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Hello,
What would be your suggestion on choosing an enthusiast grade printer that would be the closest thing to a bigger stratasys machine?
What are the key differences between a stratasys and a hobby grade printer?
Would an Ultimaker 2 be the closest thing?
Why do you even need industrial grade? For what purpose? What's your requirement?
One blatant is the support assistance, size of machine, less worries about failure during print.....
Mjol knows more than I do, since he has his sst
Sold it :bawling:
But I have to say that one of the reasons for selling it was that since I messed with my Wanhao, closing it in and adding a chamber heater, there really wasn't much difference between the Stratasys SST and the Wanhao. The other reason was "she who must be obeyed" whinging about me having the loft, the cellar and now a lump in the spare bedroom.
Main difference has to be :
1) depth of your pockets for a commercial one
2) lack of ability to mess with a commercial one
I'm leaning towards the Leapfrog printer as the best alternative: http://www.lpfrg.com/ They seem much better built than the vast majority of offerings out there, with solid metal construction and ballscrews, some of them have a very large build volume, and they claim to have worked out a system of water-soluble PVA support laid down by a separate extruder head. I'm going to order one and test this out for myself before I start reselling them, though - stay tuned...
Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com
Andrew, if you need a pro grade FDM printer, this may be in handy for you:
Ideanow Ultimate
http://3dprintboard.com/attachment.p...tid=4703&stc=1
or
Focus L8
http://3dprintboard.com/attachment.p...tid=4704&stc=1
http://3dprintboard.com/attachment.p...tid=4704&stc=1
http://3dprintboard.com/attachment.p...tid=4703&stc=1
any dual extruder can use pva filament.
I seem to recall leapfrogs getting mixed reviews.
A lot of it is how much the owner is prepared to do themselves and how many of them don't want to understand what they're doing.
At the moment - the machine operator needs to understand what they're doing, with pretty much any machine.
Awerby;
Are you sure the Leapfrog printers use ballscrews? I checked the site and found no mention of them. Of course you know that ballscrews are not leadscrews. Leadscrews are usually, but not always, roll-formed while ballscrews are always ground to high precision. The result is that ballscrews usually have higher positioning accuracy. Ballscrews are always used on CNC machines.
I was excited for a moment thinking that Leapfrog had put ballscrews in their printers, but i haven't yet seen any printer manufacturer using them.
Hi Mr. Bent;
I looked at some of the larger Leapfrog printers at a recent Inside 3D printing show; the screws they used looked a lot like ballscrews to me. But you seem to have some mistaken ideas about ballscrews.
[I'm not the only person who thinks they're using them for the Z axis motion:Quote:
Originally Posted by truly_bent
http://bikealive.nl/leapfrog-creatr.html
And they look like ballscrews with ball nuts:
http://nicklievendag.com/wp-content/...7-1024x768.jpg
But it's curious that Leapfrog doesn't mention them in its specifications, although they do have them in their store (apparently for free) http://www.lpfrg.com/ball-bearing-spindle-444-1-mm .]
Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com
Okay. Thanks for clarifying that
The Wanhao 5S seems like a real winner. Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I really like the printer and for 1700 bucks, hard to beat.
How does that printer compare to the ultimaker 2? Does the 700 dollar price difference justify the ultimaker?
My reason for a high end printer is, I own an engineering and design firm and I need to offer professional grade prototyping, but I dont have the money right now for a 30,000 dollar stratasys.
Why not buy a used one?
Used stratasys? I would image it still be in the tens of thousands, a little over budget for me. I think the WanHao can do what I want. I jut havent heard of them before. Are they any good?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mjolinor
Wanhao are just the same as any of the Makerbot copies and are getting very cheap 2nd hand. Some clones are better than others. I paid £100 for mine.
Probably spent £5000 in time sorting it out though. :)
You can get a full functional Stratasys for under $5000 and often as low as $3000 if you have time to search and wait. They work in exactly the same way as all the other FDM printers, suffer from the same faults and are mended in the same way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mjolinor
You paid 100 pounds for a used wanhao? Which model?
I dont feel its worth it to buy a stratasys if they suffer the same basic issues as enthusiast machines. Really, what do they offer that we cant get today from a consumer grade machine?
I am really thinking about getting a wanhao but I don't think I will get a used one. How is customer support for wanhao?
I like the 5S, but it only prints PLA because no heated bed. I wonder if there is a mod for that.
Professional grade prototyping will still need some post processing. So yeah, probably comparable.
The ultimaker will beat just about anything else out there in a print off - and keeps doing so.
But is it worth the extra dosh ?
probably not. They'll both make the the same parts. And the difference won't be worth noting.
Thanks aardvark.
So do you feel that a wanhao 5S will do what I am want? I am on a budget and the cost difference between the ultimaker 2 and the wanhao is substantial.
I'm really starting to hit some roadblocks. Every printer I look at has some feature that is not included, or too small a build space, or reliability problems etc..
After exhausting research, I came to the conclusions:
Wanhao 5S, great looking printer, I would call this one a winner except one problem, no heated bed! And no accomodations for a heated bed! The power supply couldnt even handle a heated bed so forget modding it, and I dont want to go through that hassle. PLA only for 1800 bucks? Seriously?
The Mankati XT, at first a great looking machine with a promising future. I look into it more and people are complaining left and right about quality and service. Definately not good for me, I need a reliable support team with this printer.
Ultimaker 2, considered by some as the best printer on the market today. Problem is it only accepts 3mm filament? Seriously!!? That filament costs twice as much as 1.75mm by weight! So now what else?
Can't someone just make a printer that has a generous build volume, uses 1.75mm filament, has a heated bed, good reliability and support, dual extruders and doesnt cost 30,000 dollars? Thats all I'm asking for.
Flashforge?
makergear m2
3mm filament is actually cheaper than 1.75 from most places. change where you shop :-)
And yeah a £450 flashforge fits that bill perfectly :-)Quote:
Can't someone just make a printer that has a generous build volume, uses 1.75mm filament, has a heated bed, good reliability and support, dual extruders and doesn't cost 30,000 dollars? Thats all I'm asking for.
I haven't found anything I can't print yet.
On top of which there is nothing that cannot be fixed on the Flashforge or similar.
Every single part, the way it fails, how to stop it failing or what ever you like has been discussed on here at length.
The flashforge pro has a tiny bed. I need something at least 10x10 or 8x10.
I would get the flashforge but its too small for me. I like the makergear M2, I think that might be the winner.
I think what you get is going to depend upon you budget and what specifications you are looking for. I take it you are talking about 10x10 inches as opposed to cm. all of your print jobs are going to need some sort of finishing work but you will have to think about resolution on the basis of the intricacy of the parts/printables you want to produce. Build area will also depend on what you are goint to produce, quite large objects can be achieved by the use of a modular design.
I know what I need, I just can't really find it.Quote:
Originally Posted by iDig3Dprinting
The makergear seems to be close to what I want.
The M2 is cantilever, correct? And removeable glass bed?
I believe the Printrbot Metal Plus is about the same size, but lifted on both sides instead of cantilever.
Go on amazon and the makergear forum and hang out a bit. Read reviews and what users have to say. You will be hard pressed to find anyone with anything bad to say about anything. Its a fantastic company, awsome support and the printer is built like a rock. The community is crazy helpful and nice. Look at some pics of the construction on it. Mine prints 16-20 hrs a day 7 days a week for the past year and a half. It has not missed a beat.
Thanks jim, have you run into any problems with it being a cantilever design? I am 80% sure I will get the M2.
no not at all. most printers these days are cantilevered. the problem with cantilevered z axis is when they get large. the m2 doesnt have your typical cantilevered setup either like alot of the clone type printers. its completely different and the grade of components is on another level as well. the entire printer is steel and aluminum using linear rails. its a solid machine that just runs and runs. all open source as well. the company has been around since the beginning of home 3d printing also. they are well established and not going anywhere.
I was looking at makergear M2 for over a month but I wasnt sure about it until now. Really all the other companies are huge question marks in my mind, this is the only machine that I have heard nothing but good things about. Every other maker has some issue or is overpriced.