How to start

hamad · 2017-04-28T14:07:38.000Z

Hi, I’m hamad

I want to start my 3d business next month and I have only one choice. Do I start with Ultimaker 3 extension or form 2. When my business grow up I will buy more 3d printers, but now what is the best choice start with.

Georgei · 2017-04-30T22:23:00.000Z

Start with the one that you are more familiar.

willdeng · 2017-04-30T22:35:49.000Z

Hi Hamad,

Let me ask you a few questions in return. Do you have a market with consistent, paying customers for 3d printed goods? If so, what kind of 3d printed goods are customers more interested in? Given your answer, which printer would fit best for your customer’s needs? The Ultimaker or Form 2? Maybe those questions would be a good starting point in determining the viability of your 3d printing business.

Will

JacobBlumberg · 2017-04-30T23:45:01.000Z

My suggestion is to start with the Power Spec 3D Pro Printer it is a great machine to start out with and is easy to use

xpandedreality · 2017-04-30T23:56:48.000Z

Hi Hamad,

I would choose an Ultimaker 3 Standard. The Ultimaker 3 Extended is good for specific cases, when you need taller prints. Bigger prints also gives longer prints, and therefore a bigger window for failure. At the beginning you will probably print a lot of failed objects, at least if you or the customer draw the objects yourselves. It is a learning curve to learn what will and what will not work on the printer, and for learning quantity is much more important than size. And in my experience print jobs most often fits within the build volume of the Ultimaker 3 Standard.

Depending on choise of material you can produce everything from cheap prototypes in all sorts of colors, and prototypes and end user products in materials like hemp, carbon, copper, felt, glow in the dark, color changing, and a lot more. With the Ultimaker 3 you can also print Nylon 6 almost as easily as PLA, but then you will have very durable end product instead of a prototype. With the water soluble support you can put the support very close to the actual object and therefore get a very good surface even on for example undersides of supported areas. Most materials for FDM printing are friendly to the environment, either by being recyclable or by using only safe and natural ingredients, or both.

With the Form 2 or any other resin based 3D-printer you can produce finer detail and you don´t get the banding effect from building the print with extruded lines of material building up the printed object. But the cleaning process for each print can be a lot of work, and the prints often are very brittle and you can forget to produce anything durable. You also do not have anything near as much choices in material and the materials you can choose from are often not even safe to work with and bad for the environment.

Good luck, and feel free to message mee if I you have more questions!

Best
/Lamin

hamad · 2017-05-01T00:30:18.000Z

thanks for your advice , that’s help me a lot. I will take your advice to by ultimaker standard.

I have a few questions more,

1. what is the most problems can I face?

2. Whats is the spare parts should I buy?

3. Can I use the printer daily maybe 24h?

4. I sow different some materials have same properties of materials that printer sopprt. can use them? for example gold but same properties of PLA (this is an example to understand my point).

5. can I use 1.75 filament or must i use 2.85.

I appreciate your help.

Best Regard,

Hamad

hamad · 2017-05-01T00:37:40.000Z

Thank for your advice Will.

I will be the first sell 3d printed good in Saudi Arabia. that’s why I need to make sure I am in right way to start.

When I success I will buy more printers to I can produce different printed.

HB3D · 2017-05-01T09:13:29.000Z

Hi Hamad,

I think a Form 2 is more suitable if you want to sell, … The resin is very requested Form 2 has a 99.95% success rate virtually no failures. The disadvantage is the post-processing: isopropyl alcohol cleaning, UV flashing for finishing, and consumer prices (printing tank, resins) resin also requires

Practice but the results is very Pro.

Good luck,

Regards,

HB3D

HB3D · 2017-05-01T09:14:08.000Z

.

ProtoPlastik · 2017-05-04T04:09:48.000Z

Start with one printer then use that to MAKE more printers.

If you are new to 3D printing and you are new to 3D design, you are going to have a very steep learning curve. The biggest gap with 3D printing is the skillset needed to manipulate the data you will be feeding the thing. You can’t just print stuff off of Thingiverse and expect to make money. The biggest service you could provide your customers would be walking them through the process that takes their ideas, interprets them into input for your 3D printer and produces stunning, impactful and (mostly) accurate parts. Ultimaker is good, but you could be just as successful for 1/3 the price with a genuine Prusa i3.

The bottom line, however, is that you need to be VERY familiar with working in 3D and understanding the language a 3D printer uses. Especially if you are trying to do this as a service. Also consider getting a 3D scanner, though that adds another level of complexity when working with 3D files.