rocketgeek101
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
3D printing has been something that I have been wanting to get involved in for quite a while now (as a new hobby with lots of potential for use with my other hobbies ). I have been recently doing extensive research on printers/filaments and have a few questions that I'm hoping those with some experience in 3D printing can potentially answer.
First off: ABS vs PLA.
From what I've gathered PLA is by far the most popular and the easiest of filaments to work with. Weaknesses seem to be low melting temp and strength/brittleness of printed parts. ABS produces stronger more heat resistant prints but is difficult to print with and requires a heated printing bed/printing environment (as otherwise parts will warp/crack). It seems to me that ABS is probably more suited for rocketry then PLA, but I would be interested in hearing others experiences. Is PLA suitable for making 3D printed nose cones, fin cans, and avionics bay parts? How does it handle exposure to a motors ejection charge?
Secondly: Printers
I have been looking at various printers (mostly on Amazon as I happen to have a $100 Amazon gift card that I could put towards it). Seeing as I'm a total noob at this, I would like to keep it fairly simple for now and avoid DIY kits that require a lot of fiddling to get up and running. That being said, I do want to purchase a printer that is reasonably capable and reliable, and produces good quality prints (and has a decent build volume). The ability to print ABS would be nice too. So far I have identified a few candidates including the Creality CR-10 mini (or S -- same printer other than the size. With these printing ABS is a bit iffy without making some modifications from what I've read.), and the Flashforge Creator Pro (bit pricey though). Does anyone have experience with these machines or ones that they would like to recommend? My budget is flexible though I would prefer to keep it at around $5-700 (or at most not much above $1k).
Finally: Software
What software do you guys use to design 3D models to print? Personally I have only used TinkerCad (which is great but a bit limited in my opinion). I would prefer something more powerful but that is still easy and intuitive to use (needs to run on Macs).
As far as slicers go (which seem to be quite important in producing good quality prints), it seems the only ones that I have heard consistently good things about is Cura (free) and 3D Simplify (about $200). The Flashforge printer linked above from what I gather is not compatible with Cura and would require one to purchase simplify 3D in order to get the best results with it from what I've read. Again I would be interested in hearing what it is you use.
Thanks in advance for any advice you may have to offer! Please feel free to post pics of your printer setup or rocketry related prints you have made with them.
For the curious: attached is an image of a design I've been working on that I am hoping to build one day, and that makes use of a variety of 3D printed components (including a fully 3d printed av-bay, nc, and fin can). The construction will be mostly modular and will use minimal adhesives so as to facilitate a variety of different fin shapes and make for very easy repairs if needed. I am also planning to build a static display model of the Falcon 9 rocket and am aiming to 3D print the oddly shaped parts such as the landing legs, grid fins, etc.
3D printing has been something that I have been wanting to get involved in for quite a while now (as a new hobby with lots of potential for use with my other hobbies ). I have been recently doing extensive research on printers/filaments and have a few questions that I'm hoping those with some experience in 3D printing can potentially answer.
First off: ABS vs PLA.
From what I've gathered PLA is by far the most popular and the easiest of filaments to work with. Weaknesses seem to be low melting temp and strength/brittleness of printed parts. ABS produces stronger more heat resistant prints but is difficult to print with and requires a heated printing bed/printing environment (as otherwise parts will warp/crack). It seems to me that ABS is probably more suited for rocketry then PLA, but I would be interested in hearing others experiences. Is PLA suitable for making 3D printed nose cones, fin cans, and avionics bay parts? How does it handle exposure to a motors ejection charge?
Secondly: Printers
I have been looking at various printers (mostly on Amazon as I happen to have a $100 Amazon gift card that I could put towards it). Seeing as I'm a total noob at this, I would like to keep it fairly simple for now and avoid DIY kits that require a lot of fiddling to get up and running. That being said, I do want to purchase a printer that is reasonably capable and reliable, and produces good quality prints (and has a decent build volume). The ability to print ABS would be nice too. So far I have identified a few candidates including the Creality CR-10 mini (or S -- same printer other than the size. With these printing ABS is a bit iffy without making some modifications from what I've read.), and the Flashforge Creator Pro (bit pricey though). Does anyone have experience with these machines or ones that they would like to recommend? My budget is flexible though I would prefer to keep it at around $5-700 (or at most not much above $1k).
Finally: Software
What software do you guys use to design 3D models to print? Personally I have only used TinkerCad (which is great but a bit limited in my opinion). I would prefer something more powerful but that is still easy and intuitive to use (needs to run on Macs).
As far as slicers go (which seem to be quite important in producing good quality prints), it seems the only ones that I have heard consistently good things about is Cura (free) and 3D Simplify (about $200). The Flashforge printer linked above from what I gather is not compatible with Cura and would require one to purchase simplify 3D in order to get the best results with it from what I've read. Again I would be interested in hearing what it is you use.
Thanks in advance for any advice you may have to offer! Please feel free to post pics of your printer setup or rocketry related prints you have made with them.
For the curious: attached is an image of a design I've been working on that I am hoping to build one day, and that makes use of a variety of 3D printed components (including a fully 3d printed av-bay, nc, and fin can). The construction will be mostly modular and will use minimal adhesives so as to facilitate a variety of different fin shapes and make for very easy repairs if needed. I am also planning to build a static display model of the Falcon 9 rocket and am aiming to 3D print the oddly shaped parts such as the landing legs, grid fins, etc.
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