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Thanks for the link, it does sound like an interesting read.
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Feb 24, 2011 21:40
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I was half tongue-in-cheek when I said that, but nice to see it's a well-discussed topic.
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Feb 24, 2011 22:22
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http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2011/02/22/tangeras-verksted-stoperi-t900-custom-twin-from-cad-to-metal/ really nice use of 3d printing to make prototype parts for a motorcycle engine
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Feb 26, 2011 19:01
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How loud (and hot) is the z stepper supposed to be? Mine sounds OK going up, but makes an awful noise going down. It's also way too hot to touch - but it's not skipping steps or otherwise screwing with prints. Normal or do I need to tinker with the stepper potentiometers?
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Feb 28, 2011 02:30
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I don't have a habit of touching my steppers but too hot to touch sounds abnormal. Keeping in mind that I don't have eyes on your unit, nor do I have your version of hardware (and are therefore talking partially out of my rear end) I'd suggest first checking the tension of the belt drive on the Z-stage as well as the general fit and feel of the Z-stage itself. Too tight means more work for the motor which leads to overheating. The Z-stage doesn't need a *particularly* tight drive belt. With the unit not powered, if you move the Z-stage up and down manually do you feel anything stiff or clunky or otherwise not smooth in the operation? Try removing the Z-stage entirely and spin the individual up/down bits by hand. Too "rough" also means more work for the motor. Unless the design has changed drastically the Z-stage should be the least stressful of the drive units. Fiddling with the pots might be in order but I can't comment on that part.
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Feb 28, 2011 05:48
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After a couple tries I printed off a replacement "bikini" lens cap for a sight that I have (a Vortex Sparc). You can slightly make out the smiley face on the inside of the caps in the second picture. The stock lens covers have a habit of breaking so I pre-emptively solved the problem.  Actually one of the more useful things I have printed. It's a good example of - as I like to put it - complex shapes that are actually geometrically simple. (Or in other words, simple looking stuff that would actually be a major pain in the rear end to make by hand.)    
The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Mar 1, 2011 |
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Mar 1, 2011 10:09
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Mister Sinewave posted:After a couple tries I printed off a replacement "bikini" lens cap for a sight that I have (a Vortex Sparc). You can slightly make out the smiley face on the inside of the caps in the second picture. I always love seeing people use these printers for real world applications. People probably do it a lot more than they post, but it just feels SO cool that someone needs something in plastic and just...well...prints it. I still want the resolution to get better on the cheaper ones so I can use one for my jewellery applications 
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Mar 4, 2011 00:41
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I always love seeing people use these printers for real world applications. People probably do it a lot more than they post, but it just feels SO cool that someone needs something in plastic and just...well...prints it.
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Mar 4, 2011 14:42
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The OP has been updated with new information and the images have been rehosted. This morning I put together my second MakerBot filament box: 
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Mar 7, 2011 22:21
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So... This just happened: FaceCube: Copy Real Life with a Kinect and 3D Printer by nrp http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6839 I'm about to try it out myself, I'll post results as soon as get it working.
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Mar 7, 2011 23:45
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It has been 2 weeks since I have had time to play with my MakerBot, but here are some of the things I printed once it was working: If you have looked at Thingiverse, there are a dozen variations of the gear cube. This one kinda looks like a weighted companion cube.  The wiggling snake (which is actually one of the ReplicatorG demo models  Master Chief 
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Mar 8, 2011 20:52
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I got a good Stanford rabbit out of mine so far. The stepper extruder did a great job, I only had a few strings below the steepest overhangs. I've been trying to print this Vica Illusion Sculpture and have been having terrible luck. I got one really crappy print out of 6 or 7 attempts - the print head keeps plowing into the model, so it either skips or (on the one successful print) mushes it all up. Is there some trick to tall and skinny prints? I have cool enabled, which worked great on the rabbit. I also added a larger raft and reduced my Z height by 0.1mm, but this one curled edge caught the model 3 prints in a row.
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Mar 9, 2011 17:53
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Cuddlebottom posted:I got a good Stanford rabbit out of mine so far. The stepper extruder did a great job, I only had a few strings below the steepest overhangs. How about a Utah Teapot? The stanford bunny came out drat nice I have to say.
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Mar 10, 2011 12:06
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So my research advisor told me yesterday that he had ordered a 3d systems projet sd3000. Does anyone have any experience with the project line? I've never worked with any kind of rapid prototyping hardware, so I wanted to get a feel for if I'm in for headaches or if it's easy to use. Our applications at this point are for making custom enclosures for research electronics, and making magnet arrays (which require good strength and high resolution).
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Mar 10, 2011 14:20
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Well, I think I finally got all the kinks worked out of my Makerbot, and I've pulled off a 4 hour print with no problems. Now I just need to sell the Reprap Mendel that I started and then became totally overwhelmed by. Anyone have an opinion on if I should try and sell it partially assembled(main vertexes and threaded rod structure) or take it apart?
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Mar 15, 2011 00:40
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The Adama posted:Well, I think I finally got all the kinks worked out of my Makerbot, and I've pulled off a 4 hour print with no problems. Now I just need to sell the Reprap Mendel that I started and then became totally overwhelmed by. Anyone have an opinion on if I should try and sell it partially assembled(main vertexes and threaded rod structure) or take it apart? Take it apart & sell it as a kit. Where are you?
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Mar 16, 2011 12:39
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Cakefool posted:Take it apart & sell it as a kit. Where are you?
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Mar 16, 2011 13:33
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Cuddlebottom posted:How much of a market for Mendel printed parts is there these days? I see them on eBay but can't tell if they're really selling.
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Mar 16, 2011 14:15
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Obsurveyor posted:There is a checkbox after you search on the left under "Show Only" that lets you see completed listings and whether they sold and for how much. 
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Mar 17, 2011 17:26
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Cakefool posted:Take it apart & sell it as a kit. Where are you? drat I was hoping you no one would say that. It was a big enough pain in the rear end putting it together without having to disassemble. And Portland, OR.
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Mar 18, 2011 02:32
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Perhaps you should check http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces for a hackerspace in or near your area. The likelihood of someone in the membership being interested in your unit is much higher than the average craigslist or ebay surfer. Sadly perhaps also likely to be broker, too 
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Mar 18, 2011 15:12
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Did a couple of giant LEGO minifigs for a double birthday last week: 
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Mar 20, 2011 07:08
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These things can work with wax, right? I had no idea how "affordable" these machines were. This could be quite a boon to my metalworking business when I start doing investment casting.
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Mar 20, 2011 13:08
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technight, did you print each part of those figs in coloured plastic or colour them afterwards?
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Mar 20, 2011 15:34
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:These things can work with wax, right? There are printers that do, but afaik they tend to be expensive commercial ones like this or experimental ones being made as one-offs. The hobbyist level stuff is mostly ABS and PLA plastic. (with a bit of frosting/peanut butter action for the really ambitious) Cakefool posted:technight, did you print each part of those figs in coloured plastic or colour them afterwards? I used different-coloured ABS from here. For the faces I used "ultra-fine" sharpies.
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Mar 20, 2011 18:47
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I'm currently building a reprap, and ran into a little problem. As I had the bright idea to get parts that were done with pouring the plastic into silicon molds, some of the resulting parts were a bit wonky and dont fit together properly. So I'm wondering is there anyone who could print the prusa mendel X axis for me?
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Mar 22, 2011 17:56
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techknight posted:Pretty tight. If there's any give you get lopsided prints and the belt won't heat evenly, either. It's kind of a pain to fix later so mine is running beltless right now, haha. Thanks for answering this, I finished my ABP last week and was pretty scared I was going to break the drat thing getting the rollers in place. Unfortunately after finishing my Thing-o-Matic and powering it up for the first time the Arduino Mega popped and released it's magic blue smoke. New ToM Motherboard comes Friday, then we'll see if my tight belt actually turns. Also ABP related, is the belt supposed to go under the nozzle wiper in the right hand corner? It seems like the included belts are too wide.
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Mar 22, 2011 19:59
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ChrisDKK posted:Also ABP related, is the belt supposed to go under the nozzle wiper in the right hand corner? It seems like the included belts are too wide. Might have to ask on the MakerBot Operators google group.. The ABP on the Cupcake is apparently quite different from the one on the ToM: http://www.flickr.com/photos/makerbot/5281203898/
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Mar 22, 2011 23:35
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:These things can work with wax, right? The ones we use in the jewellery industry for investment casting are more like 35k plus some other things and then 5k a year of maintenance. boooooo Depending on how big you want to make things, we use 5 axis wax milling machines that do essentially the same thing, minus the ability to make things hollow which most of the time wont work for investment casting. But even those are 20k
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Mar 23, 2011 04:45
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ChrisDKK posted:Thanks for answering this, I finished my ABP last week and was pretty scared I was going to break the drat thing getting the rollers in place. Unfortunately after finishing my Thing-o-Matic and powering it up for the first time the Arduino Mega popped and released it's magic blue smoke. New ToM Motherboard comes Friday, then we'll see if my tight belt actually turns.
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Mar 23, 2011 17:59
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:These things can work with wax, right? You can do investment casting directly out of the plastic. Here's a proof of concept bronze casting, with a not particularly well printed model. http://blog.makerbot.com/2010/09/28/casting-bronze-from-a-makerbot-print/ http://picasaweb.google.com/jarkman/100923_lost_abs_casting A better print would yield a better finished product, but you can see how well it took the texture of the original print. You could always prep the plastic model some with sandpaper or acetone to give it a more finished texture. I'm sure there's an economic argument somewhere between the cost of wax, and the cost of plastic. But there's also being able to do custom investment casting and model it quickly. Or maybe bulk ABS filament is cheaper per volume than wax, I doubt it though. Or, if you're ambitious, it might be possible to convert one of the icing/syringe mods to work with liquid wax. And then there's this kind of thing. A kind of wax carving tool head. But if you're carving, a CNC mill setup would likely be better (which there are also affordable home-built solutions), just so you'd have more axial flexibility. See http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3216673&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
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Mar 24, 2011 03:59
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Cuddlebottom posted:I ended up sticking the belt under the nozzle, since it was loose enough anyways. I was also worried about the belt tightness when I built it (I cracked the wood a little) but the motor worked fine after I tightened the gear screws. However, once my belt started to warp I gave up, unplugged the ABP motor and taped the whole belt flat with kapton tape. Are you using the nozzle wiper then? I'm not sure what setting I missed but my nozzle never gets wiped. The print head starts over the nozzle wiper during warm up but then it just goes straight to the start of the box outline for my raft without wiping off the plastic boogers. I've been grabbing them with tweezers since I'm not sure what I missed, is there a check box somewhere to make sure it wipes before it starts building the raft? Edit: For what it's worth here's my 5th print using my Thing-o-Matic, ABP and MK6 Stepstruder. I'm really happy with the print quality considering I'm done literally no calibration to it yet. 
ChrisDKK fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Mar 26, 2011 |
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Mar 26, 2011 18:04
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ChrisDKK posted:Are you using the nozzle wiper then? I'm not sure what setting I missed but my nozzle never gets wiped. The print head starts over the nozzle wiper during warm up but then it just goes straight to the start of the box outline for my raft without wiping off the plastic boogers. I've been grabbing them with tweezers since I'm not sure what I missed, is there a check box somewhere to make sure it wipes before it starts building the raft?
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Mar 29, 2011 16:49
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They were judging a round of the Toyota Technology challenge at work today, Normally I pop in and have a look at what the schools have whipped up and today one of the schools had a 3d printer they were using to make complicated parts of their solar racecars, it was a RapMan 3, stepper motored, laser-cut acrylic construction with threaded rod support, the sample prints they had on the table were incredible. No pictures unfortunately but whipping out my cameraphone in a room full of schoolkids would have been frowned upon  Anyway, straight back to my desk & start searching, I think this needs to be added to the OP - it starts at £795, is upgradable to triple extruder head & was developed by Bath University http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/content/rapman-31-3d-printer-kit I had to force myself not to immediately blow my bonus on it.
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Mar 31, 2011 21:33
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So, I have a Cupcake Ultimate with a Mk5. I've been successfully printing with ABS for weeks now, and decided to try my hand with PLA. I'm trying to print in the 185-190 range, and adjusted temps in RepG accordingly, but whenever I go to build, it ramps up the temp to 220. Am I missing a temp setting somewhere? Or some sort of cached setting I need to clear? Also, I can't seem to find the temp settings for the ABP either. I've Googled and searched the forums, but apparently my search terms are to generic, and I can't find the info I need. Anyone have suggestions?
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Apr 3, 2011 21:30
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Cakefool posted:They were judging a round of the Toyota Technology challenge at work today, Normally I pop in and have a look at what the schools have whipped up and today one of the schools had a 3d printer they were using to make complicated parts of their solar racecars, it was a RapMan 3, stepper motored, laser-cut acrylic construction with threaded rod support, the sample prints they had on the table were incredible. This looks really cool, and the resolution is getting much better, MUCH quicker. Wierd though how some of the models seem pretty rough and some of the other ones look super smooth.
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Apr 3, 2011 22:04
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The Adama posted:So, I have a Cupcake Ultimate with a Mk5. I've been successfully printing with ABS for weeks now, and decided to try my hand with PLA. I'm trying to print in the 185-190 range, and adjusted temps in RepG accordingly, but whenever I go to build, it ramps up the temp to 220. Am I missing a temp setting somewhere? Or some sort of cached setting I need to clear? Also, I can't seem to find the temp settings for the ABP either. I've Googled and searched the forums, but apparently my search terms are to generic, and I can't find the info I need. Anyone have suggestions? The temperature of the raft is set separately from the rest of the printing - maybe that's what's happening? Or maybe the "warm up and test extrusion" gcode that gets pasted in is doing the 220C?
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Apr 4, 2011 03:42
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That's a question I've been meaning to ask - what is the purpose of the raft?
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Apr 4, 2011 08:52
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Cakefool posted:They were judging a round of the Toyota Technology challenge at work today, Normally I pop in and have a look at what the schools have whipped up and today one of the schools had a 3d printer they were using to make complicated parts of their solar racecars, it was a RapMan 3, stepper motored, laser-cut acrylic construction with threaded rod support, the sample prints they had on the table were incredible. Wow, that really is impressive. It still doesn't have particularly fine detail, but that's a huge print area. I think that's why the models look smoother, check the scale - those screws are 6 inches long.
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Apr 4, 2011 09:02
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I was impressed with the detail, but this was the first 3d print I saw in the wild. Is there any reason I shouldn't be saving up for one of these right now?
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Apr 4, 2011 12:31
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