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2 hours ago, Torg said:

Really was getting things going well with my photon - but it crapped out about 2 weeks ago with a weird error.

I joined the Anycubic Photon Owner group on FaceBook, and there seems to be a lot of that going around.  I guess for $400 their quality control isn't the best.

I am loving my Photon.  Although it's not running at the moment.  It's set up where I paint, and I need to paint a LOT before the OFCC...

I did make some Tau objective markers, a Space Marine that turned out to be about 30% too large, and a wound counter for my StormSurge.  Oh, and a few bolters.

IMG_20190710_135058.thumb.jpg.ef1585dc2d45d92c0f8bd379f30dd1f5.jpg

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38 minutes ago, InfestedKerrigan said:

Is $279 for a Photon a good price?  I mean, 20 less than Amazon, and it is direct from Anycubic.

I'd say it's fair for the photon, as the photon S is their current model. $279 for a resin printer is good. That said, they had some clearances and refurbs at one point as low as $150, and i've seen them on sale as low as $240 new. Also, black Friday is a month away...usually good deals!

 

Bear in mind, resin is toxic and be sure to use gloves and keep the vapor door closed.

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I seem to have gotten my Photon S dialed in pretty decently - and I am starting to look at FDM printers... Ender 3 / Ender 3 Pro mainly for a cheap start.  I had heard that there were specific builders or sellers of the Ender to look for or avoid.  I have looked at the Ender 3 Pro as well - not really sure if the difference is something to worry about.  And I have also started seeing stuff about the Ender 5 (with the larger build area (taller). 

Advise in sussing out my target would be appreciated.  I want an FDM for bigger items - as my Photon will take care of smaller high detailed items.  I want to stay under 400$ or even 300$ if possible ( or lower looking at black friday as well).  I have already replaced my motherboard on my Photon so I'm not worried about tinkering with a machine.  I have looked at the Prursa i3 MK3 - but I just don't see the advantage of spending that kind of $$ on what fundamentally is a geek toy to my wife lol.

-d

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53 minutes ago, Torg said:

I seem to have gotten my Photon S dialed in pretty decently - and I am starting to look at FDM printers... Ender 3 / Ender 3 Pro mainly for a cheap start.  I had heard that there were specific builders or sellers of the Ender to look for or avoid.  I have looked at the Ender 3 Pro as well - not really sure if the difference is something to worry about.  And I have also started seeing stuff about the Ender 5 (with the larger build area (taller). 

Advise in sussing out my target would be appreciated.  I want an FDM for bigger items - as my Photon will take care of smaller high detailed items.  I want to stay under 400$ or even 300$ if possible ( or lower looking at black friday as well).  I have already replaced my motherboard on my Photon so I'm not worried about tinkering with a machine.  I have looked at the Prursa i3 MK3 - but I just don't see the advantage of spending that kind of $$ on what fundamentally is a geek toy to my wife lol.

-d

Resin is always superior in detail. However older style PLA is 'cheaper' per model. Resin gets expensive with models costing what, like $1-$3 for a mini. PLA is like $.15 for that same mini (but with worse detail). Terrain I would also never print in resin. Depends on what you want to do with it.

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Well I have the resin printer...(Photon S) -  it works really well for figures / minis and greebles for adding more detail to less detailed builds.   I'm not really looking to print minis with an Ender 3 or something like that.  I am looking at larger terrain and other table top model builds.  If I needed more details in areas I would print those additions on the resin printer and add them in per part needed.  

But mostly - just big cheap prints is what I am looking for the FDM/PLA printer to do.  I see a need for an FDM printer for larger parts of things (I am currently building a large mining rig as a set piece for terrain).  An FDM printer would allow me to cheaply make the "big boned" parts I need to replicate rather than building those elements from scratch (plastic sheets / rods and card stock).  Less labor - more detail lol.  And repeatable.

Another example... a crashed large vehicle or ship (there is a gothic cruiser on Thingiverse in multiple parts to dominate a table) - would be something I could print on an FDM printer - then add details with my resin printer as needed.  Or a large dragon... with maybe the head printed on my resin printer... but the rest of the parts on the FDM printer.  I have to many ideas in my head lol... but you get the idea.

-d

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7 minutes ago, InfestedKerrigan said:

Printing 6-8mm for AT18 is the biggest reason I'm looking at the Photon, otherwise I'm with you, torg, wanting that larger volume.

I've been printing stuff for epic ... which the photon has been wonderful for.  I also printed items for mini's (different heads or weapons) with no issues on the resin printer.  Currently I have a stack of items to detail out my mining rig build - doors, hatches, big dish and a couple logos along with a slew of digging buckets to make a bucket wheel thing.  But it would be nice to build some of the less critical items for the build (like tracks for under this behemoth) on a FDM printer with a larger volume and cheaper cost.

-d

 

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$250.  I bit.  

 

Good stls ya'll recommend checking out?  I am interested in Epic, Epic Terrain, 40k Terrain, DnD Terrain and figures perhaps, and Conversion stuff for Primaris and Knights mostly.  >_>  I would think this is out of line, if it were not for the fact that I suspect this is pretty identical to everyone else here's .stl collection.  I do have a Thingiverse, and follow SebTheis.

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hmmm so far most of my STL's for Epic stuff in general has been from Thingiverse.  Searching different variations of EPIC_40k and such.  Looking at the creators of some epic stuff and then following them and looking through their collections you can find more.  I have started following a couple patreon creators - but not for epic stuff.  Although it is easy enough to scale stuff down - so just about anything can be used for EPIC lol.

I also just completed a kickstarter for ELDAR Epic terrain (stl's)- so sometimes you can find stuff there.

-d

 

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How about Power Usage?  What has been the impact on your Power Bills?

 

Yeah, I've been treating Thingiverse like Alibaba, sniffing trails and seeing where they lead. Using likes as bookmarks.  I hadn't thought much of scaling, new to it all.  Makes sense, since it is a 3d file, and it is printing at a % of the files size, surely.  Things you don't think about until you think about them.  I am excited, both for designing my own things, and for existing things, on the free end and on the market.  

My cousin's dad's metal Battletech figures in 93 are what got me interested in both MW/BT, and miniature gaming/boardgames.  It's possibly why I have such an affinity/affection for customization and map games.  Utilizing terrain from it is super fine by me.  

If I don't find buildings from Dawn of War pretty quickly, I may resort to making them myself.  That is something else I've wanted since DoW.

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Did you get the photon?  I have a Photon S and haven't really noticed much of a power increase.  what slicer are you using?  I like to use cura... to hollow and get things started.  Then use the Photon stock slicer to finish and slice the file to print.  I am really new to this as well (since spring of this year).  As such I am fairly uneducated aside from Facebook groups and poking around online as well. 

I haven't tried making anything myself yet.  My wife build some ear-rings that I printed for her.  But so far I haven't had the time to really dig into the design side.  Best of luck!

 

-d

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7 hours ago, Torg said:

Did you get the photon?  I have a Photon S and haven't really noticed much of a power increase.  what slicer are you using?  I like to use cura... to hollow and get things started.  Then use the Photon stock slicer to finish and slice the file to print.  I am really new to this as well (since spring of this year).  As such I am fairly uneducated aside from Facebook groups and poking around online as well. 

Yeah, I got the classic for 2 bill and fitty.  I joined a couple of FB groups last night, and seems to be a common theme, using a different slicer, and then the Photon program to finalize.  I haven't downloaded anything, yet.

7 hours ago, Torg said:

I haven't tried making anything myself yet.  My wife build some ear-rings that I printed for her.  But so far I haven't had the time to really dig into the design side.  Best of luck!

 

-d

I did some Auto-cad and 3D Studio in high school.  I've dinked around with 3d programs periodically since then for fun.  With the size of the print bed, it will be a limiting factor for some things, but we shall see what comes of it. ^_^  Gonna be watching plenty of Youtube and scouring FB user groups for sure.  

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Seems to be the biggest issue setting up is folks not getting the plate flat and level - several methods out there for doing this.  But I haven't had a problem after "upgrading" the build plate with an after market support replacement for the ball joint.  You can print this out as well - available on thingiverse  Easy Level.  I've seen folks with the classic photon also upgrade to a 2 rail set up for the Z rail/screw.  The dual rail set up was a change to the Photon S.

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So I'm part of the club now, too. I got a Monoprice Select Mini Pro for my birthday. Cute little thing, small build area, resolution isn't incredible (but good enough for most of my purposes) but it has an automatic bed levelling feature that's super nice and a heated bed that I'm going to put a glass plate on in a couple days. I've already been making some silly fun things with it, some scatter terrain for Infinity, a calcium dish for one of my geckos. I'm in the process of printing a turn/VP/CP tracker for 40k on it (over 3 hours on the print... yeesh.) I'm only printing in PLA right now, but it's a lot of fun, and very distracting from my schoolwork.

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