I’m completely new to modelling and i’ve been making huge leaps with my modelling skills thanks to Sharp3D. I’m a sculptor eventually looking to enlarge the small models I produce with the program but I need some advice on really the best printer I can get for my money. I would be looking to export the files form my ipad directly to printing, I have no skills with AUTOCAD or Rhino…
-Looking for a good support network.
-easy to print.
-easy to replace parts if they get damaged
-upgrade possibilities
for a beginner, what do you recommend?
I have an Ipad pro and a macbook pro 2017.
Creality ender 3 is a good choice for both (wallet, easiness)
You may have a frightening time putting it together.
But keypoint is do not over-tighten things but do not let them loose.
Prusa is among the best but is more spendy than Creality. Prints better from what I have seen. I am running mine now. The slicer software is pretty darn good. You can upgrade rather inexpensively to multi-material. The kit takes about 4 hours if you are quick and 6 to 8 if you are meticulous. Every time I order parts or materials (I haven’t had to replace any parts, I like to have spares) it ships pretty darn fast in the US. I am really happy with my Prusa.
I really like the bed leveling and magnetic bed with spring steel sheet method of printing. I purchased an extra sheet so I can put a fresh one on can continue printing.
Many of the parts are plastic and printed y Prusa in house print farm. All STLs are available to for reprinting or modding.
The kit is reasonable priced and comes with excellent instructions, as well as embedded comments from the community. The latter are nice as you get to see how us mere mortals deal with the build.
The feature set is outstanding for the price, having features normally found on printers two or three times the cost.
I have a Flashforge Creator 3 and Flashforge Creator Pro. Although the Pro has a small bed it is reasonably priced and works great with little or no maintenance. These are my second and third 3d printers.
I’ll add my 2 cents. I have 2 Prusa’s, the MK3 (that I bought as a kit) and the $400+ Mini. They are great machines and I make much use of them. For a beginner low cost printer, you can’t go wrong with the Mini. It is nimble and makes beautiful prints. Along with the slicer that it is tailored to, Prusaslicer, I consider it quite the turnkey system.
My workflow, as a Mac user is, export bodies as STL (in mm) from Shapr3D and Airdrop to my iMac. Load the STL in Prusaslicer and provide print specifics like layer height and filament type and save on an SD card then PRINT!
Good luck.
-Mike
