3D Printer?

[kaptainmyke]

Has anyone here considered investing in a 3D printer for making your custom parts, heads, arms, limbs, etc?

I do not know how the technology works, but I do know it's getting more affordable.

[Candy Kappa]

I got the da Vinci XYZ 3D printer, it's one of the cheater printers costing $500. And it broke really fast. Apparently the da Vinci is prone to problems.

I'd recommend doing a lot research on the printer before buying, especially into the more technical aspects. And what type of printer you want and can afford, cause the different ways of 3D printing can be crucial with what you want to print.
http://3dprintingfromscratch.com/com...gies-overview/

And, I'd wait to buy a 3D printer if you're on a budget, cause Thingmaker is coming soon from Mattel for only $300.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/27/ma...til-next-year/

[TheMasterTurtle]

I'm doing some 3D printed customs and when I researched it was honestly cheaper for me to have someone print the parts for me in a high quality resin material versus the time to learn and operate the printer. They can be pretty finicky and you'll be investing a lot of time in learning. If you're up for that then it's pretty awesome. My pieces are non tmnt related but I'll eventually do some tmnt stuff, just hasn't been priority

[TurtleWA]

There is someone on eBay that sells reproduction Scratch accessories. I am curious if these are produced with a 3D printer. I'm glad he is honest about them being reproduction because to an untrained eye someone could think they are purchasing original accessories.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

There are 3D printing companies out there that could possibly do it for you; I've used them in my work on a regular basis.

https://www.protolabs.com/

http://www.stratasys.com/

[kaptainmyke]

Oh man Wow I have to buy one of those "ThingMaker" machines when they come out. I feel like this will be an amazing bonding experience for me and my son.

I'd love to make my own accessories and custom action figures for us to play with.

[Candy Kappa]

Thingmaker looks pretty amazing, and the app is already out. So you can test it out and build your own figures with the pre-made bits, you can even export the file to print it yourself if you already have a 3D printer or uses another printing company's service.

Mattel worked with Autodesk to make the program, so it's solid.


I thought I'd share what was printed before the da Vinci XYZ got screwy

As 3D modelers, my partner thought it'd was appropriate that the first thing we printed would be the 3DS MAX Teacup model, due to it's significant history in 3D.



It's a $500 printer, so it's rough and needs a lot of sanding to make it look smooth. Of course the settings wasn't optimal when doing the first print ever.

Here's a early print of the lower legs of my partner's Ball-Jointed Doll she's making.



It's fresh off the printer so you can see the support kibbles.

She's printed a whole doll in 1/4th scale (intended for casting), although the hands, feet and head was done by a professional company instead of our home printer, since the print layers are less noticeable and require less sanding. Now that our printer is busted she's had the whole model printed professionally, but I'm not gonna show any picture cause the doll is anatomically correct. Sensitive minds and all

She also had a Etsy store where she sold 3D printed weapons for 1/3 and 1/4 scale dolls. Like Longswords, Skyrim weapons, katar and a spiked mace.

[TheMasterTurtle]

Originally Posted by TurtleWA

There is someone on eBay that sells reproduction Scratch accessories. I am curious if these are produced with a 3D printer. I'm glad he is honest about them being reproduction because to an untrained eye someone could think they are purchasing original accessories.

Likely made molds of the originals. I did that a few years back as well

[cloud]

I did my research of 3D printers last year along side with 3D scanners.
The 3D scanners was what prompt me to do some research.

Turns out the technology isn't quite there yet. You can get a reasonable priec 3D printer and you can make some cool projects if you have good 3D sculpting/modeling skills. Even with a 3D scanner, it just means 40% of the job is done for you, you still need some 3D skills on the computer to touch up the 3D model.

All in all, unless you are a tech savvy person that likes spending time tweeking and tuning, otherwise it might be too much work for customizing.

[kaptainmyke]

This all actually inspires me. I know my way around Photoshop and graphics design so this sounds really fun.