Gaining a new dimension in the hobby: 3D printing for noobs!

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Hey guys! On the “Spit Roasted Foamboard” thread we have seen some epic 3D printed Spitfires. Thing is not all of us have 3D printers. @sundown57 found a cheap 3D printer that seemed to be a great choice for getting started in 3D printing. I know I’m looking into getting into 3D printing in the near future as well as several other forum members including @BATTLEAXE and @buzzbomb . This is a thread where we can find a good budget user-friendly 3D printer that will help anyone get into - you guessed it - another dimension of this awesome hobby! Thanks for the input!
 
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Turbojoe

Elite member
My daughter bought the Creality Ender 3 from Amazon LINK last year and it's still here at my house. I'm almost through my second spool of PLA filament and it's still running great. I'm getting better with TinkerCad and have been designing a few things already. Once I learn a more advanced CAD then the fun will really begin. If this one breaks or my daughter finally takes it away from me I'll definitely buy another Ender 3.

I'd be hesitant to buy something like this from eBay. If it's damaged in shipping or defective the return shipping cost alone would be a wallet eater. Plus how good will the customer service be if it even exists? Love 'em or hate 'em but nobody beats Amazon for customer service.

Joe
 

mach1 rc

Master member
Hey guys! On the “Spit Roasted Foamboard” thread we have seen some epic 3D printed Spitfires. Thing is not all of us have 3D printers. @sundown57 found a cheap 3D printer that seemed to be a great choice for getting started in 3D printing. I know I’m looking into getting into 3D printing in the near future as well as several other forum members including @BATTLEAXE and @buzzbomb . This is a thread where we can find a good budget user-friendly 3D printer that will help anyone get into - you guessed it - another dimension of this awesome hobby! Thanks for the input!
I'll be following this thread for sure. I've been looking Into 3d printers and am wondering what kinds of 3d printers I'll see hear.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
So does anyone know anything about the robo 3D printers? There is one for pretty cheap I found. It says the model is the 3D+. I didn’t see anything that matched it so I’m a little skeptical but I thought id see if any of you knew anything about it...
 

Bricks

Master member
I have been throwing the notion of getting a 3D printer one of the main things to look for is bed size and what you want to do with it. What I have been doing is finding a printer I may be interested in and then doing a google search for reviews. Some reviews are straight up and some are a little biased you can usually tell by just reading a few different reviews of the same printer.

I have been looking on FB Market place and Craigslist and have run into a couple I may be interested in that is when I do a goggle search to find more out about them.
 

hercflyboy

New member
I jumped into the 3D printing game a little over a year ago with an Ender 3 Pro after doing a ton of research on the available options. I opted for the Ender 3 for a couple of reason's, the first being the large community for the printer. There is almost a cult following for the Ender 3 and for some of the other such as the Prusa and the Anycubic's. When I bought mine it was considered to be the best budget printer on the market. That being said I didn't stop with just the printer. Almost every upgrade possible has been installed on my printer ranging from printable upgrade parts to TL smoothers and a Raspberry Pi loaded with the Klipper firmware. All of this makes the printer much more accurate and capable of printing at much greater speeds. I regularly print at a speed of 140 mm/s vice the 40 mm/s I was printing at with the Marlin firmware that came on the printer. The other thing the Raspberry Pi gave me was a truly wireless printer meaning that instead loading the G code files to a SD card and walking to the printer to plug the card it and print from that, I can save the sliced file to the Raspberry Pi via the WiFi connection and print from that. I also have a camera on the printer so I can monitor it without actually walking downstairs to check on the print. One of the other deciding reasons was that the Ender 3 is an aluminum framed printer rather than an acrylic frame printer. Most of the newer printers are aluminum framed but some of the cheaper ones come with bolt together acrylic. Another consideration is the build surface. I swear by a glass build plate as it will never warp. An aluminum plate has the potential to warp from heat cycles. Along with the build plate is the consideration of auto bed leveling, again I swear by it as I always have an accurate zero reference for the printer to start with since I probes the bed and records the levels prior to each print. If I was to buy another printer today I would probably opt for the Ender 5 mostly because the bed moves on the Z axis rather than the hotend. This tends to be just a bit more accurate. No matter the printer that is chosen the best thing anyone can do is take the time to learn how to tune the printer and tune it correctly. This will alleviate much frustration that comes from failed prints.