Amateur 3D Printing

[Wasbeer]

Hi guys. 
 

I have a Prusa Mk3 and its amazing. Is not cheap but works great. The Prusa mini is a great option if you have a tight budget. $350 exl import cost
 

I print a lot with petg and its great. Testing some other filament at the moment as well
I have printed my own garmin mounts as well as dji action mounts that works great. 
printed a riser block for my kickr setup and cost me R100 in filament. The nice part was that I could custom make it to the perfect high that I needed. 
Most of the parts you will find already on the internet that you can download for free, If not I use Shapr3D on my Ipad to custom design things I want to print. 

the prusa software and slicer is very easy to use as well. 
Just my two cents. 

 

[Amberdrake]

I use Fusion360, But busy trying prusa slicer atm for ender3 so far its okish, only 2 prints in.

[ABrooks]

Filament Selection, which filament is best to use for things like brackets to hold things like pipes or vacuum hoses in place? It seems like it would be between ABS and PETG? 

[dave303e]

can you print lego blocks easily?

[Rocket-Boy]

Personally right now I would buy a Ender 5 if I could stretch the budget a bit (they around 6k).

Ender3 is a good starting point. Out the box you can get decent prints with stock parts.

Check the XT90 connectors and the Power supply fan voltage.

Also rewire the fan for mainboard directly to 24v for always on.

Get glass plate and glue stick once you manage to damage original print surface(its gonna happen don't worry not best surface anyways).

After that you can either upgrade parts like me or just run it.

I do agree parts are nowhere near that of the HP stuff.

 

Running costs depend Hotend thermistor and cartridge cost me R100. Nozzles around R40 each. Glass bed was R50 Glue stick R10? didn't check tbh.

Filament is anywhere from R260 a roll up depending what your buying.

Ender 3 does pla well for ABS your gonna need enclosure.

I have Petg havnt used it yet but will try it at some point (always use glue stick with PETG it sticks to bare glass and wont release).

A roll of filament can go a long way but often you find yourself going ooooo nice colour that will look so good for that part in that spot, or kids will love it but in pink.......

Somewhat like cycling, the filament can get costly.

Personally I imported my printer more than year ago, worked out to R3800 landed with duties.

You will be hard pressed to get that pricing anytime soon again due to shipping issues.

 

Watch youtube videos setting about setting it up it will make life lot easier. 

 

I enjoy it because its a creative engineering outlet I don't get elsewhere. I also like fiddling and it allows me to prototype projects myself in parts quickly before final prints.

one eg I tried to make a mount for BFPtouch on the Petsfang cooler, did about 8 versions before I got one that worked. In my experience shipping would be a killer for something like that.

I bought an Ender 5 silent edition, came with the pre-installed V1.5 board with TMC2208's.

I did the usual printing of upgrades including bed stabilizers etc.

Im looking at going all metal hotend next, possibly a micro-swiss or even a hermera.

 

I looked at the Ender 3 which was my original choice but the Ender 5 looked like a better out of the box printer and wasnt much more expensive. The other cool part about the 5 is that assembly takes around 20 mins and you cant really get the alignment wrong on it.

[Rocket-Boy]

I use Fusion360, But busy trying prusa slicer atm for ender3 so far its okish, only 2 prints in.

I still need to learn Fusion properly, at the moment Im printing models off thingiverse and similar but will need to design something custom at some point.

[Amberdrake]

ABS for something that requires heat/UV applications. PETG for more durable part.

PLA is stronger than both instantaneously, but over time it will deform. Almost like liquid flowing away from pressure over time.

 

ABS shrinks when printed making it hard to print and without enclosure success is very rare.

 

PETG prints like PLA from what i understand but doesn't deform over time it does sometimes take a bit more testing to get print quality good.

 

Mounts and such test print PLA. Use print ABS or PETG

 

ABS releases toxic gasses when printing do not print it excessively in same room your staying without proper venting to outside or proper filtering.

[Amberdrake]

Rocket Fusion is a beast. Its like solidworks or rhino or or or.

Practice makes perfect, I use discord and if you want to try things and have a chat re best ways we can try arrange it. I am no expert but I have learned some tricks that make it easier down the line. 

[Amberdrake]

So Here is what I have of printer

[ABrooks]

So Here is what I have of printer

 

Looks good! I like the idea of functional prints, even as simple as just the sanding sticks. 

 

I decided to try and get my hands on an Ender 5, now everyone is sold out and I'm guessing that once everyone has stock the prices are going to go way up. 

[aquaratza]

Hey all

 

I mostly print using PETG - it's an amazing material:

• It's very strong
• flexible
• has low thermal expansion coefficient (so doesn't warp easily like ABS)
• doesn't release as many fumes during printing
• extremely good print bed adhesion (too much in fact)
• and generally just works.
• I've discovered it's dishwasher safe...
• It seems to be very good for mechanical parts (rubbing against each other in use).

ABS is okay, but not recyclable, warps easily and releases a lot of fumes.

I've tried PLA a handful of times. It's biodegradeable, which is good and bad. PETG is more interesting.

 

Below is a big part printed for an underwater scooter. It was printed with transparent PETG. You can see a little bit of warping on the thin support structure underneath the main ring. This is okay, it just needs to last the print.

[Renier82]

I have assembled my prusa mk3 kit, still need to connect, calibrate etc.... but very hopeful that i will be able to figure out niggles easily.

[Amberdrake]

I have assembled my prusa mk3 kit, still need to connect, calibrate etc.... but very hopeful that i will be able to figure out niggles easily.

Original?

Im jealous! those are epic and should work flawlessly

[Rocket-Boy]

I designed and printed my first part last night, I have printed tons of stuff but never really been keen to learn another CAD/CAM system.

So I used Fusion 360 and designed an adapter from my vacuum cleaner to cyclone dust separator. First time round I was off a little due to using an inside dimension on the outside, 2nd time it worked pefectly.

 

Small victory but Im pretty chuffed with it.

Now to design adapters for the rest of my tools!

[Wasbeer]

Love the prusa. Let me know if you have trouble. Had some setup problems. But after that every print is 100%

 

I have assembled my prusa mk3 kit, still need to connect, calibrate etc.... but very hopeful that i will be able to figure out niggles easily.

[Wasbeer]

They do. 
 

Had to print 60 parts for a work project and was cheaper to buy the prusa and print it my self than to have it printed in SA.  Took about 3 weeks printing 24/7. Not one problem or miss print. 

Original?

Im jealous! those are epic and should work flawlessly