Who here has a 3D printer?
 

What do you have, and how well do you like it?

I'm looking at the LulzBot TAZ 5 3D Printer

Mostly for making drone and model aircraft parts, but it's always nice to have the extra room in case you want to make something bigger.

I dont have one. But im excited to see where this technology goes. Will be crazy if the average person can just print almost anything.

Especially if this thing could be taken to remote places and say certain survival supplies such as tools can just be printed.

Im surprised for what the capabilities can be the buzz kind of leveled off.

Id love to own my own. But simply dont know enough about the topic.

There are some pretty technical people here. I'm surprised none of you have a 3D printer yet. You going to let me be first?

Don't have one yet... But more and more am thinking of getting one just for fun :)

Printer only for fun.

a lathe is basically a metal 3d printer and its been around for like 100 years...the 3d printers just print plastic...its like a lathe for plastic it has no practical appliance in remote places...you would be better served buying a knife and tinder for like 10$ than investing in a 3d printer...

its good for making plastic stuff in small quantities nothing more....

My buddy has 2 of them. I let him shell out the 4k for his 2 machines and I just ask him to print whatever I want :)

That's for now. Just with all technology there will be vast improvements. I can see it doing big things in the future.

Will be buying one in the near future. Looking at the top of the line MakerBot.

My Dad has a MakerBot Replicator 2x. It's his second one. He just fucks around with it mostly, but it's pretty cool.

My friend has a Makerbot (I think that's the brand, I've seen it several times but can't remember). He owns a bakery and makes custom cakes. He does some really cool edible custom decorations for the cakes. He's had his for over a year and hasn't had any issues. If you're really interested, I'll call him and get the specs. I think he paid roughly $6k for it a year or so ago.

He loves it, btw.

We have a couple at the office. I don't know which brand off hand, and I don't know when I'll be in the office. But I can tell you a couple things worth considering.

• They're not easy to assemble or operate, and documentation often seems like an afterthought.
• You need to learn to use 3D modeling software. You can download 3D models created by other people, but at some point you have to learn to modify the models.
• They give off a small amount of toxic fumes, so you want to use them in a well ventilated area.
• They are slow! Most of the time our guys would send a job to the printer before leaving at night, and then come back the next morning to see the results. Which sucks when...
• They sometimes fuck up. We'd get to the office in the morning and find miles of hair thin plastic everywhere.

I think it's easy for these printers to go unused and become expensive dust collectors if you aren't prepared to learn how to use them. Think about how badly you want a 3D printing hobby before you drop $2K+ on one.

I watched the netflix doco and i think the resign ones look better to me

Although these are great toys, thats all they are toys. For example the resolution is just .35 mm for most machines, so everything you extrude has steps that have to be sanded out. Take a look at the full size cars they are building with these machines fascinating technology but they look like something you would make with a giant Lego set and these are built with $300,000+ machines. I can foresee amazing possibilities in the not too distant future, when they get the resolution down to something like .05mm they will have a more practical use. The size limitation is also a factor, limiting yourself to a 12 inch cube or smaller means that any large project has to be made in pieces and glued together. I am very excited to see the next generation of these replicators, perhaps even machines that can extrude food. Then you can have a world class chef send his recipes via the internet to your home based machine for you to enjoy an amazing meal ( after cooking it ) without leaving you home ?:2 cents:

Interesting comments. Sounds like they aren't ready for prime time yet.

An acetone vapor bath takes care of all the roughness. They have a Taz 5 at a store here in Vegas called Drones Plus... they just make accessory parts with it like gimbal locks, landing gear braces, gps tracker mounts, and custom lens caps, but I'm always fascinated by it.

I'm thinking of doing some custom antenna mounts, and how cool it would be for making parts to be used as plugs for making fiberglass aircraft parts. Yes I know it's slow, yes I know I'd need to learn more than I already know about CAD - but I like learning that stuff.

Think I'm going to order one in the next couple of weeks. Just have to research and decide which one. Absolutely want one with a dual extruder that can use carbon fiber filament.

Good point, they will never allow that.

Oh really? What about print houses, medical devices, bio printing, vehicle, guns, shoes, food and many other??

I'm sorry, what? You'll call him and get the specs? This your first day on the Internet?

I've been looking at them for a while now and I just cannot stand the shitty resolution they all have right now.

Everything you print is really subpar IMO, only really good for testing products or making parts for r/c as you are looking to do.