I’m looking into getting a 3d printer but not sure of what to get. Originally I was going to go the resin route, but my friend got one so I’m looking for a non resin printer. I don’t know a ton about non resin printers, but I’d like to be able to print good quality terrain for board games like Marvel Crisis and Nemesis. Storage solutions for games etc., I was looking at crealty cr10 v3 or maybe an Ender, but not sure if there is a better option for my needs. Any suggestions?
I wish I hadn’t got a 3d printer. They are neat, but require endless fiddling to get right. I got a creality ender 3 pro. I ended up buying new stuff for it right away because it doesn’t work out of box for anything but the simplest prints. That’s my experience anyways, I’m sure there are lots of other takes though. :)
My experience as well. :)
I’ve still got ~$80 worth of upgrades sitting not installed on mine. Occasionally I think of things I want to print, then remember what I’d have to go through to do it and decide its not that important.
I also got an Ender 3 Pro ~6 months ago, and also ended up adding a lot of upgrades to it to improve it. I sort of knew what I was getting into so haven’t been disappointed, but it’s no exaggeration - it takes a lot of tinkering to keep it running well, and there is a lot of software tinkering as well. I use Cura, which is pretty well designed, but the configuration choices are complex and take a lot of reading to figure things out. These are not plug and play devices, at least at this end of the cost spectrum. The good news is when it’s dialed in it’s terrific and can produce lots of cool stuff, including a ton of 3d terrain for my kids’ dnd and warhammer games. They love the thing and are a constant source of requests for it. I bought a cheap model to try all this out and figure I will eventually get a higher end model with auto bed leveling, a better controller cpu, and more quality of life features.
I have a MonoPrice 3D printer that’s a few years old and is just a total pain in the butt leveling-wise, so I’ve been doing research on self-leveling 3D printers (a critical feature, IMHO, to avoid lots of frustration and wasted PLA).
The Creality CR6 SE looked good technically, but the build quality has been problematic. So much so that Creality warned customers not to let it run unattended – apparently a substandard power switch was arcing, etc. I saw a pic here on Qt3 of one with logo on the top of the printer installed upside-down. :) So the specs are great, but the whole build quality issue and catching on fire thing made me decide not to go that direction.
The good news is there’s a new printer, just shipped in the last month, that seems to be feature-similar to the Creality, including the same leveling technology, but has much better and more reliable build quality. Also is apparently capable of printing much faster.
The YouTube reviews from streamers who slammed the CR6 SE are generally very positive. I’m currently leaning towards selling my MonoPrice cheap and replacing it with one of these.
Is this because you work together frequently and wanted more options or because he doesn’t like his resin printer? I was looking very briefly at these recently and the more expensive resin printers look pretty amazing result wise but I don’t know much about them except that the filament based printers are super fiddly. I was curious how much that applied to the more expensive resin models.
PRUSA I3 MK3S+.
These are comparatively expensive, but they tend to “just work”.
I’ve heard Prusa called the Apple of the FDM printing world…
This way we could double up. He can print the miniatures and I can print terrain and storage for my games etc.
I picked up an Ender 3 v2 this week for a self birthday gift.
It is… fiddly.
But, also it is fun to tinker with so far, which makes it a good hobby. The Ender 3 v2 has an auto bed leveling sensor you can buy that is plug and play for like 40 bucks. Definitely going to invest in that.
Otherwise, having fun creating some cool stuff for my starfinder campaign.
I got a cr10v3.
It’s interesting that using the same filament, type, brand etc with the only difference being the color has such an effect on my prints. It makes sense but using the Hatchbox black I get so many misprints due to warping and things not sticking to the plate. Forums are little help when you show examples of what happens you get 10 people telling you one thing and 10 more telling you the complete opposite.
After a lot of trial and error I have figured out most of my settings. So far the prints I’ve made have been mostly inserts for my board games, but I’m going to try printing some fun stuff now. Overall I’m enjoying the printer and spending way too much on filament.
Yeah, it is frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Like any crafting hobby, you have ups and downs, but when you get some awesome minis printed, it really feels worthwhile.
Did a benchy yesterday, and it came out pretty good. Still having layer 1 issues with warping on corners, but I think I can add a brim to the prints to help corners stick. might try adjusting temps as well.
It is so fiddly, but it is something that is kind of fun to tinker with, and once you get things zoned in, it feels pretty satisfying to see the little crates or barriers print out.
So far leveling is the biggest PITA, but the Ender 3 v2 comes prepared for you to install a BLtouch sensor in a fairly easy manner.
Probably will do that as my next upgrade. First upgrade will be getting workbench for it in my office. Right now it is in the basement living room on a folding table that is… not super level, which is frustrating, as well as far enough away from my PC to make monitoring prints a hassle.
I’ve decided to embrace glue sticks and everything has been so much better ever since.
I was getting slight warping on the corners with PETG only. Turned the bed temp up a bit and that fixed it for me.
That’s on a Prusa MK3S+, which I finally broke down and purchased a few months ago. Fantastic printer, have it interred in my full size server rack, very happy with it.
My favorite print so far would probably be the print in place Legend of Zelda BOTW guardians.
https://www.anycubic.com/ I just picked up the photon s for $99 with absolutely no I research. Been wanting a resin printer for minis for a while, and couldn’t resist the deal.
IV been playing around with an ender 3 for about a year now, and its really cool, but printing miniatures on it can be painful, and slow…
Nice!
I was tempted by that deal. I think that the Photon S is probably good, would like to hear how well it prints. Anycubic makes some decent stuff.
Have been super hesitant to get into resin printing due to all of the icky stuff with resin (VOC’s, IPA cleaning, etc)
I’ll say I found the Anycubic Vyper kind of frustrating at first because it wasn’t the hassle-free experience I was looking for. But the auto-leveling does work, and one clogged-and-replaced nozzle and a lot of profile tweaking later, I’m having pretty good experiences with it.
Still hoping these things someday reach the level of being consumer products. Even the ones with LCDs and autoleveling still feel like we’re in the equivalent of people using Altairs and other S100 board computers…
Only $40?
Hmm. Put the cr6 on the xmas list just for the autolevelling over the 3v2,but it is $100 more.
Could maybe switch back and get the leveler.
How well does it work? I’ve never done any, but the price points look much better now, and I know that the leveling time suck would just frustrate the heck out of me constantly.
I haven’t used one of the bed levelers. I like that the 3v2 is baiscally plug and play, with a spot for a mounting bracket, and a dedicated spot on the board.
I have heard that getting the firmware updated and flashed is a bit of a pain.
Honestly, now that I have gotten the printer on a nice solid table, I have only had to level very occasionally.
I think that the CR6 has other benefits than just the auto leveling. From what I have heard, it works well.
The photon s arrived about 5 days ago, and i would love to tell you how great its working, but I cant. It is the opposite of plug and play.
I thought that my experience with the fdm printing, and all of they youtube that IV binged, that i was not going to have the same problems as other people. But getting this thing set up right seems like witchcraft.
I have tried about 5 test prints, and they all delaminate towards the front of they build plate. And 1 other print it sliced myself that stuck to the fte screen about 20percent in.
So counter top that the printer is sitting in could be out of level. And its was, so I shimmed up the front of they printer 2mm.
The fte screen could be to tighten, or to loose…it sounds like a drum, and I have no experience to judge that, so I assume it came correct.
I could be incorrectly leveling the build plate. Im printing out a spacer on my ender 3 that’s supposed to help with that.
The build plate could be retracting to quickly, but this is the rest print that comes with the printer, so I dont think so.
The fte screen, or film may be damaged. It shows wear all ready, but I dont think its that. I did pick up some rain-x to apply to it tho.
The lcd screen itself doesn’t have any dead spots.
The build plate itself may not be flat. I have not checked that yet.
And finally, I think, they resin that came with the machine may just be old, or suck. I do have 2 other bottles that I can test, unfortunately one is another type made by anycubic, the eco one. The other is siraya tech tenacious. My intention was to make a 20/80 mix for less brittle prints.
Oh ya, and I also considered updateing the firmware, since there is a newer version on anycubic site, but saw that its had bricked some people motherboards, and anycubic sent them replacements. Which might be fun to tear it apart and rebuild it, but I dont think I would jump on it right away, since im lacking the positive reinforcement of an awesome mini.
Its all part of they hobby I guess. Ill let you know when I get it going for real.
Pulled the trigger on the CR6-SE this week (was down to $369 at newegg). Will post updates.