3D Printing (AU prints added)

[WarTiger 3,910]

Anybody else here gotten into 3D printing?    I have been wanting one for quite a while and last October, committed to a kickstarter project to finally get one.  There were a few production hurdles the company had to get through, but on June 1, I finally received my 3D printer.  I've been having so much fun with it since I got it.   My dad would have loved seeing what it could do, unfortunately he went into the hospital the day before I got it, and passed away on June 3 and never got to see it.      

Just curious if anybody here has gotten into this technology yet.   I'm going to include a picture of my printer as well as some things I've printed in the last 2 months.

[WarTiger 3,910]

Cell phone stand - not ideal for my phone, but is still a nice print.

 

Skeleton case for a GoPro.  This allows the camera to remain in the case and still have access to the SD card slot and other buttons.

Samsung wireless charger (hockey puck style) stand

[AUApostle 7,651]

I'm beginning research on printers for my Arch office.  How big is the print area on that thing?  We've got a couple of 3d print pens up here which are great for quick 3d doodles.  I'd like to have one of those printers to mass out more detailed concepts quickly for design studies.

[TigerHorn 1,353]

I have a GlowForge that will theoretically be delivered by the end of October. I bought into the end of their Kickstarter deal, but they are a year behind on deliveries after getting slammed with $28M in orders! It is basically a CNC laser cutter-engraver that allows you to make some really cool 3D assembled bits. AUDevil, seems like a GlowForge might actually be as good of or a better choice for your purposes. https://glowforge.com/ If you want one, shoot me a PM here and we can both get some perks for the referral. 

[WarTiger 3,910]

The print bed on mine is 8 x 8 x 10.  It's a pretty sizeable bed considering so many of them are super small.    Mine also has a webcam built into it so I can view remotely and it will even do a time lapse of my print.   It's pretty cool.    I'll post some more prints from it over the weekend.     I got into this one through a kickstarter as well. 

[AU64 10,122]

Very Cool......how many different materials can you print...and where do you get the patterns and raw materials? 

I'm assuming all of that is pretty obtainable.

[WarTiger 3,910]

On 10/6/2017 at 10:50 AM, AU64 said:

Very Cool......how many different materials can you print...and where do you get the patterns and raw materials? 

I'm assuming all of that is pretty obtainable.

My Printer supports over 30 different materials.  I have only (so far) printed using PLA Filament.  I buy my filament from the company that made the printer. I've yet to try any 3rd party materials.   Fortunately, they often have select filaments discounted and consistently have some 50% off. 

[WarTiger 3,910]

Charging stand for my smart watch.   Print time, 11 hours 23 minutes

Pill box..  Print time just over 2 hours

Whistle..  Yes, it works and it worked right off the print bed.  I believe the print time for this was around 6 hours

[WarTiger 3,910]

Here's a dog I printed last week.  Print time was a little over 5 hours.  The piece under him is called a RAFT.  It's several layers of filament the printer lays down prior to beginning the print to help it adhere to the print bed.   I've had quite a few requests for this one. 

Sleeping dog.  Took a little over 4 hours.

[WarTiger 3,910]

Here's the single longest print job I've done.  This one took a little over 25 hours to print.  He stands almost 5 inches tall.

[AU64 10,122]

You are apparently looking for things to make ...so I'm assuming the raw materials are not expensive.  Any curing or does this product air cure?   How about clean up....no problem with nozzles or print head ?

[WarTiger 3,910]

One more post here of a project I printed.   This one took a total of around 45 hours to print all of it.   It was worth it and it looks really nice and functions perfectly.    When you assemble this, you set your own combination and can (obviously) change it at any time. 

First, all the peices.  The rings on the right, each go over a yellow ring on the left.  Each yellow ring on the left has a padlock symbol, so you line up the number you want to use for that ring over that padlock symbol. 

 

Here it is fully assembled.   The Yellow shaft in the back is the unlock tool that reaches into the bottom of the combo piece on the left and unlocks a disc that allows the unit to be disassembled and combination changed.  

[AU64 10,122]

This is a good subject for discussion since there is not even a half decent football game on tonight...other than WSU vs Oregon in the background....  Thanks

[WarTiger 3,910]

On 10/7/2017 at 7:49 PM, AU64 said:

You are apparently looking for things to make ...so I'm assuming the raw materials are not expensive.  Any curing or does this product air cure?   How about clean up....no problem with nozzles or print head ?

PLA Filament is regular priced at $35 a spool.  Like I mentioned, I typically buy them when they are 50% off so I buy 2 for the price of one.   Each spool is 1 Kilogram, which is 2.2 lbs.   The minion pictured here, I've printed 3 of them from the same spool and everything yellow that I've posted pictures of (and some other things) off the same spool as well.     No problem with curling at all.  Print bed is heated to 65 degrees Celsius. Extruder heats to 195 degrees Celsius.  

Forgot to answer, there are tons of 3D printed models out there that are free for the taking.   Thingiverse.com is my go to site for things.  New things are always being posted and there's a little of everything there.  Replacement parts, novelties, tech stuff, storage things, shelf brackets, you name it, its likely there.   Everything there is FREE and all you have to do is download the files if you have a way to print it.  IF you don't , there are often options on most sites that actually pay a small fee and have the item printed and shipped to you.   

Yes, I'm always looking for things to print.  I absolutely love this thing and I didn't buy it to sit on the table and not do anything.

[AU64 10,122]

2 minutes ago, WarTiger said:

PLA Filament is regular priced at $35 a spool.  Like I mentioned, I typically by them when they are 50% off so I buy 2 for the price of one.   Each spool is 1 Kilogram, which is 2.2 lbs.   The minion pictured here, I've printed 3 of them from the same spool and everything yellow that I've posted pictures of (and some other things) off the same spool as well.     No problem with curling at all.  Print bed is heated to 65 degrees Celsius. Extruder heats to 195 degrees Celsius.  

Forgot to answer, there are tons of 3D printed models out there that are free for the taking.   Thingiverse.com is my go to site for things.  New things are always being posted and there's a little of everything there.  Replacement parts, novelties, tech stuff, storage things, shelf brackets, you name it, its likely there.   Everything there is FREE and all you have to do is download the files if you have a way to print it.  IF you don't , there are often options on most sites that actually pay a small fee and have the item printed and shipped to you.   

Yes, I'm always looking for things to print.  I absolutely love this thing and I didn't buy it to sit on the table and not do anything.

That's great ...but I'm afraid it would get in the way of my golf....looks like it could be addictive but then again I guess I could get in a round while the printer was doing it's "thing".

[WarTiger 3,910]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

That's great ...but I'm afraid it would get in the way of my golf....looks like it could be addictive but then again I guess I could get in a round while the printer was doing it's "thing".

It doesn't get in the way of much of anything, activity related.  Prints take HOURS and some even DAYS to print.  Patience is definitely a requirement when doing any 3D printing.  It's not going to happen quickly.  

[AU64 10,122]

2 minutes ago, WarTiger said:

It doesn't get in the way of much of anything, activity related.  Prints take HOURS and some even DAYS to print.  Patience is definitely a requirement when doing any 3D printing.  It's not going to happen quickly.  

After looking at the time for some of the items I guess you just set it up and let it go about it's business.  I've seen some you tube vids of metal printing using powder that is fired....to make replacement parts ....matching some furniture hardware and it was very time consuming but still far quicker than any other process.

And I just noticed that MIch State is leading Michigan 14-3

[WarTiger 3,910]

22 minutes ago, AU64 said:

After looking at the time for some of the items I guess you just set it up and let it go about it's business.  I've seen some you tube vids of metal printing using powder that is fired....to make replacement parts ....matching some furniture hardware and it was very time consuming but still far quicker than any other process.

And I just noticed that MIch State is leading Michigan 14-3

That's pretty much it. Just load the file into the slicer program you choose to use and it processes the job and sends it to the printer.  After the job is sent to the printer, the computer doesn't even have to remain on if you don't want it too.  It stores the entire job on the microSD card and does its thing.      I typically open a web browser on one of my monitors and keep up with the job progress since it has a camera built into it.  The time lapsed print thing is really cool too.  I'll have to set one of those up and post the file here to view. 

[WarTiger 3,910]

Haven't posted in this thread in a while.  Thought I would show one of the latest things I printed.

Storage box.  Printed as you see it below in picture #1.  There were some very small supports printed on the bottom that had to be removed but it didn't take much to remove them.  

Once those supports were removed from the bottom, hold the bottom area and the top rotates to close the doors.  This piece required NO ASSEMBLY.  It printed just as you see it in the picture above.

[AuMarine 1,372]

On 2/6/2018 at 7:07 PM, WarTiger said:

Haven't posted in this thread in a while.  Thought I would show one of the latest things I printed.

Storage box.  Printed as you see it below in picture #1.  There were some very small supports printed on the bottom that had to be removed but it didn't take much to remove them.  

Once those supports were removed from the bottom, hold the bottom area and the top rotates to close the doors.  This piece required NO ASSEMBLY.  It printed just as you see it in the picture above.

Is there a certain program you use to 3-D print .. or does the printer come with a program to use? Basically how do you find those things to print? 

[WarTiger 3,910]

On 2/19/2018 at 10:54 AM, AuMarine said:

Is there a certain program you use to 3-D print .. or does the printer come with a program to use? Basically how do you find those things to print? 

Most printers come with a cd/usb installer for a slicer program.  Mine came with CURA, with a Robo branded (robo3d is my printer) OS overlay.  There are quite a few slicer programs out there with Cura, Meshmixer and Simplify3D leading the way.  There are slight differences with each, so its just a matter of finding the one that suits the needs of the printer and the project.  I've only used CURA with mine, although I have Meshmixer and will likely give it a go soon and see how I like it.    As far as finding things to print, look at previous posts in this thread.   Doing a Google search for 3D printer files will return some options as well.

[AuMarine 1,372]

21 hours ago, WarTiger said:

Most printers come with a cd/usb installer for a slicer program.  Mine came with CURA, with a Robo branded (robo3d is my printer) OS overlay.  There are quite a few slicer programs out there with Cura, Meshmixer and Simplify3D leading the way.  There are slight differences with each, so its just a matter of finding the one that suits the needs of the printer and the project.  I've only used CURA with mine, although I have Meshmixer and will likely give it a go soon and see how I like it.    As far as finding things to print, look at previous posts in this thread.   Doing a Google search for 3D printer files will return some options as well.

Thanks! 

[WarTiger 3,910]

I can't believe its been over a year since I posted in this thread.  I thought about it tonight and thought I would share some new stuff.  I've been really getting into this and in January I decided to buy a 2nd 3d printer.  This time I went with a different brand largely because of the positive reviews I had read about them.   So, I bought a PRUSA 3d Printer KIT.  Yes, I bought a KIT which meant assembling the entire unit.   That was super fun and took (over several days) a total of about 13 hours to assemble.   Probably going to split these pics up in to several posts.   First here's the PRUSA right after I finish the build.

First prints off the prusa - pug was around 3 hours ( If I remember right), Frog was about 2 hours and the Dragon was just under 8 hours.

[WarTiger 3,910]

Part 2 of the Prusa saga.   Prior to getting the prusa, I preordered a device called a Palette 2 pro.  This device allows you to print up to 4 color prints.  I never could get it to play nice with the Robo printer that I currently had and so I decided when I got the prusa that I would connect the palette to the prusa.  But I needed a good place for it and with the vision I had for it, I needed it to be well lit.   So, I built an "official" enclosure for it.  Placed the palette on top and I was off and running.  When I did the lighting I wanted a way to turn off the lower shelf but leave the lights on where the printer is sitting, so I got an inline switch and connected it with a splitter so I can independently turn off the bottom shelf lights.

Prusa in lighted enclosure with palette 2 pro on top

View from the side of the enclosure to show filament going into the palette

[WarTiger 3,910]

Now the fun stuff begins.  I got the palette connected and did some calibrations on it to get it working with the prusa and these are the prints I've done so far:

The boxes you see on the left side of the prints are whats called a transition tower.  The printer needs a place to transition to the next color so it does it on the tower.  The tower has to be built at the same time the actual print is going since the print head can't go below the object its printing.  So, it builds it as it prints.  It's literally waste and they are working already on ways to reduce and possibly eliminate the waste.

3 color lizard  5 hours 30 minutes - 156 color splices

French Bulldog - 9 hours 8 minutes - 238 color splices

Emile from Ratatouille - 17 hours 18 minutes 638 color splices