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3d printers

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I've read where a few of you fliers have 3d printers and would like your feedback on which one to get.
 
I have the QIDI X-Pro. Qidi – 3D Printers
It has dual print heads, and can use just about all the different filaments out there.
Just keep in mind, they are SLOW. We are talking hours to print things. I printed some snow skis for one of my RC airplanes, took close to 3 hours per ski. The QIDI has phenomenal customer support. For tech support, I use the QIDI face book group. Very knowledgeable folks.
For a slicing program, (this is what controls all the printing parameters) I use Simplify3d. 3D Printing Software | Simplify3D
 
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I have the QIDI X-Pro. Qidi – 3D Printers
It has dual print heads, and can use just about all the different filaments out there.
Just keep in mind, they are SLOW. We are talking hours to print things. I printed some snow skis for one of my RC airplanes, took close to 3 hours per ski. The QIDI has phenomenal customer support. For tech support, I use the QIDI face book group. Very knowledgeable folks.
For a slicing program, (this is what controls all the printing parameters) I use Simplify3d. 3D Printing Software | Simplify3D
From the little that I've read the plate should be heated is that a fair summation?
 
YES
The plate or BED is heated.
I can control the temperature of the plate as well as the temperature of the extruders.
They are also noisey, plan on putting it in a room away from where you sleep. Plan on making several messed up prints untill you get the settings dialed in.
 
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I like my Anycubic I3 Mega ANYCUBIC 3D Printer- Think Big, Make Bigger, it was affordable and mostly pre-assembled with a large mostly cubic build volume. Replacement parts are readily available, cheap and easy to install.

I basically went with this because like you I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want to spend a lot getting started. I must say though, it's been a workhorse.

I guess it depends on the type of printing you want to do and the resolution you're after. A resin printer will give you higher resolution but you have to deal with chemical resins.

For a filament printer, temperature is definitely something everyone has an opinion on and only seems to be found by trial and error depending on the filament type and brand. Temperature includes extruder and bed. I know a lot of people swear by Simply3D or swear at it. Personally, I've been using the Free Cura and dabbled in a lot of other Free 3D slicers.

Also, I would ask yourself, can I model in 3D, use CAD, or will I need to depend on other peoples models from sites like ThingIverse? This shouldn't be a show stopper but it's something I think most people don't think much about when getting started.

For modeling I use Caligari trueSpace. I'd already used that for years, even though they were bought by Microsoft and and made Free. trueSpace basically disappeared but you can still find it for Free. Since I was a Caligari Proteam member I also have a lot of plugins including the ability to save models directly as .STL (Stereolithography format) which can be loaded directly into my Slicer of choice.

Your slicer converts your .STL file into a .GCODE file the printer uses to create the 3D model.

Since printing does take a while, I save my .GCODE files to an SD card which I plug directly into my printer to print standalone. In other words, I don't connect my printer to a computer and print. I don't want to tie up a computer that long.
 
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I own a monoprice v2 . Prints very good and with a decent sized build plate and height 200 x 200 x 180 .

It will take you some time to get any 3d printer dialed in but once you do it’s amazing the things you make with it .

Prints take a long time my current project is a some boxes to hold props and the print times are 8 hours or longer .. funny thing when you first start out printing small things a couple of hours seems long . Once you have faith in the machine you can let it run over night and have it print the longer print times.

I use either a sad card or a spare laptop to print with but find the sad card methods to be the faster of the two and you don’t have to worry about a print being stopped because windows decided to update.

I used cura for slicing and Rs mechanics for 3d design work .

Just make sure your computer is up to the task for 3d design work .


Filiment is a variety of qualities , Pla and Pteg are the ones I work with with Pteg being the best of the two. Abs works good too but you have to modify your printer to hold heat in and it will run you out of the room you are printering in due to the smell.
 
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Thanks for the feedback. CAD work is not my thing. Did a little back some time ago. Your feedback gives me some things to ponder.
 

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