Longtime lurker willing to enter 3D

[Artur5]

After a long time lurking here, I’m sorry (or probably not) to announce that finally yours truly has decided to take the plunge.
The last barrier was 3D designing programs. Having tried several of them, I gave up after a few hours. I couldn't go pass the steep ( for me ) learning curve..
That was so until our fearless moderator with a green hat mentioned openscad... variables, math and boolean functions, loops ‘for..’; conditional statements ‘if.. else’, embedded modules .. all this was familiar to me decades ago when I fought with BASIC. Besides, CURA seems quite friendly too for slicing and printing.
I've been spending those last two days, getting into openscad and I managed to design a few simple things, even a container with lid for a set of 10 PGI-72 carts.

What’s missing from the equation ?. Oh, the printer of course . . and filament and maybe an additional magnetic hot bed, or possibly one of these filament heater-holders too.
After all, the last barrier is not the software anymore, but $$$$$.
Due to the scarce room space in my crowded apartment, I’m limited to 20x20x25cm printers., No CR10 for me, but CR3 or similar.

Advice gratefully accepted on suitable brands/models.

 

[Nifty]

After a long time lurking here, I’m sorry (or probably not) to announce that finally your truly has decided to take the plunge.

BRILLIANT! Be careful, it's quite addictive!

The last barrier was 3D designing programs. Having tried several of them, I gave up after a few hours. I couldn't go pass the steep ( for me ) learning curve..

I was right there with you. I started out only downloading pre-designed models (of which there are infinite) and then moved to Tinkercad, and then to Onshape. I go between the two. Tinkercad has a smaller learning curve, but is VERY easy to pick-up (like little building blocks). I'd probably use Onshape exclusively if I had the skills... but they build the more I use it and the more videos I watch!

That was so until our fearless moderator with a green hat mentioned openscad... variables, math and boolean functions, loops ‘for..’; conditional statements ‘if.. else’, embedded modules .. all this was familiar to me decades ago when I fought with BASIC. Besides, CURA seems quite friendly too for slicing and printing.

Wow, that's super interesting! openscad intimidates the heck out of me! Glad you found something that works for you!

What’s missing from the equation ?. Oh, the printer of course . . and filament and maybe an additional magnetic hot bed, or possibly one of these filament heater-holders too.
After all, the last barrier is not the software anymore, but $$$$$.
Due to the scarce room space in my crowded apartment, I’m limited to 20x20x25cm printers., No CR10 for me, but CR3 or similar.

Honestly, if I was in your shoes, I'd go with the Ender 3. It's a great price, and there are infinite amount of videos, addons, prints, etc. etc. etc.

$206 shipped in the US: https://amzn.to/3arKOHo

Also, if $$ is an issue, I'd stay away from the filament heater / holder.

... just go with a well-reviewed filament, like Hatchbox: https://amzn.to/3ao49t8
$20 a roll shipped isn't bad.

I'm SUPER glad I got into 3D printing. It's been an incredibly fun and rewarding hobby!

Good luck and keep us posted!!

 

[The Hat]

Advice gratefully accepted on suitable brands/models.

Congratulations @Artur5, now I won’t tell you which printer to get because that a personal choice so the best thing to do is cruse AliExpress for the many 3D printer available.

As it’s now Chinese New Year there won’t be much moving, but when the holidays are over they may celebrate with some good discounts, a printer with 20x20x25 is a good choice to get started and have plenty of fun with..

The best advice I can give is, take you time and choose wisely and no matter which one you pick, it will print straight out of the box, the even give you a small amount of filament to start.. You wont need anything else to get started..

P.S. Just think of the amount of disputes we can have about 3D..
I use OPENSCAD because I’m a stupid clot…

 

[Artur5]

Clot number 2 here, dealing with Minkowskis, differences, cubes, spheres, hulls and those damned brackets and semicolons everywhere...

Disputes ?.. I don't think so.

BTW.
Is there an equivalent of the Canon Pro1 in 3D world ?. I ask because then I'll know what printer NOT to buy .

 

[The Hat]

BTW.
Is there an equivalent of the Canon Pro1 in 3D world ?. I ask because then I'll know what printer NOT to buy .

Well yes and no…

Yes… All 3D printers will bugger up when you least expect them too, No… but not for long, you can repair them yourself and that’s what makes them different from inkjets, and they can print new parts too. No more B200 errors to deal with..

Once you get to know them, you can figure most things out, plus there’s a host of very good members to go to for advice, in the past I’ve used @ninj to get me out of many a hole and @Redbrickman became my go too man for most software issues that I encountered.. O' A visit to the First Aid box for a plaster..

I bought all but one of my 3D printers through AliExpress, I started with Monoprice from amazon a little 100x100x100, that got me started and before too long my head was bigger than my printer.. Thanks to @Nifty..

I moved to a Creality CR-10 (Big league) 300x300x300 and its still printing away, with many a repair and upgrade done to it and works day and night most times.

I was looking for a second printer so I got another Creality, this time an Ender2, 150x150x150, I just got that in time because the CR-10 went down and I would have no printer to play with for months. (Corona Virus)

When my CR-10 was working again I decide to upgrade the Ender2 to a bigger bed 180x180x150 but blew the shite out of the mainboard and am still looking for a replacement board..

That didn’t stop me because while I was waiting on a power supply from Creality, I bought another CR-10s 300x300x400 and that keep me going till I got my new power supply, now I could make my Standard Lamp parts that bit faster.

Then in a wild fit I bought a Kingroon KP3 150x150x150 for making the small parts that I needed for my lamps standard, and now I got all 3 set up in my shed and I can print whenever I want, 3 things at a time, its pure bliss. (Show off)

The reason why I end it up with so many printers was down to the Corona Virus, the delivery times from China went out the window for spare parts and upgrades, then the Feckin Virus came here and I’m still waiting on parts from our own Post Office to be delivered..(Snail mail would be faster)

Here are the printers I got over the years starting with..

The Monoprice..................................Creality CR-10 .....



The Creality Ender 2, ...........................Another CR-10s..


The last one Kingroon KP2..,


I have never gotten anything like the Pro 1 in any of them..
So you can see I’m not the one to ask .. Which printer to buy ?.. I love them all, but the best thing for you is to shop around ask a few questions and then decide on which one you can justify and afford. beware it's love at fiirst sight..
Well you did Feckin ask…

 

[Artur5]

So I did.
Thanks a lot for the insight.
One thing for sure, I won't be printing anything remotely near to your Lamps.
Yes, probably I'll get my printer at Aliexpress. Manys sellers ship now from their storehouses in the EU, so no import duties.
Do you advice to use only PLA filament before trying other materials ?. I suposse it depends a lot on the model of printer.

 

[stratman]

One thing for sure, I won't be printing anything remotely near to your Lamps.

Probably what The Hat said in the beginning.

After making toilet paper roll holders for everyone he knew The Hat set his sights a little higher, about 5 feet higher, with lights and Ted-proofing (but not against Mother Nature).

You are on a slippery slope, my friend, that is as infinite as your imagination and wallet can handle.

 

[Artur5]

Getting ready for mistakes, blunders, wasted filament or any other nasty surprises that Murphy's laws can have in mind for 3D newbies.

 

[The Hat]

Getting ready for mistakes, blunders, wasted filament or any other nasty surprises that Murphy's laws can have in mind for 3D newbies.

If you staying in the same room as the operating printer then don’t use anything other than PLA, one reason, its far safer and two it works much better that anything else. (Smell)

I’ve tried several other types of filaments and didn’t have much success with them and now have several half and three quarter rolls of the stuff just laying around. Now that’s waste…

No print job I’ve started have I ever worried about the amount of filament it used, more like do I have enough to finish out the print run, I’ve just finished on my mark IV lamp, if you want to calculate how much filament I used, each of these finished lamps weight over 30 Kgs..

You might find this very helpful when using OPENSCAD..
https://www.openscad.org/cheatsheet/index.html?version=2019.05

Readymade objects.. https://www.thingiverse.com/

 

[Redbrickman]

Welcome to the mad world of 3D

I suggest as you bide your time you also consider PrusaSlicer, it has a very nice interface and works well. It supports many known printers and if yours is a custom machine then you can also add it via a Wizard.

https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

Also if you are in EU you can get here Prusament filament which is not the very cheapest but is of high quality. Other good makes are ESun and Filamentum.

I'd definitely opt for the EU warehouse if you can (assuming you are n EU and not on the outcasts island known as UK) I bought a CR10 from Creality warehouse in Germany several years ago in their sale and it was delivered in 4 days.

If you are completely bonkers (like me) you can build a high quality machine from Voron Design, but they are not cheap!

https://vorondesign.com/

When you get the machine there is a 3D apprenticeship to serve The first two tasks are to Level the bed properly and to get a good first layer.

I found this very helpful when I started...

Have fun!