And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
There's significantly cheaper 3D printers out there, but maybe going cheap isn't the thing. Anyone use these things?
I just got my first 3D printer this past Christmas. I've never seen this Qidi, but I saw printers similar to it. I ended up with a Creality Ender 3v2. About 1/4 of the price of that.
It has a bigger print envelope than mine, 300x250x300 vs 220x220x250 and it advertises a wider range of filaments can be used. The thing to be aware of there is whether the printer needs to be vented to the outside. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983 (American Chemical Society paper on safety of printers) and https://www.fastcompany.com/3056315/use-a-3-d-printer-you-should-read-this-study Fast Company magazine on the general topic.
The PLA family seems to be about the safest to be around when you're printing. My shop is connected to the rest of the house so my wife and my cats will be breathing anything the printer produces. ABS is a stronger plastic (and has some practical problems PLA doesn't) but emits styrene, which is hazardous in some dosages. Try to look up details on the plastics you'd want to work with.
I think all printers have some stuff you do to get started. Don't forget you'll probably want a few different spools of filament, maybe different filaments in different colors. I think the Ender 3v2 was pretty easy to get running and I'm happy with it.
My son built his own printer from a kit of what looked like hundreds of small parts but it works. One thing that you might want to be aware of is that different color filaments seem to behave differently. The "glow in the dark" filament seems to stick to the bed really badly.
I have a PURSA printers - PLA printer (filament) and a resin (goo) printers. Prusa is not the cheapest (from the Czech Republic), but they work out of the box (also offer a kit form). Most if not all of the parts are open source. The Resin offers INSANE detail, but has a very small build area. It all depends on what you are building for, how big do you need it, and how fast?
My neighbor kid has two of them. He makes all kind of cool stuff like chess pieces and fishing lures. He even made me a shim for the fore end of an antique, takedown rifle. I just made a tracing and told him how thick to make it and he came over a little while later with the finished piece....
I just got my first 3D printer this past Christmas. I've never seen this Qidi, but I saw printers similar to it. I ended up with a Creality Ender 3v2. About 1/4 of the price of that.
ReplyDeleteIt has a bigger print envelope than mine, 300x250x300 vs 220x220x250 and it advertises a wider range of filaments can be used. The thing to be aware of there is whether the printer needs to be vented to the outside.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983
(American Chemical Society paper on safety of printers) and
https://www.fastcompany.com/3056315/use-a-3-d-printer-you-should-read-this-study
Fast Company magazine on the general topic.
The PLA family seems to be about the safest to be around when you're printing. My shop is connected to the rest of the house so my wife and my cats will be breathing anything the printer produces. ABS is a stronger plastic (and has some practical problems PLA doesn't) but emits styrene, which is hazardous in some dosages. Try to look up details on the plastics you'd want to work with.
I think all printers have some stuff you do to get started. Don't forget you'll probably want a few different spools of filament, maybe different filaments in different colors. I think the Ender 3v2 was pretty easy to get running and I'm happy with it.
My son built his own printer from a kit of what looked like hundreds of small parts but it works. One thing that you might want to be aware of is that different color filaments seem to behave differently. The "glow in the dark" filament seems to stick to the bed really badly.
ReplyDeleteI have a PURSA printers - PLA printer (filament) and a resin (goo) printers. Prusa is not the cheapest (from the Czech Republic), but they work out of the box (also offer a kit form). Most if not all of the parts are open source. The Resin offers INSANE detail, but has a very small build area. It all depends on what you are building for, how big do you need it, and how fast?
ReplyDeleteShould have read "PRUSA"
ReplyDeleteNah. I use a hand-crank model to make my ice cream.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor kid has two of them. He makes all kind of cool stuff like chess pieces and fishing lures. He even made me a shim for the fore end of an antique, takedown rifle. I just made a tracing and told him how thick to make it and he came over a little while later with the finished piece....
ReplyDeletePrototype engineering I believe is the big thing for this industry for what I have read about it. Cool toys.
ReplyDelete