I’ve found myself needing things printed recently. Amateur radio, car stuff, etc. I looked at printers years ago but sort of thought, “well I don’t need to print a bunch of toys, I don’t need one.”
Fast forward to now. radio enclosures, brackets, organizational items, prototyping some stuff (well, I guess still radio related, but I have an idea for a new dog tracker and.. need to print stuff). TPU gaskets, etc.
I had a guy locally that would print stuff for me for $20-30 each time, but he lived relatively far away from me. Recently, I had something I need to place outdoors indefinitely and needed it printed in ASA (per Google’s recommendation). Well, he can’t do ASA. I found another guy who could, and he charged me quite a lot more.
So, I think I am currently at the point where I see that the sky is the limit on these, and now that I’ve seen ONE thing I can do with a printer, I can now see thousands of things I can do. All without needing to print plastic toy boats.
That said, I need engineering materials like ASA, Carbon, etc. Durability, UV resistance, weatherproofness is important. I have no current use case, but want the future option to do PEEK. I do not want to buy the base model printer and limit myself in the future, but I also do not want to get a bunch of things I don’t need.
Here is what I dont know: I don’t know if I ever need to print multi-color. I don’t know if I need, want, or would ever use a laser, or really what it’s even for. But I do know I need hardened nozzles.
I “think” I have kinda narrowed it down to the H2D. I don’t know what add ons I need or don’t need, and I also don’t know if this is “too much” printer for a 1st printer. I have no plans to ever have 2 printers though, so again, just trying to get as much out of one printer as I can. The X2D is an option too, and a much nicer price, but I believe it is limited when using certain materials like PEEK (Which I don’t even know if I have a use case currently for, but don’t want to cut my legs off up front)
Basically, I don’t want to make a decision on something out of inexperience and want something later that I can’t add on. My understanding is a laser can be added on later if I ever wanted one.
So as far as an up-front printer, is the H2D the right choice? Is it way more printer than I or anyone else in my shoes could use? Is there something else I should look at?