DIY 3D printer kits

[Skygeezer65]

I am interested in building my own printer to start with this hobby and learn the ropes. Since I am new to all this I don’t understand many of the features offered as upgrades. I looked at the 3D Printersonlinestore and found a kit that seems to fit what I want to do. Which is print small plastic parts for RC aircraft models. I also want to do some aluminum investment casting with 3D printed models. Mostly with PLA but I would like to use other materials as well. The kit I found is the Tevo3D Tarantula - single dual extruder kit. I included the link to the web page for this printer in my first try at this email but I guess the presence of a link in my post flagged it as spam and it was rejected.

So there are upgraded extruders offered that seem to produce higher resolutions. What is a dual extruder? There are two offered as upgrades. Does anyone have any experience with this model? Would it work for me or is there a better kit out there somewhere?

Thanks

Don

[kissfan4]

I can not speak for this particular printer, but i ordered my Prusa i3 from 3DPrintersonlinestore about 1 1/2 years ago, and it has been a learning experience ever since. If you are new to 3d printing, and want to learn the ins and outs, then a diy kit is the way to go, if not, then i would look elsewhere. When i got mine, i was thrilled, bt quickly realized i knew nothing about what i was doing. Do some research online about the model you are interested in, i was lucky to find a message board with others that had the same model as me where i could ask model/manufacturer specific questions as you are not going to get a whole lot of support from china, once you purchase. Dont get me wrong a diy printer is a great way to learn, but be prepared for many hours sitting there trying to diagnose problems. Here is a list of problems i experienced with my Chinese diy printer:

-Missing Hotend on initial delivery (China was arguing with me that it was in the box, even though it wasnt. I had to threaten to return the printer and dispute the charge for them to mail me a new one, took a week and a half)

-Come up with my own belt tensioners since there were non included.

-The print bed that came with the printer was not level, making calibration impossible (had to buy a piece of glass to use)

-The way the wires were run to the extruder motor caused the connection at the motor to go bad,(opened the motor and soldered the wires directly)

These are just a few issues i have experienced with my Chinese diy printer, and yes i have learned a lot about the printer, and 3d printing from it, and have gotten to the point of making some really good prints (check out some photos in my profile). But like i said earlier, if your ready for lots of problem solving, i would steer clear of a diy. Hope this helps a little.

[Skygeezer65]

Thanks for the comments. I would expect a healthy learning curve and lots of head scratching. But I find you learn a lot from the forums and your own research. Good for people who like to know how things work. The Tarantula kit is new with lots of good features. They recommend the auto height and levelling option for $40. They also recommend an upgraded print head but that is $130 so a bit steep. Are these upgrades worth it?

Don

[kissfan4]

i do not have auto leveling on mine, would it be nice? yes! but being able to level the bed manually is another good skill to have. You can always add the auto leveling feature at another time, buy your sensor, print your brackets, and upgrade the firmware is what is involved in adding it. Regarding the dual extruder, i forgot to mention this in my original reply, it would be nice to have, but not necessary, with just starting out i would stick with one. The dual extruder allows you to run two different colors of filament at one time. When you design a part, say a “traffic cone” that is orange with white stripes, you draw in your modeling software the orange base, then the white stripe, and so on and so forth. The 3d model is separate pieces for each color, therefore when you print it, your extruder that is feeding the orange prints the orange base, then when the gcode tell it that it is time for the white the printer switches, and starts printing from the extruder that is feeding the white filament. You theoretically have two “printers” printing one “dual color” object.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca-XfL2IUWs

This is not my video, but this is what explained it for me when i was starting out, and wanted to know what a “dual extruder” was. Also with this you have more involved with leveling, and setting within your slicing software. Just depends on what type of person you are, and whether you ease your way into things, or jump in with both feet.

[Skygeezer65]

Oh man. I give up trying to talk to the 3D printers online people. I have been emailing them with questions and I get conflicting answers each time. They keep changing their model recommendstions and it makes no sense when i look at their web site. Don’t think I want to deal with them if I have a problem with a kit.

[kissfan4]

It is for sure a crap shoot, i was lucky, others were not. I really dont think they are that familiar with 3d printing itself, they are more worried about making the sale.

[cobnut]

Hi @Skygeezer65 to be fair to the 3D printers online people (I don’t know them!) giving conflicting answers is probably not really their fault, if you see what I mean. Buying a 3D printer kit, is much like buying a car; they’ll all take you A to B and the differences between them can be very small, often simply coming down to personal preferences that may have little to do with their actual performance. So it’s not uncommon to find that there’s no outright clear and simple single recommendation for a 3D printer kit; person A will recommend this one, or perhaps this one, while person B will recommend two others. As @kissfan4 eloquently put it, to a large degree it’s a crap shoot and at some point you’re going to have to make the final decision based on your own choices.

That said, some of the normal rules apply. If something is half the price of everything else with similar specs, there’s a reason. 3D printers are very much the sum of their parts so even very small compromises in individual components can add up to a substantial difference in overall quality/performance (again, think of cars). It’s also worth bearing in mind that a large part of the learning curve you’re going to go through is about 3D printing itself, not about the specific printer (although they all have their own quirks). So any printer, even the very cheapest and nastiest, is going to be able to teach you something and will almost certainly be able to give you a good foundation for knowing what you want to buy as your next printer. For this reason I’d say it’s worth thinking about not spending perhaps as much as you might be planning to as long as the printer is open source and can be upgraded.

I do have to make one point, kissfan4 said he bought a Prusa i3 and then referred to it as a Chinese printer; original Prusas are not Chinese (they’re made in the Czech Republic) and are built by one of the most respected 3D printing people around. There are an awful lot of Prusa clones (many from China) but in respect for Josef Prusa, it’s worth pointing out that the originals are very fine machines and should not be confused with their clones.

[kissfan4]

sorry i should have clarified, when i said i bought a Prusa i3, i should have mentioned it was a “Migbot Prusa i3” from 3dprinteronlinestore. I went the cheap route, it was far from easy getting it to print consistently, but i have learned a ton, and do pretty well with it now.

[Skygeezer65]

My concerns with the printersonline people is trying to follow a logical thread with them. They recommended a printer, looked ok. They recommended some options. I asked them about these options. The responded that those options weren’t available for that printer ( the web site says they are ). I responded that they were available and got a reply referencing a totally different printer. And so on. My concern is that if I run into a parts shortfall like Kissfan4 did, or have technical problems with the printer, they will not be easy to deal with. If I go with them I may just trust their web site and order accordingly. Just gotta hope for the best I guess.

[kissfan4]

One good thing is if you get a model of printer that is pretty common, like a prusa clone, most parts are interchangeable and can be ordered from other sites. So if they did short you parts, other than main frame components, you are able to get from other sources.

[cobnut]

Well, it sounds like you should simply buy from somewhere else It’s rare that you can fault Amazon in terms of customer support; although they’re technically only “middle men” for products, I’ve always found them to be excellent when handling complaints/issues with the products they sell. In the UK there are several printers around that price point, including a number of Prusa clones.

[doughadfield]

Hi Don, I’ve just gone through this learning process myself, and can offer some of my experiences. Firstly, it’s very useful to have two printers, so one “expensive” main printer, and one cheapo one to experiment and learn with (and to print parts for the other one if it’s down). I would suggest you start by buying the best you can afford, as this will save a LOT of frustration, time and hassle. I did some research and decided on the Original Prusa i3 Mk2 (kit). This turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made in 3D Printing. The printer was very straightforward to build, with excellent instructions and very high quality parts. The resulting print quality is absolutely superb right out of the box (they provide pre-configured slicer etc, so you just click and go!).

It’s by far the best printer for the money, surpassing printers twice and three TIMES it’s cost.

Once you have one of these up and running, you really won’t want to mess with it, so for learning and tinkering, buy a cheap ebay job as a second printer. I got a second hand Malyan M150 off ebay and have spent the last few weeks re-building it (new electronics, new firmware, some new printed parts) and it’s now printing quite well, but to have the Prusa as my main printer is worth it’s weight in gold!

Doug

[Skygeezer65]

Hi. I have looked at the original Prusa kits as well and am leaning towards that option. There is a company locally that sells their own printer design and I want to get some info on that. It is also a Prusa clone but looks to have good local support.