Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Holley
The Fortus machines are nice, but do escalate in price quickly. You have to specify a single material that it will print when it comes from the factory (ABS, ABS+, ABSi, ULTEM, PC, etc.) and then for the ability to print in each additional material its about an additional $15K/material.
-Brando
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Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that since we weren't really all that concerned with price when I got the machine quoted. One of the other downsides is that you can't combine certain material options due to different heats or something. By the way, have you ever played with Ultem? I have 'break stick' on my desk that's about 1/8" thick and I still haven't been able to break it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamHeard
The cost effectiveness of these machines compared to picking up a decent used mill/lathe, or a quality mini mill/lathe seems so minimal. 3d printing spacers? per price that must be awful, and spacers are really quick for kids to bang out on a lathe.
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IIRC, when I ran the numbers on our spacers, they cost ~$5 to make (Used a hair over a cubic inch of material at $4.54 per cubic inch) and took about an hour to make in the machine. Considering that I was able to run them while I was at work, it seemed like a win win for everyone.