How I Decided Which 3D Printer to Buy | Hacker News Reader

How I Decided Which 3D Printer to Buy

emergentforms.com

8 pointsMCompeau3 comments

The Replicator is the next gen product from Makerbot, and it improves on previous models mostly by near-doubling the footprint of the potential object size. This version will print objects roughly the size of a loaf of bread. It also sells pre-assembled, which is kind of a plus for those of us who don't have soldering stations laying around.

It's tempting to begin thinking entrepreneurially about the capacities of this device. Sadly, it looks like one quality metric of this version hasn't improved over the last: the greatest print resolution available is .02 inches. Which means that all printed objects come out with noticeable ridges indicating the rough granular nature of the printed layers. Although I've read some articles about how it's possible to smooth this over with an acetate bath.

I don't know, I'm tempted to buy this puppy. It just gets me thinking, what various forms of plastic would people buy en masse?

I'm also wondering the same thing, and it's part of the reason that the price of the commercial versions has kept me at bay. The printrbot if delivered (all signs currently point to a yes, if a bit of a delay because of the massive demand that was entirely unexpected by the founder). The cost put it right in line with what I could afford at the time and the quality in all the beta prints seems to be on par with some of the higher quality commercial printers like the MakerBots. I love the dual extruder on the replicator but it's not something I think is needed for someone who is just starting out with it as a hobbiest that might want to expand into designing something to sell. I likely see myself as using it to build custom project boxes and things since I don't have a CNC router/mill to do it out of wood currently.

Eventually if I get good enough I plan on trying to make small toys for my niece and nephew and possible model train pieces.

I'm actually one of the printrbot backers and will definitely be doing some kind of write up on it once i get it in my hands and actually ready to use it.

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