Waiting for my 3D printer !!

[oilydan]

I run a Makerbot 3D printer and use TinKerCad for drawing. Its quick and easy for a non-engineer.

So far I have made:

Coin holder replacement for the Defender ashtray
Side window demister kit for the Defender
Gear to replace stripped one in my car aerial chien coop door opener
Burger press
ID card holder

Try making your own things, it's far more satifying that downloading and printing someone elses.

[nellyleelephant]

We're on our 3rd 3D printer at work, started three years ago with a very basic UP FDM machine which has saved us a fortune in bureau printing. We then got an Envisiontec Ultra which was a pup and broke down, so we've recently got a Stratasys Fortus 380 which is a bit of a beast!

Large enough to print our helmet shell prototypes in one hit which beats gluing together smaller printed sections.

[Insanity Magnet]

nellyleelephant said:

We're on our 3rd 3D printer at work, started three years ago with a very basic UP FDM machine which has saved us a fortune in bureau printing. We then got an Envisiontec Ultra which was a pup and broke down, so we've recently got a Stratasys Fortus 380 which is a bit of a beast!

Large enough to print our helmet shell prototypes in one hit which beats gluing together smaller printed sections.

How much for the Fortus?

[nellyleelephant]

Insanity Magnet said:

How much for the Fortus?

Quite a bit, we traded in the Ultra and got a load of material and a Makerbot Replicator chucked in for about 70K, but it's the nuts.

[Insanity Magnet]

nellyleelephant said:

Quite a bit, we traded in the Ultra and got a load of material and a Makerbot Replicator chucked in for about 70K, but it's the nuts.

Think I'll need slightly bigger sofa cushions to search under... Even a uPrint is pushing it somewhat.

I've received parts from Fortus machines before and they are very good.

[nellyleelephant]

We're very impressed so far. It is expensive, but also very reliable which is the important bit.

It took 6 months of persuasion and justification to buy it, so I'm happy it's finally there.

The company was spending about 30K a year on rapid prototype parts so it made financial sense.