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Author Topic: 3D Printer Help, Discussions and Designs  (Read 15465 times)

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It's not as complicated as it may seem...
Guys,

It looks like you are producing loads of fixtures and parts with your 3DP's, and they look great.

Is it not getting expensive with all the filament material you are using?


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"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." Frank Zappa
   

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Guys,

It looks like you are producing loads of fixtures and parts with your 3DP's, and they look great.

Is it not getting expensive with all the filament material you are using?

If you are making large parts with lots of infill (framework or solid inside the model) and supports(very easily removable when the print is done. Holds up horizontal levels of the print) then I suppose you could use a lot of filament.
So far with the small parts and the test dog, ive used 1 outer layer of the 2.2lb(1 kg) roll I ordered for 18 dollars. 

Lets put it this way so far.  Id rather buy filament than ink for my printer any day.  ;)  Got some more rolls coming this week. The colors, transparent  and others, there is a lot to play with.

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Guys,

It looks like you are producing loads of fixtures and parts with your 3DP's, and they look great.

Is it not getting expensive with all the filament material you are using?

Not sure about other printers,but with my Anet A8 i can enter the cost of the filament per meter,and the cost per Kw of power in my slicer (CURA),and when i place a model into CURA,it will give me the total cost to print that model.

For example,the gear pictured below cost 22.4 cents to print in total.
To buy 100 meters of filament cost's me $17.50 delivered to my door.
using PLA,i can print without heating the bed with no problem at all,and so the printer uses very little power to run-->around 500 watt hours.

So you have to ask yourself,where could you buy a large gear like that for under 23 cent's ?
The other thing is,i don't even have to leave my house. I design and print my parts exactly as i need them.
These printers have a precision of up to 10 micron's,and with the new conductive filaments out now,you can print circuit boards  O0.

So,no more hours spent on the lathe machining rotors for pulse motor's--no more expensive plexiglass to buy for the rotors either.

So,these 3D printers are an amazing tool,and so very cheap for what they are.
It now cost's me more to boil the kettle and make a coffee than it dose to print out all the parts for a pulse motor.



Brad


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Here is an example of a large print Darren.
The dimensions are 200mm wide,180mm deep,and 220mm high.

You can see the time it will take to print,and the cost without and with the heated bed turned on.
So 5h.25m to print--Total cost--$1.72 without the heated bed turned off,and $2.17 with the heated bed turned on.
I have the heated bed cost's set at a temperature of 60*C,as you would never need it higher than that for PLA,which is what i use.


Brad


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Not sure about other printers,but with my Anet A8 i can enter the cost of the filament per meter,and the cost per Kw of power in my slicer (CURA),and when i place a model into CURA,it will give me the total cost to print that model.

For example,the gear pictured below cost 22.4 cents to print in total.
To buy 100 meters of filament cost's me $17.50 delivered to my door.
using PLA,i can print without heating the bed with no problem at all,and so the printer uses very little power to run-->around 500 watt hours.

So you have to ask yourself,where could you buy a large gear like that for under 23 cent's ?
The other thing is,i don't even have to leave my house. I design and print my parts exactly as i need them.
These printers have a precision of up to 10 micron's,and with the new conductive filaments out now,you can print circuit boards  O0.

So,no more hours spent on the lathe machining rotors for pulse motor's--no more expensive plexiglass to buy for the rotors either.

So,these 3D printers are an amazing tool,and so very cheap for what they are.
It now cost's me more to boil the kettle and make a coffee than it dose to print out all the parts for a pulse motor.



Brad

"So you have to ask yourself,where could you buy a large gear like that for under 23 cent's ?
The other thing is,i don't even have to leave my house. I design and print my parts exactly as i need them.

That is exactly the way I am looking at this. Like how long would we have to look for say 2 gears that mesh, needed physical size and maybe each needs diff axles ? Its not a joy.
And yes, make what you need. need a spacer, bam, down to .01mm thickness accuracy.  And it gets done while you do other things. Need to make changes? Load it back to 3d soft and adjust and reprint.  Some times it can take a couple redos to get it right. Its not till you hold it in your hand and see it for real that you will quickly appreciate what this is all about.  Like my electric bike.  Lol, people think very little of it and its capabilities, until they ride it. ;)

The only reason Im going small with the mag motor parts is that now I can. And the mags are available at home depot. just incase anyone wants to print up my files Ill post and take a trip to the depot 'today' and try things for themselves.  The other awesome thing is, the replicators can actually replicate exact parts for a build, and, like Im doing, making sure most anyone has access to other parts needed. Going small is a lot cheaper than going large, this 3d printing is an excellent tool for just that.

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Here is an example of a large print Darren.
The dimensions are 200mm wide,180mm deep,and 220mm high.

You can see the time it will take to print,and the cost without and with the heated bed turned on.
So 5h.25m to print--Total cost--$1.72 without the heated bed turned off,and $2.17 with the heated bed turned on.
I have the heated bed cost's set at a temperature of 60*C,as you would never need it higher than that for PLA,which is what i use.


Brad

"So 5h.25m to print"

What speed and resolution to make that model in that amount of time?  What are the dimensions of the model?

My buddy wants a star wars thermal detonator. its made in 4 parts, top half of sphere, bottom half and 2 parts that snap in and slide. the thing is only over 6cm dia and prints all the parts separated on the bed in 1 print. over 17 hours at .01mm resolution.  At typical .02mm about 9hrs.

Just wondering cuz that model you show looks like it would take longer.

Mags
   

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Yeah, that's all really amazing guys.

I think I could really use one myself. I also like the idea of making PCB's with this,even though I am now in the groove/flow of designing them and sending off to China for production very cheap. But it can take weeks for the boat to get here. Do you have any more info on that filament and methods Brad?

Also, there must be many models out there, which one?


---------------------------
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." Frank Zappa
   

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I have possession of a Warthog sw-120 router table at the moment. 1100lbs weight. Runs well, been in storage for 10 years, Stepper controllers are working but out of date. New ones are plug compatible. Working with Flashcut cnc software to get the motor parameters tweaked.Performed a tool path in mid air. That worked. Jogged a cutting session. There is drift in the vertical stability.Table was connected to an XP machine with a proprietary interface card running Enroute3 with a usb security Id dongle. The card went toast. Cleaned out a laptop from win7 to win 10 upgrade and re-imaged with win10. Enroute needs XP to read the dongle. XP USB historical nightmare.
Enroute need card to drive motors. Owner bought Flashcut cnc to drive table.
I then installed an Oracle VM XP appliance and installed Enroute in there. Enroute reads dongle and runs but cannot drive table. It can be used to create toolpath files. Other Open source software can be used to drive table also. I have a Prusa printer so the experience is there. Flashcut is installed in Win10 which has access to the shared folder from the Enroute 3 XPVM.I get table motor specs Monday and I attempt a toolpath cut.My part in this adventure was to get the laptop, the table and software up to a flawless production runtime, house it temporarily, run jobs on it and design new ones.My goals are to make a head jig for PLA extrusion and metal cutting, and copy my Prusa environment over to the Warthog.


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It's not as complicated as it may seem...
That's quite a project GK.


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"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." Frank Zappa
   

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I have possession of a Warthog sw-120 router table at the moment. 1100lbs weight. Runs well, been in storage for 10 years, Stepper controllers are working but out of date. New ones are plug compatible. Working with Flashcut cnc software to get the motor parameters tweaked.Performed a tool path in mid air. That worked. Jogged a cutting session. There is drift in the vertical stability.Table was connected to an XP machine with a proprietary interface card running Enroute3 with a usb security Id dongle. The card went toast. Cleaned out a laptop from win7 to win 10 upgrade and re-imaged with win10. Enroute needs XP to read the dongle. XP USB historical nightmare.
Enroute need card to drive motors. Owner bought Flashcut cnc to drive table.
I then installed an Oracle VM XP appliance and installed Enroute in there. Enroute reads dongle and runs but cannot drive table. It can be used to create toolpath files. Other Open source software can be used to drive table also. I have a Prusa printer so the experience is there. Flashcut is installed in Win10 which has access to the shared folder from the Enroute 3 XPVM.I get table motor specs Monday and I attempt a toolpath cut.My part in this adventure was to get the laptop, the table and software up to a flawless production runtime, house it temporarily, run jobs on it and design new ones.My goals are to make a head jig for PLA extrusion and metal cutting, and copy my Prusa environment over to the Warthog.

Nice. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2500mW-Blue-Laser-Module-3-Pin-DIY-Laser-Engraving-Module-Fits-3018-CNC-Router/264294760360?hash=item3d8931ffa8:g:YooAAOSwXRRcvodz

They are not that expensive, depending on what you want to cut or engrave.

Mags
   

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Yeah, that's all really amazing guys.

I think I could really use one myself. I also like the idea of making PCB's with this,even though I am now in the groove/flow of designing them and sending off to China for production very cheap. But it can take weeks for the boat to get here. Do you have any more info on that filament and methods Brad?

Also, there must be many models out there, which one?

"Also, there must be many models out there, which one?"

Best to look at reviews on web and YT.  I chose the Creality Ender 3 pro as it seems very popular and creality seems to gotten most things right.
Probably one of the first criteria is the size of prints you want, and what quality of prints. Some only do PLA filament and others can do it all. Circuit boards may be a special material and maybe diff print heads and nozzle. Not sure.  But with that and what you will learn about them along with reviewing, you can make the best decision for your purposes.

Mine was 259 shipped in 2 days. 2hr careful assy and about an hr of tweaking things that just seemed to need tweaking. Bed leveling then test print. Tons of setup vids even just for bed leveling.  I used a postit and tweaked the bed till it was just a bit tight to slide the paper between the print nozzle and the bed. Some printers level automatically, mine is manual with 4 large wheels at each corner. works just fine. Some yt guys will say fold the postit in half and then clearly demonstrate the level is too low and the first layer wont stick. its like hotgluing a bead one inch above where you want it to be, except this is quicker at cooling off and never gets a good foundation with the bed surface.

Just look into it and you will learn quick. And look at filaments like on ebay and you will see the many things that are available. Glow filament, clear, carbonfiber, abs, flexible tpu. Like I said earlier, everyone here should have one.  I want a couple more for more output speed. 4 of these enders for about 1000 bux.  For what I want and need, no brainer. O0

Mags

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It's not as complicated as it may seem...
Thanks mags.

I will be looking into this...


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"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." Frank Zappa
   

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Yeah, that's all really amazing guys.

I think I could really use one myself. I also like the idea of making PCB's with this,even though I am now in the groove/flow of designing them and sending off to China for production very cheap. But it can take weeks for the boat to get here. Do you have any more info on that filament and methods Brad?

Also, there must be many models out there, which one?

I have not used the conductive filament,but i believe that Jimboot has,and he seems well informed about the newer filaments available--maybe he can give you a few pointers.

As i had never used a 3D printer before,and it looked a little daunting to use at first glance,i just bought the cheapest one from ebay i could find,which was the Anet A8.
My very first test print (a pyramid) turned out perfect,and within a week i knew all the settings needed to make a perfect print. The digital display and menu on the Anet A8 is very easy to get to know,and you can make adjustments on the fly,such as bed and extruder temperatures,filament flow amount,and printing speeds.

Although the cheapest printer at the time,the Anet A8 never misses a beat,and prints just as well as the more expensive printers. My next test is trying satin filament,which i ordered last week.

Maker's Muse on youtube dose reviews on every printer that comes out,so maybe have a look at his youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMakersMuse/videos?disable_polymer=1

Once you get one Darren,and learn how to use it,you will wonder as to how you did without it for so long.


Brad
« Last Edit: 2019-08-04, 14:11:58 by TinMan »


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Made a motor base tonight. About 100mm dia and 5mm thick. Just tried 10% infill as I wanted to see it and it was 1hr 44m.

Some pics.

Made stator rails to make sure they are at correct angles. so straight and smooth. Im still in disbelief with how well this works out. Next will be the stationary test stators with 1 active stator to test to see if the other 6 stators have enough push and pull to switch the 7th stator. My tests 10 years ago worked but again, small mags far from eachother was weak but worked. Just fidling with 2 rotor mags and 1 stator, this will have some good push pull when all in place.

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Made a motor base tonight. About 100mm dia and 5mm thick. Just tried 10% infill as I wanted to see it and it was 1hr 44m.

Some pics.

Made stator rails to make sure they are at correct angles. so straight and smooth. Im still in disbelief with how well this works out. Next will be the stationary test stators with 1 active stator to test to see if the other 6 stators have enough push and pull to switch the 7th stator. My tests 10 years ago worked but again, small mags far from eachother was weak but worked. Just fidling with 2 rotor mags and 1 stator, this will have some good push pull when all in place.

Mags

Looks good Mags.
I cant quite work out what your doing here-->how the pulse motor is set up,but i'm sure it will all click when i see it altogether  O0.

That clear PLA looks like it would make good light diffusers.


Brad


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It's not as complicated as it may seem...
Thanks Brad.

Looking good guys.


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"So 5h.25m to print"

What speed and resolution to make that model in that amount of time?  What are the dimensions of the model?

My buddy wants a star wars thermal detonator. its made in 4 parts, top half of sphere, bottom half and 2 parts that snap in and slide. the thing is only over 6cm dia and prints all the parts separated on the bed in 1 print. over

Just wondering cuz that model you show looks like it would take longer.

Mags

Mag's
Do you have the STL files for your friends thermal detonator,as that sounds like way to much time for a simple print. I would like to load them in my machine,and see what time frame it gives.
So far,all prints have been within +/- 10% of the slicers estimated time.

Quote
17 hours at .01mm resolution.  At typical .02mm about 9hrs.

Well no wonder it will take so long.
High resolution(layer height) should be .1mm,not .01mm,and normal resolution is .2mm,not .02mm.

For example--i just sliced the castle at .05mm layer heights,as .01 was going to take 15 minute's just to slice the model. So now see the print time below with .05mm layer height's,which is what i'm guessing you are referring to as resolution=layer heights?.
A sheet of A4 printer paper is 100 microns-->how much higher quality do you need?.
100 microns is quite low enough for excellent quality print's.


Brad


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Ah.  Sorry.   .1mm not .01mm typo.  The printer only goes down to .1mm, as far as I know.  some go to .05mm. Even many more expensive ones are only .1mm. I suppose it depends on the motor resolution and or even belt pulley size, linear screw rod attributes.  Easythreed Dora claims .05mm but is about $400
Ill post the link to the td file when I get to my shop.

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Looks good Mags.
I cant quite work out what your doing here-->how the pulse motor is set up,but i'm sure it will all click when i see it altogether  O0.

That clear PLA looks like it would make good light diffusers.


Brad

Nah, not a pulse motor.  Once I get the stators done for this test setup, Ill make the thread.

Mad Mags in  The Load Warrior.  ^-^

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That's quite a project GK.
Thanks. But quite easy to do.The hardest part was realizing that the win7 upgrade to win10 was the biggest buffoonery to try to fix. When I realized my mistake I moved the win7U drive to secondary position. Then nothing but expedient progress ensued.The laptop owner had the win7 fully socialized(facebook, picture progs, silly stuffy crap),  and production software installed with freeware AVG(antivirus guardian). They then did the FREE win10 upgrade(woohoo!). Crappled everything. Performance dropped to zero. I watched the resource monitor and after a 15 minutes all the graphs were at zero. Tip the mouse and you would have thought the solar system shutdown. All redlined for 15 minutes. Choke just short of smoke as we used to say in the Lan group at Lowry. After the install of the new ssd drive and the virgin win10 things really got quite easy and fast.I have charged the table owner nothing( I even bought the SSD) as we have a 50/50 agreement on all jobs, mine and his. The idea is we make money then the table can afford its own home. Maybe. I like having a toy the size of a transformer in my garage. Just like in the movie...


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Made 2 stationary test stator assys to see how the rails on the base work out. I made a slot at the stator base with front extensions that measure the radius to the round hub in the middle of the motor base. The rails and the slots were printed with print lines in the same direction. The thing actually snaps on tight and can be repeatedly be removed and put back on.
Had just a bit of bottom edge swell and a tiny file cleaned that up. So 4 more just like that and then Ill create the single switching stator for the test run.

The angles of the mags are 30deg N up and the other is 30deg S up. So the active stator will be made to swing from a say 30 deg N up to 30 deg S up. Just a starting angle for testing.

Mags
« Last Edit: 2019-08-05, 07:25:41 by Magluvin »
   

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Ah.  Sorry.   .1mm not .01mm typo.  The printer only goes down to .1mm, as far as I know.  some go to .05mm. Even many more expensive ones are only .1mm. I suppose it depends on the motor resolution and or even belt pulley size, linear screw rod attributes.  Easythreed Dora claims .05mm but is about $400
Ill post the link to the td file when I get to my shop.

Mags

Ok,so i just printed the small model below at .05mm layer height.
It added over an hour to the printing time,but i just wanted to see if the Anet A8 could print at .05mm.
Well,it seems this cheap little printer is up there with the best of them,as it printed perfect at .05mm layer heights.
In fact,i can no longer see the layer line's  O0

I must say Mag's,this cheapest of printers just gets better every day  :) --i'm a happy man.


Brad


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I have to look to see where I got this file. I thought it was thingsverse but its not there.

Havnt tried .05mm. Havnt seen anything on the ender 3 able to do it yet either. .2mm is good for what Im doing for now. Ive got a nozzle kit coming with .2mm, .25mm, .3mm and some more .4mm. From reviews the .25 works very well.

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It's not as complicated as it may seem...
Brad,

What did you pay for your Anet A8 again?

At amazon.ca they are like $400.  :o

And the Ender 3 Pro is about $350

(keep in mind these are worthless canadian dollars)


---------------------------
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." Frank Zappa
   

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Brad,

What did you pay for your Anet A8 again?

At amazon.ca they are like $400.  :o

And the Ender 3 Pro is about $350

(keep in mind these are worthless canadian dollars)

I paid just $193.00 delivered,but i got 2 rolls of PLA in the deal as well. They are now around $260.00 AU delivered.


Brad


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