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Hillridge posted:I know this field is rapidly evolving, but if you had to get a printer today that you felt had the best performance/price point, what would your top choice be? I'm completely open to kits that require assembly. I would look at the Thingomatic, Ultimaker, and Mosaic. They have differences, but all are quite capable and offer some amount of official support during and after your build. At the moment it would be a tough choice for me between the dual extruder support on the ToM and experimental extra-tall versions of the Ultimaker or Mosaic. Mister Sinewave posted:I upgraded to the latest ReplicatorG (which I avoid because I have to re-tweak all the customizing I did in the last one and am not determined enough to figure out how to make my settings portable) to try this feature out! Wow, that's.. weird. Maybe try turning on interior support too?
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Sep 26, 2011 16:55
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Interior Support is the next plan, I can see how skeinforge could consider that to be internal rather than external I guess. Though if I decide I don't want to roll the dice on another hour+ during next playtime I'll probably just print it laying down sideways or something. Also, sadly despite blowing hot air into the build area and insulating it with foam (so it remained nice and toasty - but not HOT - inside) my last tests STILL show signs of lifting and curling (and therefore distortion and added stress on the print nozzle) during tall prints. I'm out of ideas so I guess I'll just shrug my shoulders on that one for now.
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Sep 26, 2011 19:41
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Mister Sinewave posted:Also, sadly despite blowing hot air into the build area and insulating it with foam (so it remained nice and toasty - but not HOT - inside) my last tests STILL show signs of lifting and curling (and therefore distortion and added stress on the print nozzle) during tall prints. I'm out of ideas so I guess I'll just shrug my shoulders on that one for now. Have you played with the height of the nozzle at start? You can set it low and really mash that bottom layer into the surface to get some good stick.
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Sep 26, 2011 23:04
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Just got on the first step to 3D printing and could use some help. I just won this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220861614796&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:GB:1123#ht_4329wt_1348 I have read the assembly instructions on the wiki, now the heated print bed and the spring are not essential but the springs being so cheap is it worth buying them? The main thing I want to know is what electronics/opto sensors should I get? I am guessing the electronics it is missing is that main board that controls the motors and provides the usb interface but which one should I get, googling the board gives a load of different modals and versions. Rather have a UK or Euro supplier just because I want to get using it soon as possible. Not used Ebay in ages and seeing this printer on there then quickly getting in a bid on the last seconds and winning is making me feel like a kid at Christmas. Going for cheap and cheerful right now until I get used to this new area (lots of new terminology and technology) then I might start looking at building and improving depending on what I tie it into at uni. Heres an example what is 'Wades extruder'? I know its is the device the printhead is fixed to but who is Wade? Is he someone who contributed a modification thats become a standard or does it stand for something?
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Sep 27, 2011 18:39
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I'm in the same position as you Afterdark, just started putting together a Mendel Prusa. I'm using a Wades extruder as well, I think it is kind of the default for Mendel's at the moment and your guess is spot on it's just named after the guy who designed it. I've yet to buy the electronics for mine but I'm leaning towards a RAMPS or perhaps a Sanguinololu as I have seen some of them for a bit cheaper. Would love to hear recommendations about the electronics from anyone on here with a Prusa. A quick question for someone who has built a Prusa, I'm at the stage of adjusting the frame getting everything nice and square. I've checked the distances between all the vertices and they are all the right distance apart, but the frame doesn't sit flat on the desk. Should I finish putting the whole thing together and then worry about getting it to sit flat after or should it be done before I start on fitting the print bed?
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Sep 28, 2011 06:34
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I think I found a good trade off with price and just getting it in my damm hands fast as possible. http://ultimachine.com/content/ramps-diy-kit-complete I think that contains every little thing I need to get up and running unless someone here says over wise I place an order soon as possible, might as well order the Thermistor 100K while I'am at it for that price. Need to dust off my soldering skills but I think I can do it. Might pay that extra $15 for the pre soldered surface bits as I never touched suface mounted stuff before, only resistors and L.E.D's and such, big chunky stuff. Out of curiosity what type of switches are you going for? I have seen diagrams for the opto endstops in cutting up drink cans for 'flags' and how to set them but anytime I read about microswitch endstops in building instructions they skip over them and go onto how to make opto endstops work. Which one is the best since I can select what ever one I want to be included in the kit.
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Sep 29, 2011 01:48
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techknight posted:I would look at the Thingomatic, Ultimaker, and Mosaic. They have differences, but all are quite capable and offer some amount of official support during and after your build. Thanks for the advice. I just found out tonight that one of the members at my hackerspace who built his own CNC milling machine is also almost done with an extruder head for it. I'm going to help finish that and with some luck we'll have our own custom, super precise and badass looking printer.
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Sep 30, 2011 04:38
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Couple days old but here's a link to an  exclusive interview with Bre Pettis from Makerbot regarding Makerbot and the 10M investment.http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/10/makes-exclusive-interview-with-bre-pettis-of-makerbot-life-10m-in-funding-and-beyond.html Some interesting reading in there. Especially about the patent stuff. On one hand they're an Open Source Open Hardware company. On the other hand you might have to get "defensive patents" but being open source/hardware you want to allow people to build and expand on your stuff. How do those two mesh? Who the gently caress knows? Patents do exist in 3D printing land and they have gotten letters from patent holders saying "we're watching your every move"  I'm interested in seeing where this winds up in 3 or 5 years.
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Oct 8, 2011 13:11
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Oh, and it didn't even occur to me to crosspost this in here from TFR: A while ago I had posted about the 3D designs for an AR magazine that a guy made. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11636 Well, I eventually printed my own version to see how it would go. I think it will hold and feed one round!    There is a "thing". This is all that will fit.  Why? Well, look at the tip of the cartridge in the next photo. It's too long for the magazine.  Apparently the shrinkage of ABS wasn't accounted for (that's my best guess) so the cartridges don't actually fit. Another 1mm+ would probably have done the trick. I could print it again scaling up by 2.5-3.0% to offset ABS shrinkage but babysitting new prints for a few more hours on a "hey this is neat, let's try it out" thing is  I bore easily, I guess.
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Oct 8, 2011 13:19
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What kind if materials do 3D printers use? How expensive is it and how is it packaged? Like, plastic sticks that are fed into it?
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Oct 8, 2011 23:05
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ante posted:What kind if materials do 3D printers use? How expensive is it and how is it packaged? Like, plastic sticks that are fed into it? The common printers use long spools of plastic. Most people use ABS, some people use PLA. Other plastics are really rare. Makerbot sells 1kg of either for $43/kg. Colored plastic costs more. Because of the small market and additional processing, the spools are actually rather expensive per pound in comparison to granular plastic. Mister Sinewave posted:Apparently the shrinkage of ABS wasn't accounted for (that's my best guess) so the cartridges don't actually fit. Another 1mm+ would probably have done the trick. As a general rule, ABS generally shrinks by Aurium fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Oct 9, 2011 |
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Oct 8, 2011 23:20
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I just ask because I get a shitload of some sort of light, flexible plastic rod at work that just gets scrapped. It's really easy to coil up at ~8mm diameter, so I don't know what kind of plastic it is. I was going to offer to send it to someone for the cost of shipping to see if it would be usable, but it doesn't look like it's worth it.
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Oct 8, 2011 23:52
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Aurium posted:As a general rule, ABS generally shrinks by 4%. PLA doesn't really shrink at all. 4%? Really? My empirical tests led me to think it was more 2.5% or maybe 3%. For example, I made a cap to fit on a 43mm OD pipe (so cap was 43mm ID). Printing it at scale 1.00 resulted in a a cap that was too tight. Upping to 1.02 was really snug but could be forced on. 1.025 seemed just right (kept snug by friction fit but still could be easily pushed on or pulled off.) I couldn't really get a great measurement of the actual ID of the cap since a circle isn't really circular and is actually made up of 32 sides or so, so I just kind of ran with the 2.5% number. It's really 4%?
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Oct 9, 2011 04:02
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Would be nice if eventually down the line you get a home plastic recycler to chuck in all the scraps, bits, misprints, unused prints and packaging into, then have it squeeze out a new spool of plastic, ready to go.
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Oct 9, 2011 04:39
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Mister Sinewave posted:4%? Really? My empirical tests led me to think it was more 2.5% or maybe 3%. As it turns out, I'm awful at remembering and it really is closer to 2%. Oops.
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Oct 9, 2011 06:25
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SynthOrange posted:Would be nice if eventually down the line you get a home plastic recycler to chuck in all the scraps, bits, misprints, unused prints and packaging into, then have it squeeze out a new spool of plastic, ready to go. From what I understand, the conditions necessary to recycle and re-extrude ABS at an accurate 1.75mm is not practical/safe outside of industrial settings. I could see having a bin for commercial composting of PLA, though.
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Oct 9, 2011 06:48
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I got this in my email today:  They were made by this company: http://www.nanoscribe.de I think they used laser lithography.
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Oct 10, 2011 11:18
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Does that mean that in 10 years I should be able to print a computer?
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Oct 11, 2011 01:34
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Dolphin posted:Does that mean that in 10 years I should be able to print a computer? Probably, although that laser lithography machine looks like it's much bulkier than a a 3d printer, mostly because I believe it requires a vacuum to operate. Essentially, they look like they'd cost as much an electron microscope (since you'll need one anyway to double-check your work) before adding the lasers. So, at least $200,000. However, the cheaper machines such as the FEI Phenom have come out, lacking some higher end resolution of the industrial machines, for $72,000. And someone recently built a DIY SEM for like $2000 or so, but it has nowhere near the resolution of the Phenom or an industrial electron microscope. So, yeah, it's just around the corner. Considering the advances in 3d printing over the last ten years or so, I could see this being the next big thing after printable circuit boards, printed metals, and refinements and cost-drops of the 3d printers.
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Oct 11, 2011 14:28
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This seems to be making the rounds currently: super high resolution printing I don't understand how these machines are capable of such thin layers, it bottles the mind  Does anyone have any idea how they are accomplishing this? Are the build times just insanely long?
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Oct 14, 2011 19:34
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That looks awesome. What's with the NetFabb software they talk about? Some of those prints shown at Ultimaker are really small and still nice. My printer SUCKS at small objects. My Makerbot "Resolution of 0.4mm" loving  I think they left out the word "theoretical" in there somewhere. 
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Oct 15, 2011 03:13
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I really like the idea of a 3d printer and will prob be getting one in the not too distant future (qualifing as a doctor in ~6months). In the mean time what would people suggest as the best way of getting parts i want for small projects printed. Join a hackerspace? there's one in London with a makerbot or are there websites where people print stuff for you?
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Oct 15, 2011 15:50
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Shapeways and Ponoko in the OP offer those services.
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Oct 15, 2011 16:25
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Lyric Proof Vest posted:I really like the idea of a 3d printer and will prob be getting one in the not too distant future (qualifing as a doctor in ~6months). In the mean time what would people suggest as the best way of getting parts i want for small projects printed. Join a hackerspace? there's one in London with a makerbot or are there websites where people print stuff for you? Yep, Ponoko and Shapeways like SynthOrange says, but you should definitely still check out your local hackerspace. Some advice: I'm not assuming that you would do this, but don't just walk in demanding that someone print your stuff. Check out an open house night, bring some beer, hang out, get to know people, etc. We've had that happen at our space before, where a new person insists on using the laser cutter ASAP without wanting to be part of the community, and that's not really our thing. For the on-demand stuff, I just got my first order from Ponoko yesterday. I make Space Invader plugs for stretched earlobes on my MakerBot but now I'd like to sell some original designs that don't violate copyright:  On the left is done in two pieces in red ABS (one for the invader, one for the plug, then fastened together). On the right is a single multi-colour piece in ZCorp's proprietary ceramic powder.
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Oct 15, 2011 19:54
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Printing a medium sized object (or even a small one) can take like an hour or more from start to finish. It's an automatic tool, but it's still a hands-on process with a pre- and post-print, it's not like a normal printer or photocopier or anything.  I had a guy hit me up to print him some reprap parts. I'm game, but honestly what you're asking for is also several hours of my time to startup/shutdown and babysit the process even if you have ready-to-print 3D model files. It's not like "Oh yeah I'll just add it on to the other stuff I'm cranking out no sweat."
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Oct 16, 2011 02:51
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Ugh, must resist the urge to drop $300 on the bronze version of this: http://www.shapeways.com/model/321703/tentacon.html?gid=cg14
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Oct 18, 2011 20:48
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Has anyone made the transition from a Makerbot Mk4/5 extruder to the Mk6? I'm wondering how much slower a print job is with the smaller nozzle? Also, it looks like the Automated Build Platform was a pretty big failure. Makerbot isn't even including it in the ToM kit anymore, though you can still buy it separately, but the price has been cut in half. I know everything has gotten better with my print jobs since I disabled the ABP, but it is a shame that there isn't an better way to accomplish the same thing. I was looking forward to being able to queue up multiple jobs and have them reliably print without intervention. For now, to Sinewave's point, this is still a very manual and time-consuming process.
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Oct 19, 2011 20:40
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I think the ABP is just ahead of its time. But that's probably just me, because I only really do one-offs. Out of all the things I wish my printer did better and could upgrade, an ABP is honestly not even on the list. Still, it's a cool feature, and surely if I was cranking out piles of identical badges or something a proper one might be worth its weight in gold. Speaking of features, the Makerbot's the ONLY printer with an ABP feature for batch printing. But amusingly, it's also the ONLY printer without an integrated spool feed management feature (you know, to make feeding filament and therefore unassisted printing more reliable?)
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Oct 20, 2011 00:15
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Videodrome posted:Also, it looks like the Automated Build Platform was a pretty big failure. Makerbot isn't even including it in the ToM kit anymore, though you can still buy it separately, but the price has been cut in half. I think that the normal kit still comes with it but that the custom pre-assembled one only has the non-automated one. The ABP belt never worked right for me, so mine is just a plain HBP now.
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Oct 20, 2011 01:36
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 loving hell, I have something to print and for some reason my machine has just decided to up and stop extruding anywhere from 30s to 5mins into a print. Spent all morning dicking around with this bastard, resets and reboots and re-priming extruder all to no avail. What's wrong? Who knows? Oh, unreliable tools
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Oct 21, 2011 19:42
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Mister Sinewave posted:loving hell, I have something to print and for some reason my machine has just decided to up and stop extruding anywhere from 30s to 5mins into a print. Spent all morning dicking around with this bastard, resets and reboots and re-priming extruder all to no avail. What's wrong? Who knows? Idler wheel not tight enough against the filament? (Not sure which extruder you have.) Loose wire losing contact during movement?
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Oct 22, 2011 10:32
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I got it sorted out, just grumpy. The filament would get stripped by the extruder motor gear for god knows what reason. It stopped when I removed the New Thing I Added (a hairdryer I was using to keep the build area warm in an effort to combat the ancient enemy of uneven model shrinkage). Best guess is that the added warmth from that was just enough to cause the filament to be soft enough for the extruder gear to strip it instead of pushing it down like it should, but who knows. I removed the extra heating thing and late last night was able to print a tall, thin-walled object without repeating the problem. Instead the print as usual distorted due to uneven shrinkage just like god intended, and managed to pop itself off the build platform when it was 95% done just in case I thought my time wasn't being completely wasted.
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Oct 22, 2011 18:56
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Ok, I finally convinced myself that this is a worthwhile investment and bought a Prusa Mendel. Well, sorta. I won the auctions for the parts, electronics, and nuts/bearings/etc, and I have the rods, but I keep getting outbid on the motors. I'm also up in the air as to whether I should get the 3mm or the 1.5mm hot end. Either way, I've installed a bunch of software and am trying to design something that will render properly. It's good that all of these tools are quite hard to use. It gives me something to rage against. I know it should be possible to extrude a line into a shape (I can do it in my old-rear end copy of 3dsmax) but I can't figure out how to do it in openScad, or qcad, or any other tool I have. I know it's an open path, jerk. It's a capital letter T. Just make an outline or something and then DO! Why isn't there a "dammit, just do what I want" button?
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Oct 24, 2011 04:20
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Why isn't there a "dammit, just do what I want" button? Closest I get to that is using Google Sketchup then exporting to .STL (via a plugin). I don't use OpenSCAD or 3DSMax or anything because I refuse to learn new things. Also I never got past step 3 or whatever of the Blender tutorial because I'm not loving autistic.
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Oct 24, 2011 05:19
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Mister Sinewave posted:Closest I get to that is using Google Sketchup then exporting to .STL (via a plugin). Yeah, sketchup isn't available for linux, so screw that. I'm cool with steep learning curves, I'd just like something with some modicum of documentation, and some way to actually customize output settings. Like export -> dxf, check "USE ONLY POLYLINE" option. I can write a python script to modify everything to convert splines -> polylines, but why should I have to. At that point, I'm about 90% of the way to take vector DXF and export gcode. edit: Got it! I have a whole stack of programs installed, and none of them share coordinates, axes, or units! WHEEE. However, I do have a nice, shiny picture of what I want sitting in the middle of my reprap bed, so now all I have to do is put the thing together. Electronics and parts have shipped, hot end and HBP are processing, and I'm still bidding on motors. babyeatingpsychopath fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Oct 24, 2011 |
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Oct 24, 2011 06:35
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Ok, it's built and connected, and my filament was on backorder so it won't be here until monday . Oh well. I used makerbot thing-o-matic electronics because they've got better stepper drivers, but it was pretty hard to find a replicatorG entry. I finally found one from Wade (of wade's extruder), since he used the same thing. It drives and spins and hums and drives the cat crazy.
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Oct 29, 2011 04:28
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Looked around a bit and couldn't find out what software you guys were using to make your models with, but wanted to chime in and let you guys know that Autodesk (AutoCAD) lets you download any of their software for free if you're a student. Doesn't require a .edu email, but it's seriously worth enrolling in one class just to get it honestly. If AutoCAD or any of Autodesk's other software isn't usable with 3d printers just ignore this. Or download all their sweet software for free if you're a student. edit: Well, I found this http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2011/10/28/awesome-autodesk/ so I guess you must be able to make use of their stuff! bhukBC fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Oct 29, 2011 |
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Oct 29, 2011 06:52
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MUAHAHAHHAA! IT PRINTS! Well, almost. After a week of dicking with motor controllers, I found out I had a software issue. ReplicatorG's machines.xml file had my motors "stepspermm" at 3200, when it should have been roughly 320. So with feedrate at 3000, it was driving the motors at roughly 10KHz, or about 900RPM. The motor's max rate is just shy of 140RPM, so missed steps, jitter, stupid noises. Everything set sane, and now it drives and positions and everything. I seemed to have burned out one of my driver boards, though, so I've only got 3 axes available. I picked X,Y, and Z, and the extruder is uncontrolled. I'll figure out a way to work this quadrature encoder I've got and maybe some cheapo 12V drillmotor and get this thing printing.
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Nov 5, 2011 01:55
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:MUAHAHAHHAA! IT PRINTS! If building the ToM was as much of a pain in the rear end as it looks like you are having, I would never have built it. The good thing is that you are going to come away from this with a better understanding of the motor controls than I have. Keep at it and good luck.
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Nov 7, 2011 18:13
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Videodrome posted:If building the ToM was as much of a pain in the rear end as it looks like you are having, I would never have built it. If I hadn't already had the understanding of motors and controls that I did, I would have given up a while ago. However, the challenge of these home-built devices appeals to me, and it's fun making something work with your own creativity. There's a certain level of shade-tree mechanic stuff going on here, and I like that. There's also decent feedback from the community, so when I asked the electronics maker about the problem, they were straightforward with possible troubleshooting paths. I've got my extruder 99% working now. I found a 6v gearhead motor in the shed and am using a stack of 5w resistors soldered in parallel to drop the 12v to 6v. Just need to get a bit more grip on my "hobbed bolt" and I'll be in business. I'm thinking of just trying to push the filament by hand for a test print, but 20 minutes of that doesn't appeal.
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Nov 7, 2011 20:42
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