Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms 3D printing

Ive been getting quite into 3D printing for a couple of weeks or so. I had originally purchased a resin printer and while it worked very well and printed off very fine detail the finished print needs a lot of post processing with cleaning off the resin etc. This is messy and stinky !

So I purchased a filament printer instead and its been just great ! The printer is an Ender 3 and it cost just over 200 quid from a seller on amazon. There are tons of 3d printers out there but this came on top for me as I searched reviews, there are probably more just as good as this though at this price point.

Its part made with only a few bits that need putting together and after a bit of calibrating etc its good to go.

Im amazed at the detail this thing churns out for a budget machine ! I couldn't be more happy with it. If you have or are thinking of 3d printing then fire away with any questions ( there is no point in me rattling on if there is no interest :-) here and I will see if I can answer them.

I bought this for some jobs around the workshop but Ive printed off some things for the machine itself, like the light bracket, a fan housing and a pulley cover.
I have also just started printing off a big model of a bypass engine. Ive done the fan unit in 6 parts so far and the start of the fan housing. Ive added a pic of progress so far.

There are tons of free files to download on places like thingyverse, grabCad, etc so need to have to draw your own. Files are then put in a slicer ( I use Cura ) where you can set parameters for the job like resolution, temperature of bed and filament etc

The only down side is the time it takes to print. The prints take a long time depending on resolution. One 3rd section of the fan took 10 hours ! but I pop it on in the morning and forget about it, just look in from now and then.

Here are some pics of printed bits and one of what the finished engine should look like. Should make a nice model for the Shed

I think these are great fun. Super clean, quite and small enough to put anywhere with zillions of free files to print off. If you have grand kids or even just for the fun of it id recommend having a go !

Bonesie