3D Printing 3D Printers...worth the money yet?

chadmanfoo

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Hi All

Thinking of investing in a 3D printer. Just wanted to get your opinions of if you think they are worth it, and what are your experiences with the various models on the market.
 
Unless you are making something to sell I don't see the point in having one at home..
 
unless you want to build something to make some profits.
 
I think your best holding on to your cash for now. They'll come down in price as everything does and by then, there may be more use for them.
The ideas and possibilites seem great at the moment.
 
I've got one of those pen type handheld 3d printing thingy's.

It's like the 3doodler but a cheaper Chinese version. Cost £40 from amazon.

It's great for making repairs to my quadcopters & helicopters, but I wouldn't bother with a full size 3d printer yet, besides this is a lot more fun. :)
 
I'm wondering if the handheld version produces smoke due to plastic melting.
 
I'm wondering if the handheld version produces smoke due to plastic melting.

I havent noticed much in the way of smoke, the ABS smells worse than the PLA.

In the end the Chinese version was crap so I ended up getting a legit 3doodler 2.0 from Maplins for £99. It takes 3mm filament and not 1.75mm but you can get 1kg of 3mm (approx 110m) for around £12-£15 in about 15 colours, including glow in the dark green. This is cheaper than the legit 3doodler filaments which are around £12 for a pack of 10 250mm sticks.

You can get plans that use the 3doodler as the business end of a full 3d printing rig.
 
I've just bought a CTC 3D printer which is basically a Chinese copy of the Makerbot Replicator but way cheaper, and slightly better than the really cheap Prusha models knocking about.

Most of the 3d printers on the market are DIY models, you can get a full diy kit for under £180 which consists of all parts to build a fully working 3d printer. Takes around 6-10 hours to build depending on skill level.

The CTC one I got was fully built and has dual extruders for 2 colour printing, it was £270 in this country, from China the price was around £240 but you run the risk of over £100 if gripped for import duty & vat, plus the month long delivery times.

I don't rally have a use for it so at the moment I'm just printing upgrade parts for it and various test items.

I'm really amazed at how much you can print from 1 spool of filament which costs around £15.

I've printed a couple of useful things. We have a Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner that has a wall bracket for the tools, but it didnt have enough connectors to store all the tools it came with so I printed an adapter found on thingiverse website that allows me to double the amount of tool storage on the wall mount.

Also just got a Samsung S6 phone, and the normal thing for me is to buy a desk stand, but this time I printed one to take a wireless charging puck I have, which has saved me some money. :) It probably cost me around 20p in filament to print the desk charging stand.

I wish I would have had a 3d printer years ago when I look at all the stuff I know I could have printed myself. :)
 
Would be nice to se some of the things you have printed m8,still cant get my head around how it works ..lol
 
i 2nd that, would love to see the things you have actually printed with it.
 
Most of the thing's I've printed so far have been mods for the printer itself.

I am in the middle of printing a clock with plenty of cogs & gears. :)

I've printed a desk stand with wireless charging for my phone (2 actually but I didnt like the first one) and I got some flexible filament to print a phone case, and something to store my SD cards & USB flash drives.

Also printed some glow-in-the-dark bit for halloween.

2015-11-08 17.40.42.jpg
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Curiosity 3D Printer building workshop for Kids! — MakerBay 工匠ç£

its worth the money about 150 us dollars alla you have to do is take out 2 dvd drives and a little DIY.

for a start is perfect

Sounds like a good idea.

For $255 (£170) inc shipping you can get a full sized 3d Printer with 2 rolls of filament and an 8gb SD card, from Ali Express. It's a DIY kit but has all the parts included to make a fully working prusia single nozzle 3D printer.

It's a good kit too, the frame is made from acrylic and the importand parts are NOT 3d printed (unlike some of the cheap kits on amazon & ebay which use mostly 3d printed parts and a frame made from threaded rod).

2015 Upgraded Quality High Precision Reprap Prusa i3 DIY 3d Printer kit with 2 Rolls Filament 8GB SD card and LCD for Free-in 3D Printers from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
 
if you have it whats your opinion of it because many people relay on comments based on internet

i m into montelism multicopters etc and i want it for replacing parts when brake


Sounds like a good idea.

For $255 (£170) inc shipping you can get a full sized 3d Printer with 2 rolls of filament and an 8gb SD card, from Ali Express. It's a DIY kit but has all the parts included to make a fully working prusia single nozzle 3D printer.

It's a good kit too, the frame is made from acrylic and the importand parts are NOT 3d printed (unlike some of the cheap kits on amazon & ebay which use mostly 3d printed parts and a frame made from threaded rod).

2015 Upgraded Quality High Precision Reprap Prusa i3 DIY 3d Printer kit with 2 Rolls Filament 8GB SD card and LCD for Free-in 3D Printers from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
 
if you have it whats your opinion of it because many people relay on comments based on internet

i m into montelism multicopters etc and i want it for replacing parts when brake

I don't have it, I have a CTC dual nozzle 3D printer based on the Makerbot replicator dual.

I was considering the Sunhokey prusia (the one I linked to) but couldnt be bothered to do a DIY kit.

I have been on many 3d printer forums and they all sing it's praises.

Like most of the sub $1500 3d printers there is some work you can do to improve them, for instance my first 15 prints or so are upgrade parts to make my printer better.

As is the case with most 3d printers the quality of the output depends as much on the printer as it does on the filament used in printing.

For instance PLA is good for rigidity but not for repetitive wear or high temps, but is probably the easiest to print with. ABS on the otherhand is a pain to get printed but has good toughness and can withstand much higher temps.

Mylon is a pain to print too but can withstand much higher wear than the other 2 and is good for mechanical parts.

I've just got some PET to play with which is supposed to be as easy as PLA to print but as tough and flexible as mylon for withstanding heat and wear.
 
Try printing food

The Pancake Bot 3D printer does, plus there are a lot of choccy 3D printers.

The priciple of extrusion based 3D printer can be applied to a lot of materials.

There are houses being built by 3D printing concrete, normal size houses not garden playthings.

There are 3D printers that can print using mashed potatoes, vegetables, minced meat etc.. direectly on plates and straight to the table.
 
I think they worth it, but it is up to you.
If you expect to buy a 3d printer and start to print, and get spectacular results, you will have to spend a lot of money.
If you are a student or a enginner, you will no be asking this, then you should be a normal person.
 
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