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Well guys, I am not the most technologically sophisticated individual there is, so we will start with that.

Many of you have seen my other blogs over the almost 10 years of my DakkaDakka career, and hopefully this one will be just as silly/ridiculous yet somehow still interesting as I hope the others have been.

The purpose I propose for this thread is an all comers thread. by that I mean I want everyone to feel free to post their 3D printed projects in this thread. That's right, this isn't about what I can do with a printer, but a thread about what we can teach each other or learn from one another in the grand realm of 3D. If your a 3D novice or have your own 3D empire all parties are welcome....well, check some ground rules that will constantly be evolving below.

Ground Rules
1. All DakkaDakka rules are in full effect (Be Polite, Stay on topic, no Politics ). I don't make these rules, I just follow them like everyone else.
2. As above with DakkaDakka rules of no discussions of FW knock offs, We cannot be posting 3D knock offs here. I don't want the big GW lawyers with their Thunder-ban-hammers coming at me/this site/anyone making designs out there of similar designs. Where is the line on this? Common sense . If you have even the smallest inkling that GW might get upset by someone giving/selling/making a design available that could steal some of their money, then don't post it.
3.Do not post/or otherwise give out files that you purchased or supported through Patreon, kickstarter or other platforms. The designers obviously put work into them and feel they should get some sort of compensation for the effort. Please respect that. If you post a design that others see and would like them definitely direct the people to the site or designer. Let's support and grow this market in our industry.

I'm sure more will follow, but it's one of those technologies that is still ahead of the curve when it comes to laws, rules and regulations.

So, Why now?
Well, the corona virus pandemic has me furloughed, and my wife figured i needed something to do . She is a teacher and our three teenagers are also all home with me while everything is shut down. Daddy needed something to keep him from going off the deep end, and I want to try printing and hopefully I will soon start doing some designing too.
What do I want out of this?
Well, I've always enjoyed scratchbuilding stuff, making terrain and all around making things, this was just the next logical step. I switch between projects so quickly that being able to rapidly produce items to fit the next game is important. plus i could not afford to buy them all.

So now onto where I'm at. Not Physically , though I am in St. Louis MO if anyone is nearby and wants to meet when we are allowed to hang out again. I purchased an Ender 3 (regular not pro) as I saw that they were below $200 shipped and had the best reviews for the below$200 market. I am totally impressed with it. I didn't want to deal with the possibility of chemical issues from resin printers and they were outside my budget anyway. The Ender series of printers has a lot of positive reviews and a pretty decent group of owners who answer questions. there are tons of modifications out there for Ender systems as well. I have been printing almost 24/7 since I got the printer and having tons of fun learning the ins and outs of it.

So what else can this Blog hold?
Well....Pictures. Show us your prints, let us know where you got them from and how much it cost for the design.
Links. Give us links to sites that are/were helpful to you, where you get your designs, where you get your supplies (definitely need this right now as it is getting hatder to source supplies while everyone is at home).
Kickstarters. Yes, share with us the Kickstarters that are out there with 3D designs, new printers or tools.
Question. Ask away. I want to hear them because sometimes I don't even know what questions are out there. I might know the answer, but there are enough of us out here and I'm sure at least one of us might know something. DakkaDakka has always been a great community, and I know you lot will step up and answer anything that gets asked.
Tips. Yes I take tips , but really if you figure something out that's been a pain, post your work around. I may have been befuddling someone else.
Fun................. Yeah. Lets have fun

That's all i got for now. the wife is setting dinner out.

Let me know what else we need in here. Specifically right here as I'll keep updating the main post when you lot tell me to.

John.

Well, I'm here to have printer envy.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Well, I'm here to have printer envy.

+1

It’s also highly likely to tip me over the edge and get one. As I don’t have a PC right now, how about I start off the questions. Is it possible to use a 3D Printer without a PC, say via an iPad or iPhone? Or even by the printers memory card slot?

 gobert wrote:

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Well, I'm here to have printer envy.

+1

It’s also highly likely to tip me over the edge and get one. As I don’t have a PC right now, how about I start off the questions. Is it possible to use a 3D Printer without a PC, say via an iPad or iPhone? Or even by the printers memory card slot?

Others may know better, but I don’t believe you can. At least with the Ender3 I have it uses a micro SD card to load the print files (gcodes). Now I don’t have a PC, I have a chromebook which I can use online software like Astroprint (uses Cura) to slice/change .Stl files to Gcode files. If your cell phone uses or can work with a micro SD card then you might be able to as the Astroprint website is pretty simple to use.

If you are looking for an Ender, their website (at least the US one) is doing some small sales with free shipping. I wouldn’t buy filament on there though as I can usually find stuff for about half that price, even with it being in high demand currently.

I'll hop on in here. Been a long-time dakkite, have something like 7000-8000 posts on my main account (which some of you probably have on your ban lists ), but decided to set up a "professional account" after launching ProtoKraken in order to act as a more official resource for information, etc.

I launched my first kickstarter at the end of January for some pretty neat (if I do say so myself) modular Necron-inspried terrain. I just launched late pledges through my web store (starting a business has made me learn all sorts of skills that I never thought i'd use before) and am now working my way through fulfilling the stretch goals, with the first set of stretch goals due out within the next few days working out to being significantly bigger than I initially intended or promised.

Some pics of the kickstarter stuff:


More in the spoilers:


And you can see physical photography of the prints on the campagin page and in some of the updates.

Really looking forward to powering through these stretch goals and getting everything released. While this is the first project I've actually launched, its far from the first project I've actually worked on, and I'm really excited to put some of thsoe other projects out there too (when they are ready of course).

Welcome over here .

I have the freebie necron file sitting on my micro SD card waiting to print tonight. Just got my spool of filament which was due on Friday ( Amazon lost it for three days), I have a few small objectives to print before setting in motion on a large print such as that. It’s showing that printing it at a draft quality will take it 11hours, 23minutes and 15 seconds , part of what I really had no idea with going into the 3D printing was how long prints took. I’ll post the results here and on the News and Rumors page when I get it done :

Spoilered the print in question

It’s running right now.

Well wait no longer. Actual print only took 10 hours and 40 minutes. The print times are a mystery to me as the program is set with my Ender 3 as the printer and the times usually run pretty close. Although when I’m really checking Times it’s on smaller parts so a 40 minute variance on a 11 hour piece might be the same as a 5 minute on an hour. I’m not doing the math, Massive headache right now.


The tomb pillar is great. Awesome design. No problems with the design at all. The smaller side towers are roughly 3” tall and 2” in diameter at the base of those four towers. The overall width is just under 5 1/2” by 5 1/2” with the center tower being roughly 7 1/4” tall. I had a small lift on one corner at the base of the print. It was completely my fault, my print bed wasn’t level so that is no fault of the design. Being still new at printing I’m learning the ropes and making a larger print requires slightly more attention to detail than doing smaller ones. All the symbols came out great in the design. I printed this with no supports and with a 10% infill at draft quality. Not sure if the striations will show after priming, I’ll see later today. Painted Zombicide model for scale reference.

Next steps with this print. Well I don’t play Necrons, but this would be a great piece for them. I do however have a large Ghar force for Beyond the Gates of Antares, and it could be an style they could incorporate . Also I don’t have any battery operated tea light candles, but I think they could be fit inside each of the four smaller towers at their bases and drill down the center holes on each pillar to have light flashes come up out of them. Might also light up the center pillar as well. I’ll have to think about that project later as I don’t have the lights.

To me this is a great piece and the Late backer pledge being open is a tremendous deal if your a Necron (Or Ghar) player.

Will post primed pic shortly, eating breakfast first.

I have the Ender 3 Pro and an Elegoo Mars resin printer and have used the snot out of both of them. You do not need a computer to run the printer, buyt you do need one to slice your files into the language your printer understands - then you just shove the USB or SD card into the printer and off it goes.

Although the print plate is much smaller on the Elegoo printer, being a resin printer the resolution is fantastic and this is the printer you want to print your minis. My Ender 3 is for bigger stuff and terrain. However, before I got my Elegoo Mars, the Ender 3 did do a pretty good job on minis, as the resolution on the Ender is really good, but just takes a lot more finesse and upkeep with the filament and all.

Well, I got a good deal on a used Prusa i3, but it is going to be a little bit until I can really get it up and running. My brother in law has one, so he fixed what needed to be fixed on it but I need a place to put it. In theory I'd have had a place to put it in the house, but I put a computer set up there, plus, I'd rather it not be in the house anyway, too many "little fingers" with all the kids.

So I need to clean up our shop and make a desk/workbench to put it on before I can really do anything with it. It is something I'd need to do in any case, we've been using it as a dumping ground and it can be way more useful than that. I've got a ton of room out there, but it just needs some fixing up to be functional.

All in due time, I guess. But I am going to keep my eye on this thread, of course.

Not at all jealous........:(

Well, the Ender 3 is doing just fine on small models. I’ll try and get a better quality picture. I’m reorganizing my hobby space and these latest Picts are with terrible lighting.

Master of Dungeons, but only on Saturday mornings many years ago.

23mm from toes to crown of his bald head.

Also I primed the necron Pillar.

You can see the Master of Dungeons there with the cocoon markers and the Dretch too. Print came out phenomenal. Very happy with it.

Great thread Theo.

I personally have an Ender 3, an Anycubic Photon, and a Moai 130.

The Ender and the Moai are both kit printers; FDM and Resin, respectively. Both have issues that I haven't had time to iron out, but both should be good machines once I do.

I have been 3D Modelling/Sculpting and have printed a few things.

Here is one:

Never liked the tires that came with the Mule, so I designed and printed my own. Just to be clear, the light colored tires are the ones I made. The others are the tires from the original kit.

I had been having issues with the prints randomly being resized when printing on the Photon. Seems like the newest update of Chitubox has fixed whatever that issue was. Only problem with those prints is that I forgot to mirror a pair so that I had tread that was correct on both sides. Oops.

Working on some figures that I will share once I eventually get them printed out.

 Taarnak wrote:
I have been 3D Modelling/Sculpting and have printed a few things.

Never liked the tires that came with the Mule, so I designed and printed my own. Just to be clear, the light colored tires are the ones I made. The others are the tires from the original kit.

Wow, those are really nice, definitely an upgrade to what came with that kit.

I'd like to model some things myself, but I simply have no skill at all with it yet. I need to find some good tutorials and maybe I can learn a bit. I have some ideas of things I'd like to do, but right now, I don't know the first thing about actually modeling anything and the prospect seems a bit daunting.

Do Venger next!

 BigJim wrote:
Do Venger next!

Ive been looking for a file for all of them, unfortunately I’ve only found Dungeon Master and 3versions of Warduke (who was on todays list to print). There’s another version of Dungeon Master, but it’s a paid .stl file, and I am too cheap .

I started another building print last night before retiring to bed. It was supposed to be a ruin, it I should a ruin in more than one way .

I’m not a rocket scientist, but I quickly figured it was a nozzel jam. I checked the Creality website (makers of the Ender 3) and found a YouTube link on how to change and clean a nozzel. The kit came with a spare nozzel which was good as this one was so clogged they said not to bother trying to unclog it. I ordered a 10 pack of replacements from Walmart.com for $7.69 shipped and put the spare on.

So I was wondering of you fellow printers, how often have you needed to change a nozzle? The Ender site said maybe once a year. I’ve been printing basically non-stop for a month. What sort of time frame have you all gotten.

As for the print, I will save it by making it more of a ruin and basing it with rubble and debris. It looks like the base broke free of the plate adhesion early on I need the print and later broke free a second time as the last 1/8” was all string as well.

Other things that got printed yesterday that I didn’t show were.

12 basic giant flys. Very much like the toy ones we all had as kids, but I need them for Rangers of Shadow Deep. Found the free file for one and used the build plate program on Astroprint.com to make a 12 print set. Took about 1.5hours instead of 15minutes each. They aren’t perfect, but for cheap (think goblin) disposable troops they will suffice.
A Frostgrave branded measuring tool.with sides of 4”,2”,7” and 1” it’s a handy item. I’ll probably make a couple more, and they are accurate to my other rulers.
A summoning circle with a skull center. It’s just under 4” in diameter and the five pillars are at 3/4” tall. The file had options for 4 different centers. I did the demonic skull, but there’s also a pentagram a sun and another I can’t think of right now.

Also printed these two items from a small series. A fountain with a swirly top, kind of like an ice cream cone, and a marker post. Nice little sculpts, I believe the artist had a couple more designs, just not something I could easily use anytime soon.

New print and nozzle are chugging along fine. Off to work at church for a few hours.

 H wrote:
Well, I got a good deal on a used Prusa i3,

Which version did you end up getting? i3s have been around for years, and are still being improved.
I have a MK2, with the original MMU.

This is an interesting blog as I am currently trying to work out which printer to get, and then the fun and games of trying to get it to work. I'll probably go for a resin printer, keep hearing about the elegoo mars but am undecided yet.

To get a printer, I asked:
What is my maximum budget?
Is clean-up an issue, or can I tidy up afterwards?
Is there a minimum print area I am happy with?

I went for the Prusa Mk2 FDM, which had probably the biggest print area at the time, and had support from the manufacturer.
I got the multi-material kit afterwards, for the option to print with disolvable supports. I've never use this yet, but being able to mix PLA and flex in the same print would be handy.

 Skinnereal wrote:
Which version did you end up getting? i3s have been around for years, and are still being improved.
I have a MK2, with the original MMU.

I am pretty sure it is a MK2, but some parts were changed/upgraded. The original owner seems to have messed up the build plate, so there is a new one of those as well. I think it ought to do well enough for some terrain, I will wait for a resin printer to try to do actual minis.

 H wrote:

 Skinnereal wrote:
Which version did you end up getting? i3s have been around for years, and are still being improved.
I have a MK2, with the original MMU.

I am pretty sure it is a MK2, but some parts were changed/upgraded. The original owner seems to have messed up the build plate, so there is a new one of those as well. I think it ought to do well enough for some terrain, I will wait for a resin printer to try to do actual minis.

You can do minis on an FDM. I did a really basic paint job on Dungeon Master this morning. Unless you are trying to print models for painting competitions I think it turned out great.

 Theophony wrote:
You can do minis on an FDM. I did a really basic paint job on Dungeon Master this morning. Unless you are trying to print models for painting competitions I think it turned out great.

Oh, no doubt I am going to try it out and see. Most of the STL's I've gotten for minis are for fantasy sort of stuff and seem to have more fiddly little bits, which probably will end up working better on resin, but it likely doesn't hurt to try some of them on the FDM I am going to have already.

OK, here are a few...

Ender 3 Pro vs. Elegoo Mars. Overall, the FDM Ender did a very good job on details, but the Elegoo does create a superior mini, especially that is also about 1/3 the time to print.

FYI - none of these were cleaned up at all, just the supports removed. Also, removing supports from resin printing is breeze compared to FDM supports...

Thanks for the replies Theo and MDSW, having to buy a PC is currently putting me off buying a Printer. I did do a quick look in the App Store and it seems a few manufacturers are starting to offer cloud slicing. The main one to come up was Creality, aren’t they the Ender 3 OEM?

Dungeon Master looks really cool Theo! You’d have to look pretty close to see he was printed.

Yeah, Creality Ender series.

And you will find some painted FDM minis at the end of a previous thread I did when printing FDM minis: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/779665.page

@Gobert, yeah, I wish I had a full PC to work with as the chromebook has limitations too. But I’ve seen memory card options for IPhones where they go into the lightning port, so that’s still possible.

@MDSW, very cool. I’ll try and take some time today to go through that blog of yours. I remember looking at it back when you did it and thought, that would be cool. Getting the printer was a spur of the moment thing when I found out I was getting furloughed. Getting more money on unemployment and still getting my job back at the end of July meant the fear most are facing passed me by. Also helps the wife is working from home and the kids are home so my spouse said “you’ll need something to keep you busy and mentally learning (those crazy teachers).

Well after the nozzle clogged and no way to clean it. Solid cluster in and through the nozzle . I replaced it and switched up to the newly arrived grey PLA. I got 3 1Kg spools of the grey and between the fail of the nozzle with the black and it’s extra shininess, I figured a change might be better. Between errands yesterday I found, sliced and printed some more terrain.

Another Ulvhiem building, these new files come with predone magnet holes in the tops and bottoms . The other four were a newer design I found yesterday and thought would help diversify the board with the larger stones. Not as happy with their look, especially the wood pieces, but they will work. Almost looks like a much larger scale was used.

So another question for you printers.
What do you wish you had done differently since starting to print?

For me, I wish I knew how much (not very, but enough from each print) waste there was and would of had a trash can next to my printing space. I know it sounds silly, but each print has a border that circles the outline of the print to keep the print from cooling too quickly and popping off the print bed. You remove it and it’s trash, I was lazy and just started putting the pieces in one of the empty drawers of the desk where I have the printer set up . Drawers full, got an empty box I was using while moving the basement around, have it half full of debris and empty water bottles (it’s all recyclable). But , I have 4 cats (I Blaime my grandmother in law), and any time one of those pieces misses the box or I don’t put a lid on it they find the piece and carry it around the house.

So what silly or should be common knowledge but isn’t spoken about thing have you learned since starting to print?

So i am slowy starting to get some funds and have never done this so what would i need to get started?

Beyond of course a printer, a programm to design the minis and resin aswell as a cleaner anyone any suggestions?

Come to think of it, yes, there is a large trash can right next to my desk! And it does get filled up pretty quickly, as it seems I have been printing almost non-stop with one or the other printer for about a year and a half.

My enormous issue now is not being able to get isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the resin prints since the Covid issue. It is cleaned out on every shelf I go.

Not Online!!! wrote:
So i am slowy starting to get some funds and have never done this so what would i need to get started?

Beyond of course a printer, a programm to design the minis and resin aswell as a cleaner anyone any suggestions?

I can’t tell you about resin printers, but with my FDM printer you need some sort of computer to operate a program and transfer files to the printer. The FDM prints don’t need to be cleaned before priming or painting. The Ender comes with just about everything, all the tools to assemble it, the scraper to pop the models from the build plate. When you order it (Enders) they give you options for power plugs and you have to set your power level on it. A piece of paper to level the bed. The only other item to really buy is more Filament.

Oh and a trash can .

Not Online!!! wrote:
So i am slowy starting to get some funds and have never done this so what would i need to get started?

Beyond of course a printer, a programm to design the minis and resin aswell as a cleaner anyone any suggestions?

You may not necessarily need a program to design at first, as there are thousands of designs for free on Thingiverse. For items needed you will need a few for resin printing, here is my list:
- medium sized container that you can seal up (tupperware, etc.) to put the alcohol into and swish around to clean your prints. I actually give it two baths, one in 91% and another in 70%.
- rubber gloves - disposable (another nearly impossible item to find nowadays)
- lots of paper towels and alcohol
- small paper paint strainers to strain back resin from your vat when you have a color change or a failed print
- spare FEP film
- a plastic putty knife to remove prints from the print bed
- lots of resin!
- a 405u UV lamp to cure your prints. I have a 60w UV lamp that I affixed into a fairly large plastic tub lined with tin foil. I have it hooked up with a timer, so I can set it for the few minutes needed. You can also set them outside, but that takes a while...
- For modelling and manipulation programs I use the Windows 3D Builder (already on Windows 10 machines) a lot, Meshmixer a little and Blender rarely - all of these are free.

A lot of this stuff might come with your printer already, so you won't need them right away, but I have found generic stuff for all the items works just fine and I do not have to get name brand stuff.

Prusa has their own slicing program, which I think is a tailored version of a common one. Before I used that, I used Cura, also downloaded from Prusa's site. This is not specifically for Prusa printers, and is just their recommendation, I expect.

I do not create my own prints, but various apps are listed in Facebook groups by people who do.

I just use a green pan scrubber from the kitchen to clear the bed between FDM prints. No bottles or supplies needed. This is for PLA and PETG, so far.
But, the sheet has pulled through now after 3 years, and I am expecting a new sheet any day now.