I have been interested in 3D Printing for 10 years.
It started when I read the book Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication by Neil Gershenfeld in 2007.
source: Amazon.com
First 3D Printer
In 2011, while living in Florida, I ordered a Thing-O-Matic from Makerbot. As I remember, it cost me US$1500.
Thing-O-Matic
source
It was a device you had to assemble yourself. So, I assembled it, but I was never able to make it work. So, I gave up for years on 3D Printing.
In the last five years, 3D printers have made a lot of progress and are now fully assembled and easier to use, so I decided to try again.
Second 3D Printer
Last December, I ordered from Amazon a Flashforge Creator Pro.
It cost me CAD$1200 only, that is less than the Thing-O-Matic that never worked.
However, as I am a "professional procrastinator", I did not open the box for more than eight months!
Box Unopened for More than Eight Months
Finally, I decided last Sunday to open the box and set it up.
This is a beautiful piece of machinery.
Flashforge Creator Pro
This 3D printer has two extruder and two spools of ABS, one red and one white.
It is easy to set up and to use. The programs to make things may be stored on an SD card.
I have not yet tried to print directly from a computer.
Here are the small things I have printed.
Things I Printed
The six chess piece on the right are part of a chess set that I found on Thingiverse.
I have ordered and received four more spools of ABS: black, blue, yellow and green.
I will print the whole chess set. I am sure that my grandson Nathaneil ( @naru-celier ) will be interested with another chess set, as well as with 3D Printing.
I will enjoy this 3D printer and will wonder for a long time why it took me so long to open the box!!
The Story of My Life So Far:
Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8
Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16
Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21 - Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24
Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28 - Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32
Part 33 - Part 34 - Part 35 - Part 36 - Part 37
That's awesome! Don't forget to teach @naru-celier how to castle both king side and queen side, in addition to "en passant"
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Nice work! Good to know a solid 3d printer is available for $1200. I've been wanting to get one myself but was turned off of it by the $3500 price tag for the Form 2 by FormLabs.
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I believe I found it on this web page:
https://www.lifewire.com/best-3d-printers-to-buy-4072290
Runner-Up, Best Budget: FlashForge Creator Pro
On Amazon US, it is currently US$899.
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3D Printers have really come down in price within the last couple of years, there is a lot of competition in the budget market now. You can get a fairly large printer (Anet A8) for $150 but you will need to do some work to make it safe. Otherwise, the Monoprice Mini ($199) and Monoprice Maker Select ($299) are still cheap and work great right out of the box.
I wrote a guide on the 10 Best 3D Printers under $800 a couple months ago. Most of the choices are very popular recommendations in the 3D Printing community and have a large user base. You can check out my article here if interested https://letsprint3d.net/2017/06/18/best-3d-printers
Those chess pieces you printed are gorgeous, very nice results! I recommend the Qidi Tech 1 in my article which is the cheaper rebranded version of the FF Creator Pro. These are the only printer under $1000 I am aware of that come with a dual extruder so definitely a great value!
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Thank you for this. Very informative for not too rich people that want to start 3D printing.
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Wow 8 month. I think it took me less than 8 minutes from i got the package with my printer till I was doing my first print.
You must be a busy man.
Doing stuff from thingiverse is fun but the real fun begins when you start doing your own designs, or at least modifications on designs. I use Blender for my design process (because its free and opensource) but there are many good programs out there, both free and commercial, and some of them takes a lot less effort to learn. Dual extrusion is really cool. does it take different materials too, or just different colors? I have my eyes on the new ultimaker 3 which has dual extrusion. It supports using different materials which means you can have much more complicated designs since one of the materials can be watersolluble and used as supportmaterial.
anyways good luck with your experimenting. Looking forward to seeing more.
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Yes, I am a busy man, but not so busy I could not have found the time to open the box and install the printer. For some reason, I have been procrastinated all my life.
I am aware of Blender and I already downloaded it and installed it on my Linux laptop. I will have to learn how to use it.
The two extruders take different colors, but I don't think you can mix ABS and PLA, which are, if I understand correctly, the two materials that can be used by this 3D printer.
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It is a fascinating thing to be able to print your own plastic things. I have made a couple of figurines and small boxes in Blender and it is quite magic to later sit with the finished result. I do not have a printer though. @evilhippie (Morty) is doing it on his ultimaker2.
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Seems like braille books would be a great use for 3D printers, too!
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It would be probably too slow.
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Thingiverse has a ton of braille designs including dice, keyboard caps, bluetooth keyboard, etc. I doubt it would be optimal for books but it definitely has a lot of useful applications for the visually impaired community.
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Yes, I agree, printing signs that display text and braille is also a good application for 3D printers.
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Professional procrastinator, lol. I could print my 3D art with that beast :)
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-- I had to laugh at that.
So you were ahead of this curve too, back in 2007 and 2011, you do not mess around.
Except at box opening LOL.
I finally saw one of these live printing about 3 yrs ago, at a computer club meeting I was invited to.
I got up there and got my hands on everything when the meeting was over!!!!
Great post man!!
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Do you think it can 3D print new limbs?
I'm asking for a friend.
If you were wondering where I have been. I sent a transmission about it.
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Yes, my Lord, you can 3D print limbs, but unfortunately not with this 3D printer.
Sorry, I cannot help your "friend".
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There are prosthetic limbs available on Thingiverse that can be printed on even the smallest 3D Printer. I created a prosthetic hand for a local charity that they assembled during one of their events. Check out Enabling the Future, they are doing all sorts of easy to print designs now.
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I dont know how you could resist opening that box for so long.
With such an expensive and exciting toy inside I would have opened it while it was still in the delivery person hands 😂
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You obviously are not a procrastinator, while I am a professional one.
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You are a even bigger procrastinator than me, which i thought was hardly possible lol No wonder it went down in price so much as they are printing houses now :) I will get my hands on one of those eventually too, i bet it is a real fun to play with. What materials does it take for printing?
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ABS and PLA
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Do you have any kind of issue of bubbles?
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No, no bubble problem so far.
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That is so awesome! I would build myself a little world and nobody would ever find me. :D Like most replying, I can't believe it took you so long to open that box. I would have been on that like a chubby kid on cake!
Thanks for sharing with us and for your upvote on my flash fiction piece. The support means a lot! Favor returned, Upvoted and Followed!
See ya next time!
Mo
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I cannot believe you left that box sit there for all that time :) Seriously :D
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You are VERY progressive for an older guy!
You continue to surprise me. First with you grabbing snakes with @papa-pepper and now being into 3D printers for 10 years! 10 years ago they are basically just a concept and almost no one knew about them.
They really are quite amazing and likely to be a HUGE part of life in the near future.
I hope to see more posts about how well it works, how much it costs to use and if its really realistic to buy and use yet or not.
Thanks for sharing.
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Even if 3D printers have made huge progress, they are not yet ready to be sold at Walmart.
They will need to be much easier to use, and be cheaper, probably below US$300.
I think that they also will need to be connected directly to the Internet and that it should be possible to connect to some website and order to build a specific piece.
We are not there yet.
But, for the technologically savvy, they are not really difficult to use.
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Thats exactly what I figured but don't have to much experience so figured I would ask you!
I appreciate you giving a reply. Its a cool post and would love to see more on the 3D printer experience you get after using it a while. Its really cool and the potential is there.
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So a 3D printer is something I might like. It is fascinating to see things can be easily created with it. As a skilled fine mechanic (in the first profession) I find the creation of parts particularly exciting. We used to hand it all up by hand. I think your grandson will certainly like the chessboard.
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Awesome, 20 years ago that we were going to think that these things would exist, iimpressions in 3d is wonderful, technology is progressing more and more and that is good? "in my personal opinion I think that if ..." my experience as a doctor tells me that it is important to create new avences for example in my career sophisticated devices that make the work of the doctor a little easier, perform operations and stay in shape perfect, to be able to diagnose diseases that we could not before, because we did not have devices to shake hands, in the whole field of science is very important, and I find it excellent to see this publication and as detailed as you explain it, wonderful apparatus.
Congratulations for your great post, greetings @vcelier
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unopened for EIGHT months! that's quite a time for a new generation of technology! well, you are really honored with PROCRASTINATION crown :))
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Thanks for sharing...following you for more.
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Very Nice Post,i really like 3D Printing.Thanks For sharing This type of post.
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What a bummer about the first one. That's a lot to spend on a dud!
I know there are some entry level machines available for under $400. The "Da Vinci XYZ" line has a few. But they probably don't generate the kind of detail you're looking for.
What other applications do you have in mind for it?
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To start, I think I will print some colored switch cover plates.
Then, I am sure I will find other usage for the printer.
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I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
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I have always wanted a 3d printer but i have been skeptical... apparently with reason... i have always been afraid of not being able to get it to work correctly! Looks like they have come a long way!!
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good prints, if I had the capital would probably have more income here, great post @vcelier ... have a nice day
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very good I really like your motivation hopefully more your wish come true, thanks for share @vclier
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I am very interested in 3D printing too! Thanks for sharing
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Very imformative
Have known something great.
Those printer might be expensive/out of my afford
Thank you @vcelie
You upvoted my post .I appreaciate your support :
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Really cool post.
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Nice post @
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Excellent story, upvote & Resteem post.
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Good job @vclier. I like it
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incredibly amazing. Progress is a great thing. I was particularly pleased with the use of such things for human health. The CREATION of ORGANS AND PROSTHESES, it will save millions of lives. it is very pleasing that scientists create not just tools for murder(arms today), but also the means to life.
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I have been wanting to get a 3d printer for a while now, I just can't make a case for it yet. Maybe that's why you didn't open it, you weren't quite sure what you would do with it? I hope to see more posts of your projects. Maybe it will convince me to take the plunge.
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Didn't you open it the first day to see if they sent you the correct device?
what if there was a mistake?
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Yes, I open the top of the box the first day, but then I reclosed it.
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Hi and thank you for the post! I am also thinking to start 3d printing but haven't chosen the printer yet (there's so much info in internet!) And also do procrostinate because I fear that I will never be able to put all the parts together if I buy a DIY 3d printer set. So, you post gives me inspiration )) followed you to see more of your prints! Thumbs up ))
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Very cool. I bet you could make a model of the BDC Trieux, with that thing!
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Hello, Vincent.
Thanks a lot for this story. I am also interested in 3D printing and I find it very interesting.
Yes, both machines look amazing. They also show well the progress that the technology has made in the last five or six years. Amazing.
Keep posting your prints, please. I'll learn from your experience. Thanks again.
Have a great weekend :)
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Great post and happy to learn that the 3D printing finally provided the printed items.
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Awesome !
I can relate to the procrastination part, sometimes other stuff just seems way more important, and sometimes we just forget there was something else we needed to do !
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Very cool!!
I want to play with a 3d printer.
I think it would be fun to make bitcoin drink coasters, with the Steem logo or Bitcoin logo. It would look like a coin as well ;)
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