3d printers

[Skipholiday]

Hello Phantom Pilots.
I've grown to respect the members of this community. and your opinion is important to me and I respect it.
Many of you use 3d printers and I would like to purchase one.

I'm curious if any of you have any advice or recommendations.

Solid Doodle has been ruled out because of the lack of software support altho I liked the machine.

Both FlashForge 3d Printer and the FF CreatorX seem good so far.

The Makerbot is nice and seems very similar to the FlashForge models.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Terry~!

 

[dataway]

I use the Printrbot Plus it is a really great machine and now they have auto leveling for the bed which relieves a lot of headaches. It also has a heated bed that allows you to print any material. The print area is 200mmx200mmx300mm and I use Repetier Host to drive the printer which slices the models to produce the gcode and sends it directly to the printer and it is free. I also built my own extruder and grinder and I produce my own filament as a fraction of the cost and with parts that don't come out just right I just grind them up and extrude them so there is very little waste I have also printed with plastic water bottles that I have ground up and extruded so it helps the environment also...

www.printrbot.com

Hope this helps....

John

 

[Skipholiday]

I use the Printrbot Plus it is a really great machine and now they have auto leveling for the bed which relieves a lot of headaches. It also has a heated bed that allows you to print any material. The print area is 200mmx200mmx300mm and I use Repetier Host to drive the printer which slices the models to produce the gcode and sends it directly to the printer and it is free. I also built my own extruder and grinder and I produce my own filament as a fraction of the cost and with parts that don't come out just right I just grind them up and extrude them so there is very little waste I have also printed with plastic water bottles that I have ground up and extruded so it helps the environment also...

http://www.printrbot.com

Hope this helps....

John

wow awesome. I like the idea of using plastic bottles and reusing bad parts. Great thank you

 

[dataway]

You can also make some good extra money with your 3D printer by registering it on a site called Makexyz.com, people hire you to print parts for them and you get paid...I have printed enough parts that it has more than paid for my 3D printer....

Just a extra thought.....

 

[Skipholiday]

You can also make some good extra money with your 3D printer by registering it on a site called Makexyz.com, people hire you to print parts for them and you get paid...I have printed enough parts that it has more than paid for my 3D printer....

Just a extra thought.....

wow your full of great info thanks

BTW any disadvantage to the open sides of the printbots?
Most I've looked at were enclosed for that reason but I like being able to see

I read that a breeze could possibly mess up your models/parts.

 

[dataway]

Here is a sample of the quality, I had these sitting on my desk so I thought i would share this picture with you.

The candle holder on the left is printed with recycled plastic bottles and nylon scraps it is pretty flexible.

The other candle holder is printed with clear ABS plastic and is not flexible at all...

 

[dataway]

I have never had a problem with printing without an enclosure and I have my printer in the garage where it is pretty cold in the winter time...

 

[Skipholiday]

I have never had a problem with printing without an enclosure and I have my printer in the garage where it is pretty cold in the winter time...

how to you recycle the plastic? another machine to make it into cord?

 

[dataway]

Yes I built my own filament extruder and grinder. The grinder is an old ice crusher I found at a swap meet and put together a gear box and attached an electric motor to it and it grinds up the plastics into very small pieces I then put them through the extruder which heats the plastic to a melting point and uses an auger to force it through a die that extrudes 1.7mm filament which rolls onto plastic reels.

 

[Skipholiday]

Yes I built my own filament extruder and grinder. The grinder is an old ice crusher I found at a swap meet and put together a gear box and attached an electric motor to it and it grinds up the plastics into very small pieces I then put them through the extruder which heats the plastic to a melting point and uses an auger to force it through a die that extrudes 1.7mm filament which rolls onto plastic reels.

thats too cool. can i see a picture of your setup? thanks

 

[dataway]

Sure I will take some pics and send them over to you tomorrow...

 

[Skipholiday]

Sure I will take some pics and send them over to you tomorrow...

no hurry

thanks again for all the help

 

[amrflyingdude]

I am looking at their low end kit but somehow feel like 4x4x4 printing area is a bit low?

 

[ktbeasley]

I am still pretty new to 3d printers, but, I bought a See mecnc Rostock Max V2 and love it. The have a great forum and assembly manual. My first print looked awesome and the build volume is huge. It is a delta style printer and you would not believe how fast this thing can move. I would highly recommend it.

 

[WeaponsHot]

Sure I will take some pics and send them over to you tomorrow...

I also look forward to the pics and great info also, thanks.

 

[dataway]

Here are some pictures as requested of my 3D Printing setup.







If you have any questions I am happy to address them..

Regareds,

John

 

[OI Photography]

If you have any questions I am happy to address them..

Regareds,

John

I have a question....when will you start taking orders on that (your extruder)? Seriously, if I had a prototype of something that would be that useful to a market as explosive as 3d printing is right now, I'd be all over it!

 

[Skipholiday]

John you have it goin on. I'm impressed with the recycling setup.

 

[DKDarkness]

Hello Phantom Pilots.
I've grown to respect the members of this community. and your opinion is important to me and I respect it.
Many of you use 3d printers and I would like to purchase one.

I'm curious if any of you have any advice or recommendations.

Solid Doodle has been ruled out because of the lack of software support altho I liked the machine.

Both FlashForge 3d Printer and the FF CreatorX seem good so far.

The Makerbot is nice and seems very similar to the FlashForge models.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Terry~!

I did some research, had the hots for the xyzprinting DaVinci 1.0 but decided against it because of the proprietary print cartridges. Ended up ordrering the solidoodle 4. It uses Repetier and Sli3er. I use Autodesk Fusion 360 as a CAD program. It is free for students and enthusiasts.

I have contacted Solidoodle support 3 times with questions. Every time they have responded with helpful answers within hours. Before you buy a 3Dprinter, consider contacting the various manufacturers with questions and see if and how they respond. This can be an indication of the support you can expect after you buy, in case problems arise?

 

[DKDarkness]

Here are some pictures as requested of my 3D Printing setup.







If you have any questions I am happy to address them..

Regareds,

John

For the not so tech minded, filament extruders are available as a kit: http://www.filastruder.com/ Before beginning to recycle plastic, I would however start with getting the prints to be 100%, as the different filaments can influence on quality. One variable at a time so to speak. According to what I read on "the internet" the polymers in the filament are degraded by heating them, so recycling should be limited to about 12% material in the filament mix. Any thoughts on that?