Learning about 3D printers and looking for input

[7milesup]

I have a Prusa i3 Mk2.5S. Love it.
You will love the Mk3 with the 24 volt steppers. They are so much quieter than mine. Printing in a cold room could be problematic but enclosing it will help.
I use PETG almost exclusively and is my go to filament. @Furshpere has given you a lot of great information.

You will find the uses to be almost endless. I am currently working on my own custom version of drill and tap storage to fit in a wood cabinet.

Just a few of the many, many items I have made over the course of a year or so.
Cord strain relief for my VFD. Surface grinder wheel keeper. Replacement part for my drill doctor. Enclosure for my wood stove controller. Mill way slot whachamajiggie and finally a WD40 can holder for my lathe. This is just a sampling.

 

[brino]

Now, I'm interested in input on the different filament types and what brands of each users are having good luck with.

I am printing about 99% PLA and PLA+. Small amounts of HIPS, want to try some PETG.

My absolute favourite source for PLA was Verbatim, but I now can barely find it.
Have had good results with eSun, MG-Chemicals, LulzBot and DigitMakers branded filament.
(Digit Makers is Canadian so I find the prices and shipping way better than most other sources.)

There was only one brand that I've totally given up on; Overture from Amazon was a complete failure!
We tried tweaking all kinds of parameters, but never even had one successful print with it.
Will never buy more of that.....

-brino

 

[Aaron_W]

I went through the same debate and also went with the Prusa. I liked that they come pretty much ready to go no need to make modifications. The company also seems to be very solid and helps people make the upgrades to their machines to keep them current as the design is improved.
I found mine arrived in much less time than they had quoted, I think they were saying 6-8 weeks back in August when I ordered mine and I got it in about 4 weeks.

they ship with Gummy bears too, so there is that.

Embarrassingly I have to admit that I got mine in September and am just now getting around to setting it up.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

I bought the End 5 pro and its great and all...but I'd get something without a bowden tube (direct drive)

 

[7milesup]

I would not buy a 3D printer with a bowden tube. Or a single Z-axis motor. Or a glass bed. I had one of those and it was a nightmare. (Lulzbot)

 

[brino]

I would not buy a 3D printer with a bowden tube. Or a single Z-axis motor. Or a glass bed. I had one of those and it was a nightmare. (Lulzbot)

I have had a Luzlbot for 4 years or so....but I had to lookup what the heck a bowden tube was.

It's just the same concept as a pull gun vs. push gun for wire-feed welding.
Aluminum uses a "spool gun" with the wire drive near the torch tip since you can't reliable push 10 feet of aluminum wire.
For steel wire MIG having the wire drive in the machine is no problem.

Turns out my Taz-6 is the direct drive type (pull gun) so that's why I did NOT know the term.
It's not even 8am and I learned something new today!

-brino

 

[fursphere]

That's a really good comparison. I had never considered my MIG to be a "bowden tube" system.

The big difference though is that with 3D printing, there are constant retractions going on. Push/pull constantly. This is to increase or decrease pressure in the hotend of the liquid plastic inside. Retration removes pressure and stops oozing. Both direct drive and bowden tube systems do this. Bowden tubes add a larger margin of error (slop) to the retraction activity, which is why they are seen as undesirable. A properly sized bowden tube (high quality PTFE tubing), and proper fitting connects at each end can go a long way to remove this 'slop' and make the system work a lot better.

Most of the lower end machines do not come with the higher quality tubing, or the proper connectors (to save costs I'd assume). This is tuning and tinkering comes in. I had my Tornado (CR10 Clone, bowden tube) printing flexible filaments with success. Took a long time to get it dialed in. Then junked that setup and went to a direct drive anyway, which works significantly better.

Long story short - bowden tubes aren't bad. They just require a lot more tuning and maintenance. And you have to do a lot more filament profile tweaking.

 

[ttabbal]

I have had a Lulzbot Mini for years now. It's a great printer and ready out of the box. I wouldn't call it perfect, but it does a good job. I recently did some upgrades. A newer design of extruder helped a lot, though my older one was probably just getting a little beat up. I also added a BL Touch sensor and modified the firmware to use it.

For a glass bed, I really like thicker PEI sheets. I have one that's about 4x the thickness of the stock Lulzbot sheet. It doesn't bubble and such and holds up better to the constant heating/cooling/part removal. The newer style that many are using with removable and flexible print surfaces look really nice and probably much easier to remove parts from.

These days for a new buy, I'd probably go with a Prusa. They are a proven quality manufacturer and it has some nice features. Creality is building some nice printers as well. They have gotten good at value engineering the setups and look to be nicer than I expected.

PETG is my go-to filament. It's strong and resistant to heat and most chemicals, and easier to print than most with similar properties. Here's one of my more recent prints, fun to make things with moving parts that can be useful. I wouldn't mount it to my metal lathe, but it clamps well for a plastic chuck. I plan to use it as part of a rotary axis for my laser.

 

[DavidR8]

Wow the Prusa's are $1200 in Canada! <gulp/>

 

[Technical Ted]

Wow the Prusa's are $1200 in Canada! <gulp/>

Are they charging you a VAT in Canada?

Ted