Thinking about joining the club

[CompleteDestruction]

Thinking about getting a printer....

I know a little about cad and design vector files for my vinyl plotter. So I hope I can stumble around basic design.

I hope to make a few heli parts probably things like skids. And things like mega blocks/ Legos for the kid... I know I'm asking for alot, but it needs to be accurate so I do not need to spent hour cleaning it up.

What is a must have? What would be nice to have? And what should I avoid?

Thanks for the help.

[hANDYman]

I just joined the club. In fact I'm just finishing up my second successful print after many failed attempts.

It turned out to be an assembly error that was causing the X-axis to skip on +ve moves but it's fixed now and working great!

I went with the Fabrikator Mini from Hobbyking which is their (Turnigy's) version of the open source Tinyboy 3D printer. It's not big by any means, and it can only print objects 80mm x 80mm x 80mm, (Actually a bit smaller on the Y-axis, maybe about 75mm.) but for the price it's a great way to get your feet wet.

It took me a few hours to get it to print right, and there are a few small issues that are discussed on a thread over on RCGroups, but so far I'm really impressed with the print quality. On the 2 parts I've made so far there is literally ZERO cleanup needed.

I actually just peeled my 2nd print off the platform and there are no strings to peel off, or nubs sticking out. I'm absolutely blown away by how nice the part is!

If you want to make skids, then you would be limited to an mCPx or perhaps 130x, but it's definitely got great bang for the buck print-quality wise... and a 1/2lb spool of ESUN PLA is less than $10 from HK.

It looks like I'll be ordering a few more colours soon...

[P.I.Engineer]

there's not many options, spend the money or spend the time.

i've had a few friends get cheap printers and get super frustrated.

my recommendation

makerbot replicator 2
bottleworks cnc arms and build plate
simplify3d

that's an expensive setup for home, but, if you want to print and not tweak to print, that's a good way to go.

[Baedarlboo]

Originally Posted by P.I.Engineer

there's not many options, spend the money or spend the time.

i've had a few friends get cheap printers and get super frustrated.

my recommendation

makerbot replicator 2
bottleworks cnc arms and build plate
simplify3d

that's an expensive setup for home, but, if you want to print and not tweak to print, that's a good way to go.

I will agree with this. I got a PrintRBot build it yourself and although it was straight forward with assembly, getting everything setup, calibrated, and working to a decent standard was a lot of work/time. It's a steep learning curve, but I'm at a point where I can just throw stl files at it and print stuff out with minimal issues. A positive point I can point going this route though is that I know exactly what and where things went wrong should that happen. I can maintain and fix anything that breaks on the printer, also modify it to increase bed/print size. Plus and minus's to everything, just weigh your options and do lots of research.

[yakky]

I recently grabbed a folger i3, there is a good thread on it on rcgroups. Seemed like the best value if you want to build a kit yourself, which is a good way to learn about all the stuff you need to know about to make a good print.

[Heli_Jelly]

Some options to consider when shopping for a 3d printer:
-Heated bed (preferably glass)
-Easily change extruder tip to different sizes.
-Can print a wide variety of filaments.
-Autoleveler with an adjustable bed.

Lulzbot mini comes to mind. Stay away from makerbot.

[distructor]

I went with the M3D printer, and use rhino V2 that I bought 15 years ago. Done antenna guides, and various other small brackets. I don't think PLA or ABS would be strong enough for most of our heli parts like landing skids.

On some of my night flight kite planes I do a lot more.