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I ordered a Duplicator 4S. It's also a Makerbot Replicator 2 clone just like the Flashforge Creator Pro. Supposedly more advanced from all the people I have asked due to being a newer model.
I'm a hobbyist, but I also do make stuff to sell. There is a huge industry in making items and offering up. Tons of people are still afraid to get into the 3D printing world and are more than happy to buy from those who have invested. The quality isn't there of course on most printers to just come right off the printer and send as is, but it doesn't take much to clean up. Time wise is just whatever you want to live with. If you cast, it takes 30 minutes or more for the item to cure. In most cases, printing is well within that or not much more time depending on the size of the item. I have gliders I sell that I was casting a part on. It would take me a full evening to get about 6 of them cast. I bought an UP! Mini and made the parts in 3D. I can pump out 10 in an evening. This new printer should allow even more.
You have to pick what you are doing and what to make your money on. If you haven't found a way to use a 3D printer to make money, you just haven't tried hard enough. It's not the only reason to own a 3D printer of course, but it's not an option I was closing the door on. The UP! Mini more than paid for it's self. I have no doubt the Duplicator will as well. I have another item that I already had people wanting. It was going to be a cast item, but it will now be 3D printed.
Determining the right printer I have found to be a hard thing. There are so many people out there with different printers and like or dislike what they have. There is an equal amount of printers being sold that has no real data other than stats on paper. It's hard to research them and very hard to find a forum to ask questions on. I think I have it worked out though. This printer with my UP! Mini should be nice. I have an ibox on the way as well as a FLUX. I may look into one other one then each one will be assigned to specific tasks.
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Printer Recommendation: Orion Delta (MFG: SeeMeCNC)
----------------- Why?: I've owned the printer for about 3-4mo's, run it 3-7days a week, and have had to give it little to no maintenance. Rock solid printer for the $1299 I had to spend on it. I've also run Flex EcoPLA and FilaFLEX through it, and I'm very impressed with the quality.
- The only way your going to get smooth and pretty prints with a filament type printer is to do some post processing work with them afterwords. Sandblasting and epoxy coatings work very well for making them more visually attractive.
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I just couldn't go with the Rostock Max after I researched it. I was really looking heavy into that printer but every user print I saw just did not look like something I would say is better than I can already do. I had posted on their board and had the hope that one of the developers would have came in and posted. Never seen any one other than the buyers. I saw some of the Orion prints as well. I'm getting about the same quality print from my UP! Mini as any image I was shown. I'm not saying SeeMeCNC's products are bad, not at all. There just was no need in me buying something that gave the same print that I had when I was looking for better. I'm at 200 microns, and most everyone was showing me 200 to 300 micron printed items. Everyone said they rarely use the 100 micron option which didn't sit well with me and was a main factor in my decision.
Now I have no idea on comparing the Duplicator 4S with the Rostock, or even the Orion. All I know is from all of the recommendations and the abilities I saw it would offer, that seemed like the best option for me at this particular time. My goal with a new printer is making some hand 3D sculpted prop replicas that I originally was going to hand make from wood and cast. One item I have made from wood, but just never got the casting right. Granted my hope with looking at the Rostock was that I could have done the items as a solid piece and I will have to divide it up on the Duplicator 4S, but I will see how the quality is once it is in hand.
Vapor treatment will work great to smooth something like this, and then multiple layers of paint treatments will build it up the rest of the way. I've already been doing this using my UP! mini with fine results, just on a smaller scale. I've even just gone straight paint and done well too. Many times it's not required to have something extremely smooth. When I do get to that point, I hope to invest in one of the resin printers that does real high quality. I do have the ibox coming, and I'll see how that does.
