Should I get a 3D printer?

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[iamdarkyoshi]

I'd assume you've come across the Anet A8? 3D printing has a vertical learning curve, and even steeper with low end printers. I do own an anet a8 and I could give you some tips with that model.

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[iamdarkyoshi]

1 hour ago, chasebh89 said:

I've been more looking at the Tronxy X8 but this one seems bigger and a bit cheaper. How much does wire cost for it?

Filament? I get mine from monoprice, I haven't really tried anything else, the monoprice stuff seems "just fine" and its like 20 bucks per 1kg spool

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[piemadd]

1 hour ago, chasebh89 said:

I've been more looking at the Tronxy X8 but this one seems bigger and a bit cheaper. How much does wire cost for it?

I have a Tevo Tarantula. I am happy with its 200 usd price tag, plus it comes with an sd card and a roll of Abs and a roll of PLA. It is very similar to the A8, plus I have heard that the A8 cant get to the correct heating temp for ABS. You might also want to check out the Prusa i3.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, Implosivetech said:

I have a Tevo Tarantula. I am happy with its 200 usd price tag, plus it comes with an sd card and a roll of Abs and a roll of PLA. It is very similar to the A8, plus I have heard that the A8 cant get to the correct heating temp for ABS. You might also want to check out the Prusa i3.

I printed ABS on my A8. But anything other than a fully heated chamber is a joke with ABS.

[piemadd]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

I printed ABS on my A8. But anything other than a fully heated chamber is a joke with ABS.

yeah. (/boxes around ur printer)

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, Implosivetech said:

yeah. (/boxes around ur printer)

My old ABS only printer had an actively heated chamber, kept the internals at about 75C. It printed ABS like a champ. But for most 3D prints, stick with PLA or other filaments, ABS is just too irritating to print in. It shrinks by 3% when it cools...

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[piemadd]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

My old ABS only printer had an actively heated chamber, kept the internals at about 75C. It printed ABS like a champ. But for most 3D prints, stick with PLA or other filaments, ABS is just too irritating to print in. It shrinks by 3% when it cools...

it sucks. i should have requested for 2 PLA rolls instead of one of each

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[iamdarkyoshi]

5 minutes ago, chasebh89 said:

So, probably stupid question, but do these work with blender? Like do their programs accept .blend files as an import?

The software that most people use is Cura, which needs STL files. Cura is what is known as a slicer. It takes the 3D model (all CAD software I've used lets you export as an STL) and "slices" it into layers, and makes a line by line set of instructions called GCode, which the printer then turns into motion, and ultimately the finished model.

 

2 minutes ago, chasebh89 said:

For power consumption how bad are 3d printers in general? Do they go through electricity like socks or are they pretty efficient?

Mine doesn't take much power. My laptop takes more...

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[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, chasebh89 said:

Ok I was just unsure because it's litteraly a little heater and a computer that run for hours

The anet A8 runs off an arduino, which takes probably less than a nightlight.

 

The heaters on the other hand do take power, but really not that much. If you do get an anet A8, PLEASE be careful around the power supply, it makes those ebay laptop chargers look safe... My PSU overheated, so I added an internal fan. I also printed a shroud that covered the exposed mains wires...

[piemadd]

54 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

The anet A8 runs off an arduino, which takes probably less than a nightlight.

 

The heaters on the other hand do take power, but really not that much. If you do get an anet A8, PLEASE be careful around the power supply, it makes those ebay laptop chargers look safe... My PSU overheated, so I added an internal fan. I also printed a shroud that covered the exposed mains wires...

mine runs off of the ATMega 2650, the one on the arduino Mega

[iamdarkyoshi]

22 minutes ago, Implosivetech said:

mine runs off of the ATMega 2650, the one on the arduino Mega

Yeah same for both my anet and my abandoned diy printer. Its cheap and it works.

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[iamdarkyoshi]

32 minutes ago, chasebh89 said:

Ok I think I'ma get the Anet A8 Prusa i3

 

Thanks for your help

 

If you need any support for this printer, feel free to PM me. I've done tons of mods to mine to improve the print quality, and all these upgrades were printed... on the printer

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[iamdarkyoshi]

7 hours ago, chasebh89 said:

Last question : is it 1.75mm filament and how many meters of filament are usually on a spool?

Yeah, its 1.75mm, not sure what length you get per reel, but the reels are generally 0.5kg or 1kg

[makersmuse]

I hope you enjoy trouble shooting and assembling complex electronic systems Kits can... take some time to come 'online'. Also please be mega careful wiring the mains power, you don't want to touch those wires or have it short to the PSU case. So far I've found the Cetus to be the best 'bang for buck' fully assembled machine (you screw the bed and print head on.,. that's about it), but it's ~350USD, PLA only.

[djmoney]

I run a Monoprice Maker select v2.1 and I love it but I find a good amount of the time is spent tinkering with it.  Tweaking setting building or buying upgrades.  Expect that with anything that cost less than $500.  One that I am interest in next is the CR10 it has a huge build volume if your models need to be big that is one that is worth saving for and getting.  I know its next on my list.  

 

Wait for black Friday,  The monoprice printers go one ridiculous sale both monoprice.com and Amazon.  The maker mini will be less than 200.  That one has a huge community to help with.   

 

Filament I run Inland stuff from Microcenter.  It starts at $15 a Kg.  If you have one of them close like me it works pretty well but fillament is one of thoes things you can always spent a lot on.  

 

What ever printer you get find a community.  I found one on facebook for my maker select.  Find out the weakness of the printer and the must upgrades.  A lot of printers dont have a mosfet for the heating elements and wire them directly to the board.  This can be a fire hazard or at least can burn out the board.  happened to me.  

[NoTxtWhileDrive]

I owned a 3dprint way before I learned how to model, and been constantly using it for spare parts like you, I own a flashforge creator pro not the most bleeding edge printer but does the job quite well.

 

Starting out software wise go with the free options slicers their pretty feature rich against the slicers of yonder days. idea maker & slic3r (especially the prusa fork) are pretty good ones to start with, if you're one of those people with 150usd to spare try simplify3d as everyone seems to universally praise it for being the best one of all of the slicers.

 

Electricity well..... I don't really know I'm in a situation where I don't need to worry about power bills. but check facebook groups of owners of printers your looking to own and ask about their power draw. additionally ask anything in the groups. in my experience this is one of the most pure communities I have ever joined, people here go above and beyond to help. 

 

Filament is pretty much go for the cheapest ABS/PLA you can find, it will most likely work. unless you need a specialty filament for specific scenarios like aPLA or Nylon for high strength and that sorta jazz. I found a local shop that sells 1kg rolls of filament for 900php~17usd a steal compare to the 2500php~50usd I usually buy before finding about it.

 

Good luck in deciding, happy printing if ever

 

[NoTxtWhileDrive]

On 9/13/2017 at 11:33 PM, chasebh89 said:

So, probably stupid question, but do these work with blender? Like do their programs accept .blend files as an import?

I dabbled in blender a while back, the models I imported from their is too broken to print. (tho mostly this is due to my lack of knowledge in modelling in blender) And get ready to learn meshmixer on top of whatever yout modeling software is to fix the model your importing to your slicer.