On 2018-04-25 14:23, David wrote:
Having just read an interesting "What I did with my 3D printer" thread, I
wondered which 3D printers DIYers used, and why.

A quick look online seems to show printers in the £200-£400 range so there
would have to be a significant saving to cost in for making one off parts.

I can understand the "Uh, duh, because 3d printing!". Just wondering if
anyone has cost justified a purchase on the savings over buying stuff or
throwing away something as unrepairable.


Cheers



Dave R




I have an Ultimaker 2+ - a little over your budget, but it's given me
hours of endless fun. Most recently I used it to fix the rocker
mechanism in an angle-poise light. The original simply part was badly
designed and rendered the lamp unusable. There are numerous other
examples of "stuff around the house" that have been fixed by printing
something.

That said, may I suggest that the issue is not printing, but designing
the part.

The real investment (time not money) is knowing how to design 3d parts
and the compromises you make to have them useable after printing.
Getting hold of design software is easy (free), learning how to use it,
then how to print your designs is time-consuming and frustrating but
bloody rewarding when you make progress.

If you want to design your own models, I suggest it may be worth a few
hundred quid just to have something to print with so you can compare
your design with the lump of misshapen plastic that took four hours to
print.

2p.