On Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:37:18 +0100, WeeBob
wrote:
I stumbled across this (no affiliation etc.) the other day:
https://www.goprint3d.co.uk/colorfabb-xt-cf20.html
A couple of years ago I experimented with 3d printing and concluded it
was (at least) a couple of years away from being useful and/or practical.
And here we are, with sub £300 machines doing good work. ;-)
I wonder now if the technology has moved on enough to be worth spending
time on trying again.
I think so, depending etc.
There are some very useful things I could do with
printed carbon fibre, but I realise that could end up wasting many hours.
Just this morning I designed and my mate is currently printing a
bracket to support a water trap I found in my workshop to fit onto the
wall near my compressor. This is just one example of many things I've
now designed and printed, including all the plastic parts for my own
printer and for brackets for cycles, torches, trailers and such.
Anyone care to share their views?
Yes. I built a MendelMax 1.5 with / for a mate who would only buy one
(in kit form) if I agreed to help build it with him. ;-)
Luckily, I had previous engineering, electronics, electrical, Arduino
and programming experience so this was nothing completely new, outside
of the actual details of this particular printer. The first test
print, a 20mm cube came out square and 19.97mm so we were pleased we
had understood what was required and done a good job. ;-)
Since it was assembled (from a kit, we thought that would be wise for
the first machine) it has been in near-daily use, with only the odd
misprint and very little in the way of maintenance.
I am looking forward to having my own printer and now have most of the
parts ready and waiting (simply for the convenience of prototyping
stuff in my own time).
The PLA we use is pretty tough and fairly cheap (£14/kilo) and the
time it takes to print some things is still generally only a fraction
of the time it would take to manually fabricate / turn / mill the same
(even out of plastic)! ;-)
Cheers, T i m