I am getting into hobby robotics, and I am finding that I more and more am in need of the ability to create custom parts.
What would be a good 3D printer to buy (couple grand max cost), for creating parts such as: chassis, wheels, servo armatures and holders, gears, etc.
For me one of the most important things to be able to make would be my own custom gear trains.
What would be a good 3D printer, precise enough and using tough enough materials to great gears for robots on the size scale of a cat. Such as differential wheeled, hexapod, and quadrapod platforms?
Any reprap will do reliable mechanical parts. A prusa i3 is a good beginner kit for getting started with 3d printers, but you should invest around 400 to get a full high quality and reliable printer. What to care about is heated bed, mk8 extruder with 1.75mm filament, lcd with sd card, possibly aluminium or steel frame.
Then i’d recommend to buy DRV8825 as drivers, new endstops and extruder as spare parts,a set of nozzles with different diameters, a glass platform, silent fans, some plexiglass sheets as enclosure.
I have been looking at the FormLab’s Form 2, MakerBot Replicator Mini, and the LulzBot TAZ 5. Although I am not sure how to compare them. Are they worth the money? All are over 2k.
Formlab is for mainly high resolution resin parts. They are really brittle and expensive for robots. Makerbot does nice commercial printers, same the LulzBot. Even if you buy a commercial assembled printer you still need to do maintenance sometimes, and clogged nozzle or other print fails are really common in the beginning. I suggest any kind of Open Hardware printer, as their replacement cost less, they are better documentated and have wider community.
Looks like for the RepRap, one hase to buy the parts and assemble it ones self. Thats ok, wouldnt be doing this if i didnt like building things
Which model would you recomend building?
I am pretty proficient with my hands and have built quite a few complicated things before (but never a 3D printer), and I am also an expert software person.
Actually, Formlabs might be the best choice here. Especially if you are looking to make real strong parts. They have introduced something called a ‘Tough Resin’. Looks super promising. Is anyone here already using it?
