Hello everyone, I am new to the 3d printing community and have been following many youtuber's to gain some knowledge on the subject. I am completely amazed by the amount of information and hard work that the community is providing for not only new members such as myself, but also to grow and expand the technology. I have recently been addicted to Thomas Sanladerers' channel and I was very impressed by E3D and the representative in a few of Thomas' video's (Not sure if he is the owner/CEO/President of E3D). I look forward to getting my first 3d printer in the near future and I am still in limbo as to which machine I am going to settle with. My budget is going to be less than $1,000 USD, and I am a bit of a tinkerer. Currently I am employed full time and studying for a BS in Electrical Engineering. If anyone could provide any valuable insight as to why one machine may fit me better than others would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Aaron
Greg, The i3 MK3 has been in my sights for quite some time now. Being that I like to tinker the kit version would be perfect. I would also like to eventually creat my own multipurpose machine(additive and subtractive machining). I have also been looking at the CR10S as another possible starting point but haven’t really made up my mind
@Aaron Soles You usually don't get very good quality when making a hybrid machine that can do additive and subtractive. Depending on the kinds of material you'd want to machine you need a lot more rigidity than a 3d-printer optimized rig could deal with. Sure, you could strap a printhead to a heavy metal CNC mill or router but you'd get nowhere near the speed you'd have with a lightweight 3d printing setup. I originally started out with the same intentions into the adventures of maker technology but I now own 2 printers, a lathe, a mill and a router. For good reason. Each of them can be used to produce more machines. It never ends...
@mhe I completely agree with you on your point. I feel that a dedicated machine for each process is the best for optimization. It's hard not to let your mind wonder a bit though, and see if it is remotely possible. I think E3D is on to something with their tool changer design, maybe only best suited for 3d printing but the possibilities could be endless with the right technology. It is just fascinating where the community has driven current technology. Thank you for your input. Out of curiosity, knowing what you do now, would you buy a Prusa i3 MK3 or a Creality CR10S?
I think the way forward is creating the toolheads that Sanjay spoke about in his presentation of the Toolchanger a few months back. Besides doing stellar prints, the things that caught my attention are the laser stuff (which would require proper housing with protective glass, especially given the shiny surface of the machine) and the picking and placing stuff. The biggest issue we have with the hybrid setups is that there is no single software solution that can do slicing, subtractive CAM and pick&place. Basically we need a slicer workspace in Fusion 360 and still we'll need to hand-edit a lot of Gcode to make best use of this tech for now but the possibilities are endless. Also, 15W lasers small enough to be put on a toolchanger head are coming out now. Hell, we could in theory even fit a waterjet to this thing, even if it would be absurd. But people have built simple waterjets for the price of a single toolhead. But just like lasers, that stuff is dangerous. A milling head would be a good first start I guess, hook up a simple dremel with a flex shaft and clamp it to the toolhead. My first mod to the toolchanger once I get my hands on it will be an attempt to hook up closed loop servo motors to a Duet and figure out the limits of the new motion system. And then start printing/machining all sorts of attachments to hook up as many weird things to it as I can, starting off easily with just a pen that can draw on paper or prints. And probably try and scale up the print area, I'd love to convert this to 3 Z rods and a 300x300 230V bed. That would be my dream machine. To answer your question, if you need a workhorse machine that works great out of the box (assembled), go with the Prusa. If you want to tinker around like crazy, do electronics conversions and hook up all sorts of gadgets to aluminium extrusion profiles, go with the CR10S. You can make a CR10S as good or even better than a Prusa but by the time you get there you will have spent more money not to mention time. My pick would be the Prusa. If you still need to tinker, get an Anet A8 dirt cheap, print an AM8 conversion kit on the Prusa and get some alu profiles. That would be your testbed for all sorts of projects and the parts are as standard as they get. Unless you need a really big print size, there is little point in the CR10S over the Prusa. Also not a fan of that external electronics box, but that is rather subjective. Fans are reported to be loud and annoying though.
@mhe Thank you for your input. You bring up some valid points. I think for me eventually, I’ll end up with separate machines. Being an electrical engineering student, I really want to be able to mill out my own circuit board designs. I know getting boards professionally made is fairly easy but for one off prototyping, I’ll be better suited milling my own.
