3D Printer On Sale

[EdK]

Do you know if these printers support Linux?

Ed

[arvidj]

(08-15-2019, 08:12 PM)EdK Wrote: So what brand of 3D printers are you guys using? I'm considering building my own but haven't made up my mind yet.  

Ed

(08-15-2019, 11:20 PM)Vinny Wrote: My filament printer is a PRUSA-i3 (actually it's a Chinese clone of it) and my resin printer is an Anycubic Photon (not the S).

I have the real PRUSA-i3 and a Rostock v3. Both were kits. I do not have a resin printer though Vinny's success has me interested.

My experience with both kits is that getting a kit is far superior to trying to build one from scratch.

I'm not sure you would save a lot of money by doing it yourself even if you think you have a lot of the parts lying around. At least for the first one I'd get a kit as that way you have a printer that actually works rather than pieces you are still trying to figure out how they should all go together. And the advantage of having one that works is you can then use it to make parts for your second one ... or to make improved parts for the one you have.

As an example, my PRUSA-i3 was a mk1. Since then they have upgraded the printer several times but have made the .stl files for the new pieces available on their site. I printed and upgraded to the mk2, then printed and upgraded to the mk2.5 when it came out, then printed and upgraded the plastic to mk3 when that came out but did not upgrade the electronics. So I guess I have a mk2.75347893 or something like that.

Think of it has having a lathe to make parts for you mill and a mill to make parts for your lathe kind of deal. You have a printer to make parts for your printer.

[EdK]

(08-16-2019, 11:52 AM)arvidj Wrote: I have the real PRUSA-i3 and a Rostock v3. Both were kits. I do not have a resin printer though Vinny's success has me interested.

My experience with both kits is that getting a kit is far superior to trying to build one from scratch.

I'm not sure you would save a lot of money by doing it yourself even if you think you have a lot of the parts lying around. At least for the first one I'd get a kit as that way you have a printer that actually works rather than pieces you are still trying to figure out how they should all go together. And the advantage of having one that works is you can then use it to make parts for your second one ... or to make improved parts for the one you have.

As an example, my PRUSA-i3 was a mk1. Since then they have upgraded the printer several times but have made the .stl files for the new pieces available on their site. I printed and upgraded to the mk2, then printed and upgraded to the mk2.5 when it came out, then printed and upgraded the plastic to mk3 when that came out but did not upgrade the electronics. So I guess I have a mk2.75347893 or something like that.

Think of it has having a lathe to make parts for you mill and a mill to make parts for your lathe kind of deal. You have a printer to make parts for your printer.

Yea, after looking at the cost of the kits, I no longer think making my own is a good idea. Are your printers clones or the real deal?

Ed

[arvidj]

(08-17-2019, 09:15 AM)EdK Wrote: Yea, after looking at the cost of the kits, I no longer think making my own is a good idea. Are your printers clones or the real deal?

Ed

Both of mine were "real" ... Prusa3d and SeeMeCNC.

The Prusa3d comes from Czechoslovakia. Also, if you plan to order anything extra and it comes to more the $800 then you have to pay an import tax. Luckily the kit is a few cents less than the limit so order the kit and the extra's separately. This also works out well with there nonsensical policy of not being able to see spare parts in their eshop until they have confirmed that you actually own one of their printers.

That being said, almost everything can either be printed ... once you have a printer ... or is a common item that can be purchased from Amazon or other US sources. The only thing that I ordered extra was the PEI layer that goes on top of the heated bed and a spare PTFE tube. I'm still on the originals but if they become damaged I have a spare.

Note that I am not responsible for all the time you will spend using the printer once you get it 

[Dr Stan]

Once I have my shop back up & running I plan to buy the Prusa3d. Even though a resin printer produces finer quality items I'm very hesitant to purchase one due to the inherent toxicity of the resins used in 3D printing. I also find it amazing a $800 printer can produce as good and as large of an item as did my $250,000.00 StrataSys I had in my lab in NE a few years ago.

[Vinny]

(08-16-2019, 09:15 AM)EdK Wrote: Do you know if these printers support Linux?

Ed

They don't really support anything. They take either an SD card (micro or whatever) or a USB stick. The slicer you use to create the file for the printer would need to run on linux and most slicers do. My Prusa came with Cura, which is a slicer that runs on windows and linux, prolly mac too. The resin printer's slicer was windows only, but the guy that actually wrote it, has a more feature filled version (also free) that runs on both linux and windows. Any of the slicers work well under wine, so if you end up finding one you like better than others and it's windows only, you can more than likely still run it. I actually like that aforementioned windows version for the resin printer better with wine than his linux version!

For modeling, there's a 3D modeling program that's linux called Blender. I have it installed but have yet to use it. I think I launched it just to make sure it worked and that was it.

Vince.

[rleete]

Sort of off topic, but do any of you guys have a file for a machinist's tapping block in English measurements? All I can find is one on Thingiverse that is metric. PM me with file, please.

Thanks.

[EdK]

(08-20-2019, 07:36 AM)rleete Wrote: ....  PM me with file, please.

Thanks.

You can't attach files to PMs. You'll have to use email.

Ed

[EdK]

I found this comment dealing with UV resin printers in the comments of this printer review.





"Very important, you must keep the resin off your skin, even in trace amounts. If you do get resin on your skin, immediately wash it off thoroughly using soap and water (NOT using isopropyl alcohol, as I had incorrectly originally written), and try to avoid UV light and sunlight for a few hours. From what I've read, there's this strange thing that happens where when UV resin cures inside your skin, it raises the flags of your immune system, and over time, your immune system becomes sensitized to UV resins. When this happens, you can end up with severe, nasty reactions to any contact with resins. Delay that sensitization as much as possible by always wearing gloves and never handling uncured parts with bare fingers. (Severe cringe when you talked about how they still felt "tacky". :-P)"

Kind of scary.  

I think I'll avoid those and stick with the SLA style printers.

Ed

[Highpower]

(09-21-2019, 12:39 PM)EdK Wrote: I found this comment dealing with UV resin printers in the comments of this printer review.


"Very important, you must keep the resin off your skin, even in trace amounts. If you do get resin on your skin, immediately wash it off thoroughly using soap and water (NOT using isopropyl alcohol, as I had incorrectly originally written), and try to avoid UV light and sunlight for a few hours. From what I've read, there's this strange thing that happens where when UV resin cures inside your skin, it raises the flags of your immune system, and over time, your immune system becomes sensitized to UV resins. When this happens, you can end up with severe, nasty reactions to any contact with resins. Delay that sensitization as much as possible by always wearing gloves and never handling uncured parts with bare fingers. (Severe cringe when you talked about how they still felt "tacky". :-P)"

Kind of scary.  

I think I'll avoid those and stick with the SLA style printers.

Ed

If that is the case it makes me wonder why my dentist uses UV curing adhesives for installing crowns and UV curing resins for filling cavities.  
They are systematically replacing all my old "metal" (amalgam) fillings with resin fillings now. The lesser of two evils?