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Top 10 things to make with a 3D printer


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24 minutes ago, powerlord said:

I've never heard that about PLA ? I'd always heard it was good outside. But that was a very good experiment for sure. Though for our stuff you are doing something wrong if you are using it in the daytime 🙂

I'd never use ABS these days as I've said before. PLA is a great all rounder for sure. And I agree, the best for astro parts nearly always. When I need something with a bit more give, PC. And when I need something massively strong, some sort of PA6. But I have a cupboard full or reels of all sorts, so PETG, etc or whatever is in the printer might get used just to avoid faffing.

I agree with previous comment made about thingiverse stuff too - a lot of it is rubbish. but sometimes you find a gem that saves you time building it yourself. I used to share my parts there, but got sick of the stupid comments I'd get (which cannot be deleted) telling me I should have done this or that, or this bit is rubbish, etc. I used to have tons on there with 100s of downloads but deleted my account because if the comments tbh.

Print times wise - if you find them long, do check you have tuned your profile as I've said before. Out the box profiles are usually slow as treacle. Unless you are printing out starwars toys, you can tune things to speed up massively.

- try print speed of 120mm/s+

- push the movement speeds even higher

- tweak the heating, extrusion, etc to compensate as you go until you can't go any faster.

- print .3mm layer size .most of the time it's all you need.

- pull that infill right down. 10-20% is enough for mounts, etc for our stuff

- add an extra external shell with low infills - it's quick

- don't use rafts

From a default profile you could find a 2 hour print, goes down to 20 mins easy.

And Not only does that make it quicker to get a print, but more importantly, if you are designing your own stuff, it allows you to quickly prototype again and again without it being a PITA.

stu

 

 

I do use a mix of 3 nozzles, 0.4 for the very small parts and were needed I use a 0.7mm and also a 1.5mm nozzles. These 3 hotends are my standard nozzles I can use with 1.75mm filament.
A 2.0mm and a 2.5(!)mm nozzle is waiting to be used with my new printer(almost finished) and (of course) 2.85mm filament.
A huge 70mm radial fan is added to the heatsink of my heater to print as fast as my other big nozzles.
Using my 1.5mm nozzle btw I can print @ about 60mm/s. For this one I also use that 70mm radial fan.

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These hotends I was telling you about, well this my set.
They're all designed for my printer(own design also). Just two M3 bolts to remove the hotend from its extruder unit. It's a matter of 1min(max) to swap hotend. I do not believe in swapping nozzles as many claim to be possible, because the centre piece of the heatbreak is veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery thin. Two friends have asked me in the past to repair there extruder because of breaking there hotend during nozzle swap..😳. anyway...

 

This my set of hotends, partly printed, that is perfectly possible because that printed part is at the very top of that hotend and stays cool.

image.png.1948983c50ceb52e1f217bcc4506f720.png

 

The one on the left is my 1.5mm hotend with a 70mm radial fan.
The right one is my 0.7mm hotend with 50mm radial fan.
On top(in the black box) you see the 2.5mm nozzle, not used yet.
The electronics connectors are also own idea. In the extruder body there is a male part, and as you see here (on the hotend parts) is the female part on these connections. These connections are for PT100, heater cartridge and also the parts cooling fan(also a 50mm radial fan). There's also that external connector for the heatsink fan. So I can use that fan on all my hotends.

I Use these huge radial fans because I want to print as fast as possible with these big nozzles. Using these E3D-V6 I can print very fast. With the E3DVolcano they say you need to slow down printspeed.
But instead of slowing down printspeed I print @ temp. of 250°C(PLA). To do that you need LOTS extra cooling on that heatsink. And that's why the 70mm radial fan.

 

image.thumb.png.78812c440a1680c855202cbab999e8e2.png

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Regarding the misconceptions of PLA I always thought that manufacturers of things such as PLA cups and other disposable everyday objects actually manufactured the idea of it being biodegradable  to sell their products. 
I guess reading the technical stuff in theory it is biodegradable in very exceptional circumstances that do not naturally occur and certainly not in landfill.

Yes, it does degrade and over time it does become more brittle, but so do most plastics.

So as said previously I would say use PLA if you need something particularly stiff (well as stiff as you can expect a plastic to be).
I tend to use PETG a lot I like the way it prints and for many thinks I like the slight flex it has as is prevents it breaking under a lot of circumstances but then if I do need something that does not flex so much I would use PLA without hesitation.

ABS I just gave up using years ago as I could never get objects of a reasonable size to stop warping.

Steve

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Yep, PETG, great stuff too...

And yes it's a myth about PLA and biodegradable. It's not because it is made out of corn that PLA will shrink away in your compost heap.  Eventually it will, but it'll take many years.

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8 hours ago, Chriske said:

I do use a mix of 3 nozzles, 0.4 for the very small parts and were needed I use a 0.7mm and also a 1.5mm nozzles. These 3 hotends are my standard nozzles I can use with 1.75mm filament.
A 2.0mm and a 2.5(!)mm nozzle is waiting to be used with my new printer(almost finished) and (of course) 2.85mm filament.
A huge 70mm radial fan is added to the heatsink of my heater to print as fast as my other big nozzles.
Using my 1.5mm nozzle btw I can print @ about 60mm/s. For this one I also use that 70mm radial fan.

huh, maybe I'm just less picky about quality, but I print at 120mm/s for pretty much everything with a standard 0.4mm nozzle.

But of course, you'll be laying a heck of a lot more plastic down at a time with a 1.5mm so I imagine you need less shells and infills ?

stu

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Most of my printed telescope parts are made with my 0.4 and 0.7 nozzles.

The bigger nozzles are exclusively used for printing model rockets. So far I made 'a few' of these rockets. They're all show-pieces at our local observatory.
So far I've printed five SaturnV rockets 2.1m high.  Two Falcon rockets 2.2m high. HST 2.5m long and also JWST 3m long.
This very moment we're busy building/printing another SaturnV, this last SaturnV will be 4.2m high.
Most of the rockets are printed in 'Spiral Vase' modus. To give you an idea, a 2.1m high SaturnV rocket takes me about 25hours to print with 1.5 nozzle.

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I am still new to this printing lark but have gone through several reels of filament now and am beginning to get the hang of it.

My favorite materials so far are Carbon Fibre PLA and Wood PLA although they were tricky to use at the start. the wood PLA is fun for character models and some audio bits such as my Grado mods shown below.. 20220322_140853.thumb.jpg.d90b2ed8fde4c1b03e6f6e74556d3aa2.jpg20220322_095156.thumb.jpg.7e3dcddd77211aac2cc59a2fc20ac96c.jpg

Alan

 

Edited by Alien 13
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40 minutes ago, Chriske said:

Nicely done..

What process did you use to smooth up the surfaces of these Grado's..?

The wood PLA can be sanded like wood and although its still plastic it feels like wood to the touch, I used a wood stain to finish.

Hardest thing about wood PLA is that needs to be printed at 180 degrees or lower if you can do that, I also found that the filament was very brittle straight out of its sealed pack but was fine after leaving the reel open for a few days.

Alan

P.S. My weapon of choice fror sanding printed bits are these...

s-l300.jpg.5e4db806894b54d4d990e1854bdf0cbe.jpg

Edited by Alien 13
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Thing I like about 3d printing is you can make a solution to an immediate problem like:

I needed caps to fit my acquired guidescope:

1778143675_DSC_23622.thumb.JPG.675dbabb5d85e999e47c6eeeaad7e47b.JPG

 

And more critically I needed a way to stop my dslr rigged azgti from rotating in RA with what I had at hand, some thought, one set of prints, some filing to get the right interference fit and problem solved:

164403712_DSC_23623.thumb.JPG.304469f704abaeae654a4678c8ae46aa.JPGDSC_2363.thumb.JPG.62ff656ed0334a82f79cec6514d43f47.JPG

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I have found that 3D printing leads you into other hobbies, have been running mine almost 24/7 since I bought it making parts for audio mods/air rifle and pistols/the printer itself/ astro adapters/household items/cases for electronics etc and am into the fantasy figure models at the moment but will dabble in robotics soon so that not only can Alexa boil my kettle but bring me a coffee too 😀

Alan

Edited by Alien 13
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I'm the same since I got the printer every couple of days I print something. 

Latest was for some solar film I bought. 

Printed cap in soft filament and a rigid retaining ring for the inside. 

Now have filters for 120 frac. 

Helios 20x80 binos. 

And Aculon 10x25 binos. 

 

IMG_20220418_191836.jpg

IMG_20220418_191859.jpg

IMG_20220418_191854.jpg

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12 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I have found that 3D printing leads you into other hobbies, have been running mine almost 24/7 since I bought it making parts for audio mods/air rifle and pistols/the printer itself/ astro adapters/household items/cases for electronics etc and am into the fantasy figure models at the moment but will dabble in robotics soon so that not only can Alexa boil my kettle but bring me a coffee too 😀

Alan

The list of parts and projects I've printed so far (during the 10 years I own printers) is long, very long.
I can't even begin to tell how many things I've printed so far..
In my opinion every 3Dprinter owner should start learning drawing his own parts. Drawing your own parts, the possibilities are endless ....

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54 minutes ago, Chriske said:

The list of parts and projects I've printed so far (during the 10 years I own printers) is long, very long.
I can't even begin to tell how many things I've printed so far..
In my opinion every 3Dprinter owner should start learning drawing his own parts. Drawing your own parts, the possibilities are endless ....

I have been using Tinkercad for a while now and although its limited I have not found a part I cannot make using it.

Alan

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No doubt J. von Neumann would say that first on this list should be "another 3D printer".

I've managed to avoid buying a 3D printer so far, on the grounds that (a) they costed more than I wanted to spend, and (b) they seemed to require a large investment of time that I didn't have. Now it seems that both of those reasons are under threat. In particular, the growing availability online of designs shared by other people might be the clincher.

And then I saw this yesterday: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/22/04/17/2256236/honda-hits-3d-printing-sites-with-takedown-orders-over-honda-compatible-parts?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

which I thought was interesting. The fact that a big company sees 3D printing as a threat to a valuable revenue stream suggests that it really is getting up a head of steam and I ought to get on board. The corporates may attempt to hold the line on the internet, but I suspect they will struggle.

 

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I've seen CNC machines (subtractive manufacturing) with 3d printing capabilities built in (additive manufacturing) so it's definitely here for the long term. 3d printed houses has already started as has 3d printed clothes and 3d printed food.

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I've had products before with 3d printed parts in them. can't think of them offhand.

But there is a lot of nonsense talked about it. I'd put 3d printed food in that camp.. Also you get a lot of '3d printed gun/car/bike etc' - and it's total mince - maybe 10% is 3d printed - all the important stuff isn't.

It's not that you can't - I mean SLM,SLS, etc can 'print' metal parts - but it is very expensive. I've had a few parts done myself and its awesome to see something you've designed in metal, but far far cheaper to cast or machine. same with plastic of course - 3d print the moulds maybe, but injection moulding is so cheap once you have the moulds, 3d printing can never compete other than for small runs of SLS parts.

Thats what I planned to do when I did a kickstarter for a helmet camera gimbal back in 2013. And of course, the 1.25in to canon DSLR adapters I did a batch of and sold on here last year.

 

Edited by powerlord
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Definitely, it won't replace current methods such as injection moulding, casting (gravity, pressure, investment, spun or otherwise), CNC due to those processes catering to specific engineering requirements, injection moulding and casting also suit high volume manufacturing which 3d printing cannot touch, the tools are paid for after a required number of shots cycles.

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I think that 3D printers are useful when you need a component that you cant buy, provided you make the item using the materials strength with additional components that negate any weaknesses then all is good. As an example my Ender 3 adjustable dampening feet..

20220316_185006.thumb.jpg.0d7a90012d7670650dd718d54d4387a3.jpg

20220317_152403.thumb.jpg.21f85dde527b5a111fd0ab52925c2e2f.jpg

The foam inserts have since been replaced with 38mm pads I got from Amazon.

Alan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Over a year ago I requested we have a 3D board for exactly this kind of thread, that way we can, of those with an interest, access all we want and need to know of this hugely developing hobby side of our first hobby…blah!

It is of great loss that Gina passed away earlier this year, she had so much experience with printers and would of been a good benefactor to us, but we do have Stu and others that have amassed a great deal of experience that are allowing us lesser 3D mortals to engage with. I thank you for giving us your experience and offerings, yes it is another hobby, I now have five printers, cheap as you may say, but I’m learning again at 62 years of age to engage further with astronomy as of late my interest had been waning.

If there is a chance that we can have a dedicated board for 3D then I’m sure it’ll be well attended.

what you will notice when buying your first printer, is the amount of info out there on modifying it( upgrading), it seems as soon as the manufacturer has released its latest model, someone is desperate to modify it, thereby offering the stl files for others to modify theirs too! as if it was a compulsory thing to do. I would imagine most of the first couple of reels that newbies purchase are used for that very fact! I’m guilty of that myself.

chaz

BTW, I’ve learnt a heck of a lot more just by reading this thread! Keep it coming.

Edited by Chaz2b
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16 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

It is of great loss that Gina passed away earlier this year, she had so much experience with printers and would of been a good benefactor to us, 

Absolutely,  such a great loss.

 

16 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

If there is a chance that we can have a dedicated board for 3D then I’m sure it’ll be well attended.

I too suggested that there was enough interest to have a dedicated board sometime ago, maybe not officially but just as a suggestion in another 3D printing thread.
As well as individual threads we could then have a pinned thread with tried and tested stl files for people to share with each other.
I know this forum is not a 3D printing forum but so many people now using 3D prints to enhance their setups.

Steve

Edited by teoria_del_big_bang
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My Ender 3 is currently printing components for Robert Brown's SQM+ and ESP32DB. Housing, anenometer, wind vane etc., so easy to produce.

3D printing is just great for the iterive prototyping process. The costs of adjusting, modifying, tweeking in any other process would just be prohibitively expensive and long winded.

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5 minutes ago, Len1257 said:

My Ender 3 is currently printing components for Robert Brown's SQM+ and ESP32DB. Housing, anenometer, wind vane etc., so easy to produce.

3D printing is just great for the iterive prototyping process. The costs of adjusting, modifying, tweeking in any other process would just be prohibitively expensive and long winded.

Oh, that sounds interesting do you have links to these for further info ?

Steve

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Robert Brown has done several electronics projects related to astro. Best to follow from his menu page https://sourceforge.net/u/brownrb/profile/

I would add that some are (to me extremely so) complex so definitely read the pdf's in detail. 

The SQM+ is https://sourceforge.net/projects/mysqmproesp32/

Daughter Board is one of these https://sourceforge.net/projects/myesp-boards/

Anemometer for the above https://sourceforge.net/projects/mysqmproesp32/files/Wind Speed Sensor Anemometer/

 

Edited by Len1257
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