3D printer by Dremel

[Ed in Tampa]

I was in BestBuy the other day and they have display of the new Dremel 3D printer.
Price $999.99, refill of plastic print material $34.99.
I talked to a salesman and he said he had a lot of questions for the Dremel rep about the printer.
In the display they have an Elephant figure which is about 4/5's completed. Our question was how much of the print material did it take to make the Elephant? How long did it take? The Elephant was about 5-6 inches long about 5 inches high and about 3 inches wide.

The salesman allowed me to handle the figurine, it was in white plastic. If you looked close you could see faint layers. Looking at the top you see the inside is not totally solid but a close net patch work of cross hatch. The detail of the Elephant was incredible, you could see skin lines, wrinkles in the skin and such.

The printer printed support piers to hold up the elephant including longer ones for the trunk,tail. Ears. After the printer is finished you would have to cut these off a lot like the flashing on castings.

I was impressed and I'm waiting to talk to the salesman after he talks to the Dremel rep.
Incidentally the plastic printed material comes in spools about 6 to 8 inches in diameter about 2 inches wide. Warped on the spool is what looks to be plastic line about 1/8 in diameter.

The real question is how much line did it take to print the elephant.

[reible]

I wonder if they have that same demo up here in IL. I don't shop much at BestBuy but I wouldn't mind looking at the printer if they had one.

I have to admit to wanting one of these even if I really can't afford one. Maybe if I gave up wanting so many other things... aw, that that will not happen anytime soon.

Thanks for bring this to our attention.

Ed

[richardrouse]

The dremmel 3d printer looks interesting. I'm wondering what the tensile strength of the PLA material is once it is printed.

If it works anything like my stratasys you can choose how solid your fill is. it ranges from solid to honeycomb. Those layer lines are a byproduct of the way the 3d printer works. Think computer controled glue gun... it just squeezes a thin bead of plastic along a path that is determined by analyzing a model within a 3 axis coordinate system. Each layer of plastic cools as it is printed... as opposed to an injectionmolding process where the whole part cools at the same basic rate.


another thing to consider is the effect that humidity has on the PLA. If it is anything like the ABS I use, humidity destroys it. the material is slightly porous and once moisture gets into the filament it creates little breaks when you try to run the material through your extrusion head.

[garys]

Interesting, but I currently don't have a use for one. By the time I dream up a project for a 3D printer, the price should drop drastically and the quality will go up like all electronic devices.

I did the same thing with solid state hard drives for computers. When they first came out, they were crazy priced and not truly reliable. I waited a few years and now the price is cheap and the reliability is high. Now, I have them too.

[roy_okc]

I was in BestBuy the other day and they have display of the new Dremel 3D printer.
Price $999.99, refill of plastic print material $34.99.
I talked to a salesman and he said he had a lot of questions for the Dremel rep about the printer.
In the display they have an Elephant figure which is about 4/5's completed. Our question was how much of the print material did it take to make the Elephant? How long did it take? The Elephant was about 5-6 inches long about 5 inches high and about 3 inches wide.

The salesman allowed me to handle the figurine, it was in white plastic. If you looked close you could see faint layers. Looking at the top you see the inside is not totally solid but a close net patch work of cross hatch. The detail of the Elephant was incredible, you could see skin lines, wrinkles in the skin and such.

The printer printed support piers to hold up the elephant including longer ones for the trunk,tail. Ears. After the printer is finished you would have to cut these off a lot like the flashing on castings.

I was impressed and I'm waiting to talk to the salesman after he talks to the Dremel rep.
Incidentally the plastic printed material comes in spools about 6 to 8 inches in diameter about 2 inches wide. Warped on the spool is what looks to be plastic line about 1/8 in diameter.

The real question is how much line did it take to print the elephant.

Ed,

I recently bought & built a FolgerTech 2020 i3 kit ($300 shipped) and have printed several things in PLA and ABS, have a new roll of PET-G to test out later today.

The PLA goes a long way depending on the amount of infill. A simple statue like the one you describe might need around an ounce, maybe two, of filament, assuming a low infill percentage, and still be quite strong. I've printed three owl on log statues, the largest might be roughly 2/3rds the size of the elephant; took about 3 or so hours for the largest one. I printed the largest at 8 or 10% infill, so it is very light, yet also very strong.

The place that I buy my filament, MakerGeeks.com, has this to say about "how much does it take":

"Well, check this out... if you are printing with 3.00mm filament for a iPhone case you need about 2,700mm of filament; for a EPIC Starship Enterprize Model you'll need about 12,000mm of 3D Filament and for a full Kossel 3D Printer Kit we normally use about 50,000mm of filament. Another way to look at it according to MakerBot is that 1 spool of 3D Filament produces about 392 full sized chess pieces. Whoa... that's a lot of chess!!"

http://www.makergeeks.com/mafipla2sobl.html

MakerGeeks extrudes their own line of filament at their Springfield, MO, location. Cost is a super reasonable $21.55 for 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs). It looks like Dremel's spool weight is .5 KG, so over 3X the cost. That is one of the huge downsides of many of these printers showing up on store shelves, the filament cost is going to eat you alive. Another problem is that they are limited as to the type of material that they can use (PLA only).

[roy_okc]

Interesting, but I currently don't have a use for one. By the time I dream up a project for a 3D printer, the price should drop drastically and the quality will go up like all electronic devices.

I did the same thing with solid state hard drives for computers. When they first came out, they were crazy priced and not truly reliable. I waited a few years and now the price is cheap and the reliability is high. Now, I have them too.

Gary, I hear you. I've wanted but not needed a 3D printer for years. I had been looking at another kit that runs around $500-600 depending on size, but just couldn't justify the cost where I didn't have any project in mind. Over the summer I finally found a need and stumbled on the FolgerTech i3 2020 kit for $300. It has a build area of about 8x8x5 or 6", heated bed so can print ABS. Even though some of the components are of modest but "good enough" quality, it has worked very well for me after some build pains (the instructions have a couple errors, but other builders have pointed out the discrepancies on the RepRap forum). The design is such that improvements and expansions can be done easily and at reasonable cost.

[ddub]

As the price becomes more affordable, I think they will be used by more and more people. Probably the craft type people first?

Roy OKC, that is a heck of a deal on that printer.

But if I get one, I want to recreate objects. So, I would also need to scan and scan accurately.

What are you guys using for scanned software?

[roy_okc]

But if I get one, I want to recreate objects. So, I would also need to scan and scan accurately.

What are you guys using for scanned software?

ddub,

I don't yet have a scanning system as I don't yet have a need. So far, everything I've done has come from Thingiverse models. My main project right now uses parametric lego-like models that I customize in OpenSCAD.

I see prices and capabilities all over the place for 'hobbyist' units. The Makerbot Digitizer runs $799 but Amazon reviews are horrid. A recent open source product , the Atlas 3D kit (http://store.murobo.com/atlas-3d-kit/), is around $225 excluding printed parts and seems to be actively improving at this time; I'm going to keep an eye on this project since the price is so low. I do believe any of these typically require some amount of cleanup on the model after the scan, i.e., no quick and simple scan and print solutions.

Roy

[rjent]

Can any of you guys give examples (pics) of what you are doing with these? Please.

OK, I will use the Interweb forum adage ..... If there are no pictures, they don't actually exist .....

[roy_okc]

Can any of you guys give examples (pics) of what you are doing with these? Please.

OK, I will use the Interweb forum adage ..... If there are no pictures, they don't actually exist .....

Here are a few of my first prints, all of the models came from http://www.Thingiverse.com.

I'm presently using it to design lego-compatible bricks that will hold various types of electronic components (LEDs, servos, sensors) that will connect to Hummingbird Duo boards for robotic kits for grandkids. I've been using a pre-existing customizable OpenSCAD model that I define the size (2x3 pegs by 2 standard bricks tall) then add code to create a hollow cylinder vertically for the LED and another horizontally for wires to exit, then print in clear PLA (far from glass clear, but well enough to allow a lot of light to pass through and the diffusion actually helps spread the light). I'll probably have to modify the original model to add reinforcement ribs to the inside hollow tubes. Probably my project for today.