by ccobra » Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:07 pm
My preferences are a lot more expensive. I started out with a sollidoodle for around $600 but its operating costs were high just to keep it printing. The I got a Lutzbot Mini where the only high operating cost is buying more filament, so in my opinion I wish I had started off with the Mini for it has been more reliable with better quality prints. With Both Printers I have used Autodesk Inventor to make my files to print. Since we're on a slotcar forum, I am assuming that the printer with be used to make slotcar chassis and some day the trickier bodies. With the chassis expect a learning curve of around a month or so to dial in the printer and learn what sizes to print. For example I found that when I do a tubular chassis, I make the tubing with a 3/32 diameter with a 9/64 radius if I want the print to come out somewhat detailed. Then I found that a wall thickness of 0.050 would work with motor mounts. By no means am I an expert on this subject for I am changing my chassis designs with each print so that I can find a new combination of specs to get more detail on the chassis. But one important thing to research on the printer is its print size. If you want to print 1/244 scale, forget the Mini or any printer with that size of print area, it just won't do it unless you're printing out Sprites or TR4's for your track. Even some of the other 1/32 scale you have to angle the part to get it to print and when you do that it can take up to six hours to print. That was one thing I learned real quick on the Solidoodle, it would only print continuously for about 45 minutes before it would decide it had done its share of printing and just quit printing. You may remember the Ugly Falcon that I printed a few years back, it had to be printed in sections and then glued together which made it one really Ugly Falcon. Anyway its best to do a lot of research before getting into the printer to make sure it is what you want in a printer and if possible, send out a file and have the printer company print it out for you to see if that is what you expect. Sorry about rambling on, just didn't want you to experience the same mistake I made when I first got into the 3d printer scene.