3d printed Winter Tux that I designed in the free and open source Dust3d .
The Black&Decker Workmate is my loyal companion during my DIY projects in and around the house. Unfortunately some of the clamps had been broken so designed and then printed them on my Prusa i3 clone. I used black Polymax PLA. Now let’s see if they will stand the test of time. …
I was going to write that have to learn Blender to create D&D figures but I just came across this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3054701.
I started 3dprinting because I wanted to see my (humble) creations come to life. I lack the room for large equipment so a 3dprinter was the best option. I printed many creations since and it’s always a sense of accomplishment when one comes from the printer. It also has a more practical purpose in that I can replace parts in and around the house that are broken.
Hi, I guess it depends on whether you are tinkerers or just want to print. If you’re tinkerers I’d buy an Ender 3 and gradually upgrade it. If you just want to print and have a fully open source printer I’d buy the Prusa Mini.
The first piece of software that you need is a slicer. It converts the file of the 3dmodel (generally an stl) to a gcode file. This gcode controls the printer so it’s important that the slicer supports your printer. I use the open source Cura. Others use Slic3r but I believe that’s a bit harder to use. Prusa has their own slicer.
Further down the road it’s IMHO inevitable to create your own designs. This can be done with a 3dCAD program like FreeCAD, Solvespace or OpenSCAD. Or for more creative designs Blender or Dust3D.
I believe all programs mentioned above are available for Linux, Windows and OSX.
It’s a Velleman Vertex Nano, it was a gift. It was a real pain to get a decent print out of it or should I say challenge. It’s of little practical use because of it’s tiny printbed but it’s great for experimenting (e.g with firmware) and for kids.
There are only a few suppliers left that are fully open source when it comes to hardware. From the top of my head I can only think of Joseph Prusa.
Hello my name is Eric, this is a photo of my current 3dprinting/electronics corner. I hope to have good conversations here about everything 3dprinting…
No problem. Thanks for the idea.