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  1. #1

    Newbie Question - How much room will I need for a work station?

    Hey everyone - I am thinking about getting a 3d printer (ender 3) but i'm not sure how much room i would actually need to setup an area to actually print. I understand the size of the actual printer but I live in a one bedroom apartment with my gf so space is fairly limited. Here are a few questions


    1. Is this something that I could have on my desk (which is in my bedroom) similar to a regular printer or would i need a dedicated work station (ie garage, separate office, etc).
    2. I know that prints can take a very long time typically so i am assuming that many prints would need to happen overnight. If it were in my bedroom - would the noise be so much that you couldn't sleep? (i am sure it depends on the person but in general would a typical person be ok with the noise, comparable to a fan or AC or is it much louder)
    3. My gut tells me that Q2 is a yes, in which case, is this the type of thing were I could move the printer from time to time to another location or would moving the printer cause a lot of issues with bed leveling.


    I really want to get one, but im worried i just don't have enough room and not sure my GF would enjoy having the printer living on a table in the living room 24x7. Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    mine live on a dresser in a spare bedroom. Besides the printer I have a Monitor, keyboard and mouse attached with a Raspberry pi using octoprint. The keyboard monitor and mouse are not required especially if your printer has a LCD display.At this point I have 6 5gallon buckets all filled with rolles of plastic so that stuff collects over time.. I built and enclosure for mine as it is needed for printing ABS which I don't do much, but it helps with the noise.. Can not comment on the amount of noise your chosen printer makes but my M2 makes some noise which would require the bedroom door closed to make the wife happy.I have not really printed that many things that took more than 7 hours, but I don't prints toys and such..
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  3. #3
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    desk is fine.
    If you are the sort of person who winges about fan noise on laptops (despite the fact that it's stopping the bloody thing catching fire) then you will most likely think a 3d printer is noisy :-)
    That said they do vary.
    And you can build an enclosure from cheap sheets of polystyrene to cut down on noise.

    As airscapes says, you'll need more room for filament than for the printer - it does build up.
    I'm currently up to about 4 big shelves and two big plastic storage boxes. As well as random reela on just about every other surface down the printer end of my workshop.
    moving printers generally not much of an issue - though that does largely depend on the printer type and capabilities.

    Spacewise my best is my monoprice mini delta as it sits ontop of the he3d k200 larger delta and thus takes up exactly NO desk room :-).
    Weirdly it is also my noisest printer.
    Last edited by curious aardvark; 12-29-2018 at 08:51 AM.

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