3D Printer!

[Stradawhovious]

I purchased a 3D printer a few months ago, and it has been a great hobby.

Even better is the fact that I can use it to blend hobbies together.

In my RC hobby I use the printer for FT firewalls, control horns and most recently a GPS tower for the Arducopter unit on my new Tricopter build (pictured below) All files availbe on thingiverse.

What do you use your 3D printer for, and if you don't have one, what would you use it for?

 

[Montiey]

Cool! Whats it called?

 

[Stradawhovious]

Cool! Whats it called?

What... the Tricopter?

The name "Whirlyturd" has been tossed around...


OH!!! You mean the Printer!!

It's the PrintrBot Simple 2014 edition.

Very small print area (4"x4"x4") but it's expandable and I certainly love to tinker.

Besides, for $350 who can complain? http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple/

 

[makattack]

Wow, how long did that tower take to print on the printrbot simple? I've wondered about getting into 3D printing with that, but do you run it in an enclosure? If not, is the smell/fumes really strong?

 

[Stradawhovious]

Wow, how long did that tower take to print on the printrbot simple? I've wondered about getting into 3D printing with that, but do you run it in an enclosure? If not, is the smell/fumes really strong?

It's an odd size, so I had to print all 4 pieces separately, the platform just want big enough lo to print more than one piece at a time. It took about 2 hours.

As far as the smell, I don't print in an enclosure, and don't notice much of a smell at all.

Now that said I print PLA, and there really isn't much of a smell associated with that plastic. People really start to complain about the fumes with ABS. I don't print with the material because it requires a heated print bed, which I don't have (yet).

 

[ztoon]

Hi,
I have a reprap prusa i3 since last month. A great tool, even if i'm not totally satisfied with it at the moment.
First thing i've done is to modified the z axis sensor installation to obtain bed auto level (with a hk 9g servo, see picture), that's really better now.
I print with pla and abs, abs fumes exists, but aren't so strong in my opinion (I didn't say there are not nocive)
If you dislike the arduino gui, don't get into reprap...



Notice the broken mirror due (in my opinion and short experience with 3d printer) to a too much temperature difference between the heated bed (110° celsius) and the room temperature (20°C) : it happens yesterday during the heating proccess, glass don't expand well... This is not the original borosilicate glass (pyrex) which I already broke, but in fact IKEA mirror that fits exactly on the heated bed (8inch x 8inch). Ikea reference is : "Sörli" , 8$ for 4 mirrors, where the pyrex one is 20$ each. And gives your 3d printer the swedish WINDES STLYLE
For my printer, a heated bed insn't enough to let the abs stick on the bed, no matter what temperature I use. The "abs juice" trick works very well, no more first layer adhesion problem since.

Olivier

 

[monterx7]

wow! definitely something ive been very interested in. but to be honest, i get overwhelmed when doing research on which one to buy. but if i had a printer, i would use it the same way as you and print r/c parts.

 

[ztoon]

wow! definitely something ive been very interested in. but to be honest, i get overwhelmed when doing research on which one to buy.

I understand that, so many different models exists...
Budget is the first criteria of course. Hopefully prices are going down, but still there is motors, arduino mega, frame and some more parts that needs $.
Ready to use or diy? Price tag vs Time for assembly and tuning.

Reprap 3D printer family is well documented. From assembly to final testing, you never find yourself in a dead end. IRC channel is populated and I got some quick and acurate infos there.
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=reprap#