3D printers
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Don't get a Prusa. They're soild machines but absurdly overpriced and don't really have any benefit over a machine you can get for a fraction of the cost. There's literally zero reason to shell out the cash for one.
For just getting into the game, Creality's Ender series is your best bet. They have a HUGE following, the Ender 3 is pretty much the most popular printer of all time, and can be had for a bit over $220-250 without sales.
Personally I prefer the Ender 5, it's a better design in my opinion but MSRP is a bit higher around $350. I've had both a 3 and a 5, and the 5 is the one I still have though it's been heavily uh, fighter'd now... I got both for under $200 each.
They print well out of the box, there are literally hundreds of upgrades available for them on thingiverse for you to print out, and there are huge communities around them on FB and Reddit to help when you have issues. Both also have "pro" versions that have a couple upgrades, I think the 5 Pro is much more of a jump capability-wise than the 3 Pro. Just comes down to budget really.
Don't buy direct from Creality, they take a while to ship, instead buy from Amazon and while you're at it search the AMZ Warehouse section for deals. That's how I got my 5 at the price I did and it was brand new unopened.
And yes, it's worth it to get your own. You'll be amazed at how useful it is, for fixing random things and for printing dumb shit.
For the record, my fighter'd 5 has a custom board running my own custom firmware in an electronics enclosure I made, with a top-of-the-line metal hotend and upgraded fans and everything else, which makes it capable of running almost 2x faster than standard and nearly dead silent (these things are loud), AND I have all the materials ready to upgrade it to increase the build plate size by ~30% while streamlining the positioning of everything.... and I'm still into this thing for less than half of what that Prusa costs.
What questions have ya got?
For just getting into the game, Creality's Ender series is your best bet. They have a HUGE following, the Ender 3 is pretty much the most popular printer of all time, and can be had for a bit over $220-250 without sales.
Personally I prefer the Ender 5, it's a better design in my opinion but MSRP is a bit higher around $350. I've had both a 3 and a 5, and the 5 is the one I still have though it's been heavily uh, fighter'd now... I got both for under $200 each.
They print well out of the box, there are literally hundreds of upgrades available for them on thingiverse for you to print out, and there are huge communities around them on FB and Reddit to help when you have issues. Both also have "pro" versions that have a couple upgrades, I think the 5 Pro is much more of a jump capability-wise than the 3 Pro. Just comes down to budget really.
Don't buy direct from Creality, they take a while to ship, instead buy from Amazon and while you're at it search the AMZ Warehouse section for deals. That's how I got my 5 at the price I did and it was brand new unopened.
And yes, it's worth it to get your own. You'll be amazed at how useful it is, for fixing random things and for printing dumb shit.
For the record, my fighter'd 5 has a custom board running my own custom firmware in an electronics enclosure I made, with a top-of-the-line metal hotend and upgraded fans and everything else, which makes it capable of running almost 2x faster than standard and nearly dead silent (these things are loud), AND I have all the materials ready to upgrade it to increase the build plate size by ~30% while streamlining the positioning of everything.... and I'm still into this thing for less than half of what that Prusa costs.
What questions have ya got?
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what modeling software do you use?
does the printer use specific running software or does the printer come with that stuff?
how much space do these things take up?
so interested in this stuff but have never done anything with 2d/3d modeling or been involved with machining or anything like that.
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I'm in the same boat!
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Personally I generally reach for AutoCAD, just because I'm more comfortable in it, unless I'm doing something complex enough to warrant Solidworks or Inventor. But, I have those available to me. You'll need money, luck, or not-so-strict morals if you want those.
A looooooot of guys use Fusion 360, because it's free for homegamers, and it's capable enough to do just about anything you could want it to. There are tons of tutorial videos out there for it and any other CAD software, just google what you're trying to do and someone will tell you how. It's easy stuff to learn.
Really, any software will work as long as it can export a model as a .STL file, which pretty much all of em can.
Then you need to generate the G-code (same as any other CNC machine) to tell the printer what to do. The way this is done... unless you're writing code by hand... is with a post generator, which in 3D printer world is called "slicing" software. You import your .STL, tell it all of your parameters (speeds, temps, wall thicknesses, etc.), and it auto-generates the gcode for you.
There are paid and free options, all with their pros and cons. Cura is the most popular, it's pretty damn robust and 100% free. Its what I use most of the time.
Then the gcode gets saved to a file, file gets saved to an SD card, SD card gets popped into the printer and you hit GO. There are ways to run the printer direct through a USB cable, but I don't like to (random forced Windows update, anyone?).
Space like data wise? I dunno, but CAD software usually isn't small.
Physically... I don't have exact measurements but figure on roughly 2'x2'x2' for most of the printers you see. They usually list build volume and overall dimensions on the product description for any of em.
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Ender 3 and Ender 5 are both 235x235mm (advertised as 220), with the 3 having 250mm in Z and the 5 having 300mm. Frankly Z height isn't really a big deal, you'll very rarely stretch your legs in that axis especially with the E3 because of how the Y axis is designed.
If you want bigger the CR-10, the E3's big brother, is 300x300x400. Or go the route I did, my E5 will be 355x355x340. But really, it sounds small but you'd be surprised at how much you can get out of that 235mm build plate.
Heat tolerance depends on what you make it out of, of course. Different plastics have different properties and it's up to you to pick the best option for the job... and there are hundreds of different alloys available in filament form for use with printers.
I printed a coil bracket for the vertical cylinder on the Hyper, sits right atop the head and you know how hot that vert head gets. Made it out of a specialized Nylon blend and it's held up fine over like 2 seasons now.
You can select for high heat tolerance, high tensile strength, hard but brittle, tough but malleable, whatever you want. There's even flexible rubber filaments, people have printed watch bands and the like with them.
You could certainly print an airbox. You can print anything. You may need to print it in multiple sections due to build space restrictions, but there's no reason it wouldn't work. Or, print molds to use for a carbon airbox.
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You read my mind with the mold for carbon statement! Is the stuff easy to sand to a glossy finish?
You're getting close to making me spend money I never planned to spend! I assume there is a "mirror" function in the CAD softwares. I like the idea of clicking a button and getting a mirror image. Hated that process for the tank and tail foam sculpting.
You're getting close to making me spend money I never planned to spend! I assume there is a "mirror" function in the CAD softwares. I like the idea of clicking a button and getting a mirror image. Hated that process for the tank and tail foam sculpting.
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Again it depends on the specific material you use, but generally yeah. There's a rather large segment of folks that print like... figurines and shit. Comic heroes, warhammer stuff, etc. They sand and paint them and they come out perfect.
Actual glossy, that I'm not so sure of, but smooth enough to make a mold from would be pretty easy to accomplish. I think if I were doing it, I'd spray the part with a layer of that sorta thick filler primer and just sand that.
Yep, and actually the slicer software itself can do it too. But doing it in CAD is literally less than a second's work.
Cmon Mikey do it! Here I'll make it easy for ya...
E3: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis...0?ie=UTF8&condition=all&qid=1580186360&sr=8-2
More E3: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis...0?ie=UTF8&condition=all&qid=1580186360&sr=8-3
E5: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis...0?ie=UTF8&condition=all&qid=1580186360&sr=8-1
Could even print a water slide, 235mm at a time.
Be forewarned though, these things aren't entirely plug and play. There's calibration and adjustments and tuning to be done to get it right. They print fine out of the box, usually, but to get it to the point where it's super consistent and accurate takes some tinkering. It's not complicated stuff though and I'm happy to help along the way, so don't shy away from the idea, but just be aware that there's a learning curve to climb over if you want to be able to run <0.1mm dimensional accuracy consistently.
For the record, whenever I one day get around to doing the little tail thing on the Hyper, I plan on printing a thin shell and just doing a carbon layup onto it. The process will be draw shape in CAD > run through slicer > print > glue sides together > carbon. Doesn't get much more straightforward than that, and it'll fit right and be perfectly symmetrical the first time. Thinking of the hours spent shaping foam like that, the printer pays for itself right there on that one project.
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You'll need to print with a solvent resistant filament to accomplish what you seek there. For the same reason ppl use "acetone misting" to smooth their prints, so will run into issues applying solvent based products like epoxy paint and resin, and bondo, to most of the filaments.
Also, the yellow part. Bane of my 3D printing experience. The constant effing about. Mostly me, I don't love dicking with it, rather spend that time learning more about my metal cnc mill, but I'm blessed to have that so I shouldn't really complain as my situation is a bit unique there.
Mac, you were extremely helpful with info and getting my E3 set up... have you considered putting your setup & run thoughts in a post here? Maybe we can get Mike to sticky it?
ETA the whole molding thing reminds me, we have a Ducati cush project that needs doing!
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I was just going to ask if someone would show the mods on a proper set up, like Mason was describing. I'm sure there's tons of stuff out there But I like to see what people whose opinion matter to me. Ive seen the stuff Macantar and Seb make, I'd trust their recommendations over the web masses.
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I dunno where you're getting this from... PLA, PETG, and ABS all bond pretty well with epoxy resin, I'm sure other plastics do too but that's like 90% of printing right there in those 3. I saw a post on a "functional print" board recently where a guy was making a special die for his press to stamp a custom profile in 1/8" steel, printed either PLA or PETG with very low infill and just straight up filled it with epoxy AND IT WORKED FOR LIKE 50 PARTS! I was very impressed.
And yeah we gotta get on those cush drives. It's on the list lol.
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I think I'd get behind a printing forum. Part of me feels like the amount of people here that have/use them is probably in the single digits and so there isn't really gonna be enough volume to set aside a subforum for. On the other hand, the more exposure it all gets, the more people will want their own... gotta start somewhere if it's gonna grow, right?
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Well without going into any real detail... you need to assemble the printer as square and true as possible. Then get the bed level. Then all 4 axis need to be calibrated (how much distance does one step of that particular motor give), adjusted, calibrated, repeat until it's right.
Then you need to learn and get decent at figuring out how fast your printer can go while printing before you start seeing issues in the print finish... speed is different for printing walls vs infill, printing inner walls vs outer walls, printing along one axis vs printing across 2, etc. And temps... bed temp, nozzle temp, starting temp, running temp, temp for printing over a gap, temps for better layer bond vs better finish, different ideal temps for each roll of filament you use.
Then the nozzle/feed stuff... how fast to print, how much to retract and when, how much to slow down for the X/Y slowing down while accounting for the springyness of the feed tube continuing to push, etc.
And part cooling stuff, and bed adhesion stuff, and so on. And how all this shit needs to be changed and adjusted for this type of plastic vs that one, or for a part with a lot of overhangs, or for an especially warm/cold day outside, or what the fuck ever.
You CAN use a baseline "profile" in your slicer (e.g. Cura) that sets all this shit for you, and the profiles are pretty good by now. And wherever you do have an issue, there's someone out there who has posted their settings for that type of plastic or that had the exact issue you have and found a way to fix it.
So you aren't just jumping into the deep end blind, as daunting as that first paragraph might look. You have a known-good baseline to start with and play with things as you go (after the calibration stuff anyways).
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It's easier than it sounds, I promise. The way it usually works for people is assemble printer > calibrate printer > open Cura, select your printer, select the pre-set profile you want > print shit.
You tinker and learn as you go.
And the calibration process is pretty easy. You print an opject of known size (20mm cubes are common). Measure X. Cube measures 19.2mm, for example... find the % difference between 19.2 and 20.0, adjust the steps/mm in the firmware by that %, print again to confirm. Repeat for Y and Z. Extruder is the same, just with length... manually jog 100mm, measure what actually came out, adjust by that %.
For finding ideal temps for a roll of filament you print a "temp tower". It's a tower with marked sections, it automatically increases the nozzle temp by X° at each new section, you pick the best one and write the temp in sharpie on the side of that roll.
Don't be discouraged Mike. These are great tools to have.
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