4 ms·

Does 3D printing work yet? As in the way my office printer can print 100 pages easily without issue?

AndrewOMartin 4y ago
I don't think comparing 3d printing and 2d printing is fair. Not the least because if the 3d printing industry completely halts progress it'll be meet by the crashing regression of the 2d printing industry in about six months.
- iandanforth 4y ago
  Ok, then the way I can get into my car 100 times in a row and drive without issue. Or I can toast 100 pieces of bread without issue. Or an elevator can work 100 times in a row without issue. You know, a pretty low bar for a product to be considered functional.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
    Yes and no. I have a Prusa Mk3 that I've had for years and upgraded to the MK3s. The machine was flawless from day one even in the hands of a complete novice like me. The upgrade was also flawless. This times I've had bad prints? I changed filaments without understanding how it behaves. I printed things without understanding how to prepare the print, and it fell over. Attempting to print flexibles. These issues may or may not plague you depending on your use case. I mostly print mechanical parts that I design myself. And I use limited types of filaments for prototyping. So can I get 100 out of 100 successful prints? Yes, that's quite achievable.
aquova 4y ago
My own experience, I bought a Ender 3 Pro for ~$100 about a year ago and I've been very impressed with it. Aside from some instances where I didn't have the bed correctly distanced from the nozzle, I've yet to have a build fail. Granted I've printed rather simple things, I think my longest build has been about 8 hours. I've been very pleased with its ease of use.
cmsj 4y ago
we all know that 2D printers are not able to indefinitely work "easily without issue", they all have issues that crop up at some point or another. 3D printers are the same. it's a mechanical thing which involves heat and lubrication and motors. It's never going to be "without issue". 3D Printers are a lot better than they used to be though - if you buy a good one it will be immediately useful and require minimal maintenance. Those are the things Prusa is good at.
GuB-42 4y ago
Yes and no. They may both be called "printers" but they are entirely different things. 3D printers have more in common with CNC machines than with office printers. They are certainly useful machines, I was skeptical at first but I finally got one and found many uses for it. Some are more reliable than others, but you still have to think of them as tools like you find in a workshop, or a sewing machine, and that need some skill and involvement to operate. They are also best used as such. The biggest value in 3D printers is to make things that don't exist to fit your specific needs, they are no replacement for mass production, in the same way people usually don't use an office printer to print a book they can find at a local bookstore, and this is will never be one click easy, just as writing a book is not easy.
vbezhenar 4y ago
Not Prusa anyway. I spent weeks building it from the kit. I spent days calibrating it. I printed few parts. Never got perfect first layer, but it works more or less. Then I updated firmware month later and tried to recalibrate it. It crushed printing head into the table. I'm afraid to turn it on now. It's going to take another few days to remember what's it's all about, to read all the manuals and watch all the videos, to grease rods and so on. May be I'll do it one day. I guess that some "industrial"-grade printers like Ultimaker should be better in that regard, but I'm not sure about that. Not every 2D printer is good either. I have Epson printer which refused to print stuff after few months of downtime. I managed to recover it by doing some "cleaning nozzle" procedure, but I don't think it was guaranteed to work. Though it was my failure because I was hooked on this promise "buy ink not proprietary cartridge with chip". I'd better buy ordinary HP laser jet with proprietary cartridge instead, those inkjet printers are not well suited for my use-case (printing few pages once a year).
kbob 4y ago
If you want 100 pieces hassle-free, you should probably use a printing service. The service's pricing accurately reflects the hassle they'll endure on your behalf. (They ain't cheap.)

I don't think comparing 3d printing and 2d printing is fair. Not the least because if the 3d printing industry completely halts progress it'll be meet by the crashing regression of the 2d printing industry in about six months.

iandanforth 4y ago
Ok, then the way I can get into my car 100 times in a row and drive without issue. Or I can toast 100 pieces of bread without issue. Or an elevator can work 100 times in a row without issue. You know, a pretty low bar for a product to be considered functional.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
  Yes and no. I have a Prusa Mk3 that I've had for years and upgraded to the MK3s. The machine was flawless from day one even in the hands of a complete novice like me. The upgrade was also flawless. This times I've had bad prints? I changed filaments without understanding how it behaves. I printed things without understanding how to prepare the print, and it fell over. Attempting to print flexibles. These issues may or may not plague you depending on your use case. I mostly print mechanical parts that I design myself. And I use limited types of filaments for prototyping. So can I get 100 out of 100 successful prints? Yes, that's quite achievable.

aquova 4y ago

My own experience, I bought a Ender 3 Pro for ~$100 about a year ago and I've been very impressed with it. Aside from some instances where I didn't have the bed correctly distanced from the nozzle, I've yet to have a build fail. Granted I've printed rather simple things, I think my longest build has been about 8 hours. I've been very pleased with its ease of use.

cmsj 4y ago

we all know that 2D printers are not able to indefinitely work "easily without issue", they all have issues that crop up at some point or another. 3D printers are the same. it's a mechanical thing which involves heat and lubrication and motors. It's never going to be "without issue". 3D Printers are a lot better than they used to be though - if you buy a good one it will be immediately useful and require minimal maintenance. Those are the things Prusa is good at.

GuB-42 4y ago

Yes and no. They may both be called "printers" but they are entirely different things. 3D printers have more in common with CNC machines than with office printers. They are certainly useful machines, I was skeptical at first but I finally got one and found many uses for it. Some are more reliable than others, but you still have to think of them as tools like you find in a workshop, or a sewing machine, and that need some skill and involvement to operate. They are also best used as such. The biggest value in 3D printers is to make things that don't exist to fit your specific needs, they are no replacement for mass production, in the same way people usually don't use an office printer to print a book they can find at a local bookstore, and this is will never be one click easy, just as writing a book is not easy.

vbezhenar 4y ago

Not Prusa anyway. I spent weeks building it from the kit. I spent days calibrating it. I printed few parts. Never got perfect first layer, but it works more or less. Then I updated firmware month later and tried to recalibrate it. It crushed printing head into the table. I'm afraid to turn it on now. It's going to take another few days to remember what's it's all about, to read all the manuals and watch all the videos, to grease rods and so on. May be I'll do it one day. I guess that some "industrial"-grade printers like Ultimaker should be better in that regard, but I'm not sure about that. Not every 2D printer is good either. I have Epson printer which refused to print stuff after few months of downtime. I managed to recover it by doing some "cleaning nozzle" procedure, but I don't think it was guaranteed to work. Though it was my failure because I was hooked on this promise "buy ink not proprietary cartridge with chip". I'd better buy ordinary HP laser jet with proprietary cartridge instead, those inkjet printers are not well suited for my use-case (printing few pages once a year).

kbob 4y ago

If you want 100 pieces hassle-free, you should probably use a printing service. The service's pricing accurately reflects the hassle they'll endure on your behalf. (They ain't cheap.)