3D Printing

[ukracer]

Sat on the fence here, would like a 3D printer for mold making but ultimately the only one big enough for my needs is the 500x500mm Creality. Ed is convinced the print time on something like a bell housing would take too long and it would be better off subbed out to a company with a commercial machine, at £500 ish wondering if I should give it a go.

Bob

My experience is that getting the printer is the easy bit.

Yes it does take time printing items but you soon get used to waiting and getting on with other stuff.

The biggest drawback from my side of things is creating the model . It's one thing jumping on thingiverse and printing.....but another adjusting to allow for shrinkage etc.
If they draw it as a parametric object and give you the file you can alter it...assuming of course you know how.
I was lucky to have help from a couple of people on here and found it very hard to convey what I needed as it was hard to explain without a drawing. And even then everytime it was fitted to the car we kept finding little bits catching that needed rework.
If I knew fusion it would have made life much easier but in the end it showed me the need to learn Fusion is more important than the printer. forgive the hacked Ali block that would make @doubleboost cringe but I got fed up of taking time finishing things only to have to re do it because of changes and errors while learning to mill. (Such as not subtracting half the edge finder) even though I had read about it many times. Lol

 

[ukracer]

" It needs to have a decent resolution to avoid a horrible 'stepped' finish like some of the cheaper ones produce."

To add to the OP's post the horrible stepped finish is not always caused by the cheaper printers. (In most cases it's settings and material).
It's not like buying a cheap conventional inkjet printer and a expensive Lazer printer.
Try printing a low Res image off Facebook and making it bigger and you get the same result....a blocky mess.
Start with a high Rez vector and you can scale it up.
The settings of what is called a "slicer" dictates how the print comes out etc.

 

[Onoff]

" It needs to have a decent resolution to avoid a horrible 'stepped' finish like some of the cheaper ones produce."

To add to the OP's post the horrible stepped finish is not always caused by the cheaper printers. (In most cases it's settings and material).
It's not like buying a cheap conventional inkjet printer and a expensive Lazer printer.
Try printing a low Res image off Facebook and making it bigger and you get the same result....a blocky mess.
Start with a high Rez vector and you can scale it up.
The settings of what is called a "slicer" dictates how the print comes out etc.

As I've said before I model in AutoCAD and then export to Cura as an STL where my lad takes over the printing. Finding the FACETRES and 3DPRINT commands native to AutoCAD were a revelation and improved the smoothness of the finished print beyond all recognition. Thanks to @AndersK for prompting me to up the resolution settings!

It was all horrid flats on the curve and open fill faces on the prototype before finding those commands:

Smoothed.

 

[daedalusminos]

I can send you the file if you want to try?

Yes no problem, can you post on here?

 

[Onoff]

Yes no problem, can you post on here?

Don't think so...there's a LH and RH controller, each 21mb, each zips down to 6mb...too large!

 

[sako243]

Sat on the fence here, would like a 3D printer for mold making but ultimately the only one big enough for my needs is the 500x500mm Creality. Ed is convinced the print time on something like a bell housing would take too long and it would be better off subbed out to a company with a commercial machine, at £500 ish wondering if I should give it a go.

Bob

It wasn't the time required. On such a big print what @ukracer points out is controlling shrinkage on a print that big was going to be the Issue. Time is largely irrelevant because you hit print and wait. Or in your case wait until it's run out of filament and then swear at it.

On such a big print you'd also likely suffer from differential cooling so shrinkage / warping will vary throughout the print.

One can only try though, but expect to spend many hours fiddling .

 

[8ob]

It wasn't the time required. On such a big print what @ukracer points out is controlling shrinkage on a print that big was going to be the Issue. Time is largely irrelevant because we hit print and wait. Or in our case wait until it's run out of filament and then swear at it.

On such a big print we are also likely suffer from differential cooling so shrinkage / warping will vary throughout the print.

I can only try though, but expect to spend many hours fiddling .

Fixed all your typos Ed

 

[sako243]

Well if you don't answer my calls...

 

[AndersK]

If you are on IG take a look at this guy. Its beyond what I thought was possible to achieve with 3D printing...

https://instagram.com/cloakfiend?igshid=1x1m5slw6wjn1

 

[Onoff]

Two down one to go:

 

[ukracer]

Two down one to go:

View attachment 209943

Did you see my email?

 

[AndersK]

Found a new interesting material today.
Co polyester with 25% boron carbide.
Intended for radiation shielding.
At a 1000£ for a roll it's not for the average home user

 

[Hopefuldave]

Evening, need some Fusion 360 help!

This is the .stp file of an Oculus S, VR game controller opened up in Fusion 360. It's from the maker's website:

View attachment 208631
It's not one piece but two, with an irregular nominal gap between them 0.3mm down to zero ('ish). In effect the join. Seems the actual controller the two halves are glued together.

What we want to do is create a solid cylinder, insert the "male" controller then subtract it from the cylinder leaving us with a "cup" in the end of the cylinder.

Because the controller isn't one entity we're having trouble. Almost wants the gap filling then the two halves along with the "fill" combining into one entity.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers

Fusion360 is not the software I use, but in TurboCAD 3D Pro (which I do use) you can pick a facet and extrude it to meet another, i.e. fill in the gap with a new piece, then 3D add to one of the existing pieces...

Then it can do a 3D intersect, of the two pieces you have and the external cylinder, leaving the originals in place - this would turn the cylinder into separate external and internal solids around/inside the two pieces, explode the remains of the cylinder into separate solids, delete the one(s) you don't want, then delete the original pieces and it'll leave a cavity the shape of the external surface of the controller.

I've been doing a lot of this for Best Boy's fiancée's cosplay... Well, keeps my hand in, learning the clever bits I've missed.

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[Onoff]

Did you see my email?

Yeah, sorry. Meant to respond. The PLA one is on the bike and fitted for now. The Garmin fitted a treat with a twist and click!

 

[Onoff]

Fusion360 is not the software I use, but in TurboCAD 3D Pro (which I do use) you can pick a facet and extrude it to meet another, i.e. fill in the gap with a new piece, then 3D add to one of the existing pieces...

Then it can do a 3D intersect, of the two pieces you have and the external cylinder, leaving the originals in place - this would turn the cylinder into separate external and internal solids around/inside the two pieces, explode the remains of the cylinder into separate solids, delete the one(s) you don't want, then delete the original pieces and it'll leave a cavity the shape of the external surface of the controller.

I've been doing a lot of this for Best Boy's fiancée's cosplay... Well, keeps my hand in, learning the clever bits I've missed.

Dave H. (the other one)

If you fancy a bit more practice.....

 

[Hopefuldave]

If you fancy a bit more practice.....

Let me get my stuff and the kids' done first!

I have to try to build myself a Volus outfit for the next Comicon...

According to the kids, my physique is almost identical.

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[Onoff]

When you're about 90% finished printing and your lad asks whether you meant to radius the edges...

Oh, well, that's 5 hours taken care of tomorrow printing another one.

 

[ukracer]

Any one know if fusion can open SKP files and edit them?
I have opened it but for some reason cant add an extrusion....its a simple one as all I need is to add two can holders into the ashtray blank for an MX5.
But I am not sure if its me or fusion (probably me ) lol

 

[Ali]

Any one know if fusion can open SKP files and edit them?
I have opened it but for some reason cant add an extrusion....its a simple one as all I need is to add two can holders into the ashtray blank for an MX5.
But I am not sure if its me or fusion (probably me ) lolView attachment 215605 View attachment 215604

I know a few solid modelling packages, but not Fusion - it’s on my list. I can make an informed guess that the model won’t allow you to add geometry (in the straightforward way we would all like) as your SKP is a surface body, I can see the triangulation in the image. Maybe Fusion has a ‘feature recognition’ tool (the others do), which can scan the model and re-build it using solid modelling features you can then edit and add to.

Curious to know how you get on, hopefully an expert will give you a reply. If you’re really stuck I might be able to edit the SKP for you.

 

[mtt.tr]

I know you can offset sketchplanes and project outlines from stl files.

Do you want to email it over and I'll have a go tomorrow evening