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I got a 3D printer earlier this year for no other reason that it was on sale. I cannot even begin to describe how much fun I've been having with it. Funny enoug

I got a 3D printer earlier this year for no other reason that it was on sale. I cannot even begin to describe how much fun I've been having with it. Funny enough, I've had to print some of the things on the list. I have a pile of ~10 keyboard legs right next to me on the shelf, they often take a hit when I'm angry at something.

doctoboggan 5y ago
Years ago I owned and worked with tons of different FDM printers. They were always needing a height calibration or nozzle unclogging or something else. Does yours seem to work reliably? Honestly I got to the point where I just thought FDM would never be a reliable tech but I would love it if I was wrong. If yours is reliable, can you tell me what brand it is?
- mingabunga 5y ago
  Just get a Prusa, they're so good and reliable and the quality is amazing. You can either buy it in pieces (takes about 8 hours to assemble) or pay a bit more and buy it already assembled. I've had a couple of Ender 3's and they start out great but end up deteriorating in print quality after a while so you have to keep tweaking stuff which can be an exercise in frustration. Just my experience.
- WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
  It depends on your guidelines for reliability. Some people have claimed to have run thousands of hours on their Prusa machines, as they are built for reliability above all.
- axegon_ 5y ago
  Mine is resin based(elegoo mars pro). The parts are nowhere nearly as strong as pla for instance and the build size is significantly smaller but the amount of detail you can get is astonishing plus there is no time penalty for complex parts, unlike filament based ones. The bonus with elegoo's readings is that they have practically no smell to them whatsoever. I do plan on getting a filament based printer at some point though for larger parts. Namely Creality 3DPrintMill. Got a ton of ideas around robots, plans and drones so we'll see how that goes.
- xyzzy123 5y ago
  Prusa Mini. My 5yo prints on it pretty much daily (stuff I have pre-sliced and loaded on the memory stick). I haven't had to do any maintenance other than changing spools in about 3 months. Like all 3d printers they're still fiddly, finicky things in general. There's been a few times where I've needed to spend an hour fettling. But I've owned 3 printers before this and I would say the reliability improvement is at least an order of magnitude in terms of mtbf (where f = fiddling). I have 3 minis now, 1 with 0.25 nozzle loaded with flex, 1 0.25 nozzle (petg/pla) for decorative/hires and 1 0.4 nozzle (petg/pla) for fast, functional prints. This has mostly eliminated the setup time and calibration required for different "job types". I couldn't have done this before because just keeping 1 "less reliable" printer working exceeded the free time I was willing to spend on printer maintenance.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  My year-old Prusa Mk3S needs very little calibration or maintenance. It is more expensive than most hobby-range machines, but a friend recommended it if I wanted to spend time printing things, rather than upgrading or tuning the printer itself.
- CallMeJim 5y ago
  Ender 3 V2. Still new - I got the bed leveled once, now I just slice, insert SD card, and print. I've printed 20+ items across as many days without needing to re-level the bed. No problems with print quality, it just works. Setup was ok for an absolute beginner, after watching a few YouTube tutorials.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  My bed slingers (Ender 3 style) have been fairly reliable. Keys there are making the PTFE reliably locked to the inside of the nozzle*1, stronger springs well pre-loaded, careful bed tramming, spring steel print sheets, and doing a long retraction at the end of a print (and corresponding longer prime line and skirt around the print). My monoprice clone of the flash forge creator pro runs for many months like a laser printer. I can send a print job to it from upstairs and pick up the print when it’s done. That holy grail came from using a glass print bed, ABS slurry, enclosure, and a dial indicator to really nail the bed tramming. I’ve since added auto-bed-leveling probes on the bed slingers and they reduce the fiddling significantly. I may add it on the monoprice just for consistency/convenience but it doesn’t seem to need it as much. 1 - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw
demeyer1 5y ago
They are shockingly useful for real world, functional needs. If your interested in digging in more within some generally positive and positive communities, I'd recommend r/3dprinting and r/functionalprint.
sleavey 5y ago
I got one second hand from someone I worked with who was moving away. I also didn't realise how much fun it would be. There's great satisfaction from tuning the device to print perfectly and it forces your CAD skills to improve. And of course, being able to print little gizmos to fix things around the house is great too.

doctoboggan 5y ago

Years ago I owned and worked with tons of different FDM printers. They were always needing a height calibration or nozzle unclogging or something else. Does yours seem to work reliably? Honestly I got to the point where I just thought FDM would never be a reliable tech but I would love it if I was wrong. If yours is reliable, can you tell me what brand it is?

mingabunga 5y ago
Just get a Prusa, they're so good and reliable and the quality is amazing. You can either buy it in pieces (takes about 8 hours to assemble) or pay a bit more and buy it already assembled. I've had a couple of Ender 3's and they start out great but end up deteriorating in print quality after a while so you have to keep tweaking stuff which can be an exercise in frustration. Just my experience.
WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
It depends on your guidelines for reliability. Some people have claimed to have run thousands of hours on their Prusa machines, as they are built for reliability above all.
axegon_ 5y ago
Mine is resin based(elegoo mars pro). The parts are nowhere nearly as strong as pla for instance and the build size is significantly smaller but the amount of detail you can get is astonishing plus there is no time penalty for complex parts, unlike filament based ones. The bonus with elegoo's readings is that they have practically no smell to them whatsoever. I do plan on getting a filament based printer at some point though for larger parts. Namely Creality 3DPrintMill. Got a ton of ideas around robots, plans and drones so we'll see how that goes.
xyzzy123 5y ago
Prusa Mini. My 5yo prints on it pretty much daily (stuff I have pre-sliced and loaded on the memory stick). I haven't had to do any maintenance other than changing spools in about 3 months. Like all 3d printers they're still fiddly, finicky things in general. There's been a few times where I've needed to spend an hour fettling. But I've owned 3 printers before this and I would say the reliability improvement is at least an order of magnitude in terms of mtbf (where f = fiddling). I have 3 minis now, 1 with 0.25 nozzle loaded with flex, 1 0.25 nozzle (petg/pla) for decorative/hires and 1 0.4 nozzle (petg/pla) for fast, functional prints. This has mostly eliminated the setup time and calibration required for different "job types". I couldn't have done this before because just keeping 1 "less reliable" printer working exceeded the free time I was willing to spend on printer maintenance.
Symbiote 5y ago
My year-old Prusa Mk3S needs very little calibration or maintenance. It is more expensive than most hobby-range machines, but a friend recommended it if I wanted to spend time printing things, rather than upgrading or tuning the printer itself.
CallMeJim 5y ago
Ender 3 V2. Still new - I got the bed leveled once, now I just slice, insert SD card, and print. I've printed 20+ items across as many days without needing to re-level the bed. No problems with print quality, it just works. Setup was ok for an absolute beginner, after watching a few YouTube tutorials.
sokoloff 5y ago
My bed slingers (Ender 3 style) have been fairly reliable. Keys there are making the PTFE reliably locked to the inside of the nozzle*1, stronger springs well pre-loaded, careful bed tramming, spring steel print sheets, and doing a long retraction at the end of a print (and corresponding longer prime line and skirt around the print). My monoprice clone of the flash forge creator pro runs for many months like a laser printer. I can send a print job to it from upstairs and pick up the print when it’s done. That holy grail came from using a glass print bed, ABS slurry, enclosure, and a dial indicator to really nail the bed tramming. I’ve since added auto-bed-leveling probes on the bed slingers and they reduce the fiddling significantly. I may add it on the monoprice just for consistency/convenience but it doesn’t seem to need it as much. 1 - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw

demeyer1 5y ago

They are shockingly useful for real world, functional needs. If your interested in digging in more within some generally positive and positive communities, I'd recommend r/3dprinting and r/functionalprint.

sleavey 5y ago

I got one second hand from someone I worked with who was moving away. I also didn't realise how much fun it would be. There's great satisfaction from tuning the device to print perfectly and it forces your CAD skills to improve. And of course, being able to print little gizmos to fix things around the house is great too.