3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]
There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
view the rest of the comments
Boom, right there should limit your section to SLA/resin printers, not FDM as most people here are suggesting. At $100 budget you're down in the absolute basement of printers, and will have to find a machine on sale. Good news for you is that this is the month of sales (Black Friday month). You are looking at either an Anycubic Mono (out of production, I think) or Mono 2 when they go on sale, or mayby an Elegoo Mars - I'd expect to see it between $99-119 sometime this month. (there's a monoprice mini SLA printer for $70 out there, but I don't know how good it is)
There are two things to know about resin: the liquid used is toxic, so someplace with ventilation and a supply of cheap latex/vinyl/nitrile gloves are a must, as is a workspace which can be easily cleaned (they sell silicone mats...its a good idea; you might try ordering misc stuff from TEMU for your accessory list to save some cash) and a roll of paper towels is going to be necessary. The second is that standard resin requires 95% or higher isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to clean the prints, and to clean up the machine parts. That can get expensive, too - so SKIP IT and get Water Washable resin. It will cost more, but the ease (and lower odor) in clean up will be worth it, especially if your parents would rather you not be slinging flammable IPA around the house.
You do NOT need a dedicated wash and curing station. It's a luxury you can't afford, so just skip it (for now). There are lots of videos about how to clean parts using a two-bin or three-bin method and they just use cheap dollar-store plastic bins or used buckets (do not use tupperware you eat from...water washable is still toxic, okay?). Then, just set your prints in the sun for a few minutes - it even works on a cloudy day (clouds only block a fraction of UV).
You should be able to make table-top sized miniatures for painting in one go, or make them as two or three parts for bigger models. The detail you get out of an SLA printer will be worlds better than an FDM (extrusion) printer and require a lot less sanding, filling, and misc post-processing prior to painting.
Quick edit: @[email protected] - Creality is also having a sale this month and there are two SLA printers on sale in the $99 range. The nicer (bigger) one is currently out of stock, but you might check back and see if it comes back in. Nearly all of the small SLA printers in this range are very similar, though you should read up in their forums just to see if there are some crazy problems everyone is having with a specific model (no news is probably good news).
Great advice. I would add one thing, people upgrade their printers all the time and sell the budget ones they started with on eBay/FB Marketplace, etc.
I wouldn't recommend water washable even though it's cheaper not using IPA it's more cumbersome and possibly expensive to dispose of it. You can just dump it down the drain
Normally, I would agree. For a teen living at home and (based on the price range) without a dedicated space, I think it's the preferable of the two options. Having known someone severely burned by an errant spark around IPA, and with the added complications of disposing of contaminated IPA, waterborne is the lesser of evils. I 100% agree that I should have pointed out that "water washable" doesn't mean rinse/clean off in a sink that leads to a private septic or public treatment system.