upahill

Congrats on the new career! Im just up the road in Monmouth so also interested in any replies as would be good to find out whats going on near here.

SGL Star Party is only about an hour away in Hereford, and I think there is AstroCamp too in Cwmdu, Brecon Beacons twice a year but I haven't been to that one yet so can't comment much. Should be able to find it on Facebook though.

21 minutes ago, Gina said:

We'll just about be acclimatised to the heat when the weather will change back to normal and we'll all be freezing!!!  Haven't done much today myself.  My usual walk up the hill before it got too hot this morning and a rest on the bed this afternoon.

Yep, its usually at that point that I realise I havent got heating oil 😆

Its been horrific today, I was dripping wet in B&Q lugging the blocks around the store, almost got to the car and realised they had charged me for 12 rolls of turf at 4x the price, so lugged them all back again.

They are staying in the car until later tonight I think

Spent a couple of hours digging out in this mad heat - only about 12" down so far, having to break away at stones to clear them out with a shovel. I wont be going much deeper.

I picked up 12 breeze blocks today, im just reluctant to hand mix 20 bags of concrete - these are a little easier to handle

My pier base method seems to change every time I go in there.

This has less mechanical connection to the mass, but I think it will be ok for my needs.

I should be able to get 12" below ground, the other layers will take it up to the deck, so in theory the slab will be the only thing protruding into the obsy itself. Ill M10 bolt the pier to the slab and chemically fix it to the slab, then set the whole slab and pier into a mortar bed for final levelling.

55 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I have just booked for Friday till Monday. I am a real newbie, only had a scope for about 2 years so I cannot engage in any riveting Astro stuff but really want to meet some of you so please be gentle with a SGL Virgin 🙂 

P.S. This is really out of my comfort zone  as I do not  hold conversation easily so hope all will go well on my first outing 🙂 

Steve

Hi Steve,

Was our first year last year, at any star party, everyone was very gentle with us 😄 Weather wasn't great for stargazing but I highly recommend turning up for the quiz (hopefully the bar will in the tent again too )

There were some great talks too, learnt quite a bit over the few days. You will have a great time and the camp site is great. I am a bit of a social introvert myself and found it all very relaxed and welcoming.

The curry and hog roast were pretty good too, so worth getting tickets for that if you havent already. 👍
 

Colab with @Gina on the giant printer? Look forward to seeing it when you do will be impressive.

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Yeah, although not off the top of my head.  I've got all the marlin source for my board.

Once enabled in the firmware, a simpe microswitch wired to any spare input should be usable - you can configure what you wired it too in the firmware.

Theres a basic summary here of someone doing similar to a Tevo - i actually have some spare switches and should probably do this myself too, M412 S1 enables runout detection. Not sure how to configure the routine so it does smart stuff like disabling heat / beeping etc - need to look into it a little more.

3 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

The problem with Marlin is the slow development cycle (still on 1.9, no 2.0 ??? ), coupled with 'single use, i.e. 3D printing' target for the control.

There are newer 32 bit boards that use Marlin, but the software doesn't make good use of the hardware available, so limits their possibilities.

Granted, Prusa, uses Marling on his machines, but its VERY heavily modified.... 

Yeah marlin has been alpha with 2.0 for at least 2-3 years now
I have been torn between the RAMBo Einsy with Marlin and the Duet for my next controller for a while - duet will probably win out in the end as tinkering with Marlin does my head in and the web interface on the Duet really appeals to me as it wont need Octoprint in the middle.

53 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I want to fit a filament out detector to my Prusa i3 clone.

I'm pretty sure a microswitch will do the job, the trick is finding which set to terminals to wire it across and what to add into the code to enable it...

Do you know which board your clone runs on, there are probably ready to print/wire solutions on thingiverse but will likely require a marlin recompile whatever way you go.

@Carbon Brush retrofitting a Duet might provide you with more control, keep the mechanics of the Makerbot but just swap out the brains. Something worth considering perhaps when the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

48 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

At work we have Makerbot Replicators (yes one up from toys I know).
The extruder detects when out of filament and pauses manufacture.
We have the printers connected to our internal network, so the relevant person gets a desktop notification.
Doing this means we don't have to worry about whether there is enough material on a part reel.

I keep thinking about adding filament loss detection to the Colido DIY model I have in my garage, but never get around to doing it.
A mechanism to detect filament loss is easy enough using a small optical detector either side of the filament.
I have yet to work out how to pass this signal to the controller.
It always seems easier to be pop into the garage and keep an eye on how much is remaining!

Are the makerbots still closed source, I know some of the mainboards available now have better input control for things like filament detection.

Amazing thread and models, I just started this print and am overwhelmed by the effort you have gone through!

5 minutes ago, johninderby said:

I have metal 0.4 nozzles on mine and have no problems with clogging etc. although as mentioned some filaments produce better results

This is the style I couldnt get on with.... had them on the CTC printers

The TEVO printers ship with a V6 clone, but as you can see from this diagram the teflon inserts still melt and clog.

A perhaps worthy mention alongside the filament choice is the extruder choice. I had no end of problems with clogging, breaks, melted teflon etc on both the CTC Dual (MK8) and the Black Widow - eventually, reluctantly, sprung for a genuine E3D Hotend and just like that every filament/extruder problem solved. Hands down the best mod I have done.

I only use 0.4 nozzles really, but switching to the all metal type has made life so much easier now and havent had a clog since I got it.

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I buy bog-standard AMZ3D PLA off amazon for about £11-£14 a reel. Find it works much better than Rigid Ink on my printer. I suspect that every printer has its favourite filament.

Very true. Couldnt get on with Rigid.ink myself, but Gina rates it well as do many many others. I have had expensive filaments give me grief and now use mostly Sunlu or Surreal brand cheap stuff. None of my stuff is mission critical or for resale though, so I can cope with the occasional failure/defect.

One thing I would like to do is make the move to larger rolls of 3mm stuff - if I could find a factory willing to put some 10kg rolls in our next container it would be a bargain for sure!

I love the idea of printable supports - and will get round to it one day, but I spend long enough faffing with one extruder

Maybe if I was doing it on a daily basis it would be worthwhile, but for now im happy with designing for not needing support and using the single extruder.

I did have the CTC Bizer Dual but the second head became used as spares for the first

All this talk kind of makes me want to go and get my Formlabs printer up and running..... or sell it - havent decided which will be the least hassle yet.

35 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Just realised I'd be a bit mad starting off with a £700+ printer!  So I'm going to order the Ender 3.  Any accessories that you reckon are essential?

Makes sense.

Stuff you might need: Filament, more filament, oh and filament.

Calipers are handy too for calibration, cheap plastic ones are fine.

Tom Sanladerer has a 3 hour video where he unboxes, builds and configures an Ender 3 - may be worth watching / skipping through to get an idea of how its put together, etc.

3 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks, I would definitely revise my budget if needed, the reviews seem good for that model.

The Prusa are pretty much the "gold standard" for home 3d printers, a lot of innovation from Josef and his team that usually finds it way into the clones shortly after.

2 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Seems to be a few deals?

 

https://technologyoutlet.co.uk/collections/creality3d/products/creality-3d-ender-3-3d-printer

Good prices, I use amazon as the returns are super simple so just looked there first but yeah anywhere from £160-£200 is about right for the Ender 3 - some are clones (usually branded as Hictop) so worth watching out for those. Some come with the BL Touch option for bed leveling but its not something I use, some people swear by it, others cant stand it - im old school and level up by eye / with a set of feeler guages. The prusa printers use a much more complex and reliable self levelling system.

Filament is the same, some swear by £30+ rolls of filament, I use whatever is the cheapest grey I can get (£9-11 a roll) and yeah I get a few failures but generally my stuff comes out ok if the machine is calibrated for the filament.

If your budget is flexible, and you want less headaches with features like self-leveling etc, or if you are prepred to go second hand then you cant go wrong with a Prusa either:

https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html

Cheaper clones of the prusa are also available.

Just now, tooth_dr said:

Thanks for that

My friend, who has several printers, seem to encounter a lot issues and failed prints.  Is this the norm?

On my black widow I still get failed prints - its almost always down to the bed level, cheap or old filament or poor model design. As you go you start finding things to improve on the machines which help with all the little problems.

Dont think there are any perfect printers yet

Good thing about printers such as the Enders are the popularity, check out thingiverse.com and type in ender 3 and you will see all the improvement, mods and fixes you can do if you choose / need to.

24 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I've been getting my friend to print out the occasional part for me on his 3d printer, exclusively for astroimaging applications.  However I'm getting a bit conscious of asking him, and as such I think I would like to take the plunge and buy my own.

I feel like the guy asking 'Whats the best telescope to buy?' on the forum!

 

So any recommendations?  Something for small stuff, £500 or less.

 

TIA

Adam.

 

Ender 3 is the one I recommend to everyone. Bought one for my dad and it just works, very few tweaks required. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Creality-3D-Megnetic-Certified/dp/B07J64F5LY/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=ender&qid=1565702172&s=gateway&sr=8-4

At £199 or "230 with the magnetic heat bed sticker and upgraded power supply its pretty reasonably priced too.

They have a newer version the ender 5 but I have no experience of that directly.

These were taken after about 25 minutes of assembly and calibration:

Welcome Back!

Finally got round to setting the 3D printer back up in the barn and printed a quick handle that will do the job...

Now onto printing saturn V.

Strike that - resetting the rings to the 'proper' position on the bar gives me a choice of 100mm or 130mm centres - there is no configuration for 120mm, I would prefer 130 over 100 as theres more to grip, back to WDS or SolidWorks I think.

The good thing about printing one is I can match the profile on the top of the rings.

Could print something like this, if I got some stronger material than PLA, although whenever I carry it will be held underneath too - its just for convenience really.

That way it would mate up with the 40x18 tops of the rings, take an M6 socket cap bolt and could be painted to match.

I really didn't need another job lol.

55 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Having seen the OP's skills at building an observing platform and dome in another thread, I'd have thought a DIY solution quite cheap and achievable.  I'd imagine a couple of right angle brackets or offcuts of aluminium right angle section with a length of 15mm copper tube or similar between them would do the job nicely.  Handles on OTAs do look very neat and I'm sure they're very practical, but many commercially produced ones seem eye-wateringly expensive for what they are.

James

I considered it, could print one, or if i ever fix the cnc i could make one on that. But for the sake of a fiver for the one above with a nice moulded grip I might just do that and save myself a job

35 minutes ago, johninderby said:

How about one of these handles? They seem to have gone a bit overboard in their desription though. 🤭

Industrial Urban Farmhouse Steampunk Style Door Handles 

Right sort of style, maybe a bit too bulky around the edges, hard to explain but the area with the bolt holes is quite small and these would protrude around them. Thanks for looking though.

I think the end result is this:

£5.30 + vat + post, might need reaming for a larger bolt though, need to measure the ones that were in there before, if I go for the 120mm handle then it takes M6 bolts, the 100mm handle takes M5 which would be too small.

Or print something......