3d printers

Sorry all I got caught up flying yesterday as the wind finally let up. To address the questions :

@OI Photography - My extruder was not my original idea and have to give credit the great guys at Filastruder, I was part of the Beta testing team for their Kickstarter campaign and with some minor tweaks to the system it has been working flawlessly. I would recommend the product it saves quite a bit of money in filament costs. For example to extrude a pound of ABS filament costs approximately $4 if you just extrude from clean pellets. As for acquiring pellets I use the following manufacturer http://store.osprintingllc.com/?Click=235 in that link you can get an idea of materials and cost for clean pellets.


@Skipholiday - Thanks I am just trying to help save our environment anyway I can for our future generation :)

@DKDarkness - I agree with you 100%, if you are new to 3D Printing I would stick to clean pellet extrusion until you have your Printer dialed in and printing consistently with ABS, PLA and NYLON. ABS requires a heated bed and can be a bit of a challenge getting your prints to stick but what I have found is use just a quick spray of hairspray just before printing and that has helped me quite a bit and I usually use the Brim feature at a setting of 2mm. For PLA just use blue painters tape as I have had really good luck with that and PLA does not require heat to stick but I do set my bed to low heat when printing this material. As for Nylon that is quite a bit more challenging so I would recommend getting familiar with ABS and PLA first. Just some thoughts and info over the years I have been 3D Printing.

As for the degradation factor I have not completely and thoroughly researched it but what I remember just looking into it when I was on my quest to start recycling material is that depending on the type of material it reacts differently to heating degradation and I just averaged all accounts and found that a 70/30 mix works well for ABS and PLA and the print layers do not show any signs of de-lamination and do not produce a brittle end result, and for Nylon I use an 80/20 mix. Note that my ratios are clean/recycled. I have had pretty good luck with this and have had no complaints from the many parts that I have printed for myself or customers on MakeXYZ.
 
Skipholiday said:
Hello Phantom Pilots.
I've grown to respect the members of this community. and your opinion is important to me and I respect it.
Many of you use 3d printers and I would like to purchase one.

I'm curious if any of you have any advice or recommendations.

Solid Doodle has been ruled out because of the lack of software support altho I liked the machine.

Both FlashForge 3d Printer and the FF CreatorX seem good so far.

The Makerbot is nice and seems very similar to the FlashForge models.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Terry~!

I know this is an old post. I took the plunge and got myself a Solidoodle 4 with the all new extruder. I realized: 3D printers print... gcode. There is no need for software support, or at least it is not an issue. I hooked my solidoodle up with a Raspberry Pi and OctoPrint and a USB wireless dongle. I draw my designs in Autodesk Fusion 360 (Enthusiast license) and export the STL files. Then I take these to Repetier Host and slice them with Sli3er, and save the gcode. I then upload the gcode to the Raspberry Pi using the web interface of OctoPrint. Then the printer prints the designs for 1 or 14 hours, I doesn't matter. Being wireless the Printer can be moved to what ever room I want (since it makes a little noise) before starting a print job. I can turn of my iMac or PC or Ubuntu box, which ever I used to slice the STL files. (Fusion 360 does however not run on Ubuntu)

When I am satisfied with my design, and I think it might be useful for others, I share it on Thingiverse :)
Example: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:356168
TP-Link_enclosure_exploded_view_display_large.jpg

Enjoy! :)
 
pugnacious said:
Wow, where can i order one of those tp enclosures to be printed?!

I guess you could take the STL files to shapeways.com

- or buy a solidoodle 4, com'on you know you want to ;-)
 
DKDarkness said:
pugnacious said:
Wow, where can i order one of those tp enclosures to be printed?!

I guess you could take the STL files to shapeways.com

- or buy a solidoodle 4, com'on you know you want to ;-)

Just checked the price if printed by shapeways.com:

Enclosure top: €33.29
Enclosure bottom: €33.66
Enclosure mount: €6.-
Thumb screw: €4.14
Mount top: €22.73
Mount bottom: €5.01
Total: €104.83

If printed at 100% density (normal is 40%) the parts would weigh:
Enclosure top: 33.001g
Enclosure bottom: 33.887g
Enclosure mount: 3.975g
Thumb screw: 2.382g
Mount top: 18.216g
Mount bottom: 3.139
Total: 94.6g

White ABS 1.75 Filament is €29.48 /1000g (in DK, prices may vary) making the total cost of the enclosure max. €2,79 (not including the initial one-time cost of the printer €658,99 http://store.solidoodle.com/index.php?r ... uct_id=129 on sale right now. No I don't sell printers or own stock options :))

Yes, you want a 3D printer :)
 
It is tempting but i doubt i'd get it past head office right now.
getting it made is a pricey affair!
 
I figure we are in the Altair/Apple 1 days of 3d printing. So if you like to tinker, better get in on it before it gets too refined and simple :)
 
DKDarkness said:
I figured as much, so I got one before they start fitting planned obsoletion chips and "own-brand-only" limitations on the filamant :)

Same :) Once everything is black-boxed, it'll be a lot harder to experiment and tinker! Which is half the fun.
 
Since there's a thread here...

A simple project that was a lot of fun for me:

This. I need this to fit over a hex motor:
UTf6G2R.jpg


After a bit of brainstorming, the rough idea:
PuaTvkh.png


The prototype:
4sGsXR1.jpg


It....it fits? Wha?
E5yX8bL.jpg


Even the backside lines up nicely for the needed wiring....witchcraft!
xu7yYYJ.jpg
 
Nice!
You seem to have an issue with your slic3r settings? You might want to upgrade to Slic3r 1.1.6 and increase the perimeters to say 8? That way you won't get the slits where you need strength the most :)
 
Thanks for the tip! This is a rough cut but you're right, the motor mounts need to be addressed ;)
 
Amazing price, great specs. Looks like we're entering a new era in affordable 3dp.

My final design for motor-mounted LED rings:
QsdWxFu.jpg

KC64ILv.jpg
 

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