I've Gone and Done Something Mental

[Onoff]

Got one of those little drill presses years ago, the type you'd lock your B&D mains drill in to drill reasonably plumb holes. Nothing I've got now fits it.

Gave it, one of my Makitas and a Vernier to No.1 son and left him to get on with it.

Plan is this slips over the blue casting on the press and the cordless slots into that.

Test print running at the moment.

 

[Onoff]

That fits and appears to work nicely. Where the drill fits in is actually tapered and he's got that pretty much bang on. Got to find the original plastic, ,"top hat" liners that go inside the blue casting. If not will print a pair!

As it was a test, only 5% infill but surprisingly strong.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Tonight's design; an ABS infill panel and electronics housing for the overdrive being installed in a customer's Scimitar. Somebody had taken a great lump out of the centre console, so this will make it look much more "designed". It takes a momentary toggle switch and a chrome mounted LED. There will be just a miniature relay in the box.

Due to the text which is raised, I have had to split the box off the panel and print it separately. They will be reconnected by the threads of the switch and LED.

 

[ajlelectronics]

A few more issues have appeared. Trying to print the panel above, I was getting under extrusion quite badly which spoilt the top surface. I did a few more experiments and tried to print a small parts drawer. That stopped extruding halfway up and the filament was found to be jammed solid in the entry to the Bowden tube. I cleared all that out and rechecked everything was clear, then tried another small back box. That again failed halfway through with poor extrusion and once again the filament was stuck fast.
Examination of the filament showed that it had been flattened by the feeder and so it was becoming too wide for the Capricorn tubing. The grip was backed right off, so it wasn't the gear pressure causing it. I then swapped out the Capricorn for the original tube, which has a little more clearance. However I think what turned out to be the issue was the printer's enclosure. The temperature in there was exceeding 40C and I suspect that the PLA was getting so soft that it took little pressure to crush it. My subsequent prints with the enclosure fully open seem to be OK. I have ordered a direct feed bracket to try now as I am not overly impressed with the Bowden tube idea.

 

[ajlelectronics]

These are the failures. I also got my timing wrong for the colour change.

 

[ajlelectronics]

The back boxes are far better, although I need to adjust the dimensions of the lid as it is a bit tight.

 

[ajlelectronics]

This is where the panel is going. If fills a gurt hole created by a PO.

 

[badabec]

Due to the text which is raised, I have had to split the box off the panel and print it separately

Why do you have to do that?

 

[ajlelectronics]

Why do you have to do that?

Because I can't print it face down because the supports needed will marr the surface, so the only other option is to print it with a very small contact area to the bed and use lots of supports. Easier to print them individually.

 

[Parm]

Because I can't print it face down because the supports needed will marr the surface, so the only other option is to print it with a very small contact area to the bed and use lots of supports. Easier to print them individually.

You’ve really got the hang of this 3D printing game

 

[ajlelectronics]

Another issue I came up against is in Design Spark Mechanical. If using text, the system font "SpaceClaim" is incomplete. A capital R will not pull up from the surface, which caused some head scratching. Switching to Arial Black and it all worked correctly.

 

[ajlelectronics]

You’ve really got the hang of this 3D printing game

The more I know, the more I realise how little I know!

 

[carbon]

How many top layers are you using on these prints? If you are using cura I believe it has an ironing option to improve the top surface finish

 

[ajlelectronics]

How many top layers are you using on these prints? If you are using cura I believe it has an ironing option to improve the top surface finish

None. I did try with one, but unless it was the under extrusion, the quality was worse. It also apparently leads to "pillowing", which I could also see.

 

[Dev]

Because I can't print it face down because the supports needed will marr the surface, so the only other option is to print it with a very small contact area to the bed and use lots of supports. Easier to print them individually.

There is a way of doing coloured text without it being raised on a single extruder printer.

like this;


Model the text at 0.2mm depth, cut that out of the main model, so now you have the text and the case with the text removed.
print the text in two .1mm layers to make sure the letters are clear and there aren't any gaps.
Then swap filaments and print the main model with a 0.2 first layer height.

 

[James1979]

There is a way of doing coloured text without it being raised on a single extruder printer.

like this;
View attachment 317029

Is that a female tool that likes other female tools?!

 

[MattF]

Stop it!

 

[James1979]

Hey this is 2021. Who am I to question what it identifies as

 

[ajlelectronics]

I bought a direct drive extruder kit, or so I thought. It turned out to be the bracket and cable and it wasn't until I started putting it in that I realised the filament misalignment that it now had. It does say that it is only compatible with the BMG extruder but doesn't actually say what that is. I was under the impression that it was the standard fit. It isn't!

There are no clues about what to buy so looking at the pictures, I have ordered something that looks identical although not called a BMG extruder.

This is the bracket.

This the extruder I have ordered…

 

[ajlelectronics]

Model the text at 0.2mm depth, cut that out of the main model, so now you have the text and the case with the text removed.
print the text in two .1mm layers to make sure the letters are clear and there aren't any gaps.
Then swap filaments and print the main model with a 0.2 first layer height.

Thanks for that, I will have an experiment.