What kind of printer do you use?

@Artois
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printer-...185417?hash=item58e3ee9389:g:124AAOSwYIxX4gUm

This is the one myself and @Historiker has. It is not top of the line but is very capable. I have replaced the v5 hot end with e3d v6, put in an mk3 heat bed and installed a 50amp psu. All three cost less than 80$. It has an integrated board which is a big plus.

Mk3 heat bed ?

Lol mk2b. Not sure where the 3 came from.

There are not any 2-star reviews on this product.


5 star

50%
4 star

33%
3 star

17%
2 star

0%
1 star

0%

hrmm guess i seen it wrong, could have sworn it was a 2 star.....oh well 3 star then..still gets the point across that there's better out there for the $$

Thanks Bruce and Nick. I believe I am just going to go with the unit Bruce suggested and do the upgrades. Comes out to pretty much teh same price point I am at. I was hoping for the larger print bed but if you can't get prints out of it, the size of the bed doesn't matter. Thanks again for your help.

For a entry point printer the CTC Makerbot Ripoff is great, all the mechanical flaws it has you can fix with the printer it self.
Was also my first 3d printer i bought.

My second now is the E3D Big Box, took quite some time to build the kit, but it prints reliable and amazing quality.

I always use delta printer, and i had test an prisa i3 ,but it was not my type.

The only advantage i see to a Delta would be the height option. The Prusa mk2 has proven to be at the VERY top of the pile for features/print quality and Price. There's really nothing out there that will touch it for what it offers.

Hi I have a DIY Prusa i3 with Steel frame, MK2 bed with 1 extruder - mostly printing 0.1, or 0.2 layer [ tried 0,05 but time killed me ].
First 4 month I was printed only from PLA, but finally migrated to ABS [ which actually needs more temp. on bed 95, but has strong advantage of acetone blending for smooth things ].

Have you had to make an enclosure to print ABS or are you using ABS + or something with less warping/curling ?

I tried PLA, PETG, TPU, TPE, Nylon6(junk), CoPoly and im really tempted to try some of the Stainless Steel stuff From The Virtual Foundry when they release it in the coming weeks.

You mean something to make better stick to bed ? For me works a kepton tape, and sometimes a little ABS juice. I once tried kind of flex material like ninja flex - it was couple of months ago, but my printings weren`t very nice looking. My printer is a standard low cost DIY [ for around 250$ ]. ABS IMHO has other advantage - extruder hotend can be easily cleaned just in a pure acetone [ since I throw away many dusted from PLA dirt / also tried those 0.4 drills, but were too fragile ].

Ive only ever had 1 clog in my machines life, And im pretty sure it was my fault.

In general they suggest an enclosure for ABS due to warpage and what not. Just asking if you've had any issues printing without an enclosure and with ABS,


here's some of my TPU prints.

Yes they are intentionally rough or "speckled" finish.

Nice printings ! Maybe my english is not very fluent - I didn`t understand what is enclosure for ABS - you mean big enclosure of the printer [ for no dust ] or enclosure for Arduino to close a DOF electronics - sorry maybe a misunderstanding I wanted enclosure the electronics, but my case only fitted the PSU`s, probably need to find something bigger.
Here is my more smooth pilots from ABS - they are for 500 AH64 with acetone smooth and painted, but Apache cabin is in 0,2 due to many hours...


In my case I had many clogs when printing from PLA, but for over 3 months since I changed to ABS - nothing... I also changed manufacturer of filament - so maybe this was causing this [ I have a filter also all the time ]

Crap Filament will clog the nozzle Much more often, So im assuming that must have been it, PLA is VERY printer friendly in general.

Yes An enclosure for the entire machine. To help with keeping the heat inside and around the Part to prevent any rapid cooling and layer de adhesion issues.

No I`ve never done this, but you are right - especially for keeping right temperature of the bed - really hard to keep - a lot of power is lost [ temperature of room is around 21 when bed should be 95-100 - all the time need to heat, and in ABS - sometimes a small flow of air can destroy the whole printing.
How did you built your case, is it somehow printed - can you tip me [ my printer is 20x20, and need at least 40cm cube ], or better just to use plexi 2-5mm plates in such case ?

I built a cheap enclosure out of an Ikea Lack Table, but honestly hated having to use the enclosure, fortunately no matter what i tried with the crap nylon 6 i had it peeled and curled like crazy (model related as well) So overall i just avoid materials that require such attention.

The Lack is a widely used table, but i found it a touch small. But obviously other's get on with it fine.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=3d+p...5KvUAhWn54MKHYkQAdEQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=901

I also tried some strange flex filaments and they just need a lot of attention, so end up using only PLA and ABS -> since I can leave my printer for all night, or go to work without thinking what could/will go wrong [ when it need couple of hours to make a larger print ]
OK - it is not a bad idea, since I also have problems with heating the bed over 95 d. even last time rebuilt mz thermal isolation of bed trying to improve it...
and you convinced me, so planning to make my own actually was thinking of using 6 plates of PlexiGlass 50 x 50 x 2, and those 2mm are much cheaper then 5mm [ of thickness since 2 will be just fine - I think ] also found a 5$ for a plate offers [ wioll need 6 in total 30$ ],
http://allegro.pl/show_item.php?ite...c1e387864ffa85323220a1444b540a86acf77d00be2ff

A Quality hot end, extruder and proper G code is required for printing Flexibles for sure, I also had a few failed prints in the beginning, But that taught me what i was doing wrong and where to improve it, The Corvette grips i print take 9 hrs a pop x4......I used to worry about leaving it over night, but have since forgotten about that.

PS VERY low retraction is Mandatory for flexibles.

About proper G-code - I use RepetierHost and CuraEngine for preparation since beginning my adventure of 3D print - what else is good ? [ for ABS / PLA is great ! ]
My Prusa