3D Printers…

[Wildfire]

I had a foray in to 3D printing years ago when you still had to link it up to Solidworks or AutoCAD and it was prohibitively expensive, but of late I have been thinking about getting one.

I would be looking to do miniatures for gaming, and then maybe detailed parts for costumes and props, including prop guns / gadgets (in parts that I can then assemble).

Also some models that a mould can be made for lossless wax casting for jewellery.

I figure by the time I start buying ready printed pieces I will quickly add up to buying my own printer.

I believe there are a lot of downloadable files out there you can print out and with a bit of nouce you can modify them, so I can customise things etc.

I have no idea where to start on models, software etc.

Can anyone give me a steer?

[devnull]

There’s quite an active 3D printer thread on here.


But in short: buy a Prusa if you want a fairly reliable appliance.

Buy a creality if you want to spend hundreds of hours on a device to tinker with that never comes out quite as good as a prusa.

For moulds you might want a resin 3D printer.

[Bullett]

Miniatures and small high detail stuff you need resin for, larger stuff you want an FDM.

[b2hbm]

I'm new to 3D printing and to be fair to Creality, it was only their cheap printers that lured me into the game. I bought the CR6SE which has had a few moments but nothing to write home about. The main drawback is speed, when I first started it seemed amazing but now I fancy something a bit faster. But even so it's been quite addictive, I probably get as much kick from designing something as I do the finished items.

Software - I use Fusion 360, free download and free for personal use. Plenty of youtube tutorials to get you started and if you don't like Fusion there are alternatives around.

For "slicing" the 3D designs I use Cura, again a free package. One other thing I use occasionally to convert images is Inkscape, yes, you've guessed that's another freebie.

If you want to look around at what others are designing then https://www.thingiverse.com/ is probably one of the most popular sites. But there are loads of others if you put "3D printing" into google. Some are free models, some are paid.

[Griffith4ever]

For miniatures, you really want a resin printer. Look at the elegoo Saturn (large and fast). It's quite telling if you Google it you'll mostly see pictures of resin printed Warhammer figures and the likes. Resin printers produce smooth final product like items, unlike regular 3d printers that have visible lines.

However , regular 3d printers excel at cheap, non messy, larger prints, which might be more suitable for your props. I've just printed the holy grail and a staff headpiece for an Indy fancy dress outfit and the are really rather good.

I have had a couple of printers including a prusa I3 . I now have an ended 5 pro and it's a bloody bargain. It is reliable and problem free. The resolution on standard mode (in cura) is astonishing. Sat £260 it's worth a try regardless.

You don't need to be tied to software with the hardware. The Ender comes with its own slicer etc but I don't use it. I use either SketchUp or fusion 360 for model creation, or thingiverse to download other people's, then Cura for slicing, then straight onto a memory card for direct printing, or, via a browser and OctoPrint (on a raspberry Pi).

These I knocked up in a hurry last week. I had to print the staff headpiece in two parts as it was too tall and thin and got knocked over by the print head eventually. Both printed in red silk PLA then primed with car red primer spray, then painted gold, or in the case of the cup, gold leaf as well. Then a light prop wash on the headpiece. I drank from the cup of Christ all weekend :-) I ran over the cup with fine wet and dry paper to blur out the printed lines. Very rough job as it was for a one off use.

Edited by Griffith4ever on Monday 1st August 09:50

Edited by Griffith4ever on Monday 1st August 09:52