3d printing. I need advice, which printer? Child friendly? Easy for non Computer guy to use?

[HBARleatherneck]

The price range I am looking at is $500 +/-.

I have looked alot at the Creality CR-10S, Tevo Tornado, Wanhao duplicator I3 plus, and a ton of others. I had thought I had decided on the Tevo Tornado, then I heard there was a posibility of shock hazard with their 110 volt heated bed, most of the others run 12v beds. I dont buy the cheapest or smallest of anything usually, so I am looking at a decent sized machine at a low mid range price.

Thanks

[newracer]

I was considering getting a MOOZ. The bed is kind of small though.

[DFBrews]

I have a robo 3d plus and it is dirt simple setup and to use

[bradbn4]

No such thing as adult friendly let alone child....simple to play with - depends on the size of print, consider one from Monoprice if you don't want to assemble everything.

The kit style does provide a very interesting education on what makes the printer tick.

Design software will be fusion 360 (student / tinker /under 100k business) is free.
Cura as a slicer
or was that http://slic3r.org/

The best "low end" kit that busts your budget prsua MK I3 IIs
The best assembled "low end" setup: https://www.lulzbot.com/about-lulzbot-3d-printers
what you should get if going "pro" MakerBot Replicator+

The Tevo style printers are a good kit; lots of mods are required to make it work better and become safe(r).

The first thing you end up doing with the lower end kits is to print parts out to make the kit less low end. You do know that some of the local libraries do have 3d printers that can be used? I know Colorado Springs provides access with support I think from Maker space. You do need to take the safety class, and they might require adult supervision.


To kick the tires to see if it is worth your time? https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21711
The big disadvantage to the above printer is what materials you can print....
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13860 does provide better options for printing materials and the size of the object.

Join the facebook groups for 3d printers that you are interested. I does provide some good info that might direct you which way to go.

[Brian]

Interested to see the feedback here. I just bought a maker 3d v2 over black friday. Figured if I actually find a use for one or get into it, I can always upgrade.
Been so busy that I haven't even unboxed the thing yet though.

[Irving]

That's pretty cool. Knock out a bunch of those, paint them, then you can sell them at Tanner!

[buffalobo]

What is the capacity hbar? How long to print the cat? Looks about three inches tall.

If you're unarmed, you are a victim

[Circuits]

12" x 12" x 16" capacity
the cat is 3" tall and was 3 hours 17 minutes.
I dont yet know if you can speed it up since I just got it. Its quiet though so you can just go on about your day and let it do its thing.

That's an amazingly large build volume for a hobbyist class machine.

You can usually up print speed quite a bit, depending on the capacity of your extruder, by increasing the feed rate, but you will have to experiment to find a sweet spot. You can parse your slicer files to determine how long any print should take, based on total linear head movement down divided by your head speed.

[bradbn4]

Very good work getting your first print job to work without too much issues.

My Prusa I3, Mk2s seems to work a bit more reliable than the new Mk 3. Both printers are quite new, so I am in the early stages of figuring out things.

Once I dialed in the temp settings and z-axis offset the Mk2S seem to work about 95% of the time.

I am still in the process of dialing in the Mk3, and my hit to miss ratio is abut 50%.

The one thing that helped a lot for me was to find a good profile for the printers and make sure I use them.

[Irving]

Can it integrate different colors into the same object? That seems like it may be way more complex. Either way, the detail on that cat is pretty impressive. It looks like the sky is your limit when it comes to creativity.

It'd be interesting to see if you could build some sort of plastic buckle or clasp, and test the strength vs a store bought one. I'm thinking like the plastic components of what are on back packs.