Anyone here using a 3D printer? I’m looking for a low cost option and Anycubic has one in the $160 range. Has anyone used this and can they list some pros and cons?
Hi,
Microcenter had/has(?) a sale on the Creality Halot for $99 recently. I picked one up, but haven’t had a chance to mess around with it yet.
Regards
Pat
I’ve seen that but have been hesitant.
Hello!
The 3D printers keep getting better and better… But I still recommend concentrating on the design to be printed and - unless you print tons of stuff - instead of buying your own printer I’d look for somebody who would print your design for you. There are lots of machines with free time just waiting to be filled with print jobs. On the other hand, do you really want to get involved in poring smelly resin, then washing your print and hardening it with UV light, cleaning the machine and so on?
And it’s much easier to find someone to print out your design for you that it is finding someone who would design your design for you.
OK, so any way you go - good luck with it and have a nice day
Paweł
And it’s the resin/UV ones you want. The filament-melting ones, I don’t think have the resolution that anyone wanting to augment a model kit will want. I, too, have a Creality one, but have yet to fire it up. There’s a steep learning curve with the developing a model, running it through the slicer program and properly setting up/using the printer.
I don’t think you’ll be happy with a $160 printer… at least yet.
For that range of prices, I recommend you Anycubic Photon Mono X2, which is around $220, but it is much bigger, faster, and more quality than the one costing $160.
Hi,
I’ve been very happy with my Creality Halot One that I got on sale from MicroCenter a few months ago. It may have been on close out because I no longer see that model advertised though theydo appear to have an older LD-002R model for sale at the same price right now (about $99 USD).
I’ve found alot of what I get out of a 3D print depends on what I put into the model, as well as how much I am willing to play around and try different approaches to print certain parts.
In general I have found it more helpful for me to print complex things in several parts and assemble them after printing, similar to how I would assemble a styrene kit.
Here are some images of some parts that I have printed out for a 1/35 scale what-if tank that I am building. I’ve stalled out a little over the last few months, mostly do to the fact that I accidentally corrupted a part of the hull that I need to rebuild and a lack of free time, because I have been very busy with a couple other things in my life.
Overall, though, I think some of this images can help show that a $99 printer can do some stuff that you might not realize at first.
This first image shows some road wheels, final drives, drive sprockets and suspension arms.
This next image shows the turret and alot of the small fittings that I printed out separately.
This third image is a little fuzzy but shows a closer up view of some of the details, where you can see the holes molded in one piece, an engine room grating, some tow fittings, and a machine gun with very thin handles, compared to a couple of pennies to give an idea of scale.
And finally this last image shows some additional small parts (including a better view of the tow fittings in the upper right hand corner.
Overall, while I am still experimenting around, and at times still have some issues, particularly with larger parts getting a little messed up around the edges, I am overall pretty happy with the level of detail that I am able to get with this printer.
Regards
Pat
PS. I did mess up the machine gun and that one fitting with the holes in it the first time I tried to print them, but with practice and patience I was happy with what I eventually got.
I have several resin and filiment printers but my newest Elegoo Mars 4 9k is amazing, it’s faster and the quality of the parts is equal or better than injection molded parts.
But ! you have to be able to design your 3D model first and that is a steep learing curve.
[dto:]
That resin printer is very popular in the Twin cities area. Some guys with the filament printers are getting rid of them to buy that Halot resin printer.
I have been lately been considering getting a resin printer given the recent sales, and as I have been buying more and more figure kits off Ebay that at the cost of 3 or 4 I could just have a printer, resin and the files.
After researching, the thing that concerns me is the the fumes and or smells from the resin. I don’t have a heated outbuilding and there isn’t an area in the house that I could see as a reasonable place to set it up. Those with experience, is this a valid issue and how do you handle it? If I get one and it ends up stinking up the whole area, Those who Must be Obeyed will not be happy campers, and I will be back to the overpriced Ebay prints.
I tried a Creality resin printer with limited success. It was probably user error though. I have a friend that gets pretty good results from the cheap Crealty printer.
I have talked to a few professional 3D printer guys. People that use 3D printers every day to sell 3D printed parts. They all suggest either ELEGOO or Anycubic printers.
I have done some conparisons because I an looking to buy a 3D printer. And if you are searching for a small starter printer, I think ELEGOO offers a slightly better printer for the money when you are looking at the smaller, more basic printers.
And for resin. All of the professional printer guys I have spoken to use ELEGOO resin. Some of them use regular resin, and some use water washable, but they all use ELEGOO resin.
I am getting great results with the Elegoo ABS resin.
I’ve tried the budget Anycubic before, and for the price it’s surprisingly solid. Great for simple prints and learning the basics, but you do need to tweak it here and there. If you’re okay with a little setup, it’s a good starter option.