Discussion
Anyone got any recommendations for one, or even where to read up on one?
I have been reading some articles on https://all3dp.com/ but i was wondering if there is anywhere else that has good quality reviews?
i fancy having a play with one, preferably with a build volume over 250x250x250 after watching some videos from https://www.youtube.com/user/HexiBase getting me interested in seeing if i can 3D scan, and then print a custom enclosure for my car.
anyway, thanks
I have been reading some articles on https://all3dp.com/ but i was wondering if there is anywhere else that has good quality reviews?
i fancy having a play with one, preferably with a build volume over 250x250x250 after watching some videos from https://www.youtube.com/user/HexiBase getting me interested in seeing if i can 3D scan, and then print a custom enclosure for my car.
anyway, thanks
I'm a design engineer, so have been using them for a few years. I'm actually going to design a small toggle press today to fold a small 1mm thick, sheet metal part. I'm going to see if I can 3D print the tool out of nylon to save buying one. Terribly handy things!
Cheap ones are rubbish in my opinion with low resolution, trouble with warping and getting the prints to stick to the bed. Ideally make sure the one you buy has a heated bead and buy some dimafix (Amazon) as an adhesive for your prints.
I use an Ultimaker which I think start at around 2k. I think if you spend anything less than a grand you will encounter problems - thats from my experience anyway. Maybe the cheaper ones have got better since I last used one.
Cheap ones are rubbish in my opinion with low resolution, trouble with warping and getting the prints to stick to the bed. Ideally make sure the one you buy has a heated bead and buy some dimafix (Amazon) as an adhesive for your prints.
I use an Ultimaker which I think start at around 2k. I think if you spend anything less than a grand you will encounter problems - thats from my experience anyway. Maybe the cheaper ones have got better since I last used one.
welshjon81 said:
I'm actually going to design a small toggle press today to fold a small 1mm thick, sheet metal part. I'm going to see if I can 3D print the tool out of nylon to save buying one.
It'll be interesting to see the results - I've got a metal folder that I use to bend 1mm and 1.2mm steel, and it's pretty thick gauge stuff and still won't put a very sharp bend in the steel. Depends on the width as well as the thickness, of course.Isn't there a fairly long-running thread on here about 3D printers if you scroll back a few pages? Lots of people talking about different makes and their own results.
(ETA - here, and not as long-running as I thought https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... )
Edited by droopsnoot on Wednesday 19th August 10:05
I've just been through the same process and currently have a Prusa I3 Mk3s on order and awaiting delivery.
Setting out with almost zero knowledge of home use 3D printers I researched the printers in the £500 to £1000 bracket and ended up with a shortlist of 3 printers with the Prusa eventually coming out as my preferred option. And from what I've gathered since, it would appear as though i made the right choice as its well regarded machine.
Setting out with almost zero knowledge of home use 3D printers I researched the printers in the £500 to £1000 bracket and ended up with a shortlist of 3 printers with the Prusa eventually coming out as my preferred option. And from what I've gathered since, it would appear as though i made the right choice as its well regarded machine.
pessimal said:
was thinking of a printer in the £300-£400 range, the creality printers seem to get alot of good reviews, but happy to be advised elsewhere
I'm thinking about the Artillery X1 as my first foray into 3d printing. I actually found it after looking at Creality reviews. $399 on Banggood at the moment...I don't think I can justify the spend on the Prusa... yet!
I have three 3d printers, my thoughts:
Ender 3 pro: nearly everyone starts with one of these, they are cheap (well, not so cheap now) and they need loads of fiddling to get working consistently well. Its not really an ender 3 anymore as it has completely new customer wiring, a high end Duet wifi board and a titan aero extruder. Triggers Brush No1.
Prusa MK3s: expensive, fun to build yourself, very consistent, and you're given software that more or less gurantees high quality results. Huge community backing and once it's built, there is only minimal tweaking required. Haven't modded it at all.
Artillery Sidewinder X1: A massively overhyped POS out of the box with a reasonably high failure rate. Within a week, the mainboard on mine failed in a dangerous way - the MOSFET for the heated bed failed and stuck ON. I was very glad to be next to it when it happened or the house would have burnt to a crisp. I ended up replacing most of the electronics with the more reliable SKR 1.4T board and a Hermera hotend and now its pretty good. Also: the Facebook groups for this printer are nutters - the merest hint that your printer isn't anything less than perfect and you're chased out of town by angry virgin nerds. Triggers Brush No2.
Get the prusa.
Ender 3 pro: nearly everyone starts with one of these, they are cheap (well, not so cheap now) and they need loads of fiddling to get working consistently well. Its not really an ender 3 anymore as it has completely new customer wiring, a high end Duet wifi board and a titan aero extruder. Triggers Brush No1.
Prusa MK3s: expensive, fun to build yourself, very consistent, and you're given software that more or less gurantees high quality results. Huge community backing and once it's built, there is only minimal tweaking required. Haven't modded it at all.
Artillery Sidewinder X1: A massively overhyped POS out of the box with a reasonably high failure rate. Within a week, the mainboard on mine failed in a dangerous way - the MOSFET for the heated bed failed and stuck ON. I was very glad to be next to it when it happened or the house would have burnt to a crisp. I ended up replacing most of the electronics with the more reliable SKR 1.4T board and a Hermera hotend and now its pretty good. Also: the Facebook groups for this printer are nutters - the merest hint that your printer isn't anything less than perfect and you're chased out of town by angry virgin nerds. Triggers Brush No2.
Get the prusa.
devnull said:
Artillery Sidewinder X1: A massively overhyped POS out of the box with a reasonably high failure rate. Within a week, the mainboard on mine failed in a dangerous way - the MOSFET for the heated bed failed and stuck ON. I was very glad to be next to it when it happened or the house would have burnt to a crisp. I ended up replacing most of the electronics with the more reliable SKR 1.4T board and a Hermera hotend and now its pretty good. Also: the Facebook groups for this printer are nutters - the merest hint that your printer isn't anything less than perfect and you're chased out of town by angry virgin nerds. Triggers Brush No2.
Get the prusa.
which version, the review i read on all3dp said the v4 was much improved?Get the prusa.
devnull said:
Get the prusa.
That always seemed to be the conclusion I came to as well.Cost aside, there just didn't seem to be any good reason not to buy the Prusa.
I bought it in kit form as well which does save £200 over buying a fully assembled unit, but I'm looking forward to getting hands on and assembling it myself.
devnull said:
I have three 3d printers, my thoughts:
Ender 3 pro: nearly everyone starts with one of these, they are cheap (well, not so cheap now) and they need loads of fiddling to get working consistently well. Its not really an ender 3 anymore as it has completely new customer wiring, a high end Duet wifi board and a titan aero extruder. Triggers Brush No1.
Prusa MK3s: expensive, fun to build yourself, very consistent, and you're given software that more or less gurantees high quality results. Huge community backing and once it's built, there is only minimal tweaking required. Haven't modded it at all.
Artillery Sidewinder X1: A massively overhyped POS out of the box with a reasonably high failure rate. Within a week, the mainboard on mine failed in a dangerous way - the MOSFET for the heated bed failed and stuck ON. I was very glad to be next to it when it happened or the house would have burnt to a crisp. I ended up replacing most of the electronics with the more reliable SKR 1.4T board and a Hermera hotend and now its pretty good. Also: the Facebook groups for this printer are nutters - the merest hint that your printer isn't anything less than perfect and you're chased out of town by angry virgin nerds. Triggers Brush No2.
Get the prusa.
Thanks for this. The last thing I want is a house fire and I was under the impression that the Artillery was somewhat safer than the Creality printers. I will wait and get the Prusa when I can justify it.Ender 3 pro: nearly everyone starts with one of these, they are cheap (well, not so cheap now) and they need loads of fiddling to get working consistently well. Its not really an ender 3 anymore as it has completely new customer wiring, a high end Duet wifi board and a titan aero extruder. Triggers Brush No1.
Prusa MK3s: expensive, fun to build yourself, very consistent, and you're given software that more or less gurantees high quality results. Huge community backing and once it's built, there is only minimal tweaking required. Haven't modded it at all.
Artillery Sidewinder X1: A massively overhyped POS out of the box with a reasonably high failure rate. Within a week, the mainboard on mine failed in a dangerous way - the MOSFET for the heated bed failed and stuck ON. I was very glad to be next to it when it happened or the house would have burnt to a crisp. I ended up replacing most of the electronics with the more reliable SKR 1.4T board and a Hermera hotend and now its pretty good. Also: the Facebook groups for this printer are nutters - the merest hint that your printer isn't anything less than perfect and you're chased out of town by angry virgin nerds. Triggers Brush No2.
Get the prusa.
Prusa Mk3S
The cheaper stuff is hit and miss - probably the best of the cheaper end is Creality, You have a reasonable chance of a printer that works well, but expect no customer support if there are issues. That said, no single part on them is that expensive, so worst case is you need to swap a part.
I was shocked to find that the Ender 3 Pro has no thermal runaway protection, meaning should a thermistor fail, it’ll just heat up untail something breaks or catches fire. The printer is capable of it, but requires a firmware upgrade.
Just consider what company sends out a printer in that state.
Yes I have one, it prints very well, but that lack off safety really ****** me off. I’ll update it at some point, but hey, no boot loader on the main board makes this difficult, I need a dongle of some sort I believe.
I’m also have a Prusa difference is night and day, customer support is excellent, quality is excellent as in reliability and safety features. It’s reliable is mostly just turn and and go, self levels, self checks and calibrates - easy. Direct drive as well, so it’ll happily print multiple materials. Firmware update, copy it to the SD card, and update through the Prusaslicer software.
Oh, after many hours of printing it did have a thermistor fail, it shut itself off ... I had a spare, so 30 mins later, back in action.
The cheaper stuff is hit and miss - probably the best of the cheaper end is Creality, You have a reasonable chance of a printer that works well, but expect no customer support if there are issues. That said, no single part on them is that expensive, so worst case is you need to swap a part.
I was shocked to find that the Ender 3 Pro has no thermal runaway protection, meaning should a thermistor fail, it’ll just heat up untail something breaks or catches fire. The printer is capable of it, but requires a firmware upgrade.
Just consider what company sends out a printer in that state.
Yes I have one, it prints very well, but that lack off safety really ****** me off. I’ll update it at some point, but hey, no boot loader on the main board makes this difficult, I need a dongle of some sort I believe.
I’m also have a Prusa difference is night and day, customer support is excellent, quality is excellent as in reliability and safety features. It’s reliable is mostly just turn and and go, self levels, self checks and calibrates - easy. Direct drive as well, so it’ll happily print multiple materials. Firmware update, copy it to the SD card, and update through the Prusaslicer software.
Oh, after many hours of printing it did have a thermistor fail, it shut itself off ... I had a spare, so 30 mins later, back in action.
Edited by mph999 on Wednesday 19th August 19:44
IIIRestorerIII said:
Following feedback from the guys here (Thanks) just pushed the button on a Prusa mini at a tad over £400 delivered, including optional extras and a roll of black Galaxy PLA. Prusa Slicer software has been downloaded so just the 7 week wait for delivery now!
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