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Which 3d printer?


chiloschista

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I started reading this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35247318 which lead me to the review of the Da Vinci Mini which in turn lead me to 

Have you seen this one : http://www.computerworld.com/article/2868817/review-lulzbot-mini-3d-printer-delivers-outstanding-details.html

Now I have a mad urge to create a Eiffel Tower shaped glider ...

 

 

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chiloschista
2 hours ago, MikeDaBike said:

I started reading this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35247318 which lead me to the review of the Da Vinci Mini which in turn lead me to 

Have you seen this one : http://www.computerworld.com/article/2868817/review-lulzbot-mini-3d-printer-delivers-outstanding-details.html

Now I have a mad urge to create a Eiffel Tower shaped glider ...

 

 

Thanks Mike.

Anyway this does look nothing more to the ones I pointed recently, except smaller printable size, higher price and same resolution (on paper). No use without a PC, no screen. Ok it's ready to go, no need to mount

On the first link I was impressed by the titanium printer = : O

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Yes horizontal accuracy on my hardware is consistent with the advertised 0.1mm. What lets it down is slicing software. If I need a hole to be accurate, then I often need to tweak the design to make it bigger or smaller. But for a given G-Code file, the machine will faithfully reproduce all the inaccuracies and failures generated by the software.

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chiloschista

Thanks Mark, but it still isn't clear to me what is the horizontal resolution of those machines.

Specs always report vertical resolution, layer thickness in other words, of 0.1mm or even 0.05mm the last ones I linked, but no one mention horizontal resolution.

They tell about axis positioning, down to 0.01mm, but I guess this does not mean printing resolution of the printing head.

 

 

 

 

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chiloschista

Which are the softwares mostly used?

I already have Rhino5 and want to stick with it for CAD modelling. For CAM I actually use MadCAM5 and could probably hack it to drive a 3D printer, but I would prefer a dedicated one, with all the related options.

P.s.: found another interesting one: PRotos v3. A little limited on height level, but with dual extruder and heated bed, metal frame etc.

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Ok, reading specs for SLA printers, they seems being a little more clear about resolution.

Vertical axis as declared for every printer, between 0.05mm and 0.3mm (SLA down to 0.025mm).

Horizontal axis SLA declares down to 0.3mm for what they call the smallest printable structure. So I guess the smallest structure for a SLA printer is nozzle size for the wideness of the printed path (0.3-0.6mm) and ? along the path, depends on how the printer can stop and go with printing. Well that was just out of curiosity to know how thin a structure can be, e.g. to save materials and weight instead of printing full material, or doing small horizontal guide holes of 1mm or less, for screws etc. But hey, don't make life to much complicated! :lol:

Ric

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Hi Ric,

Sounds like there's a few of us out there with 3d printers. I have an Ultimaker 2, which runs from their Cura software. It seems very good and the tooling path seems sensible from the standard settings of the g-code generator. The good thing about this setup is that it is nearly plug and play, meaning I can focus on iterating my designs.

From my first semi-successful trials, I can see that a fair bit of work is to be done to optimise a model for 3d printing, rather than thinking that the 3d printer can 'do it all'. DFM (design for manufacture) definitely applies. For this reason, I wouldn't get too obsessive about some of the specs - go for reviews on ease of use and how flexible the programming is as well as quality of print. Can spare parts be got easily? That sort of thing.

The Reprap project is pretty awesome - I knew Adrian Bowyer from Uni and his lab was always the source of great fascination. You would learn loads building a Reprap, as Mark says above and there are loads of people very into the shared learning experience with those machines, so there's loads of support I expect.

Perhaps this is a good thread for us to share lessons, given the different systems we have.

I'm using SolidWorks to do my modelling, which is pretty fantastic - it creates .stl files very easily and I can get these into the printer in minutes - only to find out my idea is very iffy of course!

best of luck with whatever you choose, it's a great feeling to have one of these things on your desk.... hmmm what can I make today?!

 

all the best

Chris

 

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By the time you get around to choosing which one Ric they will be out of date anyway.

It may be better to get someting slightly simpler than you need with the intent of testing and geting used to using the printer before deciding just how much value it is worth to you and consequently how much you should spend.

Just typed this while Ribs was replying and it looks like his hands on experiences would perhaps point he same way.

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Hi Chris, Mike,

thank you very much for your inputs. I can only agree: stop with whims :lol:!

And yes, again. Design the pieces for manufacture, I know that working on a CNC router and, worst on a hot wire CNC cutter. I thought it was easy. Cutting wing cores I usually fill several bins with test and try pieces of foam before getting a satisfying core.

Wow, SolidWorks.

And yes, another time Mike. That's a point. I was thinking about buying an expensive machine to have good performances and big printing volume. I know how it is, when I will have it, I will find that with a bigger one I could do more ...

But was thinking also, in your direction, to buy the cheapest one and experiment which are the limits of that technique and then eventually buy a better one.

Too much distractions at this time, I'm still not able to focus (and had big expenses on car maintenance).

Ric

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On 8 January 2016 at 12:06, chiloschista said:

Thanks Mark, but it still isn't clear to me what is the horizontal resolution of those machines.

Specs always report vertical resolution, layer thickness in other words, of 0.1mm or even 0.05mm the last ones I linked, but no one mention horizontal resolution.

They tell about axis positioning, down to 0.01mm, but I guess this does not mean printing resolution of the printing head.

 

 

 

 

ok - I have printed an RG15 section with a tapered planform. This was printed stood on it's root and parallel to the X-axis. The gentle curve of the section reveals the resolution, producing a kind of wood grain effect, which you can clearly see in the reflected light in the photograph. This shows the resolution of the Y-axis.

 

_3dprint2.jpg

 

I have measured this at 0.1mm with a micrometer.

The woodgrain pattern is consistent all the way along, which means that the accuracy (tolerance) is a good deal less and certainly not measurable with any tools that I own.

The great thing about reprap is that if you wanted to make this better, you can - just print yourself two gearboxes for the X and Y stepper motors and reconfigure the steps per mm in the firmware. But for me this is good enough for anything I want to print.

 

As for software: I use OpenSCAD, Slic3r, and also some software I wrote myself.

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Ah ah Mark, I had to laugh! Now that I'm trying to focus on other aspects and stop to whim, you tickle me with that :lol:

I'm embarrassed, but hey now we have a real data. Thanks a lot.

I will have a look at the software.

Ric

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello ensemble,

should this be a great stimulus to go into 3D printing?

Try to guess what's the feeling, for a Swiss who really likes watchmaking and has a dream about using his router to make a wood clock ...

And it has a tourbillon too!

Ric

P.s.: sorry, I wasn't able to refrain from sharing it.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
chiloschista

Ouff, that was hard ...

Well I did not think at it a lot in the past months, but last week I decided it was time to ... decide.

Hit the trigger for that one.

It has a huge print volume, A4 x 220mm, with optional heated bed and few material types to try: PLA, ABS, PET.

Flex was not in stock, but would try it to make some camera soft mounted holder.

Does anyone have experience about printing different materials on the same object with a single extruder?

Ric

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  • 2 weeks later...
chiloschista

Hello,

yesterday I got it mounted: ~4hours to finish it.

Then: switched on to go through the calibration, but I got only a frozen screen with "testing" on it. USB connection to PC did not work either.

Took more hours of internet search than to build it. At the end I found nothing useful and started the best way: try myself.

So I managed swapping drivers etc and finally I was able to reflash the firmware through Cura.

Now it works as expected and did put out the first 3D print, a bottle opener with coin. Not bad for the first print. Dimensions are out by 0.3mm on 8.5 cm length, 0.08mm by 4.5cm wide and 0.1mm to 0mm on 0.8cm height, depends on where I measure it. Model printed with a medium quality profile and 0.1mm layer thickness.

Now at work!

Best regards,

Ric

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chiloschista

oops, I forgot that detail ... considering that I thought to print something useful even for a simple test and not the usual stupid object :(.

Now the problem is that it should be opened some sort of sparkling wine, but it does not have a crown cap. Should I opt for a beer?

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chiloschista

Hello,

I was trying to figure out how support material is computed by two softwares: Cura and Slic3r.

They do a completely different job and none seems to be able to do it correctly. One big mistake I noticed is creating supports starting from air, not touching any material below.

Any comment, suggestion or better soft to use (they seems good both anyway)?

Thanks,

Ric

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Hi Ric,

I have had no problem with support material in Slic3r. Are you using the latest version (1.2.9)? or maybe it's to do wth your settings?

I have had some issues with older versions in the past.

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chiloschista

Hi Mark,

I'm using Slic3r V1.2.9.41 (1.2.9a). Will try playing with settings again and maybe post a few pictures.

Btw Slic3r inserts very thin supports, while those from Cura are really more "presents", filling all the exposed objects.

Thanks!

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chiloschista

As an example here is how Cura and Slic3r manages the same object with supports at different angles. Starting at 60°.

wsJkxbY8WDCRQwfgaFT5Mv6R7gS01qOS3XOifgVl

 

l3ner84tdXDm3MGof_l96XPax9t4pCuvo6_QbGF5

 

And those are the mistakes about flying supports in Cura

 

1IjSK03bNq1RQigFWuAzYcXETTJGzkvP-SLgjcTn

 

Bf39JhnTWqZ6hAjVV7mgPsfEG3QRGuxvfTyPVjoD

 

Gtpl6cdEzhryJTnaBQawrWtBAq5WMETBNzs36jsR

 

That's Slic3r at 50° and 45° respectively

 

L-ysgUKA0T94h0hYLL2izkAzsktnwFvdyPTbm88F

5IcdMmP319s97CcC0V9GPV__Qeuw9LHesguiVUVr

 

Ok, that was only for test purpose and to understand how it works. I'm not going to print that object now. But one time would be nice: a smart phone amplifier.

RIc

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