I just ordered a 3D Printer - Anyone Else got One?

ShokWaveRider

ShokWaveRider

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Being an Engineer and into Radio Controlled model building (building more than flying usually), I found these machines intriguing. The idea of making widgets sounds like fun.

Completely extravagant, will never get a return on my investment but what the heck.

I ordered a FlashForge Creator X dual Extruder system.

I am interested in hearing from other 3D Printer owners.
 
What did it cost? It is a tempting toy. If I came up with some actual uses for it at home, I could justify it to myself as a combo of learning/toy with a dose of practicality.

You RC model hobby would be be enough justification for me (if the cost isn't too high)!

But offhand, I'm able to produce most things I need with my workshop tools.

Tell us more!


-ERD50
 
ShokWaveRider said:
Being an Engineer and into Radio Controlled model building (building more than flying usually), I found these machines intriguing. The idea of making widgets sounds like fun.

Completely extravagant, will never get a return on my investment but what the heck.

I ordered a FlashForge Creator X dual Extruder system.

I am interested in hearing from other 3D Printer owners.
Click to expand...

I've done my fair share of RC and CL model building and flying. Nothing I can think of comes to mind for justifying a 3D printer for that hobby. Can you give us some examples of what you will use this printer for?
 
Cost was $1400

As far as making things is concerned, I am into helis and multis. tons of parts that break and can be improved on.
 
My son did an internship at a leading edge system/software place in Austin, Tx last summer. They assign interns and new hires a project to see if they can get it done in a reasonable fashion. His assignment was to build an automated beer dispenser. :2funny::2funny:
He made parts on a 3D printer. You put your glass under the dispenser and swiped an RFID card and it poured you a glass of beer!

Now THAT is a reason for a 3D printer!
 
Wow! A personal 3D printer!

We expect to see more updates with close-up photos of the parts that you make. It certainly will keep one busy, and provides an answer to the perennial question of "What ya do all day?".

This is not for me as an EE, but my son who's a ME would love something like this. He knows about 3D modeling, machining, and finite-element analysis for stress, etc... but I am ignorant about these subjects.
 
NW-Bound said:
This is not for me as an EE
Click to expand...

Not so my friend, I am an EE (Electronics & Digital Electronics) and It is quite fun.

Saying that, I only just ordered it, there is a long delivery time as it was on backorder.

So I have been drawing parts, that takes long enough.
 
ShokWaveRider said:
Being an Engineer and into Radio Controlled model building (building more than flying usually), I found these machines intriguing. The idea of making widgets sounds like fun.
Click to expand...

My son uses a 3D printer for R/C parts among other things. I don't recall what brand/make he has, but has used it for years. He's always designing and building odd flying machines. I think you'll find it to be fun and useful. He says it's great for parts that can't be had 'off the shelf'.


He also uses a home built CNC router quite a bit.
 
Last edited:
ShokWaveRider said:
Cost was $1400

As far as making things is concerned, I am into helis and multis. tons of parts that break and can be improved on.
Click to expand...

The price isn't too high at all. How about the cost for supplies? Are the supplies like cartridge of plastic?

I'm sure you'll find many good uses for the printer that you probably never thought of. Sounds like fun.
 
Do you have to draw the item on a computer and use software to make it 3D prior to printing? The more complex the item I would assume the more difficult to draw or is there an easier way?
 
We just bought one for $1600 to do design mock-ups at work. Makes it easy to work through fit, form, and function without tooling. So far it is awesome. I can't believe these are under $2K now.
 
Bikerdude said:
Do you have to draw the item on a computer and use software to make it 3D prior to printing? The more complex the item I would assume the more difficult to draw or is there an easier way?
Click to expand...

I have been using Sketchup Pro for my models. It is pretty easy once you get used to it. Google is your friend when it comes to things you need to figure out how to do. It is pretty accurate too. A friend of mine printed a part I designed for me and it was a good fit for what I needed.
 
I'll get around to getting one eventually. Parts for R/C planes would be one benefit. the other is just to play with it.

I'd like to get DW one of the new candy/chocolate 3D printers. Now that would be useful. Nothing near reasonable cost yet, but I'll keep my eye out.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing what you make with it. I'm also curious to see how strong the parts are.
 
I'm still old fashioned enough to be into subtractive rather than additive part fabrication (in other words I start with big chunks of metal or wood and machine them down into something useful). I think 3D printing is a cool technology and we'll all have one eventually, but I feel little compulsion to be an early adopter - particularly when the printer would have to compete for space in the aforementioned metal shop.
 
We have one at work. Couldn't live without it

We make all kinds of fixtures, prototypes and mockups with it. We started off slowly but once we realized all the useful parts it could produce we have kept it very busy. Some of the big jobs run overnight.

An occasional boat part comes out of it too.:)
 
I have thought about building a 3D printer. I have been playing around with a 10kw Ytterbium fiber laser cutting small steel parts and am curious if it could be used for selective laser sintering.

The smallest I have been able to cut is a gear about 0.03 " diameter but my cnc mill has 0.001" backlash in the x-axis ballscrew which ruins the quality. The laser I can focus to about 0.00015"
 

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Fermion said:
The smallest I have been able to cut is a gear about 0.03 " diameter but my cnc mill has 0.001" backlash in the x-axis ballscrew which ruins the quality. The laser I can focus to about 0.00015"
Click to expand...

How are you controlling where the laser goes?

The size to which you can focus your laser spot is analogous to how sharp you can make the tip of the cutting tool on your mill. How accurately you can cut the gear depends on how precisely you can position this laser spot. If you just have a fixed optical system and are moving the work around on a milling table I'd have thought your accuracy would be the same whether cutting with laser or ordinary tool steel.

While there are optical means of scanning the beam around quite accurately, I would have thought that such systems that work with 10kw beams would be kind of expensive for a home shop - likely lots more expensive than just upgrading your CNC system. We recently bought a small benchtop CNC mill at work that routinely gets about 5 um accuracy (for about 10x the cost of the 3D printers quoted in this thread).

Regardless, I'm envious of your CNC set up and Yb:fiber laser system. One of my planned projects after FIRE next year is to upgrade from manual machining to CNC.
 
The work piece moves and the laser is held stationary. The problem is in the ballscrew on the cnc mill...it is a large industrial mill probably with a lot of use on that axis.

The laser is only 20 watt average power but produces 1mJ in 100nS pulses (up to 100khz rep rate) so 10kW peak power in each pulse which is what blasts through the steel. It is about the size of a small box of cereal and runs on 24V DC at about 7 amps. I love ebay and defunct solar cell companies!

I am making a 1um accuracy xyz cnc mill using some NSK linear robot modules with brushless motors/ground ballscrews. Just haven't had the time to finish it.

I think the extruded plastic 3D printers are very cool though...they can do a lot that you can't do with a mill or laser cutter.
 
Fermion said:
I am making a 1um accuracy xyz cnc mill using some NSK linear robot modules with brushless motors/ground ballscrews. Just haven't had the time to finish it.
Click to expand...

I built a table last year. I was quite proud of it.
But now I think I'll go crawl under a rock somewhere and hide.
:)
 
Prices have come down so much that this will become a household item in the not too distant future. I work with a lot of MEs so have been exposed to 3D printers for a long while.

From the charity side of things a friend was an early starter of the Robo-Hand concept & now continues that work through E-Nable (they have a facebook page if you are interested). They open sourced plans for how to make hand prosthetics for children & encourage anyone with a 3D printer to participate. That is one very cool application of 3D printing that has life changing implications for kids.
 
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