Anyone own a 3D printer? Recommendations?

[fuzzybabybunny]

Which one do you have? I'm exploring options for under $2,000 or even around $1,200, like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/FlashForge-pri...s_6066127011_1

The purpose isn't really to create final products, but to rapid prototype and get things fitting together properly before sending it in to get machined out of aluminum or get molds made.

I don't know about the actual hardiness of the plastic - is the final product pretty flexible or brittle, or is it actually able to create solid, hardy, precise parts?

And do you basically feed like a Solidworks part file into the machine and let it do its thing?

 

[Jeff7]

Not BFB's 3D Touch printer.

- First shipping attempt: Badly damaged in shipping.
- Second shipment: Cosmetic parts were damaged in shipping. My employer was ready to cut our (time) losses and live with it.
It's a company based in the UK. Maybe their package handling facilities over there use advanced gravitational control systems to reduce gravity within the facility to 0.5% of normal, and sophisticated robots impart no more than 1G of force to anything at any time.
They didn't pack these things to withstand UPS or FedEx workers.


- The outer frame is plastic.
- The supports for the bed are plastic. Over time, they've started to creep and deform. It's slight, but enough to make it necessary to recalibrate the starting height of the first layer.
- The bed is plastic-laminated fiberboard. It warped, badly, after every print. Or when the humidity changed. Or when the temperature changed. Or when the bed sat for more than a week on the supports.
- The included Axon2 software is lousy, and slow. It also lacks multicore support. KISSlicer is more capable, and much faster - I love watching all 4 cores + the 4 Hyperthread "cores" go to work.
- It uses 3mm filament. 1.75mm is thinner, easier to work with, and more readily-available.

- We've replaced the printbed with an aluminum one, and covered it with wide masking tape to provide a surface the print heads can print to.

- The plastic supports may get replaced with aluminum ones as well.

- I expect that the next thing to die will be the plastic coupler on the z-axis motor, due to the increased weight it has to move.

 

[Chairmeleon]

I don't know how eager you are to buy one, but they should be getting much cheaper and better in 2014 when some of the patents expire. I know that doesn't help you if you want one now.