Any 3D Printer dabblers out here?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sun Dec 15, 2019 11:32 am

That’s the goblin. Second picture shows the supports it generates to help with the parts that are printing in mid-air. Those just crack off of the print. It leaves some artifacts on the back of the print, but this can be cleaned up with an Xacto or some fine sandpaper. Had a bit of an oops with his ear. I’ll let you decide if you want to glue that back on or if he’s battle damaged.

On to the Orc!

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 9:18 am

Here’s all three done. The backs in the Orc and troll are a bit of a mess, not sure why. So hang them facing front.

Just PM your address, BH, and I’ll get them sent.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:22 pm

Those are cool as hell, and thank you! I can always 'adjust' the backs with Green Stuff, too.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:12 pm

I sit near a bunch of contract programmers, and there's one in particular that is a bit...off. Odd. But nobody that I really want to get into long conversations with or have them think it's OK to start to converse with me. (OK, that made me sound like an asshole, but I have enough misfits in my life (love you Hepcat!) without attracting them at work.)

Anyway. I overhear him talking about how he just bought a brand new 3D printer to another programmer, and he doesn't have it yet, but he starts to spout a whole bunch of incorrect information about 3D printing to him. And I had to really, really struggle to keep from jumping up and saying, "WRONG!!! YOU ARE WRONG, SIR!!!"

Maybe I'll try and find the guy he was passing misinformation to and correct the information he gave him.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:03 pm

New experiment last night, actually printing a mini for gaming. Hero Forge is an online site where you can create a 3D miniature for your D&D game and have it printed. They also have the option to download a sample fig...so I grabbed an explorer model that I’m having trouble uploading the sample image of. Darn it.

Anyway.

The fig is an adventurer holding a book and torch. All somewhat problematic because I think it will need supports to print...

So I use a minis profile that was built by the guys at Fat Dragon Games, and slice it to generate tree supports, and start printing. 3 hours later, I have this.

Note that that is not an over large, dramatic cloak...that is all support trees that are built up by the software to give the actual print out something to attach to. All of that crap, and some of the other weird stuff you see on the figure, need to be snapped off of the figure. Note also that the corner of the book broke off. Battle damage, as I figure it.

Here’s the figure with the supports cleared away:

Needs a bunch of cleaning up, and the stringing you see is probably because I don’t have my esteps calibrated correctly...that’s a task for tonight, now that I have a good set of calipers.

Overall, I’m liking what I’m seeing. While it is no Bones figure, with cleanup and prime and paint I think this would work out very well on a tabletop.

I’m also going to get some new print nozzles, right now I’m using .4mm but I am going to get a set of .3mm nozzles and use a different print profile to see if I can get even better detail out of this.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:03 pm

And then some days, you come home to this:

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:04 pm

You have been blessed by His Noodly Appendage!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Dec 20, 2019 3:20 pm

That was a nice figure. Perhaps the noodly bits can be used for slime tendrils? Or is it recycle-able?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Dec 20, 2019 3:34 pm

Not really. You can buy recyclers to make recycled filament but I have such little waste overall it’s not really worth it.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Dec 20, 2019 3:54 pm

The bit on the right with the base. I'd absolutely keep that and create an enemy based on it for an RPG.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:08 pm

Hentzau, you're my hero. Thank you!

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:21 pm

That rust monster will come in particularly handy. I've got lots of near substitutions for lots of things, but the copyrighted WotC stuff is hard to replace.

Now I just need to learn to work with 3d printed surfaces. I think I'll try some Mr Surfacer on a hidden spot and see how that works for smoothing it out.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:24 pm

Well, technically it’s a dire rust monster...a bit bigger than your average rust monster.

Just threw in a few extra goodies since I was running so late. Hope you can use them.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:59 pm

Absolutely! I love them. If I can get Michelle to give me back the baby owlbears!

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:00 pm

My daughter landed on the name “chubs”, a cross between a chick and a cub.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Dec 31, 2019 12:18 am

Just F my I, what material are these? I'm reading up on techniques for smoothing, and some of them specify different techniques for different materials.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Dec 31, 2019 12:19 am

It’s pla.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Dec 31, 2019 12:30 am

Awesome. I have two of the suggested options, and a third is easy to get (Future floor polish and Mr Surfacer are what I have, and water based polycrylic is readily available.) I'll try some on the bottoms of bases and see how they turn out. I want to avoid the Mr Surfacer if at all possible. That stuff pours out fumes like mad.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:34 pm

Not a 3D printer myself but this came across on Humble Bundle.

HUMBLE 3D PRINTABLE DUNGEONS & DRAGON LAIRS TERRAIN BUNDLE
Beware the smiling DM, for they have a bundle of 3D models hiding up their sleeve! Evil trees, tombstones, and plague doctors add danger to your dungeon while the aqueduct, bamboo forest, and mystic pillars provide intrigue and mystery to your tabletop session.

$433 WORTH OF AWESOME STUFF
PAY $1 OR MORE
DRM-FREE
MULTI-FORMAT

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:57 pm

Thanks for the update on this one, Lawbeef. Big fan of Dragonlock terrain, so I’ll most likely back this one for the village pieces alone.

This is what I currently have on my print bed...

Kurth · Post by **Kurth** » Mon Apr 06, 2020 1:40 pm

After taking a break from 3D printing, I'm diving back in, mostly printing miniatures right now. Need to grab some new filament, though, as I'm running low. Wondering what people are using these days? I've only used Monoprice filament - mostly their PLA+ offerings, but they're color/size options are a little limited right now. Any other suggestions? I think I had heard good things about Hatchbox previously, but I'm seeing shipping times on that are crazy on Amazon right now.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:37 pm

My go-to filament is eSun PLA +. Not the cheapest but it’s been flawless.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:10 am

hentzau wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:37 pm My go-to filament is eSun PLA +. Not the cheapest but it’s been flawless.

How much do you spend on filament generally? I'm starting to give some idle thought to whether to buy a 3D printer - could be a lot of fun for the kids to print out figurines and then paint them, could use it to print masks, and other things. But I'm concerned that I'd wind up spending a ton of money on filament after getting the printer, especially as I'm sure that the kids would want to print out all sorts of random useless junk as well.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:12 am

hentzau wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:03 pm
Here’s the figure with the supports cleared away:

So this is a good example. How much did this figure 'cost' you in filament?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:20 am

El Guapo wrote:
hentzau wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:37 pm My go-to filament is eSun PLA +. Not the cheapest but it’s been flawless.
How much do you spend on filament generally? I'm starting to give some idle thought to whether to buy a 3D printer - could be a lot of fun for the kids to print out figurines and then paint them, could use it to print masks, and other things. But I'm concerned that I'd wind up spending a ton of money on filament after getting the printer, especially as I'm sure that the kids would want to print out all sorts of random useless junk as well.

So the eSun runs about $20 a roll. Since I’ve had the printer (about a year now) gone through five spools of PLA. And that figure probably cost me about a buck in PLA.

If anyone is interested in the Ender line, they have a new model coming out in a week that looks really sweet.

Kurth · Post by **Kurth** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:42 am

Just picked up two 1KG rolls of e-sun (thanks for the recommendation, Hentzau) for about $22 a piece on Amazon.

Filament is cheap and lasts a while as long as you store it somewhere airtight and dry. On average, a 1KG spool of PLA has about 330 meters of filament. If you're printing miniatures that are roughly 28mm scale, you're talking about 1 meter per miniature. For example, I printed a cool Bugbear with a morning star last night that was 30mm tall, and it used 1.02 meters of filament and printed in 39 minutes.

Once you've invested in a 3d printer, material costs are not significant.

Also, in addition to that Creality printer Hentzau posted, I'm a huge fan of the Monoprice Voxel which you can grab right now open box for a pretty steep discount ($319.99).

The Voxel is a rebranded Flashforge Adventurer 3. The thing I really like about it is the enclosure. I have two 3d printers - a Voxel and my first printer, a Monoprice MP Select Mini. The Mini was a great starting printer, but it's not enclosed. Having an enclosed build area does two things for you (1) it results in consistent temperatures at the build surface; and (2) it improves safety (i.e., fire prevention).

But even if you go with a non-enclosed printer, you can always build an enclosure, which is kind of a fun project in and of itself. After I got the enclosed Voxel, I went back and build an enclosure for the Mini out of an old disused Ikea bedside table. Tricked it out with a glass door, LED lights, and it's own Raspberry Pi with a web cam and an Octopi instance. I love that thing now!

Short story: Get a 3d printer. It's not that expensive, and it's good for endless hours of fun. I've used the hell out of mine. Definitely not one of those purchases that I look back on and regret.

Formix · Post by **Formix** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:21 pm

So it looks like everyone has chosen Filament over Resin printers. Any particular reason why ? I’m starting to look into printers and the resin ones look nice.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:27 pm

My buddy is obsessing over 3D printers right now and he's leaning towards resin. I think he mentioned something about an Elegoo Saturn or maybe the Elegoo Mars and trying to decide between them.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:33 pm

Resin makes great prints, but it is messy and needs additional cleaning and curing. And there’s the issue of fumes and ventilation. If you’re going to get one you need a dedicated space where you don’t care of resin gets spilled on the surfaces or the floor, and where you can ideally vent the printer outside.

Print space is typically smaller than an FDM printer as well, but it is usually faster.

All that said, I have looked at them, and if I had space for one that met all of those criteria I would get one in a heartbeat. For now I have to settle on my FDM printer. My ideal set up would be my FDM printer for terrain and buildings and a resin printer for minis.

Formix · Post by **Formix** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 3:08 pm

Yeah, elegoo is also what I’m looking at. The ventilation may be an issue. Maybe I can set it up in my garage.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed May 06, 2020 4:10 pm

Latest print off of the device...an abandoned bunker for Fallout Wasteland Warfare.

(Last one with a mini for scale...)

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed May 06, 2020 11:57 pm

And a Pulowski Preservation Shelter.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon May 11, 2020 11:54 am

Creality is currently holding a Kickstarter for their new 3D FDM printer.

Kickstarter

If you're looking to get into FDM printing this is a pretty sweet system for a decent price on the Kickstarter. Several nice new features including:

Automatic leveling
Silent 32 bit mainboard
redesigned extruder
modular heat block, fan and nozzle so replacement and upgrades are easier
Glass print bed (although I am a huge fan of the PEI sheets on steel these days
Touch screen controls.

I would be tempted, although I have just gone way overboard on KS spending recently, and I'm hoping that Wyrmwood actually does pull off a low-cost gaming table.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 7:17 am

Last 24 hours for that Kickstarter if anyone is interested. And I did back it after a lot of deliberation.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 7:37 am

Also, what I’ve been working on printing over the past two weeks. It’s a beast!

(Forgive the messy table...I’ve been full on painting and printing mode so my cleaning leaves much to be desired...)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:52 am

The C should be backwards or lower.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:16 am

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:52 am The C should be backwards or lower.

Ouch.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:17 am

I'm pretty sure it's not a structural letter...

Formix · Post by **Formix** » Wed Jun 10, 2020 2:33 am

Soon I shall be one of you. Preorder placed for the Elegoo Saturn. It's supposed to arrive in a little over a month. Now to dive in to the youtube rabbit hole of "getting started with 3d printing" Any tips? I know I apparently need to learn about slicing and bracing?

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Wed Jun 10, 2020 3:01 am

Formix wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 2:33 am Soon I shall be one of you. Preorder placed for the Elegoo Saturn. It's supposed to arrive in a little over a month. Now to dive in to the youtube rabbit hole of "getting started with 3d printing" Any tips? I know I apparently need to learn about slicing and bracing?

Since that is a resin printer you can enjoy higher quality prints assuming the models are high quality.
You will also need to stock up on isopropyl alcohol to clean the prints and a UV light solution of some sort (either a UV lamp setup or the sun)
Expect things to get messy.
Depending on the resin, expect things to smell nad in some cases.
The slicing is generally taken care of by whatever slicing software comes with the printer. I am assuming that by bracing you mean learn how to set up supports. If so, most software will do that as well. You'll need to learn the theories behind aligning your model so that you get the best alignment with the least amount of supports.
Depending on the model you will need to learn how to hollow it out and make proper drainage holes. If you are just printing mini's you won't need to do this.
Depending on the quality of the software all of these should be easy to get started printing. As you gain more XP you can level up and do manual supports as needed.
The resin printers are really good at mini printing, larger terrain will work nicely as well, but you will want to learn how to hollow them out just so you don't eat up all of your resin.
I have both an FDM printer and an SLA resin printer so I'll answer any questions as best as I can but keep in mind I am far from an expert.
My printers have been offline for months, but we just finished painting our living room and I set them back up (with room to accommodate the Snapmaker 3 in 1 I ordered through Kickstarter for whenever that arrives) so I plan on printing again soon once the rest of the living room is done. (Some wire cleanup by the TV's and I'm gonna see about mounting all of my paints to the war so I can get started painting again.