Large format printer! Here some options, help me pleease :)

Hi All! I'd like to buy a 3d printer, my first one, to make some shoe components, but it's sooo difficult choosing! Then I ask for your help.


Here what I need:


- Printing a lot of different materials, including TPU, Polycarbonate, Wood, Ceramics, Nylon, Nylon/carbon...


- Printing size at least 370x300 mm. Height on Z is not really important, 200 mm is enough!


- Great resolution // Speed is not important for me!


- Possibility to use double extruder or laser engraver


- I can buld a kit, no problem!


Currently I am looking:


- Creality CR-10 https://www.gearbest.com/3d-printers...pp_441281.html


- Folger Tech FT-5 R2 https://folgertech.com/products/folg...3d-printer-kit


- Formbot t-rex http://www.formbot3d.com/formbot-big...ize_p0017.html (a lot more expensive...why??)


- Tevo Black Widow https://tevo3dprinterstore.com/products/coming-soon


- HE3D H500 https://www.gearbest.com/3d-printers...pp_948114.html


- Pegasus 12" http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/12-pegasus-kit.html/

kit won't work.

for: polycarbonate and nylons you NEED a printer with a heated enclosure and particularly for poolycarbonate you also need a hi-temp hotend and abed that can sustain 120c for long periods of time while also running the extruder at around 270c. Most kit power supplies won't easily handle this.

Unless you build the enclosure yourself, insulate and heat it - heat from the bed itself is not usually sufficient for polycarbonate - no kit will work with those filaments.

Out of the printers you listed only the folgetech would be easy to enclose as it's got a cubical frame. All the others are just i3 clones designed primarily for pla and other easy to print materials.

You don't NEED enclosures for nylon and PC, but it certainly makes life much easier. People have printed them without but results are generally poor layer adhesion or warping. I would avoid i3/mendel style frames for any high temp materials, even if you did enclose it. Moving the bed (and the print) rapidly is effectively creating a draft each time you move in the y axis. I'd also avoid deltas because they aren't as space efficient as cube printers in terms of print volume:machine volume.

Thank you for all answers! Ok regarding enclosures and heating, clear. But I think that all printers "in some way" I can put in an enclusure heating it. Am I wrong? What about the printer itself?

I am interested in what Trakyan is writing, but I didn't understand well sorry :) Why with an high temperature material I have to be careful to speed? It lasts molten for a longer time?

deltas are a lot more space efficient - as long as you have high ceilings :-)

Quote:

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People have printed them without but results are generally poor layer adhesion or warping.

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In other words you do Need a heated enclosure, or what's the point ?
Sure you can print abs without a heated enclosure, but you get none of the benefits of printing it in a heated enclosure, like polycarbonate and nylon you lose the material benefits and end up with weak prints.
So while it is technically possible - there is no actual point to it.

vvyper Basically trakyan is saying that even with a heated enclosure because of the way an i3 printer works, it's still not ideal for hi-temp materials.

And yes, you do generally have to print hi-temp materials slower - not because they stay hot longer, but because you have to cool them down much quicker. So the print cooling duct needs to stay in place longer than for printing something like pla.

fdm 3d printing is a delicate balance between how well a material flows and how fast it cools and sets. If it doesn't cool fast enough, the bead can slump and change shape which effects the dimensions and layer adhesion.
Also if the material has noticeable expansion when heated and you cool it too quick, it will shrink and give you the same dimensional and layer problems.

So with some materials you need to keep the enclosure at the temperature where the plastic can set, but not cool to the point where it will also shrink.

Thank you curious aardvark ! So, I am now focusing only on FT-5 (for the design and movements) and Creality Cr-10 (for the community, I see someone able to print polycarbonate with some add-ons). But I don't find on them the cooling duct. Or better, it seems that Folger has not, while Creality a small one. Can you help me? This colling duct should cool the filament as out of the exruder or the one just fallen on the bed? Sorry, I am a newbie! :D

you cool the plastic bead as soon after laying it on top of the last layer as you can.

You need the bead hot and sticky so that layers bond well, but you also need to then cool it to set it in the right shape.

If you look on thingiverse you should find cooling duct designs for most printers
here's one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1738499
There is a huge folgertech collection on thingeiverse :-)