Who uses 3d printers & 3d scanners.

[Spoon]

Just curious about who uses 3d printers and 3d scanners, for hobby or work.
We have three 3d printers at work and one 3d scanner.
Also, what software do you use for drawing any 3d objects. I use SketchUp & Siemens NX

 

[Dan]

Oooo what kinda things can it print mate? Got any example pics of what it can do?

 

[BenCos18]

I haven't used a 3d scanner but I do have a 3d printer (used to use an ender 3 till it died).
Now I'm using a prusa mini

 

[Spoon]

Oooo what kinda things can it print mate? Got any example pics of what it can do?

You can print quite a bit of stuff.
What I mainly use it for is reverse engineering customers plastic bits that have done brittle over the years and broke.
I also find out where/how they have failed and improve the design. Sometimes by removing the bit that failed all together.
There are also quite a few web sites out there where you can upload your 3d print files to, so others can print them off. These are more hobby sites.

 

[Spoon]

I haven't used a 3d scanner but I do have a 3d printer (used to use an ender 3 till it died).
Now I'm using a prusa mini

Our first 3d printer at work was a Ender 3 S1 Pro. A good printer.
We were looking at Prusa but they are too expensive for what it's worth.

 

[Julie.]

I have a couple of printers, a cr10s (with loads of mods, auto bed levelling, enhanced hotend & fans, aluminium feed, dampers on steppers etc etc.) And a stock (ish) ELEGOO mars 4 ultra.

Software I use voxeldance tango for the mars, and cura for the cr10s.

For design work I use fusion360

No scan stuff, although I did use something some time ago, which from several std photos built a 3d image

 

[BenCos18]

Our first 3d printer at work was a Ender 3 S1 Pro. A good printer.
We were looking at Prusa but they are too expensive for what it's worth.

Interesting
I thought the prusa was pretty decently priced tbh

 

[BenCos18]

Oooo what kinda things can it print mate? Got any example pics of what it can do?

Pretty much anything
Take a look at sites like printables and thingiverse

 

[littlespark]

You guys need to help out on that thread last week with someone looking for a joint box cover for a pool pump.

Just print up a new one.

 

[BenCos18]

You guys need to help out on that thread last week with someone looking for a joint box cover for a pool pump.

Just print up a new one.

haha there is filament that is fire retardant even

 

[Dan]

Thanks for posting your day one mate.
If anybody is interesting in seeing them all (so far) I've linked to them from the original thread. FOUND BY CLICKING HERE.

 

[Dan]

You can print quite a bit of stuff.
What I mainly use it for is reverse engineering customers plastic bits that have done brittle over the years and broke.
I also find out where/how they have failed and improve the design. Sometimes by removing the bit that failed all together.
There are also quite a few web sites out there where you can upload your 3d print files to, so others can print them off. These are more hobby sites.

So you'd design a part, let's say a double plug backing plate thing, to match the original?

What printer do you have mate? I'd love get into it.

 

[Spoon]

Interesting
I thought the prusa was pretty decently priced tbh

We have 2 Bambu Lab X1C's with AMS. Cost us about £1,300 each at the time. Can do 4 colours.
The equivalent Prusa XL printer, with 5 heads, assembled, will cost you £3,790
Don't get me wrong, I think Prusa printers are great printers and their customer service is waaaay better then the Bambu one.

 

[Spoon]

So you'd design a part, let's say a double plug backing plate thing, to match the original?

What printer do you have mate? I'd love get into it.

One customer had a few digital display enclosures that were broke.
This box had a display & touch buttons on the front. Inside the enclosure was 3 pcb boards. It was about 200x200x60mm in size.
The enclosure had a metal plate screwed into the bottom of it, to cover up some holes for other equipment that wasn't fitted. This plate had come off as the screw fixing lugs had gone brittle and broke. Also a slider for one of the PCB's had snapped.
I reverse engineered the enclosure as the original. I then asked them if they needed the metal plate. They said no, so I did a design that removed the holes in the back of the enclosure. I also removed the slider for the PCB and just put a cutout in for him.
In the end there was 4 different designs done with different combinations. That covered whichever option he had of this display enclosure, with a new 3d printed part.

The main printers are Bambu X1C.

 

[Spoon]

Thanks for posting your day one mate.
If anybody is interesting in seeing them all (so far) I've linked to them from the original thread. FOUND BY CLICKING HERE.

I wasn't intending to be in this "post something every day" thing as things have been hectic recently and I don't know if I can do one a day. I will try.

 

[Spoon]

I have a couple of printers, a cr10s (with loads of mods, auto bed levelling, enhanced hotend & fans, aluminium feed, dampers on steppers etc etc.) And a stock (ish) ELEGOO mars 4 ultra.

Software I use voxeldance tango for the mars, and cura for the cr10s.

For design work I use fusion360

No scan stuff, although I did use something some time ago, which from several std photos built a 3d image

I take it that you love to tinker with them... There are some really nice upgrades that people have done to their printers.
With the ones we have at work there is not a lot to upgrade, which is just as well as I'm not much of a tinkerer..

The scanner we got is an Einstar. Cost about a grand. Not very good for scanning small parts though and their 'small' function on the software is just terrible and they know it. They just recommend another scanner, that cost 2.5 grand....

I've always fancied self-teaching myself Fusion 360 but just don't have the time as the mo. I self-taught myself SketchUp and Siemens NX. YouTube is a great place to learn stuff.

 

[Julie.]

I take it that you love to tinker with them... There are some really nice upgrades that people have done to their printers.
With the ones we have at work there is not a lot to upgrade, which is just as well as I'm not much of a tinkerer..

The scanner we got is an Einstar. Cost about a grand. Not very good for scanning small parts though and their 'small' function on the software is just terrible and they know it. They just recommend another scanner, that cost 2.5 grand....

I've always fancied self-teaching myself Fusion 360 but just don't have the time as the mo. I self-taught myself SketchUp and Siemens NX. YouTube is a great place to learn stuff.

Not really, the cr10s was definitely an entry level printer made down to a price, so it was pretty much de rigueur that you had to add bracing, hotend, feed mods etc.

In all honesty the best two mods were firstly the auto leveling - had to add opto isolation and a few other bits of electronics to get it working; and secondly an octoprint driver (its a Raspberry Pi running software to manage the printer etc) - once these were done, I can leave it untouched for months then start it and it runs straight away without issues.

(Having sorted out the settings etc and configured in cura)

Fusion 360 is extremely easy once you get past the initial couple of hours of use/learning - but also extremely frustrating when you want to do some things!

This is probably the best introduction

View: https://youtu.be/A5bc9c3S12g?si=qpolqib6oxgtB-jd

 

[Spoon]

Not really, the cr10s was definitely an entry level printer made down to a price, so it was pretty much de rigueur that you had to add bracing, hotend, feed mods etc.

In all honesty the best two mods were firstly the auto leveling - had to add opto isolation and a few other bits of electronics to get it working; and secondly an octoprint driver (its a Raspberry Pi running software to manage the printer etc) - once these were done, I can leave it untouched for months then start it and it runs straight away without issues.

(Having sorted out the settings etc and configured in cura)

Fusion 360 is extremely easy once you get past the initial couple of hours of use/learning - but also extremely frustrating when you want to do some things!

This is probably the best introduction

View: https://youtu.be/A5bc9c3S12g?si=qpolqib6oxgtB-jd

The first printer we got was the Ender 3 S1 Pro. This is quite a good printer with the extras like bed leveling...

Bambu has an app there you can monitor your print with the built in camera and remote send prints to the printers. The Orca Slicer software also can do this.

I'll have to have a look at that YouTube, when I have time.