3D printing

[MartyS (Gromit)]

It looks like the stand layering is built up from the bottom. How do you prevent the tall posts from just breaking off? At work we have stuff called Ambroid, which is like a thin glue. But even that isn't guaranteed.

It was a bit dicey watching those print when it got to the top, especially since my red PLA ran out so I had to feed in some black as the red ran down.

The rods were bending when the hot end was moving, especially when it went from one to the other, I'm kind of amazed the tops look rectangular at all considering how much they were wobbling while the layers were being added.

I did think about them snapping off at the base, so I put in a 5mm fillet around the bottom edges of the rods.  After seeing how much they were being bent when the tops were being printed I'm pretty sure if I had left a sharp edge there they would have snapped off at the first layer above the base.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Took some video of my home designed printer running and time compressed it:

[Darth Geek]

Where's Q-Bert?

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Finished my T-Rex skeleton:

[BathTub]

That's fantastic.

[Darth Geek]

That is awesome!

[goflyblind]

faster printing? http://imgur.com/gallery/8XB1o

didn't go look at the links they posted, but six minutes for this seems good.

[Darth Geek]

faster printing? http://imgur.com/gallery/8XB1o

didn't go look at the links they posted, but six minutes for this seems good.

Not just the speed, but the apparent lack of need for support material for a shape like that.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

There is still support material, but a lot less, just the area that attaches the part to the build plate.  Same as all resin printers like this that print from the bottom.

I guess their new twist is creating a zone of un-curable resin that the light can pass through, that solves quite a few issues, allowing for continuous movement of the build plate.  Normally with resin you've got to stop, expose, move, stop, expose, move, etc.  Eliminating all that stopping probably doubles the speed over standard resin printers.  Although I could see this method failing easily, if the oxygen permeable plate has an issue you'll get a solid blob stuck to it where ever oxygen isn't getting through.

[Darth Geek]

I wonder how the newer 3D printing tech does with preventing the parts being brittle in the Z axis. ie, the layers seperating. When I run parts at work in our FDM machines, I often have to specify a particular orientation of the part in the machine so that things like snap legs and thin sections won't break.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

The resin + light based printers don't seem to have that issue if all is working well, the layers are basically epoxied together.

The resin is way more expensive than PLA or ABS, and you have to wash it off the part, usually with alcohol.

Unfortunately with FDM the are not many ways to get good Z layer adhesion, higher temperature helps a little, but thinner layers help more, so your print times go way up.  Or do some post processing like an acetone vapor bath.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Have a heart:

[MartyS (Gromit)]

After watching Jamie's Adam's grueling build video for the maze from The Shining on tested.com, found a 3D model of it on Thingiverse.

Having some fun with slow shutter speeds while it's printing:



Going to be about 9 inches on the long side, I cut 2.5 mm off the bottom, to trim 5 hours off the print time.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

And here it is done:

[goflyblind]

needs a little frozen jack.