3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]
There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
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Depends on what you're looking to get out of it. Printing medium-sized toys or busts or things without a lot of fine details? Probably an fdm printer like an ender 3 to start with.
Wanting to print miniatures for tabletop games like d&d or Warhammer? Probably a resin printer like a photon mono 4k or something.
The fdm printer will have a much larger build plate but lower quality, and resin will be much smaller but higher quality.
Don't buy Ender 3, it's not really good (it's probably the best in cost/value ratio, but not great in general).
Ender 3 isn't a great printer, but it's a great starting point to make a good printer with some work. It's not a great first printer with UNLESS you like the idea of buying a printer that needs work and plan on learning as you modify it. So, expect lots of print failures as you learn and modify the printer.
This was how I learned printing. But I started FDM a decade ago with a SeeMeCNC Orion. Very crude compared to modern consumer printers.
A buddy of mine bought an Anycubic Vyper on clearance and he's happy with it. It has solid bed mounts and a leveling probe, which resolves half of printer problems, and it has dual Z steppers, which I think helps a lot. I believe it comes with a steel PEI bed which is easier than glass to get good prints (and much easier than painters tape or kapton like my Monoprice mini).