3d printing

I was looking for a kind of "show of hands" as to the use of 3d printing in building sims. what kind of parts have you used? What type of filament? What kind or type of printer do you have? got any tips' tricks or techniques?

for guys who have a T500 wheel base and want to build a DIY wheel here is two links for wheeladapter.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:976223
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:865785
also in first link there is a way to use an arduino to emulate an original thrustmaster wheel.
have not printed one yet. still learning my first 3D printer.
my printer is the same that @scalhoun has bought from https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/diy-kit/electron-3d-prusa-i3-kit

after watching @stevemontuno RC model i couldn't resist not printing a new seat for my RC model too.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32318


it will be nice to gather some info for 3D printing here as we can get one really cheap from china (with the known risks) and make things for our rigs.
cheers

ty @insanegr . I just printed the hub adapter for my g25. ill be going to the flea market today to try to find a suitable wheel.

I use a prusa I3 reworkhttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=181946177631&view=all&tid=1443317210008. Mk8 bowden extruder E3dv6 head. I print mostly pla as it is easiest. messed with abs and polycarb a little but not a whole lot of success with those yet. they curl as they cool so still figuring that stuff out.

I also printed some project boxes using a parametric script and openscad. i use repeteir with cura. to slice and print.

I get most of my models from http://www.yeggi.com/ it is a 3d model search engine.

Flea market? There is an indoor flea market over there?! Man I hate winter.......no indoor places on this side of Michigan.

EDIT: Bruce, your ebay link is no longer valid. Do you have a company website for that printer?

yes gibralter trade center in mt. clemens. bout 45 minutes east. we also have the pontiac flea market 5 minutes away but its not as nice. Pontiac is picked over its more like a huge garage sale.

@bruce stephen PLA is easiest to print. got one roll of filament yesterday but haven't printed anything yet.
ABS is bit tricky and more difficult as you want more heat on the bed 110 deg Celsius to stick.
have you tried ABS juice or Kapton tape and with cooling off ? i have used ABS so far and a trick i found is blue painters tape with a lot of stick glue on top and cooling off. i have some heating problems with my bed(it can reach only 90 deg ) and ordered a SSR-DD relay to add an extra PSU for the bed.
also waiting a Inductive Proximity Sensor Switch for auto bed levelling and a glass instead of the alu plate.

I use home depot 8x10 glass. 2.00 a sheet. i switched out the psu that came with the printer for one like i use on my sim 12v 50amps plenty of power now. bed was weak at first with the psu supplied. blue tape pulls off the bed for me. I mostly use hair spray for pla as it dries super smooth for an awsome finish. ca glue on glass worked best so far for abs but had to bust out respirator for the fumes so that one is nixed. wanted to try the abs juice for sure. glass is best, you can quick cool and also have a few sheets around. just be careful about too much adhesion lol. check out this pic.

Left a print going and came home to find this on the bed

What would be the Most economical and useful/future proof printer to look into. Not looking to print anything huge, Just something to get the little bits done. Rough price range for material would be appreciated too.

LOL funny you guys should start this post , I think it will be a great melting pot for ideas, Treated myself to a post Xmas present ( well that was my slant on it anyways) and bought this 3d Printer ,WANHAO Duplicator 3... took all of 20 minutes to assemble and so far seems to work fine , Not printed anything yet but hoping to do so tomorrow once I print out the user guide, If this lives upto expectations then bang for bucks thjs will be a great way to get into 3d printing ,, I had already built a MENDEL 90 version 3D printer , but never got round to messing about with all the stuff needed to fine tuneit and get printing ,
Just decided to bite the bullet and get an almost ready to run unit , £289.00 direct from UK distributer delivered within 3 days , Sat unopened for 2 Weeks LOL , Had a blitz day yesterday and it was a doddle to assemble (if you can call fitting 4 screws assembly connect Mains lead and switch on ....JOB DONE ... im liking that sparco seat model you guys posted ,so safe to say that will be on the list for testing

the 6DOF RC servo model in the background will also get a remake to be driven by simtools and ARD , thanks to the new Printer so watch this space for updates

haven't tried hairspray.the seller i bought the filament from, told my he is using beer or tonic water for adhesion on PLA.
the glass i am waiting is tempered and for sure i will not see only a crack if things go bad.

@Nick Moxley if i got right what you mean all above printers are good. have seen printed parts that i didn't believe they were printed. don't need to go over 300$ to get a printer(my opinion).
they are not plug and play, need some adjustments(bed levelling,extruder calibration) and then you can print.
all three are arduino based(may need to flash your board with arduino IDE) but controlled from software HOST's Repetier . pronterface are two of them.to get our model printed we need to slice it. slic3r and Cura are two of them
material depends how you print parts solid or with some % infill. one KG branded filament costs about 30$ to 40$. the ABS that came with my printer sucks.

here are some video's to make 3D printer work properly

Tom's guides

this is my first(prusa i3r) so i couldn't advise about other types but i am having a blast with mine. i print reliably down to .1mm layers, .2mm is usually what i print. they have delta kits and mendel kits also. like sims there are many directions to go in. sla is the next step. but depending on resin performance sla (stereo lithography) seems to be a new direction. sla is usually powered by a laser or dlp projection into a vat of photo sensitive resin. but to answer you @Nick Moxley i got mine for less than 400.US thats with some upgrades and 5 spools of material. lol none are plug and play though. like an old printing press they need to be set up and tweaked constantly. calculating E-steps every time you switch material is very important.

I have a Davinci 3D printer. It doesn't have the best print quality, but is cheap and ultra easy to use. No fiddling with settings, temperature, etc. Literally just hit print and it works every time. I'm printing ABS and the parts are surprisingly strong.

For the sim, I've only printed a few minor brackets so far. I'll probably also print an enclosure for the motor drives. For most parts in my sim 3D printing isn't the best option, but it certainly has its place.

DaVinci here as well. They have them on NewEgg from time to time as a two hour sale for as low as $300, although I paid just under $400. Despite fairly heavy use, it's held up better than several of my friends much more expensive printers. Print quality is OK if it's properly aligned (but clearly not great). But it is intensely reliable and easy to use, I've used it for numerous prototypes for VR controllers, strapping hooks, and HMD attachments. It's a very large printer, but worth the desk space hands down.