What ~$20 - $30k 3D printer would you get?

[Chenopod]

And why?

It's a subjective topic and the choice is weighed heavily by the intended use. I personally don't make large quantities of parts and would choose one that does most of the work for you... I wouldn't want anyone's primary job description to be running and maintaining the machine.

But what do you think?

 

[bigTomHanks]

Put it in a machine/prototype shop and train one of the machinest to use it. As long as it's use was financially justifiable then why not. Don't really know what your situation is exactly but if you need one but won't be using it all the time you may be able to contract out prototype parts to other companies to offset the cost.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I would put the money into more tooling for the CNC mill that should already be present, and can be used for things other than dog and pony shows.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Eltron]

Check this thread: thread559-308705

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Take a common part - something you might want to 3D on any given day and let the vendor "prove" it.

Shouldn't be too hard. If they don't want to try it - quit looking at them!!

 

[ornerynorsk]

Just to start off with, I am an old school 30+ year tool and die man by trade. I do not embrace most of the new "gadget" technology.

My engineering department started off with a Dimension BST1200 7 years ago, and just recently upgraded to a SST1200es with a 10 x 10 x 12 work envelope, soluble support structure, and increased strength ABS build material.

We commission about 2 dozen injection moldings, diecastings, and forgings a year, and this is the best investment we could have ever made. We also build FDM parts for outside companies at a handsome rate.

We have all of the tooling, the CNC machines, the very well equipped shop, and their is NOTHING for the money that can give you a functional and nearly exact facsimile of a proposed part like these machines can. I can't recommend it highly enough, and no, I am not a paid promoter :>)

Good luck in your decision!

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[flash3780]

If you don't intend to use it a lot, you might consider just farming out the work. There are tons of shops that do SLA work with rapid turnarounds. Depending on how heavily you plan on using it, it might take a while for your machine to pay for itself.

//signed//
Christopher K. Hubley
Mechanical Engineer
Sunpower Incorporated
Athens, Ohio
--

http://engineeringliberty.wordpress.com

 

[dgallup]

While I agree it is most cost effective to farm out rapid prototyping for infrequent use, I know I would use it 10 times as often if we had it in house. Having to send an STL file, get a quote, write a purchase request, get it approved, submit it to purchasing, get them to cut a PO, send it and then finally get a part takes a lot of the rapid out of rapid prototyping. I've had the process take 2 weeks, not because of the RP house but because the paper work got stuck somewhere in the process. Sure I can walk everything through & speed it up but now I'm spending a lot of time to get a simple task accomplished. The cost of reworking one major mold tool because of a design error would pay for one of these desktop machines.

On the other hand, there are advantages to sending them out as a good RP house will have a multitude of machines and can tailor the process used to your requirements.

I can't recommend a specific machine because I don't have one. Good luck with yours.

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