[AMwrx]

G'day,

I was wondering if there is anyone in this Forum who could help me deciding on whether or not to purchase a used Stratasys Prodigy Plus for 3000 USD. The company I'm buying from went out of business.

I'm unsure whether or not this would be a good deal as 1) you typically need a maintenance contract with Stratasys and 2) you need roughly 2000 USD dollars per year for replacement parts to keep the printer running and 3) the ABS and support structure material is very expensive (400 USD for one ABS cartridge).

I'm unsure if I should go with this printer or buy a brand new model. One issue in my case is that the build area of the Prodigy Plus is too small, but I would not care much if the printer worked properly as I could always glue together multiple components.

Alternatively, I could use my money to purchase either a Leapfrog Xeed or the GRRF PRotos X400.

Can anyone help me?
What do you guys think?

[Benonymous]

I'm biased because I have a Leapfrog Creatr. From my experience with Leapfrog, they are a stable, well capitalised company and handled my order without too much drama. The 500 euro delivery cost were a bit hard to take but I'd say delivered, my dual extruder cost a shade under AU$3000. Don't forget, you'll have to pay GST and port charges when it's delivered (about $390).

As you'll see from the pictures the machine is very nicely constructed and uses quality components. The electronics are classic RepRap and the machine uses standard 1.75mm ABS and PLA filament.

You'd do well to stay away from the Stratasys machine, they pull a real "razors and razorblades" deal on their clients. I'm still experimenting with my Creatr but as you see I have produced some pretty decent items.

[AMwrx]

I'm biased because I have a Leapfrog Creatr. From my experience with Leapfrog, they are a stable, well capitalised company and handled my order without too much drama. The 500 euro delivery cost were a bit hard to take but I'd say delivered, my dual extruder cost a shade under AU$3000. Don't forget, you'll have to pay GST and port charges when it's delivered (about $390).

As you'll see from the pictures the machine is very nicely constructed and uses quality components. The electronics are classic RepRap and the machine uses standard 1.75mm ABS and PLA filament.

You'd do well to stay away from the Stratasys machine, they pull a real "razors and razorblades" deal on their clients. I'm still experimenting with my Creatr but as you see I have produced some pretty decent items.

That's great feedback, thank you so much. The Creatr doesn't have heated base plate (I think that's the same as the Xeed) - and people often state that this reduces quality of the end product. What is your opinion on this?

Also, have you thought about simply using an online 3D printer service? Such as shapeways.com? They use top of the range 3D printers. It would be nice if you could post a cost in terms of US$/cm^3 including maintenance (disregard purchase price of 3D printer). How would this compare to the 1.5$/cm^3 on offer from shapeways.com?

The part I'm trying to print has a volume of 1000 cm^3, which would translate to 1500$ to print, and I suspect I have to print it at least 5 times to get this job right.

Thanks again for your feedback,
Regards,
Stefan

[Benonymous]

The Creatr does have a heated bed as does the Xeed. Any print with a decent footprint (over 50-60mm) will tend to warp and peel on a non heated bed as the plastic contracts from cooling. The Creatr and Xeed both have print areas over 200mm square so a heated bed is essential if you're going to take advantage of the area available.

I'm paying around AU$39 per kilo for my filament so you could probably estimate the cost based on the weight of the parts you want to print. I see your point with using an online printing service but when I'm prototyping items if I want to I can print a section of it, test it for fit and then commit to doing a complete print.

$1500 x 5 adds up to some serious expenditure and personally, I'd rather get a machine and learn how to use it, we could all use more tools eh?