Hi guys, I'm doing a bit of consulting for a friend of mine who runs a smaller art/design school (university-level) and is interested in acquiring a 3d-printer for design, prototyping, experimenting and such. I've been looking around for different models that might be suitable for their interests and thought I should throw it out here for some feedback...

They are mostly beginners when it comes to 3d-printing but the requirements include:

Size: preferably x- and/or y-axes around 300mm, they mentioned printing things like shoes and generally large-ish stuff.
Location: Europe, Sweden more specifically, but I don't think worldwide shipping should be a problem.
User-friendliness: nobody involved knows that much about printing so I focus mostly on consumer-level printers. I'll still help them with calibration, upgrades etc, but day-to-day use will be by beginners, remember: humanities-people, no tech-savy...
Materials: preferably multi-material printers. At least one extruder + heat bed.
Price: not too sure about their budgeting but I don't think it's that much of a problem. I don't think industrial grade stuff is that interesting though, so I try to keep it as low as possible...

I don't think print-quality (within limits) or speed should matter that much; the higher the better, though. Other than that I'm open to suggestions.

I know this is a Reprap forum and all, but if they just want to print, and not have too many problems, I would suggest one of the new Makerbots. They have a large format one, but not 100% sure on the dimensions. I use a replicator 2x all the time and work and the only thing I have to do mantainence wise is the occasional bed leveling. Im sure with a little tweaking you can get the Makerbots to print out just about any filament, and you can probably even upgrade them with aftermarket stuff like an E3D if you really wanted to, but overall they are pretty solid.

This is the printer I was talking about:

[store.makerbot.com]

It's pretty pricey.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2014 11:47AM by gmh39.

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greghoge.com

HUGE 3D PRINTER PARTS SALE!!!

I disagree about the new Makerbots. With the old (up to Replicator 2X) ones, it was possible to easily hang filament spools on the printer, fix stuff yourself (exchange extruder, nozzle etc) and so on, but the latest generation is very closed for several reasons:
- spool mount is proprietary. You cannot (easily) use non-Makerbot spools on the printer as they are now stored internally in a kind of drawer, on a weirdly shaped axle (ok, this most likely won't hinder you to put any circular objects on it).
- Industrial design becomes more and more desktop-printer like. You cannot access its internal workings without having to rip off plastic covers.
...

And to be honest, why pay so much for ever decreasing features? The first Replicator generation could print ABS+PLA - the second one was mainly PLA, ABS and dual extruder optional for a markup and the third PLA, single extruder only. The price developed inversely proportional to basic feature set (they now have a lot more connectivity and gimmick features, though). You would probably also have to pay for shipping and taxes.
There are very solid RepRaps and other printers around that cost < 30% of a new Replicator and deliver much more like the ability to print PC, Nylon and other exotic stuff.
Although I have only very basic prior knowledge, I designed and build my own printer for 600€ about one year ago. I didn't have to fiddle with it except of when I wanted to upgrade some parts. As a fine arts student, I think that is quite telling how easy it has become to assemble a printer from scratch. So how easy would having a kit be? The advantage is that you know the printer and it's problematic parts from the start, so if something goes wrong, you are more likely to find the error quickly.
The art school I study and work at is now filled with 15-20 (we lost count) Mendel90 printers that we built with other students (most of them are rather technically illiterate - hope I don't insult anyone - and managed with some instructions anyway). They are rather sturdy machines and nophead, the original designer also frequents this forum, offers advice and insight etc. The printing area is only 200x200mm, though.

Ah yes, I am a student at a very known art school (Gerrit Rietveld Academy in the Netherlands), I have no time to reply now for a detailed reply, but will reply again later. We have the Replicator X2, but it's not the right machine.

We experiment a lot and most students come in with nearly impossible prints anyway.

My Reprap Air 2 and MendelMax 1.5 are quicker in producing simple results and cost only a fraction of that machine. The MendelMax especially is rock solid.

The Replicator X2 is NOT a machine you would want there, when something goes wrong it takes a lot of time and work to fix it, like uGen says. And the bed leveling is superbad on the X2, while I never have a leveling problem with my MendelMax. When something fails, it's usually the machines fault. They have the X2 now for almost a year, and they still haven't been able to make a lot of successful prints. It's a bad machine.

Quote
uGen
I disagree about the new Makerbots. With the old (up to Replicator 2X) ones, it was possible to easily hang filament spools on the printer, fix stuff yourself (exchange extruder, nozzle etc) and so on, but the latest generation is very closed for several reasons:
- spool mount is proprietary. You cannot (easily) use non-Makerbot spools on the printer as they are now stored internally in a kind of drawer, on a weirdly shaped axle (ok, this most likely won't hinder you to put any circular objects on it).
- Industrial design becomes more and more desktop-printer like. You cannot access its internal workings without having to rip off plastic covers.
...

And to be honest, why pay so much for ever decreasing features? The first Replicator generation could print ABS+PLA - the second one was mainly PLA, ABS and dual extruder optional for a markup and the third PLA, single extruder only. The price developed inversely proportional to basic feature set (they now have a lot more connectivity and gimmick features, though). You would probably also have to pay for shipping and taxes.
There are very solid RepRaps and other printers around that cost < 30% of a new Replicator and deliver much more like the ability to print PC, Nylon and other exotic stuff.
Although I have only very basic prior knowledge, I designed and build my own printer for 600€ about one year ago. I didn't have to fiddle with it except of when I wanted to upgrade some parts. As a fine arts student, I think that is quite telling how easy it has become to assemble a printer from scratch. So how easy would having a kit be? The advantage is that you know the printer and it's problematic parts from the start, so if something goes wrong, you are more likely to find the error quickly.
The art school I study and work at is now filled with 15-20 (we lost count) Mendel90 printers that we built with other students (most of them are rather technically illiterate - hope I don't insult anyone - and managed with some instructions anyway). They are rather sturdy machines and nophead, the original designer also frequents this forum, offers advice and insight etc. The printing area is only 200x200mm, though.

Yea, I'm not gonna lie, the new gen Makerbots are pretty heavily influenced by stratsys designs, obviously. But if they can get by with the build area of the first replicator, which I still think is the best iteration of the Makerbot, then I would still suggest that. There's plenty of support for problems, both through makerbot and forums.

However, if he wants to teach the kids about 3D printing, then a kit is definitely the way to go. But in my experience it requires a good bit more user knowledge (not necessarily a bad thing).

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greghoge.com

HUGE 3D PRINTER PARTS SALE!!!

University of Illinois has a whole lab of Makerbot Replicator 2's. They are not very good at making architectural models. They have a lot of problems with prints sticking to the warped unheated beds. Acrylic just isn't a good build surface. Bed leveling is a constant problem with them. Without a flat first layer, the rest of the print won't be great.

Quote
Beekeeper
University of Illinois has a whole lab of Makerbot Replicator 2's. They are not very good at making architectural models. They have a lot of problems with prints sticking to the warped unheated beds. Acrylic just isn't a good build surface. Bed leveling is a constant problem with them. Without a flat first layer, the rest of the print won't be great.

Same on my academy, the print surface is prone to getting uncalibrated. And the prints are letting go a lot. And it is a closed box, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem?

They do make nice models if the print doesn't fail, but a lot of times the walls have bad quality. It's also probably the people that work in the CADCAM workshop, but the machine doesn't seem to function completely as advertised.