Re: Choosing a 3D printer?

[Todd Blatt]

The two node members most involved in 3d printing are marty and myself.  We are both MakerBot employees.  The new MakerBot Replicator 2 just came out 2 weeks ago today and produces high quality prints in PLA and comes fully assembled at $2199.  If you come visit the store in NY you can see or maybe see the original Replicator at the PaDLab at umbc.  The node my be getting one of the original Replicators soon.  Quality of the print really just matters on the time.  A 3 hour print at .2 mm layer height will be half as smooth as a 6 hour print at .1 mm layer height

On Oct 3, 2012 9:31 AM, "Moby Disk" <moby...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Node guys - I'm a random hacker from the area, and I want a pre-assembled 3D printer.  Does anyone know where can I go to see the quality of the results?  Is there any place that has good reviews?

I've done some reading, and there are lots of opinions but there are no good apples-to-apples comparisons.  Print quality seems to vary highly and it is hard to judge from pictures.  There are a lot of models out there, and there seems to be a wide variety in the results, even from what is supposedly the same model printer.  So many of them are so new even the web sites for them are incomplete.  There's a Mini Maker Faire in Norfolk, VA on Oct 20th.  Does anyone know if there will be any variety of printers there?

I am looking for something that can make parts for costumes, toys, and misc small mechanical parts.  I think a small build area will be fine.  I might start with something small and cheap them maybe move to something bigger once I get my feet wet.  The Free Universal Construction Kit (http://fffff.at/free-universal-construction-kit/) looks phenomenal, so I'll probably be making stuff from that.

I'm open to suggestions.  Do you have one at Node?

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[Eric Mooney]

Hey Todd,

 

Or anyone else with an opinion on the subject.. I too am bouncing around the idea of picking up a 3d printer and I'm looking to spend no more than $1200. Unfortunately, the Replicator 2 is out of my price range. I've looked at the RepRap Prusa Mendal and other DIY printers and I've also looked at Cubify. Here's where I'm at. I'm nervous about getting a kit because I've heard of people getting one and then never being able to get it 'production ready' because of some configuration issue or other problem. I'm a software guy so I'm really green at debugging hardware and would probably be pinging people for help. I'm also nervous about the Cubify because it uses proprietary file formats as well as proprietary ABS plastic. But I like how it supposedly works out of the box.

What would you recommend I do? I'm really not sure what is the best move for me and $1200 is a lot of money for me so I want to make sure I'm spending it wisely.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[John Yang]

I'd suggest a assembled reprap, or buy a kit and pay a local reprapper
$200-300 to build and calibrate the machine for you. Kit cost for a
prusa mendel is $600-800, and then spend the rest on filament. Paying
another reprapper to build and calibrate is probably the
fastest/cheapest way to get the machine working at the level you want.
Pay a bit more and have them give you a 1-3 hour crash course on the
tool chain from idea to printed object. Or get a group together and
do a group build together and then ask/pay a reprapper to come in and
help with calibration and teach you the toolchain. I'd do it for
you, but I'm in DC.

John

[Michael Rosner]

I know a rep-rapper (not me) who will build it for you.  He is well known for having built a multitude of them and has taught a class.  Anyone interested, let me know.  MikeR

[Eric Mooney]

Hey, Mike.

Could I get his contact info?

 

Thanks,

Eric

On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 3:59 PM, Michael Rosner <mrmicha...@gmail.com> wrote:

I know a rep-rapper (not me) who will build it for you.  He is well known for having built a multitude of them and has taught a class.  Anyone interested, let me know.  MikeR

[John Yang]

I know someone who works at MICA in Baltimore that would be happy to
do it as well. He has run several group builds in the past and can
source and assemble for you if that is what you want. His name is
Andy Ta, I'll send his info seperately.

John

[Eric Mooney]

Excellent, thanks for your help John.

[Mike Graham]

On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:34 AM, Moby Disk <moby...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There's a Mini Maker Faire in Norfolk, VA on Oct 20th.
> Does anyone know if there will be any variety of printers there?

NY MakerFaire last weekend (admittedly one of the flagship ones) had
over a dozen different printers there; I suspect there will be at
least some variety in Norfolk. I'd be on the lookout for blogposts
from people who went around reviewing the sample prints.

I'm not much for 3D printing myself, but I was definitely thought the
printer/mill/cutter-in-a-briefcase was cool vimeo.com/45911972

> Do you have one at Node?

The Node has a MakerBot Cupcake. It's the first generation MakerBot
printer and to tell the truth it's showing its age. The prints are of
pretty iffy quality and at the moment it needs a tiny bit of TLC to
get back up and running. MakerBot's newer printers do a ton better job
as do many, many of the other printers on the market.

Mike

Mike

[Steve Presley]

In case you all haven't seen this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wjsteele/ultra-bot-3d-printer

For $200, you can get all acrylic parts and hardware to upgrade the CupCake
to an Ultrabot.

For $349, you can get a new control board as well.

For an extra $150 on top of either of those, you can upgrade to an 8"x8"x8"
build area too.

Know I'm not a member or have even visited the Node proper yet, but would be
willing to kick in to help out the Node get a 3d printer back up and going.


My offer of selling the Node my dual extruder Replicator v1 for a hefty
price reduction/donation so that I can buy a Replicator v2 also stands
(although I never saw that message hit the list, so not sure if it made it
either).

I would also be interested in the contact info for the gent who teaches the
class, would like to see if he'd be interested in coming down to MADExpo in
Hampton in the summer to teach his class as part of the
hacker/maker/electronics track.

Feel free to email me directly to discuss any of the above at d s a x m a
n a t g m a i l d o t c o m or s t e v e a t s t e v e p r e s l e y d
o t n e t.

-Steve

[Moby Disk]

I am definitely interested.