[Closed] 3D printer

(there are people on here that are way better 3d-printerists than me. But I think I've got a pretty good understanding of the entry level and what most people do with 'em)

Ender 3- they're pretty much as cheap as you can go without major sacrifices, they have an awesome aftermarket and community for troubleshooting etc, it's a perfect storm. No doubt there'll be better actual printers now, but none of them will have the backup. £135 shipping from the Czech Republic on Banggood. Unless he wants to do a lot of small figurine/miniatures type stuff when a resin printer might be better, I can't see past it. I'm competent at best, and absolutely useless at design and at firmware, but I've still had some excellent results and a lot of fun. (whereas every pre-Ender machine I ever had, was a total pain in the arse)

Cura, which is the most popular slicer (ie what turns a drawing into a 3d print), is completely free. Prusaslicer, which is another popular one, is arguably higher quality but less featured. I think probably most people start with Cura and again, well supported for Enders. It doesn't need a mighty PC- at worst, you just sometimes have to let it sit and wait for a while as it sorts out a really big file.

Design, I can't really comment on, not something I've done enough of. 3d design can be resource heavy but I don't think it has to be. I think a pretty high proportion of printer owners will only ever print stuff other people have designed (thingiverse is full of stuff)

Eh, depending on where you are I'm just servicing my old Ender 2 for sale- it's a discontinued model and smaller than the Ender 3 but otherwise pretty similar, and I'll be selling it ready-to-run as it's small enough to post complete. But that'd only be a good option if you <really> don't want to do any assembly, I would still recommend the ender 3 over mine! (if nothing else, the assembly process is pretty straightforward but also gets you to know the machine- you learn stuff that you'll use again and again from the build)

I am a big fan of Prusa printers (in fact know very little about any other brands!) but they're probably over budget and your chance of getting one before Chrimbo is zero anyway, so I won't make any recommendations on the printer side.

Fusion 360 is probably the go-to design software for most hobbyists now, there's a free licence (which they are about to make [I]slightly[/I] less functional, but not enough to be a problem). The main advantage is due to it's popularity there are thousands of YT tutorials and extremely helpful forums, FB groups etc. It is complicit but a few evenings following tutorials is enough to crack the basics and then it all starts to make sense.

I didn't personally bother using or learning any simpler apps first, I'm glad of that now as after the initial steep learning curve you're not going to come up against a situation where
the software is the limiting factor.

Definitely worth encouraging him to learn the design side of it as you can then present him with a list of bits you need for fixing stuff around the house etc 🤣 Minimum PC requirements are pretty modest for simpler designs so pretty much anything will be OK.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely would like to upgrade to a prusa machine, but the "entry level" mini costs as much as 2-and-a-half Ender 3s.

I maybe should have added, re that model- you'll see 4 variants of the Ender 3. There's only really 2 good ones though. The very cheapest on, because it's cheap. And the V2, which has some worthy upgrades but is about 50% more expensive at just under £200. THe middle grounds are all pretty awkward now- the Pro is a better machine than the basic one but not by that much, and once you pay for that extra you're much of the way towards the V2.

They all can have issues with the heated bed being warped, which can be frustrating. A glass bed fixes that cheaply (and the V2 has one included) and tbf is a good day 1 upgrade on all of the models that don't have one. Quite often sellers offer one in a bundle

(mine is a modified Pro- but I did all that before the V2 existed and broadly speaking the V2 is just creality's version of what the community was doing to the Pro)

Yep - hard to see past an Ender-3 for the money (when on offer - although there's always an offer somewhere.
There's a long-running thread here where you can get help and see some of the things we've made, but as mentioned there is a massive online community of Ender-3 users.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/cheap-3d-printer-kits-experiences/

There are a few different variations of the Ender, so have a look at some youtube videos comparing them.

Just know that 3D printing isn't as straightforward as 2D printing. There is a lot to know about the machine, the material and the process than many other production techniques, but it's been a fantastic learning experience for my 2 boys and I.

Some good youtubers:
Maker's Muse
Thomas Sanladerer
Make Anything
Teaching Tech

There are loads of others, but these are my fav as they tend to be creators rather than just people who print things.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely would like to upgrade to a prusa machine, but the “entry level” mini costs as much as 2-and-a-half Ender 3s.

they snuck out a surprise kit-build option for the Mini on BF which saves £50 (as well as offering free shipping) which makes it a bit cheaper, but also means there's now a massive waiting list 🤣

Just know that 3D printing isn’t as straightforward as 2D printing.

that's true, even though 3d printers are actually WAY less complex than 2d ones IMO... if one of those breaks, you're probably just going to skip it, whereas almost certainly you'll be able to isolate the problem with a 3d printer and repair it yourself! As you say it all makes for a great learning experience, even the failures & things breaking!

zilog6128
Full Member

they snuck out a surprise kit-build option for the Mini on BF which saves £50 (as well as offering free shipping) which makes it a bit cheaper, but also means there’s now a massive waiting list

Ah I missed that completely!

As above - hard to look past the Ender 3, to be honest.

I bought a CR10 Mini a couple of years ago now (2 or 3, I can't remember) and it works well.

I do everything I need to do software-wise on an 8 year old laptop.

I design in Fusion360 - it's recently been restricted a bit, but is still a powerful tool & there are tons of tutorials on Youtube. The Autodesk tutorial videos are also very good.

I slice the designs in Cura. It's free & works well. This is the software that takes a model & cuts it into slices that the printer can interpret & print out. You effectively end up with a string of commands for each layer of the print. There are settings to change, but the software does most of it for you & as you get experienced you can fiddle with it yourself.

There are plenty of websites you can download models from (of varying quality) - Thingiverse is one of the most well known.

Start with PLA filament - it's dimensionally stable, cheap & easy to start with.

Here's a link to a random FLickr dump folder that I put images into (when i remember). Not been updated for a while.

Flickr Link