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Thread: 3d printer - ~$500

  1. #21
    I highly recommend the e3d hot end. With it I've printed PLA, ABS, and Nylon without any trouble.
    Destroyer of Threads

  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by ironyusa View Post
    Alright, back to the well. I'm looking at filament and it looks like PLA and PET will be the best filaments for all around. I do think that the temp that PET has to be printed at may require an all metal hot end. I'm looking at this: http://www.micro-swiss.com/#!product...e-cece31e3ba6f
    I haven't had an issue with printing PETG with my stock hotend on the Wanhao. Some people swear by the Micro Swiss hot end and others do not. They do have pretty good customer service from what I have seen. I suggest you start with PLA and its a pretty easy material to print with once you get to know your printer move to other materials. My dad swears by PLA+ as it has a little more flex to it and he gets great prints on his printer.

    The E3D hot end is quite a bit different than the MK10 on the Wanhao, There are people who have printed new x carriage to make it work (See Thingiverse). You sacrifice some of your printable height envelope to do this. I don't think I would attempt it without having a second printer to print parts for it while doing the conversion. It's a PITA to dissemble the x axis and you would have to do this a lot with a single printer.
    Last edited by Dirty Engineer; 06-11-2016 at 08:04 PM. Reason: Added E3D info

  3. #23
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    Printed my 1st part tonight and I'm very pleased with this little wanhao. Easy set-up and the thumbscrews made leveling the bed a sinch... This is going to be fun.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by bunker_o_matic View Post
    Printed my 1st part tonight and I'm very pleased with this little wanhao. Easy set-up and the thumbscrews made leveling the bed a sinch... This is going to be fun.
    Yep that's a good one.
    Last edited by AlphonsoC; 11-09-2021 at 10:46 AM.

  5. #25
    So how's it working out? I'm considering getting one now that the price to quality ratio is good enough to verify a bunch of design points rather than having to machine parts.

  6. #26
    it took some tweaking and stuff but im super pleased with my Ft-5. Huge build volume, lots of ways to upgrade/customize it and under $500. Now I will say its a rather large task if you arnt familiar with building electronics and mechanical systems or programming arduino but in the end I think i made a great choice. They have an amazing forum dedicated to all things ft-5 as well so if you have an issue chances are someone knows how to fix it. Also Im looking to enclose the printer to run abs with the upgraded 12v bed heater and boro glass.

    https://folgertech.com/products/folg...3d-printer-kit

  7. #27
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    Anyone have any experience with the Duplicator 7? Much smaller print area but it's a pretty impressive little machine for $500.
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

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  8. #28
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    I have a duplicator 3 and it's pretty solid for most stuff. For the life of me I can't get the bridging or support settings right and I actually think I need to upgrade the fan. I'm still running the stock fan and have adjusted all the temprature settings. It was dirty cheap, so I'm happy with the cost to performance.

  9. #29
    I also must say that Simplify3d is amazing for the slicing and actually controlling the printer. Add and remove supports, Adjust infill by layer and a million other settings and tweaks. You can also find a "free" version of it if you know where to look but for $150 its well worth it. A good reliable hotend, a good 12v heated bed and borosilicate glass make all the difference in the world as well..

    Ive actually been having to turn my cooling fan down to like 30-50% lately as I keep getting thermal runaway triggers...I suspect its a bad thermistor tho... I think the next thing im going to look into is a diamond hotend or some other multi source hot end. I really want to mess with some of the dissolvable supports materials on the market for some of my projects. They are stupid expensive but if can get away with only using them in select areas of the print it might be worth it. And lets face it a multicolor or multi material print is cool as hell...

  10. #30
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    hard pass until consumer grade SLA dips under 1000 for me I think
    "So you've done this before?"
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