A very timely thread, as the household Minister of War and Finances has given me the go ahead to source a 3D printer as well.
In the lead is currently the Prusa i3 MK3S Kit, which seems to be the darling of the hobbyist side of the 3D printing universe at the moment. With a little over 20 CM Sq. In printing area, it seems it’ll be able top support most of my needs, including printing rather larger RC boat hulls (built in sections). Plus, the kit is $750, vs the pre-built unit at $1000, and affords me the chance to get to know the machine better via the build.
the Creality CR10S, purchased by way of Tinymachines, who imports them from China, but also tests each unit, and can add some modifications in the process. Biggest advantage to me is it has a 30CM Sq. Build area, but it trades that against (according to reviews) being a bit more finicky/not as well sorted out as the Prusa. Still weighing my options.
@Troll, any reason you went with the FDM style printer, vs. a resin printer? Since we all know assorted nobs, bobbins, and assorted Viggenry will be on your punch list, surprised the higher level of detail didn’t catch your eye, especially as based on my readings the resin made prints play nice with proto-typing/molding efforts.
PS: in my searches for a 3DP, I found there’s ways to take models of ships made in Kerbal Space Program, and 3D print them. 30-something year old Aggressorblue desperately wants to send this technology back in time to 8 year old aggressorblue!
I’ve got a Prusa i3 MK3 and it’s awesome. Really great printer, would definitely recommend it. It also comes with free plans for a 3D printed R/C Spitfire, which is an absolute dream to fly. Best part is you’ve got an endless supply of spare parts! https://3dlabprint.com/shop/spitfire-mk-xvi-s3d-cura-ready/
For FDM vs SLA, I believe SLA is typically more brittle, and the material only gets more brittle over time since it’s a light curing resin. FDM is more versatile in materials and usually more durable, material dependent of course. I think SLA printers are also typically more expensive than FDM printers?
You can also fit a smaller sized nozzle on you FDM printer for better details, but it increases printing time alot, standard is 0.4mm.
SLA is more work, expensive and you need to be very cautious with the resin itself, and the build surface, but you can get amazing results!
FDM is more forgiving, but might require a different approach if you want backlighted knobs or such. Other than that it’s very simple, slice a 3d model an print!
The problem with some 3D printers, like mine, is that they use their own standard of filament spools, making you dependent on their proprietary filament…
FlashForge has good and reasonably priced filament, but there are other filaments out there that I want to use. I recently found matte aircraft grey and dark green filament. But since these are on spools that won’t fit the internal filament storage of the printer, I have to put it on the outside… The best place for the filament spool is on top of the printer, since that’s the way it feeds into the printer head.
Was there something you did not like with the FlashForge or just “upgrading”. I have a combination of dust and small humans to contend with that makes having an open printer a bad idea. Was looking at closed in models and wondering if I needed to cross FlashForge off my list.
I loved the Finder!
But i was tempted to try a heated printbed and larger print volume. The Finder can do a 14cm cube but the Ender 3 does 22x22x25cm.
The Ender 3 is also cheaper than the Finder. But it requires some assembly and isn’t as plug and play as the Finder. Both printers are rather open structure, though. I made a dust cover for mine.
Yes! Did you get a glass bed with it? Makes for a lovely print surface! I tend to level the bed for almost all prints, or at the minimum do a check on how level it is. many people put stiffer springs on it so that it does not go out of level so fast. A drag chain is a popular thing to print too but not as important, I would recommend printing the spool guide that helps the material get down to the extruder.
The Tomb of 3D printed horrors has a good assembly guide, the official manual is lacking unfortunately.
EDIT: Also calibrate your extruder, it’s not hard, measure the diameter, mark 100mm, tell the printer to extrude 100mm and measure how accurate it is, then with a formula you put the new value in the printer.
Yes
