|
I've just noticed a new printer that looks like just about everything I could want out of a printer: http://store.qu-bd.com/product.php?id_product=43 All metal structure, heated bed, impressive speed, X-Y extruder mechanism (I'd ultimately like to have an enclosed build area), all for $1000-1300. What's not to like?
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 02:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 22:28 |
|
|
With the huge response they've gotten with the peachy printer I don't think much of it, if any, is going to be homemade/DIY. I'm pretty sure the prototype described in the kickstarter video is just that, a prototype. As for noise, is he sweeping the beam slowly, only once per layer or repeatedly, as fast as possible? If it's possible to sweep it several times per layer that would eliminate most random noise.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 02:17
|
|
|
Cockmaster posted:I've just noticed a new printer that looks like just about everything I could want out of a printer: Be careful with the qu-bd people. They screwed up a lot of stuff on their Kickstarter dual extruder and acknowledged as little as possible about the design flaws. I still like my ORD Bot a lot and you can get everything except the extruder from reprapdiscount: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printer-...=item257b407a01 They're China but it's Hong Kong and all the electronics I've received from them are pretty good. I've also heard good things about their Hadron kit. They ship FedEx International and you get your stuff in like 2 days. It's crazy. Obsurveyor fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Oct 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 03:43
|
|
|
My library has set up a small maker space with 3 Makerbot Replicator 2 machines, but we seem to be spending an awful lot of time keeping these things running. We've taken apart and cleaned the extruder assembly several times, but we still get clogs, or the stepper motor that pulls the PLA filament through starts jerking back and forth instead of pulling the filament. We've opened a trouble ticket with Makerbot, but so far, the Makerbots are still extremely temperamental. Anyone else have these problems?
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 20:27
|
|
|
Everyone does! It's part of the process right now. Desktop 3D printers are a constant battle to get working properly, and even the million-dollar professional ones that should be rugged as hell still pretty much need a dedicated technician if you're going to run them continuously. Makerbots are actually some of the more reliable printers out there right now, for what it's worth.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 22:26
|
|
|
Considering how much trouble we've been having with our replicator 2 I'm concerned by that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 22:38
|
|
|
I haven't used a makerbot, but my hackerspace has one. Basically all I hear about that one, and also from the only other person I know that has one, is that the extruder stops extruding all the loving time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 22:39
|
|
|
peepsalot posted:I haven't used a makerbot, but my hackerspace has one. Basically all I hear about that one, and also from the only other person I know that has one, is that the extruder stops extruding all the loving time. That's pretty much what they've been having trouble with. Also getting it to adhere to their build platform has been a nightmare. Though they just use blue tape. The number of upgrades they've had to do just to get somewhat consistent results is a bit boggling for a $2000 printer.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 22:44
|
|
|
MickRaider posted:Considering how much trouble we've been having with our replicator 2 I'm concerned by that. I agree, I haven't heard super great things about their reliability...but every other hobbyist grade printer I know of is generally worse. Solidoodles break down all the time, RepRaps are completely dependent on how good the person who assembled it was, PrintrBots are pretty good but they're made of wood and so lose calibration all the time. I can get stuff out of my MendelMax quickly and reliably but only because I know all the quirks and the careful process you need to go through every time you print. The Replicator is at least a known quantity with lots of support behind it. Actually, the one hobbyist machine I've heard generally good things about is the Ultimaker. MickRaider posted:The number of upgrades they've had to do just to get somewhat consistent results is a bit boggling for a $2000 printer. Remember that you can't compare this to a $2000 laser printer today. You should be comparing it to a $2000 laser printer in 1985, when the truly reliable commercial-grade machines were $50,000 and the $2000 printer was a brand new technology that probably had to cut a lot of corners to hit that price point. For all the talk about 3D printers in all the media, anything on your desktop today is still pretty much low-run experimental technology. Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Oct 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 22:55
|
|
|
I'm pretty excited by my robo3d. It seems pretty solid design minus the slide rails on the Y axis. The newness of it is a little concerning but I think it has a lot of room for growth. I think it'll take some upgrades to get to the quality I'm aiming for, but it's nice to have a really open platform to work on and a pretty solid yet affordable foundation. Sagebrush posted:Remember that you can't compare this to a $2000 laser printer today. You should be comparing it to a $2000 laser printer in 1985, when the truly reliable commercial-grade machines were $50,000 and the $2000 printer was a brand new technology that probably had to cut a lot of corners to hit that price point. For all the talk about 3D printers in all the media, anything on your desktop today is still pretty much low-run experimental technology. I'm not really comparing it to printers of the past but rather competitive printers that are out today. I just don't think that a $2000 replicator is really 3x nicer than a $700 solidoodle
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 23:03
|
|
|
My Replicator 2X is a fickle mistress. If I look at her wrong or accidentally call her fat, she wont put out for weeks. It was only with a lot of effort, some plastic surgery (ha) and even some blood (4 stitches) have it got it to run when I ask.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 01:52
|
|
|
The two prusa mendels we have at our hackerspace are reliable but the prints aren't always the best due to the amount of time it takes to tweak into usefulness. I'd rank the printers I've had access to based on useability/maintenance like this: Ultimaker MendelMax Makergear Makerbot Cupcake Robo3d Up! My Wolfstock delta Makerbot Replicator 2 Prusa Mendel Makerbot Replicator Thankfully my delta is improving all the time though, upgrading it to a berrybot style aluminium effector this week. If anyone wants pictures of it sing out, I've been meaning to document it better.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 02:58
|
|
|
I want pictures. And details: lots and lots of details.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 03:03
|
|
|
I bought an ALU MK3 Heatbed to replace the PCB+Glass on my Prusa i3 and the bed has a giant (0.4mm) hump in it, yay China! Is there anything I can do with tools I might have to grind it down to flat?
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 03:24
|
|
|
Do you have a flat sheet of glass? You could buy some valve lapping compound and lap it flat that way.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 03:40
|
|
|
That was going to be my suggestion, use a sheet of glass as an index. It's pretty popular for the Scary Sharp chisel sharpening method: you stick progressively finer grits of sandpaper on glass up to like 2k at which point you're polishing a mirror. Depending on the size of that bed you might be able to do something like that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 03:47
|
|
|
nogthree posted:The two prusa mendels we have at our hackerspace are reliable but the prints aren't always the best due to the amount of time it takes to tweak into usefulness. Oh you've got a wolfstock? What sort of issues have you had with it? I've been slowly piecing together a wolfstock variant of my own.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 03:50
|
|
|
Kazy posted:edit: Also, 3D printed part of my Halloween costume this year: Please tell me you're going as Jheri Curl/Easy E Geordi.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 04:46
|
|
|
My biggest problem with printing ABS right now is my prints stick too well to my kapton tape and the only way to get them off is with a thin metal spatula which 99% of the time tears the kapton tape. I can't be spending like $9 per print because I'm destroying the tape each time. I'm not sure what to do. Edit: I've heard before that people recommend hairspray with glass plates and printing ABS. Anyone able to chime in on that? Faltion fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Oct 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 19:52
|
|
|
It's really important to temper the expectations of anyone buying hobbyist gear right now. The current stuff is very high quality, but definitely less reliable in terms of number of failed prints compared to my still going MakerBot Cupcake. Like Sagebrush was saying, even very expensive industrial printers still require a dedicated tech to keep them running. I'm one of those techs, running an Objet 500 (quarter-mil) and a uPrint Plus (~$18k) at work and the amount of maintenance necessary can get silly at times. After every print on the Objet 500 (which works like an inkjet printer, spraying layers of liquid that get cured by UV light on each pass), you have to lower the build tray, put down a mirror and scrub eight print heads with an alcohol-soaked cloth. But don't scrub in the wrong direction or too far along one of the print heads, or you will lift a plastic film that instantly destroys thousands of dollars of equipment!  There's also a bunch of weekly maintenance where you have to disassemble portions of the printhead and have many opportunities to lose custom, irreplaceable screws. On the uPrint Plus, it's not as high-resolution as some hobbyist gear (the best layer height is only 0.254 mm) but is generally a very reliable FDM solution. The tradeoff is that each time you print a new job, you have to use a brand new $5 non-reusable tray and proprietary filament. Even with all that, there are still chances of wide parts curling at the edges, and once in a while there's a loss of extrusion like this situation that happened last week:  During a 20 hour print job, the model filament broke off and started feeding into the inside of the extruder enclosure, getting all tangled up. Don't get me wrong, I love 3D printing like crazy - but we are really, really far from the set-it-and-forget-it sort of reliability that Star Trek replicators set people up for.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 20:28
|
|
|
Sagebrush posted:Actually, the one hobbyist machine I've heard generally good things about is the Ultimaker. Speaking of the Ultimaker, I got to see their new version at this past Maker Faire. It fixed the things that had held me back from buying one (plywood frame, lack of heated bed), but at a price greater than I'd ever be comfortable with (over $2500).
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 22:50
|
|
|
Faltion posted:My biggest problem with printing ABS right now is my prints stick too well to my kapton tape and the only way to get them off is with a thin metal spatula which 99% of the time tears the kapton tape. I can't be spending like $9 per print because I'm destroying the tape each time. I'm not sure what to do. I never cared for printing ABS on kapton. I tried using hairspray on glass for a while, and it was mostly okay but it wasn't quite sticky enough for large area prints. Now I use some ABS dissolved in a little acetone and brushed on glass. It's about the perfect amount of stick.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 03:46
|
|
|
White school glue and water will make basically anything (including nylon) stick to a glass plate. Just mix up 1:10 glue to water, and give a good wipe over the plate (a cotton ball or paintbrush work; I got lazy and started using a paper towel that I just dip), then give one more wipe when the first one dries, the whole glass plate should look cloudy/ It will dry quickly if you turn the heat on before you start. It washes off with water so if your print is TOO stuck you can just take the plate out and soak it in water overnight and it will happily dislodge by itself. DON'T use wellbond (or other engineered glues)! It is extra sticky, and not water nor acetone soluble in any reasonable period of time/heat. You want el-cheapo cow/horse/pig-bone derived lepage school glue or similar junk that you would never trust anything structural to.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 19:16
|
|
|
Faltion posted:My biggest problem with printing ABS right now is my prints stick too well to my kapton tape and the only way to get them off is with a thin metal spatula which 99% of the time tears the kapton tape. I can't be spending like $9 per print because I'm destroying the tape each time. I'm not sure what to do. But does anyone have ideas on how to get Nylon to stick at all? I tried blue masking tape but the adhesion was nearly nonexistent, both between the print and the tape and the tape and the print bed (Al plate).
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
Faltion posted:My biggest problem with printing ABS right now is my prints stick too well to my kapton tape and the only way to get them off is with a thin metal spatula which 99% of the time tears the kapton tape. I can't be spending like $9 per print because I'm destroying the tape each time. I'm not sure what to do. All I've used so far is blue painters tape (masking tape). You can get 2-3" wide rolls at any home improvement store in the paint dept, works excellent! Have to lay down new tape each print but that's like pennies each print in tape.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2013 17:38
|
|
|
cyberbug posted:I have had good luck using the green PET tape instead of Kapton. I'll second this. Lulzbot was selling pre-cut sheets of it for the heated beds historically, they probably still are. It also comes in strip form, which is a lot easier to apply.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2013 20:16
|
|
|
I've had really great results with hairspray so far. It makes the surface contacting the build platform insanely flat, which is something I've never gotten using kapton due to potential bubbles. Does blue tap work with ABS? From what I gathered I thought it was more a PLA thing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2013 23:34
|
|
|
I've only used ABS so yup! I dunno, worth a try at least since it's one of the more cheap options out there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2013 01:29
|
|
|
cyberbug posted:But does anyone have ideas on how to get Nylon to stick at all? I tried blue masking tape but the adhesion was nearly nonexistent, both between the print and the tape and the tape and the print bed (Al plate). According to Richrap who does a lot of Taulman nylons you'll want a Tufnol bed. Specifically the Whale brand type. Reportedly it's called Garolite LE in the US and outside the UK. It's basically a resin and fibreglass substrate, much like the FR4 used in circuit boards. I've got some photos and a long post about my Wolfstock(and my mods to the design) and my new 3dr saved up, I'll post it soon.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2013 05:05
|
|
|
So as someone who is interested in maybe getting into the 3d printing scene for the purpose of printing props, like helmets or similar toys, do you guys have any recommendations for a printer that'd suit my needs? I know I could use a printer with a smaller bed and just carve the props up into progressively smaller pieces, but I'd prefer to be able to knock out something like an Iron Man helmet in like 5-6 parts by just dividing the helmet up sensibly. A decent resolution would also be lovely, as some of the details that would have to be printed on stuff like that can be kind of fiddly and small, but I'm willing to sit there with bondo and sandpaper and fiberglass and whatever I need to since I'm already doing that with papercraft. I have about 2 grand set aside for a rainy day and I wouldn't mind considering that my budget for this stuff, but I'd like something with a bit of longevity to it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2013 19:48
|
|
|
JamSessionEin posted:So as someone who is interested in maybe getting into the 3d printing scene for the purpose of printing props, like helmets or similar toys, do you guys have any recommendations for a printer that'd suit my needs? I know I could use a printer with a smaller bed and just carve the props up into progressively smaller pieces, but I'd prefer to be able to knock out something like an Iron Man helmet in like 5-6 parts by just dividing the helmet up sensibly. A decent resolution would also be lovely, as some of the details that would have to be printed on stuff like that can be kind of fiddly and small, but I'm willing to sit there with bondo and sandpaper and fiberglass and whatever I need to since I'm already doing that with papercraft. I have about 2 grand set aside for a rainy day and I wouldn't mind considering that my budget for this stuff, but I'd like something with a bit of longevity to it. As much as I like 3d printing, I think that for your purposes you'd be better served by the following: Large bed light duty gantry style CNC mill (~$1000) Vacuum-forming table (~$250) Lots of high density insulating foam blocks (~$200) Lots of kydex sheets or similar high strength thermoplastic. (~$200) Cut the foam blocks in the CNC mill, if you need something more ridged then high density foam vacuum-form it . That sort of setup would let you do up a single colour (thus requiring painting) iron man helmet in a single print/form. Or 2 print/forms for dual colour that snaps together. In theory it will be a lot more wasteful then a 3d printer, but high density foam is cheap. You'll need an airbrush and water based paints to paint it, or use a water based primer, as the thinning agents in spray paint have a tendency to dissolve the foam, however if you want a distressed look that will work fine. And the foam is cheap, really cheap. Also in theory a CNC mill will require more expensive maintenance in terms of bits, but foam is very soft and unlikely to ever dull a bit let alone break one.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2013 04:32
|
|
|
Finally got a new printer last week, an Afinia H479. (It's a rebranded version of the Up! Plus for US/Canada.) So far it's been very reliable. It only has one nozzle, but the support structure that the software generates peels away like nothing. Instead of printing onto Kapton or painter's tape, it mainly uses an FR-4 perf board that the raft grips into. Once a print is complete, you pull off the model and poke out any material remaining in the holes. The software and hardware are both very no frill. There's no display, no SD card reader for computer-independent operation. The most important part though is that all of my successful prints have been just plain awesome. I've had a bit of trouble with tall support structures. By default, the software is very conservative about how much support it uses and for what angle. On a scaled-up print of the Sappho's Head model, I was getting layer shift when it finally came time to connect to the far shoulder support tower. There are options to generate support based on angles, sturdier supports, and more plentiful support structures, so I'll be fiddling with that stuff tonight. Here are my first eight prints:     (The skulls are all part of trophies for a halloween party this weekend, I wanted to get those made first.)
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2013 00:27
|
|
|
Neat! The part about the nice quality prints is encouraging. What material are those all printed in? ABS? I like ABS but all the cool kids only care about PLA 
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2013 17:19
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:Neat! The part about the nice quality prints is encouraging. These are all ABS. This particular spool is one of Afinia's "premium" materials that are meant to extrude at 260 degrees C. They also sell "value" material that extrudes at 220. My order of some Reprapper plastic from Voxel Factory came in today, so I'll try that (at 220) tonight when I start the trophy bases. Here's last night's successful print with tons more support structure:  
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2013 17:49
|
|
|
The Up/Afinas are cartesian printers that give stunning quality. The quality seems to be all software too, as the machine itself isn't anything special. The software is very proprietary, and I hope current slicers pick up on whatever tricks they are using for support material and the like. Good example (printed on an Up!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o1chNIFOXo insta fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Oct 22, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2013 23:22
|
|
|
Don't the printers that use a support medium totally alleviate the need for those support structures? Like, they build the object in a bed of talcum powder or something similar, so you don't need any scaffolding, you just blast it with some air and poof, functional trapped worm gear or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2013 01:43
|
|
|
Mostly, yes. The only machines I'm aware of that can do that are the zcorp powder-bed 3D printers that basically glue together plaster powder; any type of SLS machine, whether it works with nylon or titanium or whatever; and the LOM machines that build objects out of sheets of paper. All of them have inherent disadvantages as well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2013 01:57
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Don't the printers that use a support medium totally alleviate the need for those support structures? Like, they build the object in a bed of talcum powder or something similar, so you don't need any scaffolding, you just blast it with some air and poof, functional trapped worm gear or whatever. The new hotness for hobby printers is adding a soluble support material as a second extruder. A few years ago it was PVA (polyvinyl alcohol -- Elmers glue!) with PLA plastic. PLA has its disadvantages, so HIPS (high impact polystyrene) is a support for ABS. PVA won't adhere to ABS, so you have to use compatible plastics. HIPS dissolves with Limonene (retail DeSolvIt) with doesn't harm ABS but rather leaves it with an orangey fresh scent 
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2013 02:12
|
|
|
Huh, that's sort of brilliant.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2013 02:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 22:28 |
|
|
Does HIPS adhere to PLA? How about the Taulman nylon?
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2013 02:21
|
|