Hey folks! So I recently got access to make things on my company’s 3d printers and it made me want to start getting into 3d printing as a hobby. Does anyone here have solid recommendations for a noob with minimal CAD/printing experience?
The printer I used at work was an ultimaker S5, but we also have a few S2+, Bambu X1 and some higher end printers that I can’t afford or justify buying. (Also I used SolidWorks to design the parts/tools)
#asknostr #3dprinting #pleb #hobby
print seedsigner HW cases and sell them for sats https://github.com/SeedSigner/seedsigner/tree/main/enclosures/open_pill
I just picked up a Qidi Q1 Pro about a month ago. Has been great right out of the box.
And if you are looking at cad software fusion360 has a free for hobby use license
To get started;
TinkerCAD
- free, web-based, 'child-like'
Web-based CAD
OnShape
- free*, web, more traditional CAD
- can do everything with this
Most people use, professional traditional CAD
- Autodesk Fusion360 (free*)
- Solidworks
If you're serious about actually designing, jump right to fusion or Onshape (use Onshape if you want the freedom of web)
Fusion and solid works are Mac & Windows only
*free comes with limited access to features and storage (how many projects you can be designing at once)
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anymlre questions. This is my profession of almost a decade
Shit you already use SolidWorks! Dive in G!
TinkerCAD is more for kids but I've made a lot of complex designs on there and sold them.
I’ll definitely check out tinkerCAD, OnShape, and Fusion360. Thank you for the suggestions!
In my professional life I will be doing serious practical designs with pretty precise tolerances and functionality. But for my personal enjoyment I would probably be mostly making useful/fun things just to gain knowledge and skill with design. I’d like to be getting more proficient with slicing software and learning how to get better quality out of different print materials in my free time.
What printer would you recommend for a beginner that wants room to grow? Pretty much everything I see is pointing towards the Bambu Labs P1S.
Your input was definitely helpful 🫡
Slicer:
1. OrcaSlicer
2. PrusaSlicer
3. Ideamaker
Use Orca
Many many tweaks to get your prints unbelievably high quality.
Printer:
Bambu - for beginners, easiest, best out the box, just know its backed by CCP (most folks don't care tho, I understand)
Voron - best, FOSS build yourself, amazing upgradability, a race car
Prusa - classic, great, just expensive now for what you get. Workhorses
Basically anything else, based on your budget and use case (Sovol, FLSun [you said your work had one], etc.)
Pretty hard to beat a Bambu a1 mini for $179 right now
It depends on what you want to print. For me, I did FDM printing (the regular "melt plastic filament using a motorised hot end") for years and was never totally happy with the results or the process. Calibrating and maintaining the machines is a ton of work (some more than others of course). There's always a compromise between speed and quality, and even with the slowest/best settings you're always going to have visible layer lines and other small defects.
Last year I bought a resin printer (Elegoo Saturn 3 Ultra) and this has completely changed the hobby for me:
* Almost no maintenance. Once you've got it setup it pretty much just works. There are some exceptions naturally, but in general they need a lot less babysitting than FDM machines.
* Quality is incredible. The detail can be absolutely stunning -- way beyond what even the best FDMs are capable of. I've printed stuff for people and they literally did not believe me that I printed them ('you just ordered this on Amazon bro, this is clearly injection molded').
* Much better options for materials. There's somewhat more variety of resins than there are filaments, plus you can mix them: Want a red tinted plastic with a bit of flex to it that glows in the dark? No problem, just needs some experimentation with the proportions.
* Speed. If you're just printing one thing then FDM is probably faster (though the Saturn 3 Ultra can actually go quite fast). BUT resin printers really shine when you're printing lots of things at the same time. Once you have your model perfected, suppose you want to print 10 copies. With an FDM printer that's roughly 10x the time. For resin, assuming you can fit all of them on the bed, it takes the same time as printing 1, since each layer has a constant exposure time.
There are some downsides to resin though:
* You need to buy and store extra devices, like washing and curing stations.
* My garage is now filled with dangerous chemicals and I had to install a ventilation system to expel toxic fumes (how toxic they are is actually debatable, but I'm playing it safe).
* I have to periodically drive to a sketchy Chinese warehouse to buy 99% pure isopropyl alcohol in bulk. And getting rid of the waste is complicated/annoying. Look into your options for chemical disposal. Don't even bother trying the water washable resins, you'll just go alcohol eventually.
Anyway, I had fun with FDM for years but at this point I'm much much happier with resin printing. Everyone's situation and goals are going to be different, I just wanted to give you my perspective. You'll have a blast with whatever you choose. Good luck!
