26 Reply by carl_m1968 (edited by carl_m1968 2015-01-19 06:29:46)

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

DrAnonymous wrote:

I think you will do well buying a davinci.

It gives you 2 paths to go down

1 stock and using the software that comes with it. No it's not perfect, but it's far simpler than route two and allows you to play and learn before getting overwhelmed with the myriad of options that can screw up prints.

2 load in repetier and tweak like crazy.

Ignore all the foolish talk about overpriced proprietary filament. The company isn't ripping anyone off. Yes it's more expensive, but the stock system keeps all the filament clean in a nice case. Swaps easily and is very convenient.  Many people mistakenly bash on XYZ, but they falsely assume all users love to build from scratch and want a machine that can be tweaked a lot regardless of how it looks.

You have to decide from the outset - are you buying a printer to have fun and make some things or are you trying to build a printer and then print?


Actually stock filament is over priced when you consider that a standard 1 Kilo (the standard measure) spool you buy from Somebody Filaments for 15 to 30 bucks is twice what you get in the stock Da Vinci carts (of 600 grams) well almost twice for about 27 bucks at Microcenter and other places. So buying your own filament and either reloading carts or using another method to feed it, you get twice for lower price than what XYZ offers for a higher price. I buy good filament at Microcenter for 16 bucks per 1 Kilo spool.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

27 Reply by montressor

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

carl_m1968 wrote:

Actually stock filament is over priced when you consider that a standard 1 Kilo (the standard measure) spool you buy from Somebody Filaments for 15 to 30 bucks is twice what you get in the stock Da Vinci carts (of 600 grams) well almost twice for about 27 bucks at Microcenter and other places. So buying your own filament and either reloading carts or using another method to feed it, you get twice for lower price than what XYZ offers for a higher price. I buy good filament at Microcenter for 16 bucks per 1 Kilo spool.

Agree that the stock filament is ~2x, and from what I can see it's pretty crappy filament. However, I've been buying a bunch of different filaments to test against each other (Microcenter, Hatchbox, MatterHackers, GizmoDorks and ORD). There's a clear difference in the quality of these filaments, and I've found the Microcenter-branded stuff ($18 on sale for 1kg) to be not much better quality than the XYZ-branded carts. Finally got it dialed in, but nowhere near as predictable as the more expensive brands (Hatchbox, MatterHackers, GizmoDorks and ORD) which run $25-$35/1kg on Amazon with delivery.

I don't mind paying the extra $10 for a predictable spool of filament - until I get good enough at debugging issues I wind up wasting a lo of time and prints with the cheaper filament.

Davinci Duo, Repetier 0.92, OctoPi

28 Reply by madmike8

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

Right now, I'm happy with my DiVinci and the filament. I printed out any spare parts I could find, just to have them available. Now it's allowing me to tear down my Ordbot for some upgrades that I've been wanting to do.

29 Reply by Tin Falcon

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

IMHO it comes down to choice.  Filament  can run anywhere from $15 a kilo to  $50 for standard materials.  Special filled materials can be higher.  So $54 a kilo is not off the wall. especial considering it is in a cartridge presumably sealed with desiccant. That said the video link i mentioned. has a video of what is coming in 2015. XYz is soon to be releasing  pla cartridges and soon to be releasing a refillable cartridge to allow for presumably  other than XYZ brand filament.
Lets face it there is not a lot of choice in the $500-$600 price point for fully assembled 3 D printers.
the XYz ,the plastic scribbler , Printbot simple and may be a couple others . an kits are still $300 + .
All these printers need time ,understanding and some simple tweaks to get quality prints.
It has been proven the xyz will work pretty much stock and it can be hacked.
Tin

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30 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

Tin Falcon wrote:

IMHO it comes down to choice.  Filament  can run anywhere from $15 a kilo to  $50 for standard materials.  Special filled materials can be higher.  So $54 a kilo is not off the wall. especial considering it is in a cartridge presumably sealed with desiccant. That said the video link i mentioned. has a video of what is coming in 2015. XYz is soon to be releasing  pla cartridges and soon to be releasing a refillable cartridge to allow for presumably  other than XYZ brand filament.
Lets face it there is not a lot of choice in the $500-$600 price point for fully assembled 3 D printers.
the XYz ,the plastic scribbler , Printbot simple and may be a couple others . an kits are still $300 + .
All these printers need time ,understanding and some simple tweaks to get quality prints.
It has been proven the xyz will work pretty much stock and it can be hacked.

Tin

The refillable cartridge requires you to save one of your old carts. They sell you a refill kit which consist of a spool of their filament exactly like what is in the cartridge now, a new chip so the system sees the refill as a new cart and a new desiccant pouch. They require you to crack open an old cart. Throw out the old spool, chip, and pouch. Replace them with the new kit items then snap the cart halves back together.  There is already a video on their website showing this procedure and titled hot to use The XYZPRINTING Filament Refill Kit. So no you are still not allowed to use your own filament even as a refill. You still need to deal with a chip.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

31 Reply by rv.mike

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

I too, got a DaVinci 1.0a and I'm quite happy with it. Yes I've bought a few work arounds to XYZ's antics, but this machine is a well built device that one can learn on. I've found that learning design software is the biggest issue I have and by summer I should have those mastered to where I can actually design exactly what I want to build, though I'm getting by with thingyverse and what configurable projects I can find. I've done a few lithopanes that turned out great, never heard of them before I started 3d-ing. The bug bit me pretty hard and I ordered a bunch of stuff to start building  a from "scratch" machine. This may take a while, but in the mean time, I have a printer to help build some of my parts..

32 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

rv.mike wrote:

I too, got a DaVinci 1.0a and I'm quite happy with it. Yes I've bought a few work arounds to XYZ's antics, but this machine is a well built device that one can learn on. I've found that learning design software is the biggest issue I have and by summer I should have those mastered to where I can actually design exactly what I want to build, though I'm getting by with thingyverse and what configurable projects I can find. I've done a few lithopanes that turned out great, never heard of them before I started 3d-ing. The bug bit me pretty hard and I ordered a bunch of stuff to start building  a from "scratch" machine. This may take a while, but in the mean time, I have a printer to help build some of my parts..

There is a website called Tinkercad that allows you build printable objects using basic geometric shapes in an addition or subtraction method. I use that site to build then download the STL of all my parts I design. I still use the old hand drafting technique for the initial design. Maybe old fashioned but I prefer drafting over CAD as I cannot find a CAD program that simply allows me to drop and scale shapes as I wish that is not a fortune or cost more than a printer.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

33 Reply by JakR4bbit

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

rv.mike wrote:

I too, got a DaVinci 1.0a and I'm quite happy with it. Yes I've bought a few work arounds to XYZ's antics, but this machine is a well built device that one can learn on. I've found that learning design software is the biggest issue I have and by summer I should have those mastered to where I can actually design exactly what I want to build, though I'm getting by with thingyverse and what configurable projects I can find. I've done a few lithopanes that turned out great, never heard of them before I started 3d-ing. The bug bit me pretty hard and I ordered a bunch of stuff to start building  a from "scratch" machine. This may take a while, but in the mean time, I have a printer to help build some of my parts..

This is likely what will happen with me - I always tend to overdo a hobby. I got into RC last year, but have found it's not as enjoyable during the winter season due to cold weather and frustrations tuning nitro engines in cold weather. I can enjoy 3D printing in the warmth of my home. And then proceed to spend more money on it than I initially planned smile

If you need any help with designs or STL files to build off of in other programs, drop me a message. I'd be glad to help.

34 Reply by Coin (edited by Coin 2015-01-20 05:22:05)

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

Talking about CAD, my favorite soft. is Designspark mechanical which is free and IMO awesome. There is also the 123D app suite from autodesk but I liked it less. To add more, there is Tinkercad as Carl mentioned, freecad(constrains) and scad(coded cad). I tried all of these except scad.

35 Reply by scobo

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

I use 123D Design for drawing models from scratch, easy to use and suits my needs well.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

36 Reply by owenransen

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

JakR4bbit wrote:

So should I buy the Da Vinci, or would my money be better spent on another device? .

Wait!

I'll post here in 3 days when the technical people of xyzprinting get back to me. It failed on its first demo print with a 0040 error. The docs are hopeless at telling me what I should do now. Swictch off the machine? Leave it on flashing and blinking till they get back to me?

I'm pretty annoyed with this to be honest.

Author of  PhotoToMesh, for making bas-reliefs and
lithophanes from your photos and images
http://www.ransen.com/PhotoToMesh

owenransen's Website

37 Reply by rockosmodlife

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

owenransen wrote:
JakR4bbit wrote:

So should I buy the Da Vinci, or would my money be better spent on another device? .

Wait!

I'll post here in 3 days when the technical people of xyzprinting get back to me. It failed on its first demo print with a 0040 error. The docs are hopeless at telling me what I should do now. Swictch off the machine? Leave it on flashing and blinking till they get back to me?

I'm pretty annoyed with this to be honest.

What model and version firmware?

Repinci 1.0 + Repetier host

38 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

owenransen wrote:
JakR4bbit wrote:

So should I buy the Da Vinci, or would my money be better spent on another device? .

Wait!

I'll post here in 3 days when the technical people of xyzprinting get back to me. It failed on its first demo print with a 0040 error. The docs are hopeless at telling me what I should do now. Swictch off the machine? Leave it on flashing and blinking till they get back to me?

I'm pretty annoyed with this to be honest.


See this thread..
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8473/err … -vinci-10/

That error code means the SD card is not plugged in, not plugged in well, or could even be bad.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

39 Reply by owenransen

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

rockosmodlife wrote:
owenransen wrote:
JakR4bbit wrote:

So should I buy the Da Vinci, or would my money be better spent on another device? .

Wait!

I'll post here in 3 days when the technical people of xyzprinting get back to me. It failed on its first demo print with a 0040 error. The docs are hopeless at telling me what I should do now. Swictch off the machine? Leave it on flashing and blinking till they get back to me?

I'm pretty annoyed with this to be honest.

What model and version firmware?

1.1.34.7 software, the model is davincif10, I can't find the button to get the firmware number.

I've taken the back off and pushed in the SD card better and now it seems to be working.

Author of  PhotoToMesh, for making bas-reliefs and
lithophanes from your photos and images
http://www.ransen.com/PhotoToMesh

owenransen's Website

40 Reply by owenransen

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Re: Concerned noob asks, "Should the Da Vinci be my first 3D printer?"

carl_m1968 wrote:

See this thread..
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8473/err … -vinci-10/

That error code means the SD card is not plugged in, not plugged in well, or could even be bad.

Yes, it seems to have been that, and seems to be working now. I'll  what happens over the next few days

Author of  PhotoToMesh, for making bas-reliefs and
lithophanes from your photos and images
http://www.ransen.com/PhotoToMesh

owenransen's Website