Oi, ya fuckin cunts know we have our own australia-focused subreddit for 3D printing? Problem is that it’s about as dead as a tasmanian tiger (probably extinct, maybe not? who knows) and most Q&As put through here are of an American/European bent. So here’s basically the masterpost of everything Australia-specific I’ve ever both seen asked and wanted to know but didn’t find here.1) Q: I want a printer! What options are available to me?A: You’re fucked on shipping. Most options that get recommended for beginners are simply out of reach for Australians. Monoprice want anything from $200-$400 for shipping alone, you realize? In USD.Luckily most antipodeans have the advantage of being relatively closer to China-based warehouses so actually feasible options are things like the Creality Ender 3(Pro)/CR-10(S), the gamut of Tevo clones, theoretically the Wanhao lineup but YMMV*, plus any of the poorly made Mk3 copies that infest the Eastern 3D printer market. Places like Aliexpress, Banggood, etc. will have correspondingly shorter shipping times based on where you are on this blighted continent of death. Those are essentially your budget options, where you can depend on a modicum of support from the community without having to pay over $500 (AUD) or so.*They actually have a Sydney-based reseller but local resellers often pass the cost of shipping down to us pretty much unmodified so all you save is timeQ: What about Amazon?A: Fuck Amazon. You know how many American/European people I see recommend Amazon and link Amazon shit and go “yes go with Amazon for the customer service and returns policy”? This straw man answer is more for those people who may not be aware thatAmazon don’t fucking ship anything down hereQ: But Amazon.com.au exists!A: Guess what isn’t on it and therefore is unavailable to us antipodean fucks, oh look it’s literally 95% of everything ever postedQ: Okay butA: fuck amazon2) Q: So I’m limited to kits from China? I don’t want to build a kit, though, and my budget is still limited!A: No one said it was going to be easy. There are a few workarounds. For example, Monoprice has an ebay store that will ship to Australia (non-express) for a lot less than what they demand on their website. There will be additional charges for import taxes and so on, but they will do their open box models there for the additional discount if you’re feeling cheap.sighThe evil amazon.com.au does also stock the Monoprice Delta Mini and Maker Select Mini V2, if you’re absolutely set on those printers and nothing else from the Monoprice line. sighbegrudgingly they’re a pretty good deal tooAmazon AU also stocks a lot of the China-warehouse complement like the CR-10 and so on, but as far as I can tell you’d get better prices from Aliexpress (since that’s where Creality’s official store is, for a start). I haven’t looked into price comparisons for the Tevo clones, etc. but I feel like you might get better prices off eBay as many of the dealers there offer coupons?3) Q: What if I want to go bigger than the budget option? What’s available to me?A: Now we enter into the meat of the problem: “Big enough to print nice things but also big enough to warrant a shitton of shipping costs” printers. The higher-end Monoprice Maker Select Pluses/Ultimates, the Prusa i3s y’all hype so much, the Flashforges and the Makerbotsi guess.I mentioned the Flashforges for a reason, so let’s start with that: Jaycar. Well, that was easy! Flashforges like the Finder and up are right there in store. But personally I think they’re just a little bit too fiddly and dressed up for the build volume they offer: the Adventurer is 150x150x150, for $900 (AUD), and what you’re really paying for is a slightly larger Finder with an enclosure. But it’s right there if you want to bypass shipping costs entirely. It really is a pity they stopped selling Creator Pros though; those printers are workhorses (workhorses with incredibly finicky beds).As previously mentioned Monoprice won’t sell to us locally and they charge shipping out the wazoo so if you want a Maker Select (Plus) or a Maker Ultimate be prepared to pay for it. The lowest cost option I’ve found is still through eBay because as previously mentioned Amazon are evil. There are Amazon AU listings but they’re mostly – again – resellers who pass the cost of shipping on to us. You may have more luck with the Wanhao printers, which I’m including in this point for consistency’s sake but you’re not likely to find, say, a Duplicator 6 for less than its clone, the Maker Ultimate. Shipping’s a bitch.Prusas, Prusas, Prusas. Why does everyone on this subreddit have such a hard-on for Prusa? (rhetorical question. I know how good the Prusas are). Shipping from the Czech Republic will set you back quite a bit, though, and that cost still gets passed on to you by most of the local resellers that I could find, but I guess when it comes to a Prusa, you’re probably willing to pay that extra. These guys are the only ones I have experience with, and no, I’m not affiliated. Melburnians can just drive in and pick one up. The rest of you have to pay for postage, which is included in the pricing. That’s pretty much the most no-bullshit option I could find.Makerbots are stocked by some of the higher end Australian resellers online (whomst you can doeth a google, and trust me, none of them are significantly cheaper than any other) and if you’re willing to get in on that mess vis a vis smart extruder then you’re gonna have to walk this path alone. But you won’t have to pay exorbitant shipping! Honestly at this price point we should be on the next tier of printers, which we’ll get to in a second.Q: I was at Officeworks and saw some xyzPri-A: No.4) Q: I am a fantastically rich person who makes more in a day than I will see in a fortnight.A: This post is probably not for you, just go buy six Ultimakers from Imaginables and stack them like minecraft blocks or something. At that kind of money-expenditure Australia-specific restrictions cease to be relevant, save for time. This actually applies to Makerbots as well, except on top of that you’re a bloody idiot.5) Q: Where do I get filament?A: Funnily enough this is where the resources available at the Australia-specific subreddit do still help, even though half the links are dead. Go look there.6) Q: I want to finish my prints. I hear good things about XTC blah blah blahA: Go to Bunnings and pick up some epoxy fillers. Or some auto body fillers. Or some wood fillers. While you’re at Bunnings pick up sandpaper and a sausage. Eat the sausage. XTC-3D and other brand-name stuff will, once again, charge us a premium for shipping to the arse end of nowhereland where the prime ministers rain from the sky and disappear into the ocean. Also, go to a hobby shop and pick up some primer if you’re looking to paint things.7) Q: I wanna make my own printer!A: Aight. Nice thing about Australia is that there’s a lot of hardware that’s already here because shipping is a pain. So extrusions, motors, belts and screws are going to be easier to locally source. As for the more specialized shit, you’re fucked. It’s hard to buy genuine E3D hotends from down under. It’s hard to get Duet boards and real stepper drivers at any kind of reasonable price without getting fucked on shipping, and that’s not even counting the fact that the Aussie dollar’s kind of in the toilet right now. The nice part is that there are companies here that have done the heavy lifting for you. The not so nice part is that they’re passing on the cost of shipping to us, because we just absolutely have to get fucked on everything, don’t we? Try Aurarum. They do boards. Imaginables do unimaginably high prices on nozzles, and hot ends… I haven’t tried new hotends yet so I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. RS Online have aluminium extrusions and acrylic sheets + decent shipping within Australia. And of course you could just source everything from Aliexpress. Good luck.8) Q: Can I turn this into a business?A: Questionable. Market is pretty saturated but the fact is that because we’re far away from everyone and printers are a little more relatively scarce here, there is a demand for printed parts. You’d probably have to sign up as a subcontractor with a service that outsources 3d printing to individuals. Even then you’d probably have to have a pretty flexible setup that’s prepared to print many things of many types if you want a chance at being able to fulfill these orders to satisfaction, is my experience.9) Q: Who’s the prime minister? A: fuck if I knowtl;dr – australia is very far away from everywhere and everything needs to be marked up for shipping in your cost estimatesedit – formatting as usual https://ift.tt/2PQaCn4