3D Printers and Printing
 

Looks like we haven't one of these threads in a while..

Looking at getting a 3D printer, and have been doing a ton of research, and have, for the most part, narrowed it down to two printers...

The first choice is the Lulzbot Mini 2. Very little muss or fuss with this one, from every review I have seen you simply take it out of the box, remove the packing material, plug it in, insert the SD card and tell it to print. It cleans the nozzle and levels the bed automatically, and just works... Two down sides (of course)... The first is that is has a small(ish) build volume, which can be gotten around. The second, and largest down side is the cost, $1500. Given that I want this to make toys for my toys, it is very spendy...

The second printer is the Creality CR-10. It lacks several key features of the Mini 2, including auto cleaning, and bed leveling, plus it has to be put toghether. Every reviewer I have seen says it prints very well, and it is only $400.

So, which would you get?

Also, 3D software. I have two free programs I am trying, anyone have any experience in these, which is easier to learn? Are there any better programs out there? The two are Fusion 360 and DesignSpark Mechanical 3D. I wanted to go with Solid Works, that is what all of the engineers use at work, but that program is VERY expensive to buy, and very expensive for the yearly maintenance fee.

Thoughts? "thumbsup"

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

Can you use whatever software you want with either of these printers?

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Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

CAD software, yes. I believe they come with slicers that are customized to optimize the settings for the machine it comes with.


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Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

I have the Crealty CR-10S and like it just fine. No basis for comparison other than lots of reading and watching of reviews. I've had it a short time, used only PLA so far, and have been happy with the results.

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Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

I would like to have pellet extruder instead of filament rolls. Reduces operating cost significantly.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

The Sig any day. LOL

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

I would start with what material you want to print with. Then what you might think is the biggest single part you might print to get the size of printer you want.

If PLA/PETG/ABS, just about any printer with the build area will work. If you go the CR10 route, check out https://tiny-machines-3d.myshopify.com/ they are out of Texas, the import and then go over the machines, and turn things like thermal run away protection on in the firmware (off by default from Creality)

If you want to print Nylon and flexible's, you will need something with a direct drive, so no CR10, well you could, but your dropping a couple hundred to swap out to all metal hot end and direct drive.

Anything that prints at over 240*C (some PETG, ABS, Nylon) I would consider getting an all metal hotend. Non-all metal use a teflon tube down the center. It starts off gassing around 245-250.


I have a CR10s Pro and Powerspec 3D Pro 2. I run mainly PETG. If I print ABS (rare anymore) I do it on my Powerspec as ABS needs a heated chamber to prevent warping. I have upgraded both my printers to Micro Swiss all metal hotends, and run steel nozzles.

Places for some info and help if/when you get the printer
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CR10/
https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/


Files
https://www.thingiverse.com/
https://www.myminifactory.com/

EDIT:

Some youtube channels
3D Pritning Nerd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7...Tqt08ERh1MewlQ
CHEP https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsd...ikARFEn2dRDJhg
Thomas Sanladerer https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb8...L1ohROUVg46h1A
Maker's Muse https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxQ...rh-b2ND-AfIybg

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

As for slicers, Cura is free, Simplify 3D is $150. Both work with just about any printer and manufacturers usually have a base profile for each that can be imported and tweaked for individual machines. If you go Prusa they have their own slicer.

Long as you can spit out an STL from your CAD program you're good. I would also get Meshmixer, its handy for splitting files up in sections to fit your print bed.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

A CR10 mini was my first printer because of the great reviews of the CR10 series and the price. It is super easy to set up (install about 4 screws, plug in well labeled wires, and start printing) and it printed very well out of the box with PLA. For $400, you get a lot of printer (literally a lot) and endless options to upgrade it.

As I learned what I was doing, there were things I started to not like about it. The firmware was locked and there was no bootloader to update it (that was Creality directly violating the terms of the Marlin firmware, I think Creality has since come around on this) so no changes to the firmware would be stored. This was particularly annoying when the the axis and extruder steps had to be adjusted. The bowden tube fitting on the hotend sheared off it's teeth holding the tube so the tube would back out whenever the filament started flowing and clog the hot end. Both of those issues were correctable with some work but the common CR10 issue of a warped heat bed was never fixed. Inconsistent bed adhesion was a problem the entire time my CR10 was in service because the bed could never be equal distance from the nozzle across the whole print area. Auto leveling is the most common mod to deal with this but I never got around to that.

Recently, I replaced my CR10 mini with a Prusa i3 MK3s.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

IMO, skip both of those, check out Onshape. It's cloud based (similar to Fusion 360) but it's made by a couple guys from SW so the UI is very similar to SW. This way, the engineers at your work might be able help you.

I should qualify my words to say that I'm heavily biased. I've been using SW every day for almost 5 years. I found Fusion 360 to be OK, but once models and assemblies start getting more complex it has some weaknesses in it. But it's decently easy to learn and the price is right.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

Awesome, thanks for the input!!! One 'LIKE' for each of you!!!

Here is another one to throw into the mix... ANYCUBIC Mega-S

Thoughts?

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

I use Onshape as well, not terribly hard to learn and they have great tutorials.

The bigger thing for me is that Onshape is entirely cloud based instead of partially cloud based like Fusion 360. Fusion runs like complete crap on my old computer while Onshape is no more resource intensive than pulling up a website.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

Not sure on that one, some of the i3 clones like that have mosfet issues.

Downside to the sub $500 realm of 3D printing. Get into that space and the component quality and QC goes in the toilet. Thats why I suggested Tiny Machines as the source for the CR10 type. They actually test the machine and give it a once over, fix issues, then send it to you. I seen people get machines off places like Gearbest and Banggood, showed up damaged in shipping and go through the 7 rings of hell to get any support.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

At this point I'd be getting a CR10 or a genuine Prusa i3.

There's a variety of CR10 versions so make sure whatever you get has the features you want.

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

As part of my research, I have been hitting YouTube REALLY hard, and have found a couple of channels that are overall very knowledgeable and entertaining.

I found this video this evening, it is about threads in 3D prints and their failure points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6OBlSzp7I

This next one is great, this guy goes through the process of building what he prints in Fusion 360, and makes some useful and interesting stuff...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eGW-VmvHYE

This one is cool, they guy does 3D printed RC projects...

https://youtu.be/zG3JdsBXqeE

The two above do printer reviews, but the next guy is all about them...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thf_hQzHCSY

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

Joel or 3D Printing Nerd made a giant OpenRC build

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C9HV4bplKTs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

That is pretty cool. I think as RC guys, we could see the results being fairly predictable. I think they will have bearing issues until they actually put bearings (or metal bushings) all of the way around; I am pretty sure the only reason they did not have an issue with the front wheels is simply because of how little run time they had on it. It does make me wonder how well that thing would drift if they could open up that ESC a bit.

Also, it makes me wonder what material would be best for drift tires.

Here are two REALLY interesting videos on 3D printing strengths. The first video looks at layer height vs layer density vs print direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbSQvJJjw2Q

This second video looks at the strengths of threaded fasteners with 3D prints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6OBlSzp7I

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

Re: 3D Printers and Printing
 

I just pulled the trigger on a Ender 3 Pro and it should be here by the end of the week, I have been collecting .STL files and want to print some of them