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WH, Prusa Printers is a Czech company, so spares and their filament is available directly online. They ship through DHL to the States and shipping times are a week or so as I recall. I mostly print with HatchBox filaments purchased through Amazon and availability has been somewhat disrupted during the China Virus Shutdowns. This has been about getting the colors I wanted rather than just the filament itself which is truly a "First World Problem"
in my opinion. Again I do not know anything about Creality Printers other than I have not heard anything bad about their products. Hope this helps you. Best, LB
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With things getting bad with us and China, do you think parts will become hard to get?Leave a comment:
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Gringotuerto and Warthog, WH, kind words indeed, it was a love/hate project once I jumped in on it, but the results were worth the time & effort in the end. GT you nailed it with your thoughts on "Support". That is the Key to 'happy printing' IMHO. I can only speak from my experience and thus far, Prusa has simply been outstanding. In terms of 'community' I get most of advice from the blogs on Prusa.com and watchng their uutoob vids which are pretty good as well. Firmware updates are frequent and can make such a difference in your printing. Prusa also supports their own Slicer (Prusa PE) and when combined with the firmware updates work wonders in improving my lack of design skills. I have not heard any 'bad things' about either Creality or Prusa in the 2 1/2 years I've been researching products and techniques.
Thingiverse is a great resource and your assessment of their website is 'spot on' unfortunately, but for now it is the 'go-to' for free STLs in many categories. I only post my designs here at "The Squawk" and hopefully one day if demand for all builders' STLs increases there could be a dedicated section here just for 3DP designs to review and for downloading.
Best, LB
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I agree with what Elbee says also.
Funny thing about Thingiverse - the website is awful. It is a really good source, but the company that runs it (Makerbot) doesn't put resource on it. But it's free - so I guess you get what you pay for. There are other sources of models also. Some of the MotionRC models have associated stl files on the MotionRC website. And here is a link to an article on other free STL model sites:
https://www.3dnatives.com/en/top-10-...les-161120174/
I also wanted to add that going with a mainstream printer is probably good. I see a lot of "top printers" lists with a lot of weird advice, but in my experience I see more people with Prusa and Creality than anything else. And so then there is better community support, I assume (I don't have either of these brands....maybe Elbee can confirm). Here is an article comparing the two:
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That is ONE GOOD LOOKING cockpit!!! I went to Thingiverse to sign up, but the are down right now. Still checking out machines.Warthog, I trust I am not adding content unnecessarily. You're asking all the right questions. I have been 3DP printing for about 2 years and I started from zero knowledge. The great news for you is many guys and gals are getting involved and actual printer setups are becoming much simpler. To respond to your question about SLA (resin/laser/dipping) vs FDM (plastic filament layering) I am in the the filament camp. SLA is great for small highly detailed parts with complex designs though the clean up and curing of parts can slow down your production and even limit some designs in size which will increase part count. Filament layering printing is the most common and is economical, quick in comparison, and versatile in that you can alter designs quickly while prototyping a part. I have designed many detailed parts for my RC aircraft projects with very limited CAD skills using TinkerCAD, Fusion 360, Meshmixer and Prusa PE slicer. I own a Prusa i3 Mk3. The picture below is for my Freewing F-18C Hornet and are parts for the single seat cockpit. I did not design the Pilot's body, but I did resize it, mod it, and print it. The downside was the delivery time for my Prusa even 2 years ago which was 3 months. Research is your best tool when beginning, but it sounds as if you have a great skill set already. I look forward to reading about your choices. Best, LB
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Warthog, OK it sounds like you are mechanically skilled, and in that case probably FDM is a better choice. With SLA, it isn't necessarily harder, and in fact with the printer I have it is easier. But it might be less interesting to you. There isn't a lot a normal person can do to service a delicate laser and mirror assembly, for example. With FDM, everything is exposed and serviceable. I have had repaired motors, rods, belts, gears, etc. Basically SLA is best for small scale details like instruments, machine guns, etc. But FDM is probably more general purpose, and you can make larger things.
For maximum strength, there are filaments with embedded strands of carbon fiber, but they require a hardened nozzle. Another way is to just use the printer to make a mold, and then make the actual part out of whatever you want. Some people make fiberglass molds, etc. If you look at Ramy RC Youtube channel, he does a lot of this and makes huge strong parts this way.
Best wishes! Nice looking bike, that is impressive!Leave a comment:
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Warthog, I trust I am not adding content unnecessarily. You're asking all the right questions. I have been 3DP printing for about 2 years and I started from zero knowledge. The great news for you is many guys and gals are getting involved and actual printer setups are becoming much simpler. To respond to your question about SLA (resin/laser/dipping) vs FDM (plastic filament layering) I am in the the filament camp. SLA is great for small highly detailed parts with complex designs though the clean up and curing of parts can slow down your production and even limit some designs in size which will increase part count. Filament layering printing is the most common and is economical, quick in comparison, and versatile in that you can alter designs quickly while prototyping a part. I have designed many detailed parts for my RC aircraft projects with very limited CAD skills using TinkerCAD, Fusion 360, Meshmixer and Prusa PE slicer. I own a Prusa i3 Mk3. The picture below is for my Freewing F-18C Hornet and are parts for the single seat cockpit. I did not design the Pilot's body, but I did resize it, mod it, and print it. The downside was the delivery time for my Prusa even 2 years ago which was 3 months. Research is your best tool when beginning, but it sounds as if you have a great skill set already. I look forward to reading about your choices. Best, LB
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Thank you Gringo. I am 71 and worked with my hands all my life. I love machines! I have a lathe, a mill, drill press, hydraulic press and a few welders. I'm no math wiz or computer nerd. These printers have my interest, big time! I'm always tinkering with everything. I can fix almost anything. Do I sound like a person who could operate a printer? I have terminal advanced stage 4 prostate cancer. It's in my bones. I'm going to enjoy what time I have left doing my hobbies. I really appreciate your info. on these machines. Is the SLA more difficult than the FDM? I don't mind the mess to clean up. I'm just talking about the actual operating of these machines. I have so many questions. What is the strongest filament or resin made? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions. Hope to learn more from you. By the way, I moved to Texas 6 years ago from Riverside, CA.. I have a sister in Oceanside and a brother in Redondo Beach. I used to have a custom Harley shop in Riverside for 20 years. I built the bike I'm standing by in my avatar. It was featured in two magazines!Leave a comment:
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Answer to some basic questions on 3D printing
(I'm replying to a message on another thread, I thought I'd answer here because I see there is a forum just for this topic)
Are they hard to use: Well, to be honest, they kind of are. When 3D printers first came out, people were envisioning a consumer item, kind of like your inkjet printer, where anybody could go buy one and start popping out parts. They are nowhere near that automated. You can have trouble with different filaments, with the bed, with the specific model, and with the printer itself. You probably have no idea how your inkjet printer works. When you have a 3D printer, you know a LOT about how it works, because you have to. I think it is fascinating and fun, but if you just want plastic parts and have zero interest in the machine itself, you might not like it. I have both FDM (melted plastic extruded through a nozzle) and SLA (photosensitive resin with each layer traced by a laser). You can read lots of comparisons online.....SLA is finicky and messy, but can do super fine details. These days you can get either for not much money.
Where to get "software": There are several components you need.
1. The model itself - the thing you are going to print. There are so many sources of free models that you can stay busy for a long time just printing things that other people have designed. I use Thingiverse a lot, but there are many other sources as well. These are generally in STL format (filename.stl).
2. The slicer - For FDM printers, this is software that takes the STL file and translates it into a detailed list of commands (called G-code) for your printer. This commands precise movement of the head, extrusion of filament at such-and-such rate, etc. I use a paid program called Simplify3D, which is $149. I think it is well worth the cost. But there are free ones that are pretty good too, such as Cura. This software is not easy to use, there are about 1000 settings and you eventually learn them all. It is surprising how many parameters can go into determining exactly how your printer behaves. In contrast, for SLA, I have a Formlabs Form3, and the software comes with it for free and is very simple to use. This is one area where SLA is probably a bit simpler.
3. 3D CAD - eventually you will get tired of printing other people's designs, or will find a design that needs some minor tweak to fit your situation. Then you need a 3D CAD tool to design your own. This is pretty hard to get into at first, but is well worth the effort. It is SUPER useful to be able to design even very simple shapes to your exact specification. Once you can do it, you will use it for so many things - RC parts, home repair, etc. I use the free non-professional version of AutoCAD Fusion 360. I would highly recommend the "beginner tutorial" by Lars Christensen on YouTube. If you actually follow along and design the entire tutorial (which takes a few hours), you will be capable of designing most things.
I have three printers and like it a lot. But I would say, it is kind of a hobby by itself -- it is not like buying a drill press or a dremel tool.
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