Hello everyone. I’m just gettng started with Poppy and was wondering what are the minimum specs a 3D printer must have in order to print the parts.
Thanks for your help.
You want to print Poppy humanoid or Poppy ErgoJr?
A humanoid.
Twenty characters.
Humanoid kit are 3D printed using SLS technology. We work with sculpteo or this kind of company…
Some guys as @srandoux succeed to do it.
Indeed,
you need a dual head standard FDM printer.
I used PLA and HIPS for support (also PLA sticks properly to HIPS).
Beware, some parts like the chest take 80 hours to print, so you need accuracy and reliability. Total print time is probably more than 300h. Then, you need to remove the support and clean the parts… also time consuming…
You need a good slicer software also. Cura is good but for some parts Simplify 3D is much better.
So, basically you need to know your printer and your software pretty well.
Besides that, it takes 1 spool of HIPS and 1 spool of PLA max to print everything, so between 60/90 euros.
If you need 20 poppy(ies), It’ll take you some time! but will be cheaper than SLS…
Feel free to ask if you need some tips, i’ll be happy to help replicate what I did.
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Thank you for the helpful replies. Is there a minimum print size that the printer must support? I’m looking at getting a MakerGear M2 Desktop 3D Printer which prints Width x Depth x Height: 200 mm (8") x 250 mm (10") x 200 mm (8").
I think this is enough, but just wanted to make sure.
yes it fits.
Also make sure Plastics sticks properly to the plate, it is an issue when printing stuff which takes long time.
Be careful, this printer has only one head. If you have 2 heads it reduces the print area also (depending on the head configuration). 1 head, also requires more cleaning for the support material (because it mixes more with the material itself).
Also this printer is not in an enclosure, you can add one yourself but for long print times, you must be careful, it is not proven whether printer emits nanoparticules of plastic or not (so you might be breathing bad stuff), it is safer to put in an enclosure and add some kind of filtering. You might want also want to use octoprint and a webcam to check remotely if your print fails or not.
If you print with one head, support is mixed with material and sometimes it is impossible to remove because of complex geometry (typically the chest of Poppy).
Thank you for the advice. Do you have a printer you recommend? I’d like to get the best one for the task I can afford. At $1800, the MakerGear M2 is about as much as I can afford.
I built mine starting from a KIT and then modified it so much that it is really a custom version.
Looking quickly, there seems to be cheap alternatives:
I am not familiar with this model but the specs seem ok. I don’t know the firmware they are running also. I am familiar with the Marlin firmware which is widely spread.
But anyway, what you really have to know is no matter the one you purchase, there is a learning curve, you will experience some failures during your prints because the technology is not quite there to make it like a plug & play laser printer, so it is good to buy a printer you can hack and understand what is going on to avoid running into issues and figure out the one you’ll have.
Thanks again for your help. I’ll give the printer you mentioned a try. I understand you’ve never used it, but it has two print heads, a heated plate, and is less than 1/2 the cost of the printer I was going to get.
it seems to be a Chinese clone of this one:
Hello David. I used a DaVinci 1.0 3d printer to build mine. I am limited to abs and a few of the parts have been a challenge. I’ve found for most parts I had issues with after sanding and filing for fitment etc. I painted several thin coats of 2 part epoxy I picked up at a local dollar store but any hardware store epoxy will work. Most of the parts I found generally printed well the first time. If you orient things properly you can minimize support structure required. I was even thinking of using fiberglass mat and resin to further strengthen many of the pieces. Which serves two purposes adds strength as well as a skin so to speak while still keeping everything light weight.
great new idea!! expensive though…
There is a new design from Prusa to print mutiple filament: http://prusaprinters.org/original-prusa-i3-mk2-multi-material-upgrade-release/