Solidoodle

So my Solidoodle 3D printer finally arrived. Took all of 16 weeks, but good for them for building a product in the US of A that people are beating down the door to buy.

Initial thoughts:

1. For $500 (actually $600 since I got the case upgrade and a heated deck) it's pretty friggin' amazing. Watching it do its thing is better than a Honey BooBoo marathon.

2. The documentation is abysmal. It assumes a LOT of knowledge on the part of the user, which is not how it's being marketed. And if you use a Mac be prepared to jump through even more hoops. The info is out there on how to actually use it, just be prepared to look for it. Following the instructions on their website will get you nowhere.

2a. When I said it assumes a lot of knowledge of the part of the user, I meant it. And while there is a considerable knowledge base out there, be prepared to experience answers to seemingly easy questions like: "Modifying extrusion speed is as easy as changing the parameters in the Arduino settings using basic Terminal commands." That's it. End of answer.

1. Buy a big spool of plastic. You'll need it.

2. I had originally bought it to build prototypes, but now I see that it is also fully capable of making quality end-use products (albeit in small runs). One of the first things I made was a GoPro tripod adapter (and shot it with a Go Pro in time lapse) that I actually plan to use. I see a real benefit here for someone restoring a car with cumbling plastic parts. Simply make your own brand new parts and go about your business.

3. Mine needs a few minor calibration tweaks like feed volume and speed, but overall it came tuned pretty well. It flows a little too much, which I guess they figure is better than a little too little, and Pat Benatar figures is better than a little too late.

4. In a lot of ways it reminds me a a 3/4" video setup my dad brought home from work in the early 1970s. Lots of proprietary technology, not all that user friendly, but did an amazing this we'd never seen before. I have a feeling in 5-10 years 3D printers will be WalTarget items, and in 10-15 years we'll have larger, more complex ones so that your Amazon.com order shipping takes only as long as your item takes to print.

5. I have not tried putting ground beef in the extruder yet with teh intent of printing a hamburger. YET.

jg

This is a "string laying" type printer? How good is the resolution? These sure have come down in cost, a few years ago, in High school, we had one that was only a few years old that would go down to 0.010", in the documentation it was really boastful about how it was only $12000.

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

dude, that is awesome

I wonder if there is or could be a Mega-Squirt like community for these things in which to teach ourselves.

We need video of you printing a hamburger stat!

print bacon?

Kenny_McCormic wrote: This is a "string laying" type printer? How good is the resolution? These sure have come down in cost, a few years ago, in High school, we had one that was only a few years old that would go down to 0.010", in the documentation it was really boastful about how it was only $12000.

From the factory it prints with .3mm resolution (.011"). Apparently they just released a profile with .1mm resolution as well.

jg

Appleseed wrote: I wonder if there is or could be a Mega-Squirt like community for these things in which to teach ourselves.

There is, but the problem is they're way smarter than me—or at least better informed. It's like having a guy who's never turned a wrench on his car before ask you about how to make a car handle better and you start talking about scrub radius and caster trail and stuff.

There's good info for USERS, but as for the "Ive never owned a 3D printer before" crowd, the knowledge is thin and scattered.

jg

Appleseed wrote: I wonder if there is or could be a Mega-Squirt like community for these things in which to teach ourselves.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

JG Pasterjak wrote: I see a real benefit here for someone restoring a car with cumbling plastic parts. Simply make your own brand new parts and go about your business.

How difficult do you think it would be to make mirror image parts like door pulls

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

Well... Let's see... You're a writer - or at least work with a bunch of them... And you work for a small publishing company... Hmm...

JoeyM wrote:

JG Pasterjak wrote: I see a real benefit here for someone restoring a car with cumbling plastic parts. Simply make your own brand new parts and go about your business.

How difficult do you think it would be to make mirror image parts like door pulls

Shouldn't be hard as long as they fit on the 6 x 6 build platform. This afternoon's experiments will include messing around with Google sketch up. Unless someone has another suggestion for an easier to use Mac-compatible 3D modeling program (that is cheap/free)?

jg

JG Pasterjak wrote:

JoeyM wrote:

JG Pasterjak wrote: I see a real benefit here for someone restoring a car with cumbling plastic parts. Simply make your own brand new parts and go about your business.

How difficult do you think it would be to make mirror image parts like door pulls

Shouldn't be hard as long as they fit on the 6 x 6 build platform. This afternoon's experiments will include messing around with Google sketch up. Unless someone has another suggestion for an easier to use Mac-compatible 3D modeling program (that is cheap/free)? jg

I'm using ViaCAD 8. It is Native OS-X, very capable for 3D and has lots of help and tutorials for $100.

website

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

JG Pasterjak wrote:

JoeyM wrote:

JG Pasterjak wrote: I see a real benefit here for someone restoring a car with cumbling plastic parts. Simply make your own brand new parts and go about your business.

How difficult do you think it would be to make mirror image parts like door pulls

Shouldn't be hard as long as they fit on the 6 x 6 build platform. This afternoon's experiments will include messing around with Google sketch up. Unless someone has another suggestion for an easier to use Mac-compatible 3D modeling program (that is cheap/free)? jg

I'm using ViaCAD 8. It is Native OS-X, very capable for 3D and has lots of help and tutorials for $100. website

Man. That is sexy. Very Adobe-like, which isn't a bad thing in my world.

jg

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I'm using ViaCAD 8. It is Native OS-X, very capable for 3D and has lots of help and tutorials for $100. website

How would that be for a Locost chassis? They don't give you many examples or info on the website that shows you how it works.

How are the export options? By that I mean are they in a format that a lot of other other platforms can use? I see it does .DWG but I don't know how many other programs use it.

Adobe Illustrator & Sketch up aren't exactly the industry standards in CAD.