3D Printer - Anyone Have one?

[Trendkilla254]

So I'm really interested in building a Halo or Destiny suit of armor for Halloween. The suits are not terribly hard to build but the helmet is. I have seen files available for 3d Printers but when I try to send it off to companies to have it printed they want far more than the average etsy or pintrest seller. I was wondering if there was anyone here with a printer that would be willing to print this for me.

 

[Rivem]

Could you give an idea of how big a printed part of this would be or measurements off the CAD file?

 

[Trendkilla254]

Halo 4 Helmet Full Size A by big_red_frog - Thingiverse

Is this what you need?

I'd likely be Adult Size A

 

[Rivem]

Halo 4 Helmet Full Size A by big_red_frog - Thingiverse

Is this what you need?

I'd likely be Adult Size A

That's good. I'm not sure I could print it for you in a reasonable amount of time right now, but the parts should be doable for anybody with an average sized printer. Luckily the model is broken into plenty pieces for printing.

 

[Trendkilla254]

is there any way you could estimate the cost in material? I'm not in a huge hurry, I was hoping someone with more experience could assist with how much money this would cost to print.

 

[Rivem]

is there any way you could estimate the cost in material? I'm not in a huge hurry, I was hoping someone with more experience could assist with how much money this would cost to print.

The designer says about 680 grams, so I'd assume just over $20-$21 in the usual hobbyist ABS/PLA 1kg rolls maybe as low as $12-$13 if you go through a lot and buy in bulk. I'd assume even less when it's a commercial operation. The issue is that it's a lot of printer time and might require either a very expensive printer (commercial) or a decent amount of labor for cleanup. That's usually where the price goes when you order something to be printed.

 

[Trendkilla254]

Ok, for the price it would cost to have it printed I could throw in another 100 and build a cheap printer. There are some being sold on Etsy for about 150.00 usually. That's still more than I want to spend as it still is in an unfinished state there. I can do the finishing, that isn't a problem. I can even assemble the parts and do the cleanup. I just need them printed.

 

[Chrisbee]

Depending on the DIY printer builds that you're looking at, it seams that the programming and fine tuning is the time consuming and possibly media consuming part. I know a few people that have gone this way, and that seams to be the story. I'm still waiting for the higher resolution printers to come down in price. 100 microns is a pretty rough surface.

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

What are you offering as compensation?

 

[Trendkilla254]

What are you offering as compensation?

Money?

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

I want to help, but my plate is pretty full atm. Just trying to see what it's worth to you to see if it worth it to me

https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/electron-3d-prusa-i3-kit
I have one of these and I really like it, about 8 hours to build and a few more to calibrate. Software came ready to go, I just slice the models on my cpu and print right off the printer. IMO if you have some 3D modeling software that can save an STL you should go for it.

 

[Trendkilla254]

gearbest has some really cheap prussia i3 printers for right around 170-200 bucks. How garbage are they or you think it would be the same stuff?

 

[Chrisbee]

I'm sure that they aren't great. But they are cheap compared to what you could get a couple of years ago. It may be a good option to get as an entry level model, just to see if it's something you'd want to get into.

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

A8 Desktop 3D Printer Prusa i3 DIY Kit-160.41 | GearBest.com

Looks identical to the one I have. I only use PLA on my prusa i3 but I've clocked a good amount of hours on it with many prints at 10+ hours. Its been very reliable, but maybe I've just been lucky, and any printer next to the torture I went through getting my solidoodle press to work reliably would seem great so my perspective could be off aswell.

100 microns is a pretty rough surface.

What are you needing better resolution for? Even at 0.3mm res vapor smoothing for ABS and sanding PLA can achieve a polished finish.

 

[Chrisbee]

What are you needing better resolution for? Even at 0.3mm res vapor smoothing for ABS and sanding PLA can achieve a polished finish.

I guess it's just the extra labor that's involved. A vapor bath is definitely the way to go if your printer can use abs. I just haven't personally heard of anyone using any smoothing techniques on any parts that require tight tolerances.

 

[Trendkilla254]

what do I need for ABS? PLA is pretty weak right?