Show us your 3D printer/ CNC machine!!!

that looks great. Blender?

If your interested in Open Source Props I had started a group on FB a while ago: https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensourceprops/

So here's a new forum to help any of you get started into 3d printing. Even if it's not armor related.

http://www.3dideaforum.com/

It's new, so you'll have to give it a chance.

thanks for the link. There have been a bunch of 3D printing ones, and well obviously a heap started on the reprap forums, but its very dispersed and prop makers are probably a slightly different use case to most other engineering type applications though there is a lot of cross over.

AprilStorm said:

that looks great. Blender?

If your interested in Open Source Props I had started a group on FB a while ago: https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensourceprops/

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Yup, my totally legit copy of 3dx max died so I've started to properly learn Blender.

Last night I was bored and my 3D printer had nothing to do, so here's the result

The Starfleet Corps of Engineers would be proud

So, MakerBot has released 3 new printers recently. And one of them, they beat me to it, making a printer large enough to prototype helmets in 1 print. Introducing http://store.makerbot.com/replicator-z18. While the printer cost is almost 3 times that of the Replicator 2, it's much better than I could have done. Depending on your skills at prototyping a helmet, this can cut down the production time of your molds.

If you buy one, post anything you print on it here. We'd love to see it.

So do you know if that new replicator can print in ABS? I would have thought that an extrusion based printer would have had issues printing something as large as a helmet in ABS because of the shrinkage.

I guess PLA would be fine, but I really prefer the strength and versitility of finishing that ABS gives you

Serin said:

Yup, my totally legit copy of 3dx max died so I've started to properly learn Blender.

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Blender is on my computer, but I have yet to anything other than pull models appart in it. If you ever get good at it, I'd trade milled parts for some hands on lessons to get me started. Sketchup only gets you so far.

It says "Optimized for PLA" on their website. Considering ABS requires more tech to print than PLA, that seems to imply it's a PLA only printer.

I honestly can't figure out why you would pay 6500+tax+shipping for a corn plastic helmet. But if someone has that kind of money to throw around, more power to them! I am a bit more interested in their replacement for the rep2. It's still a PLA printer, but the swappable extruder head, camera, and phone status updates are pretty neat.

I agree on the ABS part, but from what I've seen, Makerbot (since being bought out) has put an emphasis on PLA printing because it's much better for publicity. PLA printers can print in more open-air environments and are a bit harder to mess up prints with because it has better thermal stability which makes it harder for regular users to mess up their prints and call complaining about the machine. The ABS stuff would probably fail a lot in a 12x12x18 print area.

Someone at my shop has a huge ABS printer that is pretty sweet. It's also self leveling!

Tis indeed a curious choice of price range.
Looks shiny, but I'm still rather unhappy about Stratsys's actions since acquiring Makerbot...

Long live open source material creation!

With all of the modeling experience on this site, what would be wrong with a PLA base? Make it thin then rondo/fiberglass the inside and use a thin coat of bondo on the outside to completely seal it. Use the PLA as a simple internal skeleton and add the reinforcement/heat resistance of the fiberglass and bondo (or whatever your particular poison is for hardening).

The problem is that ideally a good ABS helmet wouldn't even NEED fiberglass or bondo in it. Then you're getting into similar results as a rotocast or something (thin walls low weight and good strength).

The other problem is that PLA can be very brittle, and you could shatter it before you get a chance to fiberglass it!

But really, there's nothing horrible about it. Justinian made a mold out of a PLA helmet. The real problem is the heinously exploitative price point...

You can make an equally sized PLA printer for like 700 bucks!

I'm in the market to buy a 3d printer, what do you guys think of the RepRap Huxley Full Kit? its in my price range but I'm not too sure. If anybody could help me make a decision it would be greatly appreciated!

Drama said:

I'm in the market to buy a 3d printer, what do you guys think of the RepRap Huxley Full Kit? its in my price range but I'm not too sure. If anybody could help me make a decision it would be greatly appreciated!

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If you can stretch to around 1k I'd strongly suggest something that doesn't use the conventional rail system on which most printers operate, simply to avoid the stability issues many have thanks to their construction.
My personal recommendation is the Ord Bot Hadron but I also quite like the Rostock max v2 because of it's accuracy, speed and incredible build volume.
Not only do delta printers have excellent layer height capability but they also have the same accuracy in all other axis' thanks to the non-Cartesian design.

So I'm looking at procuring a 3D Printer in the coming months due to my graduate stipend being significantly higher than what I am use to. As a novice to 3D printing (but not 3D modeling), what would people's suggestion be for a first 3D printer? I have heard good things about the Printrbots and XYZ's commercial printers. Realistically, I think I could settle for a 20cm x 20cm x 20cm starting build volume with a $500-$1000 starting budget.

Warm Regards,
Joe

Hey Guys i just picked up a Robo 3d R1 it came with the ability to print in ABS and PLA and it also has a heated bed. I have been printing for about 2 weeks and like it. It has a auto bed leveler .

Still waiting on the next gen of printers to pop out. I already have the money set aside, I'm willing to spend more than $3000, but preferably not much higher than that.
Maybe I should bypass the 3D Printer and get a personal CNC Mill first, idk...

I was about to drop the cash on a Glacier Summit (specs below) but after reading up on the return policy and support for the $7000 printer that was discounted down to $4000, I simply just had to pass. There was no refunds after like 30 days, and to return it you had to spend $1000.
http://indimension3.com/public/uplo...1.FgpG.Glacier-Summit-Technical-Specifica.pdf

What could have potentially been a great printer was ruined by the policies of the company itself.

The MakerBot Z18 doesn't look too bad, but I would have preferred the print volume offered by the Glacier Summit (16”L x 16”W x 18”H). Regardless, the Z18 is out of my price range. I might jump on it if they reduce the price down to about $4K, but until then, I'll pass.

I learned on a Dimension 1200ST with a build volume of 10x10x12-in, and maybe I'm a bit spoiled from it which is why I think that the Makerbot 2X's build volume of 9.7 x 6.0 x 6.1 in is just pathetic. I'd take a personal printer with the volume the Dimension had, but I still didn't consider it to be large enough.

I want to make helmets without slicing. To me, your results would be more accurate if you didn't slice the model, but then again....
I guess that if you aren't planning on using HIPS filament, then you wont be printing out support material, so you would have to worry about sagging and warping as you print the model. Maybe it's better to go with a sliced method, idk. I'm just worried about getting the slices to meet up flush with one another. We all know that our 3D-prints have a texture to them, they are not perfectly smooth, which I would imagine would give you nasty seams when trying to glue slices together.

Would you all care to share your thoughts or opinions?


On another topic, and it totally doesn't have anything to do with 3D-Printing, but I have a feeling that if you haven't already seen it, you might love this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/electroninks/circuit-scribe-draw-circuits-instantly
I might have my degree in mechanical, but I minored in electrical engineering, and that looks awesome!
If I had the money, I would totally buy some kits to take to elementary schools (maybe middle schools instead) and give the kids demos of that product which I think is a great way to make learning circuits to be a really fun and interactive experience.
If I had even more money, rather than showing it off, I would donate some kits to all the primary schools in my area. Gotta support STEM education!!!

WandererTJ said:

The MakerBot Z18 doesn't look too bad

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I'd stay away from the current generation of Makerbot products. They're kind of ****ty, and overpriced. Local hackerspace has replaced the extruder on our 5th gen 3 times. I've disassembled it and cleared jams on it at least 8 times. It's a huge disappointment, for a machine that's 3 grand.

WandererTJ said:

I learned on a Dimension 1200ST with a build volume of 10x10x12-in, and maybe I'm a bit spoiled from it which is why I think that the Makerbot 2X's build volume of 9.7 x 6.0 x 6.1 in is just pathetic. I'd take a personal printer with the volume the Dimension had, but I still didn't consider it to be large enough.

I want to make helmets without slicing. To me, your results would be more accurate if you didn't slice the model, but then again....
I guess that if you aren't planning on using HIPS filament, then you wont be printing out support material, so you would have to worry about sagging and warping as you print the model. Maybe it's better to go with a sliced method, idk. I'm just worried about getting the slices to meet up flush with one another.

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As long as your printer can recover from failures midway through the print, that's fine. if not, several baskets for all those eggs is a good idea. Also consider the 'cycle time' for each section. Around 10 hours? Print a piece before work and at bedtime, done in a week. You already know that 3d printing is quite slow, I think.

As for CNC, the price can be very low. These guys recently lowered prices HobbyCNC EZ Driver Board Combo | HobbyCNC . I've built several machines with their hardware.

On the note of leaving printers going overnight or whilst out....

Beware your 3D printer (They can cause fires) (Page 1) — Solidoodle Discussion — SoliForum - 3D Printing Community

Not worth the risk, IMO. And given that a printer is basically a flammable bomb with extra plastic fuel... Yeah, I certainly don't leave mine going if I'm not within 5 minutes of the fire extinguisher I keep in my office. That goes double if one has made any modifications.