3D printer supplies

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peterwaller
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3D printer supplies

Post by peterwaller »

My local (about 500 metres from my house) Cartridge World has just opened up a 3D printer world.
As well as selling the Hephaestos Prusa i3 printer (kit for £399) (built £499) and the Whitbox for £1359 they do an amazing range of filaments.
http://3dprintworld-aylesbury.co.uk/filastore
As well as selling full 1 kg reels from £18.75 ( I have beeen paying £34 for 700 gms) they will sell 10 metres from £2.64 if you just want to test it out.
I have just spent the best part of an hour in there talking 3D printing and they certainly know there stuff plus there are examples of most of the materials to touch and feel.
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Rhys
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by Rhys »

Wow, the i3 specs look amazing for the price. Has anyone on here seen one running? I'm looking at getting a 3d printer in the new year, so far it's been between the Up Mini and the Da Vinci. Looks like I have something else to consider now.
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peterwaller
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by peterwaller »

Alex of team shakey has one and getting some good results see: http://robotwars101.org/forum/viewtopic ... 4&start=75
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Shakey
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by Shakey »

The guys I got mine from (Nice support I had direct contact with them before buying):
http://www.3distributed.com/
http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_i3_Hephestos

The i3 is a great printer with a huge build volume to boot. The one I got off the shelf (The hephestos, same as in peters link) was a nice design that was quite easy to get running, it only prints PLA when you initially get it due to a lack of heated bed but I just spent an extra £12 to add one to my printer so I can print ABS aswell. One of the biggest advantages I feel is I can control the temperatures I print at whereas the up mini cannot, that and it'll happily use cheap filament (Unlike the davinci which needs to be modded with an arduino to use non-proprietary filament).

It's been fairly trouble free though you need some 3M blue painters tape or something else to print onto the glass with as it can't stick prints to it when it is cold. Last note: If you get the hephestos just don't attach the bit of plastic that's meant to guard the nozzle from finger, mine warped and started fouling prints, took it off and everything is happy.

Other ones to consider are the huxley (A smaller cheaper reprap), and the Mendelmax90 which is an i3 on a more ridgid frame meaning it can print faster if needed.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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Rhys
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by Rhys »

Hey Shakey,

Got a few questions about the i3, if you wouldn't mind answering...

I was looking at getting the kit direct from the manufacturer rather than the pre-built one. How tricky is this? There's no precision soldering or programming required is there? How long did it take you to put your together? I've seen accounts ranging from an evening to a week.

Aside from ABS and PLA I've heard it can print nylon? (assuming it will need some kind of modification to do this). Is that something you've tried?

And as I do all my designing in sketchup, will I need to get some new software, or can you export sketchup files to a compatible format?

Cheers.
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Shakey
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by Shakey »

Mine came as a kit, I did some soldering I think but it was minimal (about 10 joins lengthening some joins). No programming needed though I did on mine as I gave it a heated bed. Took me a weekend to build.

You cannot print nylon, the hot end is not hot enough. You would need to switch the hotend for a higher temp one. Also ABS on this printer would suffer from bad warping and almost requires a heated bed by necessity (I added one for about £25 spend).

I design in sketchup to, vital plugins: Solid inspector (Version 1, it's more helpful than 2), Sketchup STL (The stl exporter). I also have involute gear, honeycomb and a couple of others I forgot.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
EpicentrE
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by EpicentrE »

I've been looking at 3d printers too, and had originally tried to steer away from Reprap machines simply because they seemed to be more designed for people who like to tinker with their tools, what with being open source. I'm the sort of person that likes my tools to just work and do as I ask them without any fuss. That said, I know 3D printing in general is still something that takes some trial and error to get right.

With that in mind, I had liked the look of the Printrbot Simple Metal (and the heated bed upgrade kit), with it's self-levelling Z-axis, included software and professional support. That would cost me £625 though, which is £125 more than the Prusa & heated bed kit.

Would your experiences corroborate the concerns I expressed in the first paragraph? Or was there minimum "tinkering" required?
Scott Fyfe-Jamieson, Captain of Epic Robotics. Champion of AWS38/41/42.
http://www.epicrobotics.co.uk
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Shakey
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by Shakey »

You're not going to get a non professional printer that doesn't need tinkering. :P And even those need a lot of support.

There hasn't needed to be much tinkering to be honest. Also the printer bot simple metals struggle getting the beds up to temperature and suffer bed warping. Also the software used on a simple metal isn't made specifically for it, I could run my prusa on cura or a simple metal on slic3r + prointerface or simplify3D.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
EpicentrE
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by EpicentrE »

Yeah I'd read about the Printrbot's issues with it's heated bed, but also read there were some pretty simple fixes to it. That said, if the Prusa's printed bed works without issue that's just an extra thing I don't have to worry about. May I ask what components you used to make the heated bed? The one offered with it on http://www.3dprintworld-aylesbury.co.uk ... s_prusa_i3 is £95 which is a lot more than the £25 you paid! At £200 more expensive I'm not sure the I can realistically consider the Printrbot any more.

Also sorry for hijacking your questions Rhys!
Scott Fyfe-Jamieson, Captain of Epic Robotics. Champion of AWS38/41/42.
http://www.epicrobotics.co.uk
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Re: 3D printer supplies

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Scott...sorry for the amateur approach, but isn't "a 3D printer that just does what it's told and doesn't need any tinkering with" called Shapeways?
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