3D Printers

[Vegita-San]

bought one 3 years ago that was made of wood, and about $250s. after many emails with the owner of the company, and many different materials tried, i couldn't get it to print even a simple cube that the software came with. after about 4 months, I gave up in frustration.

I decided to try one last time. But something a little more expensive. a Makergear M2. this one comes assembled out of the box and ready to go. hopefully that will cut out some of the frustration.

it'd be nice to cut out shapeways. they have become a bit more expensive now that they are more popular. 12 inch figures that where affordable a while ago are a bit more expensive now.

[IndigoErth]

Nice, I'll be curious to see what you make with it!

[Candy Kappa]

My da Vinci 1.0 from XYZ Printing is still busted although I might be the software that's at fault (it's pretty crappy) and not the hardware.

[Vegita-San]

it's alot less scary to play with than the drone is.
I still havn't fired up that more than twice as I don't know how to properly calibrate it yet.

First test print a success.

Trying one of my own files now. a less than one inch high technodrome.
find out if it works in an hour.

[Vegita-San]

second test print a success.

print of MY model, not so much :/

[sdp]

That's still wicked cool, I can't wait to play around with a 3D printer but I can wait until they're cheaper and work properly without much know how since i have enough trouble with my 2d printers...

[Candy Kappa]

Can't see the print result, could you repost the pictures?

It's a shame Thingmaker from Mattel seems shelved, it looked like a really promising 3D printer for a decent price. The da Vinci 1.0 was $500 when we bought it, now there are a couple of models in stores that seems fairy decent and better priced. A guy from my D&D group bought one and printed a few minis that looked pretty good, so I'm very tempted getting a new one.

[Vegita-San]

try one. about a 80% success..

[Candy Kappa]

That's pretty cool

[Vegita-San]

the big long test

[Candy Kappa]

60hrs, yeah been there XD hope it goes well

[Leo656]

Someone please explain to me how these things work.

Because I'm pretty sure it's witchcraft but nobody wants to just say so.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

None of MY hocus-pocus, that's for sure. Would love to make stuff like this, but I've neither the funds nor the patience at the moment.

[Andrew NDB]

Wouldn't the dispenser thingy constantly be getting clogged with whatever it's dishing out? I'm assuming it dries pretty quick.

[IndigoErth]

I imagine no worse than a glue gun? Probably heated and reheating it would remelt it? Or so I assume how it probably works... I know nothing of these things other than they are neat.

Heck, wouldn't surprise me if a glue gun inspired the invention.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Someone please explain to me how these things work.

Because I'm pretty sure it's witchcraft but nobody wants to just say so.

Imagine it like a giant layer cake... with thousands and thousands of layers. Except instead of delicious fattening cake batter, the dispenser squirts out liquid plastic. And you smoosh all those layers together to form your 3D thing.

It's actually a really simple concept... but then, I use these all the time at my job for rapid prototyping.

[Vegita-San]

money is more a problem than patience, but thankfully christmas bonus went toward this one. I threw out the older $250 cheapo one I got three years ago that never worked right, and couldn't even print it's own test file right.

this one came out of the box assembled, and was already used to print something before it shipped, so they know it was pre setup properly. and worked right out of the box within 6 minutes.

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Wouldn't the dispenser thingy constantly be getting clogged with whatever it's dishing out? I'm assuming it dries pretty quick.

they have an option called extrude... where the thing pre heats up to about 90 degrees, and extrudes whatever is dried up in it for about a few inches, before it starts printing again. it actually moves itself up off into a corner of the platform and does this, so the extra gunk that hardned doesn't mess up the main print.

right now, it's trying to print my technodrome model, and is mostly basically working on the support structure the thing needs to stay upright. it's been doing this for the last 5 hours or so. and hopefully, I'll come in monday morning and see this thing all properly completed.

it's going to be a long weekend..

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

Imagine it like a giant layer cake... with thousands and thousands of layers. Except instead of delicious fattening cake batter, the dispenser squirts out liquid plastic. And you smoosh all those layers together to form your 3D thing.

It's actually a really simple concept... but then, I use these all the time at my job for rapid prototyping.

That's a pretty good way of explaining 3D printers.

But this one, this is magic

[IndigoErth]

Whaaat... that's crazy.