Any 3d printers

I was just curious to see if there were any 3d printers on here. I got my first an ender 3v2 a few months ago and really enjoy the hobby aspect of it, I’m now working towards monetizing it with memberships to hex3d and flexi factory. I know there’s a lot of hate towards Enders, but while I was shopping around I found that an acquaintance is a 3d printer and asked his opinion. He said if I wanted to learn the machine and have something to tinker with an ender 3, pro, or v2 was the way to go.

I’ve definitely had some challenges, I installed a cr touch and still haven’t gotten that damn thing to work right after several attempts, I’m thinking it has to do with the g code in cura. But besides that I’ve learned a ton, and really enjoy it. There is something so cool about making something out of almost nothing.

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

I have a fairly upgraded ender 3, however I'm more into printing miniatures for board games. I picked up an Elegoo Mars v2 Pro, that handles my use case much better.

As for upgrades the th3d products are top notch, the upgraded board and self leveling system are spectacular.

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

I may or may not 3d print.. things.

That may or may not go bang.

But I would like to get into the miniature side of things and sell them to table top gamers.

Have a Anet A8 and a Creality CRS10PRO

I wish i had time to use them, lol.... I cant bring myself to print unattended.
I am a laser operator by trade and have seen lots of industrial accidents, so I am very cautious.

a reply to: heathwithnoteeth

It took me a bit before I felt somewhat comfortable leaving during a print, and after coming home to or waking up to spaghetti on my build plate a few times, I’m looking into either octoprint or the new beagle camera. So I can monitor my prints a bit closer and have to the power to cancel prints remotely.

a reply to: Hypntick
I’ve been thinking about venturing into the world of resin. The detail that you can get is awesome. I haven’t tried to many minis yet, I’ve done a few bigger cosplay pieces and also spend way to much time on cults3d and thingiverse and have a backlog of things I want to print.

We have a Prusa Mk2.5 after upgrades. Very nice machine. Also have a Qidi Tech S Box resin printer. Also very good. My son has produced everything from board game pieces to quad bike parts on them - obviously the quad bike parts are things like clips and filler caps, nothing requiring huge mechanical strength. a reply to: Somethingsamiss

I have a Sovol 3, essentially an Ender clone. It uses the Creality board with a direct drive extruder.
It still has its issues, but overall I used it to print all the plastic parts to make the MPCNC (Mostly Printed CNC). It took a lot of hours but it’s fun using a machine to build another machine that can carve wood or even aluminum.
If you get the itch check out Ryan Zellars multiple CNC builds using a 3D printer. I believe it started as a college project and has taken life from there.

V1 Engineering

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

So with a stock .04 nozzle, it's almost impossible to get tabletop quality prints without a lot of post-processing. It can work in a pinch; they just are fairly ugly without help and take forever to print. You can go to a .02 nozzle, but you can more than double your print time using those.

Compared to the Elegoo that I have, I can pop out tabletop-ready prints that only need a primer and wash (this isn't even needed but helps with aesthetics) in a significantly faster timeframe. The rules for ventilation or using an organic resin are critical as the fumes are about as toxic as they get. Unfortunately, most ventilation options like opening a window can cause issues with curing of the resin.

I will say this one significant difference sold me on resin vs. FDM; it took me weeks to get the bed level on my ender; this was also investing in additional upgrade parts to get an acceptable print. The Elegoo took about five minutes to set up and start my test prints, with minimal leveling and no issues since over several thousand prints. If I do have problems 90% of the time, it's with the model itself and how it was sliced; the other 10% are things like FEP film replacement or resin quality.

I am looking to upgrade to one with a significantly larger build volume for things like cosplay or other odds and ends, as this is designed for miniatures only, given the build plate sizing at least.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive
A buddy of mine was asking if I could print a printer and have that printer print another printer and so on.

a reply to: Hypntick
I’ve seen a bunch of people using air purifiers with resin farms, not sure if that really helps.Are you using a wash and cure station? If so is it worth it? I’ve seen a few other cure stations out there for a fraction of the price of elegoos. Sunlu has one that has a tent instead of a uv cover. I was very close to picking up a mars but I wanted to do bigger prints. I follow a ton of printers on TikTok it’s actually a really helpful community, one guy on there runs a group on Facebook for resin printers. He’s sold me picking one up, although at the moment I’m saving every penny I make with the way things are going, but hopefully within the foreseeable future I’ll finally get one.

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

So I picked up the wash and cure station as part of an Amazon bundle they were selling. I've got a few purifiers near the printer and they seem to work well but I also use a non-toxic organic-based resin. I would say the wash and cure station is definitely worth it, you do have to deal with 90%+ IPA and other fun stuff, so gloves and all of the PPE are needed for that. It really does a great job on everything I've used so far.

As long as the ender is meeting your needs, for now, they will likely have better deals, availability, and potential upgrades in the next year.

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

Oh it’s very possible to print some of a 3D printer, except for any extruder, lead screws, stepper motors, and motherboard most of the everything else is held together with around 75% infill plastic pieces.
The cnc I built can take an extruder, but the Z axis can only go around 6” high, so your project height would be limited, but there are many 3D printer projects that clone the Prusa.
It’s like anything though, sometimes it’s just worth letting a company build it for you. They have usually worked out all the kinks so you don’t have to.