Once they lose adhesion, they don't stick together and look like a bad hair day.

 

[ScubaBunga]

ah - well I haven't had a good hair day since around 1989! Most of it has slid off the top and down the back...probably TMI...

I hadn't really looked at the 3d printing stuff due to cost expectations, but have now downloaded a couple free pieces of software and will be poking around at it. The library relatively near me seems to offer 3d printing services and I've started telling the wife we need a printer - maybe by christmas I can actually justify it. This is just what I needed another expensive hobby....