3d printer used?

LowRider CNC Advice
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Hello everyone, New user here. I have recently stumbled across the lowrider v3 cnc machine in reddit which led me to this forum. I made up my mind that I want to build the lowrider v3. At first, I wanted to buy the parts but now I want to print them instead.

I don’t have a 3d printer, but I am looking to see which one is adequate to print the parts for the cnc. I was wondering what 3d printer you guys used if you went the same route that I want to go. I saw someone here mentioned that the bed has to be a certain size since some parts are kind of big for certain printers.

Sorry if this question has been asked. I tried looking but could not find a similar question. If there is a similar question please point me in the right direction. Thank you.

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Hi and welcome.

I used a Prusa MK3 with Galaxy Black / Galaxy Purple PLA. It was roughly 150 hours of printing. Everything except the YZ plates fit on the bed. You can get YZ plates in MDF through the store. I was able to cut mine in half and print in two pieces.

You could print everything on a less expensive printer. The Ender3v2 is $99 at Micro Center with the new member coupon sometimes. After the ~$40 in filament though, you will probably be at the cost of the parts through the store.

You should decide if you also want a 3D printing hobby, or want to focus on the CNC right now.

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@srcnet thank you for the response. I’ll definitely look into the ender 3v2 if it’s just $99 especially if most of the parts can be printed on it. Was there any problems when printing the parts? Or as long as you follow the specifications for each one will turn alright.

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Lots of people have good success with the cheaper 3D printers, but it’s definitely an area where they will often need a bit more babysitting and careful troubleshooting when things go wrong.

As @srcnet says, I would personally weigh up whether you want just the CNC router or the CNC router + 3D printer. If you’re stoked about the idea of a 3D printer and don’t mind tinkering with something to get it working just right then go for it. If the 3D printer is just a way to spit out the parts for the CNC router and the thought of spending hours getting it set up and working right with the occasional failed print 10 hours into a 12 hour print sounds like something you would find annoying/frustrating then picking up the parts from the store might be a better path.

I love mucking around with my 3D printer, but I also have friends who bought cheaper ones and then just never used them or stopped using them because they were ‘too unreliable’. That usually means they never invested the time and effort into getting them running right or figuring out how to get the most out of them, which is perfectly fine. What they wanted was the ability to create stuff out of thin air, not another hobby of 3D printer setup, maintenance and troubleshooting, which was fair.

If you just want something that’s going to magically create parts, the Prusa printers or something like the Bambu Labs printers are excellent for that. If you want something where you can save a bit of money in exchange for a learning curve and some up-front effort, that’s where the Ender series shines, in my opinion.

Edit: In terms of issues printing the parts, the parts are all well designed and PLA is relatively easy to print with. These will likely be the easiest large parts to print, but printing large parts tends to be harder than small. It’s reasonable to assume that a well dialed in cheap printer will print everything with zero hassle. It’s likely that a new out-of-the-box printer will likely have a reasonable failure rate until you learn the tricks. The tricks are all pretty simple, but which work for which printers can be a bit of black magic and it can be different for each, so it’s really a list of potential issues and potential solutions, rather than a ‘recipe’, as such.

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The parts are designed beautifully. You won’t have any problems there. All of them are even orientated the way they should be printed.

You should expect to spend a few weeks playing around with the printer before being successful printing. Many of the parts take a few hours to print each.

I’m not trying to discourage you. If your goal is a Lowrider ASAP, then buy the parts. If you don’t mind an extra month playing around also getting a 3D printer, do that :slight_smile:

+1 to the Bambu Labs being a good printer. They lowered the price of the P1P today too.

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I dont really mind the wait. As I see it, building the cnc and and having a 3d printer at the end for around the same price as buying the parts is a win.

When I was looking into printers a few days ago, I did see the p1p being highly recommended, but I didn’t want to spend the asking price for a 3d printer. I’ll take a look again though and see what i decide. Thanks for the heads up on the price reduction.

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If you approach it with eyes open and are ready to learn, the cheap 3D printers are excellent value for money and can turn out prints that are nearly as good as printers 5-10x their price.

In general, smaller parts that have a lot of surface area to stick to the bed are easiest. Things that are thin, boxy and tall tend to be the hardest to print.

Start with the easier ones and go on from there. By the time you have a full LR3 worth of parts, you should know your printer pretty well.

Go for it.

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@jono035 thank you for the encouragement. Any recommendations regarding 3d printer?

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I can take a stab at it, but I’m not super familiar with everything that’s out there so this is more of an ‘in theory’ perspective.

This isn’t useful information for you, really, but for context: I’m still using a Reprap Mendel90 that’s probably over a decade old at this point. It’s a slow but reliable workhorse, but I’ve definitely had a lot of bed adhesion fights with it. I’ve never been able to dial out the ‘elephants foot’ effect successfully, which is where the first layer or 2 is squished down and makes a thin ‘lip’ at the bottom of the part. I’m mostly printing practical parts so I just trim these off with a deburring tool.

My colleague has a Bambu Labs X1 Carbon that’s a truly incredible bit of kit and excellent value for money, but definitely on the expensive end. This is a great ‘it just works’ option. My colleague knows nothing about 3D printing and basically wanted the 3D equivalent of a modern laser printer, something that just works.

One of the friends that I mentioned bought a cheap Creality mini of some kind 3-4 years ago and never got it working. I never saw it in person, but he was having issues with getting the first layer to complete successfully. It always had the nozzle either too high so it wasn’t actually squishing the layer down, or too low so it was clogging the nozzle.

Another friend bought an Ender 3 when they first came out. I think he was mostly trying to print large blocky ABS models without an enclosure and had a ton of bed adhesion issues where the part would peel off the print partway through or pull up a corner. I think he ended up printing a few things in smaller pieces and gluing them together afterwards before becoming frustrated and I haven’t heard anything since.

Also not really a useful suggestion but out of interest: I have a TierTime Up Box Plus at work, as does another friend. They’ve been ‘ok’, but haven’t lasted well. As closed-source options go, they’re ok but I definitely wouldn’t recommend them. You need to use their software and there isn’t much ability to tweak things to allow other consumables to work. There’s nothing super special about them compared to printers of today, but they were a good reliable option 7-8 years ago.

I guess the main thing I’d be looking at would be how popular they are, first. A name brand printer with a solid community behind it is going to be easier to find help than with a relatively unknown brand. This is where I think Prusa shines, but also where Creality is a good option.

As long as it has a heated bed, you should be able to tweak it enough to work with PLA. If you want to print ABS, try pick one that either has an enclosure or could easily be boxed in without overheating the electronics etc.

If you want to print weird stuff like carbon-fiber filled filaments, glow in the dark, wood-fiber, flexible filament etc. then you’ll need to do some very careful looking into what extruders and nozzles are available, so personally I’ve never bothered.

From looking at the specs, most forms of Ender 3 look pretty good. That’s probably where I’d start, personally.

Edit: Oh, and I am looking to upgrade at the moment, but will likely go slightly higher end. Either the Prusa XL, Bambu Labs X1 Carbon or making myself a Voron 2.4r2.

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So yeah, the Ender3v2 that @srcnet mentioned above is a damn good option at that price, I’d say.

Also, another thought is that all filament isn’t created equal. I’ve had good luck with ESun PLA+, but I have some cheaper stuff that has never printed well for me. You don’t need to spend big $ to get good filament, but I’d personally avoid the cheapest options.

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I came from zero experience 3D printing, to ordering an Ender3 Neo and printing everything for my lowrider without any problems. I think I printed a spacer to get rid of a belt rub on the x axis, but it’s been no fuss other than that. If you’re a natural tinkerer that’s mechanically inclined, you can get really nice results with inexpensive printers.

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Not that you need more “2 cents”, but IMO, the biggest question should be how much are you willing or wanting to spend. As @SlowRider and @jono035 (and others) have said, high dollar machines don’t guarantee good prints, and cheap machines don’t mean long time tuning. BUT it can. And this is because on top of all the other variables, you as the builder/user/operator are also a factor.

In my opinion this video is exactly (and matches) what people here are trying to get across. (and yet like most YouTube videos, doesn’t tell you which one to buy) But he does give you things to consider.

I agree with his viewpoints, however in full disclosure, I own a Prusa MK3. I have co-workers who have Enders. I KNOW (but can’t prove it) that the quality of their prints are not their printers’ fault. But I’ve seen others with Enders, have the same results as mine, or better.

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Thank you everyone who so far responded to my question.

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I also am in agreement, and I also own a Prusa Mk3, which I bought with only one project in mind: The LowRider2. It’s barely stopped printing ever since.

My Grandson has a Creality machine (A CR-10) like a big Ender, and I have to say he gets a reasonable print, but each one takes a lot of effort and there are a lot of failures on the way and the machine spends more time in troubleshooting mode than it actually does printing. I originally thought about buying one of them, but reliability was my over riding criteria and I decided on my Prusa “tractor” and am extremely glad I did.

I’ve just printed the parts for my LR3, one at a time over a couple of weeks, no fuss, no failures, each print as close to perfect as one could expect. I’d love to convince myself that the shiny speedy racing machines are what I need, but what I need is something that works with minimal maintenance, and is easily repaired by me when something inevitably wears out.

As many have said - if you don’t expect printing to become a hobby, order the parts rather than a new machine. If you think you can use a machine going forward, buy the best you can afford.

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@bitingmidge thank you for your input.

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I was in the same boat as your are in now and bought a Prusa Mini three years ago. It’s also printed quite a lot of stuff now and it’s never had any problems so far. :smile:

I am now upgrading to a MK4.

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There is nothing i can add to this discussion that has not allready be said.

But i just want to say that it was a pleasure to read, helpful and no “my team is better than yous”.

God the forum is a pleasure to be in.

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Yeah, I was in the same boat when i got into this. Didn’t have a printer, so I purchased the printed (primo) parts from V1. I’m glad I did. It made assembly quicker and the parts were correct with no issues. Still haven’t built the printer…

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The prusa is also open source compared to the carbon. So if you need to print a part, you can find the OEM design and print it with a prusa. The X1 has some open source parts, but they are in a legal gray area.

The prusa mk3 or mk4 is several hundred dollars more than an ender. But that is the value of a good working out of the box printer. The $200-$300 ones won’t be the same until you’ve invested $500-$600 in them. I would rather work on them myself than pay the factory. But everyone is different.

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Regarding the parts, do you guys have an estimate on how much pla was used? In case I see a sale, I can buy a large enough quantity to cover the parts that are going to be printed.

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