I’m getting very intrigued by all of these great 3D printing projects listed here in the Customizer forums. For those of you with 3D printers do you have recommendations for which equipment to buy? What about the plastic, do you need anything special for printing small game pieces?
Feel free to post links to Amazon, eBay, or whatever other site. I’ll go in an make them affiliate links after.
Dave Jensen, Founder of Axis & Allies .org
@djensen I’m an engineer in the industrial 3D printer business, which is a bit of a different beast (size of a small car) than a desktop or hobbyist printer (size of a microwave; $250K+ vs ~$1k). I think most people here would do just fine buying prints from Shapeways (who have the funds to buy and use my company’s monster hardware or similar).
While there are fun things you can do in the >50k range that are just not possible on consumer hardware (small scales, huge batches, metals, color, support-free undercuts, better materials, etc), you can definitely design for desktop printers with a little extra effort, and still turn out nice things. What makes it hard is the smallness of A&A pieces and fine details. There’s a reason why HBG is one of the few players in aftermarket A&A pieces: in the past you’ve needed injection-molding tooling to get A&A-type resolution and fine detail on a plastic bit that small, and injection-molding tooling is spendy ($10k and up). You also have to coordinate and pay up-front for batched production runs, then manage and plan inventory levels with precision… I mean, one has only to look at the typical complaints leveled against HBG to know this can be a fraught business. No shortcuts.
Industrial 3D printing is finally disrupting this market (or, at least, my company hopes that it is) but competing with injection molding on level footing is going to be restricted to the big machines with similar pricepoints for some time, unless some great leaps forward occur in the desktop space.
Of course, the promise of 3D printing is an A&A hobbyist’s dream: custom parts, on demand, immediately, for cheap: and it is always getting better, albeit slower than some of us would like. To get good A&A parts out of a desktop 3D printer (<$1k), I think you’d need:
3D is definitely a killer app, but I think the consumer-level units have a ways to go yet before you’ll be cranking out A&A pieces that rival OOB injection-molding (to say nothing of custom, injection-molded premium products like HBG’s). My company has some fascinating things up it’s sleeve, but the pricepoint is high. I think the Shapeways model is how it’s going to be, for at least a few years more. (No, I’m not a shapeways shareholder :) )
Speaking personally, my 3D models are currently in the queue to be printed internally on my company’s hardware, and none of it is really optimized for desktop printers (I have really small features, lots of overhangs, and I’m trying out some of my pieces in color). I’m curious to see how they turn out. I’m going to experimentally load the models up on Shapeways to offer it for print/purchase once I test print and hone them locally.
All just my $0.02. I’d be fascinated to hear someone pipe up with more experience actually trying to get A&A sized things to look good coming out of a desktop 3D printer.
For things like factories, shipyards, etc a simple home 3D printer works fantastic.
For things like infantry, it gets dodgy, though you CAN still make it work ok with the right settings.
I use a Monoprice Mini Select V2 (found at https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=107&cp_id=10724&cs_id=1072403&p_id=21711).
Under $200, small buildplate (which is perfectly fine for these uses) and out-of-the-box functionality (no need to put anything together, just plug it in and you’re ready to start printing essentially). You can use basically any PLA 3D printing material for great results.
Finding the settings that work best for what you’re doing takes time, as does either MAKING the 3D files (which requires some level of experience) or finding the ones you want to print (thingiverse.com is the best source I’ve found for free to use files).
Shop at I Will Never Grow Up Games
Thanks for the advice @vodot and @IWillNeverGrowUp.
@IWillNeverGrowUp said in 3D Printers?:
For things like factories, shipyards, etc a simple home 3D printer works fantastic.
For things like infantry, it gets dodgy, though you CAN still make it work ok with the right settings.I use a Monoprice Mini Select V2 (found at https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=107&cp_id=10724&cs_id=1072403&p_id=21711).
Under $200, small buildplate (which is perfectly fine for these uses) and out-of-the-box functionality (no need to put anything together, just plug it in and you’re ready to start printing essentially). You can use basically any PLA 3D printing material for great results.
Finding the settings that work best for what you’re doing takes time, as does either MAKING the 3D files (which requires some level of experience) or finding the ones you want to print (thingiverse.com is the best source I’ve found for free to use files).
@IWillNeverGrowUp would you be willing to post some images of parts you’ve printed on the mini? I would love to see some comparisons to the IM OOB bits.
@vodot said in 3D Printers?:
@IWillNeverGrowUp said in 3D Printers?:
For things like factories, shipyards, etc a simple home 3D printer works fantastic.
For things like infantry, it gets dodgy, though you CAN still make it work ok with the right settings.I use a Monoprice Mini Select V2 (found at https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=107&cp_id=10724&cs_id=1072403&p_id=21711).
Under $200, small buildplate (which is perfectly fine for these uses) and out-of-the-box functionality (no need to put anything together, just plug it in and you’re ready to start printing essentially). You can use basically any PLA 3D printing material for great results.
Finding the settings that work best for what you’re doing takes time, as does either MAKING the 3D files (which requires some level of experience) or finding the ones you want to print (thingiverse.com is the best source I’ve found for free to use files).
@IWillNeverGrowUp would you be willing to post some images of parts you’ve printed on the mini? I would love to see some comparisons to the IM OOB bits.
Will do once I get a chance. Just moved into a new place and everything is a disaster here. ;)
