3D Printing

[Ulma Doctor]

Hey Guys,
i'm really taking a fascination with 3d printing.
i have resisted cnc and gcode with a valiant effort , but i have fallen into amazement with what can be done.

i bought a Ender 3 3d printer kit from amazon for about $230- (i hear they are cheaper if you shop around)
i bought a 2.2lb spool of 1.75mm white and 2.2lbs of 1.75mm black which added $32
i assembled the unit in about an hour, but i took another hour to just check it all over.
the printer came with a SD Card to store files on, as well as the Slicer software.
the slicer software is basically the interface between the human and the g-code
the g code is what tells the individual motors and 3d extruder what to do
i was a little intimidated by the nomenclature of unknown things, but it really is simple to use and learn .
simply put, you'll load a 3d image through a .STL file, into the slicer engine
from the slicer engine, you can edit the part as necessary in most cases, or you can simply slice the object as the file specifies
after the object is sliced, it can be loaded onto the sd card
from there, you ask the printer to print the file from the sd card and it runs the print without any further input.
the first print came out perfectly for me, but i had spent a long time leveling the bed as a trade off.
i watched a ton of CHEP's video's on youtube (  https://www.youtube.com/user/beginnerelectronics/videos   )
he made things very easy to understand
with the new knowledge, i was able to print some pretty cool things
here is an early print

[Ulma Doctor]

thor's hammer

[4GSR]

My son is wanting to buy one, some day.  Spends more money on his truck than instead.  We'll get one sooner or later. 

[Terrywerm]

I've been very tempted to get one for creating patterns for sand casting. There would be almost no end to what patterns you could make. But, so far I've resisted the temptation and stick with doing things the old fashioned way.   

[KevinBacon]

I was very tempted to get an Ender 3 as well for a few months. Finally found a 3d printing forum to ask questions on, and the consensus was that I wouldn't be happy with it, and insisted that I spend near $1,000 on a printer. I decided I'd rather spend that kind of money on machines and tools. I'll probably end up buying an ender 3 at some point if I decide a project has no other option, or I find a good deal on one. Good luck. I'm very interested to hear how it goes.

[PJB]

Congrats on the new “machine”! 
At work I have used 3D printed patterns for sand casting since around 2005
It’s definitely viable process in the right circumstances for the right end product types but honestly for us, CNC milling them from modeling board is still the fastest and cheapest method.   After years of waiting for the technology to advance and the price to come down we more more less realized that unless you are doing geometrically complex, high dollar value product its hard to justify.   In the case of hobbyists though these inexpensive printers are amazing.   
Opens up a whole new world of what’s possible in ones garage or basement

[ironshepherdforge]

I’ve been messing around with my Ender for a few months now.

Mostly pulling things down from Thingiverse and using the Cura slicing program to play with quality and print time.

I’ve made a few prototypes for plasma and waterjet using eMachineshop and more recently Fusion360.

Came out nice to be able to try stuff out before paying someone to cut it for me.


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[mdlbldrmatt135]

I have one of the Anycubic Photon's.   I use it for printing model parts.  the build volume is only 115 x 65 x 155 mm  but it does what I need.