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Looking for Beginner 3D printer

MWD

Plastic
Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Location
TX, USA
I'm looking for a beginner 3D printing Kit. I am looking to learn how to print custom gaskets. Where do you recommend I start with a budget of around 5k?
 
Just got a Dremel 3D printer from Home Depot in my office and I absolutely love it for making prototype assemblies for automation equipment. Got it for $400 on Ebay (1000.00 new). The printing software is very easy to use. Just save your CAD file as a .stl, open it in the software, orientate, scale, and choose your build parameters (layer thickness,density,etc.) Very user friendly, but still very capable. PLA only, but for my use its great. I prefer it over the CubeX printer we have in the main office that cost $4000 and has print errors left and right.
 
I work for a cutting tool supplier but we have a sister company that's specifically for 3D printers (Hawk 3D Proto) and from what I've seen of their range the best for the 'beginners' is one of their Airwolf printers as they have some the high precision ones which are the higher end of the price range but then you have the printers for the new starters too which are a lot cheaper! Hope this helps.
 
"Make" magazine recently published their December/January issue which covers hobbyist 3D printing machines. They seem to do this once every year and although their tested machines go for much less than $5,000 it is worth reading, especially if you are shopping for one now. They also tested a couple of liquid resin machines as their price has come way down and they offer superior surface finish and fine detail ability.

Randy
 
I have heard and seen good things about Dremel, seems easy to use and has great price point. Then again I'm just looking to get something to get my feet wet, and the less I spend the less the wife is gonna chew my ass.

Just FYI, there was a great article in Modern Machine Shop (I think). Detailed how a Co. used the additive manufacturing process to make a custom very thin jet type nozzle to evenly distribute coolant in an I.D. grinding operation. The really neat bit was that it contained internal fins to direct flow, would have been very difficult to make it any other way due to small size. Do not recall what make of machine it was other than it was a metal deposition machine.
In closing it seems that with this emerging technology you need to have a 3D printer sitting there. That way you will have the capability and probably find more uses than one would think. Plus who doesn't want a new toy???:drool5:
 
"Make" magazine recently published their December/January issue which covers hobbyist 3D printing machines. They seem to do this once every year and although their tested machines go for much less than $5,000 it is worth reading, especially if you are shopping for one now. They also tested a couple of liquid resin machines as their price has come way down and they offer superior surface finish and fine detail ability.

Randy

But do your own research. The printer I use had some mistakes in the specs and features. I suspect that their reviews are based on press releases and brochures more than actual use.
 
I have been looking at getting into 3-D printing for awhile, but did not want to throw down a large amount of money for something I wasn't so sure about. In the beginning I was reading about open-sourced RepRap to learn the ropes in hopes of getting one for cheaper than $1000. That was about two years ago and they were still at $5-600.

Recently a co-worker told me his wife got him a full DIY kit of the "Prusa" RepRap model - one of the most common and well-known with respectable accuracy and print area. He said it was outstanding for a beginner to learn with.

Shipping from their U.S. Warehouse I purchased mine for $199 and included 1 spool of PLA and 1 spool of ABS. Assemble with the instructions and then start tinkering with the settings to optimize - this is where you really 'learn' 3-D printing. IMHO for $199 if you are learning you can't go wrong - and there are plenty of websites with designs improvements for Prusa i3 that will take your simple DIY kit to the next level.

Look for "Sunhokey Acrylic Reprap Prusa i3 DIY Kit"
Buy Best 3D Printer, 3D Printers for Sale at Best Prices

Hope this helps.
 
Howdy,

If you are still looking, I watched a fellow (JPL/CalTech engineer) on a weekend designing and fabricating a deformable LED contact holder using one of these "Bukito" 3D Printers. He is one several customers who hang-out (via scheduled 'Meetup' group) on weekends at the (successful KickStarter campaign) DeezMaker shop in Pasadena.

See: Bukito V1.5 Assembled – Deezmaker

These additive printers, unlike many others are very stable, very robust, and can literally be tossed into the back-seat, travel across town, setup on a cafe table and still print accurate without having to expend hours recalibrating to produce useful prints. One of the neato features is the usage of SyncroMesh cable instead of belts.
See: Synchromesh Cable - 3.81mm pitch – Deezmaker

These printers are very easy to use, just squirt in a standard stool-file (.stl) from 3D CAD program/Slic3er program and it prints, with excellent repeatability.

I'd buy one of these neato cartesian printers (~$800 assembled), but I'm fascinated with the delta Rostock version printers. I am currently machining on my MicroMark Seig X2 mini-mill a 100% home-brew Rostock which I named the 'tron-delta-strapus Hall/Weber/Rostock' printer.

Cheers - sledge hammer
 
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I need both for plastic and metal. Which is the best? and cheaper lol

Metal printers are not cheap.

And you will not find "Best" and "Cheaper" in the same printer.

for plastic, I recommend a Wanhao, Mine is the Duplicator i3 and very reliable, PLA plastic is easiest to print, with low warp.
 
Whatever you do...do NOT go buy a kit from China, seriously. You know that whole "you get what you pay for saying"? Yeah, it is still true.
 
I would recommend a Dremel too. The public libraries near where I live have different Dremel models for public use. They have never failed me yet and never seem to be out of service.
 
I would not discount buying a machine from China, after all, most of them are made there. Using AliExpress, Trade Assurance holds your money until you receive the goods so there is less chance of a scam.
The only difference between printers of difference sizes is the length of the drives and frame. A large printer should not cost significantly more than a smaller one.
I bought a 500mm cube printer for less than $800. I only had to mount the gantry and connect the cables.
The software is Cura, a free download. It has all the parameters needed: wall thickness, fill %, slice height, speeds, temperature, et cetera.
You need an .stl file of your model. Cura can scale, rotate and move the model on the printer. Cura adds any supports needed.
This full scale model of a four valve port head was the third attempt, the first two were 1/4 scale to test the orientation. Port face down worked best so there were no supports inside the ports.
I have since printed guides so I can use the actual valves and mount it on the flow bench for testing.
 

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If you want to try out 3D printing I would strongly suggest first calling your local library, or maybe community colleges. Our county library has a nice 3D printer and they charge you material cost for making something. So, with TinkerCAD and the county's 3D printer I got my feet wet and some nice parts made for very little money.

Steve
 








 
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