3d printer

Started by yossam, November 23, 2013, 02:53:15 PM

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yossam


johnstevenjacob

Hi, Yossam! Have you tried 3D printing? If not yet and you want to get into this new tech, here's my tip: Always choose high quality filament to ensure good quality of print. Good quality filament is one of the first things that you must consider when buying materials. Here's an example source of filament for you: http://www.3d2print.net/shop
3D2PRINT - Creating 3D Dimension

Upon Infinity

3D printing will usher in the next revolution of mankind.  They're already 3D printing houses in China.

kaedorg


GeoM528

3D printers are expensive but it's totally amazing. Mine is Active-X1 3D printer in which I bought at $475 (unassembled). Yes, a bit pricey but this one is the ideal machine in 3D printing toys and engineering prototypes. It has build volume of 270 x 220 x 220 mm, very compatible with 3D2print's 1.75mm PLA filaments and has USB interface.

Upon Infinity

Quote from: GeoM528 on May 04, 2014, 09:01:02 PM
3D printers are expensive but it's totally amazing. Mine is Active-X1 3D printer in which I bought at $475 (unassembled). Yes, a bit pricey but this one is the ideal machine in 3D printing toys and engineering prototypes. It has build volume of 270 x 220 x 220 mm, very compatible with 3D2print's 1.75mm PLA filaments and has USB interface.

Can you post some pics of some things you have printed with it?

PabloMack

#6
3D Printers haven't been very interesting to me because of the limited materials that are used to make parts. I have been researching ways to cut holes in panels (only tenuously related to my 3D artistic work) and I have thrown out one lead after another for various reasons. Now I am considering (with the advice of a mechanical engineer friend of mine) going with a CNC desktop milling machine. So with this you will be sculpting material away instead of adding material to make your piece. It can't work on steel but aluminum or brass is okay. This company was also a kickstarter startup that achieved their funding goal (many times over). They are currently in their 5th batch of machines.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/178590870/the-nomad-cnc-mill
http://carbide3d.com/

Another option is Oliver who I would has been in the business for a long time if you don't want to chance a newbie company. But it seems to be billed as a wood-working machine which may exclude even soft metals (I don't know):

http://www.olivermachinery.net/

There are other options as well but I want to keep the cost under about $2.5K

TheBadger

Here you go pablo, https://ghostgunner.net/index.html
QuoteNow I am considering (with the advice of a mechanical engineer friend of mine) going with a CNC desktop milling machine.
It has been eaten.

PabloMack

I just stumbled across this thread. Interesting to read my (obsolete) thoughts 2 years ago.

Quote from: TheBadger on February 25, 2015, 12:37:33 PMHere you go pablo, https://ghostgunner.net/index.html

Interesting constraint for a milling machine (optimized for AR-15 and AR-10 receivers!) and
is pretty small working volume. I actually went with Sherline for both mill and lathe and,
so far, I have no regrets.

I've been studying up on 3D printing and am planning to build my own using the X-Carve
framework that I bought for fluid dispensing. I already have a direct-drive 3D printer head
and have a temperature controller /w sensor on order to control the hotend. There is a lot
to learn about 3D printing and I am convinced that it is not for the general public. I've been
watching a lot of training and tutorial videos on YouTube. One of my favorite posters is an
Australian named Angus Deveson that goes under the user name "Maker's Muse".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo42S22BTwg

PabloMack

I see my last post on this topic is over a year old. Here is an update. I did buy the large 1000mm version of the X-Carve and decided to use it as a carver after all. Perhaps I will turn it into a 3D printer some day but I have found uses for it as a carver. I spent 2.5 days on building a stand for it to sit on. After finding that getting lumber shipped to my house (only 3 miles away!) was going to be more expensive than the wood, I got disgusted and decided to see what materials I had in my garage and shop. To my surprise, the wood I already had was enough to build what I had been thinking about building so I set to it. I'm pretty sore from leaning over and having to work on it on the ground. It is too large to fit on any work bench I have. So it is finally together and my first project is to build the parts to make a dust collection system using a shop vac. This thing is now in my lab and I don't want wood dust all over the place. The X-Carve framework is modular. So when I originally ordered it, I didn't buy a router. They are now shipping a DeWalt trim router as the standard power cutter and the mounting plate that they have will fit it. But I studied what the alternatives other people were using and I decided that I liked a Makita trim router better so I bought one of those. Inventables didn't offer a way to mount it so I will be making one on my Sherline Mill. To make a long story short, I was going to need a dust collection system as well so I decided to design a system that addressed both problems at once. So my mill will be making mounting hardware for the carver and the carver will be cutting parts to make the dust shoe for itself. It's cool when machines are mutually supporting.

My latest purchase is a Robo R2 3D printer which I just started unpacking and setting up today. It is supposed to be pretty ready-to-use out of the box. There are a lot of pluses to this machine but price will be too much for many people. The print size is pretty large (203.2 x 203.2 x 254 mm) This one has a heated bed and an enclosure to control the temperature which is what is necessary for many types of plastics. The unit talks to control software running on Windows or a Mac via WiFi. And this unit can be used with a lot of different materials from different manufacturers. During my research, the cheapest 3D printer was only $200 but you had to buy filament from the manufacturer and it has to be PLA and, of course, it is more expensive than commodity filament. Their filament spools have an RFID tag which the printer reads in order to decide whether there is filament before it will print. If you try to use someone else's filament, the printer will say you have no filament and will refuse to print. The strategy is like the ink-jet strategy where they make their money on the repeat refills.

PabloMack

#10
I thought I'd give an update for those who are interested. My 3D printer came with the front door broken off. I got a new door shipped to me under warranty. Then after doing the bed calibration I tried to print a couple of times with failure. The filament wasn't sticking to the bed. I went around a couple of times with the tech support people and after trying to level the bed some more I made some measurements and discovered that the platform was bent upwards beyond its ability to be leveled. Going around again with the tech support people I then got an email from one of the founders of the company and I replied to him. I finally convinced them that the platform was too bent and that almost certainly happened during shipment. The same trauma that broke the door off also must have bent the platform. So they sent me a whole new Z-Axis assembly and I spent this afternoon doing the repair work myself. I didn't want to risk yet more damage in shipping the whole unit back and then risking more damage for it to be shipped back to me. When the new platform came, a sensing screw was bent 45 degrees so I bent it back. That wasn't a good sign. There was evidence of trauma during shipping of that package because the screw had punctured the box it was in many times. So after getting the assembly out, worked on and replaced, I tried to Home the platform and the Z stepper motor tried to ram it down through the floor so I turned off the power. I then tested to see if the new limit switch was working and the system recognized the switch and then turned around and tried to ram the platform through the top. I had to turn the power off again. I then compared the old limit switch to the new one and saw it is about 6mm longer. So I had to removed the new limit switch screw and replace it with the old one. After this, the system finally homed correctly. I then went through all of the bed leveling procedure twice to make sure it took. Then I finally did a successful print after about six weeks of having a printer that was not working and going around and around with tech support and waiting for replacement parts to come from California. I think all of this was worth it because I now understand more about how the printer works.

What I printed was a model of something that I had made an aluminum mold to make with injection molding. I wanted to compare the two methods and their results. Once I get the injection molder running, I can make one part in about 6 minutes, allowing for heating the plastic and mold, doing the injection, letting the mold cool and extracting the part. Some of the steps can overlap in time. The 3D printed part took 4 hours and 6 minutes. So I can make 41 plastic injected molded parts in the time it takes to make one with the 3D printer.

Below is a photo showing the injection molded part on the left and the 3D printed part on the right.

[attach=1]

masonspappy

Well, to my untrained eye they seem pretty close to each other