3D Printers

[Gina]

20 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Yep, the frame, it fact this printers body is completely metal, so any part may be aggressive... 

Should be earthed then.

Edited January 15, 2019 by Gina

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Also, If the frame is made of multiple parts that are anodized or painted then, to be completely safe, you need to add (bolted\screwed) bonding wires between each part of the frame, and to ensure continuity you must use serrated washers.... 

[JamesF]

Well, that's frustrating

I've been printing out a couple of RPi cases this afternoon -- a particular design that allows me to stack a number of them.  I have arranged two identical prints side by side on the bed.  One of them has just released itself from the bed with about 30 layers (of 200) left to print and is now completely messed up

I'm just hoping it doesn't mess up the other one.

This is with a different filament colour (still PLA, from the same supplier as my reels).  I'm wondering if perhaps I need a slightly warmer bed temperature or something like that for this one.

James

[Gina]

Different colours of the same type and brand can need different settings I've found.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I think that depends on the supplier...  Rigid Ink, E3D & Prusa are pretty good between colours of the same type material, not so with some of the other brands.

As I print onto PEI sheet (both the Prusa & DBot), which has been lightly keyed with a kitchen scourer. For PLA I don't have to go above 60 for the bed, and only add glue-stick  for higher materials e.g. ASA, Edge... which need beds temps of 90-110, and touch wood, I rarely get bed adhesion problems, in fact it can be a pain trying to get stuff off.

[Gina]

I print directly on glass and rarely have a problem as long as the glass is scrupulously clean.

[Shelster1973]

Well

I have now gone and joined the 3D printing world.

I did contemplate getting a resin printer as do like the look of the prints that come from them, but weighing it up in my head the one I was after cost twice as mush as the one I stumped for and that was before I factored in getting the IPA and UV curing station too.

Have plumped for a CTC 2018 FDM dual extruder Bizer printer from eBay.  Is due to be delivered tomorrow.  Description states that it comes with a spool of filament (either ABS or PLA) and have also ordered a 1KG spool of PETG+ from Amazon which should be here today too.

As this is my 1st 3D printer is all new to me an d was wondering what software people recommend for creating the models in?  Also, how difficult is it to actually create these models?

Am not sure what I will be creating with it yet, but am sure there will be a million and one things that I can imagineer up for Astro use.

[upahill]

5 minutes ago, Shelster1973 said:

Well

I have now gone and joined the 3D printing world.

I did contemplate getting a resin printer as do like the look of the prints that come from them, but weighing it up in my head the one I was after cost twice as mush as the one I stumped for and that was before I factored in getting the IPA and UV curing station too.

Have plumped for a CTC 2018 FDM dual extruder Bizer printer from eBay.  Is due to be delivered tomorrow.  Description states that it comes with a spool of filament (either ABS or PLA) and have also ordered a 1KG spool of PETG+ from Amazon which should be here today too.

As this is my 1st 3D printer is all new to me an d was wondering what software people recommend for creating the models in?  Also, how difficult is it to actually create these models?

Am not sure what I will be creating with it yet, but am sure there will be a million and one things that I can imagineer up for Astro use.

Cut my teeth on the Bizer, its a great little machine and there has been a whole host of mods and improvements designed for it as it has quite a large following - search for bizer on thingiverse and you will see what I mean. Best mod I ever did was the Y rod bearing mounts but this has probably been resolved in the newer versions anyway.

When it arrives I recommend going over it briefly and tightening any loose bolts on the frame, and double check terminals are nice and tight.

I cant help much with the software side of things, I use Solidworks as I happen to have a license but its overkill for what I do. Have heard good things about Fusion 360 though.

Thingiverse will get you started with stuff to print though while you get your head around creating your own custom stuff.

Have fun!

[JamesF]

How does one go about "remixing" designs on thingiverse where only the STL files are provided?  Is that even possible?

I have a nice set of stacking cases for three RPis now and I'd quite like to add one for my original models, but they need a different arrangement of holes for the sockets and SD card.

James

[Stub Mandrel]

1 minute ago, JamesF said:

How does one go about "remixing" designs on thingiverse where only the STL files are provided?  Is that even possible?

That way lies madness. Plenty of STL: editing packages, but an STL is a sensible 3D CAD model converted into zillions of triangles, making anything but adding lumps or cutting bits off next to impossible without breaking teh file.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I don't know the printer, but Don't rush it, as already said, even before powering on, check everything is bolted together correctly, and that the connections, are all firm etc. 

Then before connecting any PC etc., to it, power on & use the inbuilt test routines for alignment... 

If it comes with an SD card (as part of the software package), it will hopefully have some pre-sliced object files. If so, print a few of those off, to get a feel of what is happening.

When satisfied, all is ok, Install the software onto a PC\laptop etc. but before doing anything else, as its probably been in stock for some time, check for updates for the firmware and software\drivers, and install as appropriate, but only if you feel confident to do so...

As for creating models, if you have an engineering bent, then download & install OpenSCAD (free), but there are also free on-line tools e.g.  https://www.tinkercad.com.

Then you need a slicer (converts designed objects into 3d print commands). There are free and paid for software versions: Slic3r (free) \ Simplify3D (paid), but personally, my favourite is the Prusa edition of Slic3r, which even though is targeted at the Prusa printers, is easily adjustable to other models....

and most of all HAVE FUN !!

 

[Gina]

Slic3r and other slicers can scale an STL file to make a bigger or smaller print but I don't think there's much else you can do.  Some CAD softwares can import STL files but I haven't yet found one that works properly.

[RolandKol]

4 hours ago, upahill said:

Cut my teeth on the Bizer, its a great little machine and there has been a whole host of mods and improvements designed for it as it has quite a large following - search for bizer on thingiverse and you will see what I mean. Best mod I ever did was the Y rod bearing mounts but this has probably been resolved in the newer versions anyway.

When it arrives I recommend going over it briefly and tightening any loose bolts on the frame, and double check terminals are nice and tight.

I cant help much with the software side of things, I use Solidworks as I happen to have a license but its overkill for what I do. Have heard good things about Fusion 360 though.

Thingiverse will get you started with stuff to print though while you get your head around creating your own custom stuff.

Have fun!

Hi Hi,

I have also recently entered this "Terra incognita" of 3D prints,

And this is what I have learned so far about soft:

1st place: Autocad - difficult to use, Expensive like hell, but you will have almost no restrictions;

2nd place: Blender: almost like Autocad, but FREE, however I was not able to learn how to create precise models properly,  - I think I will come back to it sooner or later.

3rd place: SketchUP: Easy to use even for children, but looses in flexibility.... Sometimes it simply does not allow you to change shape of the model at the end of the design... and all must be re-done from the start...

As a name states, - quite nice to use for Sketches, or simple models but, not free also...

The last place, - OpenSCAD... Free, - lots of models online have .stl for printing and also .SCAD files for adjustment, however... OpenSCAD  is a command-line based openSource software, I afraid to invest time to learn it...

I decided to stick to Autocad as I was familiar with it before my 3D print adventures have started and my opinion is a bit biased...

But I am sure, sooner or later, I will be made to go back and learn Blender as I will not be able to afford Autocad for such a hobby.

 

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I'm not going to say how to, but it is possible to get a full blown version of Autocad for free, and I don't mean the Student version, although that will give you along time to evaluate.....

But as you say, Blender is free & will probably do 80-90% of what you want, but for quick knock-ups, I tend to use TinkerCad, which is an Autocad site...

[JamesF]

23 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

1st place: Autocad - difficult to use, Expensive like hell, but you will have almost no restrictions;

2nd place: Blender: almost like Autocad, but FREE, however I was not able to learn how to create precise models properly,  - I think I will come back to it sooner or later.

3rd place: SketchUP: Easy to use even for children, but looses in flexibility.... Sometimes it simply does not allow you to change shape of the model at the end of the design... and all must be re-done from the start...

As a name states, - quite nice to use for Sketches, or simple models but, not free also...

The last place, - OpenSCAD... Free, - lots of models online have .stl for printing and also .SCAD files for adjustment, however... OpenSCAD  is a command-line based openSource software, I afraid to invest time to learn it...

I've been a little reluctant to suggest OpenSCAD because writing code to generate objects isn't something many people are comfortable with.

There is also FreeCAD.  I've not used it (yet), but it's possibly my next port of call as it will allow me to exchange designs with my dad, who certainly wouldn't be into using OpenSCAD.

James

[RolandKol]

6 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I've been a little reluctant to suggest OpenSCAD because writing code to generate objects isn't something many people are comfortable with.

There is also FreeCAD.  I've not used it (yet), but it's possibly my next port of call as it will allow me to exchange designs with my dad, who certainly wouldn't be into using OpenSCAD.

James

I am not even suggesting OpenSCAD, - just wrote my findings
And thanks for the FreeCAD!!!

Will check it tonight!

[Chriske]

Whatever you will use to draw your parts, point I want to make is, draw it all yourself.
Downloading thingiverse files you will end up with parts that cannot be edited if you need to.
A lot of these thingiverse files will end up ok if it's a standalone thing. But printing complex parts or assemblies, 99% of the time it will not work. It would work, but only if you slice it exactly the same way as its owner ad needless to say using other filament and most of all another printer, it will not work.

For instance If I draw a focuser, some parts need to fit into eachother. If after printing I cannot assemble parts because of error somewhere, I re-open that file correct/redraw and reprint until ok. Sometimes I end up with three four, or five corrections until perfect.
It happens a friend asks me to add a feature to that focuser, well I re-open, edit and reprint as requested.
You'll never be able to do that with Thingiverse files.

There is some software MeshMixer(Autodesk) that lets you edit stl's but it is very limited what you can do with it.

Needles to say I never print Thingiverse files, never will. A large part of the fun is drawing your own projects, be it small or large.
The hard part is learning how that 3D-software works, but you ill benefit from it a lot once you master it. And again (in my case it is) it's part of the fun.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Gina said:

Slic3r and other slicers can scale an STL file to make a bigger or smaller print but I don't think there's much else you can do.  Some CAD softwares can import STL files but I haven't yet found one that works properly.

TurboCAD works, so you can use things like boolean operations to remove or add to an STL, but if you use node editing to move bits around you rapidly end up with proliferating  errors in the model.

[upahill]

2 hours ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Then you need a slicer (converts designed objects into 3d print commands). There are free and paid for software versions: Slic3r (free) \ Simplify3D (paid), but personally, my favourite is the Prusa edition of Slic3r, which even though is targeted at the Prusa printers, is easily adjustable to other models....

and most of all HAVE FUN !!

 

Worth mentioning that the bizer used to use the x3g format for sliced files - so most slicers couldn't handle it, or the gcode would need to be converted first. If thats the case you will find it easier to use the recommended slicer (I think it was the one from Makerbot when I had it) - The bizer is a mechanical clone of the Makerbot Replicator 2, but uses a different controller.

There are some other options for handling that but to get used to it stick to whatever will output in the necessary format.

Of course, im hoping they have changed it and switched to a standard marlin/ramps setup, in which case ignore everything I just said ?

2 hours ago, JamesF said:

How does one go about "remixing" designs on thingiverse where only the STL files are provided?  Is that even possible?

I have a nice set of stacking cases for three RPis now and I'd quite like to add one for my original models, but they need a different arrangement of holes for the sockets and SD card.

James

Some packages will let you import an STL and then work from that body (solidworks does for example) but its usually dreadful and you end up doing stuff like filling in holes and then remaking them because you cant modify the original. For fairly simple stuff I prefer to just redesign it and its usually quicker.

Redesigning it also has the added benefit of giving you a file you can further tweak down the road.

[Mognet]

I'll add a vote for TinkerCad as it's really easy to use for basic designs. Blender is very good, and is worth spending some time learning if you want to create more complex designs. Both are visual tools, so you can see how it looks as you work.

I'm not sure I would recommend OpenSCad to start with even though I use it. It's great for parametric designs and anything that needs calculations, but it requires a certain mindset. The language is easy enough, it's thinking in design terms and then translating it into code that causes some people problems. If you do want to try it, grab the latest development snapshot rather than the stable version as it has all the documented features.

[Gina]

Although a lifetime computer programmer I found I couldn't get my head round OpenSCAD.

[JamesF]

1 hour ago, Gina said:

Although a lifetime computer programmer I found I couldn't get my head round OpenSCAD.

My final year project for my degree was writing a ray tracer that used a simple CSG specification language so I have to admit that I felt quite at home

James

[chrisblaylock]

I'm glad someone mentioned OpenSCAD on here - downloaded it and I'm loving it!  I'm a software engineer so much prefer that way of working - you can produce accurate designs much quicker than you could with TinkerCAD.

[JamesF]

3 minutes ago, chrisblaylock said:

I'm glad someone mentioned OpenSCAD on here - downloaded it and I'm loving it!  I'm a software engineer so much prefer that way of working - you can produce accurate designs much quicker than you could with TinkerCAD.

Yes, if your brain works that way (and you're used to debugging stuff when it goes wrong) then I think it's pretty good.

One of the things I really do like about it is that (on Linux at least -- don't know about Windows) the OpenSCAD application can monitor an external file for changes, load it in and render it, so you can work on the code with your preferred editor and just write the file when you want it re-rendered.

James

[chrisblaylock]

2 minutes ago, JamesF said:

One of the things I really do like about it is that (on Linux at least -- don't know about Windows) the OpenSCAD application can monitor an external file for changes, load it in and render it, so you can work on the code with your preferred editor and just write the file when you want it re-rendered.

Thanks for that tip!  Yup, that works on Windows too - CTRL+F3 etc. etc. here we come!