What is your 3D printer and what do you think about it?
I’ve got 3 printers at home plus an Ultimaker 3ex I brought from work during COVID19. I mainly use them to test out some designs but 20% of the time it is for useful stuff like mounting brackets or special tools. 30% is likely for stupid desktop ornaments
The Ultimaker is great if you have the money although my son and others swear by the new Ender printers.
I wound up with someone just giving me an Afinia. It’s in my basement and I haven’t even hooked it up yet. It doesn’t look like a great printer. If they were willing to give it away, it probably isn’t. Still should be able to find a use for it
Tried getting a Snap maker for $40 and got scamed out of $40. Got the Snap Maker 3 in one printer on order after that and while waiting for that got and Ender. They just kind of set around till I can find a dedicated place to leave them where they will not disrupt the other people in the house. Unless I can find stuff I really want to print in 8 hour or less. Most of the time the print times run 20+ hours.
I have an ender 3 and ender 5 plus. Both are great printers and I highly recommend them. I also bought an elegoo mars, but don’t use it. I need to dust that one off and use it, but there never seems to be enough time.
One thing I did, if anyone is interested, is I bought these for my enders:
image.png
Using a drill bit, I slightly enlarged the hole in the aluminum body (don’t drill the whole hole out, just a few millimeters into the body). This allows me to insert a piece of tube. I cut the piece of ptfe tube to a point (the point faces the gear when installed) and insert it in the arm such that there’s no gap between the arm and the gear. This takes a bit of denial and error by cutting the ptfe tube shorter and shorter until it just fits. (If this is confusing, I can post a picture tonight, just let me know.) Here’s somewhat what it looks like, though I’ve exaggerated it a little, you need a very small piece of tube.
image.png
Then I changed the ptfe tube to capricorn, which has a slightly smaller diameter.
This enables me to print TPU, even Ninjaflex.
It’s a very cheap and easy upgrade for your printer at only $11 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079JZ374W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
At the office, a couple BCN3D Sigmax’s, one FormLabs 2 system, two RailCore Project systems and a Monoprice Maker Ultimate (Wanhao Duplicator 6). We also have a Carbide 3D Nomad desktop CNC.
My personal 3D printer is a BCN3D Sigma. A resin printer is in my near future for the home work shop. Home shop includes a 60W JPT M7 MOPA Fiber Laser, an AvidCNC 24" x 24" Desktop Pro CNC Machine and a Pocket NC V2-10.
I have 2 Monoprice Maker Ultimate / Wanhao Duplicator 6, and the company I work for has 3.
All 5 have these modifications -
3/8" thick build plate flat to within ± .001" Made by me from MIC6 aluminum.
Upgraded connector for the build plate power, since the original ones all burned up.
Microswiss all metal hot end.
Bond Tech extruder drive.
Left hand part cooling fan with mounts and ducts [for both sides] designed by me.
Fiberglass reinforced RTV heat block boot.
All of the 40mm fans upgraded to Orion 24V ball bearing fans, since the OEM fans bearings die in about 6 months.
Made lexan sides and top cover, so they are enclosed like the D6.
Recently gotten ourselves a SLA printer from FormLab (Form3L)
The print quality is really good (at least at area without support). The build size is huge (but the material needed to setup the print is also alot ugh)
In some cases it print even faster than our FDM Printer (uPrint)
As someone who had been using dissolvable FDM support (and waterjet-ing polyjet support in the past), having to manually remove the support is really painful
One day I hope to get a Form printer. A few years ago, I read a teardown of an earlier Formlabs model, and the author was blown away at the quality of the parts and the cleverness that went into the Form printer.
(The original link was on Hackaday.com -Here’s a more recent one from 2020 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=5701)
I have an Anet a6(China). It is a user-friendly and popular 3D printer and is not expensive. It is a self-assembling FDM printer delivered in parts. It can process different plastics, has a heating working space, and supports ABS, PLA, HIPS, and PVA.