Noob questions, The Machine

[fredk]

A bit of background. I learned to diy the old fashioned way. I grew up on a farm. The bug never left me and as I take on new projects I always run into something where, if only I could make this part a little different, things would work so much better.

3D printing has gotten silly inexpensive, so its high time I moved away from bailing twine and barbed wire and started working with this new fangled plastics stuff.

Printers are the new wild wild west and there are a mind numbing range of options out there, even when you narrow it down in price range.

Uses: I`m looking at a printer as a practical adjunct to my DIY habit. Some of the stuff I build will be immersed in salt water, so that narrows down materials requirements considerably. ABS and poly-carbonate are two materials I know will hold up in salt water. Another project I have in mind is a cold smoker manfold adapter for my smoker. Typically it should not be exposed to temperatures above 90F, so I probably have a wider range of materials I can use. We can probably up the tolerance to 120F to make up for those 'oops' moments.

If I was happy with the standard sized bed I think I would go for the all metal Wanhao i3 clone as it seems a good compromise between cost and quality and the company is legit. Unfortunately, one of the very first projects I want to take on will be around 12" x 8" x 10" in size. I could probably shorten the height a little, but the width is important. This size, if I want to print it in one piece, eliminates a lot of printers.

The Tevo Black Widow delivers on bed size (14.5" x 9"), the company appears to stand behind their products when things go wrong and the stock machine appears to be capable of quite good prints. That's also about as much as I want to spend on a machine right now. Actually it ticks quite a few boxes. The frame is well constructed and rigid and the kit fits together quite well. Assembly instructions are mostly good and there is a large community for support. It can usually print well right out of the box, though I'm told it is wise to check the hot end for finish before using it. The biggest downside seems to be component quality variability. They are quite willing to ship replacement parts though.

My question is around a large bed and how that might affect printing. ABS is probably the first material I'll use (salt water), so I plan to enclose the printer. Will I start to run into temperature uniformity issues on such a large bed? Are there down sides in general to such large prints?

Are there downsides to doing small prints on a large bed? One I can think of might be location accuracy. I know that in manufacturing, robots that work in xyz space need periodic re-teaches to correct for the inevitable drift that comes from tiny differences in movement over time. I don't know if that would be an issue with such a low volume fabricator though.

Do you guys who have been printing for a while find yourself running into limitations in what you print because of bed size? Other than the one project mentioned, I can`t think of anything else I would need to print in that size. In fact, I`ve not seen any Black Widow owners doing prints that require that bed size. OTOH, I wonder if, once you have a larger bed, useful projects will come to mind.

I`ve got a million other questions spinning in my head right now, but the above will do for a first post.

Fred.

Edit: One other obvious question. Is there any other printer in the $350 to $550 range I should consider?