Which 3D printer is best for home use

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peterwaller
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Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by peterwaller »

I have been saving up my pocket money and am just about ready to buy myself a 3D printer but deciding which is proving quite hard.
There is no lack of data on the internet if anything there is too much.
I think I have got it down to the UP Plus and the Makerbot Replicator 3D but am still open to suggestions.
The UP plus uses ABS or PLA, has a layer thickness of 0.2mm, a build size of 14 x 14 x 13.5 cms and costs £1500
The Makerbot uses just PLA, has a layer thickness of 0.1mm, a build size of 28.5 x 15.3 x 15.5 cms and costs £1800
I have got some wheels made by Alex Marler on the UP Plus and they have come out very strong indeed.
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I have also got hold of some sample prints from the makerbot and they appear equally strong and slightly better finish but being samples they were probably selected because the suited the printer.
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I know there is no way I can justify the cost against getting the bits made by an agency but the look fun and are shiny.
Any suggestions gratfully received.
josh
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by josh »

Hi Peter,

We just bought a few of the UP mini machines to run at an exhibition. Awesome little machines, and I'm sure the full size UP is just as good.
We've also just invested in an Objet 30 Pro but that's a slightly different price range...
I'd recommend the UP machines. You can hack the code, so that they can do things like outline holes. Rather than building circles in 'sketches', outlining gives a smoother internal finish.

I can't offer much opinion on the Makerbot, but we were told it's a pain to clean files enough for the machine to like them.

There is also the Stratasys Mojo - slightly more expensive but more of an industrial desktop solution. We found test prints from them where quite good, but a bit brittle. I believe the starter pack with materials, trays and the cleaning module etc was £6600 +VAT
http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/idea-series/mojo

On another note, the new elasto-polymer from Shapeways looks to be interesting for body pieces. Has anybody used it yet?

J
RPD International
www.RPDintl.com
marto
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by marto »

I would strongly recommend the Up Mini. The normal Up is also good but as far as I can tell other than 0.15mm thickness vs 0.2mm and an extra 5mm on the build platform there is no real reason to get the Up plus. There is the UP 2 coming soon as well but it just has a few extra tweaks as far as I can tell.

All our gear is done on Up Mini. Would recommend acetone vapour bath to make parts stronger.

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Roboteernat
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by Roboteernat »

Reprap, open source from which the replicator, UP! and others were borne from. can get a printer for £400, take a google for the Prusa I3, or Prusa generation printers, i been using mine and results are remarkable, so much so that my printer is now used to RP stuff for my work place!

Take a look: http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_i3[url] F ... .uk/?p=279
Some projects done: Wirelessly controlled mechanical hand/arm
Heavyweight: Short Circuit
Antweight robot : Locking wheel nuts, dell-apidated bANTtry...
Featherweight : Wanna Choppa, CASPer
Check out http://www.Roboteernat.co.uk for more details
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peterwaller
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by peterwaller »

Finally bit the bullet yesterday and ordered an UP Plus 3D from Denford Ltd who are the main agents in the UK.
http://website.denford.ltd.uk/machines/141-3d-printers
I could have got it slightly cheaper on Ebay but Denford provide the manufacturers warrenty in the UK and also stock spares and consumables.
Apparently was despatched the same day so hoping it arrives today or I will probably have to wait until Monday. :(
I have already uploaded and installed the software and printed out the manual.
I must say the two chassis in the last two posts look good.
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peterwaller
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by peterwaller »

It arrived before lunch so just about 24 hours from order to delivery which is really good.
Had a little trouble getting the driver loaded partially due to the fact that the software that came with it was a later version than the one I had downloaded.
First wheel was a bit wonkey (technical term) but the second is great I am really impressed and I haven't started to try out the many changes you can make this was just default settings.
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by EpicentrE »

How strong/flexible is the material compared to Shapeways' WSF?
Scott Fyfe-Jamieson, Captain of Epic Robotics. Champion of AWS38/41/42.
http://www.epicrobotics.co.uk
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peterwaller
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by peterwaller »

It is difficult to say these wheels are much stronger than the ones I had made at Shapeways but that is more to do with the construction using spokes than the material. I would say it is probably less strong like for like due to bonding between layers being less consistant but I haven't tried the Acetone vapour bath yet which is supposed to increase both the strength and surface finish.
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by marto »

The acetone vapour makes a pretty big difference. The other thing which is really critical you think about is the orientation of the part when you print it.

Layers are strong in compression and also strong when you have tensile forces in the same plane as the layers. But if you have shear forces in the same plane as the layers or tensile forces perpendicular to that plane then they become much more likely to fail.

So make sure you think about how you print the parts. The other thing I might suggest is that with the UP Plus warping can become an issue as it has no enclosure. Some people are selling additional enclosures which help but an easier solution is just make sure you put it somewhere which is out the way of any drafts or breezes in your house. Even if you do this sometimes you will still get large parts warping. The best settings to minimise this is to print the part as fast as possible with least infill and lowest layer height. This again is somewhat of a trade off.

Printing on fast is almost 100% necessary as it gets the layers down faster so they cool more evenly and warp less. This causes some loss of quality, though on the UP mini I can barely see any diference at all.

Less infill is better as there is less plastic to shrink and cause it to curl and it prints the entire part faster but this obviously comes at the cost of strength. (At antweight scale I print all my parts on lowest infill)

For the layer height lower is better because the more you squash the plastic as you put it down the less you are stretching it out. So when you print at 0.35mm layer thickness this is the same height as the nozzle, so the plastic comes out pretty much round and then gets stretch to some extent as the nozzle drags it along. With 0.2mm it is forced onto the layer below and squashed into a slightly different shape so gets stretched less.

Again lower layers means less warping but this also means increased print time, so I have found a sweet spot for minimal warping is 0.2mm or 0.25mm.

Steve
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Re: Which 3D printer is best for home use

Post by Roboteernat »

2nd attempt, as my saved post didnt save :(

To make a good print its about 3 different things,

Layer height
Temperature
and Material.

Layer height allows for a smoother print and also additional layers to be made, which therefore makes a stronger print. Layer height also controls the amount of material which is adhered to the lower layer, giving more rigidity and stronger build.

Temperature of the material is also important as if the temperature is too low, the molten plastic will not stick and bond to the lower layer as well. The correct temp will give perfect bonding.
ABS is about 220-230 degrees C,
PLA is about 185 - 200 degrees C

With hobby 3D printing, 2 materials are common, ABS and PLA.
PLA, the cheaper material, is biodegradable (assuming correct decomposition conditions) but is brittle and wouldn't be suitable for battle bot. Shapeways use ABS.

ABS is stronger, and can flex a bit more. and generally is bit better!

ABS allows you to acetone the surface, ie place part into glass jar with 4ml of acetone and place glass jar sealed onto a heat bed. The acetone evaporates and etches away at the surface which blends the surface to a smooth finish :)

Prototype printed 1hr58min at 3 perimeters, 3 solid surface layers, 30%infill,



Good luck with the UP!
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Some projects done: Wirelessly controlled mechanical hand/arm
Heavyweight: Short Circuit
Antweight robot : Locking wheel nuts, dell-apidated bANTtry...
Featherweight : Wanna Choppa, CASPer
Check out http://www.Roboteernat.co.uk for more details
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