The Official 3d Printing thread

[Sailor]

My fan ducts are too low if anything. Almost hit. To be honest I have not watched temps throughout the print, I get it started and walk away usually.

I can easily run my thermal camera on it though and check temps. Slowed fans down and printed a bus card holder for a buddy cause his wife used the solder station I made him to hold her cards lol.

 

[1911ly]

My fan ducts are too low if anything. Almost hit. To be honest I have not watched temps throughout the print, I get it started and walk away usually.

I can easily run my thermal camera on it though and check temps. Slowed fans down and printed a bus card holder for a buddy cause his wife used the solder station I made him to hold her cards lol.

I wish I has one of those cameras. Sounds like it would be handy as hell.

I got some stuff printed for the new printer. After many attempts to get what I wanted I got this and I am happy with it.





I have the base plate for the Ramps/Mega board done. I need to print sides and a top cover.





And it's alive!!



I am in the middle of printing the power supply brackets. When that is done I can work on the wiring.

More to come soon...

 

[actaeon277]

what kind of temperatures do you need to measure.
thermal guns are a good way to remotely measure temperature.

 

[actaeon277]

https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Las...F8&qid=1486874127&sr=8-1&keywords=thermal+gun

 

[1911ly]

https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Las...F8&qid=1486874127&sr=8-1&keywords=thermal+gun

I have a couple IR thermometers that do work well. The camera has a wow factor to it! LOL

 

[Sheepdog Gear]

I just looked that printer up. You will have to post some pictures and let us know what you think of it.

There is a learning curve. I am still figuring out new things. But it is all worth it once you see something you make come off the plate! If you haven't checked out Thingiverse.com you might want to. That are a lot of cool things to print. If you have any questions let us know. One of us can probably help you.

Thanks! I unboxed it yesterday, but ran out of time. Hopefully I can get it set up today.

I already have a few questions, so maybe you can help....

1) Do I 100% NEED the Flexystuder to print flexible filament?
2) I went to Purdue for CGT, so I am pretty well versed in modeling in 3DS Max and Inventor. Can those be used to model and then print, or will I have to export my models and run them through a separate program?
3) I'm interested in using that water soluble support filament, which obviously means I would need the dual extruder. Everything I hear about Lulzbot is extremely positive, but I hear mixed reviews on their dual extruder. Any thoughts?
4) Is that Defense Distributed AR lower still floating around somewhere, (legally)?

I'm sure I'll have more when I start printing.

 

[Sailor]

Act, I have that same thermal gun, but a camera gives you a better overall picture of whats going on.

Sheepdog.

1. I think so many people switch them out to try flex filament. I have a roll but have not tried it yet.
2. No idea what CTG is lol. I have autodesk and no skills but I think you have to export your model to an .stl file then slice it with your slicer. I use Simplify 3D.
3. No clue
4. The entire Defcad zip file contains many many designs. Gigs. PM me.

 

[4651feeder]

...so I am pretty well versed in modeling in 3DS Max and Inventor. Can those be used to model and then print, or will I have to export my models and run them through a separate program?...

I don't believe either of the two programs you mention generate model Gcode containing machine parameters? If you choose to use Cura which is the current program Lulzbot is endorsing as your slicing/Gcode generator, it will open .stl, .obj, or .amf files.

 

[Sheepdog Gear]

Act, I have that same thermal gun, but a camera gives you a better overall picture of whats going on.

Sheepdog.

1. I think so many people switch them out to try flex filament. I have a roll but have not tried it yet.
2. No idea what CTG is lol. I have autodesk and no skills but I think you have to export your model to an .stl file then slice it with your slicer. I use Simplify 3D.
3. No clue
4. The entire Defcad zip file contains many many designs. Gigs. PM me.

Computer Graphics Technology. Sorry!

I'll shoot you a PM even I get home. Is that lower in there? And would it be best to print it nylon or ABS?

I don't believe either of the two programs you mention generate model Gcode containing machine parameters? If you choose to use Cura which is the current program Lulzbot is endorsing as your slicing/Gcode generator, it will open .stl, .obj, or .amf files.

Thanks! I know I can export to .obj. I'll have to check .stl.

 

[Sailor]

There are all kinds of lowers in that megapack.

I have not tried nylon yet. PETG I know is stronger than abs, it has a little flex though. Shrinks less. I am going to try with it.

 

[1911ly]

A bit of an update. The ramps/mega case is printed. There are 6 pieces to it. I found the design on Thingiverse but I made some changes to the base plate so it mounts to the rails for the frame. The same goes for the display case. It came out well. The power supply is mounted and wired. All the end of limit switches are mounted. I pretty much just have to wire the steppers and end of limit switches. I am to the point where hopefully things go faster.

Here is a test of the stepper motor wiring. I had to figure out the pinout for the ramps and stepper motor wiring. I got it right the first time! Yea! The display is turned 180 for the moment so I can see what's up with the controller and the motor wiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydX7HRnXITg&feature=youtu.be

More to come later.

 

[Sailor]

Overhang test, not my best work, then a left fan I removed wires dropped and pulled my print all over.

 

[1911ly]

Overhang test, not my best work, then a left fan I removed wires dropped and pulled my print all over.

View attachment 53181

It looks like it was doing it well! I can;t wait to see the new printer start printing. I have enough metal to enclose it like the Pegasus. I envision doing it a bit different. But everything is subject to change!

 

[Sailor]

My hot ends heat sink fan spills down on the to bed cooling that area. I need to shield that possibly. Plus my wires are still a mess waiting for my rotary fan to come before I organize and wire wrap stuff. So nothing is printing here. My 2nd printer has shipped, will be here in a few days. I may leave it a work so I can print during the day.

Not feeling motivated to dig into working on anything tonight. My bench is a mess.

Propagation is not bad on 40m tonight though. Last 2.5 hours of contacts via WSPR.

 

[1911ly]

It's alive! I did a test print a little bit ago.

[video=youtube;eXVChwwroMA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXVChwwroMA[/video]





The print came out of for a first print. The temp is to high. The file was sliced for my son's printer which has a smaller bed. So the print is off center of the bed. That's ok. I wanted to see it print something! It printed fairly accurate dimension wise. I have some tweaking to do.

I will not lie. The was a learning curve and a bit of a b*tch to do without any directions! I made them up as I want along. But it was a great learning adventure. I started the project with bits/ pieces parts from everywhere. Probably the biggest PIA was software/ firmware, setting the steps for the Z axis without knowing a lot about the firmware. The firmware I use was for the Makerfarm Pegasus printer. The lead screw thread pitch was different then the steps in the original firmware and so was the thermistor for the hot head on the extruder. I needed to change both, Some google foo turned up a lot of helpful info on the changes that needed to be made in the firmware.

Here is the geek stuff. I needed to figure out how much travel I had with these lead screws. The easiest way to measure it that I could thing of was to use a dial caliper to measure it. I made it really easy to follow the movement by making the display track with the caliper. Easy peasy. Manually run the Z axis up near the top using the move axis control in the menu. Turn the machine off and unplug the Z axis plugs and rotate them 180 and plug them back in. Turn the machine on and the display will show zero when you go in to the move axis menu/Z axis. This is nice because you can move the Z axis and see the difference between the displays and make the changes necessary in fimware to make the to displays track the same. But be careful of what you do with it wired this way. If you tell it to home it will run right off the end of the lead screws. FYI I did not do that but it would happen if you did.

Here is the cheesy way I mounted the caliper, hey, it worked!



The line that sets the axis's travel is in the configuration.h file.

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {80.19,80.19,1601.08,90}

To pick this apart, the 80.19 is the X axis, the second 80.19 is the Y axis, the 1601.08 is the Z, the 90 is the extruder. The 1601.08 was set to 4000.

I would not tinker in the firmware without seriously researching what you want to change. You can do some serious hardware damage!

My son it really thrilled about the new printer, for one thing he gets to use his printer for printing stuff for himself now! lol. He is already talking about wanting to turn his printer in to one like mine. Lol. We will be doing more upgrades to his. We are having a great time.

I have probably saved 300 or so dollars. It's really sturdy. It was a awesome project. I learned a lot. I love to tinker save money and build cool stuff. So it was a win win!


I have more to do. I need to make an enclosure. I think I am going to make a few changes to the graphics display case. I still need to tweak all the axis adjustments. I am going to change some of the wire routing around. I will be posting more info as I go along.

 

[1911ly]

My hot ends heat sink fan spills down on the to bed cooling that area. I need to shield that possibly. Plus my wires are still a mess waiting for my rotary fan to come before I organize and wire wrap stuff. So nothing is printing here. My 2nd printer has shipped, will be here in a few days. I may leave it a work so I can print during the day.

Not feeling motivated to dig into working on anything tonight. My bench is a mess.

Propagation is not bad on 40m tonight though. Last 2.5 hours of contacts via WSPR.

I need to add a print cooler to the new printer. One hurdle at a time. I bought a bunch of radial fans to play with. Let me know what you go with for a design. Harry likes the one I make for his. I am up in the air on what cooler to go with. I have several type fans I bought, 30, 40mm and then the radials. I need to order a fan for the Ramps Mega Case. I really like the design. I modified the base so now it can mount to the frame rail. Same for the Display case. Of you want the STL's I will send them to you to tinker with.

I haven't had the radio on since fall I think. I really need to spend some time in the shack. I need to brush up on my CW. The 7800 and my SDR stuff do it quite well. We should set up a time to get on. I we should be able to do 40 or 80 any day of the week.

JT65 is a cool mode. My buddy,fellow ham geek builder Chuck WA6LTV in Georgia is really in to it big. He runs as little as 100mw's and has worked the world with some patience.

 

[Sailor]

Yeah post up any STL's you have. New printer looks sweet, I did not even try to follow what you did there to get that Z axis stuff right.

I saw a thingverse radial fan to 40mm fan adapter, so I can try the various 40mm ducts and just attach the radial not sure which way I am going to go yet.

7800 as in IC-7800? If so sweet Jesus are you married? Jealous, I was just thinking about trying a something different than my 857D so I could have a second receiving antenna. Suburban noise and all.

 

[Sailor]

I like this guys flexi nozzles

[video=youtube;jjVhMY9Bhbw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjVhMY9Bhbw[/video]

 

[Sailor]

Ramps fan mount

RAMPS 1.4 Fan Mount, 40mm, parametrizable by schlotzz - Thingiverse

 

[1911ly]

Yeah post up any STL's you have. New printer looks sweet, I did not even try to follow what you did there to get that Z axis stuff right.

I saw a thingverse radial fan to 40mm fan adapter, so I can try the various 40mm ducts and just attach the radial not sure which way I am going to go yet.

7800 as in IC-7800? If so sweet Jesus are you married? Jealous, I was just thinking about trying a something different than my 857D so I could have a second receiving antenna. Suburban noise and all.

Yep, it's the Icom IC-7800. It's a fun rig. It does everything but walk the dog and do the dishes. Lol. I am a widower. I lost my wife to cancer about 7 years ago. We always have done well $$ wise and have afforded a few nice toys for our self's. If you can enjoy the fruits of your labor why not do it? I can say if I kicked off tomorrow there would not be many regrets. I have don't a lot of the things I wanted to do.

I like this guys flexi nozzles

[video=youtube;jjVhMY9Bhbw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjVhMY9Bhbw[/video]

That's pretty slick! I can see working with that concept. I wonder what he is using for an air source? maybe a small air compressor? I can imagine just using a few small fans pressurizing a small box with tubing, maybe a few pieces of tubing in parallel going between the cooling head and the air box?

I made some serious changes to the printer. I "cubed it" like the Pegasus. The cube part is more for holding panels then for strength. The 20x 60 rail I build the frame out of is really solid. It's to early to post pics. I haven't disabled the printer (gonna need it to print some of the parts I still need). But it's not pic worthy at the moment. I need to redesign the graphics display and I might even move the power supply to a different location and the controller too. Still pondering the ideal. I will post some pictures sometime tomorrow.

I will do a walk around video too. I might do a parts list and the places to get the parts and post it up too. Just in case anyone is crazy enough to want to build one like it or similar. I can say that I am really happy with the printer. It is turning out nice. But like any other project I have done( you would have to really know me to understand), it will go threw some changes until I get it where I want it. I like to tinker with my projects. As I learn more I'll incorporate changes. My son wants a dual extruder now. So that might happen, and that will mean a different controller.

I am having a really great time with the project. I appreciate the forum interest in it. And I am glad to see other people post up about there printers too. There are so many cool printers out there. And lots of sharper then me guys I would love to learn from. So if anyone that is reading this has a printer and or is thinking about getting one? Please post up about it. And you guys that know cad programming please post up some projects and any tips or tricks! We would love to see what you come up with. I am totally new to 3d modeling and I am struggling threw things but have learned so much in the last month or so.

More to come soon!