3D Printer Help, Discussions and Designs

[TinMan]

Brad,

What did you pay for your Anet A8 again?

At amazon.ca they are like $400. 

And the Ender 3 Pro is about $350

(keep in mind these are worthless canadian dollars)

Seems we can still get them for under $200.00 here in Oz.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Anet-A8-High-Precision-Reprap-i3-DIY-3D-Printer-Kit-Acrylic-Frame-8G-SD-LOT-FT/223612185711?hash=item3410532c6f:m:mgBgldkc0XiyzrA3mf1_tOw

You need to open the select menu ,and scroll down and select A8,as the add is also for filaments.




Brad

[giantkiller]

Interesting. Looks like some one reproduced a Prusa in acrylic. A good way to get the price down. And the stability, accuracy and repeatiblilty are there as well. After the frame then the Tinkertoy, Lego world are at one's fingertips.

[Magluvin]

Got my ender on amazon in 2 days.  Ebay has them for under $200, seen some on the low 180s.

Mags

[Magluvin]

Ok. Made 4 more stator replicas. The mags are a hair tight and allows me to mess with magnet distance from the rotor. Still working on the 1 active stator in 3d land. And a disk with an arm/pin that will push on the active stator to see if all the other mags have enough push and pull to get the active stator to rotate(axial length) 60 deg before actuating the next stator.  Asymmetrical, only 1 stator touching the rotor at any time in rotation. So the actuator arm disk will be able to be adjusted a bit left or right of center of a rotor magnet that is in front of the stator to be switched. Just in case it helps any. Lots of thoghts on this in the past 10 years since the first one.  And what is fantastic is that im not breaking my back to do it and the short amount of time to do things I need to do.

Mags

[Magluvin]

Just got back to working on this thing and yesterday I found that most all of my .c4d 3d files were not saved.  Looked and looked. I usually save the 3d file, then save the .stl files then save the gcode files.  only thing I can think is that maybe the stl or gcode file save over the c4d files.  Gotta be more careful. So Im working on revised files and saving in separate folders. Cant revert the gcode or the stl files back to editable parts as I need them.  Sucks . lol.

Mags

[JimBoot]

I'm over my Anet E12. 

Is Ender the go? Just want the tool to wucking furk.

[Paul-R]

The filament  called Xstrand  from Owens Corning  is said  to approach  mild  steel.  Can  it be used on these machines?

[Magluvin]

I'm over my Anet E12. 

Is Ender the go? Just want the tool to wucking furk.

Hey Jim

Whats wrong with it?

Mags

[Magluvin]

Hey Jim

Whats wrong with it?

Mags

One thing I had a problem with was one of the steppers was intermittent. it was a motor harness plug in the controller box.  Diagnosed that it wasnt the motor by just swapping another steppers harness and manually activating the motor in the menu. So then I was seriously hoping it wasnt the control board. But, had to take the control board cover off anyway to see if it was just the harness wires or the plug. Loose plug. Its cable was tied tight to the other cables going out of the box. So it could have been pulled out by moving the cables outside the box by me during.

There is a lot of vids on these things that should cover most issues. 

Im very happy with the ender 3 pro. It does just about anything I need in the way of plastics so far.

Mags

[Magluvin]

The filament  called Xstrand  from Owens Corning  is said  to approach  mild  steel.  Can  it be used on these machines?

Hey Paul

Still just working with pla so far. Next for me will be Pteg.  It would depend on the melting temp of the material.  If its real hot, things other than just the heater would be the bed material, cooling to look at.  Will have to look at the specs


Mags

[JimBoot]

One thing I had a problem with was one of the steppers was intermittent. it was a motor harness plug in the controller box.  Diagnosed that it wasnt the motor by just swapping another steppers harness and manually activating the motor in the menu. So then I was seriously hoping it wasnt the control board. But, had to take the control board cover off anyway to see if it was just the harness wires or the plug. Loose plug. Its cable was tied tight to the other cables going out of the box. So it could have been pulled out by moving the cables outside the box by me during.

There is a lot of vids on these things that should cover most issues. 

Im very happy with the ender 3 pro. It does just about anything I need in the way of plastics so far.

Mags

Put on all metal hotend,
Zaxis belt to stop one side creeping,
Added a bondtech extruder,
Glass bed,
Replaced x axis belt

At the moment it works well for a while then has a block in the hotend. Every time there is  another issue with it. Print time is minimal. Less than 100 hours.

[Magluvin]

Put on all metal hotend,
Zaxis belt to stop one side creeping,
Added a bondtech extruder,
Glass bed,
Replaced x axis belt

At the moment it works well for a while then has a block in the hotend. Every time there is  another issue with it. Print time is minimal. Less than 100 hours.

Could it be the type of filament you are using?

Mags

[Reiyuki]

At the moment it works well for a while then has a block in the hotend. Every time there is  another issue with it. Print time is minimal. Less than 100 hours.

You might want to try printing a dust stopper and attaching to the filament line.  Failing that, just rolling and taping a paper towel to the filament (so the filament slides between) can help catch dust.  When you're extruding 0.2mm, every bit counts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMDEsrgzC9M

If you switched filament, then the extrusion temp could also be a bit too low (or have some old filament stuck in the hot-end).   If still on PLA, I'd try upping 5-10degC for a >10min test print to see if that clears anything up.

3d printers are a lot more finicky than they advertise

[Cadman]

...
At the moment it works well for a while then has a block in the hotend. Every time there is  another issue with it. Print time is minimal. Less than 100 hours.

That is exactly what my Ender3 did when the plastic extruder arm cracked. From what I can see on the net your Anet uses the same parts. One other time was after I replaced a nozzle with one that had slightly shorter threads and didn't seal to the hot end. I have heard others report about the fitting holding the ptf tube to the hot end would no longer lock the tubing in place and allowed melted filament to escape, jamming it.

I'll bet your trouble is in one of these areas. I wouldn't ditch your printer just yet.

[Magluvin]

Have been working on the mag motor configurations.

Having 8 rotor mags and 7 stators, or 10 and 9, or 16 and 15, the amount of space to turn a stator mag, 1 at a time only, becomes a very small window, needing more torque from the other motor magnets in order to do so. But, going through many configs in 3d environment, 3 stators seems to be a magic number along with just about any even number of rotor magnets and gives the most space to switch the 3rd, having more leverage to do so. While 1 is in switch mode, the other 2 are in positions that have most torque against passing rotor magnets. Along with shorter switch action time using more stators, most other stators other than 2 that are pushing and pulling to activate 1 switching, are not helping a lot in the positions they are in with rotor magnets.  So now is the printing to test just 3 stators to see if 2 can push the 3rd through the switching.

Will show when done.

Mags

[Magluvin]

Have been working on the mag motor configurations.

Having 8 rotor mags and 7 stators, or 10 and 9, or 16 and 15, the amount of space to turn a stator mag, 1 at a time only, becomes a very small window, needing more torque from the other motor magnets in order to do so. But, going through many configs in 3d environment, 3 stators seems to be a magic number along with just about any even number of rotor magnets and gives the most space to switch the 3rd, having more leverage to do so. While 1 is in switch mode, the other 2 are in positions that have most torque against passing rotor magnets. Along with shorter switch action time using more stators, most other stators other than 2 that are pushing and pulling to activate 1 switching, are not helping a lot in the positions they are in with rotor magnets.  So now is the printing to test just 3 stators to see if 2 can push the 3rd through the switching.

Will show when done.

Mags

Sorry. gotta rework these ideas. When pulling off my stationary stators, I decided to retest the polarities, and sure enough, 2 of 6 were wrong. I had ordered some more 2x3x15 neos a while back and had tested that they were snug as the older ones and I can only assume I didnt note the polarity when doing so. So we have more torque than I have been testing with for a bit of time. , anyway...

Mags

[JimBoot]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I still will go the Ender as i need one for my wife's silversmith work anyway

[Chet K]

the next big deal is here

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6463/360

[Slider2732]

It would produce a smoother ABS type of result?

My ANET A8 needs to be put to more use, it didn't like 100F temperatures and running a fan at it gave some wobbly results. A plexi box/low speed fan over it would likely be a good idea... instead, it remained unplugged through Summer. 
Have got Perifractic's Worm from the famous game to print!

[Magluvin]

Here is a vid showing the possibilities for printing faster now.  I print at 60mmps usually. Havnt gone over 100.  This guys printer gets to around 800mmps.  So imagine when things advance in the coming years. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsBiALMMSE

Mags

[Grumage]

Perhaps fellow members/users of 3D printing might be able to advise ?

Several years ago I started on a large project, a one third scale model of the Brayton Readymotor.

George Bailey Brayton was an American inventor who's work has mostly been forgotten, he could be considered the great granddaddy of the internal combustion engine. The " Brayton cycle " is now better known as the Jet engine.

I made several patterns and subsequent Iron castings but due to local foundries closing the major parts were never finished, particularly the flywheel.

The recent situation has given me some extra help in the workshop so I'm looking to try and finish this model who's only detail was a picture in a book.

The flywheel is 15,1/2" in diameter and a little over 2" deep. I'm asking if this pattern could be made using the 3D printing process? I'm wondering if these devices are capable of producing a near perfect surface finish to allow them to be " pulled " from a sand mould?

Attached are a few pictures of the progress. The Orange flywheel drawing has been drawn by a friend using CAD.

Cheers Graham.

[Cadman]

I would split the CAD drawing into 6 identical segments with 1 spoke each, kind of pie shaped, then one segment would fit on most printer beds. Print 6 six thin walled duplicates and reassemble the pieces into the flywheel. You can tack 'weld' the pieces together with a wood burning wand, the kind used for engraving wood. Use a small length of filament for a welding rod.

Look up 'lost PLA casting'. People are getting good results with it.

edit: Near perfect surface finish? No. Not without a lot of sanding.
Cheers

[Paul-R]

The flywheel is 15,1/2" in diameter and a little over 2" deep. I'm asking if this pattern could be made using the 3D printing process? I'm wondering if these devices are capable of producing a near perfect surface finish to allow them to be " pulled " from a sand mould?

Do you have an opnion or a spec for what this flywhwheel should weigh?

[Grumage]

Hi Paul.

The 3D printing would be used as a pattern for the foundry to cast an Iron one. I'm guessing a finished weight of between 20 to 30 Kg.

Cheers Graham.

Edit.

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I build " working " scale model IC engines....

https://youtu.be/rhACUBzEGB4

[Paul-R]

Hi Paul.

The 3D printing would be used as a pattern for the foundry to cast an Iron one. I'm guessing a finished weight of between 20 to 30 Kg.

This will cost a few bob. There are some exotic 3D printing filaments. I wonder if there exists one that could give you that weight directly.v (You might be able to cast a lead one at home).