Great conversation here. As someone who uses 3D printing, CNC and lasers in their woodworking, I'm excited to see/hear this topic coming from FWW. OK, so it's NOT for everybody. ( I'm not a turner but I understand that other people are interested in it.) But some digital fabrication equipment will swing a design door WIDE open for you. I use my 3D printer(s) to make jigs/fixtures/templates/clamping aids....the list is endless (custom Pantorouter templates?). One thing that I use mine for that is just MAGICAL for me is patterns for casting in pewter for custom knobs and pulls. I use a CNC for templates mainly. Certainly it can be used for many other things, but templates are the 'killer app' for me that makes the purchase of the equipment a no-brainer just for templates alone. Anything else I do with it is icing on the cake. My first 3D printer was a CR-10 (first gen) and it's OLD, but still does everything I need it to. Students in the program I teach at tend to buy the Ender Pro's for our Additive Manufacturing classes just because they're SO affordable that they can do their labs at home rather than hanging around the lab and waiting. (Do recall that Rapid Prototyping is what it used to be called, but it's not always so rapid. Still FAST, but an overnight print is quite common.) CAD is a learning curve but anyone can start learning CAD before you jump into actually buying any digital fabrication equipment. I hope this conversation continues.
He mentioned the Bambu. It is expensive. The alternative is to buy a creality printer that is much cheaper but everyone who has these cheaper printers, me included, wished they owned a Bambu. The Bambu can print in a fraction of time. The Bambu just works. When you start 3d printing you think you just load the file and push a button and watch it print. You think it should be as easy as a printer that prints paper but no, the major issue is the bed balances on a middle rail and it is under tension with springs on all 4 corners and this is a design flaw in my opinion that introduces a lot of error in the print. You can get it right but you have to use a sheet of paper and fiddle with the tension springs to make sure all four corners of the bed are exactly the same distance from the extruder nozzle head. This can be a very frustrating process. The Bambu has software and a different design for how the bed rides that avoids the calibration errors that we compound as we try to get the bed level.
Great conversation here. As someone who uses 3D printing, CNC and lasers in their woodworking, I'm excited to see/hear this topic coming from FWW. OK, so it's NOT for everybody. ( I'm not a turner but I understand that other people are interested in it.) But some digital fabrication equipment will swing a design door WIDE open for you. I use my 3D printer(s) to make jigs/fixtures/templates/clamping aids....the list is endless (custom Pantorouter templates?). One thing that I use mine for that is just MAGICAL for me is patterns for casting in pewter for custom knobs and pulls. I use a CNC for templates mainly. Certainly it can be used for many other things, but templates are the 'killer app' for me that makes the purchase of the equipment a no-brainer just for templates alone. Anything else I do with it is icing on the cake. My first 3D printer was a CR-10 (first gen) and it's OLD, but still does everything I need it to. Students in the program I teach at tend to buy the Ender Pro's for our Additive Manufacturing classes just because they're SO affordable that they can do their labs at home rather than hanging around the lab and waiting. (Do recall that Rapid Prototyping is what it used to be called, but it's not always so rapid. Still FAST, but an overnight print is quite common.) CAD is a learning curve but anyone can start learning CAD before you jump into actually buying any digital fabrication equipment. I hope this conversation continues.
We had a great time on this episode - thanks for having us!
What 3D printer do you recommend for a woodworker to get that is easy to learn?
He mentioned the Bambu. It is expensive. The alternative is to buy a creality printer that is much cheaper but everyone who has these cheaper printers, me included, wished they owned a Bambu. The Bambu can print in a fraction of time. The Bambu just works. When you start 3d printing you think you just load the file and push a button and watch it print. You think it should be as easy as a printer that prints paper but no, the major issue is the bed balances on a middle rail and it is under tension with springs on all 4 corners and this is a design flaw in my opinion that introduces a lot of error in the print. You can get it right but you have to use a sheet of paper and fiddle with the tension springs to make sure all four corners of the bed are exactly the same distance from the extruder nozzle head. This can be a very frustrating process. The Bambu has software and a different design for how the bed rides that avoids the calibration errors that we compound as we try to get the bed level.
Good show. Dave is a wealth of knowledge and doesn't mind sharing it.