Looking to buy a 3d Printer please tell me what you have?
My Budget is not a lot
adriano nocenzi
We use a B9 creator 3D printer for printing castable models of
masters from cad designs. We don’t use it much for mass production
since it requires recoating a window of the vat after so much
exposure. But it’s good for creating a master that we can either
mold in vulcanized rubber or cast into a metal master to be molded.
It’s a good machine but very much a DIY thing. You have to do a lot
of calibration and fine tuning on your own. If you don’t have any
time for that or need something to pump out a bunch of items that
are too intricate to mold but you need to cast >25 of them it’s not
quite there.
Aaron Stafford
so many options these days
here are some sites I recommend looking at for good reviews.
and my most recent favourite
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep827l
The other place to look is kickstarter - lots of interesting 3D
printing projects, existing and past - to wet your appetite
the following is from memory - this space keeps moving…
in terms of functionality for art, filament based is good for
sculpture or larger pieces. You can get wax filament. filament costs
~$30-100/kg Prices vary from $300 DIY RepRap to typically $2-5k and
north from there for industrial machines. ($20k gets you a very
robust production machine)
For finer work (jewelry) you want SLA or DLP - lasers and UV curing
resins.
these can be expensive, $2k+ and the resin isn’t cheap - $400+/kg
(there are some smaller cheaper ones, but resolution gets poorer
quickly)
having said all that - start off by using a service (shapeways et
al).
when that isn’t economic any more, buy a printer. Also by that stage
they will be cheaper and better.