3D Printers

[JamesF]

For the time being at least, I think I might prefer more convincingly grippy rubber on my motorbike wheels :)

I see the chap talking about the design appears to be wearing a pair of airpods.  Is it just me who sees people wearing those and thinks "Cyberman upgrade"?

James

[Gina]

I thought that about the tyres!

Edited January 29, 2019 by Gina
cent speil

[Mognet]

The tyre profile looked rather flat to me. That might explain why the bike was a bit wobbly even on gentle corners

[PeterW]

Given the regulatory nervousness of 3DP generally, I wouldn’t want to part with that sort of money. Just cos you can isn’t a good enough reason to do something.

Gina, you need to buy one of those wood summerhouse things so you have space for a meter class monster.. maybe need a screw extruded and a mm class nozzle!

https://www.e-ci.com/baam/

Peter

 

[Stub Mandrel]

You get house-built steam engines, why not a house built 3D printer? Fill a whole room with one (may be difficult to get prints out the door...

[Gina]

Peter, I have a nice wooden shed but it's got a ruddy great concrete obstruction in it, otherwise it would make a printer box with 2m cube capacity.  And the roof slides back so that the prints could be craned out!  OTOH I agree with your comment "Just cos you can isn’t a good enough reason to do something. ".  Though if pioneers of the past took this attitude...

Neil, I have considered using the smallest bedroom as a whole room printer but also thought of getting the prints out of the door.  In fact the problem with any huge indoor printer would be getting the prints out of the doorway.  There is the big shed though - previously used for cattle by the previous owner but currently full of clutter.  I have considered this.

Then again, is there anything I would like to print that is bigger than the capacity of my Giant printer?  And no, I can't think of anything!

[Stub Mandrel]

And can you imagine the distress of a metre-print failing at 95%...

[Gina]

That would be too big to go in the plastic recycling bag!!  I have had a 600mm high print fail near the top!

[Gina]

Wasn't very wide though and in spiral vase mode so not much filament scrapped.

[Gina]

I'm currently concentrating on my Mini printer, the other end of the scale.  This is part of the air duct for a parts cooler, printed in polycarbonate filament for high temperature as it goes round the hotend.  0.3mm nozzle and 300°C with 120°C bed.  This filament has a Tg (glass transition temperature) of 150°C.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Gina

[PeterW]

Impressive, I am getting some PPS soon, have some parts I want to make with it. Do you have a heated print volume?

Peter

[Gina]

No, it isn't heated, it isn't even enclosed ATM.

[PeterW]

Impressive, we had only a very heated plate and a very hot end and our peek trials were not great.

Peter

[DaveS]

Changed my mind.

Edited January 31, 2019 by DaveS

[Gina]

About what Dave?

[Alien 13]

Loving this thread but I wish someone could make a printer that could fit in a 4 inch cube, how hard could it be?

Alan

[Dr_Ju_ju]

9 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

Loving this thread but I wish someone could make a printer that could fit in a 4 inch cube, how hard could it be?

Alan

very, when you consider that a great proportion of any printer is the 'empty' space that you have to have for the object to be created in.  And then, there would be the electronics, movement motors (made smaller by using electrostatic displacement motors), hot end, heated ? bed, fans etc.....

[Chriske]

11 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

Loving this thread but I wish someone could make a printer that could fit in a 4 inch cube, how hard could it be?

Alan

My pal Marc made a printer able to print 4 inch cube max.
I know, not answering the question, but at least my sentence contains '4 inch cube'...
It's a gorgeous little thing and does work very well.

[DaveS]

12 hours ago, Gina said:

About what Dave?

Sorry, tried to link from my 'phone didn't work.

On the main computer now, so maybe I can do it.

I was browsing this thread, and the couple of posts about resin printers sent me off up that long river, where I found this:

Anycubic 3D Printer

Can't justify it yet, got too many serious expenses, and even some more "urgent" frivolities, but any thoughts?

 

Edit: I'm not looking to print massive stuff, but small precise parts. I've an Amici prism that I'd like to build into a spectroscope, and this looks like it could be precise enough for printing components.

Edited February 1, 2019 by DaveS

[Gina]

I decided that the minimum build volume I wanted was 8 inch cube (200mm) and I find I can't quite cram this into a foot cube space due to the size of necessary components.  I guess the objective of producing the smallest possible 3D printer could be a good project for someone.  The NEMA11 is a small stepper motor, the E3D Titan is a very compact extruder and V6 a reasonably small hotend.  But however small the 3D printer, there's still the size of the reel of filament.

[Gina]

26 minutes ago, DaveS said:

I was browsing this thread, and the couple of posts about resin printers sent me off up that long river, where I found this:

Anycubic 3D Printer

Can't justify it yet, got too many serious expenses, and even some more "urgent" frivolities, but any thoughts?

Edit: I'm not looking to print massive stuff, but small precise parts. I've an Amici prism that I'd like to build into a spectroscope, and this looks like it could be precise enough for printing components.

I've seen this technology before but this is the first time I've seen a printer at a reasonable price.  It's certainly interesting for small precision parts.  ATM I'm sticking to FDM.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Gina

[Chriske]

17 minutes ago, Gina said:

there's still the size of the reel of filament.

Come on Gina, a bit of fantasy and you could install a nano-printer inside a 2.2kg ColorFab reel. Lots of space there...
And to have some flexibility I would allow some parts to stick out of the reel...

[Chriske]

33 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Edit: I'm not looking to print massive stuff, but small precise parts. I've an Amici prism that I'd like to build into a spectroscope, and this looks like it could be precise enough for printing components.

Dave,

Why not just build a very small printer yourself..?
Like I said higher up in this thread, my pall Marc has built one. Max printable part 100x100x100.

I just finished building exactly the same as Marc, except this new one can print 100x200x130mm max.
I've built it for a friend,  Who's planning to use it exclusively for modelling train-parts.
He will be using it with 0.25 and 0.15mm nozzles only.
This very moment there's a 0.4mm nozzle installed. Walter(the new owner) never used a printer before, so he has to master the skill first. After a while he can change to smaller nozzles.
In this extruder I designed a fast swappable E3D hotend. So he only needs to remove the parts-cooling-duct(2screws) and the hotend itself(2screws) and that's it.

[DaveS]

Well, several reasons

1) I'm notoriously cack-handed and likely to make a complete bodge-up.

2) I don't, as yet, have a workshop where I can build stuff.

1+2 also means I probably need to print the parts I need, rather than make them.

3) Being a contrary cuss, the idea of going "the other way" with printing holds a certain attractiveness.

4) I'm seeing plenty of comments regarding bed temperature, hot-ends and the risk of fire from thermal runaway. I don't want to go there.

 

Maybe when I've got the garage properly insulated and condensation free I'll put in a work bench and power tools and be able to have a go at building a 3D printer, but not yet.

[Gina]

The changes of a fire are very low.  It was a bit of a problem some years ago but the firmware detection of problems these days has virtually eliminated it.

I guess building an FDM printer from scratch is rather a "catch 22" situation.  It is almost the case that you need a 3D printer to make some of the parts to build a 3D printer.  I say almost because you can buy ready made brackets etc. and make the rest with simple hand tools.  A half-way house is to buy a kit which is the way I started.  I don't have a workshop either.  Living room table is my work bench!