Home 3D printers? Best of the budget ones...?

[30801]

6 minutes ago, JimFin said:

I am sure you will have fun with it. Anycubic can be a bit hit and miss with supplies, you may might be safer ordering resin via their Amazon shop rather than direct, it seems more reliable. I would highly recommend the Wash and Cure - removes many of the reasons I delayed getting a resin printer.

 

 

I ordered some Elegoo water washable resin to see how that works out. If I can avoid having to dispose of loads of ipa that would be handy. 

I did order the cure & wash at the same time as the printer. While I expect I'll upgrade the printer if I like this 3d printing lark the cure & wash should last a good while. 

[njee20]

The problem is that you instead have to dispose of loads of toxic water. It’s not safe to be put down the drain, and unlike IPA it doesn’t evaporate as easily. 
 

I really like my wash and cure station, they certainly make life easier!

[30801]

2 hours ago, njee20 said:

The problem is that you instead have to dispose of loads of toxic water. It’s not safe to be put down the drain, and unlike IPA it doesn’t evaporate as easily. 

 

My plan was to evaporate it. We keep chickens and have a heater for their drinking water. Basically its a plastic thing that gets slightly warm. You stand their drinker on it and it doesn't freeze.

I was thinking of doing something similar with a bucket of resin water.

[Brian D]

14 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

G'day Brian, while I fully respect your decision to go the FDM route, may I just humbly steal  a few minutes of your time to  present my argument for going the resin way?

 

60km from Melbourne at the southern end of Australias  Great Dividing Range is a place called Mount Disappointment.* and that is exactly where you will feel you are living if you try to use an FDM printer to successfully print small architectural details.

 

Your stated needs are exactly the reason that I bought a resin printer, small architectural details that were fiddly to make using traditional methods and impossible to create uniform multiples of unless I got into casting.

 

Many modellers Holy Grail is a fully detailed exquisite copy in miniature of something they’ve spent hours and hours putting together, mine is being able to push a button and have all the work done for me while I’m sleeping or playing World Of Tanks.

 In order to achieve this a few years ago I bought a diode laser so I could  create my own etched brickwalls without mind-numbingly scribing them and found it great -  basically put a bit of cardboard or ply into it, press a button  and a few  hours later have a finished set of walls all engraved for me.

 But then I found I still had all the details like doors, gutters, chimney pots etc to build up from tiny fiddly of card or plastic which being lazy I found really boring.

I’d been looking at 3D printing as a possible solution but I’d never been convinced given the grainy slightly blurred looking output that FDM produced when printing these tiny things. Then in 2017 someone here posted up a picture of a detailed storage tank that they’d printed on an Anycubic photon. Its detail blew me away and I had to have one.

 

People say that resin printing is messy, but I’ll tell you what messy is – modelling! Especially architectural modelling old school style, sticking brickpaper to card, or using MEK on plasticard, I always end up using my finger as a spatula and them touching my finished wall and getting finger prints on it, then theres all the little offcuts that cover your desk….

 

 Resin printing in comparison is like working in a laboratory. The CAD files you can create on a laptop sitting in front of the telly or out under a tree in the sun, then the printing process is just pour in the resin and push a button. And   now that the manufacturers have invented their wash and curing stations so you just take the finished item off the printer, straight into the wash and cure and it cleans the resin off, and then cures it for you so you just take it off the plate and it’s there for you all ready to paint or drop on the floor and lose if you are me. The one trick is learning orientation of the print, need for supports and so on and that come  with gained  knowledge, advice from others and practice. 

 

Its dark here as I write this and my better prints are in my shed but there are several  Orb Weaver spiders that love building their webs across the path each night and I always walk into them and get 3 inches of  furry spider in my face that freaks me out.  Therefore the only prints I have to photograph right now are some rejects and test pieces in my workroom downstairs but hopefully they will give some ideas of the detail that a resin printer will give you. The knife is there for size indication, since I assumed that using an Australian coin wouldn’t be of much help.

 

 

They come from a variety of sources – the figures are from various free sites on the web that offer stl files, some are from the scantheworld site, which is a marvellous project whereby anyone can upload 3D scans of artworks etc, others are produced by me using a process called photogrammetry.

 

Actually, photogrammetry is helping me achieve my goal of being the laziest modeller in the world where technology does everything for me.

 But I still have to paint the end result which is annoying.

 

It requires a fairly beefy laptop or PC and a half decent camera (though I have managed ok results with my Pixel phone…) and some software that is freely available.. Basically you take a series of photos of an object, put it through the software and print it off on the printer, job done.

 

Architectural details are much easier now – for instance take these brackets or corbels or whatever they are called – they would be very difficult to make unless carved and I’m not good at that.

 

Instead I took a series of 8 photos and the software did the rest.

I haven’t yet printed them out so can’t show you the detail that the resin printer is capable of but maybe these will help.

 

 

 

Actually, I have uploaded these 2 monuments  to sketchfab, so you can freely view them, zoom in and out, spin them around and compare the prints above with the 3D files they were created from. You can also download them if you want to print them on an FDM printer to compare. 

 

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/carved-memorial-rookwood-cemetery-sydney-742961430a2b43c09c722f98b23b6a98

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/gothic-memorial-spire-rookwood-cemetery-sydney-74a9e2267a684d31abbe9001e5577442

 

By the way I have over 100 files there of various tombstones etc if anyone wants to create their own churchyard – not sure how printable some are in their current state there, some may need hollowing.

 

https://sketchfab.com/rookwoodgothica/models

 

With my purchase of the larger Saturn printer I've found that I can print the entire building, walls included so the laser cutter is now gathering dust, but even the smaller printers will print out buildings - to achieve this I make walls etc separately as a kit of parts, and glue them separately - this also has the advantage that if you discover an issue on a wall or something you just need to reprint that bit not the whole lot.

 

 

Finally, as to resin printing being a “too much of a faff”. What great strides has man ever made based on the idea that the alternative was   “too much of a faff”?

Did Winston Churchill say “We could fight them on the beaches but that’s  too much of a faff so we’ll get some signs that say “Please Keep off the Grass” in German instead?

 Did  Edmond Hillary say “I could conquer Everest but that’s too much of a Faff so I’ll go for a stroll in the Pennines instead because I can get a bus there”?**

 Did Beethoven  say “I could write a 5th Symphony in C minor but that’s too much of a faff so I’ll just write the bit that goes Da da da daaaa Doo doo doo dooooo because that’s the only bit people wiil remember  anyway”?

 No they didn’t! They achieved greatness because they did the thing that WAS a faff, and you can too!

 

*Mount Disappointment was named by the two explorers who climbed it hoping to catch a glimpse of the ocean to show they had got to the southern part of Australia but the trees got in the way. Also one of them suffered a groin injury during the climb and they had to rest for 5 days. In response, they named the mountain accordingly – take that, stupid mountain!

** I don’t actually know where the Pennines are or if you can get a bus there.

 

Many thanks for this mate - chapter 2 of 3D printing for this dummy. Lots of food for thought and links to explore which is greatly appreciated. However, re faff, all I would say is that Churchill, Hillary et al weren't dummies unlike this fellow who knows nowt about 3D printing. Enjoy your sunshine, weather is sh1t here and we're all in poxy lockdown! 

[njee20]

That was rather my point from my closing remark, none of it’s difficult, it’s just extra steps you have to do. But then you don’t have to fiddle with the actual machine as much. 

[John Harris]

On 22/02/2016 at 16:56, MGR Hooper! said:

Simple question....which home 3D printer is the best? I have a 600 quid budget (if that's enough?)

 

As others have mentioned, budget 3D printers (and quite possibly expensive ones too) require a lot of setting-up to get the optimal results.  I bought the cheapest (£99 as a kit), the Sstart  The results are okay, but importantly it helped a lot to learn the design software.

 

The tricky part of 3D printing is creating the files to print, think of it like an inkjet printer, without someone writing the documents it's an awkward door stop.

 

Even if you use Shapeways, it's the designing that is the steepest part of the learning curve.

 

jch

[njee20]

Note the OP was 5 years ago, the current discussion is only the last page. 

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Brian D said:

 

Many thanks for this mate - chapter 2 of 3D printing for this dummy. Lots of food for thought and links to explore which is greatly appreciated. However, re faff, all I would say is that Churchill, Hillary et al weren't dummies unlike this fellow who knows nowt about 3D printing. Enjoy your sunshine, weather is sh1t here and we're all in poxy lockdown! 

It looks like showers here today if that's any consolation, and we still have covid restrictions -that stupid elbow bump thing is still going on.

All the others restrictions have eased off but that one seems to have fallen through the cracks.

[Brian D]

25 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

It looks like showers here today if that's any consolation, and we still have covid restrictions -that stupid elbow bump thing is still going on.

All the others restrictions have eased off but that one seems to have fallen through the cracks.

 

Can't wait to get back to some sort of normal - at the minute here in the UK we are in total lock down, can't go anywhere.  Me and Mrs D had three holidays booked this time last year, all cancelled of course.  The only glimmer for me and her is the vaccine, being of a certain age. We are hoping to hear something soon, maybe in a week or so.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post what tremendous work you have done with the 3D printing malarky.  Fantastic work in the pics shown.  Can't wait to see your best work in the shed (beware the spiders mate ).  Also, the photogrammetry sounds extremely interesting - I may well have a dabble ahead of venturing into 3D printing expenditure.

Thanks again for your advice.

Regards,

Brian.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Brian D said:

Also, the photogrammetry sounds extremely interesting - I may well have a dabble ahead of venturing into 3D printing expenditure.

 Heres a quick video showing what its all about. This is the package I use, the free one is very generous, it allows a maximum  50 pics per project and has  a couple more limitations which for practical purposes aren't an issue

. I bought a licensed copy mainly to give the developer something back but I don't need its extra features.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdtLtBt9dJY&t=1s

 

 

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Brian D]

15 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 Heres a quick video showing what its all about. This is the package I use, the free one is very generous, it allows a maximum  50 pics per project and has  a couple more limitations which for practical purposes aren't an issue

. I bought a licensed copy mainly to give the developer something back but I don't need its extra features.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdtLtBt9dJY&t=1s

 

 

 

 

That looks great "monkeysarefun". It looks like a similar sort of process to the focus stacking software I have used in the past where multiple images are selected and you just push the button and await results. Great fun even if no subsequent 3D printing takes place. Thanks again for the info. 

Regards 

Brian 

[30801]

Had a play with the £75 Photon Zero. I just printed this with the default settings. Lost Bernie’s foot but quite happy with the results.

[newbryford]

I've always wanted to try my  hand at 3D printing.

Nothing spectacular or large. 

After reading reviews and watching a few videos, I finally took the plunge and ordered a Anycubic Photon Zero.

 

Just need to clear a space somewhere in my shed to set it up.

 

[Pete the Elaner]

I started off making my own window frames because I did not want generic ones for my station building & they looked too inconsistent when cut from plastruct. These were quite a simple design with all straight lines & right angles, which helped me to learn the design software.

I have since designed doors, more complicated chimney stacks than I could have built with brick card, parts for building drain pipes, replacement axle box covers for Hattons class 66, the entrance porch & name boards for Fawlty Towers ) .

None of this has felt complicated because I did 1 thing at a time & the printer has simply become another alternative to design components I need. It has transformed the way I think about making buildings.

The design software can also be used to draw building plans & work out their dimensions much more easily than my previous method of building a mock-up with cereal packets. If the roof angle or wall dimension doesn't look right, it is much easier to delete & re-create a line than it is to cut out a new piece of card.

[Neil P]

I've just cracked and bought a Photon Zero as well. For £72 / $99, it's too good to pass up on. Due to my dithering, the wash and cure station has sold out, but looks like they can be had on eBay for about £90, so I'll grab one of those too.

 

I already have an Ender 3, which I've been very pleased with, and have used it to print some retaining walls etc., but it doesn't quite have the level of detail needed for lineside cabinets etc.

Can anyone suggest any extras I need? Latex gloves and isopropyl presumably?

[monkeysarefun]

I found one of those flexible silicone spatualas you find in the kitchen bits and pieces aisle great when pouring the resin back into  the bottle, it really helps get the last bits out of the corners of the vat. 

 

Also a small funnel if Anycubic don't provide it, also from the kitchen aisle. And filter paper liners, you get a few with the printer but they don't last long,  I bought a box of about 200 from a paint supply place on Ebay.

 

Microfibre cloths are also good for wiping out the vat and wiping spills off the printer, paper towel is too scratchy if you want to preserve the FEP.

Edited February 8, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Neil P]

On 08/02/2021 at 11:30, newbryford said:

After reading reviews and watching a few videos, I finally took the plunge and ordered a Anycubic Photon Zero.

 

Has yours been dispatched yet? I ordered mine last weekend and have nothing but an order acknowledgment. 

[Kris]

23 hours ago, Neil P said:

Has yours been dispatched yet? I ordered mine last weekend and have nothing but an order acknowledgment. 

Anycubic are not always very quick to dispatch items. If it is coming from China, then New Year could slow things down significantly. 

[Neil P]

1 hour ago, Kris said:

Anycubic are not always very quick to dispatch items. If it is coming from China, then New Year could slow things down significantly. 

 

Thanks. I think mine is coming from the UK, as the offer was only available to customers from the UK. I'll sit tight for now and see what happens.

[Sir TophamHatt]

The massive draw back is the small space for printing.

Between 5cm and 8cm as a maximum on one side.

I have some board game pieces that would do brill in resin but they're 8.5cm on their biggest side and haven't looked into the station building pieces I want to try yet but I bet they'll be bigger still and bigger build plates are out of my budget.

 

This is the reason I chose filament printers instead of resin.

[njee20]

The introduction of mid-size printers like the Saturn resolve that though. It's 'only' £425, and much bigger. I still think 3D printing really works to its full potential in smaller scales, although I've printed an O gauge bogie wagon on my Saturn.

[Neil P]

On 13/02/2021 at 09:08, Kris said:

Anycubic are not always very quick to dispatch items. If it is coming from China, then New Year could slow things down significantly. 

I chased them up and they said they were out of stock and no indication of when it will be back, so I’ve reluctantly had a refund.
 

I see the Photon is also on offer at the moment, but looking at the horror stories about how long it takes to get repairs or spares, I’m wondering whether I should consider Elegoo or Phrozen instead. I have a Ender 3 already for the bigger stuff. I only really bought this because it was cheap, but I’d made plans to print some detailed items, so I’m sort of committed to the idea now. 

[Kris]

2 hours ago, Neil P said:

I chased them up and they said they were out of stock and no indication of when it will be back, so I’ve reluctantly had a refund.
 

I see the Photon is also on offer at the moment, but looking at the horror stories about how long it takes to get repairs or spares, I’m wondering whether I should consider Elegoo or Phrozen instead. I have a Ender 3 already for the bigger stuff. I only really bought this because it was cheap, but I’d made plans to print some detailed items, so I’m sort of committed to the idea now. 

I nearly purchased a while back. Money is now a little tighter so purchasing is out for the moment but if I were to buy I would be going down the Elegoo route. 

[newbryford]

Ju

On 20/02/2021 at 09:21, Neil P said:

I chased them up and they said they were out of stock and no indication of when it will be back, so I’ve reluctantly had a refund.

 

Same here - it took 2 emails.

They offered an upgrade to a Mono for $130 - but not a refund - yet. Awaiting a reply to an email.

They they still advertise the Zero on their website!

Not entirely happy with them taking the money 2 weeks ago.

 

I also bought some resin from them and that needs to be sent back as well, as I don't have machine to use it.

 

 

[Neil P]

19 hours ago, newbryford said:

Same here - it took 2 emails.

They offered an upgrade to a Mono for $130 - but not a refund - yet. Awaiting a reply to an email.

They they still advertise the Zero on their website!

Not entirely happy with them taking the money 2 weeks ago.

 

I also bought some resin from them and that needs to be sent back as well, as I don't have machine to use it.

 

 

They didn't offer me any upgrade options. I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't chased them up (took me two attempts as well). I suspect they would have just kept hold of my money.

 

I ended up ordering a Elegoo Mars 2 instead, which was on offer on Amazon at £180 last week. I lost confidence in Anycubic after this experience, and seeing all the complaints about missing orders and taking months to get warranty replacements on their Facebook page. It's a shame, because people seem to like the Photon range, but I have much more confidence in getting support from Amazon if something goes wrong.