3D printing

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Our local library just got a 3D printer we can use for free for small jobs!  About how long did it take to print Htom?

Printed a ton of stuff since then (well 6 Kg...), loading the model into my current setup the program says about an hour using fine resolution, about half an hour at medium.

Looking at that picture I'd guess that I printed that using fine (0.1mm) layer heights.

Remember to turn on or say you need supports so his hands actually print (fused layers don't work too well in mid air).

That's really cool that the library has one, hope they have someone that can maintain it well, I'm guessing you submit the file and someone there prints it?  If anyone in the library could mess with one of these it wouldn't last long...  The plastic is so cheap now, less than $20 a Kg (2.2lb), so the actual cost of that Tom Servo is only about $0.10.

[k1]

Thanks!

They have several classes that they teach there on designing and printing. I talked to the lady a bit at their booth at the local Maker Faire. She said they will start charging to print at some point but while they are in the process of building public interest in it they will print stuff for free if we ask over the next few months.

My son was really interested so I set him up on TinkerCAD last night.

[k1]

Finally got time scheduled at the library to print! Unfortunately because of another job they had to do I had to scale down the size and quality a bit.

But still I will have a two inch tall Tom Servo that I printed!

[Darth Geek]

Finally got time scheduled at the library to print! Unfortunately because of another job they had to do I had to scale down the size and quality a bit.

But still I will have a two inch tall Tom Servo that I printed!

He's going to need a whole lot more lifts in his skirt now.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Finally got time scheduled at the library to print! Unfortunately because of another job they had to do I had to scale down the size and quality a bit.

But still I will have a two inch tall Tom Servo that I printed!

If it's the type of printer that needs supports for the hands be careful when you remove them, the fingers are easily broken off.  I printed a 4 inch tall one a few months ago and did some painting on it, but that model on Thingiverse is missing a lot of details that you notice when you print it larger.

I just ordered my first part from shapeways, a sample holder for a spectrometer at work, printed out one at home that works but the shapeways part should be more solid.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

When I saw this on Thingiverse I had to try it.

I've had issues with print in place objects before but this one worked perfectly

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:925556



Took only a few minutes to get the parts to pop free from each other.

[k1]

Forgot to cross post this video:

Mini episode!  3D Printing!

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I've started rebuilding my large sort of home made printer, currently deciding on how to mount the Y rods and motor.
This is what I have so far:

[Darth Geek]

Wow, MartyS, eventually you'll work your way up to making a cement 3D printer like that guy who built the castle.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

One thing building and rebuilding these printers has done is really improve my CAD skills, I'm making parts that fit together and fit into existing parts so much easier now.

[Darth Geek]

At work we have a really good industrial 3D printer (FDM process), which we use all the time for our designs. It's ten years old and at the end of it's warrantee life, so we need to get a new one. It makes excellent, and very accurate, parts that are very useful for us in the engineering department. We need to get a new machine, and they are looking to buy another industrial one, maybe even a better process than FDM. But in the meantime, some idiot in management bought each of our design departments these smaller desktop style 3D printer machines. They spent $2,500 on each of them, and they are absolute GARBAGE! Remember, we're an engineering department. We design plastic latches (mostly). They are machines, with closely fitting moving parts! This damn machine can't make an accurate part for shit. I forget how many departments total they bought for, but it adds up to a decent chunk of change that so far looks like it's wasted. Fucking idiots.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

When you look around at all the FDM printers that cost less than 10 or 20 grand they are really not any better than what I've built myself.  You can get really accurate parts from them, but you would need a full time person to run the printer.  If you read the complaints in the home 3D printing forums people complain about the exact same problems on $400 or $3000 printers.  They are all still firmly in the hobby arena.

Basically you've got to run tests for every part you design, tweak the print settings, make sure the printer is properly calibrated and set up.  To get the linear bearings and the brass Z threaded "nuts" to fit perfectly in my YZ blocks I had to print probably 6 test parts, changing the diameter of the holes .05 mm each time, each one taking 20 minutes or so to print.   You need to adjust the diameter of smaller holes more than larger ones because of the way the plastic squishes out of the nozzle and the way it pulls into corners or turns.

So, yeah, $2500 printers was a waste of money if you need accurate test parts quickly.  And a big waste of money if you want to have a CAD file match the part exactly, all the adjustments I mention above would make the part unusable if the file was printed on a more accurate machine.

The $3000 resin printers that use HD projectors can be really accurate, but the resin costs something like $100 a liter, so the prints are an order of magnitude more expensive than the printers with plastic coming out a hot nozzle.

[Darth Geek]

And had the management done ANY kind of actual research, they would have found that out. I just think they figured that because they were getting a $2500 printer vs a $400 one that it would be better. And maybe it is in some respects, but certainly not for what we need.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Since I had yesterday off and it was raining I finally got around to finishing the last few parts to rebuild my big printer.
Still need to do some wiring and then the hours of calibration can start.

I figure the final print area will be somewhere around: X 200mm, Y 200mm, Z 300mm.

[Darth Geek]

Wow, cool. How accurate will it be?