3D printer from Aldi

[Keith Simmons]

I have found a Balco 3D printer from Aldi online for £249.99

Is that any good and can you create say a spinner from the machine or is it a soft material? i.e. No metal type filaments?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[MaL]

I'm not sure I would consider a 3D printed spinner as having sufficient integrity for safe operation.

[Robin Etherton]

Get an Anet a8 from Gearbest. £130 or thereabouts delivered and print a whole plane with the help of Labprint.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Alan Gorham_]

Keith I am using the exact same model and while not the cheapest it is very straightforward to use out of the box. The printer comes with some PLA filament and while this is not as strong as some other materials (ie you can get filament with carbon fibre in it) I feel that it would be suitable to make a spinner for an electric powered model.

I recommend you consider the thickness of the spinner walls when designing and the density of internal fill material that the printer will apply between walls.

I have been using our printer to make jigs to hold components under test at work and a degree of strength and durability has been needed and met.

[Simon Chaddock]

Just a heads up.

Its not just the printer but also the software needed to design the spinner unless you are using a ready designed one from the likes of Thingyverse..

[Alan Gorham_]

There are a few free 3D design software programs available such as Autodesk TinkerCAD....

[Keith Simmons]

Many thanks for your input.

The reason I added a spinner is really the top end and I would like one day to create a tractor spinner behind a normal plastic spinner as like in twin prop setup such as an Avro Shackleton which is a future project. (Would it be easier for me to modify a larger plastic spinner for this?)

I will build mostly in depron and balsa/light ply in high load bearing areas and fly in a slow graceful manner, that means as light as possible. It will be electric and hopefully the prop rotation speed will be slower.

Perhaps it will be more cost effective for me to have my 3D objects created elsewhere and for me do my business with a few guys on this forum, if not then I will go online.

[Barry Lucifer 1]

The software plays just as important of a part as the hardware, I don't know how compatible the printer from Aldi is with free-software or even good software, good enough to make a high quality spinner. You can get decent 3D printers from www.dibbsto.co.uk/3d-printer/. These will be good for any soft or medium firmness materials you may want to use! Like plastic or wood!!

[Alan Gorham_]

Barry compatibility is an irrelevance.

The Aldi 3D printer accepts G-code output from slicer software such as Cura or Slicr3D (many others available, all free). The printer runs as a stand-alone device and the g-code file of the object to be printed is taken from and SD memory card.

I have personally evaluated free and paid for 3D design software such as tinkerCAD (free) and Fusion 360 (not free!). Both were perfectly capable of making stl files that can then be sliced into G-code for the Aldi 3D printer (note that the Aldi printer is simply a rebadged Wanhao Duplicator Plus i3).

I would have no hesitation in designing a spinner and printing it in PLA material using either software.

Surely the whole point of buying a 3D printer is to have the capability to custom design and print your own parts? Not half as exciting as printing someone else's design, not to mention a very expensive way of obtaining a spinner!