New Hobby Help! 3d Printing...

[Esq.]

I have some extra money having sold a few guns recently. I've decided that I want to spend some of it on a 3D printer. Cursory YouTube "knowledge" tells me I can get a pretty decent basic unit for $500, looking at a Monoprice Voxel.

Thoughts?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

That looks pretty interesting. And the enclosed chamber like that is good if you want to do higher performance - higher temperature resin like nylons. 150 mm on each side isn’t that big, but that should still work for 80% of what you want to do. The change oil nozzle and removal bad sound good too.

I’ve had to printrbots and now to Prusas, Mk3 with MMU and just got a Mini. I love the mini. It’s quiet it’s fast it’s 200 mm on each side. It has the removable bad and I find that to be a real benefit. Prusa has two different kinds of beds one for things like PETG and the other one works great for things like PLA and PCTPE.

Those two different beds solved what I had as the biggest problem in 3-D printing, which is the item staying stuck to the base while it is being printed.

Welcome to the sickness. Right now I have three different printers active, one film and extruder, another extruder of filament that I’m looking to put together, two different scanners.

[elephant]

can you work with software like Autodesk Autocad or Inventor or equivalent? What are you wanting to create?

[Esq.]

can you work with software like Autodesk Autocad or Inventor or equivalent? What are you wanting to create?

Nope. I can learn....As far as what I want to make...little gun related things, ham radio accessories- powerpole holders, tool parts...It seems like one of those things that once you have it and figure out how to use it you would wonder how you got along without it!

[Esq.]

I've been advised that I may rather want to start with an Artillery Sidewinder?

[TehLlama]

For basic stuff, really hard to go wrong with a Mk3 Prusa for the cost - if you're at the TinkerCad and download an STL to print stage, that's probably what makes the most sense to work from. You can do a lot with very basic CAD tools if you're creative, and if you're working in flexible materials you can rework pieces to behave quite well.

Cheap PLA is great to have, PETG and cheap TPU can make for some really impressive stuff - the right bed is about the only major hangup for people getting started with good prints, level it correctly and do the adhesion stuff (even though it feels dumb to do things like spend 10 minutes with a glue stick), and you'll do fairly well.

[Esq.]

For basic stuff, really hard to go wrong with a Mk3 Prusa for the cost - if you're at the TinkerCad and download an STL to print stage, that's probably what makes the most sense to work from. You can do a lot with very basic CAD tools if you're creative, and if you're working in flexible materials you can rework pieces to behave quite well.

Cheap PLA is great to have, PETG and cheap TPU can make for some really impressive stuff - the right bed is about the only major hangup for people getting started with good prints, level it correctly and do the adhesion stuff (even though it feels dumb to do things like spend 10 minutes with a glue stick), and you'll do fairly well.

I was looking at a Prusa as an upgrade!

[elephant]

Just a friendly reminder.

Software like AutoCAD, Inventor, Rhino, Solidworks and Blender are not super easy software programs to learn. Sure its easy to make simple shapes but if your wanting to build complex designs and parts for guns, I would recommend taking an online class from companies like ImaginIT or equivalent. I know a few people who got really frustrated after purchasing a 3d printer only to find out it wasn't as easy as drawing something on CAD and hit "Print".

A lot of open source communities are banning firearm related designs for download.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Just a friendly reminder.

Software like AutoCAD, Inventor, Rhino, Solidworks and Blender are not super easy software programs to learn. Sure its easy to make simple shapes but if your wanting to build complex designs and parts for guns, I would recommend taking an online class from companies like ImaginIT or equivalent. I know a few people who got really frustrated after purchasing a 3d printer only to find out it wasn't as easy as drawing something on CAD and hit "Print".

A lot of open source communities are banning firearm related designs for download.

I agree. The design of things is the real missing link. I've used TinkerCad to make a number of things, lots of things, and it can be powerful and it keeps getting better. The issue is that going back and modifying something is kind of a pain. TinkerCad at its most basic level works by making basic shapes and then subtracting it away. I wish there was something between TinkerCad and Fusion.

The other issue is the 'slicing' - the settings to turn the shapes into the commands for the printer to follow.

And a printer, as my 8 year old daughter explained, is just a robot glue gun.

The printer is important, but frankly, the printer tech has plateaued a few years ago. Yes, there are multimaterial/filaments printers now. But look at Prusa,- they make a 5 material printer and they print many of the parts for their printer- but no parts have been multimaterial yet. Actually, to fill their print farm, they are going with the smaller Prusa Mini versus the larger, more capable MK3 variants.

Get digital calipers, you'll need them....

I went with Prusa printers because they had pretty good reviews, their price point was attractive, and their support and forums are pretty active. Printrbot was OK, but the support fell off and the forum got lonely.

I made my Mk3. I think assembling it is good, kind of like making and upper and lower for an AR- you know better what is going on, and there is always something to tweak or fix. It was nice to just pull the Prusa Mini out and print..