looking for a good 3d printer

[Ross77]

I also use a print-bite bed and that stuff is bloody brilliant

Looks like they are out of stock! What would be the best make up for a bed if starting from scratch? Ali plate - heater - glass - print bite ?

[Zeeflyboy]

Best is probably debatable.

Personally I just have heater/alu plate/print bite. Its nice and light (my printer moves the bed for Y axis so lighter the better really), good heat transfer and quick to warm up.

If you want a removable bed then of course you need another layer using something flat. Personally I'd probably use a thin steel plate and use high temperature magnets to retain it.

[Desertboy]

I print onto Kapton tape or straight on to a mirror with ABS juice (Acetone and ABS dissolved together). Since I rebuilt my printer and now it's level I rarely have one that doesn't stick to the bed. At least for me 99% of sticking to bed problems were to do with the nozzle being too high or too low.

If I got another one whatever I bought/built I would make sure the Z axis has a contactless solution for setting the Z height. Inductive probe works well as long as you have an aluminium heated bed I use an 8mm probe and it will sense the aluminium bed through the mirror glass which is nice. Optical end stops are good too and hall effect switches. I found microswitchs unreliable for the Z axis.

Never ever use stainless for a print bed stainless has very poor heat conductivity. Tooling aluminium is the best choice for a bed because it's light and has excellent heat conductivity that's why they make heat sinks out of it. The super flat is just a bonus.

[A_Camera]

Desertboy, so you mean that the inductive sensor will sense the aluminium table? I thought it only senses magnetic material. Also, how thick is your table?

[Clive S]

Desertboy, so you mean that the inductive sensor will sense the aluminium table? I thought it only senses magnetic material. Also, how thick is your table?

Yes they will but you need the 8mm one

[cropwell]

I am always wary about axial sensing with inductive sensors, after crushing one. The coil at the end is quite delicate, even though it has a plastic shield.

[Desertboy]

Yes they will but you need the 8mm one

Yes the 4mm doesn't sense through the mirror and you also need to feed it 12v so if you have ramps you will need to wire 2 resistors to drop the output to 5v otherwise you fry the Arduino.

[AlexDoran]

I was thinking about releasing the designs to my printer, i had planned to build and sell these, but with so many cheap units flooding the market i decided it was probably not worth it, if anyone is interested i will go to the effort of updating the BOM's and finishing the documentation.

Cronos-FDM.uk

Thanks

Alex

[Greeny]

Inspired by this thread, and on a bit of a rush of blood, i decided to buy a Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wanhao-I3-...72.m2749.l2649
It arrived yesterday :-)

I'm a total 3d print noob, so the reasons i went for this particular one are:

• Was mentioned as a good choice in this thread.
• Price, £379.
• Generally positive reviews on internet & You Tube.

Overall I'm very impressed, for the money.
As I had already watched quite a few YouTube guides, assembly & setup was a breeze.
It took me about 45 mins from the box coming through the door to starting my first print. (the 'ok' hand that comes on the SD card)
The print quality is pretty good. Again i'm more than happy with it for the money paid.

I've printed a lens cap & gimbal mount for my camera using STL files downloaded from the internet(Thingiverse) and then used Cura to generate the G-Code
It was all relatively straightforward & again very happy with results

Next step is to try some of my own stuff drawn in Fusion 360.

It's worth pointing out that I have never even seen a 3d printer 'in the flesh' before this one, so don't take my impressions as worth much. I don't have anything to compare to!

The photo's are of my first few prints. They look better in real life than in the photos! (The white plastic doesn't seem to photograph very well)

I'm stoked
Cheers

[Ross77]

Inspired by this thread, and on a bit of a rush of blood, i decided to buy a Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wanhao-I3-...72.m2749.l2649
It arrived yesterday :-

Nice one, Kind of wishing I had just bought one now...