www.robowars.org

RoboWars Australia Forum Index -> The Marketplace

Which 3D printer to buy...
Goto page Previous  1, 2

Post new topic   Reply to topic
  Author    Thread
Glen
Experienced Roboteer


Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 9481
Location: Where you least expect


 Reply with quote  

quote:
Originally posted by mrtmps:

found the print quality improved by 80%.


How do you quantify that? I've put 5 genuine and 3 esun reels with the temp hack through the up mini and there is zero perceivable difference between them in surface finish or strength as far as I can tell.

$80 for 1kg of genuine up filament vs $19 for 1kg of esun is a completely outrageous mark up beyond all belief.
_________________
www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

Post Mon May 16, 2016 4:46 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website MSN Messenger
Nick
Experienced Roboteer


Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW


 Reply with quote  

The big manufacturers are trying to make it rain money like their friends in the inkjet business Smile Thank god we have completely open source and DIY printers to keep consumable prices slightly sane!
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Post Mon May 16, 2016 5:49 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Ondray



Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 142
Location: Newcastle


 Reply with quote  

I went and had a chat with the guys at the local Jaycar, they had their 'duinotech' dual head on display for $1600 so I got a real good look at it.

I showed the salesman the HK one, and he agreed it was the same printer - and said I'm probably better off buying it to save myself $800. Apparently even he doesn't like Jaycars default 150% markup. Which makes the HK price look about right.

But their $50/kg for filament - if I ever need it in a hurry is not too bad. Seeing as it's only a bit less than that after postage for most other ones.

Post Thu May 19, 2016 6:59 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Ondray



Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 142
Location: Newcastle


 Reply with quote  

Well officeworks is in the game now with $20/kg rolls of ABS and 3D printers but all the ones they have in my budget are the davinci's which I'm pretty sure are proprietary filament.

Post Wed Jun 08, 2016 10:05 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Ondray



Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 142
Location: Newcastle


 Reply with quote  

Well I wound up buying this:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/121989430837

"Tevo Tarantula" $450 200x200x280mm single head aluminum frame 3d printer.

I took the advice on not getting dual-head for now. This printer ticked most of my boxes:

- Metal frame
- Australian seller
- Open source
- Easily upgradeable
- Decent hotend/extruder
- Excellent community

It's not enclosed, but I'll solve that by making my own stand/enclosure. There's an auto leveling option, but I can save myself $70 and install a better one myself. It also has a dual head upgrade option, so I'll probably get a flexion head down the track then use the existing dual-head firmware.

Compared to the wanhao i3/malyan m150 I think this one is easier to upgrade but takes longer to assemble and isn't as neat out of the box. But importantly it was cheap and easily available in Australia. (I messaged the seller to see if he'd honor the warranty - apparently he's the warranty guy for Tevo in Australia so he can get replacement parts for me easy)

Apparently it takes a while (12+ hrs) to assemble and get up and running, but I feel as though that's a right of passage thing for hobby 3d-printing Smile

...now to downgrade my computer from vista to windows 10 so I can use autodesk inventor... Sad

Post Sat Jun 11, 2016 6:37 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Nick
Experienced Roboteer


Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW


 Reply with quote  

I would think twice about fitting a Flexion extruder - its very well made and is the best option for flexible filament but it limits you to low temperature filaments. After fitting one on my Wanahou (and breaking the heater in the process) I am now seriously thinking about buying a 2nd printer just so I can do ABS and nylon.
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Post Sat Jun 11, 2016 6:54 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Ondray



Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 142
Location: Newcastle


 Reply with quote  

Flexion has a one-sided dual head upgrade setup:

https://flexionextruder.com/shop/right/

That means I can have a flexion extruder on one head and high-temp one on the other. I also want to do nylon - it's more chemically resistant so I can make stuff up for my uni experiments.

Post Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:14 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Nick
Experienced Roboteer


Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW


 Reply with quote  

That could be a clever option, but either the controller has to support a dual head or you have to swap over all the connections to the stepper, heater and thermistor, which will be a PITA. If you want to mostly do PLA and higher temperature plastics like nylon, the Micro Swiss all metal hot-end would be a crowd pleaser.

The other thing with a dual extruder is that you add a heap of moving weight to the X axis, which will shake the printer around and reduce print quality or speed compared to having a remote extruder as fitted standard. I would definitely add extra support to the gantry before adding a dual extruder.
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Post Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:42 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
pilleya



Joined: 31 Mar 2016
Posts: 91
Location: Sydney


 Reply with quote  

In regards to having to move to Windows 10 to utilise Autodesk Inventor, you should be able to install an older version that still supports Vista.

Inventor 2017 also supports 7 and 8.1

If you are running a system which came with Vista out of the box, it might not meet the minimum system requirements for 2017, so you might need to install an older version from a performance perspective.

In regards to the 3D printer I purchased a PRUSA kit in 2013/2014, which was fun to put together, it cost me about $450. Although it the printer your considering might take 12 hours to assemble it’ll most likely take many more hours of you calibrating/adjusting and testing it( lot of wasted filament) until you get it printing how you like. I don’t have a heated bed so I only use PLA, but I purchases some big ceramic resistors from Jaycar and are running them off the old computer PSU I’m using to power the printer, I’m using a temperature relay kit I bought from aliexpress for $4 and I can get the aluminium print bed up to 60+degrees which helps prints stick better.

I had to do a fair few modifications to get it working well, such as purchasing a new better hot-end as the supplied one was absolute junk( they sent me a replacement but I haven’t used). I had to make a custom mounting plate, to make it fit the existing linear system, and I also added a fan to the hotend and made a case for the entire printer from 3mm polycarbonate, which helps keep it a constant temperature.

I feel that it is only about now after 2 years that it is printing nicely and consistently. My father has spent a lot of time using it recently and made some parts to show his work colleagues, he helped improve the print quality( he has more patience then I do:)

My school ( I’m in Yr12) has 6-7 Maker-bots and a few Formlab STL printers.

Although it’s a hard to maintain, and un-reliable, I think it can make prints which are as good as what the Maker-bot printers can make which are about $3000

That auto-leveling feature seems really good for a low-cost printer

Post Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:45 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Nick
Experienced Roboteer


Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW


 Reply with quote  

Looking at the X carriage, its not a typical Prussa I3 design, so fitting any of the after-market extruders and hot-ends like the Flexion is going to be extra work -not impossible but not just a bolt-on either.
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Post Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:59 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
Ondray



Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 142
Location: Newcastle


 Reply with quote  

I'm not expecting anything to be easy at this price point for a 3d printer Smile But the 12 hours is based off other users from box open to first print. If the flexion option looks too painful Tevo sells dual head upgrades so there's the hardware already on the board for it (I checked that) and I can get firmware for it as well. The tarantula design is remote extruder by default (if that means the extruder is on a stationary part of the frame and feeds through a tube to the hotend). Which will keep the moving parts light.

As for saying farewell to vista - I was getting pretty due for the upgrade, various other programs were slowly not working (video editing software, new games). But it is my gaming rig and despite being 8 years old, occasional upgrades have kept it beefy enough for something like inventor - my uni laptop runs inventor with half the RAM/CPU power and no graphics card so the big rig will be fine...

Arnie said it best...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXouWX71sWM

Post Sun Jun 12, 2016 12:40 am 
 View user's profile Send private message
Ondray



Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 142
Location: Newcastle


 Reply with quote  

Well I got the printer last week and assembled it over the weekend. Got it working with a little drama, the instructions that came with it were simple to the point of useless (I was aware of this before purchasing it though) and the community video instructions were great except for some detail on the assembly of the z-axis screw...which I assembled out of alignment. It printed a couple of test bits ok, then when I moved the z-axis to the top of it's range broke 3 acrylic brackets! Some special plastics glue, a couple of reinforcements and a careful re-assembly of the z-axis later and it's working fine...I did print out replacements for all of the parts that are glued though. It's currently printing out my first drill motor bracket.

Do I recommend it? Probably not next to the wanhao i3 (or it's rebrands). I'm happy with it and the assembly was fun for the most part, and it's printing, only PLA so far, a big order of filament should arrive later this week Smile

And the all important pic:

Post Wed Jun 29, 2016 8:58 pm 
 View user's profile Send private message
  Display posts from previous:      

Forum Jump:
Jump to:  

Post new topic   Reply to topic
Page 2 of 2

Goto page Previous  1, 2

Forum Rules:
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 

Last Thread | Next Thread  >
Powered by phpBB: © 2001 phpBB Group
millenniumFalcon Template By Vereor.