3D Printer Total Cost Of Ownership - Life Span - Cost Per Print - Depreciation

[FryingSaucer]

At 25 cents a day, I get excited about indulging in a hobby at zero cost

I forgot the cost of the filament over the remaining printer lifetime. Make it 36 cents a day. I'm still happy

 

[The Hat]

forgot the cost of the filament

Don’t mention filament, because I’m having withdrawal symptoms...

 

[Redbrickman]

Another way of looking at it is relatively i.e. what is the value of the devide to you in real terms. For instance how much did your Cell.Mob phone cost and what is the expected lifetime, and what would a new all singing dancing model give you? PC's - I had one as soon as they became available for home use (Amstrad 1540) but I dropped Win OS and went Mac 8 years ago. Why? Every 2-3 years another Win OS was released and by that time the latest processor you bought was useless. I've had an iMac now for eight years, it cost a bit more than the equivalent speed PC at the time but is still working easily on the latest Mac OS and quite nippy - I would have been on the second or third new PC by now. OK this may not be relevant to the topic here but value and costs means different things for different people.

@The Hat - I found a very cheap offer on Amazon today for Fila***t £9.99 delivered but I refrained buying it in support of your pain

Lets hope the printing Gods speed the new board to Ireland ASAP.

 

[RogerR]

My first printer is about 6 years old. It uses rods and ball bearings for motion. Not the best setup and there's some minor surface rusting. Maintenance has been more work than expected.

But.....it prints better now than when I bought it. Everything is replaceable. So, I would say that it's more like a tool than most consumer items and there's no reason why I can't keep it running for a very long time (if I had all the .stl files for the big parts it would be forever).

That said, I just bought a CR-10. One of my rationalizations for the purchase is if a printed part breaks on my first printer...I need a printer to get it operating again. That almost happened when my hot end failed and I wanted to switch to a new type that didn't fit very well. I eventually got it to fit w/o a new part, but I'm better positioned with two of them.

Bottom line is that the initial cost can be amortized over a very long period if you are resourceful and patient.

 

[Redbrickman]

@RogerR

Welcome to the CR-10 club. I'm going OT a bit here but just want to make you aware (if you have bought a CR-10S) that Creality had a problem with their CR-10s motherboards which caused the nozzle temperature to vary a lot in a short period of time. They have sorted the problem now but you may find you get a machine with the dodgy board in it.

Here is a good article explaining the problem...

https://www.th3dstudio.com/knowledge-base/cr-10s-v2-0-v2-1-temperature-repair/

There is also a link in it to a DIY fix if you are handy soldering fine connections.

The CR10 is a great machine and will serve you well. The only other hint I can tell you is open the box (unplug it) before using and check every terminal screw is tight and all the plugs on the motherboard are OK. They have a habit of not tightening the terminal screws on the PSU which had led to arcing on the heater connectors and melting of the connector on some machines.

 

[RogerR]

I printed for four hours yesterday and didn't see any temp fluctuation issues. But then again, I'm probably not dialed-in enough that two or three degrees of fluctuation would be a big issue for me. However, I did I did a bit of Google research on the temperature fluctuation issue and found this statement at https://www.jozerworx.com/creality-cr-10s-c4-capacitor-diy-fix-tutorial/:

"This issue is specific to the CR-10S. There may be other issues that affect the regular CR-10, but the regular CR-10 uses a different circuit board and will require a different modification. Any CR-10S using the Version 2.0 circuit board is affected by the bad C4 capacitor issue. Other CR-10S board revisions may be affected, I have heard conflicting rumors. As of February 2018, it seems like most of the CR-10S printers which have been sold to date include the V2.0 circuit board. As time goes on, Creality may begin selling printers with a fixed circuit board, but these will likely take some time to filter down the distribution channels so you will be at risk of receiving an affected printer as of this writing."
​

I don't have a 10S, just a CR-10. When things settle down, I will probably do the fan upgrade for the reducing noise levels....and will check the screw terminals, etc. in the control box.

FYI.....I didn't want to print a"cat" for my first work, so I did four of the gigundo bed leveling knobs. I got about half way thru the first layer on bare glass before things got "loose" on my first attempt. So, I did the hairspray thing.....and subsequently printed four of them w/o any failures. Precision on the parts seems pretty darn good, they snapped onto the existing leveling knobs w/o any issues.

Only problem is stringing. With 2mm retraction on prints #1 and #2, I had quite a bit. 4mm retraction on #3 was a bit better. 6mm retraction was good (not perfect, but almost) on the last knob. That seems like an excessive amount of retraction so I probably need another parameter to adjust. But then again, I'll be switching over to PET-G soon and probably won't use PLA much in the future. I don't think that PET-G will have the issue since I only use 1.2 mm of retraction for my other printer (using 3.0mm instead of 1.75mm filament) for PETG without any stringing.

 

[Redbrickman]

I'd try increasing the Retraction speed gradually until the stringing disappears. There is a fast little test piece that is great for stringing tests and uses very little filament, so you can run it lots of times until you get the best settings....

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2219103

 

[FryingSaucer]

My first printer is about 6 years old.

What model of printer?

 

[RogerR]

The printer I bought in 2012 was a "Japrika". Bought it off eBay from someone who had some good ideas.....but was not great at following thru. They weren't in business a short time later.

Fortunately, as is the case for most 3d printers, the printer used open source software and readily available components. Thus, repairs and fixes were within my capabilities. And most problems were fixable w/o spending much money.

Even though the basic motion design for the CR-10 is HUGELY better than my old printer, I can see that it has some limitations that my old printer doesn't:

1. Upgrading firmware is required to change parameters. If I ever want to change the hot end......I'll need to upgrade the firmware to mod the thermistor type. But the CR-10 doesn't have a bootloader, so the process is more difficult and requires some hardware. Or, I guess that I can just accept that commanded/reported temps won't match up to the actual value...and come up with my own set of calibration numbers for the filament I use.
   
2. The heat bed is wimpy. More insulation will help, but if you want hot and quick a new heater may be needed.
   
3. The hot end seems a bit weak as well. When I posted previously, mine was working well at ~220 degrees. But at 245-250, it fluctuates a lot. It could be the power supply issue mentioned earlier in this thread. Having switched to a E3D V6 for my first printer, I'm a bit spoiled and may go ahead and do so on the CR-10.

RR

 

[Redbrickman]

RogerR some thoughts:

1. Yes the standard CR-10 needs a bootloader before you can start updating firmware, but it's not difficult to do and you can buy the necessary hardware for a few £. This is a good tutorial should you decide to take the plunge....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27RDXtKjrCI&t=427s

2. Agreed it is not the best. I don't worry too much about it as I am printing PLA and rarely use temps over 50C, but you can replace the bed with a standalone AC heated bed and SSR relay which will give faster and better heat control.

3. The hot end is not really designed for more than 230-240 in my opinion and going higher will eventually result in clogs and melting of the PTFE in the hotend. When my original hotend dies I plan to switch to an ED3 V6.

You will know if you have a faulty board as far as temp fluctations go by doing a simple test. Switch on from cold and do not heat the bed or hotend. If you find your temps on the display varying by 2-3 degrees rapidly then you have a faulty board but unlikely if you have a CR-10 as the 10S was the affected machine.