First Printer

[vintagengineerParticipant @vintagengineer]

Some advice on buying a basic printer. I would like to start printing patterns rather than making them from wood. I only need a single colour & 150mm cubed area.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Assuming you mean 3d printer you probably couldn’t do much better than a Bambi Labs A1 mini or it’s larger brother the A1. My son has the mini and I bought the bigger one on his recommendation.

[Peter TuckerParticipant @petertucker86088]

Hi Vintage,

My recommend, as others have said about a lathe, buy the biggest you can afford or fit.  The printer I bought can print 400 mm x400 mm x400 mm and although I have not printed things I would call big some of them have been a challenge to fit.

I haven’t printed any patterns yet but I expect they will come.

 

Peter.

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I also would go with a Bambulabs offering, you will not be disappointed.

Tony

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

I’m firmly in the Bambu Lab camp, too, having owned one for a couple of years. It was the first 3D printer I’ve ever owned and it was great straight out of the box. It just worked.  I bought it with the optional AMS, which is very handy.  They’re not cheap, but I think you’ll be hard pressed to find one better.  But then I’m biased!

John

 

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

The bambu labs A1 Mini can’t be beaten for value for money and will enable you to make small patterns in PLA filament, but you will soon find you can make useful things like spare parts to repair a vacuum cleaner where parts are unavailable, or useful jigs for the workshop.  You might find that you need a bigger build volume for some of these.  You might also need to make things in other material for which you may need an enclosed printer.

As an example I have some sliding patio doors over 20 years old, a plastic part broke and spares are not available, so I modeled the part in Freecad and sent the STL file to my enclosed printer and printed one in PETG which is more impact resistant than PLA.  Saved about £5000 for replacement doors.

Russell

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

A1 mini on sale until 15 July £10 discount.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

But A1 and A1 mini can both print petg safely. If anything less fumey than pla.

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