Adventures in 3D Printing

I invested in a 3D Printer some time around the end of March and thought I would post some random pics of stuff. It is difficult to get decent photos due to the materials (some images make the layering appear far more visible than it actually appears in reality), but here's some crappy pictures of some mucking around with 3D Printing.

wow banj, you techno king!

it looks amazing, what is the cost of materials like? Is it easy to use? I watched a programme with a brief bit about 3D printing, it looked very complicated.

Also how fast does it print?

PLA and ABS, which are the filaments that most people are likely to be printing, are similarly priced and range from about £15-£40 ish for a Kg roll. Normally the cheaper rolls often have a larger variance in diameter along the length of the roll, but I haven't noticed it make much difference. More exotic filaments (stuff like carbon fibre, wood, rubber etc. are generally at the more expensive end but I haven't tried any of those.

3D Printing is still in it's infancy and requires a bit of thought. I wouldn't say it was difficult, but it is still far more complex than sticking a sheet of paper in an ink jet and hitting the print button. There is a lot of trial and error with different print settings and temperatures to find the sweet spot, and some thought has to go into the model as to how you are going to print it and what is or isn't possible to print.

It's not fast.

so its really still in its infancy.

i think it's going to be huge, I just look at all the things you can print, and complex moving items, it's quite mindblowing.

Looking forward to seeing your models, you really should make your alien in the hand image a 3D model, I wanted that cute alien since the moment i saw it!

Valence wrote:

Impressive stuff, Banj!
Are they your own models or stuff you download?
How big a model can you print out?

It sounds almost as expensive as "normal" printer ink.

Thanks. The gun I posted here: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/crazy-ta...ndom?start=400#13641 was a multi part print I did from a model I downloaded (by a guy named Andrew Forster). All of these posted in this thread are my own models.

The Pumpkin Kid figure was adapted from the mesh I used for this image. I needed a fair bit of rework to make it printable


I did think about the comparison between regular inkjets and laser printers and the cost of a 3D printer and materials, and I would say the latter is very well priced considering what came in the box and how long a roll of filament lasts.

kazky wrote:

so its really still in its infancy.

i think it's going to be huge, I just look at all the things you can print, and complex moving items, it's quite mindblowing.

Looking forward to seeing your models, you really should make your alien in the hand image a 3D model, I wanted that cute alien since the moment i saw it!

I think it is currently possible to get excellent quality prints on a domestic machine, but ease of use in a plug and play sense is still not quite there and you have to be prepared to fiddle a lot, things can go wrong easily.

I have considered printing a Fido actually

Fido must be printed!

it all sounds pretty good, i'm sure more and more artists will start to use them, even for reference models and things

Banj wrote:

I invested in a 3D Printer

*steals*

Thank you Dave.