11–20 of 52 posts
Why the need to print cheap plastic crap? That's why we have dollar stores and China.
Car manufacturer often charge a premium for the most mundane plastic parts.
I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently stands, I think you should expect at least a year, maybe even 2, of your hobby being "building a 3D printer" rather than "building things with a 3D printer" if you get into it.
If you don't want to spend a few thousand dollars (and even the cheap ones you end up spending on, because of the replacements and upgrades you'll need and want to do), don't want to put up with the hassle, then I have three suggestions:
- For simple things, stick to wood-working, it's significantly easier and faster than 3D printing. e.g. if all you need is a box to hold a Raspberry Pi, A) you can probably get a pre-fab box at an arts-and-crafts shop near you, or B) making boxes is not terribly difficult (there will be methods you will have to learn, it's not something you just jump into, but the actual techniques are not that hard).
- For things requiring precise dimensions and non-standard cuts, go with laser cutting. There are a wide variety of materials you can use, and a huge number of very cheap, very fast services you can employ. You basically draw your thing in InkScape or Adobe Illustrator, email it away, wait a day or two, and then glue your thing together. It is very easy and it makes for extremely clean and professional-looking "prototype grade" results.
- If you need the complexity of 3D printing: order from ShapeWays. Don't buy a 3D printer. If not ShapeWays, you might have a local shop that has 3D printing available. They will only charge you for the finished product, they don't charge you for the failures.
At this point in time, with the speed of all 3D printers being so bad, and the reliability of any 3D printer you could own on a single person's budget, there is no point to owning your own 3D printer. If that is going to change anytime in the near future, it will require a few seachanges in how we go about 3D printing. Otherwise, it's waiting for certain patents to expire.
3D systems was founded in 1986. Stratasys was founded in 1989. These are not toy companies. These companies defined and refined the printing methods we're talking about today. What did their devices print? Engineering prototypes. Cars. Car parts. Medical and research parts. Things that preceded mass production. From cat scan to a hip broach with no room for error.
That kickstarter explosion is a reflection of the hype initially driven by hobbyist interest that brought 3D printing in the forefront some 4-5 years ago. Also fascinating is the RepRap family tree, which identifies the design origin of many of these kickstarter printers: http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap_Family_Tree
So the market, the buyers, are confused because seemingly new printers and 3d printing companies are sprouting like mushrooms after a rain promising faster and cheaper printing for a hundred bucks, and they keep tanking. Failing to deliver. Breaking promises. Consumers don't know many of these are just remixed open-sourced printers or that it takes 8 hours to make a small toy. The product dilution is eroding confidence in the technology and stealing resources from starter companies who are serious and could deliver real products.
And to the two above-mentioned companies, who own patents and keys to the technology, this means their robust product has been massively devalued and confidence in them shaken.
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Car manufacturer often charge a premium for the most mundane plastic parts.
And the part you print won't last, hence the "cheap" part of my comment. Where I work, we have a $30k printer that do that kind of work, production work, and it's not cheap.
Here's why these 3D printer companies are now reeling in: go to kickstarter and search for "3d printing". There are 315 results. That's right, 315. 3D systems was founded in 1986. Stratasys was founded in 1989. These are not toy companies. These companies defined and refined the printing methods we're talking about today. What did their devices print? Engineering prototypes. Cars. Car parts. Medical and research part…
The charade is up: 3D printers are not the design panacea they were claimed to be.
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
I disagree. it took a weekend to build my reprap from a parts kit imported from China. it took another weekend to tune it. easy.
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
Or cardboard prototyping. Much less technology required, tools are much cheaper (glue gun, segmented knife, ruler, and a mat for cutting the cardboard), material can often be obtained at zero cost, and it's even faster to work with than wood. It can supplement woodworking (or 3D printing) really well.
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
> - For simple things, stick to wood-working, it's significantly easier and faster than 3D printing. Or cardboard prototyping. Much less technology required, tools are much cheaper (glue gun, segmented knife, ruler, and a mat for cutting the cardboard), material can often be obtained at zero cost, and it's even faster to work with than wood. It can supplement woodworking (or 3D printing) really well.