HEY guys . need help

[new3dguy]

First off i want to say hi to everyone and hopefully everyones having a 3D kinda day. Okay. so i really want to dive into the 3d world of things and have a savings fund im currently building (goal is 10-12k) for a 3d printer. Yes i dont want your Home printer although they are neat and useful i want to get into the more complex , better color, different materials, and quicker printing. SO before all that even comes to reality (Time limit & GOal is June 2015) i want to start with getting to know basics. Im going to say and be honest , Im absolutely retarded when it comes to 3D printers. So bare with me . As a community , where can i start building skills to Make designs? ( Ill purchase software if needed I dont want cheap free stuff ) , what books could i read to gain knowledge.? Can i buy scanners to help me generate objects designs etc? which are good.? As you can see , im MR, I dont know it at all !!!!!!!!!!! My end goal is to create some stuff that maybe can sell and be usefull for people. not everyone has access to big machines as they are costly . As crazy as it sounds i want to print my face in detail since i know the capability is there. weird i know. However , I hope i can get some good feedback and i wish you fellow 3ders a good day . Thanks from Virginia Beach, VA

[richardphat]

Question

1. What is a 3D printer for you. Because there are plenty of them, SLA, FDM, SLS, DLP. You might just burn your 10k$ and at the end you project might go nowhere.
2. What is your busisness goal? What are you planning to print for the clients? Competing with companies that provide 3D printing solution is already out there. They had the experience, they can guarentee.

Comment

• Time line is irrealistic, the learning curve of printing alone without flawless might take the whole ammount of time alone. And that is knowing the catch for providing busisness solution. Figuring out which is printable or not printable. Things that will be printed and becomes ugly, etc. Add the ammount of time for creating the hardware you might hit the next august!

• Further, there are typical open source FDM printers EXACTLY lets you print different material colors! Pointless to invest the 10k if you're just going to create another clone of them. Just spend those 3-4 k and get a good one.

• None of the 3D scanners are good, we even went to Creaform 3D scanner which cost in the 40 000$. These type of industrial material are the top quality and yet, you won't be able to scan and print right off the bat. You will need knowledge in cad because 3D scanning blows when it comes to mesh repairing. Automatic mesh repairing FREAKING SUCKS!! Be careful with that!!
• Last comment, don't let yourself fool by the over hype media and internet. Every 3D printing technology has its limit. They never tell you the catch to get the end results, i.e., post processing, sanding, painting, photoshop and rendering.

[Geoff]

First off i want to say hi to everyone and hopefully everyones having a 3D kinda day. Okay. so i really want to dive into the 3d world of things and have a savings fund im currently building (goal is 10-12k) for a 3d printer. Yes i dont want your Home printer although they are neat and useful i want to get into the more complex , better color, different materials, and quicker printing. SO before all that even comes to reality (Time limit & GOal is June 2015) i want to start with getting to know basics. Im going to say and be honest , Im absolutely retarded when it comes to 3D printers. So bare with me . As a community , where can i start building skills to Make designs? ( Ill purchase software if needed I dont want cheap free stuff ) , what books could i read to gain knowledge.? Can i buy scanners to help me generate objects designs etc? which are good.? As you can see , im MR, I dont know it at all !!!!!!!!!!! My end goal is to create some stuff that maybe can sell and be usefull for people. not everyone has access to big machines as they are costly . As crazy as it sounds i want to print my face in detail since i know the capability is there. weird i know. However , I hope i can get some good feedback and i wish you fellow 3ders a good day . Thanks from Virginia Beach, VA

Just learn to walk before you run that's all. Start playing with things like Tinkercard.com and make some simple models, get the hang of working with simple primitives and then move onto a 3D modelling program, there are plenty that don't cost anything that are fantastic, i.e Blender.. free and it's one of the best all-in-one modelling programs I have in my toolbox. If you get to the point where you master Blender, and need something more advanced then go for Zbrush or 3Dsmax or Maya or similar for serious modelling... but Blender does pretty much everything you need, mode, sculpt, texture paint etc.

I know there is alot of people making things and selling them, and by the time you start doing it, there will be millions more. If you really want to do that, you need to either invent something new or find a small market that no ones tapped into (good luck!) so yeah, I would be concentrating on the modelling side because unless you can create your own unique things, you won't be selling much really.

[new3dguy]

hey Richard. Thanks for the feedback. Im not fooled by the media or internet. i just find it awesome to a degree on the things and materials that can be printed in many shapes and sizes. As far as business goes, i was going to do a small retail side of things nothing fancy or complicated just cool. So in other words speed, size, and detail is what im aiming for. to be honest I like what ive seen from Form Labs SLA type printer. But thats a little awesome guy. I appreciate the advice on not waisting my money, youre much more knowledgeable than me at this. Id like to get a bigger machine than normal size wise. So the next question. What is a good machine in the 10-15k range that does what im looking for >? speed size and detail>?> Im going to begin playing with all the design programs soon. When i do ill be designing 5 -7 days a week to learn. So i can dive in.!

[new3dguy]

GEOFF !!!!! thanks for the reply. I will begin BLENDER , TInkercard.com here soon to get my baby steps in. YES millions of people are selling stuff i know. I can dream of being one of them lol . I just want to print and keep up with technology . I think its going to be the future in my opinion so quite frankly i want to beat the big crowd (5-10 years from now) and be in the game before them. !!! thanks for the advice . youll see me on here a lot more often probably asking the dumb questions.!

[richardphat]

3D modeling is a valuable skills, listen to geoff. Further, it opens more possible job such as artwork, animation and even gaming industry. There's also engineering/tech job but I guess it is not what you want.

If you want precision and details, SLA or SLS based technology. While SLA is currently limited to resin, they are ok for presentation. When it comes to real world application, it has limited application. Keep in mind, you get what you paid for the amazing details. Resin is expansive, 1L of resin can cost from 50 to 130$ US.

SLS is still somewhat vague for me so I am not the expert into that thing. But I do know it requires post processing if you need to get riff of the porous surface. It's the technology if you want to print metal and plastic. You might have to wait for a few more years before you can

FDM is cheap and can be nice for beginning into rapid prototyping world. These machine can cost honestly around 1000$ for an excellent quality that will just blow your mind.

[curious aardvark]

there are some good 3d scanners around. Depends on the size of object you want to scan.

Matter & Form probably make the best desktop scanner for smallish objects about 9inches by 9 I think they said.

And for lots more money you can get some handheld scanners - they good industrial ones tend to start at £10- 20,000

Technology wise - it's going to depend on what you want to make and how big.

Give us some indication and I can recommend machines a lot better.

The cheap commercial machines that use powder deposition tend to require a lot of post processing. soaking in resin, further heat curing etc.

And one thing to bera in mind - the more expensive the machine - the slower it generally prints.
higher Detail = longer print times.

There are a variety of different technologies from laser sintered nylons to resin impregnated powders: everything from plastics to ceramics. Then there are a variety of metal printing machines not to mention the fused filament machines which now encompass materials as diverse as kevlar, carbon fibre, metal infused plastics, biodegradable plastics, nylons, abs etc.

You can get a build volume as large as 1x1x0.5 metres for $10,000
Or as small as 3x3x3 inches for a metal sintering machine for jewellery for a similiar price.

You can get full colour machines in various materials. It's entirely down to the specifics of what you want to make and how much money you can throw at it.

Depending on what you want to produce you might be better of using openscad - it's much better for non-artistic models than any of the big cad packages and - for me anyway - much quicker and easier to use.
These guys tend to be more artistic than me - so like things they can draw with.

It's all relative to what you want to do :-)

So in other words speed, size, and detail is what im aiming for.

You won't get all three for a few years yet. Speed and size can be done and size and detail can be done. But to get a large object with high detail can not be done at speed :-)
Yet....

[LambdaFF]

Hi,
If you are still not fixed on the material / technology, I'd avise you to design something small-ish and produce it online with different materials/technologies to see the end result you can expect from proffessional machines + proffessional post-pro (a sanding machine is a few k€ in itself). That way you won't be disappointed. Also, the web UI of the most famous sites will tell you where your designs have probable manufacturing issues (too small, too thin, ...).

What you wish to do is a bit unclear to me. If you're aiming for sculptures, Geoff provided good advice. If you're more on the engineering side, try and get a solidworks trial / free version for home use : that is a powerful tool to build designs and at least it won't cost too much until you're sure that is what you need to purchase. The Dassault Systems softwares have hundreds of tutos online built by engineering teachers (if you speak french it's even richer) for their students. I recently looked up how to do proper gears and they had parametric models available for download to help me refresh. The advantage of those engineering softs is they have a "construction tree". This features lists all the steps you used to make your model and their parameters : you can go back to step one and change a radius without re-doing the whole design (although it does take some habit to do a design that is robust enough to bear with any modification).

[new3dguy]

Thanks Curious Arrdvark for your time. Okay so lets begin with scanners. Say i have a newborn baby just born. Say id like to make a 3D baby hand in pink (its a girl) that would fit onto a keychain with the name and date inscribed on the top of the hand and obviously the lines and creases that naturally occur in our hands on the bottom. These are simple custom items id like to create if you know what i mean. ANother example of what im looking to do. Id like to print a dogs face. ( as close to detail as can be ) out of plastic, resin , etc . i have a small house dog. hes is no bigger than 15lbs . THose are the things im looking to do with help from a scanner . Do i expect to edit and reshape and apply some details of course. i just would like to know , WHO knows the good the bad and the ugly as that technology is coming along at the moment.! Does it exist yet? Slower is fine with me . I can sacrifice being slow for quality. so Quality and details.? which scanner printer combo would best suit my goal. ? Again thanks for your time and input, Cory

[new3dguy]

richardphat thanks for your feedback. Currently i just started college for engineering with a minor in business admin. Ill be taking CAD courses soon and learning all that engineering mojo. Thatll be at least a year or two before i dive into that. My goal is to become an engineer but find a great school for 3D printing or one that has a great program for it for my masters and beyond. SO with that said id like to get a head start in CAD with 3D printing and make some neat ideas come to life. I approach all this as like learning to ride a bike or like Geoff said, Learn to walk. I want to start at the bottom teach myself, Read some books for knowledge ,KNOW ANY>? , and come into this cool field of the future. With that being said, I hope to learn a great deal and keep in contact with many of you . I will be going around to shows in my area ( Virginia USA) . Any way have a good day my friend.!