Author Topic: Which 3D printer?  (Read 9264 times)

Offline AdeV

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Which 3D printer?
« on: July 12, 2019, 06:32:08 AM »
The time has come, I think, to finally bite the bullet and buy a 3D printer. Naturally, there's a few choices.... so I figured I'd ask here to see what people recommend. This post was triggered by a couple of emails I got this morning....

So.. first possibility, a Creality "Ender 3". Seems to be available for as little as about £140 (I assume that's without any filament), as a partial-self-assembly kit. Having put a CNC3016 Pro together, this holds no fear for me. It comes with a heated bed, 0.4mm nozzle, decent sized build area, and I believe they're very upgradable.

Second option would be the same machine in "Pro" form, available for around £190. I'm not totally sure what the upgrade is between the normal and the "pro" versions - any thoughts gratefully received.


The other option, according to an e-mail I received this morning, why not by an "industrial grade 3d printer, without the price tag"? Sounds great! I don't mind paying a bit more for a proper industrial machine. Apparently it's faster than a hobby machine too....  Well, I finally found the price tag: £10,999.  :lol: Yeah, I think I'll pass on that... It's a Stratasys F120, in case anyone has very deep pockets and wants to know more...


So.... returning to the Creality (and similar) offerings - any advice would be appreciated. As usual, I'm happy to jump straight in at the deep end...
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline Peter Cordell

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2019, 07:03:42 AM »
I have a tronxy p802ma been ok for pla after i added mosfets for the hot end and headed bed, motherboard could not handle the headed bed,  wish i had gone for the tronxy x5s now, I think boxing any of these in would help hold the heat to get better prints
« Last Edit: July 12, 2019, 03:15:58 PM by Ben »

Offline Country Bubba

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2019, 08:18:34 AM »
I have a Tronxy X%S-400 and found it to be a typical far east "Kit". While I like the large build volume and over all design of the machine, I have found it absolutely necessary to practically rebuild the machine.
First off, the wire for the heated bed is to small and when I tried it, the wire became extremely warm to touch so that was the first replacement.
We read the mosfet on the main board was marginal for application so an outboard mosfet was added to control the heated bed.
In order to achieve any bed temp above about 50°C it was necessary to insulate the bottom of the bed and we also added a 24V power supply to have adequate power for the higher temps.

The original design of using washers for guides on the idler pulley's sucks so tires were printed to make them fully functional pulley's.  While we were at this up grade, all the bearings were replaced as many of them felt like they had sand in them. Pure junk bearings. We also had to correct some of the belt alignment when replacing the bearings/idlers as it was not proper from the factory assembly.  A few 5mm flat washers took care of that.

The wheels on the X axis carriage wore out within about 4 rolls of filament.  We were able to replace the top two with polycarbonate ones, but at the time didn't want to tear the whole carriage apart to get to the bottom one. That helped for a roll or so, but it was obvious the bottom one was wearing even faster. So we have just finished a mod to install a linear rail on the X axis. (haven't had a chance to try it yet)

When working right, it is a fantastic large volume printer. But realize it is a "kit" and you will have to do a lot of rebuild to make it acceptable in the long run.  :hammer:

As stated to begin with, I like the overall design, but the implementation is not that great of quality.  It must also be noted the instructions for the build were to my mind excellent and it went together quite easily.  If you don't mind modding the machine, I would recommend it to you. If you want an out of the box put it together and never worry about it machine, I would not recommend it to you. But as your on the MadModder board, I would imagine you like to tinker like me :proj:

   
Art
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Offline Jonfb64

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2019, 08:29:06 AM »
I have an Ender 3 which i am very happy with.
I suggest you checkout "Teaching Tech"  on YouTube as he has lots of reviews and upgrade suggestions.
By all accounts  its seemed to be the best value for money when i purchased mine in in January (£190) the pro version was still £250 then.
The hardest part is getting to grips with Fusion 360 so i have mainly printed other peoples stuff.

Jon

Online awemawson

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2019, 08:56:19 AM »
My Cetus 3D has been superb and worked out of the box, and has been accurate. I bought the taller version and fitted the 'anti drop' Z carriage balancer

There is a thread on the forum about it here:

https://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,12104.0.html
Andrew Mawson
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Offline Muzzerboy

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2019, 10:14:03 AM »
+1 for the Cetus 3D. Really pleased with it. Having previously used an Ultimaker 2 extensively, I can't see any obvious downside and it's £320 including filament etc.
https://shop.tiertime.com/product/cetus-3d-printer-mk3/#

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2019, 01:48:47 PM »
...
So.. first possibility, a Creality "Ender 3". Seems to be available for as little as about £140 (I assume that's without any filament), as a partial-self-assembly kit. Having put a CNC3016 Pro together, this holds no fear for me. It comes with a heated bed, 0.4mm nozzle, decent sized build area, and I believe they're very upgradable.

....

I have an ender 3 and I love it. It prints better than printers costing many times as much. It is very moddable... Plenty of printer to get started with.

Eric
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Offline jim

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2019, 01:52:55 PM »
I've had great results with the one from Aldi.
!0 minutes from opening the box, I was printing.
Done around 300 hours so f\ar with no problems.

Jim
if i'd thought it through, i'd have never tried it

Offline DICKEYBIRD

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2019, 03:10:11 PM »
I am continually amazed by what this one does for its price point: https://www.3dprintersbay.com/anycubic-auto-leveling-kossel?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpLnSh4mw4wIVSv_jBx0W7wjmEAQYBCABEgLi2fD_BwE  A good friend has one and does great things with it.  I want one & can afford it but don't have the time to learn Fusion or one of the other 3D CAD programs.  It'll have to be a project for my retirement.
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Offline ddmckee54

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2019, 05:15:03 PM »
I started with the Sunhokey Prusa I3 clone.  It's a nice little machine but it needed a lot of TLC to get it working properly and reliably.  Then Tin Falcon clued me into a site for re-furbished Monoprice Ulltimates', I liked the look of them and got one.  I believe, they are Wanhoo D6 clones.  I am impressed with this machine.  Because it's a 24V machine it heats up,  and moves much faster than my other 12V printer.  It's also a welded metal frame instead of bolt together acrylic like the Sunhokey.  The 24V and the more rigid frame allow me to print at nearly twice the speed of the Sunhokey so my print times are cut nearly in half.

I don't regret getting the Sunhokey, building that kit and making the upgrades to get it to work properly taught me a lot about 3D printing and 3D printers.  It was kind of like building a Gingery machine tool.  You don't build them expecting to get a high precision machine tool, because when it's all said and done - they're not.  You build them for the learning experiences that occur along the way.

Don
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Offline efrench

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2019, 01:07:18 AM »
I designed and built my delta printer from scratch using aluminum extrusions and plate.  No printed parts.  Cost of the parts was about $500.  A coreXY style printer will print as fast as a delta which generally can print quite a bit faster than machines like the Prusa. 

I'd say get the cheap printer, learn how to print, then build one with the lessons learned.

Offline nickle

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2019, 06:35:54 AM »
I cracked and bought an Enders 3 early this year. As long as you keep the bed levelled and make a few mods to keep filament and wires snagging it performs pretty well.

Things to keep in mind are the very different strengths in different axes because of the layers.

Pla has pretty woeful performance as it gets warmer. An ender 3 can print petg. I have a spool and am working through another roll of pla before I get to it.

As mentioned earlier teaching tech is a useful YouTube channel as are makers muse and Thomas sanlanderer.

The best thing is if you leave it over night you wakeup and the prints are done. It won’t mill itself to bits like my homemade CNc might. Having said that I am a bit wary of the potential fire hazard.


Offline Muzzerboy

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #12 on: July 13, 2019, 08:51:43 AM »
It's worth looking into annealing your printed parts.

It's not always necessary or possible to use fancy materials rather than PLA.

Offline nickle

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #13 on: July 13, 2019, 09:51:36 AM »
The temp performance is an issue for me as we managed to hit 46 degrees Celsius in the shade 3 days last summer where I am in Australia . Pla in the car will wilt and I am a bit doubtful about it holding shape or any load in my corrugated iron shed!on s summers day.


Probably not such s big issue for Ade in the uk though.

Online awemawson

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #14 on: July 13, 2019, 10:50:37 AM »
Oh I don't know - I believe you can experience some quite 'hot' nights in Wallesley  :lol:
Andrew Mawson
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Offline Muzzerboy

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #15 on: July 13, 2019, 02:44:42 PM »
If you watch the video, that sounds like an ideal application for annealing. A post-annealing softening temp of around 120-140C would be enough surely.

Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #16 on: July 14, 2019, 04:28:27 AM »
Thanks all for the great input! So, unusually for me, I did actually go look at several of the types of printer mentioned here; in particular the Cetus 3D..... but eventually I plumped for the Ender-3 (not the Pro edition).

The reasoning is thus: The Ender-3 machine was cheap: £185 includes next-day deliver (that's today, Sunday, it'll be showing up...), some spare nozzles of different sizes and a glass bed. Also, as it seems there are issues with the teflon tube/fittings going between the extruder an the hot end, I bought a set of replacements "on spec", as it was only an extra few quid.

So.... hopefully later today, I'll be doing my first print :) Yes.... I bought some extra filament too...
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #17 on: July 15, 2019, 03:35:17 AM »
 :D :) :D :D :)  :headbang:

Well, it arrived... and after a bit of head-scratching trying to follow the crossbeam assembly instructions (I only had to dismantle it 3 or 4 times before I got everything right!), it works  :thumbup:

Now, I'll be honest, I haven't taken any pictures. There's loads of pictures of an Ender-3 out there, and mine currently looks exactly the same. However, I expect there will, in due course, be pictures of parts that I print. So far.... the regulation Creality Dog, and the first *actual* print, some parts to guide the filament better, and clips to hold the LED ribbon cable tidy - all from Thingiverse and as-seen on Youtube videos.

So... now the search begins for things to design and print  :lol: I've got a few things in mind - e.g. a nice box for my Raspberry Pi that lives under the TV doing media player duties - but I'll wait until I've got some black plastic before I print that... I think it'll look a bit shonky in grey.

Meanwhile - don't worry! Just because I have a new toy, doesn't mean the old Boxford has been forgotten, there's an update (with pics) coming on that soon.
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline tom osselton

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #18 on: July 15, 2019, 04:44:07 PM »
That’s why they made paint! Although I never have. They can be a lot of fun till it gets knocked off its perch and you have to start over! Base adhesion is key with these depending on the parts footprint.

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #19 on: July 15, 2019, 11:44:17 PM »
Congratulations Ade!

A few things I would do right away...

1. Get a glass bed. I ordered my Ender 3 with it and have had no issues with adhesion. Glassplate
2. Get the microSD extension cable. Easy to print a mount to move the miniSD to a normal SD where it is easy to get to. MicroSD Exstension
3. Splurge a little and get better bed springs. There are "enhancement" kits on Amazon or similar for these that are fairly cheap Upgrades
4. Aluminum Extruder feed Extruder Feed

Thingiverse has a ton of printable mods for the ender3 (and a lot of other things to print)

This Guy has some videos on printing with the Ender 3 plus some decent profiles for Cura.

Have a ton more info... Let me know if you are interested.

FYI... all the links are US Amazon... but I am sure you can find the same over there.

Eric

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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #20 on: July 15, 2019, 11:47:47 PM »
Oh.... it is easy to fall into the modify the hell out of it hole...

I am there right now myself. Already added a BLTouch for auto bed leveling. Reflashed the firmware on the current mother board... However, I have a 32bit board and touch screen ready to go in as soon as the new housing is done printing...
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Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #21 on: July 16, 2019, 01:15:29 AM »
Hi Eric,

Mine came with a glass bed, although I haven't used it yet, it also came with the sandpapery bed, but not the flexible version  :scratch: So far I've just used that, and it's been OK so long as I use a raft. Auto-bed levelling is definitely on the want list, but I'll get to know the machine a bit better before I go crazy on the updates... As it's Amazon Prime Day (*2), I've gone a little bit mad and bought a pile of pla filament in various colours, I'm going to try my hand at designing a nice "media centre" box for my Raspberry Pi - there's lots of boxes out there already, but none which do what I want them to do (i.e. all the cables on the back, any LEDs on the front).

BTW, I presume your "32 bit board" is a Raspberry Pi running Octaprint? I've heard this mentioned a couple of times, also something I'd like to look into... but not with any serious designs on using it just yet.

Tom - paint.... for some things maybe.... but IMHO it's a lot easier to just print it in black plastic & have it immediately match the rest of the stuff in the cabinet :)
Cheers!
Ade.
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Online awemawson

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #22 on: July 16, 2019, 02:48:49 AM »
I rarely get stuff off Tingyverse - I tend to draw what I want in Fusion 360

Here is an example that's been printing over night - a rack insert module for VDI 40 tooling. I have had a pair of racks for year that had Morse Taper 4 inserts, so it was a relatively easy job to copy the inserts in Fusion but slightly modified!

 . . .only another eight to go at 5 hours each  :bugeye:
Andrew Mawson
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Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #23 on: July 16, 2019, 03:31:31 AM »
Like you Andrew - I'll probably design stuff. I use Solidworks, apparently there's a plug-in for Cura which means I won't need to convert to STL before printing... but I've yet to find it.

Printed off a little "prop adapter" I drew up ages ago for my long-in-the-build drone.... it worked surprisingly well after a bit of sandpapering... and MUCH easier than turning it on the manual machine out of Ali  :thumbup:
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #24 on: July 16, 2019, 03:22:22 PM »
Hi Eric,

Mine came with a glass bed, although I haven't used it yet,...

BTW, I presume your "32 bit board" is a Raspberry Pi running Octaprint? I've heard this mentioned a couple of times, also something I'd like to look into... but not with any serious designs on using it just yet.
...

Use the glass bed. So much better than the other that is supplied.

Nope. By 32 bit board, I mean mainboard. Replace the 8 bit board with built in drivers with a 32 bit SKR 1.3 mainboard and drive modules. Octaprint is a future item...

This Guy has a lot of interesting videos about upgrading the firmware on the existing 8 bit mainboard to a vanilla Marlin plus videos on replacing the mainboard with something that has bit more power and memory. You will find that as you add on to he Stock ender 3 board, it starts to run out of memory...

Thinigverse is nice for the "toy" stuff I print for my kid. He is into table top gaming so we print miniatures and such for D&D. everything else I design in Alibre.
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Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #25 on: July 17, 2019, 02:34:05 AM »
Hi Eric -

I did a test print of an assembly I designed in CAD last night - it worked surprisingly well (too well! I need to add a little "sliding fit" tolerance in  :Doh: ). Of the four parts of the assembly, the wheel was almost too firmly glued to the bed! However, I'll definitely give the glass one a go. As I'd originally planned these parts to be metal, I need to beef them up a bit... I'll post that little exercise (with pics) in due course.

I see what you're getting at with the stock mainboard - adding the BLTouch auto-bed levelling system looks like it pretty much maxes out the firmware.... however, at this moment in time, I don't plan any firmware/electronics upgrades. I'm sure that'll change in time, but I've got plenty of printing I can do before I get to that stage. Right now, I'm still enjoying the "Ooooooooh!" factor of seeing impossible parts appear (very slowly!) before my eyes.
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline nickle

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #26 on: July 17, 2019, 07:09:59 AM »
Glad it worked out for you. It’s an amazing machine for the price.

The supplied spatula thing wasn’t much use for removing stubborn prints but I have had good success with what my father in law calls a small tool which is a nice little Flexi spatula thing for putty and plasterwork.

Cura is pretty straight forward when compared to cam for mulling processes and the Info for the process is both prolific and pretty easy to comprehend.

Part orientation on the bed is worth thinking about. Flat side down is not always the best option. I ended up printing some model planes standing on their tail. Very little surface areas for support and nice shallow tapers that didn’t need support due to the streamlined shape.

Definitely interesting to use and requires different thinking to conventional cnc milling ops

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #27 on: July 17, 2019, 05:48:10 PM »
Ade...

With the glass bed, just let the part cool for a few minutes and it will pop right off. No spatula needed!  :D Just have to let the bed cool.

I have the BLtouch on mine right now. Got to say... Love it. Only check the level of the bed every few weeks.

Now I am considering a resin based printer or building a dual extruder one. I have been printing miniatures with the ender 3 and while they come out really nice, I am frustrated with the "supports" and removing them. With a dual extruder, I can pint the supports in High Impact Polystyrene and then dissolve them after the print completes.

OFC, I could just mod the Ender 3 to use a dual extruder too... Since I have the 32bit mainboard waiting to go in. Just worried I might lose some build area doing it.

3D printing becomes addicting. I think mine has been running non stop over the last few weeks.

Eric
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Offline hanermo

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #28 on: July 17, 2019, 09:17:30 PM »
Pls help a sceptic.

What has actually been really cool or truly useful with the printer, actual use ?
Anything is fine, ultra geek or artistic included.

I am not anti 3dp, I just struggle to see actual results.

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #29 on: July 17, 2019, 09:56:17 PM »
Pls help a sceptic.

...

We have a few members on here that can answer that better than I. I have seen some outstanding work done...

For me? Well, right now it is a toy store. I have been primarily printing tabletop game pieces with great success. Fat Dragon uses the same printer that I have bought and he gets amazing results. As far as that use goes? Can't really get much better.

I eventually will use it to prototype stuff. Have plans for some Rasberry Pi cases. LED mounts (ie, LED ring for the CNC Mill). However, the printer will pay for itself shortly. I had planned on buying some end covers for my stepper motors I have on my mill. The ones I wanted are about $45 each. I found a similar model out on the web and will print those instead (@ about $0.10 each).

Eric
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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #30 on: July 17, 2019, 10:12:21 PM »
Pls help a sceptic.

What has actually been really cool or truly useful with the printer, actual use ?
Anything is fine, ultra geek or artistic included.

I am not anti 3dp, I just struggle to see actual results.

Check some posts from Joules. He does some really cool stuff with a 3D printer.

A Useful 3D Print

3D Printed Solar Shield

3D Printed Myforod Way Wiper

Take a look at a few posts from him on this thread HERE.

Hope that helps. I felt a bit like that too early on. Seeing Joules posts is one of the things that pushed me over the edge.

Eric

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Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #31 on: July 18, 2019, 01:41:14 AM »
What has actually been really cool or truly useful with the printer, actual use ?
Anything is fine, ultra geek or artistic included.

I'm working on a "device" (too posh a word for it, really) which holds a wheel into a slot to guide a sliding glass wardrobe door. The bottom wheels are folded metal, and I was going to do that for the top wheels... but I can instead 3D print most of the thing, much more easily and accurately. It'll still need a bit of non-printable hardware - a long bolt and a spring, and I'll probably turn the wheel out of nylon with a bearing in it as originally planned rather than 3d print that too; but it's nice to be able to set a print off, and check it out in the morning (it's a 6 1/2 hour print at the moment), and since it only cost pennies in plastic, I don't mind binning a few.
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline ddmckee54

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #32 on: July 18, 2019, 02:45:39 PM »
What can you actually use your 3D printer for?  That question really becomes what do you want to use your 3D printer for?

I print parts for my RC projects, though that probably falls into the toys category of things that are 3D printed.

Two nights ago I printed a holder for my T6 thru T10 Torx drivers.  No pictures, but it actually did happen.

I liked the way design worked out, so last night I started work a similar version to hold the interchangeable bits for my hex driver set.  There's 6 bits in the set with the un-used bits storing in the handle of the driver; 1.5mm thru 3.0mm Allen bits, a straight screw-driver bit and about a #00 Phillip's bit.  It's a hassle every time I want to change the bit to take the handle apart to get to the bit, especially finding the correct bit.

The printed items are rather light so I've been adding 1/2-13 nuts that I press into the base for weight.  They sell these nuts and bolts by the pound at a nearby farm supply store for a ridiculously low price.  They are just a couple of dollars per pound for the grade 5 stuff, and a one pound bag of nuts will probably last me for years.

I have an adjustable desk light, the parallelogram type, that I've had for close to 20 years.   One of the plastic brackets broke so the light became junk.   It was a Sunday afternoon's work to draw the bracket in 3D CAD and print replacement brackets, that was about a year ago and the light is still in service.

If you've got your printer properly tuned you can turn out parts dimensionally accurate to at least 0.1mm.  My parts are good to about +/- 0.02mm, and if I worked at it I could probably get closer. (But  that close enough for me right now.)

My hands have a tremor, makes it hard to crimp itty-bitty wires and terminals together and impossible to solder electronics.  For a year or so I have been working on 3D printing jigs that will help me to do this.  They are just about usable, and I've got a bunch of printed parts sitting on my desk waiting for me to take that project off the back-burner and get back to work on it again.

It's more of a matter of - 'What do you want to print with your 3D printer?'

Don
Too many irons, not enough fire.

Offline AdeV

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #33 on: July 18, 2019, 05:45:11 PM »
Eric - what temperature do you run your glass bed at for PLA? I tried the default 60 degrees, and the part peeled off before it got more than 1mm high. Went up to 70 degrees and it pulled away at less than half that... should I be running it cooler? Maybe 50 degrees? I'd experiment more, but I've got another 5:30am start, and already it's nearly 11pm... gonna be cranky in the morning...
Cheers!
Ade.
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Occasionally: Zhengzhou, China. An even longer way from anywhere...

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #34 on: July 18, 2019, 11:08:59 PM »
Eric - what temperature do you run your glass bed at for PLA? I tried the default 60 degrees, and the part peeled off before it got more than 1mm high. Went up to 70 degrees and it pulled away at less than half that... should I be running it cooler? Maybe 50 degrees? I'd experiment more, but I've got another 5:30am start, and already it's nearly 11pm... gonna be cranky in the morning...

Hiya Ade,

I run the bed @60. But, I have changed a few other settings.... What are you using for a slicer? I use Cura.

Print speed @ 45 mm/s and infill @75 mm/s
Initial layer Speed 22.5 mm/s
Print temp is 200c
Initial Print temp is 185c
Initial layer flow 103%
Initial fan speed 0%

BUT first clean the plate with rubbing alcohol. Use the good stuff! I had adhesion issues until i did that.

Also... change your retraction distance to 10mm, Helps with stringing.

Eric



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We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.

Offline efrench

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #35 on: July 19, 2019, 01:42:28 AM »
I've printed quite a few timing belt pulleys for several rose engines.  The largest ones are 180 tooth GT2-3mm (about 170mm diameter).

My hands have a tremor, makes it hard to crimp itty-bitty wires and terminals together and impossible to solder electronics.  For a year or so I have been working on 3D printing jigs that will help me to do this.  They are just about usable, and I've got a bunch of printed parts sitting on my desk waiting for me to take that project off the back-burner and get back to work on it again.


I'd be interested in seeing these jigs.  What software are you creating your models with?


Offline Country Bubba

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #36 on: July 19, 2019, 07:50:10 AM »
Eric - what temperature do you run your glass bed at for PLA? I tried the default 60 degrees, and the part peeled off before it got more than 1mm high. Went up to 70 degrees and it pulled away at less than half that... should I be running it cooler? Maybe 50 degrees? I'd experiment more, but I've got another 5:30am start, and already it's nearly 11pm... gonna be cranky in the morning...
I'm not Eric, but I run my glass bed at 80°C (from testing, I also know there is a 5° thermal lag due to the glass) and I find my prints are firmly attached until the temp cools down to about 30° or less.  Also, I clean the glass on occasion with hot soapy water in the sink using dish washing soap being sure not to touch the surface. All of this was based on a video that I watched on youtube. <
>

HTH

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Offline Muzzerboy

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #37 on: July 19, 2019, 09:26:38 AM »
When I try to post a reply here, it tells me I have already posted when it's pretty clear I haven't. The preview button doesn't do anything. Is this a known issue with a fix?

It seems to be when I try to attach a photo. Firstly it says Madmodder can't process the request, then it claims the post has already been made when I repeat the request. The photo is about 800k, so not too big surely?

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: Which 3D printer?
« Reply #38 on: July 19, 2019, 11:49:12 AM »
I'd be interested in seeing these jigs.  What software are you creating your models with?
efrench:

I've got a thread over on MEM, under Additive Machining, called "A fix for the shakes".  That one's been on the back-burner for a few months.  It started as a soldering jig, morphed into a terminal crimper, and it's next iteration is looking like it'll be a combination of both.  It's probably about time I dust that thread off and take it to the next level.

The software I use for the models is DesignSpark3D, version 4.1.  That's a dumbed down version of Space Claim, but the price was right - free.  Unfortunately that software is rather limited in what file formats it can output, its' got a proprietary RSDOC format, it does a dandy job on STL's, it does 3D PDF's, and I think it can output a wireframe 3D DXF.  I've been threatening to devote the time to learn Fusion 360 but haven't been able to find enough time to get up to speed with that software yet, so DesignSpark is still my go to software. 

I use Simplify3D for my slicer.  I used to use the Prusa version of Slic3r, I found through simulation that Slic3r did a better job putting supports where they were needed than Cura did.  The Prusa version of Slic3r worked better on my original Prusa clone printer than the standard version of Slic3r.  Once I bit the bullet and bought Simplify3D I found that it does a much better job of not leaving gaps in narrow perimeters like Cura and Slicer did.  If your perimeter wall thickness is more than one filament wide, and less than less than an even number of filament widths Slic3r and Cura will leave a gap in the perimeter wall.  Simplify will go back and either lay an extra thick single filament in the gap or do a solid fill whichever you tell it to do.  You haven't seen a 3D printer go spastic until you watch one do a solid fill at 60mm/sec, when the fill is 90° to a 0.5mm gap.  I think it defaults to the single filament setting, but I just had to see what it would do.

Don
Too many irons, not enough fire.