SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-06T23:26:23Z

I know what Kapton aka Polyimide tape is. We use it in the circuit board manufacturing business to protect the pcb during solder operations form high temps. It would be better to use a thermal epoxy for your purpose as Kapton does loose adhesion over time when exposed to high temps repeatedly and it will allow the thermistor to pull away from the bed and cause the wrong temps to be reported. I to have built a multitude of printers.

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-06T22:07:57Z

Basic kapton tape (thin stuff), sufficient for attaching a thermistor to the bed heater PCB.
I'm probably going to have to change this entirely though, it sounds as if the school won't bother with this until June.

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-06T21:05:36Z

*Raises Hand*

Whats the Kapton in the case of this printer?

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-06T13:22:36Z

I have weighed the options and created a "starter pack" for the school, currently at $400 but will jump to $475 when the printer is no longer on sale. It includes:

The HE3D Delta printer, w/ the dual exruder upgrade ($298)
2 E3D block upgrades from Filastruder ($40)
A nozzle wrench from Filastruder ($5)
A pack of Swiss clips from Filastruder ($10)
A heated bed PCB, with wiring, from Amazon ($16)
A round piece of 200mm dia. 3mm thickness borosilicate glass from Amazon ($16)
Print removal tools from Amazon ($11)

...plus the $4 shipping for the Filastruder items.
The printer comes with 2 spools of PLA, a 2GB SD card, and tools for assembly as "freebies."
If the people in charge of this decision choose to go ahead with buying the printer before the end of the school year, then I will personally provide the kapton tape, thermistor, heatshrink, connectors, and conduit, and I will even stay after school to help assemble it, since I have experience building and upgrading my printer at home.

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-06T01:37:48Z

as an owner of a Folgertech Kossel kit, if you are only printing in PLA, glass is quite sufficient for a bed surface
personally, I use cheap mirror tiles on my printers... get them at most any home center - a box of six 12" x 12" tiles is $10-12.. a cheap, $2-3 glass cutter works fine for cutting them down to the correct size needed - for my kossel, i cut one into an octagon shape, works great.

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-05T14:47:15Z

I have narrowed the decision down to either a HE3D delta with dual extruders and a heated bed ($348 with discount): https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/d … rinter-kit
or the Folger Tech Kossel 2020 with a 2004 LCD unit ($334): https://folgertech.com/products/folger- … rinter-kit

We'll start without an enclosure, since PLA will be the main material, but I can always build/buy one later.
It won't be anywhere close to the server rack enclosure I use for my printer at home though...

The removable bed will simply be a solid print surface, either a sheet of PEI or glass.

Re: School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-05T13:53:22Z

Why do you need an enclosure? If using PLA or PETG an enclosure would not be beneficial as it would keep the layers too hot. If it is for safety I would think that that hot moving parts that are exposed should be one of the first lessons in such a class so an enclosure again should not be needed.

As for a removable bed just put glass on top of the heated bed and print on the glass.

School planning to buy another 3D printer, tentative $500 budget.

2017-04-05T13:13:57Z

This school year was the first year my high school offered a 3D printing class, which I am currently in mostly to improve, not learn from. They started with a donated DaVinci 1.0 and received a Dremel Dreambuilder mid-year.
My teacher has told me that there are plans to buy another printer. Since there will be a choice this time round, I want to make sure that they get a good, open-source printer that will teach the students more than the current printers will.
I started looking on the same site that I got my first printer: https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/
Cheapest printers to be found outside of eBay, but I now know that not all machines are up to par.
I decided that since the school already has two Cartesian machines with different strengths, the next printer should be a delta.
After looking at several machines that felt too small, I came across the Folger Tech Kossel model. I knew from the start, thanks to these forums, that Folger Tech was a reliable name to look for in kits, so I investigated and found that it was the largest and most feature-packed model under $500. Sure, the other machines have freebies or multiple extruders, but the Folger Tech fit the needs I already knew about, so that's my current suggestion to the school.
The only problem is that it needs and enclosure...I could build one using some hardware and the plexiglass sheets I have at home, but I feel like there is a better option to be had for $50-100.
My teacher wants to stick with PLA for fume reasons, but he agreed that a heated bed would be useful in the adhesion/removal of prints. I have yet to tell him about the benefits and needs of PETG.
He also wanted a printer that has a removable bed, like the Dreambuilder, but I have yet to find a sub-500 delta that does that.

I do intend on buying directly through Folger Tech, as well as throwing in a full graphic LCD unit.