3d printing getting cheaper

[kenofyork]

http://www.solidoodle.com/

I ordered one last week and will post reviews and pics when I see how it works. It should be useful for a lot of things.

[mangozac]

What are you planning to use it for? The print lines are as horrendous as any other ABS filament deposition printers out there and for modelling use would need so much puttying to remove that IMO it would kind of defeat the purpose.

[Anvils Hammer]

Its getting cheaper, but the technology is also getting better.

The other day I saw a print on the Max-Mini stand at salute, it was PERFECT, no lines at all.

This kind of printing, the perfect kind, is still really expensive, and now Ive seen the print, I cant go back to useing Shapeways FUD except for maby some larger mechanical bits, which means my 3D printing costs will stay high for a couple of years..

Luckily because I cast and sell them, I can pay off the Digital design and 3D printing cost within a reasonable time frame, months not years, which makes it worthwhile..

Im only just getting into 3D printing and its awesome! Ill be using the tech more and more over the coming years.

AH

[paulson games]

Ken,

Having read your blog getting the printer makes a lot of sense, using to test fit parts before the final models head off to a higher end printer will pay for itself very quickly. If it saves you from having to do a dozen test prints it pays for iteself right there.

I just had to make revisions and reprint several of the small mecha heads as the original size was a tad on the small size and even with making adjustments I'm not sure if they are going to be correct until I see them in hand. It makes me think that having even a lower resolution a printer on hand would be very handy.

It'd save quite a bit of money and also save a couple weeks time of waiting for prints to come in. You'd be able to do mock up pieces very quickly to help develope a final model much faster. I think I will be doing likewise as soon as my wallet allows.


Also I saw your start up experiments with casting, looking forward to seeing your progress and very cool use of the PVC stuff, although I think I'll be sticking to the paint pots as the possiblity of rupture is a bit scary. Hopefully it'll continue to work well and safely as it's a very novel approach.