Advice on buying a 3D printer

Who can give us some feedback concerning on purchase a K8200 or K8400 3D printer
Our goal: creating prototypes in good quality
Can we also provide holes in a 3D print (see picture)

[quote=“pdg”]Who can give us some feedback concerning on purchase a K8200 or K8400 3D printer
Our goal: creating prototypes in good quality
Can we also provide holes in a 3D print (see picture)[/quote]
Should this be a prototype of an aluminum extrusion?
Which tolerances do you need?

If you print it upright, like in the picture it “should” be printable, whereas the stock K8200 gives less detailed results than the stock k8400.

Yes that’s possible depending on the size of your holes and how complex the design is.

cheers,
Dylan

And the accuracy is highly dependent of the fine tuning of the printer. Small inner circles or tubes are always under-scaled (it’s a slicer issue). Overhangs need support and long bridges are often sagging a bit.
With 0.1 mm layers, the result is more accurate than with 0.2 mm.

Thank you for the feedback, the prototype is a model for PVC extrution in the future.
We use it to see if its fit in the clients project or plan, that before we order the mould.
For 3D prototypes we use a .stl file, export from Autocad and the 3D print is equal to my drawing.
So the best is the K8400 is that correct?

[quote=“raby”]And the accuracy is highly dependent of the fine tuning of the printer. Small inner circles or tubes are always under-scaled (it’s a slicer issue). Overhangs need support and long bridges are often sagging a bit.
With 0.1 mm layers, the result is more accurate than with 0.2 mm.[/quote]

Thank you for the feedback, so the best is the K8400 correct?

Yes! I don’t think you can beat the Vertex K8400’s print quality for the price, I’ve certainly not seen anything that comes near at that price point. Does take a while to build it, and you have to be very careful at following the instructions.

You’ll also have to print in mostly PLA, but there are PLA derived filaments that cover most users needs now.

Hello,

I think the best way to look at this is to check out the negative sides to both printers and then go from there.
With the K8400, there have been a lot of complaints regarding printing issues and troubleshooting - for many people it seems to take a lot of patience to deal with it, however it’s unanimous that it provides great prints when it’s working properly.

The K8200 is considered a great budget buy, however reviews work against it when it comes to reliability and precision, not to mention it’s not the easiest to use since it’s a kit and it needs constant calibration.

Knowing the benefits as well as the downsides should make the decision easier for you. If you want to expand your options, check out this 3D printer guide for 2016: mylocal3dprinting.com/blog/3d-p … t-in-2016/