Could use some advice

[Mathew Saunders]

Hey guys,

So with my birthday coming up next month I think I may treat myself to a 3d printer! For anyone asking I will be 17. So basically I have very little knowledge on what is ahead of me, although I'm familiar with the Makerbot and I've seen it in action. I've watched countless videos and reviews but never really gotten into it. I figured that I would want to build the printer mainly because I live by that if you build it you will understand how it works, that way if something goes wrong you're not in the dark. As for the software side I'm very good with computers, I'm very familiar with google sketchup and I'm teaching myself solidworks. If anyone has a program they know of that's a little easier to use please let me know. Anyway I'm going to be printing just little gadgets and stuff, I hate having an idea in my head and not being able to do something about that!

I read up on the 3d printing FAQ and read a few threads on here but I just need a little push in the right direction. I don't expect this to be a "press the green button and everything works" situation. I'm up for the challenge.

So basically my main question would be if you guys could recommend a quality printer for $500-1000ish. The more the volume to print the better. More often than not I will need a longer printing area, vs. having a much higher printing area. So maybe 16x16x6? (That has got to be expensive but I'm just tossing numbers out). I'll be putting this in my room right next to my computer.

If you have any questions for me, or if you have a heads up I might need please let me know. I'm sure I forgot to ask a few things in here, it's late here!


Thanks for the help,

Mathew

[Roxy]

My advice would be for you to build your 3D printer from a kit. Opinions are going to vary on this topic. But if you do that, you will understand everything about it. Take a look at this thread:

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ight=Roxy+Iris That is my printer in the pictures. It takes a bit of effort to get everything together and working, but once it is going you are in a situation where you understand things well enough that what ever the problem is, you can figure it out. And on my printer... all of the plastic parts it came with were black. I made a lot of changes and printed the new pieces in different (non-black) colors.

You will have as much fun modifying your printer as using it!

[old man emu]

You are asking a question that is very hard to answer objectively because most of us love the particular make and model of printer we own. Here is a really good description of the building of a mendel Prusa design: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ld-by-Printbus

These printers cost $850 plus P/H.

Read through the various model threads to help you make your decision. I agree with you that building your own is the best way to learn about the mechanicals of printers. Don't forget to study the Arduino board as this is the most common type of controller hardware and you will be updating its firmware over time.

OME

[Mathew Saunders]

You are asking a question that is very hard to answer objectively because most of us love the particular make and model of printer we own. Here is a really good description of the building of a mendel Prusa design: http://3dprintboard.com/shortbread?3461-MakerFarm-8-quot-i3v-Prusa-build-by-Printbus

These printers cost $850 plus P/H.

Read through the various model threads to help you make your decision. I agree with you that building your own is the best way to learn about the mechanicals of printers. Don't forget to study the Arduino board as this is the most common type of controller hardware and you will be updating its firmware over time.

OME

I appreciate the responses guys, so I guess a more directed question would be to ask what I need to study on. So I get whatever kit, doesn't matter on that, in the end they all come down to an arduino and some computer software. I can figure the little things out later on. So I guess a more directed question would be, what should I research over the next month? As for the cad program I plan to watch video lessons to learn SolidWorks, let me know if there's anything else you would recommend. As for learning, I've seen stuff about open source.... I don't know code but I could maybe learn..? What would I need to learn?

As for anything else could you just send me some useful threads or any personal favorite videos that really helped you out? I'd really appreciate it, I don't want to be spoonfed everything but I need a good starting point!


As for a printer... What would be the best match between printing area and quality and speed for under or close to $1000...? Just curious as to what you guys think.

Thanks
-Mathew

[Roxy]

...
what should I research over the next month? As for the cad program I plan to watch video lessons to learn SolidWorks, let me know if there's anything else you would recommend. As for learning, I've seen stuff about open source.... I don't know code but I could maybe learn..? What would I need to learn?
...
As for a printer... What would be the best match between printing area and quality and speed for under or close to $1000...? Just curious as to what you guys think.
...

Opinions are going to vary. But my opinion is, Pretty much, unless you have a good reason to deviate, the 'right' kit for a beginner to build right now would be a Prusa i3 variant. There are a lot of them but they all start with the same basic setup. And all of the plastic parts of the Prusa i3 are designed with Open_SCAD. You can get it here: http://www.openscad.org/ Because the Prusa i3 is Open Source, the source code for any part you want to change for what ever reason is available.

Open_SCAD is free and very powerful. I would suggest you start with that for software and if you have a need to use something else, then consider moving on.

You can see what parts (and kits) are available on eBay for the Prusa i3 by just clicking here:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_saca...rusa+i3&_sop=3

The most expensive, and nicest kit is $739 and includes a lot of nice stuff I don't have on my printer. You don't need something this nice, but you can use it as stake in the sand and to help you figure out what you care about. You certainly would not go wrong building this printer:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RepRap-Prusa...item19eaab0687

[Mathew Saunders]

Alright so I'll look into the OpenSCAD, I can just try to learn some over the next few weeks. Now as for the printer, do I need to know a coding language or do most of these have a GUI. By that I mean when I need to tweek settings on that arduino, will I see a wall of text and start changing numbers or will I open a program, go to the speed tab and change the value?


As for the printer, don't take this as I'm not listening to you. The repraps seems to be a great route to go. If I wanted to build a printer with 12x12x(pretty much and value) or maybe 15x15x(any value). If I wanted to build one with those for my budget... is that possible? If not toss one at me that would have something like that. Hell If I could have something that was 15 inches long, 6 inches wide and at least 4 tall....!

Thanks guys,

-Mathew

[Roxy]

Alright so I'll look into the OpenSCAD, I can just try to learn some over the next few weeks. Now as for the printer, do I need to know a coding language or do most of these have a GUI. By that I mean when I need to tweek settings on that arduino, will I see a wall of text and start changing numbers or will I open a program, go to the speed tab and change the value?

Open_SCAD is a programming language. Everything you do will be lines of text. But the Open_SCAD program will show you a 3 dimensional image of what your code is doing. When you install Open_SCAD, you will find a directory called 'examples'. You can look at that code and see what it produces.

I typically have a text editor open with what I'm working on and Open_SCAD open with the same file. You can edit the source code in Open_SCAD, but you are better off using your favorite editor. Open_SCAD detects when you update the file and starts a new render of its contents. So... You can make small changes and push things around pretty easily and see what happens.

As for the printer, don't take this as I'm not listening to you. The repraps seems to be a great route to go. If I wanted to build a printer with 12x12x(pretty much and value) or maybe 15x15x(any value). If I wanted to build one with those for my budget... is that possible? If not toss one at me that would have something like that. Hell If I could have something that was 15 inches long, 6 inches wide and at least 4 tall....!

I kind of doubt you need 12" x 12". First, anything that big will take forever to print and use a huge amount of plastic. But if you really do need something that big, you can break the part into several interlocking pieces and print the pieces a few at a time.

[Mathew Saunders]

If I was able to save the money would a maker bot be worth it? I know it's not DIY, but for the price is it worth it? Or could I build my own killer printer?

[Roxy]

If I was able to save the money would a maker bot be worth it? I know it's not DIY, but for the price is it worth it? Or could I build my own killer printer?

People's opinions vary on this.... But for sure, I'm in the "Build your printer." camp.

[LambdaFF]

If I was able to save the money would a maker bot be worth it? I know it's not DIY, but for the price is it worth it? Or could I build my own killer printer?

I think you will find that for the specs offered they are outrageously overpriced. I don't personnaly think that a wifi-connected video transmitting to an app is a must... I just want to print. Also their line of product is now PLA only, which may be a hindrance depending on your projects.