Author Topic: So I bought a 3D printer....  (Read 5889 times)

Offline Brass_Machine

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So I bought a 3D printer....
« on: April 28, 2019, 04:19:26 PM »
I ended up buying a 3D printer for my B-day this year. I have been looking at the prices of the Creality Ender 3 for awhile and took the bait. I ended up ordering the model with the glass plate bed and a few mods for it as well.

Assembly was pretty easy. Running the test prints included with the printer came out nice.

So, now I am playing around with slicers trying to figure out which seems to be the best to use. On the free side, there is Cura and Slic3R PE that a bunch of people like. Been hearing a lot about Simplify3D, but @ $150 us... is it worth it?

Eric
Science is fun.

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

Offline awemawson

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2019, 04:28:23 PM »
Eric you know the rules -

 :worthless:


 :clap:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline shipto

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2019, 04:35:34 PM »
Welcome to the club  :clap: Even though I have a printer I had not used it for anything interesting until my daughter asked me about doing some figures from a game she plays. For everything I had been doing I used ultimaker cura and had no issues apart from having to fill in the damn form every time it updated (although this time round there was a option for not giving any data, not sure if it was always there and I missed it or not).
Cura however had real problems with the model files and would leave big gaps in the print so I searched for something else and decided to try slic3r which handled the model files much better.
So while I use cura for most things it ?DID? have bugs which required having alternatives. However I was told about simplify3D by a mate and decided that I could not justify spending that kind of money when I have managed with free slicers for everything I have tried.
Not much help I know.
Turns out this life c**p is just one big distraction from death but a good one. For the love of god dont give yourself time to think.
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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2019, 04:59:18 PM »
Eric you know the rules -

 :worthless:


 :clap:

Of course...  :beer:

Science is fun.

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

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2019, 05:01:00 PM »
.... until my daughter asked me about doing some figures from a game she plays.
...

Yup. My son is just getting into Dungeon and Dragons. He is thrilled that I can now print miniatures.

What game does your daughter play?
Science is fun.

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Offline awemawson

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2019, 05:06:57 PM »
My Cetus3D is SO useful.It doesn't get used every day but when it does, it does things that would be very hard i other ways.

Most of my stuff is bits to help me re-building machines, or storing things. One thing that I have learnt is that prints are not very strong between layers, ie in tension up and down as printed, but are ok side to side.

So for things needing a bit more strength I now print in ABS then lightly paint them with Acetone both inside and out. The acetone forms a varnish like goo with the ABS that is sucked into the inter-strand gaps and makes things far more robust.

I think that the part that gave me the most pleasure was the 'lost PLA' pattern for the bronze drive dog on my Beaver CNC lathe

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2019, 05:14:02 PM »
That is very cool Andrew!

I am beginning to see so many possibilities for this things. Just for my son alone... Robotics parts and game pieces. Like having a toy store.

What do you use for a slicer?


Eric
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Offline shipto

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2019, 05:19:22 PM »
.... until my daughter asked me about doing some figures from a game she plays.
...

Yup. My son is just getting into Dungeon and Dragons. He is thrilled that I can now print miniatures.

What game does your daughter play?
Oh many, I think the characters she wanted was from a game called watchdogs or something like that (a guy with an exploding tyre was the most difficult)
Turns out this life c**p is just one big distraction from death but a good one. For the love of god dont give yourself time to think.
https://myshedblog.wordpress.com/

Offline awemawson

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2019, 05:27:50 PM »
That is very cool Andrew!

I am beginning to see so many possibilities for this things. Just for my son alone... Robotics parts and game pieces. Like having a toy store.

What do you use for a slicer?


Eric

All my models are drawn in Fusion 360 and exported into auto desks application whose input is acceptable to the Cetus software that does the slicing, so I haven't had to pay for any extra software at all, just the printer and its packaged stuff which all works very well for me, and I've done some reasonably complicated bits with it.

I don't tend to print Jedi though, not my sort of thing  :clap:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline WeldingRod

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2019, 10:13:05 AM »
I use Simplify3D, but work paid for it...
I've been using the multi-settings thing to speed up giant prints.  Making the first 1/2" with infill, then going to base mode, and then starting infill in the air to close up the top.  Helps bring 20 hour prints to 11 hours :-)
I built a big printer: 15" cube print volume.

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Offline tom osselton

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #10 on: April 29, 2019, 04:18:00 PM »
I’ve Been trying to make a Baby Groot for my granddaughter I’ve done the head twice now the last time it got down to the last 1/2 square before falling of its perch!
 
Baby Groots first haircut!
Now he is just someone’s Chia Pet!

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #11 on: April 29, 2019, 10:18:56 PM »
Tom,

That still is pretty impressive. What are you using for a printer?

Eric
Science is fun.

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

Offline Joules

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #12 on: April 30, 2019, 04:52:24 AM »
Well done Eric, I hope it brings you years of pleasure and opens up new ground in Mad Modding...  I use Simplify3D proffesionally.  I think for the money (free) Cura outperforms it hands down, I might add, I still use Cura to keep my hand in as I am not sure I like the route Simplify are going.   Much happenning here, with a resin printer waiting in the wings and a new K40 laser sent to me for long term evaluation and modding  :thumbup:

Here's a couple of examples from last years printing work.  Testing out an idea for a thermostatic valve control, using 3D printed parts for R&D.  Mapped the movement of the bellows, then create the mechanism that will operate the valve, based on movement available and dead band required.

 
« Last Edit: April 30, 2019, 05:23:02 AM by Joules »
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Offline ddmckee54

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #13 on: April 30, 2019, 12:06:14 PM »
I tried Cura, I tried Slic3r, I tried the Prusa version of Slic3r.  Then I bit the bullet and bought Simplify3D, yup it's worth the money.

While I was waiting for my first printer to arrive , never did but that's another story, I played around with various free slicing and printer simulation software packages.

When I tried using Cura, my biggest issue with it was generating supports, it would miss areas that needed support and try printing in mid air.  That works for bridging, but trying to START printing in mid air just doesn't work.

For the money that you spend on it, nadda-zip-zilch, Slic3r is a great product and I think the Prusa version of Slic3r is even better.  I used them for a couple of years but...

I found that if Slic3r cannot fit a complete perimeter pass into an area it will leave it empty.  Think about printing a wall that's less than 1.5mm thick, you'll get an air gap.  During the build that may be OK, it'll be weak, but hidden.  On the final layer that's not a good thing.  Simplify3D gives you the option of filling these areas in the perimeter with either a single pass or solid fill.  I made the mistake of trying the solid fill option, ONCE.  Watching the printer try to do a solid fill on a 0.5mm gap for 15-20mm convinced me I didn't want to try that again, didn't think the printer would survive the shaking.

Simplify3D also lets you do things like changing speeds, layer height, temperatures, etc. during the print.  To do that with Slic3r or Cura you need to slice the model various times, then find and stitch together the appropriate parts of the gcode files.  It can be done, but it's a hassle.

If you're just starting out in 3D printing Simplify3D is probably not worth the investment at that time, you've got too many other things to figure out, how to get the first layer stuck to the print bed, what is acceptable print quality to you, how fast can your machine print before the quality turns to crap - minor stuff like that.  However if you've been printing for a while and want to increase your print quality, then Simplify3D is worth it.

Don
Too many irons, not enough fire.

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2019, 01:04:46 PM »
Thanks Don for your response.

Eric
Science is fun.

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

Offline tom osselton

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Re: So I bought a 3D printer....
« Reply #15 on: April 30, 2019, 03:37:09 PM »
Tom,

That still is pretty impressive. What are you using for a printer?

Eric
I’m using a makerbot replicator 2x it has 2 print heads for different colours or support material.
This model was taken off Thingiverse and was a long print due to the small triangles used by the designer it did come out good though. I will try acetone on the build plate to see if it is causing the bonding problem or if it is a adhesion verses height thing.