Hi everyone, I'm new to model building and wow, this is an awesome forum! I'm Will and I hope to exchange pointers with anyone who's into this. To start off, I am a noob in this area but am trying out something new like 3D printing my own models such as these.


I've recently completed my own model and am 3D printing through sourcemake.comme. Would like to find out if there's anyone here modelling your own through 3D printing too? Would love to hear from you guys!

I've been printing through Shapeways.

I am just getting ready to dip my toe in the completely new pool of 3d design and printing in a class for teacher's using them in elementary classrooms, but I have to admit having an ulterior hobby motive as well.
I'm sure the printer I will have access to will not have the finest resolution like the folks at Shapeways, but it is an emerging technology I am interested in exploring.

I am starting to look around for a community like Armorama for folks of all abilities/experience in the 3D design/printing world.
The makingverse folks look interesting and there are tons of designs, but I am not sure they have the types of forums I'm used to here.

Mike

Thanks for sharing, Matt and Mike! Yes I agree desktop FDM 3D printers such as the makerbots will not be able to produce as good a finishing as those shapeways printers, but today they are very cheap to 3D print my models in. And now with sites like sourcemake, I don't have to dip into the complexities of owning and maintaining a 3D printer but still get to print cheaply..so that's quite a good thing for this hobby i think. I've tried shapeways earlier too and interestingly although the prints I received are of slightly higher resolutions, they are alot less strong compared to those fdm prints I received from sourcemake. There are pros and cons of each types of 3D printing I guess..

I'd love to know the file size limits as well as the specs of the printers on sourcemake. That's the biggest advantage to shapeways for me, the tools that preview the design before trying to print it.

I tent to stay with the Detail plastics at shapeways, unless a textured surface is required.

Good point Matt. I haven't tested the limits myself but the files that I have uploaded on sourcemake for printing were about 40mb large, so I guess most models should be fine? As for the printers, I've seen that they have quite a variety, with some of them being commercial printers too. Apparently, there are also printers available to print in more exotic materials like ceramic, wood etc (although I have not tried those). They maintain a list of printers here.