What printer is right for me?

[JohnCab]

thanks for your help. I am going with the Solidoodle workbench. after doing some research, i decided i wanted dual heads and to have the printer pre-assembled.

[JohnA136]

MAKE Magazine just did their 2014 3D Printer Shoot Out last weekend. The reviews will all be in the special edition, which usually comes out in October? It breaks printers down into several categories and price points. Worth a read if you can wait that long.

[curious aardvark]

I'm with geoff - I spent a good 12 months reading up on printers till my eyeballs went fuzzy.

Spent 9 months waiting for a makibox to arrive - it never did - and as it appears to be stuck in a warehouse in hong kong, it probably never will.
But in that time the makerbot clones quality went up and their price dropped.

I am so glad I had to wait. My flashforge is a brilliant printer. You take it out of the box, attach the spool holders and bolt the printhead to the carriage.
And you're ready to go.

That said it's also very easy to service yourself, doesn't have a lot of parts and the sd card reader and control panel are seriosuly useful.

It makes it a stand alone machine - so you wouldn't be limited to a computer attached to a printer. IT could go where you went.

For the money, at the moment, I don't think you can possibly beat one.

Plus you've got the whole dual head thing. With a bit of application you can break free of the makerware software.

And should you want to build a delta robot in the future - you can make the parts on the flashforge.

Like i said I've seen a lot of different machines, read the specs on dozens (hundreds?) more, and am so glad I went with the flashforge.

Hell I've seen similiar machines on ebay for £150 less than I paid. And you know what - I don't care :-)
It was well worth what I paid.

Filament wise - it's cheap and getting cheaper. I've currently got filament from 4 different suppliers, cheapest is not necessarily the worst and most expensive not necessarily the best.
My advice, buy a roll from a bunch of different suppliers and see how it turns out.
A lot of ebay suppliers will all be selling filament from the same chinese manufacturers anyway - so cheapest option probably the best.

Specialist filaments are not cheap and it's not apparently a good idea to go with cheapest. Look up geoff's saga with cheap wood filament versus expensive laywood filament.
Not sure he ever got the cheap stuff to work.

But make sure you do your research - otherwise you'll end up wasting a lot of the more expensive filament in failed prints :-)

[Placebo]

Hey CA I think I know you from another forum. Smoked-Meat.com. I go by Time2Eat there although it's been a long time since I've been active there. Too funny, small world. Have you incorporated any 3D printed items into your BBQ/Smoking world?

[curious aardvark]

lol I get around :-)

Not yet, only had it a few weeks - though I did print out some bear claws at the weekend.
I'd recommend the small ones the large ones are huge. Unless you have massive hands, the small ones are probably more than enough.

polarbearclaws_505x600.jpg

Used transparent abs - so polar bear claws :-)


Was contemplating doing a bit of food safe (nothing is, but it's necessary) research and making customised bearclaws with logos or text on them.
And various other gadgets I've been thinking of :-)

Currently playing with applying text to stuff in openscad.


@johncab
Yeah the solidoodles look like good kit. And if you live in the states - they're a good price. Live anywhere else and the shipping, vat and import tax add about $500 to the price. which makes them almost 3x the price I can get a flashforge for.

[3DPBuser]

I usually recommend the FlashForge and the Wanhao for $1000, but for his $3000 the F306 is probably most solid.

[martin]

I joined this forum because I found this BravoBot printer on indiegogo I am thinking of buying one. its a good price. i just dont want to get scammed.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/3d-printer-with-heated-build-chamber

[Feign]

I joined this forum because I found this BravoBot printer on indiegogo I am thinking of buying one. its a good price. i just dont want to get scammed.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/3d-printer-with-heated-build-chamber

The prices seem reasonable on everything beyond the Early Adopter. The timeline he's presenting is a little less reasonable.

What I find troubling is that Stratasys has a patent on heated build chambers for 3D printers. (Yes, they patented putting your printer in a box. This is why people don't like Stratasys/Makerbot.) and they have been aggressively suing anyone who makes their printer with a heated build chamber. Also worth considering is that Johnny Bravo was the name of a cartoon character, which raises my suspicions pretty badly. I feel a little sorry for this guy if it's actually his name, because anyone over the age of 20 will think it's a fake name.

EDIT: Nevermind, only the BravoMonster claims to have CoreXY, the one shown doesn't.