What Printers are folks using?

[Greekplaya990]

What 3d printers are folks using?

I'm using a lulzbot for my creating things, I like the ability to swap complete hot ends really quickly and with no tinkering. The ability to also print with the carbon fiber and other materials with their hardened hot ends is pretty awesome too and should fare well to paintball projects that need that extra strength.

Anyone have any cool projects that their printers have been working well on?

[XEMON]

I'm using an ender 3 ... A naked platform, but I upgraded/modes to my need and what I want to do ...
CF is on the list, as nylon ... Looking into high temp will be first step (if I don't get a laser first 😅)

it works great for pets and play, a real workhorse ... I only level the bed every 15-20 prints with no issue ...

[boarder2k7]

I have a modified Wanhao i3/Monoprice Makerselect V2. I'm running an E3D Hemera hotend with a tungsten carbide nozzle. I don't change anything out to print any sort of different materials. Swapped it to a glass bed, and beefed up the bed carrying plate, I don't even bother to level it anymore. Probably the last time I touched anything at all was when I swapped in the carbide nozzle 6 months ago.

The Hemera is sweet, the filament path is incredibly short. As a result I can print TPU at 60mm/s with no issues, and print most draft/mid level parts around 120mm/s if I'm not going to care about the ringing I get on some features at that speed. One of these days I'll get around to sorting out the belts a little better to reduce that.

XEMON Since you mentioned lasers, I have a Triumph TR-5030, 500x300 mm at 50 watts (probably real world 40 though). It's a fun machine to have, really comes in handy with rapid prototyping of things and otherwise stupid stuff. Triumph is a bit more spendy on the scale of Chinese lasers, but it seems to be reliable, I know someone else with one who runs it a lot more than I do and has been using it with good success for several years now.

[boarder2k7]

CO2 lasers will not touch metals at all. The best you can do is strip the dye out of anodizing on aluminum to give the frosty white look you're used to seeing on laser etched aluminum stuff.

Steel and brass are right out for normal use. You can use Theramark spray to leave black lines, but it's basically just fancy laser applied paint that's a ton of money per spray can. You can also do some funny stuff using acidic solutions (like mustard) on steels to photochemically etch the metal, but that stuff isn't consistent enough to use for much.

To do metalwork (and by that I mean ONLY etching) you'll need a fiber laser, which is much more expensive.

A CO2 laser will etch slate by locally superheating and blowing tiny chunks off, again giving a frosted effect.

[XEMON]

Thanks for the info.
I have been thinking of some diode laser too ... some low power ones seam to do a good job on ano, but i was hoping a bit more power would do much more ... doesnt seam like it ...

The orthur/Neje on 20w input seams to be doing the job ... and diode are air cooled, so i save a significant amount of space ...
But i cannot get confirmation that it does mark on ano ...

[boarder2k7]

Diode lasers will mark anno. I would also never recommend one, certainly for nothing other than etching, they functionally won't cut, it takes like 20 passes for anything legitimate with most of them.

They terrify me though because they're all open gantry type machines which is super dangerous. I like my eyes

[Rainmaker]

I've got two Anycubic i3 Mega's, and I love them. Had them over 3 years now I'm pretty sure. Various upgrades, and they're by no means high quality machines, so I have to replace things here and there. But they've been great!

The first hundred or so MAK's were made on them, every Drop10 for the past 3 years, and all of the PUCKer UP! Phantom pump kits. The printers names are Abbot and Castello 😆

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Brandon]

I've been looking at the mega x for my first printer, what upgrades have you done?

[Rainmaker]

Brandon nothing too crazy. I added MOSFETS for the bed and the hotend. Upgraded the stepper drivers. Slapped a PEI sheet on the bed (though the stock bed worked for me for quite awhile). Also I put a knockoff all metal hotend on there, the one I have is Gulfcoast Robotics brand. Also, whn fans have started to fail bearings and get loud, I've replaced them with quieter fans. Oh, and I also am using some printed self-centering z-couplers from thingiverse.

[AtomJaay]

Been using the same wooden Makerbot Replicator 1 since 2012 with a modified extruder and some preventive maintenance. 6000 hrs+ the last time i bothered to check. For anyone familiar with the early Makerbot saga, this is interesting to note because the Stratasys suits came in and congratulated the Brooklyn team on "selling a bunch of prototypes" and then went on to use inferior components, hobbled the extruder with DRMish BS and changed their inhouse PLA formula to a higher temp with no notice resulting in jams and more extruder sales (IMHO) all in order to "reign in" the power of distributed 3DP tech.
They bought "kleenex" and turned it into sandpaper in order to tarnish the idea of facial tissue so they could keep their Nose Concierge service afloat.

...how did this turn into a rant? lol

[Aperture3D]

First printer was a B2X300 that consumed stepper drivers on every print, may it rot in pieces

1 Prusa MK3s that has been a dream to work with since day 1
1 that has been haunted by gremlins since day 1
1 Railcore II that I wrestle with daily/hourly/every waking moment

Tax refund money is burning a hole in my wallet, highly considering taking the leap for a commercial/industrial solution

[Myguns2fast4u]

Currently have a Formlabs Form 3

[JonM]

I’m still using my upgraded Ender 3. I haven’t been printing as much as I used to, but it still does the job when I need it to.

[Alexndl]

Just bough a second hand Ender 5
Just waiting for free time to start printing something...

[Lane]

Ender 5 with a few upgrades, mostly printed (bed supports, etc.); I picked a bracket to convert it to direct drive and that got rid of the majority of issues I've had as they were all related to the bowden tubing.