The 3d printing thread

[peps1]

I thought it looked a bit to advanced for me lol I think it would be best for me to just stick with something like a Prusas i3

Yeah, I would start with a Prusa style i3, Check out the Prusa i3 that the same people Wanhao make.......hard to beat for that price.
http://wanhaouk.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/duplicator-i3

 

[ax]

I know the Wanhao range quite well, and have one of their printers.

The 5s and 5s mini are much more aimed at industrial use for rapid prototyping large strong models FAST.

Their entry level is called the 4S, and then they have the i3 (the i3 is aimed a little more at people who have used a 3D printer before, or are happy to tinker with it to get the best results, and despite being cheaper, when configured right will out preform the D4 and 5s on print quality, subject to the person using it).

The i3 is excellent for a single person who can tweak stuff and print some modifications for it, the D4 is really good for things like schools where lots of people are going to use it out the box and not do any custom work, and the 5s is good for company that need to prototype parts fast and larger then normal print beds will allow, and the 5s mini is good for people who want a smaller form 5s for rapid prototyping, rather then high detail.

Cabinets (enclosed printers) have 3 main purposes, to keep the noise in, keep the heat in , and make venting smells away more easy.

The noise issue is not a big one for me, I don't find my open frame printer loud, but I don't sleep in the same room as it......I guess that could be annoying?

I dont have a issue with the smell, PLA smells like popcorn to me when printing, PETG has no smell, and ABS has a slight chemical smell to it, and some people get head aches printing ABS without ventilation.

The heat issue is a little less relevant now days, but up in till recently the only plastic people have been printing strong, heat resistant parts with was call ABS (same stuff lego is made off). ABS shrinks as it cools down, so without an enclosed heated chamber the print could cool to fast and start lifting off the bed and warping, and larger prints could even start pulling apart halfway up the model called delamination (though its worth saying people can and do print smaller ABS prints on open printers with no trouble at all, @ax has done some excellent ABS prints without a heated chamber)

Having a heated enclosed chamber kept the ABS near to its glass temperature till the print had finished allowing it to cool and shrink evenly.

But, ABS is dying out as a filament with new plastics like Polyethylene terephthalate and Copolyester (PETG/PET+/TGlass/colorFabb_XT) taking its place.....this shrinks much less when cooling, and as a result don't need to be printed in enclosed heated chambers.

ABS is a bitch, I only print it on the CTCForge as I can enclose it, Usually if I'm going to print ABS, I'll enclose the sides with cardboard and stick a box on the top. As it is, I've got some ColorFabb NGEN (new filament) coming, which is similar to XT, if this stuff works well, I'll be moving over to it exclusively. We shall see.

 

[outlawcox]

Yeah, I would start with a Prusa style i3, Check out the Prusa i3 that the same people Wanhao make.......hard to beat for that price.
http://wanhaouk.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/duplicator-i3

i like the look of that and its £40 cheaper than the i3 i was looking at getting. will be bookmarking that link for sure

 

[julesvapes]

Sounds like the drive gear slipping on the filament, are you passing filament just through the motor and bowden tube, or through the hot end too?

Have you double checked that the little grub screw that holds the gear on the stepper is screwed down tight?

Dose it make a CHUNK CHUNK CHUNK noise as it trys to feed the filament?

Pepsi, found out what the problem was! Swapped the extruder stepper driver with the x driver and it extrudes smooth as silk.
And then the x channel was noisy and lumpy!
I should have the replacement tomorrow, so final calbration and first test print in the evening!

 

[peps1]

ABS is a bitch, I only print it on the CTCForge as I can enclose it, Usually if I'm going to print ABS, I'll enclose the sides with cardboard and stick a box on the top. As it is, I've got some ColorFabb NGEN (new filament) coming, which is similar to XT, if this stuff works well, I'll be moving over to it exclusively. We shall see.

Have you tried PETG yet? if not shoot me you address and I will pop you some in the post.......have spools of the stuff and loving it.

i like the look of that and its £40 cheaper than the i3 i was looking at getting. will be bookmarking that link for sure

I have one, and love it.

Also a lot of users that are coming of with some excellent mods you can print yourself.

Pepsi, found out what the problem was! Swapped the extruder stepper driver with the x driver and it extrudes smooth as silk.
And then the x channel was noisy and lumpy!
I should have the replacement tomorrow, so final calbration and first test print in the evening!

Sweet, cant wait to see some prints from it!

 

[ax]

Pepsi, found out what the problem was! Swapped the extruder stepper driver with the x driver and it extrudes smooth as silk.
And then the x channel was noisy and lumpy!
I should have the replacement tomorrow, so final calbration and first test print in the evening!

Just out of curiosity, did you try adjusting the voltage on the Stepper driver? The Voltage being too low can cause that

Have you tried PETG yet? if not shoot me you address and I will pop you some in the post.......have spools of the stuff and loving it.

Yeah I have, prefer ColorFabb_XT though, which is even easier to print. The ColorFABB NGEN should arrive today, really interested to see how that works..

 

[julesvapes]

Just out of curiosity, did you try adjusting the voltage on the Stepper driver? The Voltage being too low can cause that


Yeah I have, prefer ColorFabb_XT though, which is even easier to print. The ColorFABB NGEN should arrive today, really interested to see how that works..

Hi ax, yes Roland at think3dprint3d walked me through the whole fault finding exercise. He did say it was unlikely to be the motor. I adjusted the voltage both ways and the motor was noisy either way apart from a tiny window. But once it was running it became unstable again. Hopefully I will have the new one in the post when I get home later.

 

[julesvapes]

Well I reckon it has taken about 8 hours of calibration because of the faulty driver, first print was a failure because I forgot to recalibrate the extruder again.!
So here are my first efforts left to right failed box, box knob, legs and back enclosure for lcd panel, resonance test and the front panel for the lcd is printing.

In the background a tin of dimafix. I am
Well impressed with that.

 

[ax]

Looking good. A Kossel is on the list of printers I want to have in the farm, along with a CoreXY, but that'll need to come later on. I'd probably throw out the RAMPS and shove in a Smoothieboard though as Smoothieware does Delta calculations correctly and faster. Marlin is just hacked in.

Not come across Dimafix, just did a quick look and it does seem an interesting adhesive. However at ~£11 a can, on a cursory search, it can stay interesting. I'll stick with the Insette hair spray at £1.75 for a 750ml can. I can kill something like that in 1-2 weeks with the amount of printing I do.

On to my bit. ColorFabb NGEN. It's a new filament from ColorFabb which is somewhere in between their PLA/PHA and XT. It's Amphora like XT, but prints easier than XT and PLA. I've not even finished a print with it yet (left the 9 sled plate running overnight) and it seems to just flow really well. It'll do a 45 degree overhang smoothly, I've actually left a proper overhang test running to see how it responds. I'll need to do a proper bridging test with it but small gaps on to supports don't even sag. I'll be moving Sledz over to this filament after I kill the PLA/PHA spools. If any of you guys want a sample, I have 3.75 kilos in 5 colours (5 750g spools), so I can spare a few meters, drop me a PM if you're interested

 

[julesvapes]

Looking good. A Kossel is on the list of printers I want to have in the farm, along with a CoreXY, but that'll need to come later on. I'd probably throw out the RAMPS and shove in a Smoothieboard though as Smoothieware does Delta calculations correctly and faster. Marlin is just hacked in.

Not come across Dimafix, just did a quick look and it does seem an interesting adhesive. However at ~£11 a can, on a cursory search, it can stay interesting. I'll stick with the Insette hair spray at £1.75 for a 750ml can. I can kill something like that in 1-2 weeks with the amount of printing I do.

On to my bit. ColorFabb NGEN. It's a new filament from ColorFabb which is somewhere in between their PLA/PHA and XT. It's Amphora like XT, but prints easier than XT and PLA. I've not even finished a print with it yet (left the 9 sled plate running overnight) and it seems to just flow really well. It'll do a 45 degree overhang smoothly, I've actually left a proper overhang test running to see how it responds. I'll need to do a proper bridging test with it but small gaps on to supports don't even sag. I'll be moving Sledz over to this filament after I kill the PLA/PHA spools. If any of you guys want a sample, I have 3.75 kilos in 5 colours (5 750g spools), so I can spare a few meters, drop me a PM if you're interested

yes the new think3dprint3d version 3 has been much upgraded but i didnt want to spend the other £140 for my first printer.

this is the electronics upgrade taken from their site:

There are substantial upgrades in Release 3: the main improvements include:-

• Duet V0.8.5 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 electronics with ethernet and USB connectivity and micro-SD card socket for configuration and print files.
  
  
• DC42 RepRap Firmware on the Duet - this takes advantage of the 32-bit processing power to provide true segmentation-free delta movement for improved smoothness and accuracy. Unlike most 8-bit firmware like Marlin, RepRap Firmware is precompiled and users should never need to modify or recompile it.