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[me3]

Hi all,

I have been offered a 3d printer...this one in fact...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271381955044

...for £150.

I really want to get it but theres something in my mind saying it will be a pain to use. I have a fairly limited attention span so don't want to buy it, find it takes months to set up correctly and then find I don't use it.

So I guess I'm looking for advice on:

Are they fairly easy to use (I know they will be fiddly from what I've read.
Is the printer mentioned any good?
Can I draw the bits on sketchup? Do they have to be converted to STL?
What would you do? 

Thanks in advance! 

[Kim]

Hi,
This is said to help and not to put you off as i have no experience of the machine.

Looks very much like a  replicator 2x which for prototyping is hard to beat on price / consumables
The machine may probably be capable of doing what you ask.
The stepper motors and drivers are possibly proven / run on solid hardware.
The build quality may be good.

but...

Will you get backup support, continued software upgrade?
(Assuming) The software is good / usable in the first place without the need of understanding the machine, gcode, ins and outs of extruders ...

Many people have bought 'offshore' laser cutters/ cnc  only to find there just not fit for the long term...without help or better understanding of the technology.

Outsourcing is still more cost effective to the hobby/ occasional user in my opinion.

All said assuming you can draw,and have a compatible drawing package.... of course.

Regards,
Kim

[IKB]

Hi Me3,


The only thing I would say is that if something is too good to be true, then it usually is, even the advertised price is very cheap for a 3D printer.


3D printing can be alot of fun, but it can also be very frustrating, I help run two Lulzbot TAZ 5s at work and I have a TAZ 5 & mini at home, after many hundreds of accumulated hours, I can tell you that nothing is set in stone with 3D printing, like most things, problems crop up and can be very frustrating to repair.
In the beginning I was also tempted to get a cheap 3D printer, but after much research, I decided to go with a more expensive Lulzbot mini, (which was a bit of a bargain second hand off eBay) it has been very reliable and mostly trouble free, churning out print after print, but in the end, it is your money.
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.


In answer to your question, you can draw in sketchup, which then has to be outputted as an STL, which is then processed by a slicing program and converted into Gcode, (machine language) for the printer to follow.


Alex

[me3]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies chaps. Following from your advice I have decided not to buy this printer. I am going to purchase a new machine. Thinking about the purso from ooznest. But I am yet to do the research. Thanks