Recommended 3D printers

gerry

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Dec 19, 2012
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Hello,

I have read through most of the postings on suggested 3D printers (Phil / Eddy / Brad /Andrew/Ruprect ) etc.

Am not at the stage where I could try a DIY printer (ie one where some degree of build / fiddling is required)

Therefore ,

Would the FlashForge Creater Pro 3D Printer or FlashForge Dreamer 3D Printer (with Simplify 3D) still be ones that are recommended and if so is there a recommended provider in Australia ?
 

AussiePhil

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Hi Gerry,

Whilst I haven't stayed across all the developments or releases over the last 12 months my Creator Pro has been an absolute workhorse that has required expected work such as dealing with blocked nozzles primarily.

Most of the releases from manufacturers seems to have been in the truly personal single head plug and play casual home use area with a lot of these using custom filament cartridges that are not really cost effective.

So yes Flashforge Creator Pro is still my recommended machine in conjunction with Simplify 3D software.

Phil
 

gerry

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Thanks Phil,

I decided to read some more about 3D printers in general first, and am rethinking my statement about not looking at the 'DIY printer kits ' :) . Looking at all the 'new stuff' I had up and running last year in this hobby with less angst than I expected, I may reconsider.
 

fasteddy

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I will agree with Phil here, there has been a lot of focus on simple home models, some of the newer ones have self levelling plates, but then that's at the sacrifice of things like a dual head and heated platform. I love my Flashforge Dreamer and still think its the best value out there.

There isn't too much difference in the flashforge dreamer and creator pro as far as build size and extrusion heads. The flashforge dreamer is designed to take smaller spools but then that's is easily over come by just building a new spool holder (easily found build files found on the internet) and then you can hold 1kg spools. But I do like the easy to use touch screen and wireless capabilities of the dreamer
 

darylc

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Rather than worrying about wifi v's USB etc, I've found Octoprint (thing FPP for your 3d printer) absolutely fantastic. The only time I use the printer controls now is perhaps to start a pre-heat or similar.

http://octoprint.org/

I should also point out that I've been very happy with my Flashforge creator pro
 

gerry

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Dec 19, 2012
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Surrey Hills,Melbourne
I thought I post an update with my experience.

I changed my mind and bought a Sunhokey Prussa I3 printer for US $250 (delivered with two rolls of filament) for a few reasons:
-In the event that I later lost interest in it , I would not have a much more expensive printer gathering dust.
-I know that at least three people on this forum had similar printers I could call on for advice.
-I decided that I may as well give it a go on assembly and doing some tinkering since it was still fairly early in the year.

It came in a kitset flat pack jigsaw like box of lots of plastic and packets of screws, nuts and rods. And one DVD.
The installation/build went through fairly smoothly though the videos supplied (with nothing spoken and no comments) was a question of watch a bit , pause , find the jigsaw like items , screw it together and then continue.

However , after that I was unable to get a proper print , no matter how many youtube videos I watched. I added the Blue printers tape to the bed too.
Yesterday Andrew (AndrewA) very kindly came over and in next to no time had it working. A combination of my not having put the sleeve over the filament back (at some stage of experimentation) and not realising that the supplied video DVD had a directory containing screen shots of the settings that needed to be adjusted in the slicer software :)
(No mention of this anyway). I guess I should have looked at all the directories and jpeg images first.

After printing the obligatory cube , we printed one of the P10 brackets from STL files that folks posted. It came out well - see picture. I have used PLA . Will now print more of the brackets for my panels.
 

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