3D printers

[sptruckie]

I wanted to buy a 3D printer. I was looking for something that's easy to use and not that expensive.

Anybody have any recommendations.

[cowboy rich]

Great question imo I'm in the same boat want one so bad I can taste it but theeennn we have the money thing. I'll be looking for your responses.

[talon63]

There's been some discussion about this topic on the boards before. "Easy to use" and "not that expensive" are kind of relative terms.  There are some right around $300US 3D printers that would be considered "inexpensive" but to me they have small build areas. You could do engines, seats, other smallish parts, but very little in the way of an entire body, or a frame more than 5.5 inches long. 

For a little over $300 I can get one with a nearly 9 inch build plate and an aluminum frame, not plexi, which can mean a lot of vibration in your printer, leading to some poor output. Metal frame means less vibration, hopefully better (smoother) layering. That makes full frames and even some bodies doable. Then you need to compare the resolution of the output. Printing the curve of a fender smoothly means a pretty small number and most of the "around $300" printers usually do Layer Resolution:0.1mm-0.4mm. Getting one that does 0.0xmm raises the price again. But the smaller that number gets, the finer the detail and smoother a vertically curved surface will be. 

But then we get into "easy to use". I've done some CAD and 3D modeling before, and it's a chore because I don't keep those particular skills up. I'm looking into a scanner solution to assist in the creation of the 3D models, but now I'm adding more $ to the situation. If you are good with CAD or 3D rendering, I'd say go for it.  This link, https://all3dp.com/best-3d-printing-software-tools/ was useful for me. One caveat, 3DTin is no longer available. Also, if you don't already have the printer, check the compatibility for the hardware you are thinking of acquiring against what is listed on this site..The major free ones are there, so you can download and play with them. You may need two pieces of software, one to create 3D models in, and another to be the slicer and print host.  

Anyway, I hope this helps. 

BTW, I did pick up a little thing called the 3Doodler Start. It's one of the 3D pen devices. Simple to use, but the coolest thing I've done with it so far is use it to make molds of emblems on 1:24/1:25 kits. Shoot it on, press it down with a finger (the output isn't that hot, it uses biodegradable polyester instead of PLA) let it set for about a minute and pop it off the part. I should have some pics posted soon under the topic of http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/119303-resin-alternatives-for-small-molds/

[astroracer]

Yea... Allen pretty much nailed it. You are not going to get any kind of quality out of a 300 dollar desktop printer. ESPECIALLY in 1/24th-1/25th scale. AND, if you have no way to model parts in 3D, you are not going to print anything anyway. The part files do not grow on trees or out of the Ethernet. You have to be able to model them first, before they can be printed.

 if you do a search you will see about a dozen threads on this subject reiterating the exact same problems I just mentioned...

Mark

[aurfalien]

Hi,

I've been researching this for a while as well as using one at work we bought for a measly $4K ~5 years back.  I say measly as it was chump change to what was out there.

Hardware is one thing but software is another.  Any decent scan will require clean up in some sort of app, most notably Cinema 4D, Maya, 3DsMax etc...

I think the cheapy printers come with some sort of light weight modeling app which won't take you that far.

I'm going down the route of buying a 3D model, cleaning it up/customizing it myself and then sending it off to Shapeways.

If you have time and will, you can find free models of some cool subject matter at CGTrader.  Then tweak using the aforementioned apps and submit to Shapeways for a quote.

At any rate perhaps I'm going beyond scope of your post as you didn't mention what type of parts you wish to print.  Michaels has some interesting 3D printers by a company called Xyzprinting between 300-900USD.

 

[my66s55]

Brian, instead of buying from CGTarder, get  the file creator on CG and go to their website. You'll save $30 to $50 that way. I have a list off CG that I want to get, but went to the creator website.

[aurfalien]

Brian, instead of buying from CGTarder, get  the file creator on CG and go to their website. You'll save $30 to $50 that way. I have a list off CG that I want to get, but went to the creator website.

Wow you weren't kidding.

The model I was looking at is about 60% off!