3D Printing Starters Guide, FAQ, Helpdesk, General Talk Thread

Made this with Wood PLA last night.

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Wow! That doesn't look like a 3D print. I would have guessed it was carved or molded particle board.

Yeah, it's pretty nice, you get a great finish & fine details come out really nice.

My settings were out on this one (a stargate coaster), so try & ignore the attempted cleanup. But it actually printed the symbols around the edge. The gaps are tiny, match for size reference.

I was not expecting it to work.

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The texture of the print wouldn't catch it correctly, would have to be hand painted.

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Ah you're right, would have to smooth it out to do that.

I wanted a 3D printer 2 years ago. So I hired others through 3D Hubs with various printers to do projects for me in order to gauge the quality. I decided the Form +1 SLA at $3,500 was the only one I liked because I had used SLA prints at work. Dad always told me "You have champagne taste on a beer budget." I thought the quality of the FDM prints were toys. Even FDM printers are way too expensive for a poor person like me.

I can afford a $160 toy.
I expected a bad review. It's not great. The only frill is pre-applied painter tape. He said 'fiddly' a lot. It could kill you if you screw up the wiring. Cable management is non-existent. But the results are acceptable. I read a bunch of positive reviews elsewhere. I only saw one problem from a guy who loved it, but the motherboard died and he was having trouble with the replacement.

Please somebody, tell me I'm stupid unless I get a printer I can't possibly afford and then I won't be able to play with any 3D printer. A toy or otherwise.

signed: Positron, Professional Turd Polisher.

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all i can say is that i got this one,
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Big-size-220-220-230mm-High-Quality-Precision-Reprap-Prusa-i3-3d-Printer-DIY-kit-with/32516976282.html

With a few little printable mods later it competes with printers 5x the price of mine.
Trust me it is worth it! excellent printers.
cable management is not to bad.
Get a picture frame and use that glass on your printbed.
Also get two Ikea LACK table's and make a nice printer workstation :wink:

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There are definitely advantages to getting one of the more expensive ones, but if that is all you can afford get it. You'll probably have to do a bit of work to it to get it to print well, but as long as you are willing that's not an issue.

Cheaper printers are usually louder as well.

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Printers are definitely one of those things where you get what you pay for, to a certain point

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yeah I was going to buy a cheap printer and then immediately start printing parts for the LACK printer. :thinking: I'm going to get the Anet a8 for my BDAY.

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3d laser metal printing using powder.

These guys have also just built a new machine in Singapore that is a laser 3d printer combined with a cnc mill, so it can print the component, then finish it in one continuous process. Don't have any videos of it in operation yet though.

This is very cool and I think it would be a perfect project for a 3D printing lab in a school. All files are available for download and printing.

They mention the 'Visible V8 Engine' model I for got Christmas as a kid. My brother got the Rotary. They asked about printing in clear but the dude very wisely kept saying, "this is as far as I wanted to go, download the files and you can do that if you want."

I learned so much from that model. Like, if you double the RPM with no lubrication you might break a camshaft. I had no means to take it apart and fix it because it was glued. I took out the batteries and replaced them with the transformer from my HO electric car tracks and a controller so I could rev it. I noticed the new models are hand cranked. That sucks because the best part was the red lights for "spark plugs".

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I had one of those visible v8 engines... lights would light up everytime a spark plug fired... it was a pretty cool motor.

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Welp. Its official. I've spent ~$300 to print 20mm test cubes

http://home.adubs.net/webcam/?action=stream

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Finally started printing things other than upgrades for my printer last weekend. I think the best investment was using the raspi I had laying around for octoprint

Heres a phone stand I made for someone else. Its not perfect. It has some ghosting and it didnt adhere completely to the dollar store glass plate I've started using. Still turned out usable I think though. Its meant for an iphone 6 but we dont use damn dirty ape apple products in my house.


This is a pretty slick looking pot for my wife. There were so many crazy designs on thingiverse for pots/vases. This was just the first semi-normal looking one I could find. Again it has some ghosting issues. Probably need to lower accell and jerk settings.


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I have used Shapeways for SLS printing.
The Formlabs Fuse 1 ($9,999 or $19,999 with req'd options) lets one make SLS prints at home.

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What do you guys think of this printer as a concept?

It isn't being marketed as a consumer product, but apparently, they're going to be making the prototype designs open source in 2018.

Interesting, that print surface looks expensive though, I wonder how long it would last. I guess being a fairly gentle separation from the print would help keep it in good condition.

Also maybe limited to PLA? I'm not sure if heating material like that would work.

Looking forward to finding out more about it.

Things like this make the 3d printing world so cool, so much innovation & so much of it open source, which just accelerates the progress that everyone is making.