MakerGear Forum

Hello,

I am new to 3d printing and had a couple questions before purchasing. My 1st question is I am wanting to purchase because I had a guy come out with a design for a car part and wish to product and sell them, they are printed out of ABS plastic but would take about 3 hours to print on his printer (I forgot which one). Also I am wanting to purchase a used one locally, what are some of the things I should look for or have the seller perform?

Depending on how tall/large the part is, this printer might not be your best bet if you are wanting to print large parts out of ABS. (No enclosure......unless you build one separately, although there are some listed here that are a pretty easy assembly.)

Point is, for ABS, you'll want an enclosure unless the parts are small. ABS warps and cracks without being kept warm while it prints. So you want to look at machines that come with an enclosure, or build one first for this one. Or choose some other filament that doesn't have to be kept warm, depending on what you plan to do with the part.

It's going to take roughly the same amount of time to print on any printer, so you can factor that out of your decision making process.

If you're buying used, have them demo the machine first. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with 3D printers, you need to be a bit of a tinkerer, and you need to check out the support (forums and whatnot) for whichever machine you buy before you buy it. Read as much as you can (reviews, complaints) about the specific model that you are considering. Google it.

If it's a used M2, those are very sturdy and can last practically forever, but it might be one of the older models and might require an upgraded power supply or a different nozzle. There have been a lot of nice improvements in just the last year since i got mine. Find out specifically then check the MakerGear site to see where to purchase the upgraded parts, and decide if you want to spend that. MakerGear does make all of the upgrades available to bring the old models up to speed. (You might decide it's better off to just buy a new one if the cost to upgrade an older one brings it up close to the new cost. M2's don't lose much value, and the improvements that come standard with the new machines now are well worth it.)

And I'm not trying to put you off from your decision, but keep in mind, there is a significant learning curve associated with this type of manufacturing. It's not going to be something you can pick up and start churning out perfect parts in a week or two. This is really for prototyping, not so much manufacturing, except in very small batches. The problem is the time required to create parts in bulk. It's not a process you can speed up much. (With any depositional printer.)

Hi jprochnow,

I received your PM but since I am new I am not able to reply. I am located in the Los Angeles area. you can e-mail me at hungddngo@gmail.com if youre in the area and we can meet up.

How reliable is the printer, when I mean reliable I mean how often does it mess up the print? My parts are small, about 9.5" in length flat, about 1/2" in height and 1-2" in width.

I worked at a machine shop for several years and had experence with cad and running cnc machines and learning 3d printing is a whole new beast!
There is a lot to learn thats for sure. I am just starting out and for me to build working prototypes took longer at first with the printer then actually making the parts on the manual mill or lathe. Like Jules said its more for prototypes and small production parts.
another question I would have is how accureate does your part need to be to still function? Your part tolorance will affect what process you decide to go with.
3d printers are amazing and I really hope you get one reguardless of weather it is the right tool for this job.

butters149 wrote:How reliable is the printer, when I mean reliable I mean how often does it mess up the print? My parts are small, about 9.5" in length flat, about 1/2" in height and 1-2" in width.

I've only owned a M2, but since I've got it in October, I've put in about 250 hours of print time, and have a 77% print success rate. The failures I've had is usually with a setting in my Slic3r, bed adhesion, or bad filament, and testing new filaments. The printer itself, hasn't given me any mechanical problems except for the extruder motor rotating in its mount, easy fix, but if you get a new one with the metal motor mount, that wont happen. Once you get the correct settings for a particular print, I don't think the printer will let you down. Right now I'm making a batch of about 20 piggy banks in PLA, takes 7 hours to print 1, but I've got the slicer settings all good, and I've printed 11 of them without it ever failing mid print.

There are a lot of things that could go wrong mid print, but I think they are common to all printers.

example:
inconsistent filament diameter
bad slicer settings
bad bed surface prep, like clean glass, hair spray, or glue stick, or anything else.
If you are printing from software on a pc and your printer has some sort of communication error, your print will stop and fail. (print from sd card to prevent this).
wrong z-height adjustment. (there are automatic z-height leveling mechanisms on other printers, but for the M2, once you set it, it stays set for a long time. I haven't had to set mines since I got it out of the box).

Bottom line? M2 printer is rock solid and reliable. Someone on here I think has a whole farm of them, like 7-10 of them I think?

butters149 wrote:How reliable is the printer, when I mean reliable I mean how often does it mess up the print? My parts are small, about 9.5" in length flat, about 1/2" in height and 1-2" in width.

Generally, the printer doesn't mess up the print, some external factor does. If you take the time to calibrate the machine correctly, learn what you need to do to keep your prints stuck down during printing, and don't switch back and forth between different kinds of filament a lot, the settings for a particular filament should give you a pretty good success rate. I consistently hit in the 95%+ success rate with known filaments now, but that's after 8 months of trial and error, and making a heck of a lot of goofs first. Also, it helps to have a surface like PEI, since it does a better job of holding on to the prints without needing to use an adhesive. (Adhesives are very iffy, and not using enough contributes to a lot of failures.)

The only dimension on your part that might be problematic is the length - that's going to completely span the printable length of the bed, with very little room for error. You might wind up losing more prints to adhesion problems than with a smaller part. (The heat is not always uniform at the extreme edges of the bed.) You can angle the part on the diagonal, but that might slow it down, and it will keep you from being able to print multiples. Or you might want to think about an aluminum plate - some of the guys use them for better heat distribution to the edges.

jules pretty much said it. its not the printer that messes up the print, its the user. the more experience you have the higher your success rate. i very rarely have a failed print anymore. i just know the printer, software and materials i use very well so i know how to set everything up in the slicer.

If your talking about the TAZ 5 vs the M2 there is no comparison. The TAZ has a larger printer area but that's about it. I owned one for a short time before moving over to the M2. The TAZ uses printed plastic gears for the extruder and printed supports for the table and a lot of other places. They have issues with hotend jams, keeping the bed level and more. That is why I now own a MakerGear M2, its twice the printer for less money.

butters149 wrote:How reliable is the printer, when I mean reliable I mean how often does it mess up the print? My parts are small, about 9.5" in length flat, about 1/2" in height and 1-2" in width.

The general size of the part you mention is usually very easy to print, but that's subject to what it has in the way of overhangs, bridges, or other problematic structures. Parts with long lengths can have warping problems if printed in ABS or PETg, but that shouldn't be a problem if the piece is only half an inch high. Flat, simple pieces like brackets and mounting plates and such are truly trivial to print.