3D Printers - Getting Your Feet Wet

[SlotCarCorner]

Many of us on HRW are watching 3D printing from the sidelines hoping someday we'll get a chance to play. With so many printers to choose from, continually improving features, and increasingly attractive pricing, it can be daunting to decide where to start. For those of you already using a 3D printer to make your own slot car parts, here's your chance to provide some guidance and share your experience. For starters, please tell us a little bit about your printer(s). While detailed reviews on specific printers are available elsewhere, the reviews don't necessarily cover things like:
* What do you like about the printer?
* What do you dislike?
* Reliability, parts & service?
* Hidden extras, costs, etc.?
* Learning curve - how much time does it take to get up-to-speed?
* Types of slot car parts you are making (perhaps include some pictures)?
* Types of material used to create your 3D slot car parts?
* What types of software do you use when designing parts and to prepare the design for printing?
* Would you recommend your printer to others?
* Anything else that might be relevant from a slot car perspective?

:text-thankyouyellow:

[waaytoomuchintothis]

This is how it starts. I can't wait to see how this goes!

[chappy]

Very good topic to start. I think getting some input from our members experience is ideal. Who better to trust.
Bob

[Lou E]

I don’t have a printer, yet, but have been been playing with Tinkercad and printing my projects through Shapeways. Tinkercad is very easy to use and there are all sorts of tutorials on YouTube.

Looking forward to seeing what people’s experiences with printers is as it relates to slot cars being that it would be my main focus for getting one.

[ccobra]

[chappyman66]

[quote="SlotCarCorner"]Many of us on HRW are watching 3D printing from the sidelines hoping someday we'll get a chance to play. With so many printers to choose from, continually improving features, and increasingly attractive pricing, it can be daunting to decide where to start. For those of you already using a 3D printer to make your own slot car parts, here's your chance to provide some guidance and share your experience. For starters, please tell us a little bit about your printer(s). While detailed reviews on specific printers are available elsewhere, the reviews don't necessarily cover things like:
* What do you like about the printer?
* What do you dislike?
* Reliability, parts & service?
* Hidden extras, costs, etc.?
* Learning curve - how much time does it take to get up-to-speed?
* Types of slot car parts you are making (perhaps include some pictures)?
* Types of material used to create your 3D slot car parts?
* What types of software do you use when designing parts and to prepare the design for printing?
* Would you recommend your printer to others?
* Anything else that might be relevant from a slot car perspective?


I have a Dremel 3D20. Picked it up for half price at Rockler, NIB for 400.
Like: full enclosure, just worked right out of the box.
Dislike: no heated bed, so PLA only printing. For home use, I don't care. Plenty of strength in PLA.
Reliability: worked right out of the box. I have done several multi-hour prints (10 hrs +). Parts are easily available from Dremel. Customer service and support is great although it's only available 8-5 central time
Hidden costs: they claim you have to use their filament. Absolutely not true. The very second thing I printed was a download of a different spool support from Thingiverse. Once installed I have used various filaments from Amazon. Also, the Dremel slicing program isn't great...I bought simplify 3D which has been easy to learn and use.
I also bought a full metal hotend upgrade ($30) which was easy to install.
Learning curve: the Dremel printer is easy. Simplify 3D wasn't bad although I don't use all of the functions. Tinkercad is where I do design work, and as mentioned it's pretty easy to use (and free online). I use Thingiverse for many design ideas.
Parts I make (pictures later): chassis, guide flags, motor pods, adjustable front axle assembly, wheels, a Dunlop bridge, sign lattice, scenery items (trailers, pit stuff, etc). I printed a Porsche 356 body.
As mentioned before, I print PLA only but it's plenty good enough for what I do...and theoretically I can do carbon fiber PLA but I haven't tried it yet.

Recommended? As a basic printer, absolutely. It's not multi material capable so it's not really commercial quality....but i never run out of guide flags and motor pods.
Not being a CAD whiz, I can spend an afternoon working on a chassis....but it's pretty cool to use something you made. Yes, I also solder wire and brass......

[dreinecke]

Very timely, as my mouse button was hovering over an "add to shopping cart" button a few minutes ago on a Creality3D Ender kit. A buddy has one and is making war-gaming figures. He's done a few 3D people for me as a test and it is very promising. This would mostly be for me to do stuff for myself or potentially master something like the rest of the cars I still want to do if someone takes over RMS.

I've got the popcorn - get crackin'!

[HomeRacingWorld]

[mattb]

Keep it coming. I don't intend to jump in, but it's great to learn how this all works and the process involved in creating.

[dw5555]

I think my main concern is the software itself for those of us with less than an engineering degree. How do you go about actually designing or copying a body? Maybe another thread?
Dave

[viejoronnie]

I have been looking at the Dremel. Is there a budget 3d scanner that could scan a 3d original model and allow one to scale the data up or down to what ever you want or is such a device outrageously expensive?

[slothead]

I'm curious what type of computers are being used for the responses here. PC or Mac, and how new and what basics are needed? I have a bunch of older PCs I use for most things, running Windows 95 and Microsoft Office 2007. They still work great for my programming and spreadsheet purposes, but probably not sufficient for 3D stuff which I would think takes a lot of memory and processor speed.

If I get a new desktop computer, I'd want it be 3D capable.

Thanks.

[SlotCarCorner]

Thank you Lou E, ccobra and chappyman66 for posting - very useful information.

:text-thankyouyellow:

[chappyman66]

Computers... .
I run an old laptop. But I use Tinkercad so the real limit is internet connection speed.
It's a Windows 7 machine so not super old, but it won't fetch more than $50 if I were to sell it.
I would say get a big monitor.....that helps those of us with bifocals. I don't do fancy body design. The fancy car I worked on was scaled down from Thingiverse using the import function of Tinkercad.
The laptop does take some chugging on big files, but it gets there. I don't think you need a huge machine capable of running full AutoCAD but that depends on what you want to do.

As for scanning...... theoretically you can build one at home with a turntable. Frankly, I am pretty sure that success in scanning is all about stepper motors and precise motion control as well as bigger processing power to integrate the "point cloud".....so I leave that to the pros. But I see lots of scanning services, so who knows?

[-Nimrod-]

Hiya All,

1. * What do you like about the printer?
I purchased the Wombot Exilis XL for approx. AUD$1000.00, ready built and tested.
It had the capabilities and price I wanted at the time.
• Heated Glass bed
• Auto leveling bed plate
• Independent from PC printing
• Large print area 250L x 250W x 320H (mm)
• Highest resolution 0.05mm (capable of 0.02mm with a smaller nozzle)
• Made in Australia for easy fix or replacement parts
• Can handle multiple types of materials ABS, PLA, Nylon
• Free SD Card with models and Software like Cura etc.

2. * What do you dislike?
Should come with a better cooling duct design.
I printed a better one from Thingverse, now printing thin pieces is no longer an issue.
Nothing else so far, it’s a good work horse.
Had it printing for over 24hours at a time with no problems

3. * Reliability, parts & service?
Very reliable, I’ve had it now for almost 3 years and have had no failure or problems with the machine at all.
I’m told by the manufacturer, that all parts are available if necessary.

4. * Hidden extras, costs, etc.?
Only costs so far are
• Glue Sticks
• PLA rolls
• SD card
• Electricity

5. * Learning curve - how much time does it take to get up-to-speed?
Be ready to tinker and look through heaps of online 3D printing forums.
The printer printed perfectly on it’s first print, a Bender head provided on the SD card from the shop.
To understand the printer, eg bed temp, hot tip temp, speed of printing, etc that took a good month for me to understand. I’m a Cad drafty and know how to work in 2D & 3D with AutoCAD and many other programs, so that was not an issue.
Cleaning up models from the internet is where it’s taken me 6 to 8 months to really get the best results. The models are 3D but not suitable for 3D printing, therefore I sometimes go through 3 to 4 bits of software to get what I need. Even then it may not be perfect and I’ll need to tweek Cura.
3D Models made for 3D printing are great and usually have no issues.


6. * Types of slot car parts you are making (perhaps include some pictures)?
I’ve drafted and printed a couple of my own chassis, whole car bodies, Rear wings and mirrors, drafted and printed the most recent round scaley guide and another standard type guide, 25mm gaming figures and scenery pieces, etc








7. * Types of material used to create your 3D slot car parts?
I’ve only used PLA.
PLA is plenty tough for all the parts I’ve printed
I want to start making full car kits with PLA printed glass and interior pieces.

8. * What types of software do you use when designing parts and to prepare the design for printing?
Cos I know it so well, for all my own parts I create solid models in AutoCAD.

For editing/fixing 3D models, I use Blender, Nettfabb and a couple of others for extracting models from games etc. I Also have used the online website “Make Printable” for free, easy to use and fixed a couple of models I couldn’t.

For Slicing models for printing, I use Cura, Slic3r and Simplify3D

9. * Would you recommend your printer to others?
Yes, but there are now bigger and faster models available with no change to the resolution, I would suggest them.

10. * Anything else that might be relevant from a slot car perspective?
Patience!!!!
I had huge misconceptions on the speed of printing.
Good prints take time.

It’s really up to you now, you can produce almost anything that you would normally purchase if it’s made of plastic. PLA and many other materials have matured over the last 3 to 4 years, there are better products that help give better prints.

Cheers
NimROD