3D printers

[rtbiscuit]

Am interested to see if anyone else on here is a 3D printer user, I am a Technology Teacher and looking to bring my department into the 21st century. I have experience with older kit from previous schools but the market has changed dramatically.

 

I have it narrowed down to the following choices

1. ED3 Big Box Dual Extruder

2. Ultimaker original + (possibly ultamaker 2)

 

Contraints are the budget, I've managed to raise about £600 so far possibly £800 but around the £1000 mark is target. build size is important no point in spending money but only have a tiny build space.

 

was looking to see if anyone had any experience with the above, the reason I've looked at the hackable versions is that I can laser cut and modify or update as the technology advances but use a good base to work on.

 

Only came across the Big box today but been really impressed its currently my first choice and i'm going to get the 6th formers to help build it.

[grahamc]

I dont myself, but I like the tech... I have a 3d printed supercharger manifold on my MX5 looks good and it will supposedly handle up to 170 degrees C, so going to have to push hard to get to those temps!

 

I also like all the free designs that people have uploaded, some cool looking stuff

[blazemaguire]

I'm also a D@T teacher! (We're rare beasts in this climate) Hit me up with a pm if you want some advice. I built and designed my own 3d printer as I'm a nerd,

but at school I researched and ran with the Up plus 2. Very good quality prints and quiet, easy to use... But TBH the cheap 3d printer kits are now most as good, just require a bit more setup initially and a bit more maintenance. Where in the country are you?

[rtbiscuit]

I'm also a D@T teacher! (We're rare beasts in this climate) Hit me up with a pm if you want some advice. I built and designed my own 3d printer as I'm a nerd,

but at school I researched and ran with the Up plus 2. Very good quality prints and quiet, easy to use... But TBH the cheap 3d printer kits are now most as good, just require a bit more setup initially and a bit more maintenance. Where in the country are you?

 

Looks really good, nice build

 

Have experience with the old laser cut cheaper kits about 5 years ago my last department built and ran one, they recently upgraded to a replicator 5

 

Think I am most likely to go with the Big box from ED3 its like an upgraded ultimaker has the dual print head and full hackability. and with a bed build size of 250x280x300mm its one of the largest build areas ive seen. i'm very much out of practice so I will have to go back to basics again, but building from scratch should allow me to relearn quickly.

 

I'm down in Suffolk currently running Engineering, RM and A Level Product Design in a small town school not far from the heritage coast

[Husky]

Do the 3D printers run off of Mach3 like the CNC's? I know they use a program called Slicer to cut the CAD model up, not sure on any more details though... Just curious

[rtbiscuit]

Draw in any software that outputs in STL I have autodesk inventor 2016 pro, but I believe googles sketchup will do the same for free. use a slicer program like cura which is just one of the many free open source software that will allow you to out put to the printer. the slicer software breaks the drawing down into its layers, allows you to hollow it, add scaffolding structure and play around with sizing, speed and output etc.

 

there are some smart kits going for as little as £100 but they require a lot of fettling to tweek them to a good finish.

[Husky]

Ooh, speaking of STL output format, I had a spanking good idea today I've said too much.

 

 

The Printer itself will be controlled via a motion control program? I mean, it isn't really any different from a CNC in a lot of ways.

[rtbiscuit]

Most run an inbuilt unit. The one I'm looking at also supports raspberry pi to run octoprint, where you can control from a different building and watch your build on camera to check it and alter it if away from the machine