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3D Printing


SCRATCH BUILDER

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Hey Tim,

 

Well the price looks good, the layer height is great( .10mm) I usally print around 15mm depending on what i am printing. You will have to learn how to level the print bed since there is no auto level at that price.

 

The 230c temp on the print head scares me just a little, I print ABS at 245C, but maybe it can. you will do good with HIPS and PLA. It can print at 55mm/s and if the print is good stay there, if its not what you expected then lower the speed to about 40 or 45mm/s, the slow the spedd the less chance of shifting but your prints take longer.

 

Overall just reading the specs but never owned one, if its starter to get you into 3D printing then thats the way to go.  my very first on was $194.00 lasted a year and a half till i moved on to something else.

 

******one more note*****

The print bed is a bit small, if its in your budget move up to one with the larger bed(8x8x7), 4x4x4 is not much but I don't know what you plan to print and for 80 bucks more you get the extra volume you might wish you had down the road. 

Edited by SCRATCH BUILDER
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Hey Tim,

 

Well the price looks good, the layer height is great( .10mm) I usally print around 15mm depending on what i am printing. You will have to learn how to level the print bed since there is no auto level at that price.

 

The 230c temp on the print head scares me just a little, I print ABS at 245C, but maybe it can. you will do good with HIPS and PLA. It can print at 55mm/s and if the print is good stay there, if its not what you expected then lower the speed to about 40 or 45mm/s, the slow the spedd the less chance of shifting but your prints take longer.

 

Overall just reading the specs but never owned one, if its starter to get you into 3D printing then thats the way to go.  my very first on was $194.00 lasted a year and a half till i moved on to something else.

 

******one more note*****

The print bed is a bit small, if its in your budget move up to one with the larger bed(8x8x7), 4x4x4 is not much but I don't know what you plan to print and for 80 bucks more you get the extra volume you might wish you had down the road. 

 

Thank you for the info, that helps a lot!

 

Yes, this would be the entry level for me and my 13 year old son. I've never used one before, and don't anticipate doing very large objects to start with, so this might be perfect. Any thoughts on what modeling software to use? It is compatible with Cura (recommended), Repetier-Host, ReplicatorG, and Simplify 3D. I use Revit and Sketchup a lot at work, so I could probably pick up one of those programs pretty fast. 

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Thanks for starting this Rick. I have felt some of my experience was lost in my threads.

 

Just my story with 3D printing.  I learned Fusion 360 CAD software over a period of a few hard studious weeks  and was able to make some cool parts for my Bearcat. (I also like Blender but I'm still learning it). For the record,  I do not print them myself so nothing to add here in regards to good printers or materials or settings or any of that. One must be mindful of thin walls for sure.  If people feel they are under pressure to own a printer in order to get into 3D printing , that's not necessarily so.  Shapeways is a great service you just upload your .STL file and order it up (more or less). Here's my stuff so far. 

 

BmfxJ1.jpg

 

FveGB1.jpg

 

RFCkr9.jpg

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Hey Tim,

 

Blender is what use and its free, and the web is loaded with YOUTUBE vids to help you master it. It has 3D printing support in that it will check you model for errors. so if you download it shoot me your questions and i will help you guys out.

 

Jim also has some food for thought, like he says he just models it and then uplaods a file to be printed(at a cost of course).

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I don't think anybody said printed parts were based on kit parts! ;) The parts you want to (have) print(ed) have to be drawn with a 3D CAD program; it is of course possible to grab dimensions from a kit part or to scan a part, but this implies a (very expensive) 3D scanner and a program to clean up the scan data.

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Although your new designs might need to marry up to existing kit parts so you may well need a way of accurately plotting the shape of an existing component.

 

This was one of the reasons why I decided to get a cnc machine rather than a printer, as I can replace the milling spindle with a touch probe and scan a shape in 3D, then import the points into my CAD program as a reference.

 

https://shop.stepcraft-systems.com/3d-touch-probe

Edited by wunwinglow
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My parts are drafted/drawn myself from reference drawings and photos. I do struggle with exact sizes but I have an artist background so I have a good eye on proportions. I'd probably sweat more if I was commercial, but since I'm not it's not that painful if I make a mistake  from time to time . 

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Great topic!

 

I have a Ultimaker 3, which features two printheads. With them, you can print a object with two differnt colors. But you can also print the actual object with the dessired material, and use the second printhead to print support structure with some special material. Support structure is necessary for overhangs of the actual object, as the printer can't print into the air, but needs something to print on. The support structure can be created automatecly by the printing software. There are water souble materials for support structure, that lead to interesting posibilities like shown in this promo video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeJLLC2NJQs

 

Ultimaker printers also feature layer hights down to 0,02 mm. But from my experience, I think a layer hight of 0,05 mm is sufficient, as for modelling, the printed object has to be sanded anyway, and the results with 0,05 mm are still great.

 

The printer can create objects with the size of about 20 x 20 x 20 cm. Therefore, for larger objects, the 3d-objects has to be devided into smaller parts.

There is also a Ultimaker 3 Extended, which can create higher objects up to about 30 cm, for a small extra charge of 800 € - 900 €. While there are situaitons in life, when 10 cm can make a difference, I was content with the normal version :)

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With my Ultimaker, I used three main material for my objects so far: PLA, ABS and HIPS. There is one generall difficulty to deal: Warping. The materials get heated up to 240 centigrade or even more, while printing. When cooling down, the material slightly shrinks, what can lead to warping of the object. Another difficulty I'm still struggling is the adhesion of the object to the printing plate. While the glass printing plate of the Ultimaker 3 can be heated up to 100 centigrade, what helps to improove adhesion, I still have some problems with some materials.

  • PLA seems to be one of the most common materials for that kind of printers. It prints reliable, sticks good on the printing plate, and tends just little to warp when cooling down. If you have luck there is no warping visible at all. But PLA has also a rather low melting point, which makes sandig tricky. Wet sanding is recommended, as otherwise, the surface quickly gets too hot and damaged. And once cold, it is very hard and difficuld for scribing on the surface.
  • ABS "feels" similar to our well-known polystyrene. It can be easily sanded and scribed. With the right glue, it can be "welded" like normal kit parts (though I had no luck with the normal Revell Contacta). But it has a higher tendency to shrink when cooling down, what can tourn out into warped parts, expecially at the lower area. It is still difficult for me to peruade ABS to stick on the printing plate. And finally, there appeared lots of stress cracking all way up during a print of a higher hollow object, probably due to shrinking. I also tried a material from another manufacturer called smartABS, which has a lesser tendency to shrink/warp. It's better, but cracks can still occur. On the other side, sharp edges of the 3d-objects tourned out pretty sharp on the printed object. So, I would prefer ABS for my prints if I could finally solve the issues with warping and cracks.
  • HIPS stands for High Impact Polystyrene, indicating that it is the same/similar material like normal kits. On my prints, edges turned out less sharp compared to ABS. It is even harder to persuade to stick on the printing plate, and there can also be some warping on the lower area. But no stress cracking appeared when printing the same object. Once cold, it is rather soft, and good to be sanded and scribed.

Here is the part printed with ABS, that showes the cracks. The cracks appeared especially at the edges. On the photo, I already puttied the cracks, but the part is not usable.

 

KwkzJSL.jpg

 

 

Tips to prevent warping and cracks are most welcome. I read about special tape or even hair spray for the printing plate to improve adhesion, but I had no luck with the spray :doh: 

Concerning the cracks, I read the a generall higher room temperature or at least the temperature inside the printer could help.

 

Cheers

Alex

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