The Official 3d Printing thread

[4651feeder]

If I had a real need for a 3D printer, would consider resin over FDM, just cause in my mind they produce prints of greater detail and integrity at the hobbyist level. The downside being the toxicity of the medium and ensuing rig-a-ma-ro at prints end.

Provided an offspring one of the printrbots earlier this year and they actually used it which gave me joy...until the nozzle clogged and in spite of minor struggle they developed understanding of what's required to getting it back up and going.

Figured that point would be a good time to help them progress in size with a Creality. Considered the models recently mentioned in this thread and decided to play it safe with an Ender 5 just cause I've recently been using one as a go to printer and it's a reliable workhorse in my mind (cross my fingers, knock on wood). Knew from the get go that I wanted to do the X axis linear rail and direct drive conversion which brings me to last nite with a deja vu moment. While the offspring and I were assembling his new printer found I screwed up and by default ordered the wrong kit from PrinterMods.com.

 

[4651feeder]

Prevalence of large mono 4k resin printers are going to make a big impact on the market this winter due to size and speed. I haven't been fortunate enough to find a low introductory $ before the limited quantities sold out. So I got a Creality DL002R at it's newest low price and am impressed with print resolution. If all goes well with the process, maybe I'll look at an upgrade second quarter 2021 when price will hopefully be more palatable on the mono models.

Jeez, and to think only two weeks ago I was still balking at the thought of owning a resin printer.

 

[cbhausen]

Prevalence of large mono 4k resin printers are going to make a big impact on the market this winter due to size and speed. I haven't been fortunate enough to find a low introductory $ before the limited quantities sold out. So I got a Creality DL002R at it's newest low price and am impressed with print resolution. If all goes well with the process, maybe I'll look at an upgrade second quarter 2021 when price will hopefully be more palatable on the mono models.

Jeez, and to think only two weeks ago I was still balking at the thought of owning a resin printer.

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I've had my eye on the Elegoo Saturn... Maybe this Fall.

 

[maxwelhse]

I just took delivery of a Creality CR-10 Max today. I ended up with a deal too good to refuse and thought I'd spread the love here with you guys...

We already had one of them at work and one group decided to buy a second as they had a bunch of larger parts they needed to make in a fairly big hurry so it was easy to justify the cost. On a lark, I went to the big boss and asked him if instead of buying 1 at regular price, if Creality was able to offer us a reasonable discount, if he'd be willing to buy 4 of them instead (we have a rag tag army of mismatched smaller printers, so standardizing is nice). To our shock, Creality came back with an offer of 30% off and the big boss took the bait.

SO... Apparently a group buy discount is as easy as simply asking them for one. They did it via a coupon code (which wouldn't be right for me to publicly share for obvious reasons), but we ended up buying 6 of them, including the one I bought personally.

So, if a group of a few guys here (or elsewhere) want to go in on an order from Creality, the odds are strongly in your favor of getting a very heavy discount. It's worth a shot to ask!

 

[4651feeder]

I just took delivery of a Creality CR-10 Max today...

Congrats on the printer acquisition, one that large would require adding floor space to our house first.

Are the Crealitys at your work used to produce product or for prototyping?

 

[maxwelhse]

Congrats on the printer acquisition, one that large would require adding floor space to our house first.

Are the Crealitys at your work used to produce product or for prototyping?

Thanks! You can always go up! We're somewhat seriously talking about stacking them up at work...

Adding table space was absolutely a factor for me and it was complete luck that both plans came together at almost the same time. I plan to use it make fixtures to make other things from, so, the bigger the better. Hobby grade printers from even a few years ago are just too small for my goals and the bigger ones used to be way too expensive. Time finally was on my side on this one.

Prototype only, but the first CR-10 has run almost 24/7 since November 2019 without hardly even a burp outside of standard consumables.

We have a Stratasys Fortus that we run very small batches of production parts on from time to time and the CR-10 Max is shockingly close to the same quality on 90% of parts (geometry dependent) for literally about 1/100th the cost. We did upgrade to a MicroSwiss hot end, which helps some.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

Life size Yoda was 3D printed as decoration for my wedding


3D printed Battle Droid ushers (also life size)


And last but certainly not least, fully mobile, light and sound, remote controlled R2-D2 ringbearer (the body, dome, legs, and other parts are all 3D printed)

 

[OneBadV8]

been looking at these again, so I'm going to bump this thread.

For those that have a 3D printer, anything that it turned out to be REALLY useful for that you never thought when you got it?

 

[OneBadV8]

Also, besides thingiverse, are there other sites to look for models?

 

[4651feeder]

https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints

https://www.youmagine.com/

Don't search the file share sites as much as I did when new to printing.

Am currently in that stage of seeing my own designs thru to print for something to do and gratification.

Made neodymium magnet pistol brackets this weekend from design thru assembly. holdUP/stickUP

Not everyone's definition of useful is the same, next time you're at thingiverse, you can browse a few of the designs that proved useful to me by searching for IMAhobbyist.

 

[Caleb]

been looking at these again, so I'm going to bump this thread.

For those that have a 3D printer, anything that it turned out to be REALLY useful for that you never thought when you got it?

Yea....I was/am building a big laser cutter and purchased a design off the internet but noticed it had a design flaw. So being the curious creature I am, I designed a solution for it and sell it on my Etsy shop. It has made me some decent money, unfortunately, I can't print any personal stuff because it's being used for business/orders. I can't complain really, tempted to buy a second machine...

 

[4651feeder]

While familiarizing myself with new design software this morning, I ended up lofting an Inflex butt pad adapter/spacer for the 20 ga Miroku. Just haven't had a lot of ideas lately.

 

[Gabriel]

Bringing this back up for some dumb questions. I haven't been printing a lot lately, but have gotten more interested in printing firearm parts and such since I've been following those groups on facebook. They don't take kindly to beginner questions.

The first one is I've downloaded a bunch of stuff and found it's STP files and not STL. Is there a way to convert them or should I just try to find the STL files for the same models? It might be a related question, but on that website (DEFCAD), there is the option for a CAD file download and a CAM file download. You have to have a membership for the CAM download and i assume (maybe incorrectly) that it includes the STL files, while the CAD only has the STP.

The second one is I have an Ender 2 and want something with a bigger print surface (although I've been having good luck with the 2 despite the bed leveling process being a pain sometimes). I'm considering the Ender 3 or 5 sometime in the near future, but is there anything else that I should look at?

The last is more basic stuff that I need knowledge wise. Anyone start from scratch knowing nothing about modeling and take an online class or watch some specific Youtube videos? Just curious as to what they may have been so I can see if my tiny brain can absorb some information that would help me design some things I've been wanting to make.

 

[Sailor]

Stay away from Defcad. All they do is steal others freely made content and try to pose it off as theirs. Find some stl files. Join the Element/matrix groups AWCY? and WF&GCI groups. Also Fosscad sub reddit. Most get great results with Enders. Use Cura with tree supports print PLA+ hot 225-230 and slow it down.

 

[4651feeder]

.....The first one is I've downloaded a bunch of stuff and found it's STP files and not STL. Is there a way to convert them or should I just try to find the STL files for the same models?

STEP files (.ste, .step, .stp) can be imported into many CAD programs and then exported out as .stl. I currently use an old version of Cubify Invent (now Alibre Atom) for that task. Have given up on the free version of Fusion360, but believe it or even TinkerCAD allow that also.

I knew nuthang about CAD prior to 3D printing, won't attempt to tell you I'm now a whiz at it, however have been able to stumble thru the design of everything I've desired. If you chose to try the free Fusion360, Arnold Rowentree on YouTube has an excellent series for the beginner.

I'll second the Creality ender endorsement, in my case it's a modified ender 5

 

[JSJamboree]

Prevalence of large mono 4k resin printers are going to make a big impact on the market this winter due to size and speed. I haven't been fortunate enough to find a low introductory $ before the limited quantities sold out. So I got a Creality DL002R at it's newest low price and am impressed with print resolution. If all goes well with the process, maybe I'll look at an upgrade second quarter 2021 when price will hopefully be more palatable on the mono models.

Jeez, and to think only two weeks ago I was still balking at the thought of owning a resin printer.

Resin 2k/4k printers are where the detail is at, ive had 3 over the past year where I find a deal I cant pass up, get it, make a couple test prints, then sell it off. FDM is just larger, its faster, its generally stronger. Plus is cleaner.. Water resin makes it better, but i just cant justify a resin vs an FDM (at least until my kids are old enough to need to start printing armies for some DnD)

 

[4651feeder]

Resin 2k/4k printers are where the detail is at, ive had 3 over the past year where I find a deal I cant pass up, get it, make a couple test prints, then sell it off. FDM is just larger, its faster, its generally stronger. Plus is cleaner.. Water resin makes it better, but i just cant justify a resin vs an FDM (at least until my kids are old enough to need to start printing armies for some DnD)

Believe you'll find me echoing in agreement HERE.

 

[JSJamboree]

Believe you'll find me echoing in agreement HERE.

My issue is that I always want bigger, similar to you I have a highly modified 5pro, but i keep getting limited by bed size, and I lothe splitting and gluing parts together. I cant decide if i need a 5pro (which will need alot of updates which I think is crazy at this point, that printer is so behind), or if I want to swap into a Tronxy X5SA knowing they are pretty bad, but either way i will be putting a new board new firmware and some other things as well....

 

[Gabriel]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll get another Ender here sometime when I get a chance.

 

[1911ly]

Hey all. I am still a live. Life has been complicated with health issues and taking care of a family member and more. I have not had a lot of time for my hobby's. i have been playing with cad a lot. Live is kinda getting back to normal. I will try to get more active, It is awesome to see you guys still keeping the thread active!