"Do you do 3D printing at home?" Topic

I have a friend who has the equipment for it. He tells me about the adjustments and problems with it. It seems to require a lot of acquired skills.
I'm too old to have to learn a brand new hobby.
But, has anyone here tried?

I'm one of the 'you really should try…'

To be fair, a few have offered to run their machines for me, and I have bought some items 'made.'

I think some work on quality at the lower end of cost would need to happen for me to be tempted again.

I admit, sounds like a great poll.

Doug

Nope. And no need to try, I have persuadable friends with printers.

No. I'm in the hobby to do things I enjoy, and I don't enjoy working on and with electrical and mechanical things.

No, Im very happy to pay other people to print stuff for me.

I breathed in far too many toxic fumes already making plastic kits when I was a kid.

I'm the flip side of that coin, I love working with electrical and mechanical things. Not to mention the computer side. So I've got a forest of them and several actually work. Well, one died on Sunday so in practice just one is working right now, but there's nothing broken I can't fix and it's a long story.

I have FDM and resin. I think I've been doing this for ten years now.

The newest printers are pretty trouble-free. You still need to learn some things. But I see creative people on YouTube who are *not* technical but still have 3D printers as tools. Rogue Hobbies and Jaaza are two that come to mind. They are very capable people, but not excessively technical and their channels are about art, not gear. They just happen to print things when they need them.

But I think you should still want to do 3D printing, not just have the results. If all you want is the results you should probably have a persuadable friend.

If you do want to 3D print it is a lot of fun, you can scale and modify miniatures, print useful things for around the house. I'm looking forward to improving my skills by printing a dozen copies of a miniature and then painting it over and over, comparing and refining techniques. Hard to do that if you're paying $5 USD per figure.

I really want to get one of the newest printers, but haven't persuaded myself yet. They've gotten really good…

Yes I do. Actually have both filament and resin. I have printed a bunch of stuff for gaming. It can be frustrating at times. For me it was getting a better printer. If you spend the money for a better printer you get better results and it is so much simpler.

No.

Yes.

I was very leery of getting one, but pulled the trigger and bought a Bambu A1 Mini. One of the best purchases I've ever made. Took about 20 minutes to set up…and after playing around with it the day it arrived, I was successfully printing minis and terrain the next day…..

Yes resin printing for about 5 years now. Just upgraded my printer for one with better resolution and a larger print area. It was pretty much plug and play. It even has wi-fi so I can set up and start printing from my phone or PC. I rarely need to buy a box of plastic or lead minis now, just print what I need. I have printed some things for my local group as well. Not only does it allow you to POD but you can rescale as well. For example, a certain well know company's figures are 13.5mm and I have rescale 15mm figures to be compatible with that scale.

In addition, my "lead pile" now takes up less space since it consists of files on my PC!

Not yet, but soon.

Nope – I got a guy

There is a member of our group who did 3-D design/printing at work – he is an ace at it and does printing for up techno peasants

I should have asked in my OP if you have a scanner. Is that like 🏴‍☠️ too?

Yes. A resin printer. I have been printing since the start of the year. Had a couple of problems, but support from China appears to be quite good.
My inability to deal with machines and fiddly bits does not restrain me when applying fixes!! Which actually amazed me.
Mostly adding bits to existing metal armies, but also printing an Early Mycenean army, which will be large. Even with the cost of the machine, the savings will be significant.

I also have a scanner, which I have not used yet.

Somewhat conversely, I imagine I'll get one when I'm older and have more time. Currently I prefer dedicating the limited hobby time I've got to painting and playing.

No, though I have several friends that do

No: steep learning curve; toxic resin; too expensive due to non-brittle resins being too high-priced, and the more affordable resins being waaay too brittle for gaming use. Cheers!

Nope

YES, FDM

Great for one off and prototype pieces.

As I game in 15mm, only use it for Terrain and Vehicles

Need 4 models of some tank/SP/APC that no one sells? printing is the answer (LOTS of free STL)

Yes, I use 3d printing for almost everything now. Been at it with a resin printer for 7+ years, and just got a new one. My FDM printer is used for the bigger items. All good.

I've been 3D printing for 15 years now. No scanner. They still require too much clean up effort for me.

I'm on my second FDM printer and technology has really improved.

It's a Bambu A1 known for ease of use and OMG is it ever. Quite a long way from leveling, bed temperature and payers to the machine god.

Resin printers are getting close, the resin systems and fill the vat and remove when done look compelling

Bought a resin printer a few years ago and realised that there was no place to set it up :/ Gave it to a buddy that had the other kind, so now he prints for me :)

Brought a resin printer a couple of months ago, second hand off a friend who was upgrading so all the learning was done for me.
My second fully printed army is just entering the painting bench.

Robert

Nope, I've got too much to assemble and paint now.
Paul

No

I have several of both filament and resin. Learning curve – yes! But I enjoy the printing hobby as much as gaming. The filament prints honestly are a lot more durable than the resin, even with good, gaming oriented resin. You can just toss around most filament prints (without skinny bits like gun barrels or swords) and they hold up. But with resin, you have much better detail so smaller scale figures look much nicer… Just don't drop them or something onto them.

I bought an Elegoo Mars and Mercury curing station almost 2 years ago and I've bought several STLs to print but I haven't used it yet. I'm too afraid I'm going to break something!

I'd love to but I have no room for setup…