over gear

iTrader: (18)

For someone who is new to 3D Printing...
Where should one start?
Which software / hardware / printer should one start with?

sacmiata

iTrader: (27)

Pretty subjective but my 2 cents

Here is generally how i got started last month.

1st coming up with a general budget that you might consider spending and what size of work you might want to do and what you might want to print for (toys, functional parts, etc). Printer costs vary from a few hundred to millions of dollars and everything in between.


2nd narrow down a list of a few in that range and check out youtube and online reviews to see how they fare. There are alot of good reviews out there on all the major printers and kits.


3rd concurrent to all of this checkout thingiverse to see what is available to print as well as download a free modeling software - something like fusion 360/sketchup/etc. and try drawing. If you dont like the modeling then your likely going to hate printing unless its just files your finding online. From here you can decide what software you need to buy (if any). I am using a free version of sketchup and fusion 360. The slicer is Cura which is also free but there are software packages that do offer more features later that i might purchase.

For me i use autocad/revit occasionally at work so getting into sketchup and now fusion 360 really hasn't been a big deal. I wanted to spend no more then $300 and i wanted to print around 220mm square. My goal was to print functional parts for things like RC cars as well as a full scale kit car so i wanted to be able to print in a variety of materials. I ended up with a Creality Ender 3 Pro for around 210.

antibala

Hello,

I have a Zortrax M200 FDM printer. It's not cheap but could print beautiful.
It has a own slicing software. Very easy to use. It prints with 1.75 ABS filament.
Nozzle diameter 0.4 mm

Some rule of thumb according to my FDM experiences:

- Offset by holes + 0.3-0.4 mm in diameter

- Against warping you have to make permanent temprature. I covered my printer with a simple cartonbox.
For me this cheap carton solved this issue.

- Minimum wall thickness must be 1,2 mm rather 1,5 mm by the main body of a RC car for exaple.
I always had problems with parts, which had smaller.

- By functional parts for exaple suspension bars, minimum 2-3 mm rather 4-5 mm
But for sure you cuold stregth them with more infilling.
Normally 30-40 % of infill is enough.

Balázs

Psychotikcow

iTrader: (12)

how have you like the ender pro so far? I'm looking to buy my first 3d printer.

Madulla

ljl23

iTrader: (11)

3D Printing is great fun! Get Tinkercad to start. It's free and very easy to use, and to make basic parts. I use Cura for slicing. The printer I have is called the Monoprice Maker Select for $240, assembled. It is a copy of the Wanhao Duplicator i3, which has prooved to work very well. I did the Z-Axis stabilzer mod and glass bed, which made big differences.

sacmiata

iTrader: (27)

I have liked it alot. I did some basic printed mod's like the filament guides. I probably have about 1.5 KG of material through it and its been solid. A few failed adhesion issues with PETG and the factory bed material. I purchased a glass bed and that has cured those issues.

I like the CR-20 pro that was mentioned especially at 315 bucks! When i bought my pro it was 209 shipped and i think the 20 pro was another 150 bucks. But for me i dont need a filament sensor and i personally like to level my bed by hand - its not difficult and i only do it maybe once every 5 prints just for good measure. Putting together the ender 3 was fun as well. If you like building model RC cars then I see it as a bonus to actually assemble the ender 3 (about 2 hours and watch the youtube video while you do it for all the tricks).

over gear

iTrader: (18)

what kind of r/c parts are you guys able to print?

1/8 IC Fan

iTrader: (102)

I wanted to inquire as to which materials lend themselves to further working. I.e. print an item, then finish machine to tolerance. I am looking to get a printer yet before I make the dive need a bit of insight as to what type of plastic can be further refined. I am looking for a material that will not deflect / distort and such during as stated machining, drilling and tapping.

Thanks

Bry195

I can share what i know but i suspect there isnt a black and white answer. PLA is cheap and it doesnt stink. Im setup to run any material but PLA is one of the best materials to for strength and printing. It boils down to whether it will be in the sun allot (UV) and the temps it is exposed to. PLA is a low temp filament. A low end rig can print PLA without an issue, matter hackers has a material data sheet on which filaments are best for what. PLA doesnt warp much either.

most of the time we print parts that are somewhat hollow. They have a solid outer surface and you select how deep the outer surface is. So a cube that has a 2 or 3 mm solid surface will have the same outer surface depth around printed holes and whatever feature you add. So then there is infill. These are shapes that are printed in the hollows to add support. For example small cubes are added as infill to the hollow space, In the slicer I tell it whether the infill is 1% or 100%. 100 means it will be solid core. 20% means there will be cubes that take up about 20% of the volume in the hollows. Once you cut through the outer surface with a drill or mill you will be cutting into the infill that you designated,

most printers out of the box can hold a .2mm tolerance. With some tuning you can get the printer to be almost exact. I can easily be within .05mm without much work. It will take time for you to understand what you see and how to adjust but once you get a feel for the printer you can make adjustments on the fly to tighten up tolerances by eye.

TheRulesLawyer

iTrader: (3)

I think ‘further refinement’ is kinda against 3D printing. Pla sucks to work with after the fact. Overheats and becomes mush. Lots of fdm filaments that would work. Abs,nylon,etc. what you have to remember is that 3D prints aren’t solid generally. If you need threads you use things like brass inserts that are melted in place. You can even pause prints to drop hardware in the middle of a part like if you want a captured nut. Also fdm parts aren’t uniformly strong due to the layers. For small stuff resin is more accurate and homogeneous. 50 micron is ‘rough’ for it so parts are pretty finished out of the gate. However most resins are brittle outside of a couple engineering resins. What are you hoping to make?

Jonty666666

I got into 3D printing shortly after rc cars to print a few spares for my brothers cougar 2000. As for what to get I simply bought the cheapest fdm printer a ctc diy It printed ok out of the box but many upgrades later it’s printing brilliantly Ł80 or about $100 delivered the original spec did fine for printing a few rc bits