I have just seen the webpage of the solidoodle 3 printer:

[store.solidoodle.com]

The design looks quite similar to ultimaker to me, with the platform only moves in Z, while the print head moves in X and Y.

Solidoodle says it has a print volume of 8" x 8" x 8" and a minimal layer thickness of 100 microns.

Has anyone used this printer? If so, what do you think?


Optional requirements:

Also are the parts (such as hot-end and holders etc) easily sourced and replaceable? Suppose if I want to print polycarbonate in the future, would it be easy for me to replace the hot end with an off-the-shelf all-metal high-temperature hotend? And would it be easy if I upgrade the print head to double hot-end so that I can print the support with a different material?

I will put it to you like this. If you can buy it for less than 1200 assembled it is not going to do the job you want at the level of accuracy you want with the reliability you want. Why? Because when you build a printer to be cheap you must cut corners somewhere or it will not be cheap.

I would suggest you look for print results at the detail level you want and then see what they were printed on. My personal opinion is you want a machine like an Ultimaker.

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yea i was really impressed with ultimaker. but have you seen those UV cured photo-layer printers? i blame ultimaker for getting me into this very nice mess of a hobby LOL !!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2013 11:26PM by redreprap.

... actually we're capable of printing with 0.01mm layer height and detail accuracy with UV-printers built from a modified DLP-beamer (changed the lamp for a UV-source) ... a vat containing the resin ... and a Z-axis:

[forums.reprap.org]

When finding some time, I want to test, what's possible with an UV-laser pulsing with 200ps long pulses with up to 400kW of power!

I'm hoping to get curing times per layer of some Milliseconds, so layers with single microns height won't slow down the printing time to hours to days per cm

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Ok, since there seems to be much talk about 100 micron layers being some sort of holy grail which requires a special printer, here is the Matterhorn printed with 100 micron layers on a completely standard Prusa i2:



And here is an extreme closeup of the previous image, showing the individual layers:



I think it looks pretty good. And this is on a completely standard Prusa i2 with M8 Z rods, T2.5 belts with printed pulleys and un-reinforced threaded rod frame.

down to .05 with a Prusa,

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2013 12:16PM by Dirty Steve.

Yeah, I have to agree that nearly any current design can achieve 100 micron layer heights. Mendel Max, Prusa, Ultimaker, Eventorbot, etc. are all capable of amazing prints. I find that the difference between a good print and an awesome print comes down to the slicing program. Even an Ultimaker will yield crap prints if the slicer outputs inefficient or bad gcode.

Impressive prints. Are the examples above printed using Z-axes made from common threaded rod, as is specified in the wiki, or did you guys substitute a better grade (or different mechanism) for the translation stage?

Dirty Steve Wrote:
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> down to .05 with a Prusa,


+1 to that.





This was .05 layers, standard threaded rod, and printed pullies and XL belts (even worse than T2.5)...
The issues I see most here are artifacts being caused by my printed pullies and belt teeth riding over the idlers.

But the layer consistency is pretty decent for a machine that wasn't yet highly modified.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2013 12:22PM by xclusive585.