Thread: Getting a 3D printer

What did make and model did you order Bob?

Went down the rabbit hole for 3D printers a few years back and from everything I read at the time, the Lulzbot TAZ 3 had the best reviews on the market. Bought a dual head and a few other parts to play with but was really disappointed. Prints were rough no mater what my settings were and failed prints were common. Ended up selling the beast.

Was my fault for not researching properly - Great machine for large, chunky prototypes but not so good for the fine stuff.
Find myself researching again of late for similar projects - custom enclosures, etc. Curious to see what you decided on.

Welcome to another rabbit hole! I bought my first printer to make boxes for dust sensors. The next things I printed were pipe fittings for dust collection, leading of course to getting a bigger printer. And then to Raspberry Pis for control. Then a new laptop to have in the shop for controlling the RPis.

Originally Posted by pintek

What did make and model did you order Bob?

It's a Creality CR- 10S ProV2,
Screen Shot 2021-07-07 at 5.03.41 pm.jpg
Buy Creality CR-10S Pro V2 3D Printer-Creality CR-10 Series – Creality3D Store(R) Official Store for Creality 3D Printers and Accessories
300 x 300 x 400 mm print area.
The PS and electronics are all integrated under the printer which saves desk space.
It's about the biggest printer I can fit in the space I have available on my electronics bench.

My Son has a "Creality Ender 3 Pro Clone" upgraded with a heap of stuff.
I was going to go with the Ender 5 Plus, that's 350 x 350 x 400 mm, but reviews rate it as noisy, and the Ender Series are a bit harder to setup and use than the CR series, plus being bigger would make it harder to squeeze into the cleared space I have on my bench.

Once again my son is more excited about it than I am but that's OK - enthusiastic specialised tech support - what more could I ask for and should get me up and running quickly.

Do you know how much tinkering is required with the creality?

I bought my first 3D printer a few years ago and considered a creality model that was around $500 at the time. A friend of mine talked me out of it as he said there would be too much tinkering and I hate tinkering with tools!! I ended up buying what he got without doing too much research - I just wanted one that would work out of the box and be reliable. It came as parts in many boxes and I messaged him after it arrived thinking what the hell did I get myself into LOL. It took me awhile to put it together, I did a little bit after work on some days and eventually finished. Lucky the company had very good/detailed instructions on their website. It has now worked flawlessly over the years and the only thing I wish for a larger print capacity!

3D printing (and I suppose knowing how to model your own parts) is such a useful skill

Hope you get some real use out of this printer Bob. My first printer that I still use nearly daily has to be 6+ years old now, a Flashforge Creator pro. Hot end fans failed again this week so maintenance time again.. used to it over the years.
Glad my large delta printer is back up and running again.

what filament type are you planning to print?

cheers
Phil

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Do you know how much tinkering is required with the creality?

Yep I've read the reviews, and am more than happy to tinker when I have a reason.
I've spent most of the last 9 years since retiring from work tinkering in one form or another (electrical/electronics/mechanical/metalwork/woodwork)

According to on-line reviews and my son, it's the Creality "Ender" series/range, like my son has, that requires tinkering.
Interesting it doesn't have seem to put people of buying them as around a million of these have been sold.

However, the Creality CR series printers like I'm getting come almost fully assembled so set up is fast and time to first blob is reported to be around an hour. My son who has a fair bit of experience with 3D printers (he got his first on in 2015) has 3 of them and he's pulled them apart and upgraded them all multiple times (serious tinkerer too) says he will set it up up for me and he reckons he can do it in around 30 minutes.

I bought my first 3D printer a few years ago and considered a creality model that was around $500 at the time. A friend of mine talked me out of it as he said there would be too much tinkering and I hate tinkering with tools!! I ended up buying what he got without doing too much research - I just wanted one that would work out of the box and be reliable. It came as parts in many boxes and I messaged him after it arrived thinking what the hell did I get myself into LOL. It took me awhile to put it together, I did a little bit after work on some days and eventually finished. Lucky the company had very good/detailed instructions on their website. It has now worked flawlessly over the years and the only thing I wish for a larger print capacity!

Sounds like the CR10 will be a lot less work than yours to setup.
Well this thing sure has heaps of print capacity

Originally Posted by Aussiephil

Hope you get some real use out of this printer Bob. My first printer that I still use nearly daily has to be 6+ years old now, a Flashforge Creator pro. Hot end fans failed again this week so maintenance time again.. used to it over the years.
Glad my large delta printer is back up and running again.
what filament type are you planning to print?

A long shot "reserve" position is that if I don't get that much use out of it I know my son will. He also has a Delta and a CR Ender 3 and either one or other or both are running whenever I go around there.

RE:filament
I'll start with PLA and take it from there.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Do you know how much tinkering is required with the creality?

Yep I've read the reviews, and am more than happy to tinker when I have a reason.
I've spent most of the last 9 years since retiring from work tinkering in one form or another (electrical/electronics/mechanical/metalwork/woodwork)

According to on-line reviews and my son, it's the Creality "Ender" series/range, like my son has, that requires tinkering.
Interesting it doesn't have seem to put off buyers as around a million of these have been sold.

However, the Creality CR series printers like I'm getting come almost fully assembled, so set up is fast, and time to first blob is reported to be around an hour. My son who has a fair bit of experience with 3D printers (he got his first one in 2016) has 3 of them and he's pulled them apart and upgraded them all multiple times (serious tinkerer too) says he will set it up up for me and he reckons he can do it in around 30 minutes.

I bought my first 3D printer a few years ago and considered a creality model that was around $500 at the time. A friend of mine talked me out of it as he said there would be too much tinkering and I hate tinkering with tools!! I ended up buying what he got without doing too much research - I just wanted one that would work out of the box and be reliable. It came as parts in many boxes and I messaged him after it arrived thinking what the hell did I get myself into LOL. It took me awhile to put it together, I did a little bit after work on some days and eventually finished. Lucky the company had very good/detailed instructions on their website. It has now worked flawlessly over the years and the only thing I wish for a larger print capacity!

Sounds like the CR10 will be a lot less work to setup.
Well this thing sure has heaps of print capacity

I will be watching this with interest, Bob; 3D printing is so useful in some ways, and so limitted in others.

Reminds me of an assignment I had as a student doing an MBA degree.

Remember the old Star Trek TV series where they had a truly magical piece of equipment called a replicator - it almost instantly replicated anything put before it, a perfect replica, absolutely identical to the original - effectively a rather advanced 3D printer. Our assignment was to assess the market potential for replicators.

Most of us envisioned a replicating business in every suburb and town, some saw a replicator in every home workshop or garage, and so on. Big potential, big $$$$'s.

Another analysis was that there was absolutely no market for replicators and that it was a waste of money researching the posssibility. You might be able to make and sell one replicator, but this would not cover research and development costs. The sole buyer could then set his replicator to work to produce 10,000 replicators at $10 each. Then repeat that next day until everyone had an extremely cheap replicator. As there was no possibility of profit, there was no driver of research, and the machine would not eventuate!

Originally Posted by BobL

A long shot "reserve" position is that if I don't get that much use out of it I know my son will. He also has a Delta and a CR Ender 3 and either one or other or both are running whenever I go around there.

RE:filament
I'll start with PLA and take it from there.

I have always hated PLA even though it's easy to print, though it definitely has it's uses. I have nearly exclusively printed in ABS over the years but have ordered some PETG to play with.
Just printed this tonight on the big delta, it is essentially a zero clearance plate for my old Ryobi table saw, and sadly it will be binned as i got the measurement wrong for the cross cutout for the overhead guard pin 4&1/2hrs and 1/4kg filament
As a size reference the orange print is 323mm x 112mm
P7090063.jpgP7090064.jpg

Oh and for the 3D printer nerds, there is no part cooling fan at all even for PLA

Cheers
Phil

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I will be watching this with interest, Bob; 3D printing is so useful in some ways, and so limitted in others.
Reminds me of an assignment I had as a student doing an MBA degree.

Remember the old Star Trek TV series where they had a truly magical piece of equipment called a replicator - it almost instantly replicated anything put before it, a perfect replica, absolutely identical to the original - effectively a rather advanced 3D printer. Our assignment was to assess the market potential for replicators.

Most of us envisioned a replicating business in every suburb and town, some saw a replicator in every home workshop or garage, and so on. Big potential, big $$$$'s.

Another analysis was that there was absolutely no market for replicators and that it was a waste of money researching the posssibility. You might be able to make and sell one replicator, but this would not cover research and development costs. The sole buyer could then set his replicator to work to produce 10,000 replicators at $10 each. Then repeat that next day until everyone had an extremely cheap replicator. As there was no possibility of profit, there was no driver of research, and the machine would not eventuate!

This reminds me of when (I think it was some time in the early 40's) a senior IBM executive as asked how many computers would be need in the world he indicated that maybe 5 would be enough.

Phil,
what model is the big Delta. Looks like a beast

Originally Posted by Lappa

Phil,
what model is the big Delta. Looks like a beast

It's not any model it is loosely based on 3DR's big delta and is my own design and it is a beast
Found the original thread on reprap... it's missing photo's though
First build - large Hex framed Delta - 3DR Mega style
Interesting reading for myself as i got to identify the extruder i bought and used
Video of it in action - Mega Hex Delta 3D Printer on Vimeo
I did end up using printed corners and even 5 years on they are still good.
Only changes are the air feed tube, using CPAP tubing and going to a 0.6mm nozzle
It was one of the first major things i did in Fusion360.
Started designing my own Cartesian IDEX printer with 400x600 bed area

Cheers
Phil

Originally Posted by BobL

This reminds me of when (I think it was some time in the early 40's) a senior IBM executive as asked how many computers would be need in the world he indicated that maybe 5 would be enough.

The quote "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers," is widely attributed to Thomas John Wastson when president of IBM in 1943. I think that I first heard it in the mid-1960s during the first computer course offered at UTas!

But recent research has apparently failed to find the source of the "quote". Perhaps it is one of those: "If he didn't say it, then he should have."
Thomas J. Watson - Wikipedia