{"id":47,"date":"2016-05-15T09:19:31","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T14:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/?p=47"},"modified":"2016-05-15T09:20:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T14:20:17","slug":"monoprice-dual-extrusion-3d-printer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/2016\/05\/monoprice-dual-extrusion-3d-printer\/","title":{"rendered":"Monoprice Dual Extrusion 3D Printer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So, we purchased a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monoprice.com\/product?p_id=11614\">Monoprice Dual Extrusion 3D Printer<\/a><\/strong> for game piece prototyping. \u00a0I got the chance to sit down and really dig in this weekend. \u00a0Here&#8217;s what I can tell you if you&#8217;re considering:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You need to feel technically comfortable messing around with drivers, COM ports, and Services.<\/li>\n<li>Feel comfortable or willing to learn to design in a 3D modelling software. \u00a0I have really only used <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tinkercad.com\">tinkercad.com<\/a>\u00a0(free) and I&#8217;m quite happy with my results from such a simple web-based application. \u00a0I started using 123D Design (free) too. \u00a0Much more sophisticated, but I like the simplicity of tinkercad so far. \u00a0I&#8217;ll keep using it until I can&#8217;t make what I need in there.<\/li>\n<li>I went through literally 4\u00a0different <strong>slicer apps<\/strong> (3free and ultimately 1 paid) before I was really satisfied with (and in some cases ABLE to print).\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ReplicatorG<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; Came preloaded was old, obsolete, and useless. \u00a0It required me to install a Python application\/service which never connected to the printer. \u00a0Not supported anymore either.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cura<\/strong> &#8211; beautiful program that would have worked for any other 3D printer, I believe. \u00a0It can&#8217;t convert to the right type of GCode for this Monoprice printer, which uses a different language.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Makerbot Desktop<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; (I think this replaced ReplicatorG) Much better, but didn&#8217;t have much for options, and couldn&#8217;t print with a skirt &#8212; only a huge raft that I couldn&#8217;t disconnect from my prints. \u00a0I wasn&#8217;t happy with the non-raft printing. \u00a0Bright side, I could print. \u00a0Start here if you&#8217;re looking for free slicer with this Monoprice printer.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Simplify3D <\/strong>&#8211;<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Wow<\/span>. What a difference $150 makes. \u00a0I figured I already have spend more on this printer than I should have, why not just round it out. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t want to spend the money on this. \u00a0I really didn&#8217;t. \u00a0But it will be worth it in the end. \u00a0Its interface is intuitive and powerful. \u00a0I can duplicate a piece I want to make multiples of (handy for game pieces), automatically center and rearrange the pieces, and then print via USB where it shows a live preview of what&#8217;s happening on the printer. \u00a0Really slick. \u00a0I guess you get what you pay for. \u00a0Lots of options for support structures, brims, skirts, rafts, and first layer speed. \u00a0I&#8217;m printing my 23rd game piece as I type this and I&#8217;m really satisfied with the results so far.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve heard others say it requires a lot of tinkering and patience to 3D print. \u00a0So far, I&#8217;m extremely happy with this product. \u00a0I did throw in the towel (temporarily) on dual extrusion. \u00a0It was a lot more than I was ready for.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ll post more as I get more results and learn tricks and tips. \u00a0Hope this helps someone out there. \u00a0Can&#8217;t beat this printer for the price point.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"7\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;\"><a style=\"color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BFUioQEBanf\/\" target=\"_blank\">First attempt at running a dual extruded Bolster General. (Bolster is an Oakheart Games prototype). Stay tuned to see if it was a success! #3dprint #Protospiel #protospielmilwaukee #prototype #boardgamepieces<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\">A video posted by Oakheart Games (@oakheartgames) on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2016-05-12T20:40:37+00:00\">May 12, 2016 at 1:40pm PDT<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, we purchased a Monoprice Dual Extrusion 3D Printer for game piece prototyping. \u00a0I got the chance to sit down and really dig in this weekend. \u00a0Here&#8217;s what I can tell you if you&#8217;re considering: You need to feel technically comfortable messing around with drivers, COM ports, and Services. Feel comfortable or willing to learn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24,26,27],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3d-printer","tag-3d-printing","tag-prototypes"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oakheartgames.com\/boardgames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}