@Steve_Sharp I’ve been printing with Taulman’s Nylon, both formulas, and they’re great. The 618 is very flexible (“like rubber”), and the 645 is stiffer and bonds amazingly well to itself. Both print parts that are pretty much indestructible. And he is extremely responsive to the community. For example, his first spools were tricky to feed from, so he completely redesigned his spools and packaging.
Great summary of materials. The one I would add is HIPS, which is the kind of plastic that milk cartons tend to be made from. It’s a bit obscure, but it does work. There’s also “clear ABS” (MABS), which I have a spool of - it prints like ABS, but looks like clear PLA.
I’ve printed pretty much all of them with a Replicator, and I don’t see any reason that any 3D extrusion printer couldn’t print with any of them, assuming a heated print bed for the ones that need it (ABS in particular).
There are also people printing with materials like chocolate, icing, and clay, using mechanisms that are more like pumps or plungers than extruders.
@Nick_Parker To correct some errors - the Replicator 2 prints with PLA, not ABS. And you can use PLA filament from any supplier. And I have no idea why you would think that you can’t fix problems with it - just like any extrusion printer you can take it apart, tweak it, etc., and their support staff is quite responsive to even my weirdest questions.
@ThantiK Based on sales, Makerbot is the clear market leader, by a wide margin. That’s not to say that it’s the best printer for everyone, of course - there are many great printers from many companies, each with their own strengths and weaknesses - but since they’ve sold a lot more printers than any other 3D printer company in the market, there’s a larger user base and support community, which leads to cool things like the Sailfish firmware, upgrades to the design, etc.
@Laird_Popkin It appears I was looking at a 2x. Odd that they have 2 separate machines for a change in plastic btw.
And it doesn’t matter that you can fix it, it costs $2000+, why the hell doesn’t the extruder work?
Anyway, it hardly matters to me, I’ve got my own and the hackerspace has an UP that behaves decently. Although the bed is a bit small.
@Nick_Parker the Replicator 2x has a heated print bed so it can print ABS. The Replicator 2 has an unheated print bed, so it can print PLA but not ABS. That’s a pretty common distinction between models of 3d printers. Ultimaker’s standard for example is unheated and prints PLA, and there’s a heated bed version for PLA.
There is a promising looking first-printer on kick-starter this week. Blue Eagle Labs have added a Delta printer from $500-$1000 that looks to have the same comparable resolution as all of the current primary names. This one has a huge build space and the rare automated bed-leveling protocol. The parts are generic and used everywhere in current printers but thats what makes it affordable. They look to have the business plan down for a kickstarter, so I’d recommend them if anyone is still looking for a new first printer. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blueeaglelabs/kossel-clear-lets-build-a-full-sized-delta-3d-prin