Am I Ready to Play with 3D Printers?

27/5/2012

Don't know if I'm ready for one as the electronics and calibrating it to work as it should seems a daunting task. I was at Mike's when he was in the midst of calibrating the Prusa Durbie. He went on printing and adjusting with varying results. Some of the parts he printed looks nice but not others. I still am not very satisfied with the quality of the print; all sides, except the base which was on the heated platform, have rough textual. Just like the Ikea lamp stand that TK did for me sometime's back (see pic below). But it does serve it's purpose and it's pretty strong.

The Prusa Durbie that Mike has in his shop is going at around $600 to $700 SGD. For that price, it seems worth the risk to jump in for some fun but I'm more concern with the lack of space in the shop. The deal with Wabeco will be finalized next week. The mill requires quite a fair bit of bench space for traversing of its table along X. Some rearrangement is necessary before the machine arrives.

This is how the Durbie looks like:

Pic used with permission from KP, Mike's supplier of the printers.

If I remember correctly, the print area of this model is about 200mm to 250mm along the X axis which means that the footprint of this printer is likely to be about 300 to 350mm along the same axis (I'm not that concern about the depth). I dont think I can afford the space. I shared this with Mike and he immediately shared that there is another model that is half the size of the Durbie. The print area is of course smaller, at 120mm x 120mm x 120mm. This seems to be a better fit to my already cluttered shop.

The PorteBee is said to be half the size of the Durbie. Good size for my situation.

Mike also commented that, from specs, it looks more rigid than its bigger cousin. He'll have two units coming in this coming week - one for himself and the other one for sale. The price of the PortaBee is also slightly lower than the Durbie which, without the constraint in space, I would likely to go with the bigger print area.

I'm likely to take on the other unit before I leave for Bangkok this Thursday.

If you're interested and are based in SG, you may want to contact Mike via his online store.

10 Comments

Gene King

29/5/2012 03:06:23 am

You snuck in that comment about the Wabeco mill. Are you getting it with the base cabinet or is it a bench mount type? Fortunately the space under the mill table can be used for storage and drawer space.

GeneK

Loke-Yeow Wong

29/5/2012 03:34:47 am

GeneK,

I'm getting just the machine. The shipping is already a third of the price of the machine. Im cutting down as wife had just declared being a full time volunteer.

I've have it mounted on my work bench.

Regards,
Wong

Gene King

29/5/2012 03:52:51 am

That's probably wise. Gordon's has the base and it is basically just dead space in his garage. It does have a nice tray for flood coolant but he never uses that type of cooling. You may have to start parking the unused Sherlines in your closet to make space. I think you'll like the Wabeco, they are nice machines.

GeneK

Loke-Yeow Wong

29/5/2012 04:18:13 am

Is he online and at any forums?

The other reason for not getting the stand is the lack of floor space. I may give away or sell one of the Sherline mills. I'll see how thing goes.

Regards,
Wong

Gene King

29/5/2012 06:35:58 am

Wong, over the years I have kept my old Sherline machines as I have upgraded. I l now have 3 mills 2 lathes that are all Sherline. Also have the monster mill from A2ZCNC. In total I have 5 Sherline head stocks. The Sherlines are just too handy to make special set ups for different jobs.

GeneK

Gene King

29/5/2012 11:00:50 pm

Wong, I didn't mean to ignore your question about the forums that Gordon frequents. He tends to follow the Myford forums since has two Myford lathes. He does drop in at the Sherline newsgroup at times since he has a few Sherline pieces around his shop.

GeneK

Loke-Yeow Wong

29/5/2012 08:02:07 am

I've 2 mills and 2 lathes, only one of the lathes is a Proxxon. If I'm not short of space, I would like to keep all. I'm looking for a young person with no or limited budget to bless him with the mill.

Just tried positioning the collet chuck for drilling the clearance holes. Not enough travel in Y axis to reach all the 3 holes in a single setup. I'll have To drill, reposition, and continue drilling.

Feeling lazy now. Will be taking an afternoon nap to enjoy being on leave :)

Loke-Yeow Wong

30/5/2012 01:09:12 am

No worries, GeneK :-)

The progress with Wabeco is painfully slow. I realized from the past replies that the mail were forwarded to another person to be translated to German before sending to the salesperson in charge.

Just sent her a mail to finalize things so that we can move on.

I was thinking also about how I can move the 80+ kg machine to the bench without breaking my back. No hoist available and I'm the only man at home...

Regards,
Wong

Gene King

30/5/2012 03:30:16 am

Wow, it was a project for Gordon and I to pull the head stock from his Wabeco when he had the motor worked on at HPS. I don't know what the voltage is in Singapore but his is a 240 volt machine. The motor is actually 120 volts, but it has a step down transformer in the head stock. Makes for mush weight. If it were mine I would take out the transformer and run it direct on the 120 volts.

GeneK

Gene King

31/5/2012 08:14:16 pm

Your question on the 3D printers, I ran across this site:

https://shop.ultimaker.com/en/

Looks to be a bit higher resolution as well as higher price.

GeneK

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Am I Ready to Play with 3D Printers?

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