About to buy a delta - would like comments on model before I order

I am ordering one tonight or tomorrow (yay!)

I have 3 that interest me, but equipment/hardware wise i have no experience, so some recommendation would be appreciated.

Keep in mind that i know this is cheap, and i get what i paid for. But this my first 3d printer, i expect to make mistake and break stuff as I learn. Once I know what I like/need/want, I will evolve as I upgrade it.

After reading and informing my self, I want to go delta, Less parts, more solid build (or more easy to solidify), less moving parts, can be made wider... and more.

I plan on using it to print props for costumes.

this is my first choice:
Delta #1 aliexpress

2 otheres that seem interesting:
Delta #2 aliexpress

Delta #3 aliexpress

Thank you =)

I would be worried about the first link. No reviews on that seller, I only see that the seller has sold 3 items in whole store. (I would go with someone who has reviews, even though that one looks the best)

There is also this one, I do not like how the end-stop wires are outide, but the full cage for the bearings on the track seems smart.:
Delta #4 aliexpress

FYI Delta #4 - There is a reason why they are on the outside, you don't want the endstop wire next to your power wire coming off the hotend . It can trigger a false signal to your mirco-controller . That is why you see only one on the outside, cause they probably send the hotend wire down the aluminum tube. =) (You can always re-wire it and send that wire down a different tube)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2015 08:40PM by mikes3ds.

Hmmm, you are right, no feed back score at all, I have not noticed! Thanks =)

Quote
mikes3ds
FYI Delta #4 - There is a reason why they are on the outside, you don't want the endstop wire next to your power wire coming off the hotend . It can trigger a false signal to your mirco-controller . That is why you see only one on the outside, cause they probably send the hotend wire down the aluminum tube. =) (You can always re-wire it and send that wire down a different tube)

Now I know one more thing! =)

Makes sense now that you said it =P

As printer to pick I would not know. I would check the reviews, and get a excel sheet going and compare parts. (Also you will notice that some pictures the wires are not even hooked up, so don't go based on pictures all the time )

If you have extra money to spend I would support your RepRap member who has a great design and kit. Cherry pi III, AndyCart sells one on ebay. However, there is nothing wrong with ordering a kit from China.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2015 08:57PM by mikes3ds.

I did not know, looking for AndyCart and did not find anything on ebay. link?

[stores.ebay.co.uk]

Quote
mikes3ds
[stores.ebay.co.uk]

I love it, but a tip lot more then I can pay for now. =)

Well, Got my this:

My first printer

It will get me started, I will evolve from there =D

Mow to act indifferent, as if I was not caring when it get's here ... but every time i get home from work, I will carry hope for it to have arrived ... then be a little sad for it not to be there yet!

I will keep up to date on it ^_^

My first (and so far only) printer was a Rostock Mini Pro from 3D Printer Czar. Well packaged kit, shipped free, for $459 I believe. Having some trouble with it, though I imagine it is the same issues you would have with Aliexpress kits as well as it being my first printer.

I think my biggest issue though is with the calibration. While the printer seemed to go together a lot easier than I think a Prusa i3 would, once it was functional, I think the Prusa i3 would be easier to calibrate and learn on. Also consider that in the long run you are better off with a 32bit printer board, which I doubt any of the cheaper kits will ship with. So I really think something like an i3 makes for a better first printer to cut your teeth on, allowing you to print and build your own delta style printer for your second project.

or this one
Aluminium Ends

Quote
J.A.C.
Well, Got my this:

My first printer

It will get me started, I will evolve from there =D

Mow to act indifferent, as if I was not caring when it get's here ... but every time i get home from work, I will carry hope for it to have arrived ... then be a little sad for it not to be there yet!

I will keep up to date on it ^_^

I have the same.

Some comments:

1) For ABS you need a heated bed

2) Getting the belts tight can be really tricky as there is no good belt tensioning mechanism. I had to work the belt fastening system with a Dremel to make it fit.

3) Where the motor pushes the filament material forward you need a (strong) spring to push down the bearing and you will soon need to change that brass drive gear if you get the same as mine. It simply wore out really quickly. Internet says get this MK7 DRIVE GEAR but for now I am just using some re-purposed part. Also the thing that holds the bearing eventually broke for me one night, and I have now made something that supports it from both sides (not shown in picture)



4) I have had many problems with clocking in the hot-end. I don't know if it is my version but I think usually these hot-ends are supposed to come with a teflon pipe all the way down to insulate and avoid the plastic sticking to the cold steel but mine just has a steel transition and waaaaaaay up it has a small pipe. I solved the problem by cooling intensely but if I shut down my printer without letting it cool down with fans then I can be sure that I have to disassemble and drill out plastic the next day. I would say every 40 hours-ish I have a clocking hot-end. I don't want to change now because I know mine now. But if you start having problems with hot-end blocking then I would seriously recommend just buying a new and more modern version hot-end.

5) Alignment has been difficult but Repetier auto level (remember to activate it when downloading) is really a lifesaver for starting printing. That allows printing decent looking things with the worsts of settings. The auto-level system works really nice.

6) There are generally a lot of parts that unscrews them self and things that "change" over time. It is a high maintenance printer but I do not think you should glue down everything right away as you might need to make adjustments as you learn the printer.

7) The RAMPS board I got was soldered wrong. One of the MOSFETs was turned 180 deg. My LCD have never worked (but I might have found a way to fix it now by soldering in a resistor). I am starting to have problems with the RAMPS randomly stopping to take printing commands. It seems completely random when it happens but I think it may be my computer so I am not sure the RAMPS is to blame. I need to fit a SD anyway... Waste of power to have the PC turned on all the time.... The printer happens once every 30h maybe.

I will say that I am currently printing the parts for my own design coreXY with my Delta and it is going OK. I am printing almost 24 hours everyday for a very long time now. Many of my problems have also been because of in-adequate experience / understanding of what is going on. It is difficult to troubleshoot when you don't know where to start - And a lot of troubleshooting has been needed. Considerably number of hours and discarded half done parts.

I once read that you buy one of the brand printers if you want to print things in 3d - And you buy a reprap printer if you want to play with 3d printers - This has been very true.

Good luck.

PS. Aliexpress where I bought mine does not allow to put reviews after a month (...) so you can't really trust those reviews as the quality in terms of looks of mine was excellent. The parts, plastic etc looks great!

Quote
LarsK
...
I once read that you buy one of the brand printers if you want to print things in 3d - And you buy a reprap printer if you want to play with 3d printers - This has been very true.
...

My experience has been quite different from yours.

Ten months ago I had never touched a 3D printer. I built a P3Steel (a Prusa i3 variant) from separately bought components (not a kit) as my first printer and after a few test prints I started to get increasingly good quality prints. There was a learning curve to printing quality parts but I expect it would be the same if I had bought one of the brand printers.

I had a few problems with the P3Steel, all of them related to the extruder and the hotend and none to the design of the printer itself, which is extremely solid and stable.

Having now built a linear delta, I would never recommend a linear delta as a first 3D printer build. Deltas add considerable complexity to the build process and in particular to calibration and firmware settings. Sure enough, because of the lower moving mass of the print head, a delta can usually achieve higher printing speeds, but not higher print quality. They do look cool, though!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2015 11:56AM by AndrewBCN.

Thanks LarsK, we are taking about THIS Printer right?
Have to understand that: when I get it running, if I like the machine, I plan on changing parts, if I do not like 3D printing, I will have wasted 400$ and move on with my life.
If I do Like it, by end of this summer, the machine will be totally changed (except maybe the frame lol ).
But I do want to start with a Delta, I know I am going against everyone on this, but I prefer learning a Delta, (not even getting it for speed) as it is the type of printer i am staying with: less noise, less parts, easier to make wider, less moving parts and my wife thinks it look cool and dose not mind having it in the house.

1) I do not plan on printing ABS, PETG, PLA, but for now staying away from ABS, I have kids at home.

2) I work with sort of things, A lot is part of refitting, so I am not worried in having to clean/modify small parts for that, but thanks for the heads-up, I will pay attention to it.

3) Ok, I will look into buying a better performing extruder before it dies on me.

4) Good advice!

5) I have been informing my self a lot of that, I expect the hard time. but I also may just right off print on foam. we will see.

6) I use to built motor controlled race cars. I will use just a tip or blue lock. it is easy to unscrew, but strong enough not to come apart from vibration =)

7) I am hopping for mine to work properly, but I am already looking into getting a smoothy bord ( 32bits or what ever... more POWER)


PS. Got mine from Ebay as I wanted to pay with paypal =P

Now, it is paid for, it is shipped, just waiting for it to arrive! ... I am going nuts here waiting >.<

Quote
AndrewBCN
Having now built a linear delta, I would never recommend a linear delta as a first 3D printer build. Deltas add considerable complexity to the build process and in particular to calibration and firmware settings. Sure enough, because of the lower moving mass of the print head, a delta can usually achieve higher printing speeds, but not higher print quality. They do look cool, though!

Having built both a Cartesian printer (Ormerod 1) and a Delta (Mini Kossel), I recommend a delta over a Cartesian. The build process is simpler because you are mostly building the same thing three times. The whole printer is very rigid, so it doesn't go out of alignment as easily. But I did upgrade my Mini Kossel to 32-bit Duet electronics. With modern electronics and firmware and a good Z probe, calibration of a delta is very easy.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42

Quote
AndrewBCN
Having now built a linear delta, I would never recommend a linear delta as a first 3D printer build. Deltas add considerable complexity to the build process and in particular to calibration and firmware settings. Sure enough, because of the lower moving mass of the print head, a delta can usually achieve higher printing speeds, but not higher print quality. They do look cool, though!

Having built both a Cartesian printer (Ormerod 1) and a Delta (Mini Kossel), I recommend a delta over a Cartesian. The build process is simpler because you are mostly building the same thing three times. The whole printer is very rigid, so it doesn't go out of alignment as easily. But I did upgrade my Mini Kossel to 32-bit Duet electronics. With modern electronics and firmware and a good Z probe, calibration of a delta is very easy.

That is what I understood too, once I get it running "As is" , the electrinics is the first thing I want to upgrade.

Quote
J.A.C.
Thanks LarsK, we are taking about THIS Printer right?
Have to understand that: when I get it running, if I like the machine, I plan on changing parts, if I do not like 3D printing, I will have wasted 400$ and move on with my life.
If I do Like it, by end of this summer, the machine will be totally changed (except maybe the frame lol ).
But I do want to start with a Delta, I know I am going against everyone on this, but I prefer learning a Delta, (not even getting it for speed) as it is the type of printer i am staying with: less noise, less parts, easier to make wider, less moving parts and my wife thinks it look cool and dose not mind having it in the house.

It is fun with the wife thing. My wife is not at all impressed by my new CoreXY build but despite hating all the time it has taken I still find her at times enchanted by all the fine printing movements on my delta. The delta and its iradical moves is just amazing to watch.

We are talking about the same printer but different supplier.

The delta design is kinda set - Except for the electronics. So I say don't spend too much time on it. Move on to other projects I would say.


@ AndrewBCN - Your input is read and understood, I wanted to write that the cartesian may be better but I don't want to be the guy screaming the grass is greener on the other side without ever stepping on it.

@ DC42 - Which one did you build first?

Quote
LarsK
@ DC42 - Which one did you build first?

I built the Cartesian one first, and both from kits. I upgraded the Ormerod in a number of ways. I upgraded the Mini Kossel to use the same 32-bit electronics as the Ormerod.

Based on my limited experience (building just these two printers), I perceive the following advantages of the delta:

1. Easier to build. You are mostly building the same thing 3 times, so there is a shorter learning curve, and fewer different items to get right.

2. Smaller desk footprint. The Cartesian printer, with its bed moving in the Y direction, needs a lot more space. The Delta needs more height, but that not a problem for me, whereas desk footprint is.

3. Less maintenance. The Ormerod needs occasional maintenance, e.g. oiling the Z screw, oiling the smooth rods, replacing the Z nut occasionally. The Mini Kossel needs no maintenance, although I expect the Traxaas joints will need to be replaced eventually.

4. Greater stability. The Ormerod has auto bed compensation, but it's best not to rely on it to correct large errors. So I find have to adjust the bed levelling screws occasionally, especially after I move the printer. The Mini Kossel doesn't need any adjustment.

5. Higher printing speed (by a factor of almost 2) for the same print quality.

I originally had a problem with getting the calibration of the Mini Kossel just right, so that the printing plane was flat enough to print over the whole area of the bed. The standard 4-factor calibration (endstops and delta radius) was easy to do, but not sufficient because my build is not accurate (two of the towers lean slightly). That's why I implemented the fast 7-factor delta calibration in the firmware I am using.

I am currently expanding my Mini Kossel to be able to do larger prints. This is where I perceive another advantage of the delta design: the fixed bed makes it much easier to safely use a mains-powered heated bed. Also, I can fit the SSR and the 12V 100W power supply that powers everything else under the bed.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].