I'm looking to buy a 3d printer.
After looking around some forums including this one it seems the community is pretty helpful. I wanted to get some opinions.
I am buying the 3d printer to use as a tool to help prototype car parts. I would like to have the biggest possible print-build area / volume possible.
My budget is up to $1000
I understand I can print a part in pieces and glue it together, that will probably be done. I just don't want to print pieces in 4" dimensions and piece them together 4 times if I could just print it once if it was 10 inches total length for example.
I don't mind building my own 3d printer, but I don't want it to take up my entire 3d printing career. I see people spend A LOT of time building the printer, and then constantly printing more pieces to fix / upgrade the printer. That is a little too much for me. I really would like to build it, print a few things and changes for the printer itself if needed... but I am not into making it a full time job to design and prototype parts fixing the printer itself. lol.
I found this kit, which I assume its going to take a whole lot of "tinkering" to get it to work, but if I cold get it to work would really love the advantage of being able to print larger parts. Plus it seems modular ... maybe I'm wrong about that.
[
shop.diytechshop.com]
I like that is has a 12 x 12 x 14 print volume. The pictures look good and the chassis looks nice... but what will it take to make this a functional printer ? Is it worth my time ? Most of all I would love some input from others who have used these kits themselves.. first hand.
Another printer I am looking at is the Solidoodle 3 / 4 generation printers.
I like these printers because they look simple and I believe they have a good print volume also, up to 8x8x8 which would be ideal for me, I really don't want to go too much smaller than that if I don't have too.
Some people say they are great and some people hate them. I don't know what to go by.
Printers like ultimaker 2 are completely out of my budget, I know thats a highly liked printer on these forums but right now its not practical for me.
Are there other kits I am not aware of that can be built for under a grand with a good print volume over 8x8x8 ?
Also, I wonder about materials... can I print with nylon on a printer made for abs / pla or does it not work like that ? My buddy has a knock off printer from ebay and he prints nylon without a problem and the results are amazing, infact the prints look better and less rigid than most of the pictures I see online / youtube.
