3d printing - real world users please feedback

[ik9000]

I've been wondering about getting a 3d printer for a while. My little boy is starting to get into toys like brio where 3d printed parts are commonly found on places like ebay, amazon etc. There's the obvious cost of the printer itself, but how much time and cost is involved in printing parts such as these:

https://www.printables.com/model/255...1-switch-track
https://www.printables.com/model/255...1-switch-track
https://www.printables.com/model/255...h2-cross-track

Am I being stupid? Should I just pay someone already making them?

edit: wow this guy has gone to town and done the whole catalogue!
https://www.printables.com/model/117...ith-50-unique-

I imagine people will tell me to just end up buying some parts but it's hard to find someone selling the more unusual parts either in wood or printed so I thought I'd do a quick feasibility exercise before I take the proposals to the boss. The cheapest printer on scan is £350 though so I'll have to think of other things i would use it for first...

[Jonj1611]

They are saying the entire collection is around 3.2Kilos so if you printed the full set and from what I gather you only get 1 of each piece thats at least £50 of PLA? Give or take not to mention the 205 hours of printing.

Not sure how that compares to just buying the stuff you need

As for the printer, these are good printers, easy to set up and auto-levelling, and when I said good, I mean good, not expensive or amazing, just good, they do the job and its £169 currently : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anycubic-Ko.../dp/B0CDC6TG8C

[Percy1983]

I have been looking at some uber cheap ali express printers. Feels a logical progression as my son is now messing with a microbit and a pile of sensors etc.

Seen a youtube review of this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005336550435.html

Seems reviews say its not amazing but it does actually work, considering buying it as toy for the price.

I would say the printer above looks much better, I am just amazed it even possible for such a low price.

[[GSV]Trig]

I've got a pair of Ender 3's, both slightly modded, great little printers, low cost, teach you a lot of the basics of 3d printing, cheap (one of mine was free) and the community for them is huge..

Looking at what you want to print, 3d printing these yourself would be pretty easy and not take a lot of work on your part..

[DanceswithUnix]

My usual cheap printer recommendation would be the Creality Ender 3

https://crealityofficial.co.uk/produ...-v2-3d-printer

I don't own one, but know several people who do and they have been very happy with them.

There are two main things I really like about having a 3d printer.
Firstly, there are things like bag clips that if I want one I can get them nice and cheap from Tesco, but if I start a print job going I can print three of them at a time so rather than putting that on the shopping list I just go print some out. My overalls in the garage are hanging on a 3d printed hook because I couldn't be bothered to go to Wickes and buy a metal one. Just so convenient.
Secondly, there is the joy of designing something (in Fusion 360 in my case, free to use for home use) and printing out the result. Custom adaptors and holders, things to fix parts that broke like that button that flushes the loo, a surround for the after market car stereo or new wheels for the bbq.

Now I honestly don't think the printer has saved me a penny, possibly even cost me money overall compared to replacing things and buying bits online, but I like repairing instead of replacing and I wouldn't be without it. It's a hobby more than anything else. Price of parts depends on size. I print everything in PETG as I find it is way harder wearing than PLA for the same cost. Make sure any printer you get can print PETG. The Prusa takes about 100W to run and I pay about 19p per kWh so that's tuppence per hour for electricity on top of the cost of filament which most of my prints are done with cheap Amazon PETG for about £15 per kilo.

If you want to know how much some downloaded model will cost to print, try downloading the free Prusa Slicer software (you don't need a printer to play with the slicer) and you can feed that an STL file from the likes of thingiverse. Tell it to slice the file for printing, and it will estimate print time and amount of filament used. Note that models are mostly hollow with only 15% of "infill" to keep them rigid so even big models may not weight that much.

https://www.prusa3d.com/en/page/prusaslicer_424/

You can get really cheap printers, and I started my journey years ago looking at some flash sale Anet A8 printer on Ali Express that was around £100. Looking at reviews, it seemed they hardly ever catch fire (erm!) but the results weren't that good. When you've fixed all its problems it has cost you quite a bit of money, so I figured what if I just spent that up-front and bought something for £200. That got me looking at something by Tarantula which at the time I could buy on Amazon from a UK source at least, but it still wasn't ideal. Both those printers were cheap clones of the Prusa I3 so I just stumped up the money for a genuine Prusa in the end.

I've been super happy with the Prusa, but time has moved on and there are now other choices. The Prusa Mini is well respected if you can afford £350, and that Ender 3 is superb value.

I have a Prusa mk3s, which does me very nicely. The Prusa mk4 looks amazing, but I can already print so I don't *need* any of those quality of life improvements, but I'm sure at some point I'll crack and upgrade.

[Jonatron]

If you want to be able to click print and go, you'll need something with quite a few features, which excludes the cheapest printers.
You'll also need a filament dryer if you want to print PETG, or anything that isn't basic PLA.
If the parts are smaller than 18cm, a Bambu Lab A1 mini (without AMS) might do the trick.

[Saracen999]

The last year or so has seen some pretty big changes in printers not least due to Bambu Labs. They don't do really cheap printers but most of their machines are very fast, and the last few months has seen much cheaper "Mini" machines, at IIRC, around the £400-£500 mark.

While that may well still be more than you want to spend, their pretty highly regared and FAST machines have somewhat lit a fire under the Creality's of this world, who are trying to compete with the speed.

How long those jobs will take can vary a LOT, depending on which machine, even at the reatively low end. If you buy, choose carefully.

[DanceswithUnix]

You'll also need a filament dryer if you want to print PETG, or anything that isn't basic PLA.

That does depend on how functional vs pretty your prints are. Most of the time I just hit print on a spool that's been sat in the printer in the garage for months, despite having nice airtight boxes full of silica gel sachets to store my filament in. Occasionally I want to print something that needs to be as good as possible, in which case I get my cheap desiccator out and dry the spool. Mostly though I only use the desiccator to occasionally dry the silica gel sachets. If I'm printing eg a bag clip, then if there is a bubble on it then I'll scrape that off with a penknife and I'm done

A lot of prints have a face that is pointing towards the user, and often you can have that face down on a textured print bed so that side always comes out looking lovely.