Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: aaronjb on 27 December 2019, 15:16:32
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So .. I know eBoy owns one, anyone else?
I got a 3D printer for Xmas from Santa* and just started playing with it.. I have a lot of learning to do (the first test print looks a little 'stringy')!
*eBay. Ordered on Friday 20th, turned up on Monday 23rd, just to annoy the aforementioned eBoy! ;D Although that was because the one I originally ordered from Amazon never arrived .. never trust Marketplace sellers, although I could have sworn it was a "Fulfilled by Amazon" order when I ordered it, it never made it to the courier from the seller. Refund was issued 3 days after it was due to arrive, though, and the one on eBay was £100 cheaper in the end ;D
It's this one, for anyone interested: https://all3dp.com/1/anycubic-chiron-3d-printer-review/
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Can you really get a decent one for under £500? I'm not convinced. 😏
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Can you really get a decent one for under £500? I'm not convinced. 😏
No.
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Can you really get a decent one for under £500? I'm not convinced. 😏
No.
I see.....but you could just be saying that cause you wanna be the only 3D printer in town 😄
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It will take a while to get to "know" your printer and material, and how to configure the slicer for them.
Start out with bog standard PLA, as that's the easiest to print. And start out with simple prints that will always adhere well, and can highlight potential issues with the printer. So, for example, a simple 5cm cube, then move onto Benchy etc.
If yours has auto bed levelling, that is not an excuse NOT to level the bed properly. All auto bed levelling does is a (poor) software attempt to fix a hardware issue.
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Mine has .. not really auto bed levelling, though it does let you fine-tune the levels across a number of points, it doesn't really do it automagically - so manual levelling on the four corners is apparently the best option (which I've done a couple of times and I think is reasonable now)
It came with a spool of white PLA, so I'm killing that off with test prints before I move on to the reel of black PLA I bought myself :)
So far.. quite a bit of 'stringing' and some oddities on overhangs but not terrible, so time to dial in settings :y
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Can you really get a decent one for under £500? I'm not convinced. 😏
No.
I see.....but you could just be saying that cause you wanna be the only 3D printer in town 😄
Anything in the home/hobby price range is flawed in some way.
And I suspect that lots of people here have one ;)
I have a £110 (2 years ago) Anet A8 (High precision model), which has well known flaws, including allegedly bursting into flames (which it wouldn't if put together properly). But it has other issues as well - non insurmountable, and many can be fixed by printing some uprated parts, including braces, belt tensioners and filament guides. But by far, by a country mile, its most serious issue is the very, very, VERY poor way of insulating fingers from the incoming mains - its lethally utterly shite. Again, printing a proper cover resolves the issue.
I find it to be a brilliant bit of kit. But like every similar printer, its not a item that you can just plug in, use, unplug and chuck in the cupboard for next time device. Every time its moved it needs the bed relevelling (auto leveller is a £10 add-on, but will never overcome the issues with an unlevel bed), every few months it needs all the screws retightening, the Z axis reset and so on.
As said, there isn't anything that is set and forget in the hobby price range that is versatile enough to be useful.
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It's a bit like saying you can't buy a lathe for £500 - you can, but it'll need work (I can turn out reasonable parts on my £500 ML7).. or a manual mill for £1500 - you can, but it'll need work (one day...). If you want buy-and-forget then add several zeroes (say £150k for a Haas 5-axis ought to be fairly plug and play!) ;D Same with 3D printers, I suspect - the 'commercial' prototyping ones are probably 5 figures (and I doubt any of them work by melting recycled milk bottles and squeezing them out of a small hole!)
You gets what you pays for, as they say :)
But it's a fun gadget.. he says, waiting for the bed to hit 100C for the second test print.
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So far.. quite a bit of 'stringing' and some oddities on overhangs but not terrible, so time to dial in settings :y
Play with hotend temps and retraction settings for stringing, and overhangs might need some help from the slicer (supports, or if the slicer supports it, "bridging" which can allow overhangs between 2 pillars etc).
PLA, you should be able to get near perfect* results, within the confines of physics. Other materials are more challenging.
*FDM printer prints will always feel rough vertically due to the way the model is built.
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But it's a fun gadget.. he says, waiting for the bed to hit 100C for the second test print.
Roger me backwards - that's way too high for PLA, and will cause "elephants foot". A starter for 10 is 50-60C for PLA. 100-110C is about right for ABS.
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Can you really get a decent one for under £500? I'm not convinced. 😏
No.
I see.....but you could just be saying that cause you wanna be the only 3D printer in town 😄
I guess the other point that should be mentioned about mine is that it comes in kit form.
Personally, I find that a good thing, as it was enjoyable to build, despite the woeful Chinglish instructions that you have to print yourself. However, it took me about 3 evenings, though I guess it could be done much quicker. At least I known and understand every component, and how it works, making repairs/mtce trivial.
Like any kit, if rushed, or built badly, the end result will be impacted.
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I've recently bought a Creality CR-10, as mentioned before they require a lot of setting up and then resetting when started back up. I have mine connected through a Raspberry Pi using Octoprint so its linked into my PC. Still trying to get to grips with 3D Cad drawings and Slicer settings.
There's a lot of stuff about most printers and software on youtube. Most of it seems to be making parts for the printers to correct in built faults before making anything useful..
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These 3D printers are amazing.
I believe a good one can create an exact life size model of the empire state building. 8)
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Get printing boys! :y
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/27/us/lamborghini-3d-trnd/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_term=link&utm_source=twbusiness&utm_content=2019-12-28T13%3A31%3A07
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I think it might be a while before I can print anything ... useful ;D
(https://i.ibb.co/kJZ0dY7/IMG-20191228-152302.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hc0Hqp6)
That's meant to be three perfect little cone shapes - not the blobby mess that it currently is!
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As said, extrusion/hotend temp might be high, retraction too low or print speed too fast.
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I think it might be a while before I can print anything ... useful ;D
(https://i.ibb.co/kJZ0dY7/IMG-20191228-152302.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hc0Hqp6)
That's meant to be three perfect little cone shapes - not the blobby mess that it currently is!
sell it on Ebay as a one off, collectible "Frozen 2" merchandise $£$£ :y
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As said, extrusion/hotend temp might be high, retraction too low or print speed too fast.
I've tried lots of combinations of that so far - results remain the same.. temp down to 190C (which is the low end of what it's meant to be printed at, according to the spec sheet with the PLA), retraction up to 12mm, print speeds down to 45mm/s and up to 100mm/s, it all looks pretty much identical, which is weird..
Probably need to put some more time into the basics first really - calibrate the extruder, then calibrate the per-mm settings for everything else, then try again :y
But it's printing a Benchy Boat right now, just for shits & giggles so that will be tomorrows job ;D
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I take it the raw material used is cheap enough for you to be pissing around like a small child 😂
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I take it the raw material used is cheap enough for you to be pissing around like a small child 😂
£20 gets you 300m of the stuff .. so it's fairly inexpensive :y Cheaper than bar stock and sheet metal, anyway!
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Boaty looks a bit off .. there's even a little burnt looking blob in there:
(https://i.ibb.co/zGc3fwT/IMG-20191228-190256.jpg) (https://ibb.co/72c3yFd)
That was down at 190C, 45mm/s print speed, 10mm retraction. I think perhaps I'm over extruding and/or the print head is hotter than it reports or the filament is a bit crap..
Any recommendations on filament?
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Now is the time to go join that facebook thing that we all avoid...Join into the closed groups who are all into this 3D printing..
I know its facebook,but there really is some great closed groups for these hobbies.
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Try with the speed much lower. Just to see.
I personally use Hobbyking PLA, which costs around £6 - £15 per kilo, but be wary of ordering from their Global warehouse, as not only will customs hit you, but their courier, ArseholeForce, will also scam you £15 on top.
I've honestly never printed a Benchy, but just for shits, I might. I did promise myself I'd fix some of the wear and tear issues on mine this Christmas, and relocate to a better location, but I've not been feeling too great :(. My X axis belt is a loose as a dorset girl in a marina, and I have a slight twist on the frame.
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I think I may have found the primary culprit in the stringing and blobbing - the part cooling fan wasn't running ::)
If I print from the SD card, it runs fine - spins up while the warming cycle begins and continues spinning throughout the print, resulting in much, much less stringing and regular looking parts (still some stringing, but I'd gone back to "default" settings for this test).
If I print the same gcode from OctoPrint, the fan spins up while the warming cycle is going and then the instant the head starts moving .. the fan stops.
Googling around, there's lots of other people reporting the same thing with various causes - some people have had driver boards fail (but then surely it wouldn't run printing from the SD card), others have noted that using auto levelling fixes it (I'm using just manual levelling right now).
Very odd, that the same gcode one way works fine but another (streamed over USB) doesn't, which implies a firmware problem to me. The firmware is open source so technically I could go digging.. but y'know, I just wanted to print some stuff ;D
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Firstly, forget Octoprint. Its a buggy PoS, and adds complexity and unreliability for no benefit*
Get it sorted on the SD card method, then worry about trying to make it annoyingly complex.
Fan speeds are set in the slicer - what are you using?
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The fan is small, so you wont get driver problems unless you are a complete moron.
Try to look at generic causes of these types of bad print - it was obvious yours was too hot or too fast - rather than specifics for your printer. As a person involved in (proper) IT, you will soon learn that most 3d printer forums are full of idiots ;)
Also, don't adjust stuff in the firmware, adjust it in the slicer instead :y. Trust me, it works better, particularly if you change materials.
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Firstly, forget Octoprint. Its a buggy PoS, and adds complexity and unreliability for no benefit*
But the internet* says it's great! ;D
Fan speeds are set in the slicer - what are you using?
Cura 4.4.1 at the moment - I have read that slic3r is meant to be "better" but requires a lot more tweaking, Cura has an out-of-the-box profile for the printer so I figured that would be a good place for a n00b to start :)
I think the remaining stringies on my last test print (190ºC print temp, 60ºC plate temp, 6mm retraction, 45mm/s print speed, 100mm/s travel speed, cooling at 100%) are probably because the cooling fan only blows from one side - the stringies are all from the 'leeward' side, so to speak, as the print head moves down-wind..
Running another couple of little test prints right now, one at 'draft' layer height and one at the finest layer height in Cura's default profiles, slightly slowed down from draft.
All printing from the SD card now, since then the fan actually runs ;D
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Cura is pretty good now TBH, its improved massively since v2.
On Thingiverse, are there any fan ducts to improve cooling at the nozzle?
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On Thingiverse, are there any fan ducts to improve cooling at the nozzle?
Yup .. many! I just joined one of the FB groups like Steve suggested and that's a commonly discussed first 'upgrade'.. granted one person commented that they were printing their upgraded fan duct on their 'other' 3D printer - an SLA printer ;D
I'll have a bash at printing one - the stock cooler fan is incredibly weedy (barely a breeze, I could blow harder ;D) so there are some ducts that take standard 40mm (24V) axial fans, too.
Ah, upgradeitis ;D
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You will print a few, trust me ;D
Also, you may find that you may need to print in ABS, as the PLA ones can go a bit soft in the hot air around the extruder. So plenty of experimentation to be done.
I have printed loads of different ones for my Anet A8, and settled on one that blows from 2 different angles. Its so effective, I have to set the slicer to use max fan speed of about 40% :o
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AMRC (Advanced manufacturing research centre) in Sheffield recommended a Colido compact for the wife's school, costing £180+VAT. Apparently the kids are making good quality objects, including a clock face with raised numerals, without much stringing or blobs.
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Is that their baby one? I can see why, as CoLiDo printers are fully enclosed, so harder for kids to sabotage ;D.
a 4" print area though, limits it.
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aaronjb - I'm just printing this Benchy (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3742491) using 0.2mm layer height. I'll post up a photo when done (1hr25 according to Cura).
I have recently moved my printer so it needs full relevelling (bed and the Z axis on mine), but I CBA, plus I have new bits to go on that will need relevelling after, so would do all that together.
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Lol, the bed is that pissed that its gonna need a raft. Try again time ;D
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Lol, the bed is that pissed that its gonna need a raft. Try again time ;D
S'not my day - I've forgotten to turn off supports. I'll let this one finish, then redo. My supports setting was "Touching Buildplate", so only a thin one to support top of hull, so wont make much difference though.
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And doing this, my printer has just recorded going over 3km of filament, and its approaching 30days of actual printing time.
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Ah yes - I had supports turned on everywhere on my first Benchy .. he had no windows, or doors.. ;D I've since fine-tuned the support settings so that I can actually get them out/off ;D ;D except for one on my last print, which is annoying - I'll figure that out, though!
Re the temp tower and needing adjustment - the temperature tower was someone elses gcode (from the Chiron owners group) so no tweaking possible there; and nobody knows what slicer settings he used ;D but my own prints are starting to look better now:
(https://i.ibb.co/jRGypg6/IMG-20200102-160632.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Dpk9q5V)
(You can see the non-removable support in the hole at the lower left corner where the rotary encoder should poke through)
(https://i.ibb.co/rHTcLKH/IMG-20200102-160645.jpg) (https://ibb.co/0r8FWpr)
There's some 'ringing' visible - I need to tighten the belts (which is why I'm currently printing new tensioners!) and add supports to the Z axis uprights.. though the support attachment blocks need 14hrs to print, so I'll do those bit-by-bit! If it's running overnight the noise will probably annoy the OH as my office is next-door to our bedroom (that was poorly planned, I should have bagsied one of the huge double bedrooms as my office ;D)
Oh, and I think I could probably go lower with the temperature - I'm already at 180ºC, but others have found the thermistor reads ~20-30ºC low so I could still be at 200ºC right now. Must dig out the IR thermometer.
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The ringing can sometimes be the infill coming through, rather than true ringing - I have an extreme example here somewhere, let me dig it out.
My Benchy came detached at about 90% - hardly surprising seeing how the printer has twisted since I moved it - one corner isn't touching the desk ;D.
(https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/benchy-lowres.JPG)
High Res pic at https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/benchy-hires.JPG
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Infill problem, not to be confuddled with true "ringing"
(https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/infill_prob.JPG)
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Re the ringing - on the Gotek bracket it's the sort of 'shadow' of the port logos that are sunk into the front that I mean, rather than the general surface finish.. they have a sort of 'ghost' of themselves beside them. Of course, I might be trying to fix something that is inherent to 3D printing, for all I know ;D
I'll have another bash at Benchy tonight, see what it comes out like now I've tweaked things a lot .. just have to remember to disable supports ;D
My last two prints were these:
(https://i.ibb.co/7g94hW6/IMG-20200103-132120.jpg) (https://ibb.co/TKCLy8F)
At the front is a Y axis belt tensioner and at the back is a front indicator relocation plate for the Cobra - that one is actually one I drew up myself in Fusion 360 a while back (like, months .. I've now forgotten how I did it all!), and then printed yesterday. Surprisingly sturdy with just 25% infill at only 5mm thick.
(https://i.ibb.co/rvLn4Yh/IMG-20200103-132131.jpg) (https://ibb.co/25LXgxr)
A little blobbing in the slots at the back, but not bad .. some small tweaks to go.
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Gcode can be tweaked by hand in a text editor. Extruder temp will be near the very top, first few lines.
Make sure your extruder temp sensor is properly located in the block, else you will get strange results, and in extreme, a nasty smell as the extruder actually burns the PLA. 20-30C out seems way too far off.
Round holes should not need any supports, but check the overhang settings in Cura, as by default, they are conservative.
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Getting there :y.
Re the Cobra piece, when designing stuff, remember that anything off a FDM printer is inherently weak along the layers. So sometimes, you need to design in some strength, or print it in a different orientation to put the inherent weakness in a different plane. I bet it won't be long before you can "see" that during the design stage :y
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Cobra
Ignore that word, misread post :D
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Round holes should not need any supports, but check the overhang settings in Cura, as by default, they are conservative.
Yeah, right now Cura is intent on sticking supports everywhere, including M3 sized holes ;D ;D Fortunately they do now poke-out easily (now that I've also changed it's default Z distance from 0.1mm to 0.25mm - I read somewhere that the general rule of thumb was "half the nozzle plus 0.05")!
The Cobra bit is mostly "bendy" ;D but it just needs to move the front indicators up above the minimum height for IVA.. it's essentially non-structural unless the IVA examiner manages to snap it ;D (although the build has stalled right now .. more on that in the build thread when I catch up to date!)
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Not got Cura in front of me, but under supports, there is an angle of max overhang. 0 is horizontal (anything would get a support), 90 is vertical (nothing would be supported), so you can play with that. There are also some Bridging settings, that can help not do supports unless needed.
Additionally, I tend to only use the Support option "Touching Buildplate", but it does depend on the model. Sometimes, in the design, you will have to design in easily removed supports, rather than fight the slicer's options. Again, the more you play, they more you understand your printer's capabilities.
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My Z axis is generally:
0.3 for very fast test prints
0.2 for daft, or stuff where quality doesn't matter
0.1 for normal
I do have a 0.05mm for intricate stuff, although the specs of my printer suggest 0.1mm accuracy, but suspect that is more in the X/Y plane than Z. And when ever I get around to fitting my Y tensioner that I printed off ages and ages ago, I'm hoping that will improve. But that means finding the belt I bought ages ago to replace the stretchy rubber one. And that means stripping down, which means I may as well fit the braces I printed, and the PSU fan, and, and, and.... ;D
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I did some playing with "magic numbers" based on the stepper and lead screw and the results have been quite pleasing printing at 0.12 and 0.16mm.. currently printing a set of exhaust manifold bends at 0.32 to see what they come out like.
Starting to get to grips with all the settings - one thing I noticed is that Cura was very optimistic on the timings; turns out that's because it is calculating (in part) based on the acceleration settings it has (1800mm/s2, I think .. units might be wrong) while the printer is locked down in the firmware to 350mm/s2 due to the mass of the bed that needs to be moved. Folks reported success in bumping the firmware numbers up (a bit, not to the 3500 of smaller models, though!) and then down in Cura to match, so I'm fiddling with that.
Also modeled a Ford FE header flange in Fusion 360 as I couldn't find a model to steal, and printed one of those - got it dead nuts right first time which I was rather pleased with! Now to make a header flange that will snap into the exhaust manifold sections (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2053049)
Incidentally - those manifold sections can be bought as a finished product .. £1500 per set!
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I did all the "upgrades" I had to mine on Saturday - additional bracing, a X tensioner, replaced the belts with non stretchy ones, and rerouted some of the wires.
The result? Its noticeably worse ;D
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The result? Its noticeably worse ;D
Perfect! Objective achieved ;D
I added a Y tensioner .. and now the bearing clicks. ;D
Printed this last night, though I haven't inspected it yet (it's still welded to the bed - I do not have any bed adhesion problems .. in fact, half the time I struggle to get the PLA off it! ;D): (https://i.ibb.co/K2MnkWD/Screenshot-2020-01-07-08-00-06.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
It's an exhaust header flange with snap fitting to mate to the snap-together exhaust manifold template sections
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The result? Its noticeably worse ;D
Perfect! Objective achieved ;D
I added a Y tensioner .. and now the bearing clicks. ;D
Printed this last night, though I haven't inspected it yet (it's still welded to the bed - I do not have any bed adhesion problems .. in fact, half the time I struggle to get the PLA off it! ;D): (https://i.ibb.co/K2MnkWD/Screenshot-2020-01-07-08-00-06.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
It's an exhaust header flange with snap fitting to mate to the snap-together exhaust manifold template sections
I think it's going to melt. ;)
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Whacked up my belts to about B flat, and the quality returned. But its ibcreased the noise, and I have visible flexing in the frame that I cant see how to eliminate :(
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Tried a new trick today, doing photos on a 3d printer. Ignoring the clear ringing and an X Shift halfway through (not visible to naked eye), I'm fairly impressed with it....
(https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/3dprint-cats.JPG)
The original photo was a low res 500x500px, and I printed it far too fast ;D
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Original Photo used...
(https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/3dprint-cats-orig.jpg)
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I've seen a few lithographs online recently - very neat trick :y
I just got a spool of ABS in a fetching shade of lurid green, so now I get to do all of the tuning again to see if ABS works any better for the clip-together exhaust template sections than PLA does.. because the little clip lugs tend to snap off with PLA ;D
Can't decide whether to do that or keep dicking around with making stuff in PLA for a bit..
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I'm trying that ABS print .. so far I can say:
Bed adhesion with PLA? 1000%
Bed adhesion with ABS? Er.. not very. ;D
100ºC bed temp but no treatments like glue stick/hair spray on hand, and now I see why they say that's basically mandatory!
[edit] BTW Jaime (I am not typing your current forum name every time ;D) what size are the ziplocks you use, roughly? "Large" tend to be 35x35cm roughly, or slightly larger, but that's 'flat' size.. hard to judge and I don't want to buy hundreds of ziplock bags to find ones that fit ;D
PLA is currently in a box with a lid and 1Kg of silica gel.. overkill but I had those bags sitting around from the old garage - just had to dry one out in the oven for a bit.
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Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com
Text replacement thingy......try it Mr IT man ;D
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Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com
Text replacement thingy......try it Mr IT man ;D
;D Thems too smart a suggestion for mees.
Could we just make the forum software word-filter change every occurrence of Jaime to Yodel-Odel-a-Eboy.com :-\ ;D
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Your mission, should you choose to accept it... ;D
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I was seriously tempted to treat myself to a 3D printer for Christmas as there are loads of random bits and pieces I'd like to print out.
The last thing I need is another project / rabbit hole of hours of tweaking and fettling to dive into, however, so maybe I'll give it a miss for now... ;D
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I suspect in this case (as many others) plug-&-play-ability and depth of pocket go hand in hand. ;)
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I'm trying that ABS print .. so far I can say:
Bed adhesion with PLA? 1000%
Bed adhesion with ABS? Er.. not very. ;D
100ºC bed temp but no treatments like glue stick/hair spray on hand, and now I see why they say that's basically mandatory!
[edit] BTW Jaime (I am not typing your current forum name every time ;D) what size are the ziplocks you use, roughly? "Large" tend to be 35x35cm roughly, or slightly larger, but that's 'flat' size.. hard to judge and I don't want to buy hundreds of ziplock bags to find ones that fit ;D
PLA is currently in a box with a lid and 1Kg of silica gel.. overkill but I had those bags sitting around from the old garage - just had to dry one out in the oven for a bit.
Apologies, just seen this.
ABS is far more challenging to print with, and due to the higher shrinkage, the corners peel up whilst printing, causing at best a distorted print, and worse, the thing comes completely adrift from the bed. Decent bed levelling, not the autowank, helps, but somethings you may need to design in break off round discs in each corner to assist with corner adhesion.
Bed levelling is critical, and auto levelling is shite. End of.
Adhesion wise, this is what is currently coming off my printer, and note no bed adhesion tricks like rafts of brims, because I have properly levelled the bed, manually. I would say this is a reasonably challenging print, and if you can print something like this without adhesion problems in PLA, you bed levelling is at least adequate.
(https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/prop_holder_printing.JPG)
Ziplockwise, for 1kg reels I use the larger of the 2 "ziplock" branded ones that Costco sell, ir the ones that have around 150 per box, not the smaller over 200 per box.
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And this is what I mean by round discs at corners with ABS
(https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/odds/abs_bed_demo.JPG)
Such tricks should not be required with materials such as PLA or TPU.
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I did some playing with "magic numbers" based on the stepper and lead screw and the results have been quite pleasing printing at 0.12 and 0.16mm.. currently printing a set of exhaust manifold bends at 0.32 to see what they come out like.
Starting to get to grips with all the settings - one thing I noticed is that Cura was very optimistic on the timings; turns out that's because it is calculating (in part) based on the acceleration settings it has (1800mm/s2, I think .. units might be wrong) while the printer is locked down in the firmware to 350mm/s2 due to the mass of the bed that needs to be moved. Folks reported success in bumping the firmware numbers up (a bit, not to the 3500 of smaller models, though!) and then down in Cura to match, so I'm fiddling with that.
Also modeled a Ford FE header flange in Fusion 360 as I couldn't find a model to steal, and printed one of those - got it dead nuts right first time which I was rather pleased with! Now to make a header flange that will snap into the exhaust manifold sections (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2053049)
Incidentally - those manifold sections can be bought as a finished product .. £1500 per set!
This sounds like a conversation that I should be part of, regarding exhaust manifold modelling. I have some ideas about it, we should chat sometime, especially as you aren't too far away.
I've been making manifolds the hard way for 36 years, so anything that makes it easier is music to my ears!
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ABS is far more challenging to print with, and due to the higher shrinkage, the corners peel up whilst printing, causing at best a distorted print, and worse, the thing comes completely adrift from the bed. Decent bed levelling, not the autowank, helps, but somethings you may need to design in break off round discs in each corner to assist with corner adhesion.
Bed levelling is critical, and auto levelling is shite. End of.
I got ABS printing in the end - well, I got the adhesion issues solved.. I couldn't get an acceptable print quality for 'small' features (like the snap fittings on the exhaust template sections), but I suspect that was crappy filament; lots of 'popping' while printing implies a lot of trapped moisture, coupled with a little under-extrusion of the ABS meant bits were basically missing :-X I suspect having experimented more since with both PLA and PETG, I could probably get acceptable quality now, though.
I manually level on the four corners (where the levelling jacks are) using the 'paper drag' method, but then I have to run an auto-level after that to tune the offsets; with a 400x400 bed it's never going to be perfectly flat and true all the way across so needs a little help in the middle (essentially it droops slightly toward the center). Down-side of having a giant print-volume on a low-cost printer, I suppose :)
I did cheat slightly on the last ABS print though - gluestick. ;D
This sounds like a conversation that I should be part of, regarding exhaust manifold modelling. I have some ideas about it, we should chat sometime, especially as you aren't too far away.
I've been making manifolds the hard way for 36 years, so anything that makes it easier is music to my ears!
Happy to have a chat anytime - I can't claim credit for the template sections, they're freely available on Thingiverse and they are essentially a clone of a commercial product.. I'm kinda hoping they might make it possible to get manifolds manufactured for the kit car without needing the car to be at the exhaust place.. because that will reduce cost and headaches for all involved!
I'll PM you my number anyway, because either way the car is going to need a set of manifolds .. and you're local ;) :y
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A 400x400 bed should be flat enough (if its any good, so might be worth skipping the autolevel routing if you can. If its not flat enough, you need a new bed that is, as autolevelling is a software attempt to fix a hardware problem, and just doesn't work.
Prittstick, hairspray, a 20% PVA/Water mix, whatever works. Though its most likely its not its adhesive abilities, but more its closing the gap between the bed and the first layer. I cannot stress enough that you need to get a good first layer.
The print I showed above shows that you should be able to get a small, thin, minimal bed contact, item to print without become detached with a good level bed. Worth experimenting. Also, a cube, for example, should have a very smooth finish on the bottom, not one that looks blotchy or stringy.
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
You'll be buying a drone next :D
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
You'll be buying a drone next :D
Well, it'd be nice to be able to fly something. :'(
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There's that :-\ should get some in before too long ;)
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I think all you guys are behind a little bit with the times...….you need to get a 3D printer that does this...…………..
https://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/17038/Additive-Construction-From-the-3D-Printed-House-to-the-3D-Printed-High-Rise.aspx
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It's been suggested that we buy a 3D printer for work. Apparantly there is some 50% price matching scheme from the government. Anyway muggins here has some input to the decision (I've been asked what I would like!) but I know SFA about any of it.
So far my input has been that to be useable we probably need something that has an A4 size print bed, and can do stuff the size of a milk bottle or bag of sugar. We'd probably use it for making prototype hand held electronic enclosures and front panels. No idea what that means in reality.
Does anyone have any suggestions in terms of hardware? I don't know the funding, but I expect something in the high hundreds or low thousands. A quick look at eBay shows many DIY kits for £100-£200, but I think we're talking about the next level up from that.
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
You know it makes sense :)
What did you go for?
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It's been suggested that we buy a 3D printer for work. Apparantly there is some 50% price matching scheme from the government. Anyway muggins here has some input to the decision (I've been asked what I would like!) but I know SFA about any of it.
So far my input has been that to be useable we probably need something that has an A4 size print bed, and can do stuff the size of a milk bottle or bag of sugar. We'd probably use it for making prototype hand held electronic enclosures and front panels. No idea what that means in reality.
Does anyone have any suggestions in terms of hardware? I don't know the funding, but I expect something in the high hundreds or low thousands. A quick look at eBay shows many DIY kits for £100-£200, but I think we're talking about the next level up from that.
You're in a awkward price bracket and size. You're not in the budget for a industrialised printer, and hobbywise, a £200 FDM will perform similarly to a £1500 FDM, though possibly needing a bit more faffing.
I think this is why the big boys haven't really entered this segment, because the end result will easily be matched by a far cheaper printer, and they would never be able to compete on price. Which is a shame, as once they do, I think they could be more consumerised rather than the geeky thing they stubbornly remain.
Even the cheapest on the market, a form of Anet A8 (a Prusa i3 clone) but with a plywood frame, which can be bought for £60 before customs charges, can achieve nearly the same results as a £1k FDM, if you can find a way to brace the frame. Not that that meets your requirements, as not quite A4, and I reckon it would need a bit too constant adjustment for your needs.
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The one wifey has in school cost around £200 and was recommended to them the AMRC in Sheffield.
https://www.amrc.co.uk/
She tells me the kids love it and are very proficient. No mention of it being unsteady.
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She tells me it's a Colido compact and cost £180.
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To reiterate the hobby level stuff, and the faffing, after hitting send on the last message, I smelt that special pixie smoke, and looked at mine - which was printing of some reels - and its let all the smoke out of the heatbed cable. Again. So when it finishes, I will have to look at repairing that - I bet it will be at least 2 of the crimps in the connector are crap. Again. But I bet that cable has been on a year or so.
Last time I looked, only available from China. So I need to get one ordered, and find a way to connect it in the meantime... ...or if I can't, consider buying one of those £60 ones I mentioned if I can find one in the EU, and nick the heatbed cable ;D
Plan B could be to unpack the resin printer that arrived months ago, but due to CBA, the box hasn't been opened.
My printer gets so much use, I dont think I could easily live without it for 4-6 weeks ;D
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She tells me it's a Colido compact and cost £180.
Yeah, that type falls in a strange category of almost consumer, much like the XYZ and so on. Being so small, they can naturally take out a lot of the stresses and play to make it "almost" hands-off just works, but at the expense of a tiny print area, which severely limits its usefulness.
Many in that bracket also have to use the manufacturers own supplies, which (like consumer inkjet printers) can make consumables very expensive. Not sure about the Colido... ...I do use their generic ABS plastic though. Also, most are limited to PLA only, which may or may not be an issue.
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
You'll be buying a drone next :D
Its far better to make them ;). That said, I do have a couple of DJI's attempts, the last as something to play with during lockdown (and the other because its under 250g, so none of those silly, pointless CAA hurdles), and I cant fail to be impressed by the footage, mostly due to the gimbals they use.
But if you build them, you decide how its put together, and with what features, plus its more configurable.
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
You know it makes sense :)
What did you go for?
An Ender 3 Pro.
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Well, this is a steep learning curve. ;D
Lessons learnt so far:
- 3kg of PLA doesn't sound like a lot when you're ordering it online but you end up with a mahoosive reel that's unmanageable. :o
- Thinking "I know, I'll wind a smaller quantity onto an old cable drum" is a spectacularly bad idea. ;D
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Well, this is a steep learning curve. ;D
Lessons learnt so far:
....
- Thinking "I know, I'll wind a smaller quantity onto an old cable drum" is a spectacularly bad idea. ;D
;D ;D ;D ;D
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Well, this is a steep learning curve. ;D
Lessons learnt so far:
....
- Thinking "I know, I'll wind a smaller quantity onto an old cable drum" is a spectacularly bad idea. ;D
;D ;D ;D ;D
Next project is to make a holder for the enormous reel as it feeds into the printer. I wonder if I've got an old front suspension knuckle in the garage. :-\ That ought to be man enough. ;D[/list]
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....
Next project is to make a holder for the enormous reel as it feeds into the printer. .....
you could always 3D print one ..... ;) ;)
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Well, this is a steep learning curve. ;D
Lessons learnt so far:
- 3kg of PLA doesn't sound like a lot when you're ordering it online but you end up with a mahoosive reel that's unmanageable. :o
- Thinking "I know, I'll wind a smaller quantity onto an old cable drum" is a spectacularly bad idea. ;D
Yeah, 1kg is much more manageable.
If not used for long periods, put reel in seal container with some desiccant packs - PLA goes brittle when it stucks in the moisture.
I actually unpacked my resin one 2 or 3 weeks ago, its been sat in the box it arrived in for about 3 months ;D
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The time has come to replace the Anet, which has printed 5.2km of PLA, or about 16 1kg reels.
Obviously, this been me, the replacement ordered last weekend from a UK warehouse has been marked as dispatched, but the courier is saying they haven't received it yet. So I guess "UK" means "EU" or even further afield, and it is only tracked once its in the UK.
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If not used for long periods, put reel in seal container with some desiccant packs - PLA goes brittle when it stucks in the moisture.
Does this apply after it's been printed, or only when it's in its raw form?
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I'm surprised someone isn't printing out those little bushes that your Vauxhall door stay uses.
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I'm surprised someone isn't printing out those little bushes that your Vauxhall door stay uses.
Why, when they're so cheap?
And if they weren't then it's a simple lathe job using a few pence of material.
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NLA from Vx I believe.
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If not used for long periods, put reel in seal container with some desiccant packs - PLA goes brittle when it stucks in the moisture.
Does this apply after it's been printed, or only when it's in its raw form?
raw form.
I'm sure once printed, there will be some issues over time (maybe UV etc?), but not had any issues with printed stuff
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Yesterday, I retired the trusty old Anet A8. Its final stats were 5264m printed, 50d16hr or printing time. I don't have (cheap enough) access to the metalwork needed to make it more rigid.
Bought for around £108 around 3 years ago, entirely in kit form. I reckon I had £108 worth of fun building it, so its certainly been value for money.
Fingers crossed it's replacement is every bit as good.
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Couldn't you have printed a stronger support structure?
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Couldn't you have printed a stronger support structure?
Printed plastics over the required lengths would have too much flex... ...not that it would be possible to print supports in those lengths as one piece :)
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Couldn't you have printed a stronger support structure?
Printed plastics over the required lengths would have too much flex... ...not that it would be possible to print supports in those lengths as one piece :)
At which point you may as well use Lego...
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Couldn't you have printed a stronger support structure?
Printed plastics over the required lengths would have too much flex... ...not that it would be possible to print supports in those lengths as one piece :)
At which point you may as well use Lego...
3D Printed Lego?
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Might be quicker to buy it :D
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Yesterday, I retired the trusty old Anet A8. Its final stats were 5264m printed, 50d16hr or printing time. I don't have (cheap enough) access to the metalwork needed to make it more rigid.
Bought for around £108 around 3 years ago, entirely in kit form. I reckon I had £108 worth of fun building it, so its certainly been value for money.
Fingers crossed it's replacement is every bit as good.
Replacement now awaiting parts, probably be on a slow boat. Good job I hadn't got around to lobbing the Anet in the bin yet ;D
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Artillery fixed, broken bed temp sensor wire. Replacement part when it arrives will be a spare :). Its done a load of prints since its fix on Christmas eve, so job jobbed....
...however, I might replace the bed cables with some more flexible ones. Cannot disconnect from bed end, so will have to join them as close as possible, and print something to protect it more.
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Yesterday, I retired the trusty old Anet A8. Its final stats were 5264m printed, 50d16hr or printing time. I don't have (cheap enough) access to the metalwork needed to make it more rigid.
And I keep tripping over it, so it needs to go ;D
Anybody within a sensible delivery distance to Brakkers, who wants something to piss around with over the dark, cold winter months is welcome to it. It will need some loosening and retightening of the frame, just to straighten it again, and ideally U-clamped to a base thats rigid. Needs a new bed cable fitted (which I have - bought but never fitted).
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Could I possibly get it ?
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Could I possibly get it ?
Sure :y
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Oops! I think I've just pressed the button on a 3D printer. :o
You know it makes sense :)
What did you go for?
An Ender 3 Pro.
Last week SWMBO suggested that we should look at getting a 3D printer ¨for the children¨ ::)
I went and collected an Ender 3 S1 Pro this morning. Haven been allowed to open it yet..............
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
Creality are a great starting point, with loads of community support online, and reasonable results straight out of the box. Start off with PLA filament, as that's usually the easiest, whilst you learn printer (well, software slicer) settings, and what's needed to make certain models print better :y
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
Creality are a great starting point, with loads of community support online, and reasonable results straight out of the box. Start off with PLA filament, as that's usually the easiest, whilst you learn printer (well, software slicer) settings, and what's needed to make certain models print better :y
Hmm. Really must dust mine off and make something with it. ::)
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
Creality are a great starting point, with loads of community support online, and reasonable results straight out of the box. Start off with PLA filament, as that's usually the easiest, whilst you learn printer (well, software slicer) settings, and what's needed to make certain models print better :y
Christ, why do some of you insist on talking in a foreign language. ;D
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
He'll be waiting a long time , I don't travel as far as Auckland to do roofing or chimney repairs :D
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
He'll be waiting a long time , I don't travel as far as Auckland to do roofing or chimney repairs :D
Bishop Auckland isn't too far up the M1 :D
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
He'll be waiting a long time , I don't travel as far as Auckland to do roofing or chimney repairs :D
Bishop Auckland isn't too far up the M1 :D
26 hours via A380 .....
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
He'll be waiting a long time , I don't travel as far as Auckland to do roofing or chimney repairs :D
Bishop Auckland isn't too far up the M1 :D
26 hours via A380 .....
;D
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Is it their Xmas pressie? If so, you need to wait for the big fat bloke to come down the chimney.
Creality are a great starting point, with loads of community support online, and reasonable results straight out of the box. Start off with PLA filament, as that's usually the easiest, whilst you learn printer (well, software slicer) settings, and what's needed to make certain models print better :y
Hmm. Really must dust mine off and make something with it. ::)
Mine seems to be on non stop. Currently its printing a new wheelie bar for one of my RC trucks, as the last one didn't survive a heavy landing on its jacksie...
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Oh darn. Seems my printer has run out of magic smoke.
More on order from Ching Chong Chinaland. Else it'll be a new printer.
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Finally took ours out of the box a couple of months ago.
First few prints worked like a charm (mostly rabbits and unicorns - don't ask....)
Then the weather changed - non stop rain, stupidly high humidity and a new roll of filament that came in a sealed bag but behaved as if it was DOA (damp on arrival) :-\
So I went out and bought a heated 'dry box'. After about 24 hours off & on in the box normal service seems to have been restored :y
First serious task is to print a case for an electronics project. Not quite right yet but so much better than trying to carve a plastic case to fit (as I have done since I first started messing with a soldering iron as a 10 year old :-)
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Never had that from a vacuum packed new reel. Wow. I've had it from where I've put one back in a sealed bag (with a desiccant pack), but the bag never sealed, and PLA in particular goes ultra brittle.
I'm pretty good at removing spools and popping in a sealed bag if that colour/material isn't going to be used for a few days.
Yeah, I print little boxes all the time, it's very handy for that. Especially where I live, and I can't just "pop to the shops". Yesterday, I designed and was printing something like this, as easier/cheaper/faster than going to the shops -https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clamp-Garden-Irrigation-Hydroponics-Antelco/dp/B093TCKFT8/ref=asc_df_B093TCKFT8/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=604575377976&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=328279861603038203&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007275&hvtargid=pla-1679251492024&psc=1
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New driver modules arrived from Chin Chong Chinaland whilst I was away, so fitted 3 of them, only to find the remaining 2 had also failed, so good job I bought 5 ;D
Filament sensor also had been binding more and more, so took that apart and cleaned it up - the likely culprit was a bit of broken off filament inside on the filament path.
It's back, busy, beavering away. Currently printing some stands for some wifi access point...
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Again, it let all the magic smoke out, and blew up 5 driver chips. Also blew up the model cooling fan. Fortunately I have already bought another set of drivers, and already had a model cooling fan off the last extruder I melted :).
Suspecting the PSU, I wired in an old HPE gen8 PSU I had, which worked well, apart from it was taking forever to heat the extruder, and on fast, high flow prints, was getting runaway protection errors. So I thought I'd better check the original PSU output, which was 24V. No wonder the HPE 12v one was struggling.
So wired 2 HPE PSU's together (well, already had one sorted, as I use 24v to charge RC batteries), and that works fine now.
Ordered a new PSU from the land of Chow Mein.
In addition, I thought it was high time I bought a new printer, so now have a Creality K1 Max. Which means I need to decide what to do with the old Artillery Sidewinder X1 once the new PSU arrives and is fitted....
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I've been looking to get into printing for a while now. Mostly to do things like drawer organisers for sockets, spanners, drill bits etc as 'proper' ones seem like a fortune.
I must start writing my Christmas list....
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I've been looking to get into printing for a while now. Mostly to do things like drawer organisers for sockets, spanners, drill bits etc as 'proper' ones seem like a fortune.
I must start writing my Christmas list....
I've done some drawer organisers (but not for tools), and wall organisers for tools.
But if something is available to buy, and fits your needs, it's likely to be cheaper than printing it, especially as filament prices haven't dropped much since the spike during the pandemic.
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Its a bit of a mixed bag, there are some tool trays available for my Hellfrauds kit but I think these are OOP now and seem to fetch daft money on eBay.
Other than that, there are individual things like this from Sealey (https://www.sealey.co.uk/product/5637200082/14sq-drive-socket-holder-4-15mm---hi-vis-green), but buying these for all the sh!t I've got would run well into three figures.
Ultimately I have lots of things I would use one for if I had it, I don't think it would 'save' me anything overall but I have quite a lot of hobby stuff for which having bespoke organisers and bits and pieces for. Also, if I ever get around to working on the kit car, I'd like to use it for prototyping various brackets, hangers etc before I break out the welder.
Lastly, I think they're a cool piece of technology, which is reason enough for me. :y
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I use mine as a bit of a hobby, and also because it's quicker than getting shite delivered here, like clips or brackets. Plus I do a lot of bespoke stuff - it's currently printing a fan duct for a 12 cm fan to blow in the right places over a big heatsink. The K1 Max records a Timelapse, so I'll post that up when it finishes, though its the first TPU print I've done on it, so it might be a molten mess when I go up and check it (8hr print, due to finish around 8pm)
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As promised, timelapse of an 8hr print of TPU...
https://theboy.omegaowners.com/oofpics/oof_odds_and_sods/1690798883.mp4
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That time lapse is a very cool, if rather pointless feature - the best kind of feature!
Where do you keep your printer(s)? I understand maintaining temp/humidity is pretty important, which rules put most of my available hiding places. ???
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They all sit in my
office spare box room at home.
If not using for a few days, remove filament and put in a sealed bag with dessi packs. House temps/humidity are perfect. Try to stop drafts when printing, especially harder stuff like ABS - a home made big box could be your friend, but I've never needed one.
Sheds, garages and outbuildings probably aren't ideal