3D Printers and Printing

Steve Norris of www.NorrisLabs.com loves to make ‘Bots, so much so that he produces one every two months, photographs and writes about them in his blog. (Editor’s Note: Steve has about 20 of them detailed on his site.). As a Contributing Editor at Robot Magazine, he is continually challenging the status quo to create things that have never been seen before. As an example, one need go no farther than the hilarious RoboStool, the name of which, Steve quickly points out, is quite funny in its own right. So, where did the idea come from? I’m not really sure, but one day while waiting for my wife to finish shopping [Read more…]

I have used a couple of other 3D printers. Involved in some kickstarter projects as well for others. This one is the first 3D printer that has ‘just worked’ (almost see below) and I highly recommend it. I have printed in the 5 weeks I’ve had it an amazing amount of ABS. With the holiday season many folks received an ‘I made this’ gift. The problems I’ve had. 1) SD card had to be removed, reformated before it would actually work. 2) ABS printing doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ as well as I would like. I wonder if a bit more heat on the bed would be good. The greatest thing [Read more…]

This was a Christmas present for my husband, but it has been a lot of fun for both of us. The quality of the prints is very good, definitely good enough for small things and sturdy enough to give most things to our toddler. I’m glad we waiting a couple years for the technology to mature, but this printer is pretty user friendly. The setup for the printer once we received it was pretty simple. The only things that needed tweaking from shipping were the platform leveling, and entering the values from the included calibration print file after we printed it. So far most of what we’ve done is print [Read more…]

So far, I’m very pleased with the unit. It worked as I expected it would. Easy to use and good print quality. The software is better than expected. I like the way it builds its own base below the actual print. My 10 year old daughter imported a cat into sketchup. We exported it into an STL, using a free plugin and it printed perfectly, without any tweaking. I’m looking forward to using it for more serious jobs. Reviewed by: Kai Kaletsch from Saskatoon, Canada. on 1/13/2013 [Read more…]

I am a Mechanical Engineer with 23 years of product development experience. I have worked at several fortune 100 companies and have used several different kinds/brands of expensive 3d printers. The AFINIA H479 3D printer works very well and the output is comparible to machines I have used. I was very surprised and amazed at how the printer and software handled a small helical gear (1.25″ dia. X 0.375″ tall X 48 teeth.) Printed gear was functional. Start up kit was complete and set-up straight forward. Software occasionally hangs up when sending a print job from the PC to the printer, but a reset of the printer resolves the issue. [Read more…]

Very satisfied with Afinia 3D printer. Software works well. Machine does a good job making models. Accuracy is excellent based on this printing technology. Setup took a bit of time getting the platform level and printing height set. Have made many models for engineering school and old car restoration. Best to withdraw filament after a printing job. Have had filament stick and had to drill out nozzle. Reviewed by: Jerry Craig from St. Louis Missouri. on 2/10/2013 [Read more…]

When I first started researching 3D printing, I noticed that a lot of the 3D printing community were very into making their own printers, tweaking, upgrading, etc. I realized that while this was cool, I really just wanted something that worked out of the box. 3D printing is a means to an end for me, and I really appreciate that Afinia offers an affordable, high-quality, and easy to use printer for those of us that just want to print stuff. I really don’t think you could make it easier to get excellent results so quickly. If you’re not interested in spending valuable time building your own printer, then this is [Read more…]

…I bought one thru the Makershed. Finally a 3d printer that just prints when you hit print. [Read more…]

Great printer! We’ve been using the printer in our office nearly non-stop for prototype construction. [Read more…]

by Aaron H. Pratt, VP Marketing – Microboards Technology/Afinia Almost exactly one year ago, we made the decision to enter the fray of 3D printing. What we saw then, and what we see now, was a disruptive technology, positioned to change business, that was beginning to make its way into the desktop market. Technologically speaking, we knew we were a late entrant. 3D printing, sometimes called Additive manufacturing, had been around for 30 years in one form or another. But marketwise, we saw a window of opportunity. Suddenly, garage tinkerers and back-room hobbyists were beginning to produce a product that met the economic requirements and piqued the interest of a [Read more…]

I’m fairly new to 3D Printing and got involved via our work with the folks at Afinia. We brought a printer over to the office, set it up and started using it within 45 minutes. Initially, we made models from Thingiverse that we used in videos and photoshoots. I have to admit, I moved the printer into the warehouse so that I wouldn’t gawk at it while it was working. As I started to think about other applications, one came to mind (Duh-OH!): I have a bunch of melted, broken and missing parts for things around our home that have never been replaced. I recall searching an hour on a [Read more…]