Doesn't look like there's a dedicated thread for this, though it's come up in some one offs over the last year. So, whatcha got, and what are you printing? Am I the only one cheaping out on Christmas gifts this year?

I think there is a thread on printers somewhere, too.

I couldn't find it with forum search, so it hasn't been touched in the last year AFAICT. What are you printing that needs that precision?

ajn142 said:

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Doesn't look like there's a dedicated thread for this, though it's come up in some one offs over the last year. So, whatcha got, and what are you printing? Am I the only one cheaping out on Christmas gifts this year?

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A 3D printing related thread will pop up here every 6 months or so, but there's never been any kind of dedicated official thread.

Seems like I'm always just in a perpetual cycle of printing parts to build more 3D printers.. I bought a Prusa Mini+ about 6 months ago, pretty much for the sole purpose of printing parts for a Voron 0.1. I also have an Ender 3 V2, and Anycunic Photon Mono, and a Eustathios Spider V2.5

I think the thing I've printed most is a dang benchy and 20mm cube, trying to get them calibrated well enough to use.

boy09 said:

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bought a Prusa Mini+ about 6 months ago, pretty much for the sole purpose of printing parts for a Voron 0.1

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I've been thinking hard about trying one more consumer printer and was eyeing a Voron 2.4. Looks like a heck of a machine.

Ender 3 pro & dremel digilab owner here.

The ender 3 is heavily modified and gives incredible print quality most of the time. The dremel i use more often because it requires less tinkery.

Been looking at picking up on of the resin curing types, just not sure it would be any better than what i've got. Mostly use them for testing a piece before machining from metal or dinky little things for the kiddo.

So, sorry for not kicking things off right by posting about mine, the kids have been kicking my butt. I've got a CR-6 SE, from the kickstarter. Mods include camera mount on the X stepper cover, running the CR-6 community firmware, an enclosure, doing the "Luke's hotend fix", a flexible build plate, and a Bullseye fan duct. I'll add pictures in a bit when the kids allow, toddlers gonna toddle.

ETA: a couple pics I had already posted. These were actually before I added the fan duct.

Oh and the last photo reminds me, lighting! I ran a strip of COB LEDs inside the V channel, so everything is lit from the left, right, and top. Eventually I want to tap it into the printer PSU, but for now it's powered off the USB port on my OctoPi setup.

I'm looking for a ~$300 option for a first printer. Any recommendations?

Are any of these a good value:

$237 - Creality Ender 3 Pro
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GYRQVYV

$270 - Voxelab Aries
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095XVFGFS

$315 - FlashForge Adventure 3
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07ZR467YR

I tend to feel like Creality is usually in a sweet spot of price and quality, and they have a really strong aftermarket community (manufacturer support less so). Take a look at the deals here https://3dprintingdeals.com/product-category/3d-printers/fdm-medium-build-volume-200-300mm/

I think the Ender 3 V2 is preferable to the pro, but don't quote me on that

You can pretty regularly find Ender 3 V2's on sale for ~$200. They were $205 on the official Creality site last week, but I think that deal is over.

Dammit, forgot to adjust my Z offset. Looked at everything I printed this week, and the'd just barely stuck, this last one did not.

I have a pair of heavily modded Ender 3 Pros, a CR-10 Max that I'm terrified to touch because it's working, and an AnyCubic Photon X.

I was working on one of the E3 Pros just tonight. Those things are finicky *****es.

coleasterling said:

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Previously had an homebuilt delta, then an Ender clone, and now a MakerBot Replicator plus. All of them are/were trash. I have a hate/hate relationship with consumer FDM printers. So much fiddling. I need to print within 0.005" or it is worthless, though. They all would have been fine as toys.

I think there is a thread on printers somewhere, too.

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Have you tried SLA printing? There's far less material out there for setting it up, but there are a few good references on getting it to that level of detail.

Although if you need 0.005", maybe consumer printers aren't ready for you.

ajn142 said:

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what are you printing? Am I the only one cheaping out on Christmas gifts this year?

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Not printing Christmas gifts, but I've been printing some cool cosplay stuff for customers. Heroes and Villains Weekend at the Rennaissance Festival saw an Evil-Lyn helmet I made as well as some full sized Loki horns.

At the moment I'm just printing some random stuff for around the house. I need to get on a game insert for Clank! and a few others.

I'm using a Longer 4k Pro, it's basically an ender 5 knockoff afaik. No CCTV or anything neat like that.

I'm using it to print stuff from ctrl pew and AWCY stuff. The only issue I keep running into is the spool keeps tightening down on itself and then kills my print - probably the ****ty filament i use.

I've made a few clock with a G frames but can't find rails to finish em on a different spool.

I've got the Voron itch because it's the first kit I've seen with what seems to be a really nice mechanical motion system.

coleasterling said:

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I've got the Voron itch because it's the first kit I've seen with what seems to be a really nice mechanical motion system.

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You may already be aware, but i'll mention just in case, there are no "official" Voron kits. There are several different kits out there from places like Aliexpress, and while people have had good experiences with some of these kits, none of them are officially backed by Voron. The Voron community will pretty much always suggest sourcing parts yourself.

If you do want to buy a complete kit, i would wait until LDO Motors announces their 2.4 kit, which should be coming in the next couple of months. Their v0.1 kit is great.

Seems like Riptide has the parts you need. If your filament is that ****ty tho, I'd be worried about putting pressure behind it.

been googling what that means... what are you talking about? I take it not warhammer stuff

https://riptiderails.com/

ajn142 said:

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I tend to feel like Creality is usually in a sweet spot of price and quality, and they have a really strong aftermarket community (manufacturer support less so). Take a look at the deals here https://3dprintingdeals.com/product-category/3d-printers/fdm-medium-build-volume-200-300mm/

I think the Ender 3 V2 is preferable to the pro, but don't quote me on that

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Thanks for the link.

I went with the $99 Ender 3 Pro from MicroCenter. Started with a ~$300 budget but couldn't pass up this deal.

Nah, that's awesome. More budget for filament and mods, if you get into that.

Or maybe you meant a method of finishing the partial frames after your filament breaks? In that case, it's basically "leave print on bed, move head over, replace filament, move head back in place, run all the code that didn't finish running". Helps if you have a filament sensor or something that stops it at the time your filament breaks. If they're still on the plate but the code finished running it's possible to manually edit the gcode and resume the print; if they're loose maybe there's some magic to be done, but IDK how to reanchor them in exactly the right place to allow finishing the rest of the code.

Ender 3 Pro for $99 is an insane deal

boy09 said:

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Ender 3 Pro for $99 is an insane deal

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They must have had 30 piled up on their display.

Their sale price is listed as $199 but they have a $100 off coupon is here:
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprinter.aspx

ajn142 said:

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https://riptiderails.com/

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my wallet hates you

Lmao

I assembled the Ender 3 pro tonight. Haven't made my first print yet but am already getting excited about upgrades.

Should Octoprint be the first upgrade?

And yes, my wallet is going to hate you as well.

OctoPrint is a really great upgrade, but not strictly necessary. Flip side, you're close to MicroCenter, so if you don't already have a drawer full of Raspberry Pis to run it on, they're cheap and plentiful, and if you do then the bar is even lower.

I couldn't run my printer without OctoPrint, but part of that is because it's in an enclosure to keep my kids off it. Shuttling files from the computer in another room into the cabinet the printer's in and then back to the computer would get old fast.

lb3 said:

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I assembled the Ender 3 pro tonight. Haven't made my first print yet but am already getting excited about upgrades.

Should Octoprint be the first upgrade?

And yes, my wallet is going to hate you as well.

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Octoprint is amazing. It just makes administering the printer so much easier.

You can definitely tweak things to get better, but that's actually a damn impressive first print. I don't think mine came out that well.

Welp, mine is down til at least Wednesday. Leaky hotend turned to broken thermistor.