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The Shop => CNC => Topic started by: awemawson on April 26, 2017, 06:05:17 AM

Title: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 26, 2017, 06:05:17 AM
Has anyone any experience of the Cetus3D 3 D printer - it looks an elegant and simple method of construction  - I know it's not the bees knees but it caught my imagination:

https://www.cetus3d.com/

I presume that they are USA based but their web site is a bit coy about details, so not sure if they are available in the UK.

I know that there is one design fault, in that if the power is cut, the Z axis crashes down onto the platen but that is eliminated by a 2lb 'tool balancer' spring :)

Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: PK on April 26, 2017, 06:16:48 AM
I know two people who have them, one runs a 3D printing service/movie prop making business and the other is Angus from the 'Makers Muse' youtube channel.
Both speak highly of the unit with the caveat 'For what it is'

I can't recall if it has a heated bed, but this is generally considered a good thing, and essential if you want to make crap FDM prints with plastics that tend to the belligerent side of functional..
It's certainly an addable thing...

Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: mattinker on April 26, 2017, 06:50:46 AM
Their chinese based, Peking,
https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/interview-cetus-3d-kickstarter-95245/

Cheers, Matthew
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 26, 2017, 07:15:13 AM
Interesting - thanks. I've emailed them to ask re shipping to the UK and will await results - hey I don't NEED a 3D printer in my life but this one seemed quite reasonably engineered for a change  :ddb:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: mattinker on April 26, 2017, 07:28:42 AM

I don't NEED a 3D printer in my life but this one seemed quite reasonably engineered for a change  :ddb:

No, but titivating must go on!.....................
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: DMIOM on April 26, 2017, 08:22:25 AM
.......I can't recall if it has a heated bed, but this is generally considered a good thing.........

I looked at these and they offered an add-on heated bed BUT it was un-controlled, that could of course be added, but would be an extra bit of faffing around & cost.

Dave
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: mattinker on April 26, 2017, 08:41:46 AM
.......I can't recall if it has a heated bed, but this is generally considered a good thing.........

 that could of course be added, but would be an extra bit of faffing around & cost.

Dave

I think, judging by past experience, the "extra bit of faffing around" would be right up Andrews proverbial street! he'll find us an ingenious way of making a fine control for the heated plate!

All the best, Matthew
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 26, 2017, 09:45:07 AM
 :palm: Don't embarrass me Matthew  :palm:

They've replied that they do ship to the UK, I'm now awaiting a price  :med:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: mattinker on April 26, 2017, 10:44:47 AM
:palm: Don't embarrass me Matthew  :palm:
Well I'm looking forward to it, even before it's official! I must say it looks like an interesting "bare bones" approach!

Cheers Matthew!


Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 26, 2017, 11:28:59 AM
Well that's torn it - my finger did it honestly gov ! ... it went and pressed the BUY button  :lol:

Looks like it's back to bread and water for a few months before the crater in my bank balance levels out  :bang:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: mattinker on April 26, 2017, 03:40:59 PM
Well I never!! Titivate titivate.....................
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: DaveS on April 27, 2017, 04:23:08 AM
That's one giant leap of engineering from 60lb blacksmith hammer to 3D printer :hammer: :smart:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on April 27, 2017, 05:07:24 AM
Not really Dave when you take into account the falling head when the power goes off.   :palm:

I looked at this machine, liked the use of linear rail, had reservations about the use of belt on the Z over a leadscrew.  However, the counterbalance spring is a good solution.  Heated bed, depends what you intend to print with.  I wouldn't go too exotic due to the use of printed parts.  Build a cabinet for it to cut down dust and draughts.  In winter my PLA printers have the cabinets warmed to 20 ℃ with a hair drier, after that the printing process is enough to keep them around that temperature for consistent prints.

The Cetus is on my wish list, but only when they have a UK supplier.  Look forward to Andrews mangling of it  :poke:

The Cetus is made by Tiertime, the same company that do the UP printers and a range of professional FDM machines.  They have a lot of experience with printers.  Another option for the counterbalance would be a sash window style fix, counterweight and pulleys 3D printed of course.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 29, 2017, 06:23:39 AM
5th May DHL are saying for delivery.  :wave:

No doubt they'll hold me to ransom for the VAT and handling charges

Dave, I'd appreciate a link to that heated bed - it didn't show up when I was poking about on the CETUS site   :scratch:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: DMIOM on April 29, 2017, 06:48:53 AM
.....Dave, I'd appreciate a link to that heated bed - it didn't show up when I was poking about on the CETUS site   :scratch:

Andrew - https://www.cetus3d.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=65 but currently showing as 'out of stock'

Dave
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 29, 2017, 07:35:31 AM
Thanks Dave, no idea how I missed that - must be getting too old  :bang:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: nrml on April 29, 2017, 06:07:22 PM
I thought you mentioned a while back that you were supporting the E3D big box project on kickstarter. Did you withdraw from that?

Someone with your knowledge, skills and resources could build a much better printer than the cetus for a similar budget IMO. 9mm and 12mm linear rails are less than £17 delivered these days.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on April 29, 2017, 06:25:37 PM
Yes I did, and I withdrew when they decided that the full spec model would only be shipped as a  kit not assembled as had been implied. It's a time issue - yes I'm sure I could make one from scratch, but there are only so many hours in a day and I'd like to get it done before the kids are screwing in the last coffin nail  :lol:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 03, 2017, 12:46:17 PM
Text from DHL saying they would now deliver today 3rd May so I arranged to be in all day. 16.16 I got another text saying that they had made a 'failed delivery', but no card in the letter box confirming this.

Now anyone who's been to my place will know there's an alarm on the front gate connected to every building, there are two dogs who ALWAYS let us know if we have visitors, and a whole pile of cameras, so the courier picked the wrong place to falsely claim he'd been here  :lol:

Quick phone call to DHL to get them to turn the courier round - they contacted him pretty quickly but he refused to return - I'm fairly sure he was already on his way home at the time of the alleged failed delivery.

35 minutes talking to DHL 'help desk' failed to find a solution - I'm out after 10 am tomorrow so my suggestion was that they could do a pre-10 am and all would be fine. Not possible the girl tells me.

Escalation to supervisor who immediately takes a much more constructive approach after hearing that no way was it a failed delivery, more a 'couldn't be arsed', confirms he will arrange a pre-10 am delivery tomorrow and then mutters about  checking the couriers GPS data tomorrow when it's available  :clap:

... .we'll see what happens tomorrow morning for this delivery for which DHL have received £91  :bang:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 03, 2017, 11:52:54 PM
It is like box of chokolate as in Forrest Gump. Last time my DHL delivery was great. Delivery girl called me in advance and I alerted the neighbour.

Then there is Post Nord, that collects much of delivery from many comppanies, tries delivery when ever they pease, no prior contact, leave a note with their hand writen case number, service phone does npt answer, you can't pick it up from their depo and they can't try delivery next day or reroute or rechedule.

Lucilyt usually you get it in the end.

Pekka
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: PK on May 04, 2017, 05:25:29 AM
A little off topic, but you've demonstrated a curious aspect of business that I happened to encounter today as well.

I'm talking about instances of the generic:
"I would like X please"
"I'm sorry sir, we cant give you X"
"I want to speak to your boss/I'll post nasty things about you on social media/(or the ever reliable) I will make you personally and publicly accountable for the outcome of this conversation."
"I'm very sorry about that sir, of course we can give you X"

I mean, all it does is train us to behave badly.....

Anecdote from my day:
"Hello, I'd like to send this money to one of our suppliers in US Dollars please"
"Certainly sir, we can offer you this exchange rate."
"I don't like that exchange rate. Give me a better one."
<phone call>
"Here you go sir, I can now offer you *this* rate. Congratulations,you saved $500"

I s%^t you not, that was the entire conversation, verbatim.....

Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 04, 2017, 05:42:51 AM
I run my business with honesty and integrity, perhaps that explains why I don't do so well.


p.s.   I could just be crap at what I do on the other hand.   :lol:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: John Rudd on May 04, 2017, 06:05:59 AM
I run my business with honesty and integrity, perhaps that explains why I don't do so well.


p.s.   I could just be crap at what I do on the other hand.   :lol:

Ditto, thats why I failed miserably.....and I am crap,at what I do.....without even trying... :Doh:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 04, 2017, 06:42:17 AM
Well DHL FAILED to meet their 10 am delivery. A phone call got a 'definitely be there by 11.00' - another target that they MISSED. Then 20 past 11 chap turns up with a DAMAGED box  :bang:

Turns out he yesterday went to a farm in another road (in another post code as well) and ASSUMED he was in the right place - damn it all there are bally great signs out side saying who we are  :bang:

Looks like the box has been impacted by a bar or something, and I can feel metallic bits inside. Won't investigate until I've time to do it in an unhurried way, as (due to DHL) I'm now very late for my appointment in Canterbury and need to leave.
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 04, 2017, 06:54:06 AM
 :palm:  The total gits.....  Well you now have somewhere to post the bollocks.

If the parts damaged are printable PM me.
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 04, 2017, 01:22:51 PM
How did that printer fare the odoyssey.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 04, 2017, 01:41:21 PM
Not opened the box yet Pekka - I'm going to do it forensically and slowly when I'm not rushed - just returned from Canterbury and have a few livestock issues to attend to, and first thing in the morning after feed time I need to get the Goliath Power Hammer loaded up onto transport that's arriving. When that's all calmed down (and I've calmed down !) I'll have at it  :dremel:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 05, 2017, 07:08:23 AM
OK this morning I took the plunge and unpacked the 3D printer to examine what if any damage has been done.

Ominously the gash in the box has penetrated the rigid foam packing and seems to have reached the end of the Z stepper motor assembly, but with any luck it's not done any damage other than perhaps skewed the alignment.

I won't know that until I'm in a position to power it up and try it out.
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 05, 2017, 07:21:28 AM
So I then carried on unpacking the whole assembly - over all I'm quite impressed with the packing - rigid foam cut and glued to shape holding everything in place, with a shipping clamp preventing movement of the axis's.


 
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 05, 2017, 07:24:02 AM
Photo's continued
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 05, 2017, 07:33:54 AM
Now I must say that I am quite impressed so far. Seems nicely made and robust. I do have a couple of criticisms though. No documentation in the box what so ever, and the extruder head mounting seems a bit flimsy using only two of the four possible screws. However attention to details such as including a UK style cable for the mains not the frequently supplied nasty adaptor is good.

Fairly obvious how the build plate fixes (four countersunk screws) and the extruder head (two cap screws) and the main cable has a multi-way plug for the head, so that's easy, but there's a floating black and red cable pair terminated together in a forked crimp that has no obvious point to put it. A bit of googling reveals that they have had problems with static, and it's a drain wire and needs fixing to the metal work of the extruder motor.

Now I need to decide which PC I'm going to install the software on, and connect it up.
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 05, 2017, 07:54:33 AM
good thing

Once I got kitchen fume hood from the mail and the outside box had only one corner a little crushed and on first inspection all shiny stainless steel parts were fine, but when I checked the mounting plate i noticed that the weight/inertia had bent then shell out of alignment of the mounting plate/fan. Sent the picture and they arranged to pick it up and to send new one. It would have been hard to straighten/align parts without major disassembly.

Whole lot of stuff you got with it. How much it came to cost total?

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 05, 2017, 09:25:36 AM

£441.76 landed in the UK then an additional £50 handling / custom charge. HOWEVER, looking at the paperwork that they supplied to customs they have grossly under stated the value (NOT at my request!)

But so far the downloaded software is refusing to run - starts up then crashes - others on the forum having the same issue. This is on a Win7 32 bit machine. I'm going to try a 64 bit Win7 machine and see if that works  :scratch:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 05, 2017, 11:07:23 AM
Well it works on the 64 bit machine, and I've had it driving all axis about, so probably functional.  :clap:

Yet to actually do anything with it as events are overtaking me - expecting a 'sock lamb' shortly as company for the other orphan lamb so having to sort out it's accommodation  :med:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: John Stevenson on May 05, 2017, 11:42:57 AM
Careful with that scraper Andrew, if it's anything like the one they supplied with my UP [ and it's the same company according to Joules ] then you could shave a peach with it.

Wickedly sharp.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 06, 2017, 07:43:12 AM
Not overly sharp John  :scratch:

Well as I type this the Cetus3D is printing it's first test print - a cone and has a further 3 hours to run.

Initial setting up was a problem - setting the Z height they say slide a paper under the nozzle and over the table, trapping it gently. all very well if the Z will come down far enough. It was 0.75 mm off the table at it's lowest  :bang:

A bit of fiddling with the extruder head mounting and with it at a slight squiffy angle I got the paper trapped and set up ok. Thinking about it I've seen pictures of this printer before with the head at a slightly jaunty angle - I can see a mounting mod coming up  :ddb:

.. it's now finished the raft and started the actual cone.

I need to read up on how to import what I want to print, rather than their library and I may actually be able to do something useful with it  :clap:

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 06, 2017, 11:00:01 AM
Well it did it  :thumbup:

I must say that I'm quite impressed. But now I have a big learning curve ahead in modelling and handling the software, but many have been down that track before me so I'm sure that there'll be signposts on the way  :coffee:

Now I had better buy the heated bed, as I understand it is really a necessity for ABS
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 04:58:28 AM
 :clap: :clap: I'm in Happy Bunny Mode ! :clap: :clap:

This morning, I created a very simple 3D shape in Fusion 360, saved it as an STL file using Autodesk Print Studio. Imported it into the Cetus 3D software, scaled it down to 25% (to save filament as it's only a test) and printed it out.


.....  AND IT WORKS  :lol:

Simple stuff for you 3D printer experts, but to me this is a major achievement in that I now know that I can use this printer for useful stuff, not just printing out Starwars models !

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 06:54:26 AM
And to prove that they are repeatable and interchangeable I did a couple more  :ddb:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: DMIOM on May 07, 2017, 07:29:04 AM
Andrew,

Those tests demonstrate repeatability, but have you had a chance to quantitatively check accuracy? - both linearly and also orthogonality (with the cantilevered arm, I had wondered if there was any risk of twist, especially as a result of transport).

Dave
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: seadog on May 07, 2017, 07:41:01 AM
Are you trying to compete with Lego, Andrew  :lol:
Title: Re: CetusD 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 07, 2017, 08:05:00 AM
Print two at right angles some distance apart and then press them together so both pins fill both holes.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 08:22:19 AM
That 3D shape was actually my first experiment with Fusion 360 when I loaded it up over a year ago - it was just handy to have it and I don't even remember if I deliberately made the peg and socket symmetrically placed - but I presume that I must have as they tessellate  :med:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 12:34:48 PM
So at Joules's suggestion I ran the 'Joules Test'

I imported two copies of the Peggy - moved them to opposite corners of the build space, and rotated one by 90 degrees.

Then having printed them and removed their 'rafts' pressed them into a very intimate embrace.

When the deed was done I gently separated them just to check the the male pegs hadn't sheered off.

.... I reckon it passes the Joules Test with flying colours  :ddb:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 07, 2017, 12:43:50 PM
 :thumbup:  I'm impressed, you normally get some distortions around the bed with cartesian machines, also with cheap belts and differing tension you may sometimes have to tweak the steps per mm if you can't match the belt tension.  Looking forward to more prints.

Do both parts measure the same width and length ?  ± 0.1mm. Maybe do the measurement mid way up side of the blocks.  Top and bottom might be different due to the shell expanding or contracting.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 01:09:35 PM
I'll do some measuring after super (chicken & vegetable casserole  :thumbup: )

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: John Stevenson on May 07, 2017, 01:12:42 PM
I've got broken leg of lamb..........................................
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: spuddevans on May 07, 2017, 02:10:59 PM
I'm very impressed and a little jealous  :clap: :clap: :clap:

I haven't ventured into making any 3d CAD models yet, but my 3dPrinter is at least 6 months from being in a position to squirt melted plastic into something vaguely resembling a useful part, so I will have plenty of time to get to grips with it.

Tim
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 02:19:04 PM
Tim, I've had the avaricious urges for a 3D printer - in fact had them for years, but didn't have the time or patience to do what you are doing with yours. When I tripped over the Cetus3D on the web I was quite impressed by it's mechanical simplicity and by the reviews that I read, but also had the same concerns that others have expressed about the cantilever design. But in the end I decided that I wasn't getting any younger and it was time 'just to do it'  :ddb:

OK it wasn't cheap, but I am pretty pleased with it. Had I made my own it would have had a bigger envelope and like yours be built on more traditional engineering lines, but at least I have it to play with   :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 03:15:16 PM
Well the lengths correlate suspiciously well - no I didn't cheat  :ddb:




(but I was in trouble over supper - it was chicken and roast veg not casserole apparently  :bang: )
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 03:17:53 PM
But the widths didn't fair quite so well  :scratch:

There is a little blemish on each of them down one corner of the side, and I presume its where the extruder is changing level - but even trying to avoid it when measuring there is still a fair difference
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 07, 2017, 03:22:36 PM
Now remember that these were printed at approximately right angles to each other, so X axis is the length in one case, and Y axis in the other, so it's not a calibration issue.

Pretty sure it's different shrinkage in the model but I'll be interested to hear Joules's comments.

(The original Fusion360 model would have been drawn as a 100 x 50 rectangle, and then reduced to 25% so the nominal size should be 25 x 12.5 )

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Henning on May 07, 2017, 05:10:02 PM
All things considered I'd still say that is one helluva deal, Mr. Mawson. My original Prusa I3 MK2 does slightly better but not much and that is 3-4 times the price! Might have to look into this one myself actually... even if I need another 3D printer about as much as I need a hole in my head...
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 07, 2017, 05:19:48 PM
Well the prints are pretty close to the ± 0.1mm tolerance.  The width difference could be put down to a combination of mechanical things working against you in that area.  Slight difference in belt pitch or a pulley slightly off centre.  Possibly a little spring in the table at that point that just adds a little squeeze to each layer printed.  If it is that, then it maybe a limit you are stuck with.  1cm squares 5mm tall in different locations, map them and mark them before removing from the bed for comparison.   What was the Z dimension on this two parts you made, are they identical ?  Bit hard to measure as the raft can contribute to Z error.  Hence my calibration cubes are printed direct onto 3M tape directly on the bed.

I print about 20 or so of my calibration cubes per machine during a tune up.

The seam you are seeing is the step to the next layer, usually there is an option to have random starts for new layers to try and hide the seam.  This can contribute to small blobs on the print side as the flow is stopped and started in a new position.  A single seam is easier to treat as a post process and has less issue with stop start of the filament flow.

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 08, 2017, 02:44:33 AM
Joules, I don't see the error in width as a mechanical issue. For one of the Peggy's the width was X axis and for the other it was Y, and of course this is also true of the lengths, which are absolutely spot on. So both X and Y axis are producing accurate movement. :scratch:

I reckon that the shape of the model is allowing cooling stresses to affect the width far more than the length
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 08, 2017, 02:55:00 AM
Do your previous prints measure identical ?  Unless you have a draught blowing on one side of the printer, cooling should be pretty consistent.  It can still contribute, but you would see it in X,Y error.

Think of a sine wave with a straight line average.   Your tolerance has varied over different size in different location.  Depends how much you want to chase the tolerance.  My experience in what you see is a very slight eccentricity in one or more of the pulleys.  Maybe an over tightened grub screw etc.

The sides will exhibit distortion, bulge or hollow if they cool differently, it wouldn't remain square.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 08, 2017, 04:03:55 AM
Keep in perspective, 0.1mm difference I would ignore, you are only 50 micron !!! over.   Not bad out of the box if this is representative for this machine.  I do hope they get imported into the UK by someone.

Forgot early on to ask what are all the peg dimensions in X,Y  The same ?
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 08, 2017, 04:21:23 AM
Pegs measure as follows for the five samples:

(Peg #, X, Y)
1, 6.18, 6.17
2, 6.15, 6.20
3, 6.21, 6.20
4, 6.21, 6.17
5, 6.23, 6.19

(No record of which way round they were printed, so ascribing X & Y is random)

So I reckon that's pretty consistent, and certainly good enough for stuff I'm likely to be making
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 08, 2017, 04:34:06 AM
Nice one Andrew, and your worst case is 50 micron.   :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 08, 2017, 05:12:47 AM
Can you print gasket? Something more rigid body and then some elastic/inert material? Or elastic seals to cardboard former?

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 08, 2017, 05:46:50 AM
That's probably a question for Joules, though I know flexible filament is available, being a thermo-plastic there will be temperature constraints.

This is fun - I've just created a 'Clip' in Fusion360 to hold the Poly-carbonate screens together on my Wire EDM machine to replace the crude use of cable 'p-clips' - if the proto-type fits then I'll make a further 5 of them  :ddb:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 08, 2017, 06:03:24 AM
So now this really IS a first for me  :ddb:

I've drawn something in Fusion360 that I actually wanted, then printed it and it works  :clap:

Still struggling with Fusion360 - it isn't coming naturally to me, I'm used to whacking in numbers directly to get things aligned and sized, but no doubt familiarity will improve things  :scratch:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 08, 2017, 06:19:43 AM
Sorry, printed elastomers are outside my zone, I have found none to have characterristics I would be happy with.  However, what I have done is print moulds and cast my own soft rubber/gasket type components.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 08, 2017, 07:39:15 AM
While it was set up I made ten of the little clips, reasoning that they are the sort of thing that dissapears when needed  :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 09, 2017, 04:24:53 PM
Well today my ambition knew no bounds with the Cetus3D printing solidly all day making my biggest print yet - a spool / reel holder for the filament that clips onto the body of the printer, rather than being a separate item.

The design is not mine, I lifted it from the Cetus forum, though it is also on Thingyverse - no point in re-inventing the wheel  :ddb:

The basic frame - the black bit in the pictures took over 6 hours to print, and the white supporting peg took almost 3 hours, so the poor little printer has been churning away for over nine hours solid.

Interesting design with the two parts screwing together with a coarse printed thread. The black base is pretty well as big as the print bed, so although I can print taller I cannot make things of a much larger cross section. The white peg was a bit of a pain to separate from it's supporting structure (the stuff that makes temporary scaffolding for the construction.)

All together rather pleasingly successful  :clap:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: NormanV on May 09, 2017, 05:21:53 PM
Andrew, I am totally confused. One day. maybe, I will start to understand.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 09, 2017, 05:25:15 PM
Andrew, I am totally confused. One day. maybe, I will start to understand.

How can I help Norman - what bit is it that you don't understand - perhaps I can re-phrase it better  :scratch:

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: SwarfnStuff on May 10, 2017, 01:50:25 AM
Andrew,
       The bit, "(the stuff that makes temporary scaffolding for the construction.)" is called a raft, I guess cos the part 'floats' on it. Only know this from reading other post re, 3D printers.
       Three or four of the blokes at my club have em. I find them interesting but have no room nor $ for them.
   Also read of putting masking tape (think it has to be the blue, not the cheapo stuff.) on the platform and telling the program not to lay a raft.
   You are making stuff and that's always good.

John B
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 10, 2017, 02:28:23 AM
Thanks John but I was avoiding using the word raft, as the raft was dead easy to remove.

It was the supports for the overhang, which were quite extensive on the peg, that were hard to remove. The threaded screw had to be at the bottom of the print to ensure it would fit, hence a lot of the rest of it with its flanges was out in free space and would fall without the scaffold support.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: SwarfnStuff on May 11, 2017, 03:25:04 AM
Thanks Andrew,
       As my 8yr old grandson says about school, "I learn stuff here".
       Looking again at your photos, I can see what you mean about the supporting structure betwixt the raft and flange located above the screwy bit.
       That would definitely require some careful removal or a wrecked part could easily result.

John B
      Edit, Just had another look and there was more support around the spool bit to stop the upper flange drooping.   Lots of scaffolding / supporting stuff to remove.
JB
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Henning on May 12, 2017, 03:51:51 AM
On the subject of printing gaskets, I would say that is entirely possible. I am experimenting with a material called cheetah which is a thermoplastic elastomer. A quick google will probably bring up the relevant tecspec for anyone interested. I do believe this would be a suitable material for gaskets in low pressure and low temperature cases. I have not printed any gaskets in it yet, but I did make an elastic cover for my iPhone which worked out pretty good.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 12, 2017, 05:24:49 AM
On the subject of printing gaskets, I would say that is entirely possible. I am experimenting with a material called cheetah which is a thermoplastic elastomer. A quick google will probably bring up the relevant tecspec for anyone interested. I do believe this would be a suitable material for gaskets in low pressure and low temperature cases. I have not printed any gaskets in it yet, but I did make an elastic cover for my iPhone which worked out pretty good.

This one?
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160106-ninjatek-introduces-two-new-industrial-3d-printing-materials-cheetah-and-armadillo.html

Thank you....So far I haven't seen too much use domestic 3D printers, but printing elastomer, structural plastics and possibly some (slide) bearing material would expand a whole lot use. Specially if I could fabricate/mill/turn part in aluminium and then "print" gasket and/or cover into it.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 12, 2017, 05:59:00 AM
Henning, that sounds interesting and useful stuff. Is it an 'exotic' requiring pretty special printing requirements, or are we just talking heated bed and suitable nozzle temperature ?

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Henning on May 12, 2017, 06:00:18 AM
As I understand it, printing on or into existing parts is still not very easy with the regular "home gamer" machines. I do think it will probably be introduced at some point though. Probably not until the materials get better though. I have a spool of Nylon with which I intend to try and print some parts. If that works out ok, I'd say we're closing in on game changing technology!
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 14, 2017, 07:51:51 AM
I did some search and fast reading on thermoset elastic filaments to 3D printers and they seem to be available, they seem to work on same envelope than ABS. PLA-only printers does not seem to work them.

Biger obstacle to me is the SW side. I'm slow learner, but when I learn something it comes hardwired and almost automatic. CAD is another thing altogether, but slicer is the part that feel iffy.

How can print elastomer (ar any other stuff) over prefabricated part? Can slicer  be used to sellectively start printing at certain "height" or can you set and tweak height contour?

Printter table should ofcourse be able to support the part like aluminium light weight eclosure.

Probably faster approach would be to print alastomer on PA or ABS part or carrier/sandwich and accomondate that into design.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: efrench on May 14, 2017, 06:26:07 PM
Yes, you can start/stop printing at any height above the bed.  How to do it depends on the slicer. Directly editing the gcode is pretty easy. You can also embed nuts, washers, reinforcing fibers, etc.  You may not get the plastic to stick to a plain aluminum part/bed but adding an ABS slurry works for ABS and Nylon.

Weed whacker/trimmer nylon works pretty well.  I haven't solved the stringing problem with it yet, but it's not to hard to design around it.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Henning on May 15, 2017, 04:21:52 AM
The obstacle today as I, with my rather limited understanding see it, is that many materials need a heated bed. Now, let's say we were going to print a gasket for instance onto an aluminium part. We would then need to heat the part and keep it at that heat throughout the entire printing process. In addition, we would need to know the exact height of the part to be able to design the code to start at the exact height of the part. Currently I'm running an original Prusa I3 MK2, by many said to be the best "bang for buck" printer out there. It's a fabulous machine (if we choose to ignore the obvious lack of proper engineering... like fastening bearings with zip ties...) but I would struggle to be able to do this. Slicers are the least worry IMHO. They do a wonderful job and are easy to use.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 15, 2017, 05:21:26 AM
As supplied my Cetus 3D gives you little access to directly controlling things, however setting the 'zero plane' for printing IS implemented in the set up tools as you need to account for different build tables. So in the case of a flat aluminium part fixed to the build table and needing the gasket applying it would just be a case of setting the top of it as 'ground zero'

There is an alternative (or add on - I'm not sure which) that allows direct use of G code for control - I've not yet explored that avenue as I have enough to learn with what I have  :coffee:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 15, 2017, 06:41:38 AM
Now this is getting interesting. :nrocks:

Prusa seems to be the general starting point, I don't like the mechanics. I understand the construction from that point of view that you can make it from hardware shop parts using only hand tools. But that lead somewhat less than ideal solution if you have lathe, milling machine and can work with aluminium exrusion and such.

Another thing is the configuration. Plenty of freedom if you only extrude light structures. Somehow I would like more strong screw actuated Z-axis (table) and lightweight/fast X/Y gantry.

I would exhange the heat table any time to heatable fixure/heatsink construction with external PID controller et.al. Thin, lightweigh plate is harder to keep uniform hot and straight.

Another thing I ahve been thinkking is "syringe" exruder. Bit like in lab those metering syringes with stepper drive or the origninal DIY 3D printer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab@Home

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: efrench on May 17, 2017, 03:54:15 AM
A couple of years ago, I watched an MIT demo of a conductive extrusion ink/paste that used a syringe extruder.  Ceramic extruders are using compressed air to control the syringe.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Bee on May 19, 2017, 04:43:00 PM
I've not seen any further mention of the falling head problem. My understanding is that it starts at the bottom and then can only go up until finished so perhaps a pawl on the toothed belt would work, kind of inverse of the normal people lift safety catch.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 19, 2017, 05:03:31 PM
Counterbalance spring on order  :thumbup:

There are all sorts of catches and ratchets that have been developed, but the balance spring is the most elegant in my view. Tracking says it's 'out for delivery'   :clap: 
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 22, 2017, 03:12:16 PM
Today I made a little box - nothing very exciting, but it was a Autodesk Fusion 360 learning exercise for me. I wanted to make a drawing where the walls and base of the box are a defined thickness, but the other dimensions can be stretched or shrunk - a sort of parametric model. In this case I just concentrated on the base, and it nicely stays at 3 mm thick as I stretch or shrink the height  :thumbup:

It has also proved to be a useful calibration check for X & Y accuracy, as the lid (a deliberately tight fit) fits just as well both ways round  :ddb:

Altogether a handy exercise. Printed in cheap eBay £10 / kg PLA filament, which is definitely not as strong as the stuff you get from e3d but about 1/3rd the price  :bugeye:

The Z axis spring balancer is slated to arrive tomorrow, so if it does I'll follow up with a few pictures
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 23, 2017, 05:16:26 AM
The Cetus3D has an inherent problem, in that when the power is turned off, the Z axis rail having little friction allows the Y motor and assembly to come crashing down onto the bed if you don't remember to hold it  :bugeye:

Several people have devised different solutions but I decided to use one based on a counter balance reel sping as it seemed a neat idea. No point in re-inventing the wheel so I ordered a kit.

As promised today Steve the Post Man brought the Z Balancer modification kit. This is a  kit put together by an enterprising user in the USA who solved the problem on his Cetus3D by finding a suitably small coiled wire spring balancer (rated at 2 lbs) to just give the assembly neutral buoyancy  and drawing up and printing some bits to allow it to fit on the upright extrusion and take the weight of the Y axis and motor in the Z plane.

Fitting was pretty straight forward - slightly unnerving screwing self tapping screws into the printed bit of the Cetus, but all went well (apart from the inevitable disappearing screw  :bang:)

Works well and to prove that it doesn't inhibit anything else the machine is currently churning out another box  :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 23, 2017, 07:28:05 AM
... it was a Autodesk Fusion 360 learning exercise for me....

You got new laptop?

My old laptop is a bit marginal to Fusion, there is one local shop that sells used used business laptops. They promised to message in few days if they have anything suitable under 400€. Free cad does not turn out free.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 23, 2017, 12:51:40 PM
Pekka, I built a desktop specifically for Fusion - although it's video performance is a bit slow according to Autodesk. It's based on a Dell Optiplex 7010 ultra small form factor base unit that I put a fairly fast SSD in and upped the ram to 8 Gb. It's an i3-3220 running at 3.3 Ghz with 2 cores and 4 logical processors. (The video is on board). It's running Windows 7 64 bit
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 24, 2017, 05:34:15 AM
Thank you, that sounds like pretty good machine. How well it works?

I was offered a second hand business laptop for 450 EUR. New ones are about the same price, but bit smaller SSD and W10 Home or W7.

HP 250 G5 i3-5005U 15.6inch HD SVA AG 8GB(1x8GB) 256GB SSD DVDRW UMA NO WWAN W10PRO64

2 GHz, 8GB, not that sure about graphics "card" Intel HD Graphics 5500....

Sounds to me slow and expensive.

Desktop probably would come out cheaper vs. performance, but it needs more desk space, monitor, etc. and I could not retire it to my daughter if I loose interest or autodesk will jack up the price.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 24, 2017, 09:10:43 AM
These days I'm totally confused with cpu names and numbers, cores, logical processors etc - there are just too many variants :bang:

Time was when you had a 286 or a 386 or if you were really flash a 486  :lol: 

The MyHermes girl has just delivered a couple of rolls of PetG filament, so when I've got myself back together (*) I'll go and try  it out.


(* Just had to have the Sow put down, all a bit traumatic as the fellow used a 12 bore rather than the captive bolt gun that I'd expected, and there was blood everywhere - just spent two hours clearing the drains that he blocked so not feeling too fresh  :bang: )
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 24, 2017, 11:53:36 AM
I was pretty good with those 286/386 PC.s, even rembered some port adresses in Hex, last time I assembled together PC was maybe -95 something, it's all gone grazy.

I better ask some new kids, but it really looks like choices are between facebookhousewife, corporateglueeye or gamingsockontheheadzombi PC:s. Very little ready made PC.s for homeshop machinist 3D cad users....

This forgot to say the most important - graphics cards:
http://blog.grabcad.com/blog/2015/07/28/kick-ass-cad-workstation-build/

How on earth people can afford these? 400€ is on the limit which makes me consider seriously and mull over few days. For non paying use 2000 USD sounds a lot to me of PC. This well served laptop I bought used 160€ and it has served me well from new then W7 to stable nowW10.

Pekka

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 24, 2017, 02:52:43 PM
The Pet-G printing tests were a success  :thumbup:

I printed a pair of the boxes and lids at exactly the same settings as previously when printing in PLA, except that I upped the nozzle temperature to 240 deg C. No heated bed (not turned up yet!) but it seemed to cope OK.

I did notice that the raft was markedly more difficult to peel from the model. To test the size compatibility I tried PLA lids on Pet-G boxes and vice versa and they fitted fine. Subjectively the Pet-G in more flexible.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 24, 2017, 04:41:41 PM
Those look good. You printed the same design out of PLA and Pet-G? Are they same size?

Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 24, 2017, 04:59:26 PM
I've not actually measured them, but as the lids and boxes are interchangeable I'd be very surprised if they were not essentially identical
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 25, 2017, 11:21:56 AM
Last year I rigged up a 'Hydroponic Pig Cooler', and had occasion to use it yesterday and today:

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,11459.msg134238.html#msg134238

Trouble is, one of the fittings was badly cracked and instead of a mist was giving a spout of water - probably frost over the winter.

So what do you do if you have a 3D printer - print one of course  :lol:

Initially I drew up and printed just a simple end cap to block off the offending outlet while I was drawing up the proper fitting, and this went quite well
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 25, 2017, 11:25:59 AM
Then I drew up the proper thing, but the spray orifice screws on with a M9 x 1mm pitch thread - rather fine to print and I have no die that size.

Having printed a 'threadless' one I thought that I'd have a go at the thread setting the printer to its finest resolution but still the 0.4 mm nozzle, and to my amazement it produced a working thread  :ddb:

I'm VERY impressed with this printer  :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Pete. on May 25, 2017, 12:17:23 PM
Not surprised, that's bloody good.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 25, 2017, 12:49:47 PM
My work here is done, now any Tom, Dick or Andrew can 3D print quality stuff     :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 25, 2017, 01:05:32 PM
Joules,

From you I take that as a great compliment, but to me it confirms the decision to buy a printer rather than faff around for weeks trying to get a home brew up and running.

The quality of the print is down to the machine and  the Fusion 360 software
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: DMIOM on May 25, 2017, 01:35:42 PM
.......The quality of the print is down to the machine and  the Fusion 360 software

And the operator, Andrew!
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Joules on May 25, 2017, 01:48:38 PM
LOL, as I have pretty much preached from the start, even my kit built printers are a lot more work than the ready builds.  If you have end uses, don't waste time reinventing the wheel, though I keep getting drawn to the dark side.

Roll on the Cetus3D being available in the UK from a dealer.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 26, 2017, 08:11:32 AM
The uses for this little toy are endless  :ddb:

Wife is knitting a cardigan for very young offspring of a farmer friend - Ba Ba Blacksheep theme complete with picture but bemoaned the fact she couldn't find any suitable buttons - well print some  :lol:

These are 15 mm in diameter - sorry - forgot to include the ruler  :hammer:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 26, 2017, 10:57:31 AM
Next thing you know you will be printting winnie the pooh, tigger and then Wallace and Grommit buttons.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: DMIOM on May 26, 2017, 12:56:53 PM
.....Wife is knitting a cardigan for very young offspring of a farmer friend - Ba Ba Blacksheep theme complete with picture but bemoaned the fact she couldn't find any suitable buttons - well print some.....

Andrew - just a thought - not sure how young the recipient is, but are they safe if chewed?

Dave
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 26, 2017, 01:30:30 PM
Yes we thought about that  :thumbup:

This poor kid (not yet born) is going to start life in the rough in a caravan in a field while his parents try to get their barn built around them to house their herd of cattle. Family farm sold under them when parents died - house and barns gone to Yuppies and my friend left with 20 acres and the livestock with nowhere to house them or themselves. Life can be hard  :bang:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: efrench on May 26, 2017, 01:35:28 PM
If you print the buttons in ABS, you can use acetone vapor to polish them.

ABS sticks well to 3M painters tape, so a heated bed isn't necessary.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 27, 2017, 03:42:15 AM
That is a rough start for that family. I can only imagine how worried the parents are.

I was told that my mum put us all kids in the purpose build kids pen while she was working in the barn, farther was working in the woods and farm is allaways much work. The barn was evenntually coming appart and we have to move out for a winter....I hear it was a hard winter but that is not how I remember it. It was a new exciting place and I had not started the school yet. All the stuf explore. Spring came, and us kidds were helping as we could in the new barn building site.

I heard it was rough times, but to me it was an adventure. We had to make all the little we had to do. I remeber chippinng plaster out of used tiles and straighening nails to reuse them.


Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 27, 2017, 06:10:17 AM
How did I ever manage without a 3D printer ? :clap:

Today our front gate, which is electrically operated, opened spontaneously. Now it's being doing this when it rains hard, and I'd tracked it down to the pedestrian entry keypad, which gives a closed relay contact to the controller to open the gate. As a temporary expedient I had removed the 12 v supply to the keypad so that it couldn't operate it's internal relay - BUT TODAY THE GATE OPENED  :scratch:

Investigation showed that water had entered, and there was a heavy rust streak on the plastic between the Common and Normally Open terminals that presumable was borderline able to conduct enough to open the gate.

I pulled it apart, cleaned it up and bench proved it all as working, but as well as giving it more shielding from weather, I wanted to spray the internal PCB with a waterproof 'con-formal coating' that is excellent at improving insulation in damp conditions. However it is also an effective glue, so it needs to be kept out of things that need to move, like the switches on the PCB that the external buttons operate. Now things like the edge connector, and a plug in I/C could be masked with masking tape, but those tiny little switches defied my banana like fingers, when it came to trying to mask them.

SO PRINT SOME COVERS - after all YOU HAVE A 3D Printer :lol:

Quickly knocked up a Fusion 360 model, printed them and the conformal coating is drying as I type this  :clap:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: spuddevans on May 27, 2017, 06:48:26 AM
Nice one Andrew  :thumbup: :thumbup:

Only problem is, once word gets around, everyone will be asking you for "a little favour". After all, you just have to push a couple of buttons and "Poof!!" the desired item magically appears  :lol: :lol:

Tim
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 27, 2017, 07:08:57 AM
Pretty nifty!

Just out of curiocity: the nozzles on your "Hydroponic Pig Cooler" are they round orifice ones, or do they have a slit or flexible flapper?

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on May 27, 2017, 09:30:32 AM
Pretty nifty!

Just out of curiocity: the nozzles on your "Hydroponic Pig Cooler" are they round orifice ones, or do they have a slit or flexible flapper?

Pekka

The end cap that screws on has a very small round hole, but the cap traps another bit of plastic  that has a helical groove in it so that the water is already dizzy before it squirts through the hole. I presume that getting the water spinning aids the mist formation  :scratch:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: PekkaNF on May 28, 2017, 02:57:55 AM
Pretty nifty!

Just out of curiocity: the nozzles on your "Hydroponic Pig Cooler" are they round orifice ones, or do they have a slit or flexible flapper?

Pekka

The end cap that screws on has a very small round hole, but the cap traps another bit of plastic  that has a helical groove in it so that the water is already dizzy before it squirts through the hole. I presume that getting the water spinning aids the mist formation  :scratch:

Not sure if I follow, but that sounds morre like a structure made for metering a certain amout of fluid.

Normal short orifce (hole in the disc) or such has drawbacks if very small hole is made, small diametrs are hard drill/debur, thye clog easy and wear.

Longer restriction normally works better on tose accounts. But instead of long hole ususally a threaded hole is used. Like on oil metering orifices on some machine tools (I think brigeport table has that). In oil metering componenets are cheap: Taps of knwown accuracy are produced and set screws too. If the metering orifice blocks, cleaning it is a matter of openeing and closing it. Adjustment is easy: Choose diferent lengt of set screw,, precise location is not needed just lengh.

It still could have same priciple and retai ease of cleaning if ti is sort of groove on cylinder suface and pluggs to cylinder.

Or I may have got wrong altogether.

Pekka
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on June 01, 2017, 04:34:45 AM
Nice one Andrew  :thumbup: :thumbup:

Only problem is, once word gets around, everyone will be asking you for "a little favour". After all, you just have to push a couple of buttons and "Poof!!" the desired item magically appears  :lol: :lol:

Tim

Tim,

This is already happening !

Local farmer brought me a drain down plug from his milking machine where the thread had stripped. (This is for the water wash down not for the milk itself)

What remains of the plug measures 19 tpi and the body measures OK for a very worn 3/8" BSP thread - 0.600" as opposed to 0.656" by specification.

This was drawn by sweeping a profile around 360 degrees to make the 3D form in order to create the circular groove, but this method prevented me putting the parallel knurls in the grip. Had I made that as a separate body and merged them in Fusion 360 I could have had the best of both worlds.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: efrench on June 01, 2017, 05:26:32 AM
Here's one way to add the knurling:

Create a sketch on the top face. Draw the profile of the knurls. Draw a circle slightly larger than the knurls.  Extrude|Cut the knurls.  If you don't want them the full length, you can use a 2 direction extrude (one direction will be minus).

You can also use the split tool to separate the knurled part from the rest of the body, then recreate the knurled part.

Note: you don't have to join the bodies in order to export as STL for 3d printing.




Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on June 01, 2017, 10:21:22 AM
Here you go, one knurled grip just for the hell of it, and now I've got 'holes in circular surfaces' under my belt, the correct number of cross bores (three) as the other examples had four - matters not a jot functionally, but this is a learning exercise for me.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: spuddevans on June 01, 2017, 12:01:14 PM
Nice one Andrew  :clap: :clap:

Tim
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: nrml on June 01, 2017, 01:27:19 PM
Did you have to apply a sealant to the printed plug to make it water tight?






Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on June 01, 2017, 01:43:28 PM
No it seems OK as is. I printed it at maximum density.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on June 15, 2017, 07:00:20 AM
Well at long last my Heated Bed arrived for the Cetus3D printer. First one got lost in the post, but they replaced it.

Fairly straightforward to fit once you deduce that there is only one possible orientation for it, that the coated bed supplied with the printer needs to go on top of it held in with longer screws, and that the ribbon cable supplied is way too long and the surplus has to be tucked away into the electronics box.

Rather than put a load of pictures up, I found this excellent video on YouTube explaining the fact that although it can be interally or externally powered, in fact there are two independent heating elements in the bed:




embedding not working so here is the link


www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlT1WpGr6o

I've now successfully printed ABS - here is a picture of some ABS gear wheels that I made
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Pete. on June 15, 2017, 07:04:31 AM
Hey Andrew you've used underline tags instead of youtube tags for your video link.

BTW I have the same thermal camera adapter as him, plugs into my Android phone. I use it to freak out the kids by leaving thermal handprints on the wall :D
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on June 15, 2017, 07:08:16 AM
Well spotted that man - have a beer  :beer:
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on July 19, 2019, 10:51:20 AM
Well I've just finished a mammoth print run on the Cetus 3D printer, which it coped with like a champ :thumbup:

For some time I've had a pair of 'desk-top' metal tool racks designed to take a variety of 'inserts' to hold differing shanks of tooling. As I got them each was equipped to take seven 4 Morse Taper tools. Although I do have 4MT drills, they already have a rack so I wanted to 're-purpose' these to take the VDI40 tooling for the Beaver TC20 CNC lathe.

So, steaming up Fusion 360 I took the basic shape of the 4MT holders, increased the size of the 'tool bore' to take VDI40, and the size of the upper platform to accommodate some of the larger tools, yet retained the mounting peg locations for actually fitting into the rack.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on July 19, 2019, 10:56:08 AM
Then it was a case of churning them out, night and day. I even set a camera on them so I could monitor them printing remotely !

Because of the increased width I 'only' needed twelve, but in the event I actually printed fourteen as two didn't clean up as well as I wanted.

4 hours and 41 minutes each  :bugeye:

End result however is that two previously useless (to me) racks are now very handy, and for a very modest cost compared to buying the real things.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: AdeV on July 20, 2019, 12:09:06 PM
How many do you print in one sitting?

Once I get my wardrobe slider things right, I'll go for printing all 7 (the first one that's right, I won't need to re-print of course  :smart:) in one go - it's a 7 hour print right now, because of the height I think, for minimal overhangs, I've got them printing vertically. Not sure how much each extra item will add, but I'm hoping it's rather less than 7 hours...
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on July 20, 2019, 01:07:47 PM
Just the one at a time Ade. Two might just about squeeze in but the print time wouldn't be much less.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: AdeV on July 21, 2019, 05:13:26 AM
Crumbs - how big ARE they? It looks like you should easily be able to get 4 or even 6 on the bed at once... unless my sense of scale is completely out of kilter?
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on July 21, 2019, 06:53:12 AM
100 mm x 70 mm by about 65 tall

For scale the hole in the middle is 42 mm (To take a VDI 40 spigot)

The Cetus 3D table build size is 180 mm x 180 mm
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: Muzzerboy on July 21, 2019, 07:17:57 AM
Crumbs - how big ARE they? It looks like you should easily be able to get 4 or even 6 on the bed at once... unless my sense of scale is completely out of kilter?
As Andrew says, the print time isn't improved by clustering several together. You still have to extrude the same amount of material per part and there is also the additional moves from part to part within each printed layer. Although the process seems to have gone well here, if there had been a problem with the filament etc, it could have led to more than one part being scrapped.

The biggest time savings come from choosing the lowest resolution (thickest layer) that makes sense for the application. I've found that even fairly coarse settings can result in very reasonable looking parts.
Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: awemawson on July 21, 2019, 07:27:35 AM
And those inserts are only printed at 20% fill rate so inside is just a fairly open honeycomb. Surprisingly this was more than adequate for the application.



Title: Re: Cetus3D 3D Printer
Post by: AdeV on July 21, 2019, 01:03:34 PM
100 mm x 70 mm by about 65 tall

For scale the hole in the middle is 42 mm (To take a VDI 40 spigot)

The Cetus 3D table build size is 180 mm x 180 mm

Ahhh, they're quite a bit bigger than they seem in the photos then. Fairy nuff!

TBH, the reason for printing multiples wasn't so much to save time, as to save faff: Set off a 16hr print, go off and do 16hrs of Other Things. Obviously, yes, you need to be confident that your printer won't foul up mid-way through!