3-D Printing

by **Idiot Savant** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:17 pm

Anyone on here dabble in 3-D printing? I know the printers are fairly pricey but just curious...

by **Tango X** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:19 pm

I've worked with a few of them. The resolution is terrible on even the higher mid-range models causing you to require major sanding and fills causing major loss of detail. For low detail stuff, it's okay but for anything like heads, forget it. You basically need something in the six figure range like the Stratasys to make anything that looks okay. A lot of the pics you see online look okay because it's kind of blurry or from afar but when you have one in hand, man it is not great. Don't get me wrong, the technology has improved immensely but when you shell out a few thousand dollars in hopes of making some cool figures, you're sadly disappointed when the reality hits. I own a couple of units and they're okay for non precise applications but that's all. I would give it a few years before looking into getting anything. It's otherwise been useless for toys. If you're more handy, a CnC mill makes cleaner pieces but you can't make undercuts in most cases. The engineering department where I work has very accurate 3D printers but they're not for personal use and are the aformentioned 6 figure units but boy, the prints come out very clean.

by **Idiot Savant** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:34 pm

Wow...I had no idea the details are that rough, could've sworn I heard good things about homemade figs...thanks for the very detailed info on this; looks like I'm sticking with Apoxie sculpt for a lot longer!

by **Tango X** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:24 pm

Hey Savant. Yeah I don't want to deter you from trying it out but if you have a chance to go to a 3D trade show it would give you a much better idea of what to expect. I mean for something costing 4 digits, I don't want anyone to find out the hard way.