Alright, complete noob on 3D printers, but I have followed this from the start and want to also get into this. I can weld and have all that crap in the garage, but I am really interested in this. I have a few laptops but no software or really any experience with software for designing 3D objects, so I am at a steep learning curve. I don't really have anything I NEED to make, but like you, I love to tinker and also never thought I would use my welders beyond putting a cage in a car 10 years ago and now they are a staple. I also have 2 young kids and schpool projects will be over flowing in the next few years. I can do about the same $1k budget, but if possible, I would really like a "Hey Stupid, do it this way with exactly this machine" from someone who has BTDT. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

This would be my recommended road map. There are alot of other ways, but my experience so far has proven this to work
This is the printer itself. There are options, and other models that include various upgrades and options, but this works great and is affordable. With a bit of tweaking and fussing with it has become a consistent machine for me and is pretty flexible given its size. Its also a very upgradable and supported machine. Its single biggest limitation for me was its relatively cold max heat value stock. I upgraded the firmware and the hotend. Both were pretty easy to do and pretty cheap but I got alot of use out of the machine before i felt like i needed to upgrade them. Its a simple creality cr-10 base model. In hindsight I might have spent the extra hundred bucks on the pro version only because of the dual z axis screws and the bootloader already installed on the hardware with no need to hack a arduino to reflash the firmware. But thats getting pretty far ahead of where you are or what you want.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Creality-C...epid=0&hash=item1a78041b9d:g:cdgAAOSwZ65chxoQ

I use amazon basics printer filiment usually. The spools are nice with a built in gauge, the material seems consistent and its affordable while being delivered in a day or two. Its also available in alot of colors.By sticking with one brand I feel I have cut down on alot of tweaking my slicer setting for a given brand filiment tuning.


Matterhackers offers alot of parts, materials, and support for printers. I find them to be easy to deal with and supportive but rather spendy. Still a good resource though.

https://www.matterhackers.com/


This is the slicer software i use and I am happy with it. There are others but this is what i used first and stuck with. Its constantly growing in features as well.

https://ultimaker.com/en/products/ultimaker-cura-software

This is the cad software I am using. Its free to use as a start up or a student. You just have to fill out the form for it

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview#banner

This is a data base of things you can just download and print. Its kinda nuts what you will find by looking.
https://www.thingiverse.com/

Also grab cad has a bunch of good stuff once you figure out how to import them and run them through cura.
https://grabcad.com/

The cad software is by far the toughest part. I learned enough to start fucking my way through it by watching this guy



I recommend you put the printer in a box. Something that will be insulated from what noise it makes and also keep the heat in to prevent warping and whatnot.
Mine works awesome if not a bit overkill. A dedicated filtered and heated server box or all the way down to an cardboard box with towles on it can work. There are alot of online ideas for a good enclosure.

Start off with pla as a material. Its the easiest, fastest, and most forgiving. Once you got the hang of the machine I figured out petg and then abs in my heated enclosure. Now i can print pretty much any of the standard materials.

Good luck. Its alot of fun.

 

I wish I could give you 100 likes!

Thanks Man! If you're ever in North Florida or South Georgia, let me know. MANY beers on me!

 

Do they even have good beer in the south? LOL I'm a pacific northwest guy which makes me a snooty beer bitch that turns his nose up at anything that isn't in a bottle or comes from a microbrewer where I know the brewmaster. LOL
Thanx for the offer, just glad to be able to take some of my experience and put someone else ahead a bit.

 

I dunno-I mainly drink Whiskey.

Cut my teeth in SoCal on Stone IPA's and stuff, so I completely understand the sentiment.

When I do drink beer, its at least bottled Dos Equis...but only because its better than Coors Light and that's all my boss drinks.

 

Very Cool fastspec2,
I did not catch this thread before. I have always liked these printers but i decided against it when i had my business. Can you actually replicate a part, say for instance a Tubular GT 40 plenum cover? I was originally thinking of making a mould and doing carbon fiber but an aluminum one would be fantastic. The ability to create one off custom parts has alot of appeal too.

 

you can make almost anything really. some stuff is easy, some is harder. Something like the plenum cover should be doable depending on design. Also there is alot of "outside the box" thinking that can take advantage of printing. I use my printers to make forms for pressing thin gauge aluminum for weird shaped dimple dies, Switch panels, small gauge pods ect. If you are bored look up 3d magic mike on instagram. He takes it to an extreme, but will show you whats currently possible if you try. I am really looking forward to the next wave that should alow affordable 3d printing in stainless steel. Alot of the f1 teams have this tech already. Its just spendy.

 

Going to probably end up trying to pick one of these up this Black Friday. I'm working at/on a foundry right now, I took a beer keg cut the top off and lined it with refractory cement. I need to get a burner made and set up, but I think I'll be ready for my first firing soon all goes well. Glad to see you got yours going well, some times it's not just cost but the idea you can't get a part at any cost.

Also, waiting for someone to come up with a bunch of 3D printed pucks for narrowing axles. Thingverse probably has em now that I say it.

 

If you know the dimensions of what you want, you can draw them up. Or I can do it for you if you are not yet a cad/fusion guy. I might be interested in doing that anywhay as I have a 70 camaro I'm currently looking at an 8.8 swap for.

Printing is a learning process like anything, but it can be really satisfying to take an image in your head, use some pretty cool software to turn it into an image on the computer, and then the printer to hold it in your hand.

 

It's not a big deal honestly considering that you'd just make a cylinder with the OD of the bearing races then a hole through the middle with the bar diameter. Last I checked Timken even had specs on their site. Should be an hour or so from research to conclusion IMO.

Now then making a re-patterning jig for axles would be a bit (but not much more) work truthfully.

 

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So I needed a little manifold for running my coolant temp sender on my old 79 chev I built awhile ago. I sold the truck and ended up with it back. I figured I'd fix a few of the little things on the truck to make it easier to sell and getting the factory temp gauge working was on the list.
I used a female 1/2" "T" 2 1/2"-3/4" barbs and the factory temp sender. The arrangement worked well but looked like ass, so I drew up this little mount/cover to tidy it up some. These are the results.
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I printed it with black nylon. It should be HD enough to live without any issue. Will see I guess.

 

will do! thanx

 

CTS holder is pretty awesome and would be handy for say an aftermarket e-fan setup.

 

After getting the clt temp gauge to work it was on to the speedo. I never liked the options for getting a speedo to work when going a 4l80 at least cost wise. The mechanical kits are intrusive to install and expensive, replacement electrical gauges are in my opinion way overpriced for what is there and the little boxes that run a cable from the electrical output were the same money (though me favorite option. I just couldn't see almost 400 bucks for what is essentially a cordless drill).
So I decided on a affordable 85mm gps gauge. I pulled the dash apart and drew up this little spacer/adapter/mount for the gauge. It worked out great, fit well and aloud me to run a 40 dollar solution instead of a 400 dollar one.

This is the drawing in fusion 360
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The part on the printer finishing up.
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The finished part fresh of the machine. before a bit of clean up of the flashing.

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Finished part installed. The gauge works great doesn't look too out of place and got me a working speedo.
Probably my only complaint is the backlight on the gauge is orange instead of green, and alot brighter then the old 194 bulbs that sorta backlit the factory gauges. Going to look into a few ideas for fix this. In all though I'm calling it a pretty big win.
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Next little project was a small gauge/power port cluster for a project I'm working on. There was a blank panel in the dash on the right hand side so i modeled up a little pod to replace the block out plate. Hardest part was getting the corner radius correct to fit the factory dash contour. Anyway, here is a picture, has port for lighter style plug in, 2 usb ports for a phone or some such, a small volt meter and the wide band gauge. It turned out pretty well I think. Fits the hole well and holds everything it needs to.

 

Those USB ports are really really cool. Can't wait till we're printing whole dashes out!

 

Yeah they are. Here is where I got them. There is a ton of cool switch gear on amazon for the watersports and boating crowd that is really neat.



I ordered one of these and then just pulled the parts out of it and pitched the little plate that it comes with. I didn't want to hack up the factory dash to make the setup fit as its shipped. That and it really didn't fit the stacked look of the rest of the dash if everything was just in a line.

 

https://sovol3d.com/products/direct-drive-3d-printer-with-1kg-pla-filament

I think this is the one I'm looking at this Black Friday.

 

It's funny you mention this stuff. I wish I would have revisited this sooner. In terms of the limitations you're talking about I'm working through those now. I made some nice stuff with the trial roll of PLA that came with the printer but the local place only had ABS in stock so I'm climbing the learning curve for that now. I ended up with the Sovol which seems like a pretty darn nice printer. I will say I don't have an enclosure yet but I have a game plan for that. I have a metal cabinet I think will work pretty well. I'm planning on sticking a space heater in it as well as I've been reading ABS becomes really awesome in an environment of about 40F or so.