looking for 3d printer

[shinegull]

Im thinking of getting a 3d printer but not sure what would be of good value right now. I would state a budget but i hoenstly dont know how much i should put in to this. As ive seen proces from a hundred or so to well over a thousand.

 

What id like to do is to be able to print my own pc case and any accessories i may need for my builds.

 

Im not sure if it makes a difference but ill probably connect it to a laptop if i need to send designs and tell the printer to start printing

[W-L]

11 minutes ago, shinegull said:

Im thinking of getting a 3d printer but not sure what would be of good value right now. I would state a budget but i hoenstly dont know how much i should put in to this. As ive seen proces from a hundred or so to well over a thousand.

 

What id like to do is to be able to print my own pc case and any accessories i may need for my builds.

 

Im not sure if it makes a difference but ill probably connect it to a laptop if i need to send designs and tell the printer to start printing

The go to that is highly suggested is the Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro if you are just starting out and testing the waters. It's not exactly a plug and go solution and will require some minor tweaking and tuning, if you like modding and upgrading your machine it's not bad. They also have the new CR6 which is more finished and built with some extra features that the ender 3's don't come with. 

 

If you want just a solution that's good and ready to go out of the box something like the Prusa printers would be more inline with a plug and play experience. 

[shinegull]

2 hours ago, W-L said:

The go to that is highly suggested is the Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro if you are just starting out and testing the waters. It's not exactly a plug and go solution and will require some minor tweaking and tuning, if you like modding and upgrading your machine it's not bad. They also have the new CR6 which is more finished and built with some extra features that the ender 3's don't come with. 

 

If you want just a solution that's good and ready to go out of the box something like the Prusa printers would be more inline with a plug and play experience. 

Alright, ive taken a look, and though honestly, a lot of this stuff still just goes over my head, i think ill get the ender 3. The print area is enough tha, ill have to modify my design a bit, it still possible.

 

I do have a couple questions though.

Does 3d printing give off any sort of smell or excessive heat and or sound?

Also what kind of print material should i be looking at? Ive seen some videos and i remember there was supposedly some sort of filling spool that disintegrated in water? And it would be used for stability or something. Is rhat something ill need to think about?

[W-L]

26 minutes ago, shinegull said:

Alright, ive taken a look, and though honestly, a lot of this stuff still just goes over my head, i think ill get the ender 3. The print area is enough tha, ill have to modify my design a bit, it still possible.

 

I do have a couple questions though.

Does 3d printing give off any sort of smell or excessive heat and or sound?

Also what kind of print material should i be looking at? Ive seen some videos and i remember there was supposedly some sort of filling spool that disintegrated in water? And it would be used for stability or something. Is rhat something ill need to think about?

The printer is noisy and you can hear the stepper motor movements, a common upgrade is to get a silent stepper board. You will want to use the printer in a well ventilated area. 

 

For materials there is a variety of options but PLA and PETG is two of the most common, there are other options such as ABS or ASA which but note they do require a higher temp and also ABS especially will have shrinkage issues. 

 

For the disolvable material you are probably thinking of PVA it's usually used for creating support material to hold the print material, note that does require a dual extrustion or dual nozzle for that capability. 

 

 

We had a recent discussion of it over here and it covered a lot of the main points and upgrades of an Ender 3/Pro.

 

[shinegull]

17 minutes ago, W-L said:

The printer is noisy and you can hear the stepper motor movements, a common upgrade is to get a silent stepper board. You will want to use the printer in a well ventilated area. 

 

For materials there is a variety of options but PLA and PETG is two of the most common, there are other options such as ABS or ASA which but note they do require a higher temp and also ABS especially will have shrinkage issues. 

 

For the disolvable material you are probably thinking of PVA it's usually used for creating support material to hold the print material, note that does require a dual extrustion or dual nozzle for that capability. 

 

 

We had a recent discussion of it over here and it covered a lot of the main points and upgrades of an Ender 3/Pro.

 

It almost sounds like, ill need to get a bunch of other stuff to upgrade the ender 3 with a lot of work involved. From past experience, doing something like this is not the best route for me. Maybe i should look for an alternative, something that is a plug and play like that prusa you mentioned. Ill still consider it. Worst case, if i cant handle it, ill pack it all up and ask for a refund.

[shinegull]

2 hours ago, James Evens said:

Then wait for the creality 6 (?) se. This is basically a polished ender 3.

Alright, ill take your word for it.

 

In the meantime, i guess ill go play with acrylic. Might be easier, ill see

[it_dont_work]

4 hours ago, shinegull said:

Alright, ill take your word for it.

 

In the meantime, i guess ill go play with acrylic. Might be easier, ill see

 

I was impatient and also like tinkering with things, so I bought he ender knowing I'm going to modify it. The cr6 looks like it might be a touch better an an overall more polished item, and quieter and has auto bed leveling (I've been a machinist for long enough that leveling the bed should be easy enough, I can understand why this would frustrate many though)

 

11 hours ago, shinegull said:

 I would state a budget but i hoenstly dont know how much i should put in to this. As ive seen proces from a hundred or so to well over a thousand.

I had a pretty small budget, but I ended up with 

-ender 3 + glass bed + metal feeder, stepper smoothers(probably useless but they were included), better bed springs and a better ptfe tube and couplers. 

- 1kg of pla,1kg petg, and a 1k tpu (quality might be off they were cheap)

-direct drive adapter.

All for $290usd. 

 

The Cr6SE has those upgrades plus what looks like a better user interface for $300usd with upgraded silencing equipment and auto leveling. You'd still need to buy material as well. It does look like a better value proposition