Advice for a first printer?

I dont even know if this is appropriate forum to post on, but for a couple months now ive been seriously looking and really dont know how to make a final call.

This printer would be used for printing characters rather than mechanical parts, so I dont know if there are particular printers that are better/worse at printing more organic models than others. Right now I like the Idea of the leapfrog Creatr or the makergear printer for the simplicity of use. Id like something fully assembled and my budget is around 2k, but I could go higher if it would really be worth it. (so if you know of a great printer for 3k please name/link it anyways)

it seems like the resin printers are more accurate but seem to cost a lot more and the resin itself seems quite expensive, so ive been mostly looking at PLA/ABS printing, but if anyone has other suggestions please feel free to post.

Last but not least if Like the build volume to be 8inx8inx8in or larger simply because id be printing sculpts/figures and id like them to be a reasonable size for a desktop showpiece.

Thanks in advance and hopefully somone can help point me in the right direction before droping 2K on something that I "hope" will do what I want.

I can highly recommend Nophead's Mendel90. Best bit is, you'd have £1500 change!

I wrote up my experience here http://marcos.scriven.org/2012/12/building-mendel90.html

My experience is that, in the right hands, a $800,- printer can print just as good as a Replicator X2.

The Relicator X2 is very nice to work with, but you can also buy a much cheaper machine (for your application I think a printer with just one extruder should be already fine) like the Builder (http://3dprinter4u.nl/en/product/builder-3d-printer-rood/) or even the Makerbot.

I have heard the Ultimaker is one of the best printers around:
[www.ultimaker.com]

If I had the money, I would've bought an Ultimaker, but no I had to go for the Reprap Air 2 in a kit form and build the machine myself.

alright thanks a ton for both of your inputs.

for the mendle90, it looks like its just the printed parts without any hardware, and while I don't want to assemble a printer, I really don't want to have to try to figure out what parts are compatable with its frame, until these became retard-proof to build, id rather not try (im just a character modeler, not a robotics expert , most "complicated" thing I can assemble is my desktop, and that's basically big-boy Lego's)

however, searching for the mendle 90 made me stumble on a website that sells the "Airwolf 3D XL" I forgot to mention this as one of the printers I was looking at since it had 12x8x7 build envelope. Does anyone know if this is a good printer for organic models?

as for the builder and the ultimaker, they are really on the very bottom of my build envelope, although I have seen the ultimaker everywhere and i know people say it works pretty fast. Ill keep looking into the ultimaker, but charging $650 just for the assembled version is pretty harsh.

thanks again for the info.

hi psychoticInsomiac,

fellow 3d modeler here on final stages finishing a reprap.

seems to me you are concerned about the details being captured in the prints. and you are also concerned about the build size.

most 3d printer available have a max size of 8 x 8. though there are some that goes beyond this size like the mendel max.

as for the details you want to capture, it really depends on the nozzle size. maybe a max of .5mm nozzle will do.

question is if you are printing big models and want the details, have you got the time to wait?

just my thoughts. good luck hunting for that printer.

regards.

I realize the finer the layer res the longer it takes, and im willing to wait maybe 24-48 hours per print but I really wouldn't want to wait more than 2 days to print something. I also realize that Height is more important to me than other dimensions since I have to print models standing up. Like i said in the first post resin seems a lot more accurate and better for organic printing but it seems expensive (or at least a budget of 2k wont get much). I liked the reprap for its height, but I really wish they would charge like $300-400 extra for an assembled and tuned version, Id much rather know it will work out of the box, that way if it doesn't work I can take it up with the producer rather than thinking I have done something wrong in assemble.

good to see im not the only one who wants to print something other than parts, and I hope your build goes/went well.

I would say it's unlikely you're going to be able to print everything as a single piece anyway. Just last week I printed a like 10" figure with only about 4" of z-height because I sliced the model up into sections just like you'd get with a normal model kit, mainly to reduce overhangs and get a better finish. Whatever you get I would recommend looking for something with a nice rigid frame.

Ultimaker would be at the top of my list to research if I had a bunch of money to throw at something, and Mendel90 too. You might want to poke around and see if there are any Rostock derivatives out there fully assembled, they're perhaps a bit more experimental, but they can be very fast and tend to have very tall build volumes.

Hi

What are the reasons you don't want a kit form? If its because you don't have time, then I completely understand. If it's because you're worried you can't do it, then I recommend you reevaluate. The Mendel90 kit from Nophead comes with everything you need, and a clear manual that has improved further with feedback.

Personally I think the best bit about putting together yourself is you really understand how it works, and are not afraid to fix things when you inevitably need to tweak it.

A prepackaged printer like the Makerbot isn't going to give you better results, and you're going to be beholden to customer support and voiding warranties.

It takes about 24 hrs total to build if you don't have much experience, and this can be reduced a lot if you build with a friend.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2013 03:21PM by marcosscriven.

marcosscriven Wrote:
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> It takes about 24 hrs total to build if you don't
> have much experience, and this can be reduced a
> lot if you build with a friend.


Configuration and tuning takes more time than the build and part of the difficulty for many is knowing exactly what they are looking at in order to be able to get a good looking print. And that's notwithstanding the difference between building a complete kit that is single sourced and sourcing all your own parts and making sure they work together. The single hurdle I see in many of my customers new to printing and wanting to buy in is that there are so many choices and not all the parts are compatible. Many like the challenge of sourcing and building. Others find it frustrating. I think to this point we need to respect that some are going to have different wants and desires than others. The demographic for the machines is rapidly changing from those who like to build, tweak then print to those that see the tool for the utility that it is an not part of some broader process.

It reminds me of back in the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" days when those that were working with Linux dists complied everything, including the kernel from source. As the OS progressed and moved to be a more utility tool people started packaging it in a way that others that wanted the use of the tool but without having to build the tool found beneficial.