What 3D printer...

[PhillipM]

How much is plain steel wire by the kilogram compared to its scrap value?

How much is mig wire that goes through a similar process vs it's scrap value compared to 3d printing failament that has a much smaller market to sell to?

I used to spend 40-50 quid a roll for *good* filament, quite happily, it was worth it.

The other misconception there really is that plastics are cheap - they're not, steel, wood, concrete, etc, are peanuts compared to polymers. It's just you use so little plastic and it's so much easier to work with for making things that the end product becomes cheaper.

 

[ukracer]

The eldest (13) beat me to designing and printing. I pointed her at tinkercad and half an hour later she had knocked up a label with her name and form number for her school bag, exported it as an STL, sliced and printed it. She's working on mkII now

The youngest has just got her new school login as she is in year 7 next year, high school to people like me where you had infants, juniors then high school. She has one subject where she will use Creo Parametric 3, a 3D CAD package I had never heard of before I searched, but seems to be used in aerospace a lot. First project is a passive phone speaker made from recycled materials.

I'll have to get into CAD, I have a few things I want to knock up for the workshop. Fusion360 here I come....

Prepare for a culture shock....

 

[Screwdriver]

How much is mig wire that goes through a similar process vs it's scrap value compared to 3d printing failament that has a much smaller market to sell to?

I used to spend 40-50 quid a roll for *good* filament, quite happily, it was worth it.

The other misconception there really is that plastics are cheap - they're not, steel, wood, concrete, etc, are peanuts compared to polymers. It's just you use so little plastic and it's so much easier to work with for making things that the end product becomes cheaper.

I think you (and @Bladevane) might be right. It does seem like “a lot” I suppose but I really ought to know better with my obsession in collecting plastics (hoarding really). Plus I have done a fair bit of plastic welding using a hot air gun.

Perhaps the opposite or complementary view is more true, that disposable, single use plastics are really “too cheap”...

 

[ukracer]

Interesting indeed.....

 

[ukracer]

Cool for saving time but keeping strength.

 

[Screwdriver]

I have been resisting the temptation to decorate this printer and instead bang out some useable stuff. Stuff like this.

They are insert pieces for some Allit boxes (I have about 100 of them!). Printed in vase mode for speed. I can do one small box at 25 minutes, a long one is circa 45 minutes and I can just about fit four half height inserts and do them four at a time, in vase mode (spiralised).

Got the time for four down to a respectable one and a half hours which I am quite happy with. Involves a fair bit of fiddling with speeds and feeds, plus I am pushing the single skin with the thickness set to 0.8mm. They are seriously strong, no cracks or breaks yet they do have a little flex. If anything I think the PETG is a bit brittle.

All they have to do is sit inside these outer containers which I can stck into their own drawers, L-Boxx and they are perfect for Bisley drawers.

Couldn't resist dipping into my vast Sketchup library to see if I could get anything to print. Soon find out.

Look at that bridge! I can hardly believe it worked tbh. Next time I might make up some supports but that distance is seriously impressive. Wouldn;t want to do it twice at 13 hours per attempt though.

It is supposed to be this:

About 1/10 scale swage block and stand. I fear this may become an obsession, I also have an anvil+stand plus of course a thousand other things in Sketchup!

Everything in my workshop is also modelled in Sketchup (including the workshop! It is incredibly satisfying to print an item you have designed yourself, that swage block might even be useful at that scale.

This could get expensive...

 

[Screwdriver]

Cleaned up:

I feel a diorama coming on...

 

[3000alloy]

Very informative thread.

 

[badabec]

"I feel a diorama coming on..."

Take a couple of Imodium

 

[Screwdriver]

Soon as this crude but dimensionally accurate anvil printed off, I started on the base.

I should probably stop digging through my Sketchup archive!

 

[Screwdriver]

Wow. Even the support structure has a particular "look". Just made it up in Cura without wanting to let it do it's own support which is horrible to remove. Probably come in handy for something, it's easily strong enough to stand on!

The model itself is somewhat freakish for me, since the design came out of my head, was made real, became virtual again and then printed in plastic as if by magic.

Probably only "works" if it's a model of your ow thing and you're holding it in your hands but "freakish" is the best explanation for the effect it has on me.

The swage block is mounted upside down in this photo, they are identical (scaled!).

 

[brewdexta]

I've just completed the installatio of the bltouch probe for bed levelling. It took a while to get myhead around Visual Studio Code and PlatfromIO to compile the firmware, it was taking hours rather than than seconds, Turns out it was some IBM Rapport endpoint security software I had installed ages ago as it was recommended by my bank. Once removed it flew through.

So I now have 9 point bed levelling enabled in my Cura start up gcode, adds about 2 minutes to a print which is nothing in 3d printing terms. I added the "Bed Level Visualiser" plug-in to Octoprint, not that interesting with 9 points but demonstrates it is pretty close after manual levelling with some feeler gauges, I've stopped using bits of paper.

One last upgrade that needs firmware changes, the filament run out sensor.

Cheers
Andy

 

[veesix]

That looks pretty good! Instead of feeler gauges/paper I've started using Marlin's G35 tramming assistant which uses the BLTouch to probe above the adjustment wheels: https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G035.html

 

[brewdexta]

That looks pretty good! Instead of feeler gauges/paper I've started using Marlin's G35 tramming assistant which uses the BLTouch to probe above the adjustment wheels: https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G035.html

I'll have to give that a go tomorrow

 

[Chris Snow]

I bought a UV resin printer earlier this year, amazing precision to the point you can barely see the layers if you print them fine enough.
https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-photon-s?variant=33622232367235
47μm XY resolution!

It can be a bit of a messy process but the results put filament printers to shame.
One useful thing is that the print speed is only based on Z height not volume.
The resin I use is pretty tough and heat resistant, can touch a soldering iron on it and nothing happens.
Main disadvantage is bed size, they get expensive fast!

 

[Screwdriver]

Finally some colour! PRUSA special offer (still not cheap). Doesn't look like the rolls in their video.

But it prints like butter.

Running at 250C and 80C bed the filament turns into honey and sets into a flexible plastic with less brittleness than I have seen with other PETG.

These are poundland glasses, I use 1.25 for general interior/reading and 2.5 for close up work so I need to carry two pairs in the workshop. Even at £1 a go, it is tiresome to keep snapping them in half so this case (these cases!) will stop me sitting on them, standing on them or crushing them in my pockets. I can also colour code them for magnification (I also use 3.5 for super close up).

I will experiment with a thinner design (I knocked these up in Sketchup) they are a fairly chunky 2mm thick and I could fit some holes, make some with belt loops or just plain boxes. I really ought to double check poundland don't have a better case (!) but these are still cheaper plus the design is intended to double up to carry two spare glasses in one compact belt case.

 

[DAPPH]

Finally some colour! PRUSA special offer (still not cheap). Doesn't look like the rolls in their video.

But it prints like butter.

Running at 250C and 80C bed the filament turns into honey and sets into a flexible plastic with less brittleness than I have seen with other PETG.

These are poundland glasses, I use 1.25 for general interior/reading and 2.5 for close up work so I need to carry two pairs in the workshop. Even at £1 a go, it is tiresome to keep snapping them in half so this case (these cases!) will stop me sitting on them, standing on them or crushing them in my pockets. I can also colour code them for magnification (I also use 3.5 for super close up).

I will experiment with a thinner design (I knocked these up in Sketchup) they are a fairly chunky 2mm thick and I could fit some holes, make some with belt loops or just plain boxes. I really ought to double check poundland don't have a better case (!) but these are still cheaper plus the design is intended to double up to carry two spare glasses in one compact belt case.

@Screwdriver , I like the clip on case idea , very handy to hook in the neck band of a sweat shirt of on a belt .

I see you have put a marker on the arm of your specs . I have too , one on the left arm for looking & driving , one on the right arm for reading specs and nothing on the computer work pairs . It's ended up that I have 18 pairs of glasses as it's only been possible to get two at a time from Spec savers for the last 15 years . Close up work & type two diabetes has merited most of the extra pairs as it was a long time before things stabilized .

Still the redundant pairs are great for the lathe & band saw out in the man cupboard , the other sets reside in the log cabin near the 3D printer and my seed sowing work area & the propagation bed table .

Are the cases your own design or from thingyverse?

 

[badabec]

I bought a UV resin printer earlier this year, amazing precision to the point you can barely see the layers if you print them fine enough.
https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-photon-s?variant=33622232367235
47μm XY resolution!

It can be a bit of a messy process but the results put filament printers to shame.
One useful thing is that the print speed is only based on Z height not volume.
The resin I use is pretty tough and heat resistant, can touch a soldering iron on it and nothing happens.
Main disadvantage is bed size, they get expensive fast!

Hello, how are getting on with the printer?
Will it run stuff from thingiverse?

 

[Screwdriver]

@Screwdriver , I like the clip on case idea , very handy to hook in the neck band of a sweat shirt of on a belt .

I see you have put a marker on the arm of your specs . I have too , one on the left arm for looking & driving , one on the right arm for reading specs and nothing on the computer work pairs . It's ended up that I have 18 pairs of glasses as it's only been possible to get two at a time from Spec savers for the last 15 years . Close up work & type two diabetes has merited most of the extra pairs as it was a long time before things stabilized .

Still the redundant pairs are great for the lathe & band saw out in the man cupboard , the other sets reside in the log cabin near the 3D printer and my seed sowing work area & the propagation bed table .

Are the cases your own design or from thingyverse?

Haha. Yeah, red for 2.5, white for 1.5, green for 3.5. It's coz I buy these by the dozen from poundland and when I am trying to find the right glasses, I can't read the microscopic diopter text. Anything that goes into my workshop is eventually going to get destroyed so I don't bother with "proper" reading glasses.

I usually keep a 1.5 and a 2.5 with me, one ends up in a pocket and gets snapped so I made this clip. I knocked it up in Sketchup and (as we speak) am playing with Fusion to do a similar hopefully better job. They clip onto a belt or onto a pocket and have proved pretty handy. I want a double pocket version so I can carry two pairs, hence the wedge shape which keeps it small but will also let me stack them.

I'm not proficient enough with Fusion 360 to be able to "sketch" a design like I can in Sketchup which I use like pen and paper. I like to quickly draw something, try it see if I like it but have to fumble about trying to find the right button in Fusion. It is a superb product though, streets ahead of Sketchup for CNC design of course but Sketchup being so much simpler is (for me) a whole lot faster.

Eventually I will want to modify the clip too so it's ok to hit the sofa or sit while wearing without snapping it off at the belt clip. This print at 2mm is easily strong enough to protect from damage, the plastic is soft enough it can't easily scratch the lenses. I will start uploading some of these to Thingiverse once I am happy with the design.

I am very happy with the PRUSA filament, it is definitely the best yet for finish and strength though I am starting to experiment with "annealing" (which I think is more like tempering tbh) which involves heating it back up to 110C (for this PETG) for about half an hour. First attempt was almost a disaster, it went totally floppy! Just managed to save it in time thank goodness because it's 50g and a 7 hour print.

 

[PhillipM]

You won't anneal PETG or PLA without them collapsing. You need to either support them or pack them in sand or similar.