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Looking for a 3d printer.


MikeB

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Been researching 3d printers off and on for a few months.  Favoring a Geeetech A30T (picture below).  Was wondering how many members have one and what do you have ?  And show me some of the shit you have printed.  And where do you get your filament ?

 

s-l500.jpg

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I have the Ender 3 V2..had it for about 4 months. Nice thing is you can print out most of the updates for the machine. Works great for me. Plus it was fairly cheap. Damn thing has been running since i got it..lol. If you go on  https://www.thingiverse.com/ you can get an idea of some of the things you can print. Definitely a fun hobby with a bit of a learning curve. The 3d community is very helpful. 

 

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My daughter wants one for doing "Bath Bomb" molds. For her I would need something plug and play and simple.  The one above is overkill for her.  But I like the large print area on this one for myself.  Seen the Creality Enders also.    I will head over to the site linked and dig around.  Thanks for the info.

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Ordered the Geeetech !!!  

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Nice...looks like a great machine. The auto leveling would be awesome. Very easy to get frustrated but there are a lot of how to videos out there.

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I have had two 3D printers, a Robo 3D Cartesian and currently an FLsun Delta. Learn everything you can about the mainboard and the software options for it, then say if it's Marlin learn everything you can about marlin and which commands your mainboard supports. Bed leveling and proper Z-offset are the first two things to master. Don't go berserk with printing "upgrades" for the machine right away. Learn it first as I've found about half of the "upgrades" are more of an excuse to print something because you've run out of ideas and don't really help you print better. There should be a FB group or hopefully a forum for your particular machine, these will be the most helpful places to seek advice specific to it. There should also be YouTube videos for repair and maintenance. As far as filament goes Make sure you're buying the right size for your printer. Hatchbox Wood  PLA filament and Proto-Pasta PLA are two of my favorite PLAs, eSun & Amazon brand are decent. PETG is a matter of what's on sale and what you plan on doing with it, some blends are brittle and don't take impact or flex well like a PETG should. 3D Solutech, Tianse and YOYI brands always work well for me. Flexible filaments like TPU/TPE work best if you print slower. If you want to do ABS or Nylons you will need an enclosure or tent around the printer for best results, they tend to warp. Most of all in the beginning you will need Patience. A nozzle clog 18 hours into a 35 hour print is a mofo, but it happens, you change your nozzle or needle it out start over and move on.  The only brand of filament I've consistently had problems with is Inland.

 

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An early print from my delta

53830220.thumb.jpg.e018cc9caca8fbedf6f223d5ec1e9ac8.jpg

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19 hours ago, Johnny3Time said:

I have had two 3D printers, a Robo 3D Cartesian and currently an FLsun Delta. Learn everything you can about the mainboard and the software options for it, then say if it's Marlin learn everything you can about marlin and which commands your mainboard supports. Bed leveling and proper Z-offset are the first two things to master. Don't go berserk with printing "upgrades" for the machine right away. Learn it first as I've found about half of the "upgrades" are more of an excuse to print something because you've run out of ideas and don't really help you print better. There should be a FB group or hopefully a forum for your particular machine, these will be the most helpful places to seek advice specific to it. There should also be YouTube videos for repair and maintenance. As far as filament goes Make sure you're buying the right size for your printer. Hatchbox Wood  PLA filament and Proto-Pasta PLA are two of my favorite PLAs, eSun & Amazon brand are decent. PETG is a matter of what's on sale and what you plan on doing with it, some blends are brittle and don't take impact or flex well like a PETG should. 3D Solutech, Tianse and YOYI brands always work well for me. Flexible filaments like TPU/TPE work best if you print slower. If you want to do ABS or Nylons you will need an enclosure or tent around the printer for best results, they tend to warp. Most of all in the beginning you will need Patience. A nozzle clog 18 hours into a 35 hour print is a mofo, but it happens, you change your nozzle or needle it out start over and move on.  The only brand of filament I've consistently had problems with is Inland.

 

 

Thank You !!!  I have CNC Machining background, so I am familiar with G-Codes and tooling offsets, etc..  So the calibration of the actual machine will be easy enough for me.  I ordered a glass plate and the Z axis touch probe too.   Its the learning curve on filament, which you enlightened me on.  Greatly appreciated.   Its coming with 2 rolls of PLA, not sure what brand though.  I imagine the factory would not send PLA that doesn't work well.  Should be here in a couple weeks.  Next is research on 3d scanners !!  You have any info on inexpensive scanners that work well ?

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5 minutes ago, MikeB said:

 

Thank You !!!  I have CNC Machining background, so I am familiar with G-Codes and tooling offsets, etc..  So the calibration of the actual machine will be easy enough for me.  I ordered a glass plate and the Z axis touch probe too.   Its the learning curve on filament, which you enlightened me on.  Greatly appreciated.   Its coming with 2 rolls of PLA, not sure what brand though.  I imagine the factory would not send PLA that doesn't work well.  Should be here in a couple weeks.  Next is research on 3d scanners !!  You have any info on inexpensive scanners that work well ?

I almost forgot, calibrating your esteps. Every machine is a little different on its extrusion calibration even from same model/mfg  you measure 100mm of filament going into the extruder then tell it to extrude 100mm, measure the difference and adjust the e-steps to compensate the difference. I haven't used any scanners other than playing with the windows 3D thing and pictures I've taken. I made replacement feet for my keyboard with it after I broke one.

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51 minutes ago, Johnny3Time said:

I almost forgot, calibrating your esteps. Every machine is a little different on its extrusion calibration even from same model/mfg  you measure 100mm of filament going into the extruder then tell it to extrude 100mm, measure the difference and adjust the e-steps to compensate the difference. I haven't used any scanners other than playing with the windows 3D thing and pictures I've taken. I made replacement feet for my keyboard with it after I broke one.

I have a microwave that the latch is cracked.  Every year or so the glue breaks and I re-glue it.  Tried JB Weld and others to make a permanent fix, but they give out.   Now I can just draw and print off a new latch !!  Maybe some custom volume / tone knobs for guitars.  Looking foward to playing with it.  Maybe in a few years the "metal" printers will come down in price !!  Star Trek Replicators are on the horizon !!!

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I use a Rasperry Pi with a webcam on it to run my printer running a version of linux called OctoPrint. Its a fantastic print management tool, you can make time laspe video of prints that are pretty cool. I use it for handling the gcode instead of SD card loading and remote viewing/control of the printer. If something goes wrong on a print I can stop it while I'm at work.

 

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46 minutes ago, Johnny3Time said:

I use a Rasperry Pi with a webcam on it to run my printer running a version of linux called OctoPrint. Its a fantastic print management tool, you can make time laspe video of prints that are pretty cool. I use it for handling the gcode instead of SD card loading and remote viewing/control of the printer. If something goes wrong on a print I can stop it while I'm at work.

 

Will check it out.  The printer I have coming has a resume print feature.  But if something goes fubar with it while printing I can see the advantage of remote shut down.  I have an old linux based pc laying around.  Used it to run some "video" programs back in the early 2000's.  Its an old linux build for sure !!!  But I can dust it off, update linux and check Octoprint out.

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