Which 3D printer?

[andyhigham]

OK we all know the Prusa i3 is one of the best affordable printers around but £700 is a lot of money for a plaything (£578 after I get the VAT back)
Are the Chinese clones that can be had for as little as £100 any good for dipping a toe in the water?
What does one look out for when buying a cheap printer?

[andyhigham]

I have done a bit of research, I thought I could build a frame and add all the relevant bits to build a "custom" printer. Not even close to being more affordable, it would cost a similar amount to the Prusa Mk3s before starting to think about the frame and all the printed parts.
The cheap sub £100 printers must be crap
The sub £500 must be very mediocre
I may be biting the bullet and buying a Prusa

[andyhigham]

I have downloaded and read the assembly instructions.
The heater bed is divided into squares. Included in the kit of parts is a bag of Haribo bears, these are divided up and placed in the squares on the bed. After each step of the assembly, a square of Haribo bears are to be consumed as a reward

[simplyloco]

May 15, 2019 17:54:42 GMT andyhigham said:

I have done a bit of research, I thought I could build a frame and add all the relevant bits to build a "custom" printer. Not even close to being more affordable, it would cost a similar amount to the Prusa Mk3s before starting to think about the frame and all the printed parts.
The cheap sub £100 printers must be crap
The sub £500 must be very mediocre
I may be biting the bullet and buying a Prusa

My Stuart No 9 is on that well known  site rightnow. Hopefully it will pay for  Prusa!
John

[coniston]

Hi Andyhigham, I have a Malyan M150 printer I bought 3 or 4 years ago from Hobbyking, it is a copy of a Wanhao which I think is a copy of an ultimaker. Anyway it cost less than £200 and prints just great. Probably not as good as the latest Prusa but as good as the early ones. There are many different makes and copies around and the best suggestion I can make is to trawl the internet for videos of the different machines actually working. One that I have heard good first hand reports of is the Creality CR10S, it uses Vee rollers on guide bars rather than linear bearings which are more adjustable for wear. You need to consider the size of parts you want to print, most machines have the standard 200mm ish cube print volume, but more recently machines are available sub £500 to print 400 cube or even 500mm cube. Beware that some of these machines only have a 300mm square heat plate so heating to the edge takes some time. If only wanting to print small parts in good detail then the resin machines are great value, but I have no experience of them personally although I'm tempted to buy one. As Roger mentioned somewhere the nozzle diameter will affect resolution/quality, most use a 0.4mm nozzle which is fine for most things but you can get as small as 0.2mm, beware the print time extends an awful lot and can be many hours. Additionally there are many websites like Thingyverse where people make available their own designs downloadable free, some great things like a lathe tool height setting widget using a cheap ballrace and spirit level vial, works a treat and very quick and accurate to use. Do as much research as you can, try Technology Outlet as a UK supplier of lower cost machines. Hope this helps.

[AndrewP]

I've got a pair of Trinus, one printer and one for the laser head(long story) and an old mdf framed thing called Sumpod but they all have a relatively small print area of aaround 120mm square. My next printer will be a self build using aluminium section frame and a print area of 450mm square.
The Creality 10S has been recommended by many who have one as a good, cheap, starting point. Expect to modify, tinker, improve etc. in fact it can become the end in itself - beware!

Andy

[andyhigham]

I have had a look at the Creality CR-10. The frame looks very sturdy and I like the V roller guides. I think the single Y axis guide rail should really be two to avoid the possibility of the bed rocking. Some versions of the CR-10 also only have a single Z axis lead screw, could cause the carriage to droop? The extruder drive is inferior to the dual gears if the Prusa and is remotely mounted feeding through a tube to the hot end, this can be a problem with flexible filaments.
None of these issues are insurmountable with a bit of inginuity

[andyhigham]

I have just pulled the trigger on a used Creality CR-10s with dual Z lead screws. £195

[3405jimmy]

Any printer demonstrated by Naomi Wu on Youtube ?

[andyhigham]

Yesterday I picked up the Creality CR-10s, the vendor was only 40 miles up the M61/M6 at Morecambe. It looks to be a very well made machine, the frame is rigid and the guide "V" wheels are very smooth running. The LSD screen has a menu system, navigated by a rotary knob which also pushes to select. The heated bed has a glass printing surface clipped to it, the vendor recommended "Pritt Stick" as an adhesive for PLA filament.

Will I change anything?
I would probably build a new enclosure for the electronics, either similar to the Prusa with the control board at one side and the PSU at the other, just behind the gantry, or an enclosure the same size as the footprint and bolt the printer to it. The current enclosure is not attached to the printer yet it is connected by a bunch of cables which makes moving it a bit of a juggling act

[simplyloco]

May 17, 2019 14:30:53 GMT 3405jimmy said:

Any printer demonstrated by Naomi Wu on Youtube ?

Yes, she certainly enjoys showing off all of the 3D aspects...

[simplyloco]

A Stuart No. 9 and a steam boiler pump just paid for my Prusa ordered today. Delivery 7-10 days.
Whoo Hoo!
John

[simplyloco]

A duplicate post not to do with boats!
I played with my new Fusion 360 package today for the first time. I was surprised at how easy it is, I might have gained just a little mastery of it!

First go at the saloon body. The portholes are not in line but it's a start and the next attempt will be OK! Mind you, I haven't found out yet how to taper a shell...

Who's a Happy Bunny then? 
John



20190526_174934[1] by inkaboat, on Flickr

[Deleted]

Hope you don't mind me tagging onto this thread Andy but the title sums up my question. I am looking at buying a 3D printer, I don't need an all singing all dancing one just something easy to use and reliable. What are peoples views on the Prusa Mini or the Creality Ender 3 Pro?

[atgordon]

You will not go wrong with a Prusa i3. I have not used one, but friends nearby in the NC have, and Roger's very positive experience must be noted (it was his work that got me into thinking about 3D printing fixtures for CNC machining jobs).

As 3D printers evolve, the Prusa seems to be the best cartesian printer. There are, however other technologies that are evolving and offering the same if not better overall performance. (before we go much farther, I need to let you know that I am a novice in this field, but like all enthusiasts/gadget-lovers, I like to get my head round what is evolving, but I am not expert, just someone willing to share my ramblings ... do not take them as anything other than something to think about).

I bought an $86 TronXY i3-type printer in Dec 2019. The i3 moniker describes how the axes moved ... in every other respect, it was NOT an i3 as seen by those who have bought the Prusa i3 unit, and could be best described as a learning experience (aka piece of junk).

After a month of getting it to work, and realizing that I needed a "good" 3D printer, I started looking at what is out there. If you are looking at filament, there are 3 basic types:

1. Simple Cartesian where a print table moves in the Y axis, and the print head moves in the X-Z axes (the i3 approach).  As the object size and weight grows, the moving Y-table can present inertia problems.  Rigidity and lowering print speed helps.

2. Delta coordinate system where the print head moves in X-Y-Z axes simultaneously, but the table does not move.  The really big format (especially tall) printers seem to use this approach.

3. CORE-XY, which is a variation on the i3 system, where the print head moves in the X-Y axes, and the printer table increments downwards.  The model never moves in the +/- Y direction, and so the inertia issues of the i3 system are not a factor (which is what appealed to me ... big prints do NOT move in the Y direction - at 100m/sec, so the Y layers are much more consistent).

Delta system are expensive, so I looked at CORE-XY systems, and came across the FlyingBear Ghost 4S 250x210x210 32-bit wireless loading printer ($310 back in January - gone up since it seems) that has worked flawlessly since I got it (Ok, nozzle jambs, the odd haystack print, but the filament load/off-load feature makes that easy to deal with).  I've got almost 100 hours of print time on it with mostly PETG and ALA filaments: it's works well with old ABS filaments too (even without drying them).



I'm not an expert, I have bought 2 machines, and the first was crap ... the second has worked great, but use your best judgment and look at i3 and CORE-XY machines before putting you money on the nail.  If you are not sure which way to go, and you are inexperienced, go for the mk 3 Prusa!

(Once you've got your printer, you will be like me ... how did I survive his long without one ... thank you Roger - once again!)

(just noticed the Fusion post ... second the use of F360 for 3D prints ... I use F360 for all my CNC work, and it outputs SVG directly to a file or your selected slicer: work great!)

(it's printing smoke box numbers for Manor 7801 in while PETG)