3D Printers

Do you own a 3D Printer? Do you think it is worth it to buy a 3D printer and the prints have actual usage value? What do you print?

no no a 3d printer makes sense if you plan eventually to mass produce, but if you are just making one offs, just use regular building and crafting techniques

No Depends on how much you plan on using it. For most people, 3D print on demand services is the best bet https://www.3d.directory/directory I've only had use for a 3D printer on one occasion for a pi zero housing.

>>8294 Yes. If you have a use for it, sure. But don't buy one just to own one. I mostly 3d print enclosures and other parts for custom diy electronics projects, and it definitely paid for itself. 3d printing services are overpriced and the quality tends to be soykaf, you often need to change your slicing settings depending on what exactly you're printing and sometimes print more than once to get a nice looking result, professional services just don't bother because spending the extra time means lost profits.

>>8294 Yes. Yes, obviously. Whatever. I guess the old 3D printer threads are gone, or OP didn't look? If you're considering getting one it makes sense if you are able to do CAD and find it interesting, otherwise you'll get bored quickly after downloading random STLs from websites. 3D printing is as much an art as a science, and not 'plug and play' as your low effort OP suggests you think it is. You may have only thought about the first of these: Printer costs Maintenance costs (nozzles / beds / upgrades / tools / etc) Material costs (filament / isopropyl / towels / etc) Running costs (electricity / ventilation ducting / etc) Post production/finishing costs (paint / sanding / filing / support removal / etc) Time costs (It often takes several design AND printing iterations to get a finished item)

>>8294 The main advantage of personal 3D printing deals with making spare parts that are difficult to acquire through normal commerce. Same goes with personal milling and machining tools. I will say I find the idea of 3D printed auto sears and mass distributing them intriguing.

>>8294 Yes Unsure I haven't even built it yet, I got it as a Christmas gift but it still is just sitting in the box as I don't have a good place to put it in my tiny apartment

>>8301 >I will say I find the idea of 3D printed auto sears and mass distributing them intriguing. >Doesn't know the forbidden origami with index cards >>8295 >a 3d printer makes sense if you plan eventually to mass produce, but if you are just making one offs, just use regular building and crafting techniques Nonsense. A 3D printer is not suitable for "mass production". 3D printer are useful for low number production runs at best. Scaling to a print farm is still not "mass production" either, and still counts as low volume. 3D printers are currently best for rapid prototyping, or custom items. Any crafting techniques can be used for prototyping, but 3D printers help speed up the iterative process, which is why they are used. For things that are eventually mass produced takes a completely different design approach depending on the manufacturing processes (injection? blow? ??) and is related to the dies, materials, forms, tooling, etc used. e.g. reliefs, alignment pins, snap fits, mold release holes, etc. (A company like Prusa is probably close to being called "mass production" but 3D printing their printers is part of their unique selling point to stand out in the marketplace. It gives them better market adaptability, and product control. They didn't choose that method for "mass production" high quality/low cost. It is more expensive for them - so they pass the price on to the customer. )

>>8303 generally for mass production you'd use either injection molding or CNC, yes. 3d printing is absolutely for rapid prototyping. Otherwise it's just not cost- or time- effective.

>>8302 >a good place to put it in my tiny apartment You will need ventilation & an enclosure. I have a spare room for mine to print in, but if I was going to do long (24hr+) unattended prints I'd put it in another building away from the main house. 30 years from now they might be finding unenclosed 3D printers were a major health hazard, so don't take any risks now. Definitely don't print ABS, and at least have the window open when you do print. An extra fire alarm and fire extinguisher are also good insurance to have. Better to have and not use, than not have but need. Also, you'll never have a good place for it! LOL! I was the same. When you build it you also build a "good place" for it too.

>>8305 Replace ABS with ASA. Same mechanical properties, better UV resistance if you plan on using it outdoors, and doesn't smell nearly as bad. Lot easier to print too, there's some shrinkage but it's pretty constant, you just need to figure out the correct scale for the filament brand you're using. Disclaimer: I'm not saying it won't give you cancer if you keep printing it in your bedroom for 30 years. As for where to put it, I just bought a soykafty IKEA nightstand and screwed some wheels onto it. The drawers are super useful.

>>8308 >Use ASA not ABS Good point. Thanks. >IKEA nightstand >wheels onto it >moveable base >no mention of wheel locks or chocks >prints on a moveable base Some swear by a flat paving stone for a solid base to put the printer on. I have mine mounted over a concrete block so any vibration ringing is unnoticeable in the prints. (Still, I'm not going for record print speeds that would amplify the effect)

>>8314 I never had any problems moving it around. Then again I have a delta printer, it's moving a lot less weight around than cartesian ones so maybe that's why I can get away with it.

Microcenter had a deal a few months back where an Ender 3 Pro was $99 bucks. Couldn't pass it up, but I haven't even used it lol

>>8325 $99 is a good deal! Hopefully it doesn't apply to you, but sometimes there is a reason they have dirt cheap deals (Returned parts, minor imperfections). At least do some test prints before the warranty runs out. >I haven't even used it You never will without accepting that there is suffering involved. It is very easy to leave 3D printing on the mental shelf because it can be very tedious, frustrating, with little pay off. Tuning, tweaking settings, slow prints, upgrades plus the steep learning curve with software to do anything useful. When you solve problems and hold your designs in your hand though....! Present Day, Present Time! AHAHAHAHAHA!

>>8294 >Do you own a 3D Printer? I have two. One resin, one FDM. >Do you think it is worth it to buy a 3D printer and the prints have actual usage value? Highly depends on the application. For the consumer market, almost universally no. The world does not need another 3d printed bust of a marvel character. Most "functional" prints I feel are solutions in search of problems. See: desk organizers, tabletop organizers, cable chains for tiny desktop printers that don't need them, etc. Effective and relevant prints are something you model yourself to suit your needs. I could not imagine using my printers without being proficient with CAD software yet somehow there's a legion of soys who get by with the garbage available for free on thingiverse. I would like to take an aside here to mention that 3d printers are ill-suited for mass production. They take an extremely long amount of time and fiddling to produce items that are almost often mechanically inferior to more conventionally produced items. Their beauty lies in rapid prototyping or light-use production as a one-man solution in lieu of more costly machines like mills and lathes. Here I am of course not considering advanced engineering/medical uses that are far outside of hobbyist reach. >What do you print? Small fixes/replacements for broken items, difficult to find functional things, a few decorative items. I was much more into it before, but the glow has worn off. Some things I've made: >a custom violin rest >some replacement bobbins for a sewing machine (the smaller ones that go in the machine under the needle) >a forming tool for some little brass parts for this place I used to work at >a full size electric guitar which I did not intend to bring up to tension, but even under-built it gets kind of close. I think a mostly-printed guitar is feasible, but rather stupid. I think I'll try printing parts for a headless guitar bridge at some point; even with how poor prints perform, I think I could design something more than strong enough. The whole experience of using the machines has changed how I view certain things. The resin printer in particular is a noxious health hazard that is quite inconvenient to use even vaguely properly. I would consider myself considerably more strict than most users that upload tutorials on these printers, yet I feel my own precautions are just barely adequate. My gut tells me that there are thousands of people purchasing large quantities of toxic resin just so that they can produce a few ugly D&D figures. Concerning software- there is not a single free, open source suite of CAD programs that is not barely-usable garbage for anything but the most basic modeling. I am very fast with Inventor and Solidworks but have an aneurysm trying to make a cube with FreeCAD. For printers to be more viable for personal use, we need an open source, privacy-respecting software solution for advanced parametric modeling. People need to stop being OK with suckling Autodesk's grotesque teats and settling for insulting browser-based solutions like Fusion 360. If you are thinking of getting a printer, simply analyze your use cases and determine if the geometry and strength afforded by printing meet your needs. You might be better served with a CNC router, or a saw and a cheap welder, etc.

If you're doing a lot of projects they can be pretty useful tools. Most of what I printed on mine was soykafty plastic trinkets. I honestly wouldn't recommend them outside of prototyping and manufacturing small, one off parts that wont be exposed to lots of stress or heat. They're slow asf (understandably) so expect like several hour print times.

>>8333 >Concerning software- there is not a single free, open source suite of CAD programs that is not barely-usable garbage for anything but the most basic modeling. Have you tried Gendl? Ive been looking at videos of it and it seems to me to be capable to create whatever the heart desires.

>>8674 No, just no. text based cad, unless you want it to interact with scripts is by definition useless garbage. CAD, and 3D modeling in general, is a visual driven development. And using text for that is the worst possible interaction type. At best you could make some brackets or very simple shapes. Stuff that can be made in 15 minutes or less if you're proficient with your CAD software of choice. But once you get to something more complex like pic you'll want to kys trying to define by text all your objects and their properties. Unfortunatelly as >>8333 said, the state of CAD software is pitiful. Foss is actual unusable trash. Web alternatives, are well, web trash. Modern versions of commercial proprietary software are subscription based spyware. Right now your best bet with CAD is using pirated pre-2015 stuff. The most powerful software suites from 10-15 year ago are good enough for 100% of your task at an hobbyist level. They're still subscription based but their license checking software is simple enough that you can give yourself infinite licenses and once the initial license check is done they are not intrusive. I would still isolate them in some form or another from the outside network tho.

>>8294 >Do you own a 3D Printer? Not personally, but I use them for work. >Do you think it is worth it to buy a 3D printer and the prints have actual usage value? The real value of a 3D printer is rapid prototyping. If you're designing a very specific custom piece then you can just print it for cheap. They can seem a bit gimmicky if you're only exposure to them is people printing DnD knickknacks on Reddit but for real world engineering design they're very useful. As others have said, they're not very well suited to mass production. >What do you print? Specific geometries that don't need much strength. That being robot parts, cases for electronics, replacement parts etc.