SPA Modeler

Having fun with my 3d printer







He is not that big, only about 3 1/2" tall.

Very cool! How much does a 3D printer run? And what sort of material do you use in it to create things?

Cool!

I just read this article about a 3d printed aircraft. That kit looks very rough when compared to yours.

http://modelingmadness.com/review/allie ... omerap.htm

Stikpusher wrote:Very cool! How much does a 3D printer run? And what sort of material do you use in it to create things?

It depends on what kind you want and how much you're willing to spend. I've seen some go anywhere from $350 and upwards to thousands of dollars. Materials for 3D printing can get pretty pricey as well.

I have seen 3D printers for $350 in Barnes and Nobles a few times.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/3d+prin ... tid=427546


Micromark has one fairly decent priced for $1300 while the spools run about $30 each.

http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.a ... d+printers

Again, owning one can run you thousands of dollars every time you want to do any 3D printings due to material costs. $30 a pop for spools can add up pretty quickly.

I'd love to own one, learn how to use it and tinker with it. The possibilities are endless. If only they can make the spools more affordable - let alone more material per spool, the better, I'd get one.

I am hoping to see my son take a technology class on 3D printing at school this year. I do know for a fact his school has one. I have seen some really cool finished products they've created at school.

I watched a 3D printer demo at a local Barnes and Nobles last year. I was literally fascinated with it. I spoke to some of the kids there asking all kinds of question. Did you know creating a simple object - say a 1 inch pumpkin takes 20 minutes to make while a 5 or 6 inch tall Eiffel Tower replica takes hours to make. Not sure how long but I think they told me something like anywhere from 4 - 6 hours (?).

wedfactory wrote:Having fun with my 3d printer







He is not that big, only about 3 1/2" tall.

That is really cool!! Well done!

BlackSheep214 wrote:

Stikpusher wrote:Very cool! How much does a 3D printer run? And what sort of material do you use in it to create things?

It depends on what kind you want and how much you're willing to spend. I've seen some go anywhere from $350 and upwards to thousands of dollars. Materials for 3D printing can get pretty pricey as well.

I have seen 3D printers for $350 in Barnes and Nobles a few times.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/3d+prin ... tid=427546


Micromark has one fairly decent priced for $1300 while the spools run about $30 each.

http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.a ... d+printers

Again, owning one can run you thousands of dollars every time you want to do any 3D printings due to material costs. $30 a pop for spools can add up pretty quickly.

I'd love to own one, learn how to use it and tinker with it. The possibilities are endless. If only they can make the spools more affordable - let alone more material per spool, the better, I'd get one.

I am hoping to see my son take a technology class on 3D printing at school this year. I do know for a fact his school has one. I have seen some really cool finished products they've created at school.

I watched a 3D printer demo at a local Barnes and Nobles last year. I was literally fascinated with it. I spoke to some of the kids there asking all kinds of question. Did you know creating a simple object - say a 1 inch pumpkin takes 20 minutes to make while a 5 or 6 inch tall Eiffel Tower replica takes hours to make. Not sure how long but I think they told me something like anywhere from 4 - 6 hours (?).

I picked up a Lulzbot mini for about 1200. Black sheep is right, 3D printers are slow, the Groot above took 3 hours to print but that was at the highest print quality I could have knocked it down to just over an hour at the lowest print quality. Those times are for a filament feed printer. The resin printer are faster but much more expensive.

I was looking at several things when researching mine, cost, reviews, print quality, print volume and warranty.

Most of the inexpensive 3D printers have a small print volume as small as 3"x3"x3". the Groot in the above pictures wouldn't even print inside that printer. Other printers had a 8"x8"x8" print volume, nice but to keep cost down the max print quality was 100 micron per layer, pretty much standard for the inexpensive 3D printers. I was surprised how many 3D printers only came with a 90 or 120 day warranty. Do these people not believe in their product? And for all of the above the cost would range from $300 - $1500. The prices went nuts after you changes the print volume to more than 8"x8"x8" jumping often by a grand.

So I selected the Lulzbot Mini. It has a 6"x6"x6" build volume, not the largest in the price range but not the smallest either, but closer to the large end. The print quality is 50 microns per layer better than most in the same price range and matching some of the more expensive ones. The best quality filament 3D printer I saw was 25 microns per layer but was $800 more expensive. the reviews on it were outstanding, often making the top 5 home 3D printers. The worst review gave it a 7.9 out of 10, beacuse it had to stay attached to the computer the entire print time and it has a whine to it when running, not because of quality issues. I can live with that. The printer also came with a 1 year warranty with the option to buy a 2 year extended warranty for a total of 3 years of warranty. No other company matched that.

Over all I would have liked the larger 8"x8"x8" print volume, but for the price i would have had to give up print quality and warranty.

But in the last several days I have had a blast printing stuff out with only one misprint, and that was user error. Didn't load the filament right. As far as the filament goes it comes on 2LB spools. It will last a good while before needing to buy more. And what makes this even more interesting are the different types of filaments, colored, flexible, metal infused (small metal dust in the filament) and one with wood dust in it. There is also a sculpt-able filament coming out soon (pricey at $250 a spool).

Like so many other technologies 3D printing will only get better, faster and cheaper over time, just like the 2d printers did, dot matrix, ink jet ,to laser and now colored laser.

At this time I am just getting in on the ground floor with this stuff and am looking forward to playing with it. Hell as an architect I need to figure the best way to print small scale massing models with it.

This is some great information. I must say that the whole "learn to CAD/CAM" is keeping me from from doing this. But you probably use 3d drawing programs as an architect. So that is a big advantage.

There are plenty of free 3d printable files to download from the internet. That's where i found a good number of these.

Very interesting read, Warren! One day such a printer will be in each house! I just remember the first VTRs being ver yhigh priced (yes, I am this old to remember!). My first CD player was about 600 DM, about 300 Euros!

But as we all know, prices are falling down soon. The more are sold the more those 3D printers get available. Only thing one cannot buy is how to use the needed software...

Now imagine creating a duplicate of yourself with a 3D printer... talk about Multiplicity....