3D printing

[Gunslinger1911]

Evening all,

I've been reading about 3D printers, watching vids, etc for a while. Read through the collator thread. Looked at all the cool reloading (and general) stuff on Thingverse (absolutely awesome clock escapement).

So what's the printer to get ? Best bang for the buck ? Looking in the $250 ish range.

Is the Anet A8 still a good one to start on ?

I'm pretty good at fiddling around with tools, and my sil is a master machinist, so he is REAL good at fiddling. lol

Thanks in advance !

[Bulldogger]

The website matterhackers has an annual top 10 list that is pretty good. I have a clone of the Prusa I3 that is pretty good. I recommend getting one with a heated bed capable of passing 100C and a hot end (extruder) that can reach 250+C. That way you can print ABS and it's siblings, and possibly Nylon. An unheated bed delegates you to less durable plastics.
Bdgr

[jmorris]

My anet 8 is still going.

[Ickisrulz]

We bought this one for my son for Christmas. It works great and no set up issues.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[flyingmonkey35]

I own 4 printers and run 3 more at my work.

Rule 1. These require a lot of maintenance.

Rule 2. 3d printer self replicate.

Stay away from super cheap kits unless you plan on truly rebuilding.

Look at the original prusa mk2.3. Then compare that to the cheaper kits to that model. And I suggest you pony up a few extra hundred bucks and go with the best.


But if you have a machinist you can really make some awesome upgrades. Tk the cheap frames

The key is a ridged frame. Time and patience.


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[MrHarmless]

I own 4 printers and run 3 more at my work.

Rule 1. These require a lot of maintenance.

I would say that maintenance is model dependent. I have a custom Delta I built in College. I had it stored for a year while I was training down in San Antonio. When I got back six months later, I dusted it off, tightened the belts and hammered away. In my experience, traditional Cartesian printers do require a little more if you're using lead screws vs belts.

[kayala]

I went with original Prusa (it was gift for my son tbh he's really got into it - fusion 360 for modeling and he's only 14 ) So far (we pretty much used original gray spool it came with) it didn't require any maintenance just bed cleanup. Having said that - it's way out of OP's range.

[Gunslinger1911]

Great info and links folks !! Gives me some more research material.
I really think I'm going to like a printer - just have to decide how "whole hog" I want to go.

As I've said before - you folks and this site are the BEST !

[flyingmonkey35]

I would say that maintenance is model dependent. I have a custom Delta I built in College. I had it stored for a year while I was training down in San Antonio. When I got back six months later, I dusted it off, tightened the belts and hammered away. In my experience, traditional Cartesian printers do require a little more if you're using lead screws vs belts.

Well I am a Fix it till its broken kind of guy.

Err maybe tinker is a better word.



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[dbosman]

My son bought a small one from Monoprice.com but it is small.
This weekend I've printed powder baffles, a powder cop die, MEC powder bushings, primer catchers, AreoGarden accessories and some die accessories. Fun, but not worth paying for a printer for the task.

[respiegel]

The frame is the key to a good printer, my monoprice will not stay square or level with any extended use, after plenty of upgrades it will do fine for a week between tinkering. I like the CoreXY geometry


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[flyingmonkey35]

The frame is the key to a good printer, my monoprice will not stay square or level with any extended use, after plenty of upgrades it will do fine for a week between tinkering. I like the CoreXY geometry


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Oh boy do I want to build a hypercube.

One of the most ridged printers out thier.


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