3D printer

[Ronstar]

Anyone have a 3dprinter? If so, what do you make?

I think I need one to make some parts.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Anyone have a 3dprinter? If so, what do you make?

I think I need one to make some parts.

I do, in fact up till last year I had 3. Had quite a thriving home business printing Drone Parts and selling them on my WebSite till I got bored with it, it was not a hobby anymore. I still get a few orders but I have paired down my offerings significantly.

Now I use it for printing household item parts that get broken and stuff like that, that you cannot buy or are easy to make.

The key is, if you are going to make anything that takes a little stress, it needs to be ABS, not PLA. There are more materials, but I find ABS works for all the stuff I need.

So you need a printer with a heated Build plate, Fully Enclosed Build Chamber, and a high temperature print head that supports ABS.

I have a modified Flashforge Creator Pro Plus, it is dated now but I still think it is one of the best for what I do/did.

If all you want to do is print fun stuff like Gnomes, Buildings and Dinosaurs for fun, PLA will work and those machines are a lot cheaper as the build plates do not need to be heated. PLA will melt and warp if left in a car, the sun, or any warm place.

Flashforge has a Builder II Plus now, but I could never justify the price and my machine is now extensively modified.

 

[Ronstar]

^Very nice.

I want to make raspberry pi cases, gopro mounts, some camera attachments, etc. Small stuff.

My grand nephew builds drones, and he needs to have some parts made.

But I’ll need to use my MacBook Pro to develop files. Need to research compatibility with a Mac.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

^Very nice.

I want to make raspberry pi cases, gopro mounts, some camera attachments, etc. Small stuff.

My grand nephew builds drones, and he needs to have some parts made.

But I’ll need to use my MacBook Pro to develop files. Need to research compatibility with a Mac.

I have made lots of mounts for a variety of Drones and cameras. I do not use a MAC. I used to use a CAD package like AutoCAD Inventor, but it was overkill. I now Use Sketchup Pro 2020 which I think is available on a MAC. There are so many variables in 3D Printing due to expansion and contraction that tolerances need not be so stringent. I create a Prototype, then tweak it so it prints right. You need to know your own printer's unique idiosyncrasies.

You must use a very high quality ABS filament for drones. I did make a complete DIY drone once, it flew quite well.

 

[Ronstar]

Thanks for the info.

Im a Sketchup novice for woodworking projects on my iMac so I should be able to use sketchup for 3D parts

 

[tb001]

I have an older model I bought used. Use it for various parts and cases. It’s a lot of fun. I unfortunately damaged the print head, so need to decide if it’s worth fixing.

I have a Mac and use simplify 3D to render for printing and one other piece of software for building. Blanking on the name but will update when I remember. The learning curve on the modeling software was steeper than I expected, but once I got the hang of it, pretty easy.

The one thing I’ll add is that if I were buying one new, print size would be my primary decider. It’s so frustrating to be limited here.