As a creator and programmer sometimes I face the need to build enclosures, parts, and others. When 3D printers get released I pass them and wait for them get better in print and quality. I think now is the time to get one as I already wanted.
My goals are:
Print Quality
Personal use
Print as a service for others (Prototypes)
Good investment
Durability and performance
Budget can be from 400€ to 1000€, or more if it compensates the difference! As I believe the more expensive don’t mean they are better, simple and cheap printer with right upgrades can worth way more than a expensive one with poor parts.
After some research I come with the following printers:
Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus
Original Prusa i3 MK2
FlashForge Creator Pro 2016
If I go option 1) Wanhao duplicator i3 Plus I would change bearings from bed, and extruder to a flexionextruder.
About option 2) looks like a good option, but for the price is single extruder, here I want someone with experience to tell me if it compensates, if flexionextruder would give a good update in this case or not. Or what else can I do to improve, or if is already very good out of the box.
Option 3) FlashForge Creator Pro, it catch my attention for good price and dual extruder, reviews seens good but lack a in space, still if it perform well without the need of major upgrade it will be a good choose for me.
What are your thoughts? Please feel free to advice other options, upgrades or whatever you think is best.
Hey @sn4k3, our 3D Printer Guide is a great resource for people looking to buy a 3D printer. You can check out which one is right for you based on your criteria and our community reviews right here!
Yes, it is much higher in price than the other printers. It does however give you a 2-3" (50-75mm) additional volume in each axis. The older Taz 5 is lower in price now (about $1,800) compared to the Taz 6’s ($2,500).
The Prusa has an upgrade kit to auto calibrate all 3 axis AND a kit for multiple extruders!
i started with a “closed” Afinia 3D printer thinking that I wanted a plug and play experience… once I lost the fear, I started hacking the printer to do other materials, etc.
then I bought a e3d BigBox dual kit.
great machine but still been developed. 100%hands on, tweak till you die kind of deal.
if I could start all over and had to choose just one printer: Prusa I3 with an e3d v6 extruder and a PEI bed mated to Simplify 3D software is the best personal 3D printer you can buy.
I concur. I switch filaments all the time with 1 extruder and it takes less than 2 minutes to do. I haven’t found a need for 2 extruders other than dissolvable supports. Then again, If you have your support settings correct, you shouldn’t need dissolvable supports in most, practical, cases.
If you are producing parts for customers, dual extrusion is a lifesaver. I have probably printed less than 10 two color prints and have only had a couple of dual extrusion orders, but having an extra extruder to switch over to when the feed or nozzle is having an issue is amazing. Having a backup extruder is the real benefit of dual extrusion.
I just bought the Prusa and the 4 color mod, this will make 5 printers now. I have to say I like dual extruder because I can do PLA on the left and ABS on the right with little headache.
3-D printing has progressed over the last decade to include multi-material fabrication, enabling production of powerful, functional objects. While many advances have been made, it still has been difficult for non-programmers to create objects made of many materials (or mixtures of materials) without a more user-friendly interface.
But this week, a team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) will present “Foundry,” a system for custom-designing a variety of 3-D printed objects with multiple materials.
In traditional manufacturing, objects made of different materials are manufactured via separate processes and then assembled with an adhesive or another binding process. Even existing multi-material 3-D printers have a similar workflow: parts are designed in traditional CAD [computer-aided-design] systems one at a time and then the print software allows the user to assign a single material to each part.
In contrast, Foundry allows users to vary the material properties at a very fine resolution that hasn’t been possible before.
It’s like Photoshop for 3-D materials, allowing you to design objects made of new composite materials that have the optimal mechanical, thermal, and conductive properties that you need for a given task
OK, One suggestion: Investigate the new Volcano 3 input print head.
It allows you to switch print material or color on the fly with very little delay in the change and it mounts as one head.
I do not have anything to do with this product, I just saw an ad for it when I was looking for a replacement printer.
Root Issue: Choice of Printer; You can get a Copy of the Prusa i3 Pro B on the cheap now. This is recognised as a good printer, you will have to do some assembly, adjustment, and tuning. I’m doing the adjustment step now. Getting the Z axis set and leveling the bed was picky but not difficult. Now I’m adjusting the Drivers for the Steppers.
Mine came in 3 major sections, The Bed on the Y axis, the Z axis frame with steppers, and the X assembly with extruder.
Assembly took about 3 hours taking my time to check everything. NOTE, the width of the X axis may need adjustment, mine did, was a couple millimeters narrow. That means you might have to adjust the belt length as well.
Note: This is not my first printer, I got Burned with a Solidoodle Press on the first try. Piece of junk, now dead, I did get a few good prints after much tweaking, then the control board smoked during a print. Time for a replacement Printer.
Funny enough, the year of use on the Press let prices come down significantly.
