/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>779932
can we agree that when we print a part with inner features such as holes or slots and it comes out undersized, that is it should be the responsibility of the CAM/slicer to compensate for the corner cutting and that designing with holes and other said features oversized is not an acceptable solution?
This is common problem and I personally get around .02" undersized features while the overall(external) dimensions of the object is on size.
What I suggest is we give this problem a name, mention it in the OP post, and indicate a status of if there are any solutions and if so, which slicer and what settings.

(sure, reaming a hole is simple but that's not the point)

>>779957
Got submitted as slic3r issue. It got "closed". The answer was to read http://manual.slic3r.org/troubleshooting/dimension-errors
Less than satisfying to me.

>>779989
have you tried out other slicers?

I think Cura gives better results than Slic3r every single time.

>>779994
Cura once almost ruined my hotend with exteme flow and Simplify is a DRM ridden piece of shit generating g-code inferior to Slic3r in almost any way. I was close to trying Skeinforge once.

>>779996
>Cura once almost ruined my hotend with exteme flow

I dont understand.
If you set your flow settings too high, all it should do is grind filament and/or cause your extruder to miss steps?

>>779998
Nah, It did a 4mm wide extrusion. Out of a 0.35mm nozzle. I checked all the settings. nothing should have allowed this.

>>780000
bullshit. my 0.35mm extruder has extrusion widths of around 0.52mm ... right from slic3r. you can check your g-code file it contains these infos at the top

and this is common and usual. if you print with 0.1mm layer height you will never get nozzle width extrusion. it will always be bigger

i already love this thread

>>779677

I built a Mendel Max 1.5 a while back and it sat for a while. Just pulled it out of the closet, updated to the latest Slic3r and Pronterface, cleaned, oiled, and leveled everything.

Then I made some chess pieces in PLA. Looking better than when I put it away months ago! I found the quality went up tremendously by slowing down a lot. I do mostly smaller prints and they just held too much heat.

My project once it gets warmer out will be 3d printing some wax letter seals, acetone smoothing them, then trying to cast them in metal and turn a wood handle on a lathe.

>>780026
And I think these were 0.24 or 0.2 layer height, print time about an hour each.

Does anyone here use inventor?

Its more geared towards engineering, but its what I've learned through the programs at my old high school.

>>780056
i pirated a copy and turns out even with the new GUI since 2007 it's still pretty easy to use. however i would like to use a open source solution, but so far they all suck

>>780057
it isn't that expensive if you don't get the render and FEM sim version. i think like 1000 to 1400 usd for a full blown license.

>>780056
yeah i use it. too bad you can't properly STL export with it. you always need to either have a special reoriented assembly or you reorient it with blender. too bad slic3r has no option for reorientation either.

other than that. inventor is currently unbeatable. the free/opensource alternatives suck balls compared to it

>>780059
what problem is there with orientation? wouldn't that be something you so in the slicer anyway?

>>780060
you usually want the flat surface to be printed on the bed. if you simply export in inventor it will take the current world orientation of your parts.
this means that you could end with a cube being printed staying on one edge.

and no slic3r expects your object to be oriented correctly (z-up)

Is anyone extruding their own filament?

>>780064
i thought about it. but it's simply not worth the trouble for me. sure it would not cost 25€/kg but it would require proper machines to have the tolerances and shit.

>>780064
I would like to eventually, but I dont actually print enough right now to justify it.
I have enough problems trying to get decent calibrations.

I am an on and off kinda guy and will let my printer sit for months and then work on it for a week then let it sit, ive done a lot of changes and it fucks everything up.

>>780062
i use repetier-host. you first get an object placement window where you set the orientation, scale, bed placement, whatever else. Then you pick your slicer. defualt is slic3r but cura is also included and you can add others to it. Next is the preview/gcode. Then your manual controls and last (atleast on my prusa i3v) the contents of the sd card on the machine. after installing the latest slic3r version, repetier-host started use it.

>>780072
>repetier-host
i don't. i go directly xyz->STL->slic3r->GCODE->Pronterface or standalone sd-card printing

I dont have any pictures on hand of anything I have printed recently, but here is a bulbasaur I printed when I was using 3mm filament and a different extruder.

>>780057
>pirated copy of inventor
you can get a free 3 year license by saying you go to a college

>>780075
I've tried pronterface, but it wouldn't even open. just started a process that took up 17% cpu usage and just sat there. Not even an indication of an error.

repetier-host has been good to me so far. the only other machine interface program i've tried so far is Cura which is shit.

>>780096
I use Cura and Pronterface and havent had any problems with either.

>>780096
repetier is my to-go program for printing.

I've also tried MatterControl which looks pretty nice and was decent. anyone here has tried it too?

Building a Box Frame Prusa i3 right now. All I have to do is wait for the second axle coupler, the ceramic wires, and some more ball bearings.

I have a question about attaching the thermistor to the hot-end. Do you HAVE to use a specialized crimping tool? Or can I just kaplon tape the thing together without burning my house down?

>>780057
>Not using openSCAD

Anyone built one of these ghetto rigs? How does the quality compare to that of a filament printer. I wanted to make plastic figures for /tg/ shit and I have a UV curer lying around.

>>780105
What hot end are you talking about?

>>780110
I am using the J Head Nozzle right now. 1.75mm filament and .4mm orifice.

>>780112
I had a cheap Jhead clone for a while where the instructions literally said to just use kapton tape to keep the thermistor in so im not sure what you mean by crimping it.

It held fine, but I ended up replacing the whole hotend with an E3d.

>>779957
I'm conflicted on this. Yes, the logic behind software compensation for bead width would be rather simple, and integration would easily follow... however, this would be one more setting to have to calibrate, and every time you adjust something else on the printer, the bead width might change. it would just be a ton more work, given the current status of the 3D printing industry's similarity to carburetor-era car industry (constant work, never runs the same twice, etc.) Also, when designing parts to be made for any other machine tool, it is up to the designer to design for the machine -- you don't just bitch at the company for not having machines programmed for every odd-ball extra parameter. Now, that doesn't mean they should ignore the issue either. Perhaps as an extra, placeable feature, it would work. Also realize that many people are designing their final product, not just prototypes, and want absolute control over every aspect for the sake of perfection.

>>779994
This is causing me no end of difficulty.

>>780107
>using software comparable to writing HTML by hand
>for anything

>>780136
The syntax is more like C than HTML.

Regardless, openSCAD is a quick way to create dimensionally precise models.

>>780091
Perfect calibration. Congratulations! Care to post your settings?

>>780229
the point is that you have to use syntax at all when modeling.
>fast
>bullshit
Everything it can do can be done on inventor in 1/100th the time. and I have actually tried it, I made pic related. took the whole damn day.

>>780255
>the point is that you have to use syntax at all when modeling.
That's a feature.
If you can't do parametrized, iterative models with inventor then shove it up your ass because openscad can, and that's what it's good for.

did the internals too. and its still not done. and I have no idea if it will work, because this shitty software doesn't do anything beyond simple modeling of one-part assemblies. sure, I can break models apart and have each one be it's own script, but that's as far as I can go. can't do anything useful to examine the pars or how they interact with eachother. I could do all this in a couple hours tops on inventor.

>>780257
it does both of those things, and it does them much, much better than openscat.

>>780229
OpenSCAD uses CSG only, that's like way, way, way obsolete in the CAD community. It can't even into NURBS

>>quick
yeah, no.

>>780229
>>780255
>>780257
>>780259
>>780260
>>780262

Fuck, I was trying to make it in inventor just to prove the point, but finding any dimensions amongst all that cryptic nonsense is impossible.

>>780000
umm... die swell -- it's a thing

>>780104
Just the other day -- It's almost great. unfortunately, it just doesn't work with they way I do things.

>>780105
the hot ends i bought are all using kapton tape to fix the thermoresistor to the hot end. never had any issues.

>>780133
even then his argument is valid. the surface of your designed object should be what you finally get as the surface in the printed/manufactured part.
Status Quo is that you most likely get Surface + 50%Extrusion width as your outer shell. Some slicers may compensate the outer shell but they don't do it (pretty good) on inner shells.

when I got into 3d printing, kits were just starting to become available, and slic3r and skeinforge were about the only options...
not saying to brag or anything, just a perspective of where my opinions are coming from.

For making your own 3d models:
the best is whatever one allows you to most quickly do what you need. plan several models, a mechanically functional one, something decorative, and something that is mathematically complex (fractal vase for example) Try to build each in each software you test. Time how long it takes, and how frustrated the software made you (they all will!)
it will be clear what works best for you.
for me:
artistic- blender, mechanical: tinkercad mathematical -- openscad

once you've got you model, getting your gcode is next.
I don't like using the same software to run the printer as slice my gcode -- I've had too many slicing crashes that took down my printer in the middle of a print...
although repetier is supposedly very good, I've never been able to get along with it.
depending on the model and what I'm doing with it, I use slic3r and cura -- I thing they are head and shoulders past all other slicers -- skeinforge can do pretty much everything, but it can fuck up your gcode so many ways...

I used to use pronterface to host my printers, but now everything is running with octoprint.

and finally the hardware -- my first printer, I built a mendal, from there I printed the parts to make a large print area variant of the MendalMax, and from there I've just recently brought a Kossel into service.

I think the Delta style printers are the best design, so far. particularly when you move from the 8bit atmega family of controls over to the 32bit arm processors

>>780005
Prusa i3v, mein nigga. What surface are you printing on by the way? At the moment I am using blue tape and it seems to be going alright, my only beef is that larger parts are harder to take off.

>>780005
Also how do you get your tops to look so nice, I always tend to have the infill shape appearing through the plastic like in image

Various materials (PLA, ABS (black and transparent), and cheap red flexible TPU) on a fully custom designed system (cartsian, but my newest build in progress is a core xy using v-rail). I have like a dozen of the best octopii stuck to my fridge (I redid the model with a hole in the bottom to accommodate a small rare-earth magnet); I use them as calibration pieces. My t-rex (glow in the dark PLA) lost his two front teeth when I dropped him =/.

(the dust on the t-rex is there for contrast, not because I'm a filthy pig and my apartment is dusty as fuck, I swear).

>>780252
I have no clue honestly, its been so long ago.
To be honest, it was probably close to default settings on Slic3r for 3mm filament 5mm nozzle.

I havent gotten very savvy with software because my hardware keeps having issues.
My printer is a DIYTechShop I3x (i do not recommend, hotend is complete trash and the frame is 3mm thick instead of 6mm which makes it pretty flimsy, printer shipped with missing parts, had to wait for THREE extra shipments of parts).

It came with very shit printed parts that kept breaking, mixed with my inexperience has been quite interesting trying to keep things running.
Couple that with changing out my melted hotend to another hotend that is now 1.75mm filament with a broken extrude guide.

Its a miracle I somehow have gotten it back up and running, fixed some Z binding, fixed X carriage alignment, fixed Y axis steps being off and fucking up the shape of all my prints very slightly. Still cant seem to get prints as nice as I used to before I meticulously rebuilt the machine...

>>780109
a UV curer won't get you far.

>>780344
atm so far i've just used pla on glass with hairspray and that works nicely

>>780345
those "tops" of the shorter cubes are actually the bottoms of the same test cube that i stopped before finishing the print. the 2 full cubes are on their side. Here's the full ones upside right.
The left one has honeycomb fill the sdes are uneven as fuck. after some tweaks the right one is .2mm per layer, completely hollow, straight on all sides and corners, and with 3 layers for the top and bottom, it bridged the top of it beautifully wikthout support and i wasn't expecting it to.

What are your thoughts on print fans?

I have a 40mm fan, no duct, blowing down towards the nozzle and print area.

Do the crazy ducts the direct the air right under the nozzle help out?

Can you cool your print too much?
I was running a 5015 as a cooling fan with a duct, and felt like it was hurting print quality with how much air it pushed out.

Having that said, a 40mm fan pushes out way less air so maybe a duct is needed.

>>780369
depends on your slicer settings and how good/strong the fans are. mine are quite weak but in combination with slic3rs default cooling settings i can print much better parts (ABS) i guess they don't help much for PLA

>>780369
Depends on the material and to some extent the size and speed of the print in my experience. First layers for any material I've used seem to stick better with the cooling shut off and bed a little hotter than for the rest of the print.

>>780374
I always found the opposite to be true: ABS for me works best with no active cooling while PLA with any overhangs turns out badly without lots of active cooling. YMMV I guess.

>>780026
I mashed up a pawn from thingiverse with a mesh that someone had extracted from the Warcraft 3 editor using meshmixer to make a peon pawn. I thought I might try and make a full WC3 chess set but got sidetracked onto other things.

Has anyone else printed the nasa space wrench?
This is my print.

It works halfway, half of the gears click and engage loudly while the other half barely engage. Still a pretty cool print.

>>780344

Captain cube, I just ordered an i3v. Been watching reviews n shit on youtube.

Anything I should watch out for in your opinion?

>>780280
>octoprint

I have a whole octoprint setup with a camera setup and all that, but I tend to just use Pronterface.
Octoprint is just kinda sluggish for me, and I have an old desktop setup right next to my printer.

>>780005
>>780026
>>780091
>>780363
>>780382
A question from a total n00b, is this where we're at with 3d printers or is this kind of quality (the obvious layer-by-layer finish) one is to expect from an affordable 3d printer? It seems more like a fun nicknack if you're not willing to spend hours sanding out the edges.

>>780509
it really depends on the printer but yes. you usually have the layers pretty visible. even with the 20thousand usd FDM machines

>>780509
Yeah, even with the best printers you can sometimes see little ridges for the layers.
But if you print slowly enough, you can have a very small layer size.
And finally there are ways to finish, like sandpaper or the acetone fume method.

>>780516
>>780512
Thanks guys!
Tiny ridges won't bother me, so I'm guessing the bulbasaur in this thread for example was printed quickly with big layers? It's a beautiful job, no question, but if I wanted to make, say, spare parts for home appliances I'd want a smoother finish

>>780518
Let me rephrase that.
I'm aware that since 3d printers print layer by layer, you'll always be able to see some ridges, to more or less extent. But I'm guessing you can make pretty good finishes if you print slower with smaller layer sizes, right? And how much does filament thickness and "print head" size matter in that regard?

>>780520
current technology won't allow printing to a very smooth finish, even 0.1mm is actually a lot, and you will always see and feel ridges, and to go smaller also means slower

if you want to have perfectly smooth you always have to post process it

>>780509
>>780518
keep in mind the close up pictures we're taking here. my hallow .2mm per layer cube has a pretty fine surface
>>780363
(the one on the right, check the sides)
if you really want super smooth shiny surfaces look at acetone vapor treatments you can use on abs plastic.

>>780443
not that i think it'd matter at all but one thing i have read about wood frame machines is paint/stain it before putting together. I didn't with mine but just throwing that out there before hand.

>tfw all of my gear removers are too big for NEMA motors.

How do you guys remove gears from those things? Would a heat gun help at all?

>>780359
What is so bad about it? Is there a better type of stereolithographic printer that I can build?

>>780520
Filament thickness means nothing as far as print quality goes, the print nozzle size on your hot end matters to what your layer size could be vs speed.

>>780588
Yes, but filament consistency matters more.

>>780443
I had a mate that was about to get a 3D printer too, and this is what I said to him:

1. Make sure to follow the instructions properly, there were a couple of parts that I put together in the wrong way only to realise they don't fit once I put it all together.

2. Your sliders/wheels should be tight but not too tight (same goes for the belts) to make sure there is no wobble when the printer moves.

3. Make sure you wire things correctly and use the right type of wire thickness. I went a bit overboard and used thick wire with silicon insulation, as I heard of connectors melting where improper contact/wire was used.

4. http://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting is a very good community to share your results/problems.

5. Print calibration cubes first to make sure all is working.

6. First layer adhesion is key for getting a good print, and so you need a good surface. I am using Scotch blue tape (original) but you can also use glue/hair-spray/ABS juice...

7. Oh also, make sure to not have your head too low for the first layer, as it will cause the filament to block up as well. Like you want the head to be low enough that the first layer is squished, but not hight enough where it just comes out and forms strands.

8. If you end up getting the hexagon nozzle, one of the requirements for it is to always have a fan blowing on the cooling fins; for some reason one of my larger prints decided to turn it off during the first few layers causing the filament to clog. So yea, had to unblock the hot end twice before I realised what was happening... But hey, it's all a learning process

>>780518
Yeah I printed the bulbasaur and it was .3mm for the layer size, and I believe my extruder was overextruding because I hadnt calibrated it right so the layers mare look even thicker than they should.
IRL the bulbasaur looks totally different.

Here is something I printed at .1mm layer height with the correct extruder flow.
IRL the cats look pretty smooth unless you give it a close look.
The camera close ups really point out every single imperfection, and the color I have really doesnt mask any imperfections either.

>>780591

>>780541
I asked Colin (the cool dude from MakerFarm) whether it's a good idea to paint/stain the wooden frame, and why they don't offer the frame in say acrylic or metal. his response was that no painting/staining is likely to introduce more problems, and the reason why they offer only wooden frames is that acrylic is known to crack after a while and metal would be too expensive and offers no real advantage.

Also as for 3mm vs 1.75mm, he said to go for 3mm filament as you would encounter less problems.

>>780509
I have access to a $20,000+ printer at the university I work for, we also have an $800 in our own lab. I have a $500 at home and once you get the settings tweaked in right they have pretty similar finishes. pretty much all FDM printers preform about the same now. There are some exceptions. There is usually a lot less fiddling with the settings on the $20k machine. When my $500 machine works well it does a great job. The big problem my printer has is it will get caught on walls occasionally and jump around a few steps. this causes about 1-2mm wide portions to be slightly misaligned. It seems to happen mostly around layers with support material which can make it hard to remove. When my printer actually puts out a good print (no missed steps) it puts out parts almost on par with the $20k machine.

This is my printer at 0.1mm layers. Its pretty good and pretty smooth to the touch. This was my first shot at 0.1mm. I could probably tweak it even more all I really did was take my 0.2mm settings and change layer height. Also it would help if I could adjust the PID on my hotend. I get some definite banding on straight walls. I haven't tried it anymore because it takes so freaking long to print. I usually keep it at 0.2mm, sometimes 0.3 if its going to be post processed and is really large.

>>780594
> he said to go for 3mm filament as you would encounter less problems.

1.75 is becoming more popular, it does much better in a bowden setup and it requires less pressure to push through nozzles. That means you can run a direct drive extruder easier, or maybe even a geared extruder with a smaller stepper to take weight off of the carriage.

>>780597
Righto, do you know if there are some comparison prints of this?

>>780604
I dont know of any comparison prints, the quality should be the same as long as you have adequate extruders.
Its more of just fiddling with the extruder itself. Less of a chance to grind filament and running them at lower currents to reduce heat.
The MK7/MK8 gears are really awesome.

>>780595
>caught on walls
wut?
the only problem i've had is it started missing steps. Then i got to looking at my power input and at times it was dropping as low as 8v. then again, it was pulling 10 amps but the fucking power supply was rated for 18amp. so i just grabbed a computer psu with 12v rated at 15amp (i even opened it up and saw all the 12v outputs were on a single rail).
lowest i've seen with it at a 10amp draw is 10.8v, so good so far.

>>780610
I'm not sure that was just my theory, because it usually only happens near support material. I do hear it scraping sometimes.

I should probably check into that, I've seen the led lighting inside my printer flicker sometimes. I should put some probes on the PS line and log the voltage during the next print

>>780619
yup, that's exactly what i had as well with the LCD backlight on my i3v

>>780621
I'll have to test this out then. I've always thought my power supply was a little under spec'd. It takes a while to heat up the hotend before the printing starts. I have a few ATX supplies laying around. I might also buy a big one if that could solve the problem.

>>780574

Two flathead screwdrivers on each side. Pry up.

>>780636
Wouldn't that put stress on the motor and cause slight damage?

>>780591
>>780592
get in the habit of putting coins or rulers in your pictures. a sharpie cap makes for a nice international standard.

>>780274
from what I understand, that's because most slicers just shrink the whole thing a little, rather than move all edges inward of normal.

>>780652
na, these motors are pretty solid

>>780374
I think you may have your plastics mixed up.
ABS shrinks when cold and tends to pull itself apart if cooled too quickly. In fact, it is the reason heated print chambers exist.

>>780345
Try to add more top layers while slicing

>>780575
From what I hear, stereolithography is several times more expensive than FDM methods. Building one will cost at least a couple grand and each liter of the resin is over $100. The resin is also purported to be somewhat toxic.

Despite this, SLA does have the advantage of reproducing finer detail.

>>780575
Well a UV curer won't get you far in building an SLA. You need something that produces a 2D image like a laser with scanning mirrors or a DLP projector.

>>780625
it does not need to be the PSU, it may just be the motor drivers that are too weak or overheating. my rostock can skip steps sometimes but as it has a 12V 30Amp PSU i am pretty sure it's not the PSU at fault.

>>780676
this. most rostock/kossel designs put loads of stress on the axis of these motors. and the motors don't care much. sure it's stress perpendicular to the axis and not along it. but if you go with a gear setup like a fishbone or the like you put intentionally stress along the axis of the motor... and it doesn't care much

Fellas pls help.
I'm one of the dudes with the Prusa i3v and I seem to be having a layer problem, like from time to time my parts tend to have little "cracks" where the plastic that is next to each other has not bonded; you can see it quite well in these gears.
One other thing is that the gears are designed to be 5mm thick but come out as 5.5mm, is this something that I should be concerned about, and if so how would I go about fixing it?

Cheers m8's

>>780832
Your walls not touching on the inside and not covering your top layer may be an underextruding problem

Have you calibrated your Esteps for your extruder to make sure its putting out the right amount of plastic?

Not sure about the parts being too thick

>>780832
idk what to say about your print problems, but man you should be printing herringbone gears. herringbone is so much tighter with less backlash.

Has anyone successfully dehydrated a roll of filament that has gotten moisture in it?

Turns out a lot of my quality issues was the fact I was using the 2 rolls that have been out for a while. I now have the wet spools in a airtight container with desiccant, hoping its going to fix them.

I put desiccant in my printer enclosure, and I put a container with desiccant over my new dry spool that im printing with (spool is on top of enclosure). Im hoping this keeps my new spool dry.

Im afraid of throwing the bad filament in the oven or something, its probably close to a whole kg of pla between the two spools.

>>780864
I don't know anything about 3D printing or filaments, but storing it with a silica desiccant in a tight-fitting container should dry it out in a few days. A food dehydrator set at the lowest temperature could also help.

>>780864
lowest setting on my oven overnight-- works for me --160F

>>780590
>not having an auto level probe

Finally got around to installing one and it's absolutely based. Never have to worry about the bed being level again. Prints adhere much better and the quality is amazing, especially on bottom and top layers. Small bits don't get mushed anymore. I've got an i3v too, its definitely the best upgrade ive done for it

>>780936
Also get a real print surface. Buildtak or PEI(ultem). Ditch the hairspray and abs juice, fuck tape. My ABS sticks even without an enclosure

>>780936
Dont they stress out your Z axis?

>>780936
i would like to hear/see more about this

>>780955
how you figure? can't be worse than the load on the other motors

>>780938
I'll stick with gluesticks. Never tried hairspray but I can vouch that gluesticks are absolutely godly. ABS and PLA stick without problem and you don't even need to wipe between prints.

>>780992
so far i've only used hairspray the beautiful thing about it is just running the glass under hot water washes it off without even needing to rub it.

>>780993
I use elmers purple disappearing glue sticks, it wipes off very easy with a wet paper towel.

>>780992
Im gonna be honest, ive been lazy pretty recently
When the first layer quits sticking with the gluestick stuff, I simply put another layer of gluestick down.

Ive put down probably 4 layers between 20 prints before wiping it off yesterday.
It didnt hurt anything at all.

Should I use dampeners on my NEMA motors? The sound and vibration reduction sounds nice.

>>781001
I have never used dampers before, but I did replace my A4988 stepsticks with DRV8225 stepsticks and it made a very noticeable decrease in stepper noise. I have my printer in an enclosed wooden box, and cant tell if its printing or not over the fans. I used to be able to hear it clearly.

>>780064

Wouldn't extruding into a water bath be better for cooling your extruded material? or would that cool it too fast?

>>781238
Not him but plastic filament is hygroscopic and when heated to extruding temps, produces water vapor bubbles if enough water is present. Submerging it in water is a bad idea.

>>781238
You could cool some aluminum tube with an ice bath and then the filament go through the tube.

>>780595
>>780610
>caught on walls
>that fucking plinky thunk noise
Eugh, possibly filament moisture absorption you might also be developing a clog. Good times.

What's the best stereolithgraphic printer that I can build? I wanted to start making high detailed plastic objects that I can paint.

>>781453
There arent that many out there I dont think, most people just buy their SLA printers.

>>780280
>>780447

What camera are you guys using for octoprint?

I had an old pi laying around, so I just got octoprint running. I just dont have a webcam so im gonna go buy one.

>>781475
I guess I will find instructions elsewhere. I know that it is expensive, but if I am going to blow a lot of money I might as well enjoy the experience of building it myself.

>>781715
the problem with resin printers is that there isnt a standard for parts, there isnt a big open source community with proven designs.

It was literally just late 2014 when SLA patents ran out, which isnt a great thing for people in your shoes. Not enough time has passed for it to catch hold, especially with the prevalence of FFF printers and its open source community.

>>781726
Thanks for the information. I guess I will just keep track of developments on the RepRap forums.

Does anyone have any experience with milling with a Prusa i3? I wanted to cut some plastic and I have a dremel tool lying around.

I just built my first printer from a kit.

Prusa i3 Hephestos.

Everything seems to be working.

I downloaded a model off thingverse to test a small print.
Put it into cura.

However every time I go to print, 5-10 layers are extruded and then the hot end just manages to pull the model from the glass.

I tried printing with a raft, but that then seems to print one layer and do the same, yanking it off the glass and taking a trip with it around the print area.

I feel that maybe the hot end it either too far or too close to the plate, or that some other substrate on the plate would be better.

Yes I've tried hairspray, and yes I've levelled the plate so that there is just enough resistance from a sheet of paper trying to pass under.

Any tips/ideas?

>>781953
What does the print look like?

Does it have a heated bed?
It could warping to the point it pops off the bed, and that the hair spray just isnt enough.

You could have your Z axis steps incorrect, where your Z moves not high enough each level till eventually it just plows into the print and rips it off.

Having a raft should certainly keep it on there.

>>781954
Also, go out and get an elmers purple disappearing glue stick and a wide roll of 3M painters tape.
Your particular filament might stick better with one of those instead of your hairspray.

>>781453
Some information over there:
http://www.buildyourownsla.com/forum/index.php?sid=cd1f35be7e0f5a146f76425900580af1
People usually come up with their own designs. I'm building a floating resin top down design I came up with.

>>781953
For me heating the bed up to 60°C and whiping some cum on worked better than Hairspray. Some anon suggested it in the other thread.

>>781954
Pic attached. 3 failed prints. Each just detached from the glass.

>>781956
I have masking tape which I think is similar. So I'll try that I think.I assume I'll have to make an allowance for the thickness of the tape when levelling the plate.

>>781957
>cum
don't have any of that. I'm a grill btw

>>781959
Download Slic3r and try it instead of cura
Have you made sure your filament size and nozzle size were inputted correctly into Cura?

>>781962
Yep, that was my first thought too. In fact the first one was done with generic settings. The second was with the correct settings and the third was with a raft.

My filament is 1.75mm and the nozzle is 0.4mm

I'll give slic3r a go.

>>781953
>>781959
>>781963
Cura has been pretty bad for me. i use repetier-host and the default slicer for that is slic3r but it also has cura in there if you want.

I've had good luck on my i3 with hair spray and my bed at 60c with pla.

>>781978
I like cura, it routinely gives better toolpaths and is much faster than slic3r for me, but its a lot harder to use when you want to get into deeper settings.
It dumbs things down too much

>>781980
idk, for me it seems too fast and gets sloppy.

>>779677
>>780363
i'm just going to put my printer model in my name now

>>781954
>>781956
>>781957
>>781962
>>781978
>>781980
Just completed this print. My first print.

Adding a layer of glue from a simple glue stick helped.

Thank guys!

i recently printed some PLA for the first time ever. before that i was ABS only and if there was not that 1% shrinkage of ABS i would stay with it...

anyway. i printed PLA on kapton and 60°C. if not for the temperature the PLA would not hold at all. even ABS sticks stronger to room temp kapton than PLA.
it also is kind of unforgiving if you print with a too low temperature as the layers crack and are not holding together enough.

so i think the basic idea with PLA is: get some sort of rough surface, either through glue or any other nasty stuff and then heat it up to 60°C. never let it cool down to room temperature during a print as the head may apply enough force to displace the object.

>>782040
>so i think the basic idea with PLA is: get some sort of rough surface, either through glue or any other nasty stuff and then heat it up to 60°C. never let it cool down to room temperature during a print as the head may apply enough force to displace the object.

Seems that way.
I printed:>>782010
without a heated bed. The Glue did the trick, roughed up the surface and managed to make the base stick. The skirt round the outside did warp slightly, but the model turned out fine.

>>782040
the basic idea with PLA is to throw it into the trash. You simply cannot get the same detail as ABS, especially on small pieces. PLA is just too goopy and a cooling fan just doesnt cut it. Some shrinkage is desirable, especially for overhangs. If your bed is properly leveled you don't even need an enclosure (if you have a proper build surface like PEI), I accidentally forgot to generate supports for a print of mine but my 45mm 90 degree overhangs came out perfect except for the first two layers with ABS. PLA is a meme

>>782053
ABS stinks like a mofo

The Lil RP is supposedly going to be opened up and designed to be hackspace friendly. Hoping to nab the STL files and make my own SLA printer as soon as they are out.

>>782076
you mean these?
http://www.littlerp.com/?page_id=55

>>782060
>not having a charcoal filter or fume extractor

I blow the fumes right out of a window.

>>782060
good ABS doesn't smell that bad

>>782053
settings settings settings.

i use abs because its less brittle, sticks to like fucking everything, even at no heated bed and blue painters tape and or school glue. i get like no warpage, it smells good compared to abs, no delamanation bla bla bla. I get the same with ABS for the most part, except its more work. its just nice to work with. I also just use ColourFabb PLA /PHA

>>780595
Have you adjusted the pots on your stepper drivers well? I had that cause missed steps. That and going too fast.

>>782541
Assuming you meant PLA for the first bit.

>>782053
> goopy
You might be printing at temperatures that are too high. ABS prints at ~10º-15ºC hotter than PLA. Maybe more depending on the filament.

Its stickiness can also be a strength. You can print faster with PLA given adequate cooling. ABS is stuck with lower max speeds since it doesn't bind as easy when molten.

>>782541
>>782107
>>782053
You guys are retarded.

When you melt ABS you evolve Acrylonitrile fumes that are a carcinogen.

Stop fucking smelling your printer fumes.

>>782762
The only people making claims that 3d printing releases enough stuff-- either fumes or particles-- to be worried about are companies selling ventilation systems..
at the temperatures we print at -- no significant fumes have been found -- and the particulates are at a level that's on part with low-temp cooking.
I don't need my world covered in bubble-wrap, thank you.
//I'm printing with weedwacker line these days --the nylon is no problem, but the impact-modifiers are a bit nasty -- that shit gets vented.

>>782762
If you post an unbiased research paper that is peer-reviewed, I might believe you.
Otherwise fuck off.

>>782767
idk about how dangerous it is or what kind of carcinogens that other anon is talking about, but I know that PLA gives me a sore throat and a migraine if I print for more than an hour or two, and that ABS does it even quicker.

Im pretty sensitive to stuff though.

How do you vent your shit?

I just use an enclosure with a 120mm exhaust fan > dryer vent hose > piece of MDF cut to window size with dryer hood.

I blow the fumes right outside. If I have the enclosure doors shut, you literally cant smell anything even if you print for hours and hours.

>>782813
I have a box fan with a hepa furnace filter fitted to it sitting behind -- works well enough that I can't smell the crap that boils off the week-wacker.
I also have a pair of pet finches in the room-- If they drop, there's a problem-- kinda like a canary in a mine. Birds are really susceptible to air quality issues.
at $12 each they are literally the cheapest air-quality monitor I trust.

>>780064
New to this, what does extruding a filament achieve?

>>782850
He is making his own filament.
The main thing from what I understand is, you can buy virgin plastic pellets in bulk and its much cheaper.

I pay 30$ a kg for premade filament, you can make 1kg of filament for a lot cheaper, ive read sometimes down to like 5$ a kg.

Ive heard of people making filament by recycling milk containers and stuff, reusing old 3d prints but im not too keen on how well that works and what not.

>>780109
What is this?

>>782813
i don't vent and i sit right next to my 3d printers. problem is. even though i am pretty sensitive to anything the ABS and PLA i use has nearly no smell and totally no effect on me. i can print for hours without ventin and without any signs of eye irritation, sore throat or whatever. NOTHING

>>782855
the alternative for pellets is using them in special extruders. these are currently in development by reprappers.
The filament machines are mostly used for recycling plastic. So stuff that does NOT come in pellet form.

>>782857
that is a cheap ass Stereolithography printer

Currently printing a new top valve for this with proper bottle cap threads in it so it won't leak.

>>782970
Nice. Link to STL files?

>>783008
I'm gonna put it on Thingiverse when I've fully completed+tested it. I want to put some threaded rods through the main body parts to keep it completely straight (it wriggles a bit because of the screws)

>>782970
Very nice
Id love to get to a point where I can be designing stuff like this.
I felt really proud of myself modifying a few parts in tinkercad.

>>783024
Shit I really need to break away from inventor and learn openscad. It looks like so much fun.

IM building a printer right now, i got ahold of a free ball screw, but its pretty large.
I have a 76oz sterpper that i want to run the ball screw with.

The ball screw is 3/4 inch thick with a 5.08 mm pitch, do you think i can drive that massive thing?

>>783381
A standard pololu style driver (A4988 is good to ~2A, DRV8825 to ~2.5A) should be enough to drive a 76 oz-in stepper, but a 3/4" ballscrew (snicker, snicker) is beastly large and will likely need a bigger stepper (say NEMA 23) and a higher current, CNC type driver. Reprap.org is a good resource.

so, anyone have any thoughts about thingiverse? I have a thing to put in their contest that ends Saturday.
I know it's makerbot, but the chance at a $3k printer, it looks like the replicator2x wouldn't be too bad. it doesn't have a smart extruder head, wifi, or other fancy shit.
http://www.thingiverse.com/challenges/CountertopChallenge/

>>783588
Looks like its a pretty tough contest to win, lot of really shit submissions with a few really nice ones that will be almost impossible to beat.

SO. Do extruded prints need any curing (eg. UV) or is that just a resin printing thang?

>>783605
That is just a resin printing thing.

>>783600
I just had 2 50+ year old ladies look through the entries and they weren't impressed with all but maybe 2 of them. It was like pintrest to them. So I probably still have a chance. I just made a vertical/horizontal aluminum foil/plastic wrap holder/dispenser that can mount on the back of a cabinet door by screws or command strips. all that's left is to attach the cutter strip and submit it. once i do i'll post pics and links

>>783024
>the fuck is this guy thinking to print a water gun
>scrolls up
>holly fuck he actually did it

Can anyone offer some advice?

What's going on here? This is piss poor quality.

This is my second print and it was ambitious, a little too ambitious I think, but the first one was neat and tidy.

The prints seem to be messy on the diagonals in general. How do I tidy them up?

Sorry about the gay collage, I'm on my phone.

Kinder egg toy capsule for reference size, sorry Americans.

>>784068
I'd say not enough cooling.

>>784069
Hmm, interesting. Thanks.

So perhaps slow down the extruder head and make sure the layer is cooled sufficiently before moving on?

It's PLA by the way.

>>784068
It was an ambitious choice, but it's not really terrible considering it's only your second print.

It looks like a few different possible issues. The "obvious" one is that you need to optimize your retraction settings a bit. Another factor is cooling: is it PLA and do you have active cooling? A fan should help with PLA as some of the blobbiness on overhangs comes from the plastic not cooling enough before the next layer is deposited. Print speed may also be a factor for similar reasons (too fast and it won't cool/solidify enough between layers). Finally, it looks like you have some z-banding going on - does your setup have proper leadscrews for the z-axis or are they cheapo threaded rod? This won't impact the stringing or messy corners so much, but it's a good upgrade to make imho. Hope that helps.

>>784073

I have active cooling with a fan and duct, with a 40mm fan.

I think I'll decrease the speed.

Cheapo threaded rod reporting, They're a little wobbly too actually now that you mentioned it, I may look into upgrading to a leadscrew.

Thanks for the help!

I'll have a look at the retraction settings and work on something smaller with diagonals and straights with bridging and overhangs. Would you be able to recommend any STL files to try and refine the settings a bit? I may try Slic3r instead of Cura and see if that does anything too.

>>784073
I just realized that you can use leadscrews on a Prusa. I will print out some replacement y-axis parts made to accommodate them and give leadscrews a shot. Thanks anon.

>>784075
>>784076
Happy to help. I think what you have is a good model to refine the settings, just stop the print after a few layers and adjust. It's a finicky process, but FDM printing is kinda finicky generally (I think that's part of why I like it, but I'm crazy like that I guess). I started with Skeinforge, then Slic3r and now use Cura for almost everything - it's a matter of taste to some extent, but I've found Cura handles "artistic" prints a little better (and has a super simple interface for all the functionality it offers), whereas I've sometimes had better luck with Slic3r for functional parts/upgrades. Skeinforge is waaaaaay too complicated. I buy my leadscrews and nuts from Misumi and have been quite impressed with their quality (although they are fairly pricey). Just be warned: once you start upgrading it's hard to stop ;) (I've discovered I enjoy designing and building new printers more than actually printing stuff - I'm fully addicted)

Just did my first (successful) print.
I'm surprised at how well it printed, even if there were a few imperfections on the tip of the ears.

Ok, first of all Im an ignorant faggot trying to learn.

Now that I put a background to this, I built this printer with my brother who was the one who actually had the knowledge and now I have to continue alone the proyect.

The problem I have, is the power supply. The printer was almost mounted, except for the wiring that goes from the power supply into the RAMPs, because I don't have no idea of how should the cables go.

The wiring scheme that I always find in reprap make reference to "COM and V+" but my power supply its the same as pic and I can't see any COM only 3 connectors in DC imput and 3 connectors in DC output, but I don't know how I should connect them or if they have a certain order that I should follow.

Please, I need help.

>>784159
I assume you have a Ramps 1.4 board correct?

"com" is just your V- terminals on the power supply.

Any of the three V- or the V+ terminals on the power supply will work.

I have four 14 gauge wires coming from my Ramps board.
11a and 5a + wires both going to 1 single terminal on the power supply, and 11a- and 5a- wires going to a single terminal on the power supply.

>>784164

Thanks, I think I understand.

btw, why is called... com?

Note: Should I use a soldering iron to put the cables in the terminals? Or it really isn't neccesary?

>>784168
It isn't necessary, screwing them in works for me. For attaching wires to the diode and heated bed you will need to use a soldering iron.

>>784164
I should also point out, you really need to use a decent gauge wire for power.

The removable plug they use is rated for 10a, the heated bed can pull 11 amps, it even says 11a right on the board.

I was running 18AWG and the heated bed ended up burning up my plug (not my pic, my burnout was actually worse)
18 was too small in conjunction with the plug, and it just melted down.

This is also why I personally think its a bad idea for people to "jumper" the plug. They use 2 main wires to go to the power supply, and on the removable end jumper the + to + and - to -. Give all 4 terminal on your removable plug its own wire, and use a decent size wire.

I re-soldered a new terminal onto my ramps board rated for 15a, and its been fine.

>>784168
Because its the "common ground"

And no dont solder it, you just unscrew the terminals a bit till you can slip the wires under it and clamp them down.

>>784068
cooling/filament extruding too hot. Is it PLA?

>>784168
You could always use these crimp on connectors which are clean and easy too.
I just havent gotten around to getting some.

>>784071
If it's PLA you need active part cooling. This is a fan other than the one mounted to the extruder to shrink the melt zone.

Picture related.

>>784152
Very nice - the Stanford bunny was one of my first prints too (although not the poly version). I was also amazed at how well the ears turned out despite the fact that it was printing into the air at times.

>>783696
alright, here it is. i made this
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:724328
i'm pretty sure i did better than most of the useless crap on there. also you had to upload to both thingiverse and first build so i bet alot of people got screwed on that.

and my first abs printing, i found the abs slurry mix worked the best even though i still had curling going on. and layer separation still

Can someone tell me how I can justify paying $700 for a Prusa Hephaestos when there are other (apparently) equivilent but uglier models for $4-500?

>>784382
looks like you summed it up right there.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_i3_Hephestos
i've never herd of it before, but it looks like they just gave it cable management and made it pretty
my i3v from makerfarm was $540 kit, and the only thing that makes it stand out from other i3's is extruded aluminum rails instead of thomson bearings

>>784374
Add something that lets you cut the foil man.

>>784391
i did. there's more pics to it
the cutter was a bitch instead of triangle shaped teeth like you'd expect, i instead went with more of a square wave like setup and tweaked the cam settings to get the sharpest possible edge.

>>784382
I'm not too familiar with the flavors of Prusas. What's the difference between a Hephaestus and something cheaper? Generally if you find an upgrade you like, you can adapt it for your own machine.

>>784392
How about something that lets you pull up to tear it? A segmented comb perhaps. I think that pulling up would be a more natural movement.

>>784393
Hephaestus and Rework have improved plastic parts that are sturdier and have neat properties(IE screws in tensioners to tighten the belts) among other things. I just use a wood Prusa and replace the plastic bits whenever I find something better.

>>784394
well this is meant to mount on the back of a cabinet door. command strips worked perfectly. You can expect more people to use those than screwing something into their cabinets.

>>784382
It doesnt even come with a heated bed from the factory without an upgrade.

Buy the Makerfarm or Replikeo.

>>784382
Look at the KitPrinter3D P3Steel kit, now that the euro is dropping close to the us dollar.
Its around 100$ to ship it, but the sturdy p3steel frame is mighty tempting.

>>784394
If that's it then the plastic can easily be upgraded from a cheaper Prusa.

>>784382
Thanks Mang. Ive been told to stay away from maker farm but those other two look fine. Which would you chose? At this point I can't tell the difference between the "flavors" and I just want to get the damn printer and play.

>>784403
It looks to have a decent frame, which is very important on an i3. The ebay acrylic frame ones are complete shit, and it costs a decent amount to buy a good metal frame.
I own the DIYTechshop I3x and the frame is 3mm thick instead of the standard 6mm, and is in general not good.

Buy something with a decent frame first and foremost, because youll be dumping money into any kit to upgrade stuff anyways.

>>784404
The makerfarm with the Vslot extrusion makes for a very sturdy and precise printer at an insanely good price.

>>784405
Oh, I'm not buying. I was asking for his sake but you make a good point about the frame thickness. I have a Kossel so that didn't cross my mind.

>>784405
The replikeo offers a 6mm aluminum frame at $400, maker farm i3v laser cut is $540. your thoughts?

>>784413
Depends on what you want to do.

Buying a single frame i3 goes all in on the "hobby printer" idea, where you can literally just print whatever standard and modified from standard parts you want. Gives you a ton of room to change your printer as you see fit.

On the other hand, the Makerfarm inherently by design with the V-slots gives great sturdiness and their customer service is supposed to be great.

I chose the I3X over the Makerfarm regular smooth rod (non Vslot about 2 years ago when these 2 were the only real I3 printer kits out) because I liked the idea of having a decent amount of printed parts that I could really evolve my printer how I wanted it.

If you dont care about that, the laser cut may be better. I am constantly adjusting shit though, maybe the laser cut needs less maintenance idk.

Anyone else got an Up Mini here? I've been having trouble with my prints peeling off the bed at the corners. Anyway to fix this?

>>784159

Samfag here.

Ok I did what you said, and put the corresponding cables in the terminals, and at least... it didn't exploded when I connected everything.

Then I uploaded Marlin firmware into the arduino and now Im using repetier-host, the question is how can I start testing that everything is fine before calibration?

Im triying to use manual control from repetier but nothing happens, it looks frozen or something.

>>784456
did you go into printer setting and set the right com port and click connect?
also you never said what printer you have

>>784509

Yes I choosed Mega2560 and COM3 as port, which seemed the right choice(I guess that I would have find a problem)

I have a prusa i3.

>>784511
screenshot your settings then? what does it say when you try to connect

What voltage do I want for a heated bed on a Prusa i3? I have a dual power bed that is giving me the option of 12v or 24v.

>>784511
Check baudrate

>>784550
Check your PSU

>>784454
I'm assuming you're printing with ABS? What are you printing on? Are you printing with a brim like in pic?

>>784550
simple. if you are using a ramps 1.4 board you have to either use the 12v directly or use a 24v capable relay that is driven by the 12v line of the board

>>780938
I just looked up that buildtak shit. I'm not paying $100 for fucking 5 sheets. Fuck that

I got some good eBay deals. Building a 3d printer using linear servos.

50,000mm/s^2 Accel
2,000mm/s Velocity
<10um Straightness
<1um Repeatability

>>784703
What kind of design are you going to base your printer off of?

>>784703
I like the idea but I've found that at high print speeds (>~100-150mm/s using high speed leadscrews to drive x and y), things seem to wind up being extruder limited; heating and pushing filament at very high speeds isn't a trivial task. Just something to consider.

>>784703
pic related right? you can bullshit somewhere else. never is an Arduino capable of driving that. not to mention the physical limits of todays hardware. just won't work

but maybe you just mixed up point and comma

>>784703
Oh you again. Have fun writing your own firmware.

>>784947
>pic related right? you can bullshit somewhere else. never is an Arduino capable of driving that. not to mention the physical limits of todays hardware.

Just...just leave. You are clearly out of you depth here.

Additionally, I remember when that guy posted about buying them. There was much huehue-ing to be done when he realized how excessive they were _after_ he bought them.

>>784703
good luck with that
I imagine that the ardunio itself is agnostic as far as what motors it's really talking to and just sends step and direction pulses, so i'm sure you can build a controller board for the servos and not have to modify firmware outside of maybe increasing max speed. the ardunio would still be open loop to the motors but closed loop to the external controller board.

sources: i build a stepper motor controller board years back based on an early the reprap design. may still use it for something like a laser etcher.

>>784947
I'm not as dumb as it looks.

The arduino is for testing as my smoothieboard has not yet arrived.

The servo drives support arbitrary distance per step input so I can trade resolution for speed.

I'm not expecting to print at 2000mm/s but I am hoping for at least 2g acceleration and instant g0 moves.

>>785005
What's the max travel distance on those things?

>>785007
They are Parker MX80L stages with 150mm travel. They have a few extra mm on each side to leave stopping distance if a limit trips. I am using a 200mm stage for the Z axis.

>>785012
the Aerotech one right?

>>785013
Yes. I needed a ball screw since a linear motor will just fall to the ground when unpowered.

>>784703
I'm still kind of mad that you'll use these parts for an FDM printer. Anyways please post progress as you make it.

>>785005
>smoothieboard
that one could actually work... using the sd card feature and offline printing (no pc or slow usb port)

what do these 300/400 usd per piece actuators need power wise?

genuinely curious

has anyone printed something then wrapped it in clay to make a harden mold you can pour molten plastic into?

>>785100
not yet. i printed a test object around 15x15x10 cm then made a silicone mold of it and poured plastic into the mold.

the result is pleasing (not in the sexual sense!). it's much stronger than the 3d print but also heavier.

>>785100
There was a thread a while back where someone used 3d printed mini-anvils to make sand molds for metal casting. What you're suggesting isn't so different, so yes, it's totally doable.

>>785088
The linear stages are designed for 80V 1.6A but operate as low as 24V. You give up some performance but that isn't really an issue in this situation.

There are two major difficulties with using MX80L stages.

The MX80L stages availaible on eBay have the 10nm encoder option which maxes out at 30mm/s. You have to play a bit with the electronics to switch the encoders to a more reasonable resolution. Running in 0.5um mode is fine up to 1600mm/s and 1um mode is fine up to 3000mm/s.

Secondly, servo drives for linear motors can be complicated. The VIX IH manual is 250 pages and configuration is done in code. You actually need to write a program to interpret step/dir signals since by default it only takes position commands over rs232.

The configuration software also needs Windows XP.

>>785100
You can make a silicone mold for resin casting easily. I would recommend using acetone vapor or at least sanding it to make the object smooth. Good way to make easy duplicates or just duplicates that are easier to paint.

>>785100
What kind of molten plastic are you going to be pouring?

>>785298
I don't know about him, but I'd like to pour ABS or PVC.
Both have toxic fumes, right?

>>785371
Im sure they both are toxic and nasty at melting point, especially when you have enough to pour it.

>>785371
>>785403
wouldn't there be some kind of binary mixture that solidifies well without being as nasty as melted plastic? I'm not one to worry about stuff like lead solder or a little bit of fume, but yeah, that much sounds like all kinds of bad.

>>785413
There's resin, but it's way more expensive than simple ABS.

How bad is melting HDPE? I don't really like how soft milk jugs feel, but it could be an alternative.

>>785421
how cost effective is it to use abs pellets if you're going to be doing that?

>>785421
the price of two component pourable ABS/other plastics comes to around the same price you pay per printer spool. so around 25usd per kilogram

smooth-on is a pretty good source

>>785435
Using ABS pellets would be considerably cheaper, but you would need a proper fume exhaust.
And it's usually used in injection molds. It might not fill the mold if simply melted and poured.

>>785448
yeah but you need energy to melt the stuff. you need molds that can hold the molten ABS inside, pressure and temperature and you need to make these molds using pricey materials and a CNC mill.

pouring works directly with ABS printend molds or indirectly by using silicone to make a mold from your ABS gold masters

>>785454
Is ABS even pourable? Even if it is, doesn't it discolor when heated above its melting point?

>>785476
Is anyone here stupid enough to try it?

>>785478

I tried it, too viscous

>>785403
>>785424
>>785485
How about using HDPE?
I've been reading about melting it in a bain marie.
And you can get it by recycling milk jugs.

I typically use abs to make a mold to poor wax into that I use to make a waste cast using sand and plaster then I poor metal into that.

>>785614
I really want to do this, but I dont really have the room to be melting aluminum or whatever metal

My neighbors would kill me.

>>785632
you can melt aluminum in a very small space.

>>785632
>>785635
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSoWxG30rb0

Does anyone have links to .STLs for making an Antikythera mechanism, a functioning one I should add.

>>785755
Googling "working antikythera mechanism cad" gets me a grabcad link and a student blog. You would probably need to disassemble and/or convert the models.

>>780832
i'm getting my 3D printer set up soon just wondering what's the smallest module gear teeth can you print at?

>>780857
agreed with this guy providing you can still print them to a decent quality.

>>782053
Just a show of how vital a fan is for PLA. The left piece was the one closest to the 40mm fan, the middle was closest to the window, and the right had little to no airflow. The part I was trying to print was thingiverse.com/thing:687919

tl;dr - a fan for PLA is not optional

Just thought I'd showcase how vital a fan is for PLA. The piece on the left was closest to the 40mm fan, the middle was closest to the window, and the right had poor airflow due to its position. They were actually flipped while printing with the apex facing down. The part was thingiverse.com/thing:687919

sup /diy/

Im making a presentation in school about 3D printers,specifically the KIT type ones and cant find much infomation on them

if anyone knows of any good sources please let me know ...

>>786121
Whay is KIT an acronym for?

>>786121
What exactly does KIT stand for?

>>786121
> cant find much infomation on them
> he posts from the internet

Dude, you really, REALLY need to lrn2google if you cannot find much info on 3DP's

>>786152
>>786121
check ebay... KIT (tech) stands for do it yourself package with (hopefully) all required parts.

there is also reprap.cc if you are close to austria or other shops. i just named the one i prefer and where i got my first KIT from (lacked some screws and nuts and a manual though, the manual comes per email request)

>>780447
octoprint is sluggish as hell... if you are plugged directly into the raspi.
kill the desktop, and log into the raspi's webpage useing a laptop, or your phone... smooth as butter!

>>780832
check your z-steps per mm and if that is right, check your slicer settings for 'extra first layer' or something like that.

>>781618
I use the $35 raspi cam -- connects to the board with a ribbon cable

>>786188
So it's not an acronym. Why are you capitalizing it?

Everybody loves printing. Everybody loves Ikea hacks. Has anyone found a POS ikea item that would work as a frame/bed mount?

I finished building a CNC router recently and learned a lot about working with aluminum extrusion, stepper, the electronics, etc.

Now that I can also machine aluminum I think that the next project will be a 3D printer.

Does anybody know of any good designs, or where I can find one?

Not looking to make anything complicated, a single extrusion head would do. Interested more in making a large surface area yet still maintain high accuracy.

Budget for materials is $500.

Thanks to anyone who can give me any suggestions.

>>786117
I have noticed this too
I have a cooling fan that blows from the front of my printer, so the front of my prints all look way better than the back sides of them.

Im gonna have to get a better print fan

If a printer can run 3 or 1.75mm filament, which should I buy?

>>786684
1.75 does much better in a bowden and/or direct drive because it requires a lot less force to extrude.

Im not sure of any advantages for 3mm
FWIW, I started out at 3mm and ended up changing to 1.75 when I bought a new hotend. Havent regretted it.

>>786504
Here is one I built when I was still in training. I did the design and building by myself. It was fun and turned out quite nice. Budget was about 500$ as well but without steppers, linear rails, leadscrew and belts. Those were salvaged from some machines customers sent in.

The only CNC routed part was the bed-holder though and that could be cut by hand as well.

There is one thing I would do different if I were to build it again. I would go for XY-Head and Z-Bed movement.

I have a solidoodle 2 that doesn't work anymore and to be honest I'm kinda sick of it always messing up one way or another.

Thinking of moving up to a Pursai 3 for cheapness and reliability.

I can scrap out the solidoodle for parts.

>>786688
in my experience 1.75 is harder to have extruded properly. but maybe it is just my airtripper (direct drive) on my rostock that has really bad days and either breaks, clogs or is generally not strong enough to extrude faster than default speeds.

the 3mm extruders are always using a ratio and gears to put even more power on the filament and so far i had no problems with 3mm and a lot with 1.75

need to change my direct drive air tripper to some variant with a gear and a ratio to put more power on the 1.75mm filament... and not breaking it in the process

>>786804
I am running a 1.75mm airtripper with an MK8 gear but I only print around 50mm/s.
Never had any outstanding problems with it.

I ran a standard Gregs hinged extruder and used the E3d bowden adapter and found that my hobbed bolt was grinding and slipping pretty bad on 1.75. I upgraded to an Airwolf bolt and it was a little bit better but still had slipping issues. It was either grinding or flattening my filament, no in between where I could get consistent extrusions.

MK8 gear works much better for me.

I have been thinking about using a modified greg/wade that replaces the hobbed bolt with a 5mm bolt which you put the MK8 gear on. The reliability of a geared with the grip of the mk8 gear.


Really though, if you are having issues with clogs and the extruder having enough force for 1.75, it may be your hot end. Nozzle cooling down too fast from extruding too much where your cartridge/thermistor cant bump the heat up fast enough to stop from clogging.

>>786907
my airtripper has an mk8 gear and the extruder should not have any problems (245°C for ABS and i have the same extruder on my direct drive mendel max setup)

maybe my stepper driver is borked and does not deliver enough amperes. need to check that


also the clogs and problems are only happening in the airtripper, not in the extruder

Lotsa spaghetti!

>>786712
Is your fan blowing over the hotend heatsink and then down onto the plastic?

>>786946
What a weird model. Why would you create something with a reel of filament protruding off it?

>>779932
I'm thinking about purchasing:

http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/3d-printer-kits/prusa-12-i3v-kit-v-slot-extrusion.html

I'll get it with the "Graphical LCD & RUMBA Electronics" add-on but I can't choose which Nozzle I want.

I'm considering the ".40mm Hexagon Nozzle for 1.75mm Filament" or the "40mm Hexagon Nozzle for 3mm Filament".

>>779932
http://carbon3d.com/

So what now guys ?!
Is this "game changer" ?
Can we do this at home too ?

>>786976
Isn't that basically SLA with a special reservoir tank?

>>786953
It's hard to tell from the pic but there are actually two fans. A 40mm one on the right blowing just over the hotend heatsink and a 60mm one on the front with a guide to get an airflow coaxial to the nozzle. It avoids that "parts only good on front side" discussed earlier but comes with it's own downsides like cooling the nozzle down to much if not set up properly.

>>786984
yes and a special system that uses oxigen levels to create a print layer/target, speeding up the whole process extremly.

>>786991
>>786953
ideally you want to only cool the extruded plastic. but you usually can't and part of the hotend is cooled too. the other part you want to keep cool is everything above the heat chamber to prevent molten plastic in your driving gears

>>786954
that is a typical: your slicer fucked up or g-code file is damaged problem. you can clearly tell because the z-axis should not move like that.

>>786993
>special system that uses oxigen levels
Id say It's just a PDMS vat with included oxigen supply.

>>786959
1.75 is what everyone is doing nowadays

>>787147
1.75 is easier to work with -- less stress on the extruder all the way to the hot end.
3mm is easier to maintain quality of plastic -- less moisture absorption, and plastic doesn't go 'stale' as fast(britttle and colorfastness)
If you aren't going to be printing alot, or you're going to maintain a large amount of plastic on hand -- 3mm might be what you want.

>>786954
>>786993
The spool got wound up in itself and started lifting the print head back up. The slicer and gcode file were completely fine.

The last time that happened, the entire printer was being lifted up from the tension. See webm, watch the cup on the left.

>>787269
nasty, never had any such a fault

Hello diy!

I have a prusa i3 with RAMPs 1.4, Mendel and Im using pronterface as my host software and I need your wisdom.

How do I configure the printer for the starting postion?

Also, the endstops doesn't seem to work, when I activate the motors manually with pronterface and touch the endstop the associated motor doesn't stop.

And for the last, when I use the manual steps in pronterface to move the Z axis up or down the motors sound like they work but the printer doesn't move, but when I hit home for the Z axis the motors actually move the printer upwards.

I have already checked the conetion to the RAMPs and calibrated the motors to 0,20A each one.

>>787335
Try pressing th button with the house on it.

>>787352

I did it and:

-The X axis didn't stop at tried to get off the printer, but at least responded to the endstop when I touched it(it moved to the left when the endstop its in the right)

-The Y axis did the same but the endstop was in the right place, I had to push the endstop manually(I think I might have to put the endstop closer to the bed)

-The Z axis moved the printer up and ignored the endstop.

>>787265
>3mm is easier to maintain quality of plastic

Funny you say that, because 3mm is the diameter of plastic "welding rod"
Many cheap chinese 3mm a is just rebadged welding rod on a spool, and the tolerances are very very bad.

Cheap filament is a bad idea in the first place, but cheap 3mm is a huge no no.

>>787335
Check if your endstops are configured as min or max endstops.
Try running the motors in the opposite direction and triggering the endstops.


Speaking of motherfucking endstops. I'm trying to set up auto bed leveling and wired the new endstop wrong,
released the blue magic smoke immediately. Now i've got to wait a week for a new mega while i feel like a big stupid fucking idiot.
Don't drink and tinker, kids.

>>787499
umm-- easier to maintain once it's in your hands -- I made an unstated assumption that you bought quality in the first place.

>>779932
Anyone on here have one of these puppies? I'm having problem with it just recently, live phone support is only on weekdays so I'm stuck waiting on another support ticket. Company is XYZware btw.

>>787661
What kind of issues are you having?

Anyways you should hack it, install the custom firmware and run repetier.

>>787638
I did the same thing rewiring my printer a while back.
Funny enough, the mega board kept printing perfectly fine. The LCD stopped working and that was it, I waited like 3 weeks to replace it.

>>787363
then your x motor is probably plugged in backwards
can you test your endstops with a meter and make sure they are wired right and check to make sure if they are supposed to be NO or NC

>>787740
NO or NC?

>>787335
>, when I use the manual steps in pronterface to move the Z axis up or down the motors sound like they work but the printer doesn't move, but when I hit home for the Z axis the motors actually move the printer upwards.

Your Z motors are wired backwards, flip them on the Ramps.

As for making sound and not moving, you either have the stepsticks set too low, your threaded rod is not mounted to stepper well enough and its spinning, or your X axis needs adjusted because its binding.

make absolute certain your vertical smooth rods are perfectly parallel to each other, and that your X ends are bind free on them. Its very easy to have your rods wider at the top of the printer than the bottom of the printer making it tough to move the X up and down.

>>787761
You want wires going to the NC lug and the C lug on your endstop.

What adapter do you use to attach a Greg Wade extruder to a Prusa i3?

>>787793
Greg's adapter.
I used this one.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:356950

Better hope you can print already

>>787793
I printed out a whole new Gregs Wade base which had 30mm mounting holes along the bottom. Similar to pic related.

I also printed out a new X carriage to fit it on
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:586636

I didnt want it to be any bigger or bulkier.

>>787761
normally open or normally closed

>>787685
It refuses to print, the job will be received and start object slicing and the initialization process will start but the printer's extruder just hangs at the default position and resets to the main menu without actually printing the object. Tried a support ticket I have most of my print times logged which is what the staff asks for, but I get no answers, also it is a scanner but the scanning software doesn't communicate with the scanner.

>>788258
Can you send it pre-sliced file?

>>788288
? Can I send it to the printer? Or do you want a copy of the thing I'm trying to print? Also the software slices the object automatically when you hit the print button if that's what you mean thanks for responding.

>>788340
What I think he means is, can you slice a file and then send it to the printer bypassing the slicing cycle (to see if its stalling during the slicing process)

I was looking at SLA printers and was wondering whether a cheap one like http://www.instructables.com/id/Little-Dipper-SLADLP-3D-printer-for-under-500-proj/?ALLSTEPS would be comparable in print quality to DIY SLAs like the LittleRP. I wanted to build one of these so I could design my own /tg/ shit for painting, and perhaps make gifts for friends. I already have a DLP projector laying and a spare NEMA17 laying around.

>>788351
Ah, see no it slices the object then as I've said it still sends the job and even starts moving a bit but after that it resets. I could still try pre-slicing the object though to see what happens, it wouldn't hurt.

New thread
>>788941
>>788941
>>788941

>>788942
three threads man?

So I'm kind of interested in a 3d printer but since I've never actually seen or used one I don't know how EXACTLY(important to make one) they work and what to watch out for.
I've been reading that guide in the OP about 3d printers and the delta style really stands out for it's build simplicity and worksize(well length), in particular this one : http://reprap.org/wiki/Rostock_MAX
I want to build it myself from scratch.

I have a bit of experience with electronics like this but not with the extruder and the printed parts.
I have a decent amount of experience in modelling in solidworks if that's usable(probably is). Where do I source parts in Europe for a decent price? What are issues delta printers have?
I'd appreciate someone sharing his experience with one.