3d printing

SOL

I am just wondering what the current interest in 3d printing amongst boards users is in 3d printing.
Do you think that it would be sufficient to get a forum going?

Even if not, I'd like to here from other people interested in 3d printing...
Recently commissioned my first 3d printer.

CatFromHue

I would an interest in it in the ooh that looks nice way as opposed to actually working with it. A couple of Eng Blogs I read would have a focus on it but we don't have a unit at work so it's not too relevant to me.

How much was your printer if you don't mind me asking?

ctomas

Sol, I'd be interested in what type of printer you got? I'm looking at getting one where I can start relatively cheap and then modify with more expensive parts as i get more experienced.

What is your interest in 3D Printing?

brianwalshcork

For proof of concept this is a cheap cheap entry point:

http://m.conrad.de/ce/de/product/409630/3D-Drucker-Bausatz-Velleman?ref=searchDetail

It's slow and noisy, not suitable for high volumes or large models and comes flat packed, but it'll force you to think about getting your models correct - you can always throw cash at getting better output by getting a more expensive printer.

SOL

I got a Prusa i3 kit. My interest is basically that I think it stands to be a really useful technology and I am really enjoying getting to play with it.

The printer I got was €700.47 including postage for a kit however it did take some extra bits and pieces and a fairly large amount of work to get it built, and it was not without its problems.

That said, I am pretty happy about it because it is open source and very modifiable since I put it together myself from parts.

Poly

Sol,
just curious, who did you order your kit from?

I was considering an I3 from Makerfarm, but the shipping, import duties etc are making it quite expensive

SOL

I ordered a kit from emotion tech
http://www.reprap-3d-printer.com/home/91-prusa-mendel-i3-rework.html

but I couldn't recommend it at least not without some serious caveats.

The plastic parts they sent were awful, it took a full day in a work shop to get them right, and the first PSU they sent had a fan rattling inside it, and the hot end they supplied has known issues (they no longer supply it but I read up and the issues were well known by the time they were sending my printer.)

And the ramps board pins weren't straight.
And some of the LM8UUs died because the plastic parts were off so I had to buy some new ones myself.

I have it all built but the hotend is still giving me trouble...


It came to e700 inc postage...

mr potato head

Additive manufacturing is about 30% of my current roll, mainly working on FDM machines but we are waiting on SLA and Metal Additive machines. I also built an early RepRap Prusa, but I'm looking to use the parts to build a large volume delta style printer.

The open source printers are great once you get them dialed in, but sometimes that can take some time. Make magazine did a good review of some of the lower cost printers, they went from build to print and show sample prints from the machine.

mr potato head

Here's 3d Printing project I'm involved with in Sheffield. It's early days but the project aims were to push the FDM printing to its limits. Fast, efficient builds of large parts like wings.

http://www.amrc.co.uk/featuredstudy/printed-uav/

Poly

That's a nice looking delta.
She looks a bit twitchy in flight, could you move the CoG slighty rearward?

mr potato head

Cheers Poly

Yeah it was a bit on the pitchy side, it was flying with a bit of back on the sticks. It was designed to be powered, but it the goal was to show it could be made light enough to slope soar.
We're testing a couple of materials for printing and have added an adjustable mass to tune the CG.

keithCle

Hey All. It's great to finally see some more people experimenting with 3d printing. I've been in to it for nearly 4 years and have seen it slowly gather pace. It's a really cool technology with amazing advance opportunities in multiple industries.

Was a forum set up? There is an Irish section over on the reprap forums
forums. reprap . org(new user can't post links) but it's a bit quiet over there. I would be willing to help out on a separate Irish forum. I'm already a moderator on another 3dprinting forum but would love to be involved in something more local.

I have spare web space and wouldn't mind using that until it started to get too large for me to support.

Happy Printing