3D printing set-ups and stories

[VeraLapsa]

None of those load

Fixed, derp
To fixed post

[at0m]

Got my mechanical parts kit yesterday, it's got everything I expected plus they included a set of calibration spacers (for paralleling the frame), a resin cast set of gears (supposedly more durable than straight ABS), an acrylic build platform (to use as an alternate for my heated one I bought I guess), and a thickass set of photocopied build instructions so I can scribble on them instead of just following the wiki on my laptop.

Bought a nut splitter to take the drive gears off of the steppers, going to make someone at the hackerspace sad because he won't be able to use him on his junkbot.

Taking my electronics with me on this next trip so I can solder in the hotel room, and giving a friend at the hackerspace the remaining list of parts that I need to fabricate. Hopefully I'll be close enough that I can start assembling the frame when I get back (only a few weeks behind schedule).

[rumsfald]

countdown to dtrain getting a 3-d printer in 10...9...8...

[at0m]

Just soldered my first opto endstop, I may end up waiting until I get back to do the rest because the lighting sucks and I don't have my little 'helping hand' thing. A couple of the components aren't soldered in perfectly straight, and its bugging the shit out of me since one of them is the opto itself and the other is the indicator LED.

[rumsfald]

$1k toy desktop CNC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...rm46mL3tM#!

[at0m]

Finished all of my soldering. Will boot up the board and test my motors when I get back.

Also need to crack the pinion gears off of them so I can use the ones that are compatible with the belts I have.

Also^2 need to finish fabricating plastic parts so I can assemble the beast.

[HeK]

Also need to crack the pinion gears off of them so I can use the ones that are compatible with the belts I have.

Go to an RC shop, get a puller.

[at0m]

[quote author=at0m link=topic=5815.msg238599#msg238599 date=1328502193]
Also need to crack the pinion gears off of them so I can use the ones that are compatible with the belts I have.

Go to an RC shop, get a puller.
[/quote]Asked the seller on ebay what he was going to use to get them off (he offered, I forgot to take him up on it), he said a nut splitter so I already have one at my house. Planning on asking the hackerspace if anyone has one so I can get them off non-destructively since the guy building a junkbot expressed interest in having them. And also buying my unused steppers (since I have two sets of 5).

[HeK]

VICTORY!

It finally prints correctly!!!

[StolenToast]

Damn I want to build one...

Whats that printing, HeK?

[HeK]

Penny bottle opener.
It's one of the calibration objects.

[at0m]

Finished printing the last of my plastic parts today, and ordered some LM8UU's. Although looking at my plastic parts, I probably fucked up and printed the ones that don't support linear bearings. I'll have to assemble, print replacement parts, disassemble, and reassemble. Oh well.

None of that's going to matter if I don't sort out a hotend though. Trying to get a V4 Arcol.hu hot end, but Laszlo is being pretty sketchy. Not sure what I'm going to do there.

[HeK]

Buy a vice, hammer and a drill. Build a Wildseyed.

[HeK]

My first 'Thing': http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19767


It's an over-engineered wall-mount bracket for a Maglight.

[matter11]

My first 'Thing'

It's an over-engineered wall-mount bracket for a Maglight.

does your printer print in one type of plastic for every job or is it variable?

[HeK]

[quote author=HeK link=topic=5815.msg241607#msg241607 date=1332453582]
My first 'Thing'

It's an over-engineered wall-mount bracket for a Maglight.

does your printer print in one type of plastic for every job or is it variable?
[/quote]

It only uses 3mm thermoplastic filament. One type at a time.
I can change colour in midprint, but I wouldn't change plastic type due to the different heat and tension settings required.

I currently am printing with PLA plastic, but I have the gear to print in ABS or PC.

[HeK]

Ok, so I got right up pissed off with my 15-some attempts at building a working hotend.
The Wildseyed model that I was building works... most of the time. Until it falls apart, or gets too hot and jams up.

I bought a J-Head machined hotend from HotEnds.com for $54:



First attempt, it jammed right up. Ok, not a good start. Took it apart and discovered that I was compressing the inner PTFE liner. So I drilled it out a bit for my slightly larger then 3.0mm filament and reinstalled with the upper cap backed off a tad.
Now it jams up almost instantly. After some reading, I learned that PLA has a very narrow temperature that it will feed before it becomes too gooey to manage and that I *must* use a cooling fan on the hot end.

Installed one, and now it prints flawlessly. However I still need to tweak my z-home so I can get better first-layer adhesion. Just watched a print stick to the hotend and get dragged around.



Lessons Learned:

-PLA kinda sucks; get ABS and a headed bedplate
-Buy, don't build your hotend unless you have access to a metal lathe.
-Read the forums, wiki and then the forum again.

[at0m]

Reading of your trials and tribulations are part of why I bought an Arcol.hu hotend ^_^ But I need to finish my assembly before I can use it

[HeK]

So I have ditched my plastic and painters tape print bed in favor for a heated glass bed. The extra draw from the bed fused my power supply. Now I need a bigger power supply.

Build costs:

Printed parts set (eBay): $23
Motors (eBay): $50
Stepper drivers: $52
Belts: $17
Bearings: $21
Electronics: $96
Bed: $40 (with glass)
Hotend: $55
Frame Rod: $44
Nuts and washers: $30

My total, excluding shipping, taxes and filament: $428

Compare that to a basic MakerBot @ $1,750

[at0m]

My costs thus far (although I don't have a functional printer as yet)

Printed parts (printed at a local hackerspace): Free
Motors (eBay): $35
Electronics (including stepper drivers, Utilmachine): $177
Hardware kit (includes belts, frame rod, nuts, bolts, etc, eBay): $145
Heated bed (Utilmachine): $50
Hotend + CNC'd brass hobbed bolt (arcol.hu): $129
Power Supply (scavenging one from an old desktop): Free
Linear Bearings (eBay, going to be my first upgrade once I get it working since I have to reprint my large motor brackets to fit them): $22


Total: $558 (so far )

More than HeK, because I didn't try to find the absolute cheapest components, but still less than 1/3 of the retail price. If I did it again, though, I'd buy a set of printed parts. I printed mine for the experience, which wasn't bad (and socializing with the hackerspace people was fun), but the cost/benefit ratio was all sorts of backwards. I could've been assembling shoes in mexico for the same payback/hour of my time invested, and it was a HUGE delaying factor as I only had access to it one night a week.