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]

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.



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.

So I'm confused... I'm sorry, so the language is to design what will be cut... correct? Or is this the language that runs the printer. Such as windows is to a computer. Basically what is the benefit of using Open_SCAD over Solidworks? Or am I on completely separate pages here?




Also, what I might be printing would be quadcopter parts. Some of the arms are a 8-12 inches long, no wider that 2 inches for those, but some frames are in a 6x6 size. So maybe a printing area of 12x6x6?


Here is a link to what I might print:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32281




So maybe another way to look at this so maybe I will understand better... If I use the thingiverse file. In order to print it will coding need to be done (possible with Open_SCAD?) to have the arduino in working order? From what I'm getting Open_SCAD is simply drawing an object using code. So from there I prepare the printer by downloading firmware onto the arduino, and together I can print? (way more than that I know)....

[Roxy]

So I'm confused... I'm sorry, so the language is to design what will be cut... correct? Or is this the language that runs the printer. Such as windows is to a computer. Basically what is the benefit of using Open_SCAD over Solidworks? Or am I on completely separate pages here?
together I can print? (way more than that I know)....

Solidworks and Open_SCAD are tools that will produce an .STL file. This is the common format to exchange and share things to print. It is a file format that defines surfaces to an object. It defines a whole bunch of little triangles that mesh together and defines the surface.

However you get the .STL file that you are going to print, you load that into your Slicer program along with a whole bunch of values that describe your printer, how it moves, the plastic you are using, etc. etc.

The Slicer programs typically generate a GCode file telling the printer what to do, one movement at a time. The GCode is tailored to the particular type of printer you have.

Once you have the GCode telling your printer how to make the object your designed, you load it into your print manager program. This is typically a program that runs on your PC, but with the right options on your printer you could put the GCode on an SD-Memory card and your printer can read and use that.

Lastly, your printer electronics has an Arduino microprocessor on it. That is running a large piece of firmware that tells the printer how to talk to your PC to get commands and how to heat the bed, nozzle and move the stepper motors.

There is a lot of software involved at every step of the process to get something printed. But Open_SCAD is a programming language that can be used to define your object so that you can send its design through the later steps to actually get something printed.

Also, what I might be printing would be quadcopter parts. Some of the arms are a 8-12 inches long, no wider that 2 inches for those, but some frames are in a 6x6 size. So maybe a printing area of 12x6x6?

Here is a link to what I might print:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32281

I looked at the various pieces for this design. The longest is about 225mm. That is about 8". You can load that piece into the slicer program you are using and rotate it 45 degrees. That will let you print from one corner of the bed to the other corner of the bed. With a standard MK1 heat bead you should be able to get a couple of them on the bed along with some smaller parts off to the side of rotated parts. You don't need to have a 12" x 12" bed.

So maybe another way to look at this so maybe I will understand better... If I use the thingiverse file. In order to print it will coding need to be done (possible with Open_SCAD?) to have the arduino in working order?

No. Open_SCAD or Solidworks would be used to define the parts. When they are fully described, the author can tell these tools to produce a .STL file (set) of the design. That is what you are seeing at that page of Thingiverse. What you need to do is take those .STL files, load them into your slicer program to generate some GCode files, and then send those GCode files to your program that talks to the printer. Because you don't have the actual source files that generated the .STL files you want to print, it is more difficult to make any changes you might want to make. If you don't want to generate your own designs and just want to print things you find on ThingiVerse, you do not need to mess around with Open_SCAD or Solidworks.

From what I'm getting Open_SCAD is simply drawing an object using code. So from there I prepare the printer by downloading firmware onto the arduino, and together I can print? (way more than that I know)....

The firmware is what tells the Arduino board how to manage the hardware you have. It takes the instructions from the GCode file and translate that into what ever has to be done to make your printer do the right thing. But the contents of the GCode file come from the other tools that processed your design.

[Mathew Saunders]

Roxy,

That was more than the answer I expected!Haha, I really appreciate you clearing that up for me. I'll look more into that Open_SCAD, however I might go with solidworks/autocad unless you can let me know about one I might like more. So an 8x8 bed would be safe, as for the printer and price tag, for a first you're saying the reprap. I need something that is really good quality print, so maybe if a bumped my budget up I could ensure that? Honestly you know best so maybe you could toss a few options out there at me.


Here are some other Items I may print (and similar would be what I would design).
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:264955/#collections
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:94920
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:246858/#made
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:261415