3D Printers

[Dr_Ju_ju]

If you have some spare cash, then have a look at the Prusa SL1  https://www.prusa3d.com/original-prusa-sl1/   for another wedge, they also do a washing station....

[lensman57]

Just be careful with handling of the resin. These guys do print with incredible resolution and smoothness but I am not sure how permanent the prints are. Like the PLA that is beautiful to print but has no real use in the real world due to lack of strength.

[Stub Mandrel]

37 minutes ago, lensman57 said:

 Like the PLA that is beautiful to print but has no real use in the real world due to lack of strength.

?

I have PLA parts doing their jobs in the real world. I even found one part that was more reliable printed in PLA than PETG because of the requirements on it and the difficulty of printing consistently in PETG.

And yes, I have done experiments such as pull-out tests for things like metric fixings into PLA prints and comparing the strengths of test pieces printed with different orientations.

All materials have their limitations, understand these, choose an appropriate material and design well and your parts will cope with the real world.

[upahill]

2 hours ago, lensman57 said:

Just be careful with handling of the resin. These guys do print with incredible resolution and smoothness but I am not sure how permanent the prints are. Like the PLA that is beautiful to print but has no real use in the real world due to lack of strength.

I pretty much exclusively print PLA and never had issues with it. Now im not printing shelving brackets or caribiners for mountain climbing but a lot of the fears about PLAs stability seem to be theory rather than fact.

Im closing in on 18months experiment with a EQ6 pier adapter printed in PLA, mounted outdoors 24/7 with plenty of temp variation, sunlight exposure etc. Not a single problem.

[PeterW]

I have colleagues at work using the Formlabs High temp resin in several experiments. Each material will have its own personality and uses. Print settings and postcure (for SLA) May also be factors.

Peter

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, upahill said:

I pretty much exclusively print PLA and never had issues with it. Now im not printing shelving brackets or caribiners for mountain climbing but a lot of the fears about PLAs stability seem to be theory rather than fact.

Im closing in on 18months experiment with a EQ6 pier adapter printed in PLA, mounted outdoors 24/7 with plenty of temp variation, sunlight exposure etc. Not a single problem.

My meteor detecting yagi is held together with black PLA parts, hard to imagine anything more exposed to sun light and weather in this area. Previous weather station parts up on top of the same aluminium pole gradually degaraded so i'm not expecting it to last forever, but after 12 months out I inspected it and couldnt see any signs of degradation, it's been up longer than that now.

[RolandKol]

What about resign?

Which one can be used outside properly?

 

As far as l read, it is very UV sensitive

[Alien 13]

I would love a printer that could produce Bakelite parts, odd that the very first "plastic" is still the best 

Alan

[Stub Mandrel]

11 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I would love a printer that could produce Bakelite parts, odd that the very first "plastic" is still the best 

In teh central Atlantic there's an island 27  square miles in area, composed entirely of old telephone handsets and magnifying glass handles.

[Chriske]

On 14/09/2019 at 18:59, Stub Mandrel said:

My meteor detecting yagi is held together with black PLA parts, hard to imagine anything more exposed to sun light and weather in this area. Previous weather station parts up on top of the same aluminium pole gradually degaraded so i'm not expecting it to last forever, but after 12 months out I inspected it and couldnt see any signs of degradation, it's been up longer than that now.

Bit strange, black PLA did not deform in the sun Neil...???

This is what I did, tested a few materials, a few years ago.
Ring 150mm diameter, the material was printed hollow. ALL perimeters were only 0.8mm thick.

Different materials, different colours.
Wheight : 1liter water in each bottle.
Left hanging in the sun from spring untill Autumn.

nGen - Black
ABS - Blue
PLA - black
PLA - white

Early spring

To speed up things I added water after a few weeks.

mid summer

 

Autumn :
The absolute winner : PLA-white

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Chriske said:

Bit strange, black PLA did not deform in the sun Neil...???

Even if it gets warm, it's only going to deform if you exceed its elastic limit.

 

[Gina]

But why not use white - far less likely to be affected by UV?

Edited September 17, 2019 by Gina

[PeterW]

My understanding is that ASA is better for outside usage. UV resistance would be material dependent. I made a solar finder for a refractor... popped up the drawtube... certainly bubbled and smoked a bit in use... made in black, just what happens to be in the machine...... Got to learn somehow!!

Peter

[pete_l]

3 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 UV resistance would be material dependent.

Is it not possible to paint the 3D printed object? Use an exterior grade paint and maybe a primer and the UV properties of the plastic wouldn't be an issue.

[PeterW]

Of course, just need to find a paint that will work for the different polymers that can be printed.

Peter

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, Gina said:

But why not use white - far less likely to be affected by UV?

While white may reflect some UV, black pigment is more likely to stop it penetrating, limiting the depth to which the plastic can be degraded.

https://www.directplastics.co.uk/about_plastics/post/how-uv-affects-engineering-plastics

Quote

Tips that may help
To improve the life of a component, it would be an advantage if the plastic used was black, this is because the carbon in the black pigment will absorb some of the radiation to extend its life by some amount but its certainly not going to extend it substantially. Before you ask, slapping some factor 50 on wont help either.

 

[Dave_D]

2nd print since i got the Mars... i wouldn't even know where to begin doing this on a FDM printer...

still needs cleaning up and gluing once the tail is finished, but dayum...

10" long (5 parts of the model done so far, 1 to go) cost about £3.50 in resin

 

Edited September 22, 2019 by Dave_D

[Stub Mandrel]

Awesome print

 

[lensman57]

On 22/09/2019 at 21:30, Dave_D said:

2nd print since i got the Mars... i wouldn't even know where to begin doing this on a FDM printer...

still needs cleaning up and gluing once the tail is finished, but dayum...

10" long (5 parts of the model done so far, 1 to go) cost about £3.50 in resin

 

I have done this on my I3-M . Very difficult print for a FDM . A lot of delicate supports needed and the temp has to be spot on for the bridges and overhangs. Your result is very very smooth and nice. Well done.

[Chriske]

The head strongly reminds me : Alien..?

[Jkulin]

Hi All,

So having skimmed through 20 pages and with very limited understanding/skills with a budget of up to around £700 should I look at the Prusa MkIII or would you recommend something else, I am not an engineer and have no CAD skills, just a simple Joe Bloggs off the street?

Looking at mostly Astro stuff with maybe other small household gizmos later.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Go for the Prusa, it will just work & produce very good results.....   but then I'm biased, as I have a MK2s, as well as others, but the Prusa is always my go to printer, unless what I want printed is too big.

[RolandKol]

23 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Hi All,

So having skimmed through 20 pages and with very limited understanding/skills with a budget of up to around £700 should I look at the Prusa MkIII or would you recommend something else, I am not an engineer and have no CAD skills, just a simple Joe Bloggs off the street?

Looking at mostly Astro stuff with maybe other small household gizmos later.

At first, decide which material you will wish to be able to print, most of the printers are able to print ABS and PETG (which is more than enough for Astro "toys", please correct me if I am wrong)

and you can get them much cheaper, for example, - Creality Ender 3 or Anycubic Mega-S,  - price £200ish.

However, if you will decide to print Polycarbonate or Nylon and do not like to mod cheap stuff and play with it a bit to make it work, Prusa should work with these materials out of the box,

[upahill]

37 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Hi All,

So having skimmed through 20 pages and with very limited understanding/skills with a budget of up to around £700 should I look at the Prusa MkIII or would you recommend something else, I am not an engineer and have no CAD skills, just a simple Joe Bloggs off the street?

Looking at mostly Astro stuff with maybe other small household gizmos later.

 

I think the learning curve will be the same regardless of Prusa or Ender 3. Both will print well in PLA - for ABS or PETG the Prusa has a better hotend.

An Ender3 will get you up and running for £200 and let you focus on stuff like designing parts, learning cad etc. If it ever becomes a limitation you will a) have more experience by then to be able to identify that and therefore know what you need and b) will hold its value reasonably well and give you something (75%? of its cost) back towards a Prusa.

If money isn't an issue then yeah get a Prusa, set it up and forget about it knowing that it will just print when you want it to. The prusa has a lot of features that make life a little easier like bed levelling which can be a PITA if you are not used to it, magnetic build plates, larger community of support and upgrades, better hotend (less clogs etc)

So yeah the prusa is the better machine, but an ender will do the job if you dont mind a bit more tinkering.

 

[pete_l]

29 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

At first, decide which material you will wish to be able to print, most of the printers are able to print ABS and PETG ..
However, if you will decide to print Polycarbonate or Nylon

Unfortunately until you have experience of all of those you won't have the ability to make that decision.