3d Printers

[scahalane]

I'm looking at buying a 3d printer anybody on here have any experience or advise. It needs to be able to handle a fairly large print area (300mm X 300 X 300) or there abouts. I'm thinking FDM rather than Resin but still open to suggestions.

[Noel]

1 hour ago, scahalane said:

I'm looking at buying a 3d printer anybody on here have any experience or advise. It needs to be able to handle a fairly large print area (300mm X 300 X 300) or there abouts. I'm thinking FDM rather than Resin but still open to suggestions.

@Junctionmad is your man for advice of 3D printing and especially CAD. He has printed a lot of model railway stuff and especially researched the CAD element which is the main learning curve for 3D printing

 

[RobertRoche]

I am happy with the Prusa MK3S.

[Midland Man]

Bolder Creek model railroad show the the best cheap 3D printers.

[scahalane]

3 hours ago, RobertRoche said:

I am happy with the Prusa MK3S.

Do you have some close up photo's of the print quality. Nice price as well.

[Noel]

5 hours ago, scahalane said:

I'm looking at buying a 3d printer anybody on here have any experience or advise. It needs to be able to handle a fairly large print area (300mm X 300 X 300) or there abouts. I'm thinking FDM rather than Resin but still open to suggestions.

Here are some servo operated ground signals printed by @Junctionmad on his 3D printer which he build himself from a kit.

Signal gantry and servo operated signals 3D printed by @Junctionmad (Dave)

Junction Signals

 

[Glenderg]

Hi Scah, 

I've the Elegoo Mars, which has a pretty poor build volume, but it's resin and the fidelity and finish is pretty astonishing. The Elegoo Saturn is coming soon, but build volume is 188mm x 115mm x 200mm, so FDM is probably the way forward for volume. The Peoply Phenom is probably the best resin for big builds, but it's at $1,800 at the moment for large volume of 276mm x 155mm x 400mm. There's some tech being developed at the moment utilising monochromatic LED panels, rather than RGB, and it cuts the cure time of resin from about 10 seconds per layer to 2 seconds, so worth holding out for a bit ?

The Anycubic Mega X is getting great reviews for a large volume 3D FDM printer, as does the Prusa MK3. 3D printing Nerd and Makers Muse are two other channels also worth checking out on YouTube. 

I've not done too much lately, but I designed and printed these late 2019, and I dropped the poor Ban Garda before the photo, loosing her fingertips....There's been a lot of improvements in process since, it's a real learning/waiting game. If you want fidelity go resin, if you want volume, go FDM. HTH, Richie. 

 

[RobertRoche]

3 hours ago, scahalane said:

Do you have some close up photo's of the print quality. Nice price as well.

An OO scale container printed in PLA, needs clean up:

Some O scale details:

If you want to print larger functional prints this was printed in PETG:

Edited April 29, 2020 by RobertRoche

[scahalane]

Thanks for all the replies lads lots of food for thought. The quality of the resin finish looks great Richie, but probably too small and brittle for what I want. Although for smaller detailed parts could be worth it.

The finish quality from the Prusa looks pretty good given its price range. I was looking at the Ultimaker 5S which can handle the volume I'm looking for but with a hefty price tag. I wonder is there's much difference in quality between that and the Prusa.

[Glenderg]

The resin isn't brittle at all, I'm just ham fisted at times ! The one thing with Prusa is that Josef Prusa always makes upgrades available, so if anything interesting develops, he'll make it available for users of older models. 

ultimately it boils down to what you want to get out of it - If you want to make fiddly parts or prototypes then resin is the way. If you want big and can handle visible layer lines and sanding and all that jazz, FDM. 

Have to ask, what are you trying to print ? Buildings? 

[scahalane]

8 hours ago, Glenderg said:

Have to ask, what are you trying to print ? Buildings? 

Mainly buildings, perhaps the odd loco. Can't bare the thought of building this with evergreen bits and bobs!!!

 

[Midland Man]

sound great. First thing to do is practice designing it.

[scahalane]

Just bit the bullet and ordered the Prusa MK3S. Couldn't justify the price of the Ultimaker just starting off. I can't wait to see how it performs.

Thanks for all the help and advise.

[RobertRoche]

25 minutes ago, scahalane said:

Just bit the bullet and ordered the Prusa MK3S.

Did you order the kit or pre-assembled? The kit took me 10.5 hours but it was worth it. 

[Georgeconna]

Nice one Sean. looking forward to what you do with that! 

the Finish is still way to rough for my liking. Can these be improved by higher quality material ?

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Georgeconna

[scahalane]

12 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

Did you order the kit or pre-assembled? The kit took me 10.5 hours but it was worth it. 

I ordered the kit, much cheaper and 3 weeks as opposed to 6 week lead time. I also ordered extra Pla filament and their own brand of Prusament PETG.

16 minutes ago, Georgeconna said:

Nice one Sean. looking forward to what you do with that! 

the Finish is still way to rough for my liking. Can these be improved by higher quality material ?

 

I agree the finish looks very rough. But I want to jump in there and get started. There only getting better and the future is in that direction.

[RobertRoche]

2 hours ago, scahalane said:

I ordered the kit, much cheaper and 3 weeks as opposed to 6 week lead time.

Some inspiration for your build: https://youtu.be/5Rcm6zckN70

 

[scahalane]

6 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

Some inspiration for your build: https://youtu.be/5Rcm6zckN70

 

Nice one...looks easy now

[Noel]

7 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

Some inspiration for your build: https://youtu.be/5Rcm6zckN70

 

Fab but it would take less time perhaps to scratch build or do kits. The learning curve for a CAD suite is very steep and lengthy.

[scahalane]

29 minutes ago, Noel said:

Fab but it would take less time perhaps to scratch build or do kits. The learning curve for a CAD suite is very steep and lengthy.

I've been working in 3d CAD for over 20 years so no probs there.

[GSR 800]

23 hours ago, Glenderg said:

The resin isn't brittle at all, I'm just ham fisted at times ! The one thing with Prusa is that Josef Prusa always makes upgrades available, so if anything interesting develops, he'll make it available for users of older models. 

ultimately it boils down to what you want to get out of it - If you want to make fiddly parts or prototypes then resin is the way. If you want big and can handle visible layer lines and sanding and all that jazz, FDM. 

Have to ask, what are you trying to print ? Buildings? 

Seconded re resin here.

There's a company currently trying to make a game for Titanic, Titanic Honour & Glory with a completely accurate interior and exterior 3D model for said game. 

I've followed with much interest, and they've released model 3D printed liners in 1/1000. They are currently using the more conventional version, but are now experimenting with resin printing, and well the results speak for themselves.

Edited April 30, 2020 by GSR 800