3D Printers for the home shop and User satisfaction.

For home-level 3D printing, most of the common platforms enjoy relatively similar capabilities in terms of the type of filament that can be used (PLA, ABS, nylon, composite filaments like Daywoo-D3, etc) and the layer thickness is relatively close (.1-.17mm). In general you want to keep your layer thickness at or below 80% of the nozzle width, so the nozzle size will affect your plans. For non-thermoplastic extrusion, you can go with the syringe-based Fab@Home or use the Universal Paste Extruder on a RepRap variation. Hyrel 3D has a higher-cost and more professional looking extruder that can handle up to clay materials (play-doh, skulpey, etc).

For a prosumer model, the MakerBot Replicator 2 has a very solid metal frame making it slightly more robust than the older wood-framed Replicator. RepRaps can also be made from extruded aluminum frames and there are a number of different models depending on the build volume and "cool factor" you want - deltas (Rostock), cartesians (Prusa and Mendel), SCARA (Morgan), inverse-delta (Simson), etc.

For the book "3D Printing for Dummies" I am currently writing with RichRap (http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118660757.html), I am using RepRap kits with extruded aluminum frames (the cartesian MendelMax 2.0 by Maker's Tool Works and the delta RostockMax by SeeMeCNC) and have really enjoyed the simplicity of assembly compared to self-sourced RepRaps I have built before for K-12 classroom settings. I have been curating topical content for 3D printing using the Scoop.It platform for some time, and you can take a look at a lot of the current technologies there if you want: http://www.scoop.it/t/3d-printing-and-fabbing

You can make a RepRap using little more than threaded rods and stepper motors from old printers if you just want to get started for the lowest possible cost, and then use that to print the pieces for a larger more complex model later. If you can use basic tools and solder together components, I would recommend that so that you can get into 3D printing with full knowledge of how your equipment works and how to fix it when it fails (and yes, this will happen from time to time).

Kalani Kirk Hausman

@KKHausman

http://kkhausman.com

Kalani,

I really appreciate the information about nozzle size as I had not run across this yet in my research and I have been wondering what difference the size of the nozzle made, other than extrusion width.  I also had not thought of mining old printers for stepper motors.  I believe I have a few of those in my spare parts pile somewhere.  I was leaning heavily towards building my own after reading Nate’s comments and now your input has helped me to solidify my decision.  Even if I do end up getting a ready to go unit, I plan to build a unit from parts so I will truly understand how the system works. 

Have you noticed any real difference in performance or print times between the Cartesians and the Deltas?  I have seen a fair number of reviews on the Cartesians, but not much data on the Deltas.

I look forward to picking up a copy of your book when it comes out and really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my questions.

Thanks! 

Keith

Keith,

The greatest difference between print times seems to come more from the quality of the extruder hot-end (the part that melts the filament for extrusion). The better quality designs will heat up faster and maintain full temperature more easily, and the mechanism for feeding filament into the hot-end will have less slip and more tolerance for variations in filament width. Lower-quality filament is often spooled while still slightly moldable, resulting in filament with a oval overall shape along the direction of the coil's winding - this variation can cause some extuders to slip in places and can also result in mis-measurement when inputting filament diameter measures into your slicer software. A higher quality extruder head can handle minor variations a bit better than some hand-built designs, although many makers have tremendous skills at hand-fabrication so that is not a hard-and-fast rule or anything. I currently use mostly J-heads with a good herringbone feed instead of the smaller hobbed bolts - but that's a personal preference rather than a statement that one is inherently better than the other. Between cartesian and delta - deltas are just fun to watch, both seem to be pretty good from an accuracy standpoint. If you want tall, delta's build volume is easier to expand that direction, while cartesians can be expanded to large format up to building-scale in systems like Contour Crafting's concrete printers.

VR,

Kalani

Kalani,

Thanks again for your input. 

Given the only system I have got to work with so far is the college’s UPrint, I hadn’t run into the problems some can have with the filament thickness.  I am looking into the J-heads for my 3D printer build project.   I know I need to do a fair bit of research before I get down to the purchasing and assembly side of things.   Down the road I may try my hand at a delta, but for now I am leaning towards the SAE Prusa Mendel. 

I have been following the Contour Crafting project and even emailed them to see if they had a time table for commercial versions.   The answer I got was three years before there is an open market version.  Once that unit hits the market I think it will be a game changer for construction, especial in places where natural disasters hit and there is large scale destruction.  (For those reading this discussion who are not familiar with the Contour Crafting system, here is the website to learn more:  www.ContourCrafting.org )

Thanks!

Keith

Hey chaos1ao

Being that I work in the AEC industry I hear about 3d printing buildings all the time.  I find this very interesting and wonder how the current building processes will have to change to meet this new technology.  Currently architect Janjaap Ruijssenaarst is working on this and plans to have it done in 2014.http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/20/the-worlds-first-3d-printed-building-will-arrive-in-2014-and-it-looks-awesome/

Nate

Nate,

Thanks for sharing the article; I hadn't seen that one yet!  Given the 3D printed building is still in its infancy, it is hard to predict the changes to come, but I truly hope it helps to reduce the amount of trees we need for building, greatly reduces construction costs, and creates many new jobs in the field.  Ideally, the 3D printed home would replace the modular and mobile home markets, providing the same level of speed and economy, but without the sacrifices to structural strength we see now.  These are my hopes, but I guess we will have to see what happens when the concrete hits the printer.

Keith

Nate,

Thanks for sharing the article; I hadn't seen that one yet!  Given the 3D printed building is still in its infancy, it is hard to predict the changes to come, but I truly hope it helps to reduce the amount of trees we need for building, greatly reduces construction costs, and creates many new jobs in the field.  Ideally, the 3D printed home would replace the modular and mobile home markets, providing the same level of speed and economy, but without the sacrifices to structural strength we see now.  These are my hopes, but I guess we will have to see what happens when the concrete hits the printer.

Keith

This would truly be lean construction.  Ultimately you should have minimal to no waste.  Now for adding jobs I'm thinking this would slightly reduce jobs as the manual laborers would no longer be needed as the machine is doing all the work.  Just my thoughts.

Nate