A few newbie (pre-purchase) questions

I'm seriously tempted to buy a 3D printer. I've been reading around here and elsewhere, and I reckon a Prusa kit would be a pretty good place to start. But before I jump in, I just have a few questions. I'm sure they get asked on a fairly regular basis, so if there's a handy place where all these things are covered, I'll be happy to do some more reading

It's easy enough to find the size of the build area for a printer, but what about it's actual footprint? How much space would a machine with a 200x200 build bed actually take up? I'm thinking of something like the ABS Prusa kit from the RepRap Kit Store website.

Do the printers smell much when they're printing? I can't imagine sitting near a load of molten plastic fumes is going to be very good for you. Is one type of material better than another when it comes to this (I'm mainly thinking PLA vs ABS)?

Are the materials safe to put in your mouth? If I printed a spork, or some cutlery, are they safe to eat with?

Finally, do they need a lot of ongoing tweaking? I'm no electronics expert or mechanical engineer, but I reckon I could probably build the kit without too much trouble. Once it's up and running, is it just software tweaks to adjust print quality, or do you have to keep fiddling with things on the actual printer?

Thanks.

Quote
bursar
It's easy enough to find the size of the build area for a printer, but what about it's actual footprint? How much space would a machine with a 200x200 build bed actually take up? I'm thinking of something like the ABS Prusa kit from the RepRap Kit Store website.

It of course depends on the design but for typical Mendels figure around 300x300.

Quote
bursar
Do the printers smell much when they're printing? I can't imagine sitting near a load of molten plastic fumes is going to be very good for you. Is one type of material better than another when it comes to this (I'm mainly thinking PLA vs ABS)?

1. Yes.
2. Yes. PLA smells like fresh popped popcorn, ABS like burning plastic (potentially lethal fumes).

Quote
bursar
Are the materials safe to put in your mouth? If I printed a spork, or some cutlery, are they safe to eat with?

PLA - YES, but it depends on what additives they use to make the colored filament.

Quote
bursar
Finally, do they need a lot of ongoing tweaking? I'm no electronics expert or mechanical engineer, but I reckon I could probably build the kit without too much trouble. Once it's up and running, is it just software tweaks to adjust print quality, or do you have to keep fiddling with things on the actual printer?

Once you have the mechanics setup properly, gears tight, belts right, smooth running on all axis then it is only software (primarily the settings for your gcode generator). From my first barely recognizable prints to my newest high quality 0,2mm prints the only changes were to Skeinforge settings.

---

Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

My printer is located in our living room and I will only print with PLA in the house. If I have my nose close to the printbed I can barely make out a sweetish smell from the printing process. Stand a foot or two back and I cannot notice it at all. ABS is a different story. Tried printing that once and my wife nearly threw me out of the house, it stinks!

That's great, thanks to both of you. Now to read up a bit more on paste extrusion, as I'm sure being able to print in chocolate would help get the purchase past the wife

There seems to be some variability in the smell of extruded ABS. I've only ever had a slight odor from ABS, and my wife has never even mentioned it, much less complain. I do know what ABS can smell like, based on experiments involving a soldering iron when I was young. That stank enough to give me a headache. I probably should have stopped...

So far, I've used ABS from MakerGear and Protoparadigm. Black, white, green and natural.

Quote

It of course depends on the design but for typical Mendels figure around 300x300.

No they are a lot bigger than that. A Prusa is about 460x460x410.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2012 05:35AM by nophead.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

x 10 ???

---

Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

nophead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It of course depends on the design but for typical
> Mendels figure around 300x300.
>
> No they are a lot bigger than that. A Prusa is
> about 460x460x410.

Yep. The ones I have built just barely fit in an 18x18x18 inch box, which is pretty close to 460mm, with some room at the top.
My MendelMax is more like 600x600x460

---

Help improve the RepRap wiki! Just click "Edit" in the top-right corner of the page and start typing. Anyone can edit the wiki!

For my Sell Mendel outer dimensions are:

X : 520 mm
Y : 450 mm
Z : 370 mm (w/o filament spool holder)

---

Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Yes Prusa is taller because it has motors on top and feet but I could never work out why. Sells got feet added to clear the Z gears but Prusa could have gone back to 6 vertexes the same because it has nothing underneath to clear and still has loads of room to have the Z motors at the bottom.

Mendel90 is slightly smaller than both of them.

468mm x 432mm x 334mm

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2012 04:51PM by nophead.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

You'll need about a 2-1/2 foot square working area, plus a bit more for your power supply, unless it's mounted "onboard"

ALL of the fumes, whether from ABS or PLA or any other filament *should be vented if possible. I say this with authority, having been an engineer for the past 30+ years. I think that many who haven't worked in industries in which fumes are controlled don't quite get that this stuff releases toxic fumes, even if it only smells a bit. They tend to discount it as just "smelly" when in fact it can lead to downstream health problems and it should not be taken lightly.

regarding ongoing maintenance, some tweaking will need to be done, but only if/when print quality degrades once you've tuned it up, or you're trying to improve print quality. I'm new to this, so I can't speak with complete authority on the issue, but I've been observing my pals who got me into it and they do adjustments quite regularly. My machine is still waiting on a few parts.

Don't forget to consider that you'll also need somewhere to store the filament that has the ability to absorb moisture. All of the material used are hydrophillic and absorbed water in the PLA/ABS/AC. etc will degrade print quality. Desiccant can be purchased in quantity for the use and regenerated (purged of absorbed moisture) by periodically baking it in an oven.