MarkVIIIMarc
2019-12-31, 10:53 AM
There are probably other printers out there which do just as well so maybe try them, but this is the one I got so I'm telling you all, don't replace your functional cell phone this year, go get a $220 3D printer and have another toy/hobby/more functionality in your life!
Third party printing services gave me the impression 3D printing is costly due to physical items. It isn't. I'm two D&D mini's, a 1:1800 battleship, a few tests and a waste of time into the trial filament which came with it and maybe its halfway done. Time is the cost. Our mini's and the battleship take an hour and a half to two hours to print.
Now the directions for assembly and the seemingly company sponsored video were the worst directions I ever used. They turned what should have been 30 minutes of hex key tightening into 2 hours of thinking about it. Then the directions for using the thing are equally poor. Essentially you have to level the bed, download a slicing program (think I choose Cura because I was mad at Ender over the instructions) and go for it. If your mini has arms held out at 90 degrees or something similar w/o a base you need to let the slicing program add a support (but not a reinforced one, oops).
Maybe some are faster but this 3D printer shouldn't be used to print refrigerator doors or anything football sized.
I've tinkered with a 3D drawing program called Sketchup before and had Shapeways make me HO scale well cars. One of my friends is actually good at it and can design War At Sea quality mini's. I know I'm going to get sucked in so I can design more of my own stuff. Its something to do and learn though and a way to spend time besides financing another car which does exactly what your old one did or make monthly payments on the I-Phone E72 which is .001% faster than the I-Phone D71 you already own.
Third party printing services gave me the impression 3D printing is costly due to physical items. It isn't. I'm two D&D mini's, a 1:1800 battleship, a few tests and a waste of time into the trial filament which came with it and maybe its halfway done. Time is the cost. Our mini's and the battleship take an hour and a half to two hours to print.
Now the directions for assembly and the seemingly company sponsored video were the worst directions I ever used. They turned what should have been 30 minutes of hex key tightening into 2 hours of thinking about it. Then the directions for using the thing are equally poor. Essentially you have to level the bed, download a slicing program (think I choose Cura because I was mad at Ender over the instructions) and go for it. If your mini has arms held out at 90 degrees or something similar w/o a base you need to let the slicing program add a support (but not a reinforced one, oops).
Maybe some are faster but this 3D printer shouldn't be used to print refrigerator doors or anything football sized.
I've tinkered with a 3D drawing program called Sketchup before and had Shapeways make me HO scale well cars. One of my friends is actually good at it and can design War At Sea quality mini's. I know I'm going to get sucked in so I can design more of my own stuff. Its something to do and learn though and a way to spend time besides financing another car which does exactly what your old one did or make monthly payments on the I-Phone E72 which is .001% faster than the I-Phone D71 you already own.