3D Printers

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HardwaterHoosier

Member
I'm starting to look into 3D printers and scanners, for home use and possibly for my son to start a small business. For me, I'm just curious. It would be something to play with and use to save a trip to the store. For my son (13), I'm hoping it would give him have a hands on experience showing the results of computer programing, math, science, and possibly sell items online.

Posting this here to see if there's any tech guys out there that would have some pointers of what to look for or what to avoid. I do like the ides of multiple colors. Moving parts might be out of our price range, but is something that I'd really like.
 
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chop

Member
As far as usefulness, 3d printers really don't offer much. I have been trying to justify buying one for my shop and have yet to find a good enough reason. They're great as development tools when working out a product design but you're not gonna make any real money manufacturing with one. My friend bought a makerbot replicator for his company and he figures they more than paid for it on the first job they used it on. But that was because they do inhouse engineering of their product line and they were able to prototype parts the same day they modeled them.

I have a makerbot scanner. It's a neat piece of equipment but I have yet to get it to do what I bought it for. It's more of a science project/gadget than a real tool for the shop.

I would say the most practical tool to look at for what you described would be a laser cutter/engraver. You can find a decent Chinese one for about the cost of a 3d printer. They can cut thin plywood and acrylic and engrave quite a few materials. You still get the cad/engineering experience but you also get the freedom to use many more materials.
 
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tomk

New member
I would recommend the stratasys mojo, we had a 3d systems, bfb 3000, and it was absolute junk, never could get it to print consisitanly, no support either. stratasys is based out of Eden Prairie MN and they are the industry standard for printing precision parts up to .0004!!
 
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