3D Printing: Have You Taken the Plunge Yet? Planning To?

First time accepted submitter mandark1967 (630856) writes "With recent advances in working with different filaments (Wood filament, Nylon, etc) and price drops seen lately, I'm curious to know how many of you have decided to take the plung and get into 3D Printing. There are several kits available now or even assembled units that are in the same cost range as a 'gamer' video card (DaVinci 1.0 for $499, Printrbot Simple 2014 — $399, 3d Stuffmaker — $499).

I'm wondering if any of you have purchased a 3D printer and how you like it so far. I've been in the computer field since the 80's but never did CAD work before so I was very hesitant to take the plunge, fearing the steep learning curve of mastering programs like Blender or AutoCAD. What I found, however, was programs like TinkerCAD and 123Design made it very easy to learn basic CAD so I decided to pick up a 3D Printer last week. After a week or so of design work and printing out many items, I think I've picked up a few skills and I can actually see myself making a little money on the side creating and selling items. I don't think I'd trade my current job for one designing and printing items, but it is nice to have a little income on the side if I choose to do that."

Comments

How many unhatched chickens? So many.

[seebs]

So, you haven't actually tried to make any money, but you could see yourself doing it, and you are talking about how it would be nice if you choose to do it... Shouldn't you verify that you can actually successfully do such a thing before counting that as a selling point of the printers?

Re:How many unhatched chickens? So many.

[gl4ss]

I got a Replicator dual(was 2400 euros or something shipped). total beta product as far as dual goes(using 2 materials). works ok after many community tweaks. made some parts for friends, keychains etc.

I've since bought two repraps, and now I have the opinion that spending over 1000 bucks on a fdm 3d printer is just pure madness, unless you go and spend 8000 and get a mojo(expensive prints but easy peacy to do the prints).

why put so much money into this? because it's fun. it mixes electronics, mechanics, motors, robotics... so the printers themselves are a hobby in itself too and you get something tangible out of it for your efforts. it's much less noisy and approachable than cnc routing etc similar and much cheaper too.

summa summarum.. unless you're already running a prototyping biz you can't just make money easily by just printing. if you need 3d prints for some other job(design or whatever) then you can save a lot of money and time by running your own 3d printer though..

buying your first printer and being all "oh I'm gonna make so much money from this" just doesn't quite work out. you can use it to complement some other business you have, but it's hard to compete on the market for just making the prints. however if you're doing freelance parts designs or such stuff then you pretty much have to have one now.

Re:How many unhatched chickens? So many.

[dreamchaser]

There are 3D printers that can handle metal so yes you can print gold. Unfortunately you also have to provide said gold ;)

3D printing

[ledow]

I can't speak from experience but the things keeping me OFF 3D printers at the moment are:

- Too much faffing about to build the things (or too much cost to acquire them pre-built).
- Too much faffing about having to calibrate, adjust, tinker and play with them to get good results.
- Too fragile (i.e. you can't throw them about, take them to a friend's house).
- Too reliant on a small set of manufacturers (for the source materials, software, etc.)
- Still no established 3D printing "standard" in an OS. Sure, there are lots of "almost-standards" but I'd rather avoid another mess of things not being compatible - non-compatible printers just puts us back into the range of "I have to buy the same printer/manufacturer again because I don't want to change all my setup / software / source material" but in an era where it's too expensive to perform the current "Sod it, throw it away, buy the cheapest one again, suffer the time lost" scenario we have with 2D printers.
- 3D models are just that much harder to make and print reliably. The two examples of software you point out? Both licensed only for home use. Google Sketchup is the same. As soon as you say 3D, you have to pay for software (and driver integration, or learning-curve) so we've jumped back 20 years again). Then every home-built printer will have different tolerances and results.

3D printing needs to become a consumer-level tech. It's not. It's still up there with all the existing methods of plastics / wood / metal construction from a computer model. In the range of a trained person with expensive hardware in, say, a school for a specialised project. But not for the amateur home user unless they are prepared to spend as much time tinkering with the system as getting results out of it.

To be honest, I will look at 3D printing seriously, even for personal hobbyist use, when someone like HP or Epson or a big name (hell, doesn't even need to be a printer manufacturer, Dyson, Samsung, whoever) produce a small black box. From that I put in up-to-but-no-more-than four materials / colours / dyes in a standardised package. I get a free bit of software with a few thousand models and - critically - import of any 3D model and/or conformity to a standardised 3D printing protocol so I can use other software. And it just works. Every time. I print, it comes out exactly as it is on the screen. WYSIWYG 3D printing. I don't even mind if it costs as much as a really decent 2D printer with more expensive consumables. But the hurdle to jump is the simplicity, repeatability, the hands-off method of printing, the automatic calibration and error detection (why can't we combine with something Kindle-like to detect when the print job is going wrong and have the printer slice off the last layer and start it again?), the single-black-box that is available complete, without assembly, from Amazon, tested and ready to go.

Until then, it's nothing better than a hobbyist electronics kit, or someone building a high-end overclocking rig, or one of those RPi racks... the domain of someone who has so much time on their hands that they don't actually need the printer in the first place.

Re:3D printing

[Anonymous Coward]

You're really misinformed. You don't NEED to pay a single CENT for software that creates 3D models. Blender is fully compatible with 3D printing techniques, and even has integration with some 3D printing services (like Shapeways) these days. And guess what - Blender's completely FREE. I've printed tons of stuff on my own already just using stuff I made in Blender alone.

Quit spreading uninformed FUD, bro.

Re:3D printing

[frinsore]

3D printing isn't ready for hobbyist level yet, it's still more for early adapters but several of your concerns have been fixed in the past few years.

- The more you're willing to spend on the printer the better quality results you'll get from the printer with less tinkering.
- Windows 8 does have a standard 3D printer driver. Not every 3D printer may use it but you have to admit that there will be some standardization on drivers MS puts out. You'll still need an authoring program, but that's not different then needing a writing program to create a 2D document.

Personally I don't see 3D printers really taking off until there's a "killer app" for them. Until there's something that everyone just needs to print and customize. Something like lego mindstorms or artistic iPhone covers or skylanders. Until that happens most 3D printers will be relegated to knick knacks and smart phone cradles.

Re:3D printing

[serviscope_minor]

- Too much faffing about having to calibrate, adjust, tinker and play with them to get good results.

Whether that's too much depends on you, but yes. They do require a fair bit of faffing to get used to them. The first 10 prints *will* fail. Once you learn the machine well enough you can reel things off reasonably quickly. They are not yet plyg and play.

- Too fragile (i.e. you can't throw them about, take them to a friend's house).

3D printers or the parts? They're not too bad. The homebuilt ones tend to be les robust, but many re reasonably solid. There are even some collapsible ones designed for portability.

- Too reliant on a small set of manufacturers (for the source materials, software, etc.)

There's lots of manufacturers of the printers, and besides the designs are mostly open source. If you have something like a broken morot, you can essentially plug in any old stepper as a replacement. Plastic filament likewise has plenty of sources. Also, there are now designs for machines for making filament from pellets. ABS pellets are not going anywhere.

- Still no established 3D printing "standard" in an OS. Sure, there are lots of "almost-standards"

If you are using the open ones, then the standard in the OS is completely established. It's an open chain with standards all the way down.

Models are generally described in STL (one of the stupidest and easiest file formats in existence). Very standard.

You load the STL file and convert it into G-Code, or generate g-code any way you want. G-Code is used for almost all CNC machines and extrusion type 3D printer. Very standard.

You either load the STL onto a micro SD card and stick that in the printer (all standard) or you connect over RS232 over USB. cat will do for sending the file but you could use pronterface ot octoprint if you prefer a nicer interface.

There's no need to have this in the OS, and apart from the FTDI driver, it makes little sense to do so.

- 3D models are just that much harder to make and print reliably.

That's true.

The two examples of software you point out? Both licensed only for home use.

For open software the choices are not that great. There's BRLCAD (which is amazing, but you only get to really make use of the awesomeness if you want to know how well your 3D model holds up under fire), OpenSCAD and for a more arty feel, Blender.

For paid stuff, don't bother with autocad, it's awful. Solidworks is much better.

and driver integration

No such thing: you are under the impression that the software stack is more complex than it is. Without exception the CAD programs can emit STL files. I suppose that's the driver integration, since all 3D printing systems will accept STL files.

why can't we combine with something Kindle-like to detect when the print job is going wrong and have the printer slice off the last layer and start it again?

Wouldn't be very helpful. The printer always prints layers correctly. The problems are things like the model becoming unstuck from the base. Once that's happened it's time to scrape off the remainder and restart from scratch.

Until then, it's nothing better than a hobbyist electronics kit, or someone building a high-end overclocking rig, or one of those RPi racks... the domain of someone who has so much time on their hands that they don't actually need the printer in the first place.

No, not at all. It's like home computers in the early 80s. You need to know what you're doing to use them so they're the domain of people who either love the technology or really, really need to get some computing (or now printing) done.

I fall into the latter category.

Re:3D printing

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It's not just a 'killer app', it's a killer app that, for some reason, (illegal? a hideously embarassing sex toy? time-critical?) the user wouldn't be better off just uploading to one of the 3d printing services and having fedexed to them, maybe even picking up in-store if they live in an area with sufficient demand.

2d printers, which are anywhere from 'better' to 'technology indistinguishable from magic' in terms of maturity, ease-of-use, cost, consumer acceptance, etc. already seem to be suffering pretty heavily from this effect. They aren't extinct or anything; but Having Your Very Own Home Printer! is a chore that people hate, and really only do for stuff that can't be sent off to the photo printing service or dashed off on the office's high volume laser. Even as assorted futuristic 'paperless' scenarios fail to pan out year after year, the printer as something you want to have personally is looking rather sickly. It'll be a cold day in hell when 'printing' goes; but nasty little home printers appear to have peaked and gone into retreat, despite their low cost and maturity. 3d printing, as something you actually do, rather than something you order or something that is important to assorted background steps, may never 'peak' at any noticeable level(obviously, there will have to be a 'peak' in there somewhere; but it needn't be very visible or relevant.)

Especially with 3d printing putting so much of the emphasis on materials (rather than mere pigments/dyes), and with most of the really cool materials either coming last/never to low-end gear (barring a radical discontinuity in the cost of high power lasers and optics to suit, laser sintered metal probably isn't coming home to you) or requiring additional processing steps that aren't particularly user friendly(ceramic powder/slurry processes aren't too bad; but the parts aren't much use until you put them through the kiln... modelling waxes for 'lost wax' casting are downright friendly; but the molten bronze steps that follow really aren't, and so forth), there is a very, very, hard sell to be made for having an in-home unit.

Obviously, there already are in-home units in homes, so no theoretical proof is needed of the fact that some people want them; but the 'just pay for a timeslice on somebody's $100,000 printer...' factor makes it much more plausible that the in-home population is not a precursor of a boom just waiting for a little more maturity to take off; but a much closer to stable enthusiast population that will have better printers in 10 years than they do today; but may not be all that much larger.

Re:3D printing

[Anonymous Coward]

Blender doesn't do parametric modeling; using mesh modeling for designing mechanical parts is just an ugly cludge.

Re:3D printing

[AmiMoJo]

It's been cheaper to print your photos at the local photo shop than at home on an inkjet for years, maybe a decade or more. Yet people still buy inkjets and photo paper. I don't understand it but clearly there is a market for wasting time and money to print at home.

Re: 3D printing

[samkass]

And OpenSCAD. If you have a 3D printer and haven't given OpenSCAD a thorough tryout you're missing out. I do the majority of my prints these days from OpenSCAD-created models, and the more you make the more libraries you build up to make better stuff later...

Re:3D printing

[WillAdams]

If you want parametric, an elegant solution is OpenSCAD (or the even cooler ImplicitCAD).

Re:3D printing

[ShanghaiBill]

Blender doesn't do parametric modeling

No, but FreeCAD does. Cost: $0. It has a nice GUI, and it uses Python as a scripting language, so if you prefer coding over using the GUI, you can whip up a python program to generate your part.

Hype vs reality...

[bayankaran]

I almost bought an entry level 3D printer in 2010. And I am glad I did not.
3D printing is way over hyped like Segway or Bluetooth. It has its niche market/uses, but the proponents and true believers claim that will "change the world", everyone will start printing at home, things will be cheaper, more available, better, faster, stronger, wider and so on is pure BS.

Dammit, Jim, I'm a programmer, not a designer.

[eggstasy]

What could i possibly print that I don't already have?
Most people in developed countries already have enough crap lying around.

Re:Dammit, Jim, I'm a programmer, not a designer.

[SuricouRaven]

I've only one thing I'd like to print right now: A replacement reverse-nozzle-thingie that goes on the end of the hoover hose.

It's easier to take away than to add

[petes_PoV]

Personally I can't think of anything that I'd need to print - that would work first time.

Sure, it's possible to print out a load of old crap, just for the fun of saying "I made that" (just as small children are so proud of their scribblings), but surely we're all past that stage by adulthood?

The things I *would* like to fabricate would be plastic or metal parts that is part of a larger assmebly, but has broken. In that case, it's much harder to measure every dimension, put it into a design package, print off a sample, see where it doesn't fit, modify the design and repeat the whole process until I get one solitary example that fits, performs and doesn't contain any manufacturing flaws that weaken it.

Far better to start with a piece of stock material and remove excess, bit by bit, until you get the fit you require. All the tools and materials are readily available now. Although that doesn't have any "geek" qualities: it's simply old-fashioned manual dexterity and skill.

Yes, and I don't need my own printer to do it

[mr.gson]

I have been designing and 3D printing objects for my own use a couple of years now, and I still don't own a 3D printer. I just upload my files to Shapeways and the finished pieces are delivered to my door.

Back in the day before digital cameras, I also used to take photos on film, but I didn't have my own darkroom. Same thing.

Join you local Maker Lab or Hack Space.

[cpuffer_hammer]

I was very much wanting to get a 3D printer. In looking around I found a Maker Lab / Hack Space (http://rlab.org.uk/). There we have a number of 3Dprinters plus laser cutter, cnc, lathe and much more. Along with people that know who to use them and help fix and adjust them.
I have access to all this for what it would cost to buy just a 3D printer (a year). When and if I want my own I can build it there.

I have a MendelMax 1.5

[Skylinux]

I recently purchased a MendelMax 1.5 kit because I need small plastic parts for some of my projects. The kit is less expensive then most, yet is build very well. It looks like a tank and handles like a tool, this is not a toy. I can highly recommend it.

I decided to get a kit because it is not that easy to source all the parts in Europe and I wanted to focus on designing my objects without spending months to source the individual parts.

That said. The 3D printer is actually very easy to build and to get going. The problems starts when you want to create your own designs......

• AutoCAD 123 - is easy to use but it is "cloud software" that will not allow you to open locally saved designs without an active Internet connection. This is crippled desktop software, PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS!
• OpenSCAD - looked interesting because you "code your model". Unfortunately there is a bug with some Intel video cards so I could not even finish the tutorial on my Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook.
• Google Sketchup - this is really good for very simple designs but the over simplified UI will bite you once you start to adjust dimensions or need precision below 1mm. I also noticed a lot of holes in my 3D objects when exported from Sketchup
• FreeCAD - Too many options and I ran into problems with some of my "complex" designs. This may replace SolidWorks one day.
• SolidWorks - I was really disappointed by my previous CAD experience and was close to kicking my printer into a corner. I worked my way through some tutorials on YouTube and really like the experience. The major issue with SW is that the license is way to expensive for a hobbyist so I had to get a "TPB Edition".

SolidWorks is the only software that works as promised.
I hope the company will offer licenses to hobbyist soon because I hate using pirated software for everyday use.

3D printers are really cool if you are a tinkerer / hobbyist but I would only recommend one if you have the need for one. You will spend days designing, printing and re-adjusting your models.
3D printers are not hipster toys!

3D printers cannot be consumer hardware

[janoc]

I think you have unrealistic expectations fuelled by a lot of the hype around the printers (and the companies selling them).

Setting the poor quality and the need to constantly tinker with the calibration, belt tensions, levelling and what not aside, 3D printer is not a consumer device, even if it was plug & play today.

It is a machine tool and a pretty complex at that. Programming and using a 3D printer is comparable to a CNC router, which is a specialized skill that usually requires some extensive training. Sure, it is not rocket science neither, but expecting this to work as a printer in Windows (push a button and paper comes out with your document) is simply unrealistic.

Demanding things like "standardized 3D printer protocol" (hello g-code ...) or companies like HP or Epson to produce 3D printers is off the mark - why should they? They don't make other machine tools neither, the only thing a 3D printer has in common with a regular printer is the word "printer" ... These are all red herrings - those things are pretty much irrelevant. Without the engineering knowledge needed to build the part you won't be able to make a useful component beyond downloading and printing stuff someone else made. However, then you can order the parts cheaper and simpler from Shapeways or a similar place too.

The same holds for design of the parts - people complaining about the complexity of the CAD tools are way off the mark here. The tools have to be complex in order to be actually useful, otherwise designing precise parts would be impossible. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that CAD is like Photoshop or something - it is not. If you cannot construct a piece using a ruler & compass on paper, you probably shouldn't be using CAD neither.

Re:3D printers cannot be consumer hardware

[serviscope_minor]

I think you have unrealistic expectations fuelled by a lot of the hype around the printers (and the companies selling them).

I disagree. They're certainly not now, and it will probably 20 years before they are, but imagine where home computers were in 1979.

Setting the poor quality and the need to constantly tinker with the calibration, belt tensions, levelling and what not aside, 3D printer is not a consumer device, even if it was plug & play today.

Things advanced. I recently saw someone tinkering with an auto-levelling one. Basically there's a sensor of some sort very near the hot end, which measures the bed position. It tweaks the Z motor to keep things level. As for calibration, belt tensioning etc, as you can see with 2D printers, those are all solvable problems. No one's tried yet on the cheaper printers since there are still bigger fish to fry, but if you've been following 3D printers, they've advanced amazingly in the last few years.

It is a machine tool and a pretty complex at that. Programming and using a 3D printer is comparable to a CNC router, which is a specialized skill that usually requires some extensive training. Sure, it is not rocket science neither, but expecting this to work as a printer in Windows (push a button and paper comes out with your document) is simply unrealistic.

It is a machine tool, but I disagree about the difficulty. I've done a few bits and bobs on a CNC mill, and I've done a bunch oin a 3D printer. Programming both is "easy" since someone else does the hard part. You generate the model and software generates the toolpath for you. 3D printers are relatively easy to generate toolpaths for compared to CNC mills and the software is OSS, stable, reliable, portable and fast.

If you already have a 3D design available, you load it into slic3r, hit the export button and then load the g-code onto an SD card/into pronterface/into octoprint. Once slic3r is calibrated it's straightforward.

For custom stuff, the main thing is creating the 3D models, but that's not got nearly so much to do with 3D printing per-se.

For 3D printing the most you generally have to do is make sure the thing is a sensible way up. You don't have to screw around with clamping, datuming, multiple passes after re-clamping and re-datuming (ok less of a problem on a 5 axis, but certainly one on a 3 axis machine) etc etc etc. I've done both and 3D printing is way easier than CNC milling.

Technically, I've never used a CNC router, but I assume they're basically like a wussy Bridgeport :)

They're certainly not at the stage of push a button and a print comes out, but they are approaching that remarkably quickly. Just remember how faffy printers used to be. The sodding things couldn't even feed paper reliably which is why they had sprocketed fanfold. Oh and don't forget to be careful with the colours otherwise you get black ink all over the yellow ribbon and screw up future colour prints. Never mind that a full res A4 colour print on a 9 pin took about 45 minutes (yes I did time it way back then). Actually, come to think of it, printers seem to be one of the most universally reviled, hateful classes of hardware.

Without the engineering knowledge needed to build the part you won't be able to make a useful component beyond downloading and printing stuff someone else made. However, then you can order the parts cheaper and simpler from Shapeways or a similar place too.

Not my experience. Personally, I'm an engineer so I don't count from this perspective. I use a shared printer at a hackspace. The range of users is quite broad and includes plenty of people who aren't formally trained engineers. I guess they're not easily put off.

The same holds for design of the parts - people complaining about the complexity of the CAD tools are way off the mark here. The tools have to be complex in order to be actually useful, otherwise designing precise parts would be impossible. Unfortunately, a lot of

History repeating

[Fear the Clam]

I think I've picked up a few skills and I can actually see myself making a little money on the side creating and selling items.

Just like everyone in the late '80s was going to use desktop publishing to make a mint doing flyers and low-end restaurant menus and ten years later everyone was going to make a mint designing websites.

3D printing rocks!

[Kludge]

Apparently there is quite a bit of ignorance about 3D printing here. Also slashdot has become populated with too many Apple and M$ users who have "it's not ready for the consumer" mentalities.

I bought a Printrbot Simple ($300) for my son for Christmas. He and I put it together, tweaked it, and now we use it to print cool plastic stuff. He printed a rose for his girlfriend for Valentines day which she like very much. How f*^%ing cool is that? Taking a bunch of parts, putting them together to make a machine that can make stuff. It is totally fun and cool. I'm so glad I got this thing. It has given me the opportunity to give to my son what I had when I was his age with computers: the ability to tinker with tech and make something cool.

As far as 3D printing not being "standard" nothing could be further from the truth. When you order the Printrbot Simple unassembled, you get a box full of parts in the mail and nothing else. No instructions, no software, nothing. You don't need any non-standard crap. The connector is a standard micro-USB cable. The instructions are online as web pages and help is available on the forums. The software I need to run the printer and make models is already in my Linux distribution.
"sudo yum -y install RepetierHost blender" and off we go!

If you want to do some hobbyist tinkering or if you want to give that joy to someone whom you love, get a 3D printer.