What 1st printer for 15yr old son?

[coleman]

Hello everyone!
I am thinking about getting a 3D printer for my 15yr old son for Xmas. I am very green about 3D printers in general, but understand how they work, I have been in manufacturing for 26yrs doing CNC lathe and CNC milling machine work and a lot of other manual metal working machines and CNC plasma cutting and drawing in my own shop. My son has been helping me in my own shop doing MIG and TIG welding as well as drawing on cnc plasma, currently taking CAD class in high school that has a 3D printer, but has not used it yet. When I buy something for him a make sure that it is very educational to help him later in life or a career.

I would like it to be under $600 I looked at the Printbot simple, I like what I am seeing but unsure of what other brands are out their and what features are a must have or not.

What software to use?

Easy to use and setup?

With sales and support/parts within the US.

I don't want a cheap printer that wont last or break down and use common filament.

Upgradeable if possible for the grandkids.

I know I am missing a lot of info, I think this will be a good start.
Thanks you for your time
Coleman

[LambdaFF]

Hi Coleman,

3D printing is a 3 step thing (roughly)
-1 3D Design
-2 Tool path generation
-3 Printing.

For step 1 there are a variety of softwares around. You get a 1 year FUSIO licence with any Printrbot now. You can read this for information. http://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2015/11...-cad-software/ I wouldn't recommend any of the chapter 1 mentioned : they are not serious material, with the exception of OPENSCAD which is probably anything but for unexperienced people.

For Step 2, there are free softwares around like Cura and Slic3r, but I would strongly recommend to buy Simplify 3D. You should look it up.

For 3 ... I own a Printrbot. The machine is reliable, the support is excellent. They have very good documentation. http://printrbot.com/2014/07/25/asse...-metal-simple/ As you might see on their store, they develop updates and upgrades regularly. I think you should look at Lulzbot too they have satisfied customers. I dream to buy a delta kit one day when I have more space but honestly they seem much harder to troubleshoot and they are more finicky with flex materials.

[curious aardvark]

lulzbots are way more than $600.

Printrbot would be a good choice. The simple hasa reasonable build volume and excellent reputation.

software wise take a look at autodesks suite of free software: http://www.123dapp.com/
Pretty comprehensive and not too tricky to learn. Everything from original design to 3d scanning of existing objects.

And also openscad. Despite what lambdaff thinks - it's very easy to use, great learning curve and - if your mind works the right way - so much simpler to use than a drawing based program. I started cad with it - never really been able to get my head round traditional cad packages. And there are so many simple turorials online that anyone can start making printable objects with openscad in minutes.
And the beauty of it is that it only produces manifold objects. So you just create the object and it's ready to print.

http://www.openscad.org/

But yep - that's one lucky kid :-)



One other to consider is the wanhao duplicator i3. http://wanhaousa.com/products/duplicator-i3-steel-frame
Most of the initial issues seem to have been sorted out and it is a larger build volume. And only $399 - so plenty of budget left for filament, glue sticks, scrapers, tape etc :-)

Althiugh those are all good things to farm out to friends and relatives for gifts :-)

[coleman]

Lambdaff and Aardvark,
Thank you for your input!!!! I will look into the options above next week I wont be on the net much this weekend, working at my shop, I know I will have a lot more questions latter on, but it gives me a good starting point.
Thank you!
Coleman

[LambdaFF]

One other to consider is the wanhao duplicator i3. http://wanhaousa.com/products/duplicator-i3-steel-frame
Most of the initial issues seem to have been sorted out and it is a larger build volume. And only $399 - so plenty of budget left for filament, glue sticks, scrapers, tape etc :-)

I think there was a post this week in this forum that Wanhao no longer suported WanhaoUSA customers. Shitty situation to be in.
Actually, here it is : http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ghlight=wanhao

[coleman]

I was looking on ebay just to compare printers and found this one, trying to understand all the specs can be daunting, I would like the printer for all filament types and for my own use in my shop for tooling later on. How does this one on ebay look? I really couldn't find the mfg.

3D printer, dual extruder + New Extruder + Black version W/1 Abs or Pla Spools
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-printer-d...sAAMXQVERSsC8S

[curious aardvark]

makerbot clone. good machine (i've got 2 by different manufacturers) - but NOT that easy to take out of the box and just use.
Manual calibration and you'll usually have to add a couple mods to get the best results.
That said - when you've got them dialled in - they'll turn out perfect prints day in and day out.
Probably the most numerous machine out there and one of the cheapest.
Quality does vary quite a bit depending on the actual manufacturer.

Also support is in china - and usually non-existent - both the other printers we've mentioned are also capable of using any filament out there.

Basically if it's a direct drive extruder (the motor sits directly above the printhead) as opposed to a bowden system (motor pushes filament through along tube - usually 3mm filament to give more control) then - as long as you've got a heated bed - it'll be able to use pretty much any filament on the market.
The only real issue with bowden printers is flexible filament - but these days they seem to have got round that and most of the 3mm bowdens I;ve seen cna use flexible filament.

build volume wise: the makerbot clones aren't brilliant. 9x6x6 inches.

It's larger than you might think and I've had no issues with the build size in the last 20 months I've had mine. But then I mainly print things I;ve designed myself - so the build volume is a known factor :-)
You're also limited to slicers that can produce x3g files.
This isn't really a problem, the makerware desktop is pretty good (stickied link for the 'best' version in flashforge section of forum) and simplify3d works seamlessly with x3g files.

But if I were you I'd be looking at the printrbot. 6x6x6 is still a sensible print volume.
Before thinking about buying a makerbot clone - read this thread: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...-Creator-forum
covers the printer and most of the potential issues pretty comprehensively.

[Sebastian Finke]

For step 1 there are a variety of softwares around. You get a 1 year FUSIO licence with any Printrbot now. You can read this for information. http://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2015/11...-cad-software/ I wouldn't recommend any of the chapter 1 mentioned : they are not serious material, with the exception of OPENSCAD which is probably anything but for unexperienced people.

The OP doesn't say but chances are he has CAD software, seeing as how he has long CNC experience.

Good free softwares are Creo Elements, 123D, DesignSpark.

[LambdaFF]

I was looking on ebay

Unless you are a born tinkerer, don't go to an online/unknown manufacturer that won't support you. It's still a pretty young product line and shit happens.

[coleman]

aardvark, That was the info I wanted it explained a lot to me.


Sebastian, yes I know just enough me in trouble, My son downloaded the free apps from shapeways. Shapeways is a big 3D printing firm, you draw it they print it no matter what size or material a lot of cool ideas, check out there vids


http://www.shapeways.com/

Thanks again for the advice