How much should a good 3D printer cost?

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jonnybischof
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by jonnybischof »

Dim3nsioneer wrote: August 27th, 2017, 6:21 am @jonnybischof You might want to check the UM forum in near future. SandervG, the community manager, already mentioned there might be something happening there.

...
I remember him saying that a long time ago, just shortly after the forum launched :-P
Truth is, I don't care anymore. I have found other things to do with my time, and I also found a better 3D printing forum here.

I'm not saying Ultimakers are bad printers, and of course I'm aware that in the forums you mostly hear the bad stuff that 1% of customers experience out of the 99% that are totally happy. But it's the kind of stuff they report that makes you facepalm and think "how can they let something like that go through?!?". I'm not gonna look up that review I read somewhere about the UM3, but that guy got seriously screwed. Were he a business customer - he would have simply returned it straight away and never looked back at Ultimaker again.
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LePaul
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by LePaul »

There's a lot of cringe-worthy things going on over there, for sure.

I also recall the interview way back when about more printers coming out. I'm curious what that time table is.

The forum is largely unusable. It's woefully slow and you just can't browse it without becoming frustrated by the long pauses and spinning/loading icon. I'm an avid reader and like to surf around a support site/forum to see what issues people run into, mods and tweaks. I just give up after a few minutes of waiting...waiting...waiting. And let's point out...I'm there to READ....what if I was a potential customer doing some research prior to buying a printer?

I love their products. I'm not sure dual extrusion is as big as the world likes to make it out to be. I think the trend is to print large, accurately and have flexibility in filament types and ease of use. But that's just my observation :)
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jonnybischof
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by jonnybischof »

About dual extrusion:
I think it's a very interesting thing for people making mechanical pieces. You can either mix two different kind of plastics (like flexible and rigid) or have soluble supports which is pretty much a must have for any professionals / engineers. Just yesterday I spent around 20 minutes cleaning up a model that had a lot of supports and overhangs. I could have saved that time by just dropping the model into water for some time and doing something useful in the meantime.
I've started getting the 3D prints for my company from Shapeways instead of printing them myself. My UMOs quality just doesn't live up to the expectations, and I can't invest that much time into post-processing while at work. Once you get those beautiful, accurate and super strong parts from Shapeways (Strong & Flexible plastic, which is an SLS-printed Polyamide), you start to really see where your printer fails to deliver. Ofc, Shapeways is EXPENSIVE. But in my case it's about even because I can save a lot of time, and pay some more for the part instead.

So, to get back on my topic here, this is the direction in which I want my printer projects to go. Maker filaments are getting better and better, and with a really good FDM printer I hope to get close enough to what these professional SLS printers can deliver - in overall performance.
That means minimal maintenance (top quality components throughout, easy accessibility for service and cleaning), ability to print whatever filament there is, multi extrusion...

The only points where I can beat Shapeways is the fact that with the printer on my desk, I can produce a result within hours. When you order from Shapeways it takes around 2 weeks for the part to arrive. And I can print larger parts with less of an exploding price than Shapeways.
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LePaul
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by LePaul »

I've bought a few parts from Shapeways, namely items I did not have the STL/files for but the designer did make the part available via them.

I agree with many of the points @jonnybischof makes. Support material drives me crazy. Simplify3D sells well since their supports work so good. If Cura has similar power and flexibility, it's a shame Ultimaker doesn't document, create short videos and introduce people to these features. (I commend Cura for it's swift development, however I can't begin to recall what's different from one version to the other. And the Cura documentation on Ultimaker.com is quickly dated.)

I was impressed with the dual extrusion on the UM3. I wish I had known about the support interface layer feature, which uses the PLA support, then the PVA only when next to the part. A big savings in material and lower print times. (Again, why this isn't a prominent video tutorial...?) I did like just dunking the part into a tank of water and being largely done with it!
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jonnybischof
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by jonnybischof »

Maybe they prefer to sell you more PVA instead of more PLA? ;)

/edit:
Btw, I found lots of "MUST PRINT" thingies today which will be very difficult to print without good supports. One more reason to get into that asap. But my CNC is still not up and running, so much stuff to do first -.-
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nilrog
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by nilrog »

I think the support interface feature came very recently. Don't think it was available when you had the UM3 @LePaul.

But I have been wrong before 😂
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LePaul
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by LePaul »

I suspect you are correct.
dolly
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Re: How much should a good 3D printer cost?

Post by dolly »

Hi guys! As for me, the best 3d printer for beginners is Wanhao Duplicator i3 mini.

https://www.wanhaousa.net/product-page/ ... or-i3-mini

The printer costs less than $200. But despite the simplicity of the design and low price, it makes high-quality models, especially if they are from PLA.

Here are some of the main pros and cons: Nothing needs to be further customized and invented. To start the printer and print the model you don't need any special knowledge. But this printer doesn't have any heated platform, the case is open and the print area is small but it still large enough for most projects.

If you want to know more about how to choose the 3d printer and make the right decision, I will recommend reading this article. It was very helpful to me.

Good luck with your choice! :)
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