The first end-user-friendly affordable 3d printer?

[Asp]

http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesVgYfBWFI

[Toadius80]

I want.... !

Sent from my God Like Device using TapaTalk

[UberBeast]

And everyone's first thought: "Could I make my own minis with this?"

[librerian_samae]

seems nice, will be great to see what these things are like when they hit mass market consumers (ie us) in availability and affordability.

[Trasvi]

The resolution appears to be 250 microns, (1/4 millimetre, or 1/100 inch). Does anyone know how that stacks up against other printers, and if that resolution is good enough for miniatures? My gut feeling is that it is still too low res for organic shapes, but I would like to be surprised

[Symrivven]

Good news now it wont be to log before we can print our own designs

Trasvi: Shapeways frosted ultra detail has a resolution of 0.1 mm. If I'm not mistaken we need a bit more definition for truly smooth organic shapes. I'm also interested in how brittle/ strong the material is.

[sigur]

Eurch, that means all we'll see in the future is these computer-generatedmodels? Seems like we'll have to say goodbye to any well done, interesting faces for a looooooong time then.

[de Selby]

Like I said the last time we did this thread, I'm really looking forward to printing my own city terrain. This is a gift for STC buildings (or it would be a gift if it didn't still cost thousnds of dollars for the machine and materials).

[stroller]

Soooo... $1300 for the printer $50 a pop for the cartridge, more for the pads, films and other gubbins and no (obvious) information on how long the consumables last - someone's idea of affordable is sightly different from mine....

[Symrivven]

Eurch, that means all we'll see in the future is these computer-generatedmodels? Seems like we'll have to say goodbye to any well done, interesting faces for a looooooong time then.

Don't worry there'll be 3d scanners to, so you can sculpt your models the old fashion way and ten print copies.
Despite the smiley I'm not suer you are sarcastic or not, but do you really think computer sculpted faces are inherently worse than putty sculpted ones?

[gunmnky]

The resolution appears to be 250 microns, (1/4 millimetre, or 1/100 inch). Does anyone know how that stacks up against other printers, and if that resolution is good enough for miniatures? My gut feeling is that it is still too low res for organic shapes, but I would like to be surprised

Really horrible. Companies like moddler use a 16 micron process, and shapeways FUD is around 50 microns.

I actually just did a short write-up about this in my blog. And no, these aren't going to replace a trip to the hobby store any time soon and probably never will.

[sigur]

Don't worry there'll be 3d scanners to, so you can sculpt your models the old fashion way and ten print copies.
Despite the smiley I'm not suer you are sarcastic or not, but do you really think computer sculpted faces are inherently worse than putty sculpted ones?

The smilie was mainly meant to make me look less like a mean old guy. Faces on GW's plastics have been really disappointing to me in the past seven years or so and I have yet to see a company do any better with their computer-sculpted faces on plastic miniatures.

[Mr Ogre]

I'm more concerned with the properties of the material than the finished product.

Naff all point in printing a model if it's going to react badly to a spray underecoat...

[Spectrar Ghost]

You wouldn't want to print an army at this point anyway. Shapeways FUD is about $10 a cc. Print one and cast it is the way to go. It also avoids any concerns about the material.

[Mr Ogre]

Starting to sound like rather a lot of arsing around now!

Not for me I'm afraid!

[Spectrar Ghost]

Hopefully cost will get there eventually, but for the next few years I'd guess you're still looking at a rapid prototyper instead of a true 3d printer. It's the difference between a commercial printing press and a desktop printer.

[Sean_OBrien]

The material is described as a "tough recycled plastic" - most printers that I have seen which use this particular method of printing use a plastic that is either nylon or ABS. If you check the FAQ, it does actually say it is ABS though. ABS is very similiar to the hard plastic GW uses, and you can actually use solvent cements to glue parts together (and to HIPS used by GW and other plastic miniatures).

The cartridge efficiency is described as "13-14 mid sized creations". They don't specify what midsized is, though I would guess in 40K terms it would probably be the size of a dreadnought or something along those lines (bigger than a miniature, but much smaller than a vehicle). Of course, you are dealing with volumes - so you can hollow things out in order to get more prints per cartridge.

The resolution is only 250 microns. That is very rough for miniatures (might work for structures and some vehicles though). Remember, for something like a face - it might only be a few millimeters from top to bottom. Each layer will be close to the thickness of a miniatures eye - which of course will pretty much make printing the eye out of the question.

The cost makes it pretty well right out for doing an army still. If you figure the $1300 for the printer and the cost of the cartridges (figure 40-50 miniatures per cartridge) you end up with a cost of $14 or so per miniature for really, really rough looking figures in an army of a hundred or so figures.

Now, I know it was mentioned above that Shapeways FUD runs $10 or so per figure, but that isn't quite right. I have been using it for doing armatures for several months now, and each figure costs about $2-3 depending on the specific size and stuff which I model into the armature. Granted I am doing them in 20 figure batches - but then again, that is more useful for my purposes and much more cost effective (as opposed to doing them 1 at a time with the $5 start up fee for each one). If you purchase a model someone else sculpts from Shapeways, they generally add in their commission of whatever they decide to add. That might be a dollar or two, or it might be $20 - Shapeways doesn't control that aspect.

[gunmnky]

I'm more concerned with the properties of the material than the finished product.

Naff all point in printing a model if it's going to react badly to a spray underecoat...

The plastics used in rapid prototyping are suitable for all kinds of paint, even those that use chemical propellants. My bolters primed just fine with stock GW spray primer.

The material is described as a "tough recycled plastic" - most printers that I have seen which use this particular method of printing use a plastic that is either nylon or ABS. If you check the FAQ, it does actually say it is ABS though. ABS is very similiar to the hard plastic GW uses, and you can actually use solvent cements to glue parts together (and to HIPS used by GW and other plastic miniatures).

The cartridge efficiency is described as "13-14 mid sized creations". They don't specify what midsized is, though I would guess in 40K terms it would probably be the size of a dreadnought or something along those lines (bigger than a miniature, but much smaller than a vehicle). Of course, you are dealing with volumes - so you can hollow things out in order to get more prints per cartridge.

The resolution is only 250 microns. That is very rough for miniatures (might work for structures and some vehicles though). Remember, for something like a face - it might only be a few millimeters from top to bottom. Each layer will be close to the thickness of a miniatures eye - which of course will pretty much make printing the eye out of the question.

The cost makes it pretty well right out for doing an army still. If you figure the $1300 for the printer and the cost of the cartridges (figure 40-50 miniatures per cartridge) you end up with a cost of $14 or so per miniature for really, really rough looking figures in an army of a hundred or so figures.

Now, I know it was mentioned above that Shapeways FUD runs $10 or so per figure, but that isn't quite right. I have been using it for doing armatures for several months now, and each figure costs about $2-3 depending on the specific size and stuff which I model into the armature. Granted I am doing them in 20 figure batches - but then again, that is more useful for my purposes and much more cost effective (as opposed to doing them 1 at a time with the $5 start up fee for each one). If you purchase a model someone else sculpts from Shapeways, they generally add in their commission of whatever they decide to add. That might be a dollar or two, or it might be $20 - Shapeways doesn't control that aspect.

A huge factor in cost is hollowing the design and knowing what thickness you can work with. If you just want to shoot off some miniatures, then it's entirely possible to create cheap minis. If your objective is to cast them, I recommend using a solid model that can survive the vulcanizing processes without imploding. It will cost more, but resin casts should then run only spare pocket change per casting.

However, FUD still has striation problems, despite its higher cost. This is something to plan on before ordering. Going with a smaller process like moddler's 16 micron will make outstanding miniatures, but you're going to pay the price for it.

[blongbling]

3D printers are interesting, I think they are a long way of from printing models (but long in terms of tech is arguable) however you can be printing scenery and objective markers right now. 3D printers are being used more and more in the computer modding areas as well with people custom printing bits they want instead of getting them cast in metal and the results look ace

[Sean_OBrien]

Not to get into the weeds of things - but when you are looking at the various 3D printers and printer technologies, you need to understand the resolution to make better comparisons.

250 microns refers to the layer thickness in this case. With this printer, each layer is layed out sort of like a soft serve ice cream machine or a caulk gun in a single long thread. This creates a different problem with print artifacts, as all exposed surfaces will have noticeable banding (whether it looks coarse like denim or something like a silk shirt will depend on the thickness of that string). Botmill uses the same technology. Other technologies apply small blobs of the plastic and build it up something more like building with legos. That results in a texture which is more readily obscured since you don't have the patterns which the eye finds.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the other varieties of printers generally have two different resolutions. Each layer might be able to be built of blobs which are 50 microns in diameter, but each layer is only 30 microns thick. This is due to the plastic material settling slightly before it cures. One of the more popular printers for example are the Objet24 and 30 models. These printers are capable of printing at 600x600 dpi on each layer with 900 dpi for the layer thickness. That ends up being 42 microns and 28 microns respectively. FUD from Shapeways is actually printed at 39 micron resolution on each layer with the layer thickness being 31 microns (656x656x800 dpi). Moddeller uses an Objet Eden printer for their printing. That particular model does print in 16 microns for each layer thickness, but the resolution on each layer is only 42 microns (so it ends up being both better and worse than FUD).