3D Printer purchase

[bigbeartheshep]

Hi guys newbie here and I wanted to cut right to the chase.

We are a body shop based in Glasgow in the UK. We are off at the moment due to Covid-19. My mum works in the NHS and I've just seen her PPE. We seen they are pleading with people to make visors. I want to be able to help however little it may be or seen. We have no experience in working with 3D printers, we are willing and eager to learn quickly.

Main questions are :

What printer would work best ? We aren't on a budget as such but we do need to be mindful of costs. Is the for example a good enough printer for 300-400 ? I have had a quick look and the prices seem to vary quite a bit.

Is it a simple download the file and let the printer do its thing ?

Can the laminate sheets be printed ? Or is that bought in separately, taking a chance on someone knowing here.

Is the filament easy to come buy ? How much would be needed to print say 100 visors ?

Like I said we want to help however we can even if it is a small part to play we want to do our bit.

Thanks

 

[bulb66]

Hi guys newbie here and I wanted to cut right to the chase.

We are a body shop based in Glasgow in the UK. We are off at the moment due to Covid-19. My mum works in the NHS and I've just seen her PPE. We seen they are pleading with people to make visors. I want to be able to help however little it may be or seen. We have no experience in working with 3D printers, we are willing and eager to learn quickly.

Answers below.

Main questions are :

What printer would work best ? We aren't on a budget as such but we do need to be mindful of costs. Is the for example a good enough printer for 300-400 ? I have had a quick look and the prices seem to vary quite a bit.

Basically keep away from the <£100 cheap ones and you'll be good. Creality, Anycubic, Eryone are good printers in the £300-400 range

Is it a simple download the file and let the printer do its thing ?

Yes and no, you download the .stl file which is the 3d model, but this needs to go through software called a slicer (Prusaslicer, Cura, Ideamaker etc)

Can the laminate sheets be printed ? Or is that bought in separately, taking a chance on someone knowing here.

Nope, these cannot be printed. you need to buy them and they need to be clear, so some OHP films are not suitable.

Is the filament easy to come buy ? How much would be needed to print say 100 visors ?

Filament is easy to get, maybe at the moment a bit limited due to people buying it up for this task, but you can find some easy enough and depending on the PPE you want to print 1 1kg spool can do 100 frames easy.

Like I said we want to help however we can even if it is a small part to play we want to do our bit.

Thanks

Hope that helps, any other questions ask away.

James.

 

[adwol48]

a friend who is printing the face visors currently has told me filament has gone up in price by the couple of quid and the clear visor plastic has basically doubled in price the the stuff he was buying. I also thought this would be a good idea to help out as my wife is a doctor and didnt want to see her or her colleagues be missing equipment so i bought a Delta style printer which are meant to be a bit quicker printing and for my needs take up less desk space but are quite tall but i think by the time i get it setup dialed in and printing a lot of the supply issues would be over but probably still worth printing some out i spent around £260 on a FLSun QQ-S Pro it looks a good enough printer and i have seen people get very good results with it.

 

[bigbeartheshep]

Hi guys

Thanks very much for replies.

I ended up with a Anycubic Chiron. Got filament from ****** who seemed to have quite a bit in stock. The laminate sheets I got from a company called om binding supplies.

From what I read everything jumped up and on eBay they are ripping the arse out of it which is a shame really.

I spoke with a guy at FAC technology who has been working closely with the NHS and he said the moulds for mass production of visors still hasn't been made yet so may be 3 to 4 weeks off still.

Thanks again for the replies, I done a lot of research yesterday after I posted but I wanted some feedback from people like you who are actually using the machines.

Cheers

 

[bigbeartheshep]

Hi guys

Got a message today regarding my printer purchase .

The Anycubic Chiron is now not available and they are sending a Geetech a30 Pro in its place I have told them to hold fire at the moment. Do any of you guys know if this is a bad swap or an upgrade, even similar I'm happy with just don't want to get stung.

Thanks

 

[bulb66]

Hi guys

Got a message today regarding my printer purchase .

The Anycubic Chiron is now not available and they are sending a Geetech a30 Pro in its place I have told them to hold fire at the moment. Do any of you guys know if this is a bad swap or an upgrade, even similar I'm happy with just don't want to get stung.

Thanks

From what a quick look at the specs say, it has a smaller build volume and auto leveling is an extra you'd need to buy. I don't have any real world experience with either but have used Geeetech's before and I'd rather have a Anycubic.

J.