Author Topic: 3D Printers  (Read 21783 times)

Spectere

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3D Printers
« on: July 12, 2017, 02:07:38 AM »
"This is a machine for making cows."

Bobbias

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2017, 03:18:33 AM »
Nice!
This is going in my sig. :)

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Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2017, 02:17:31 PM »
Nope--Monoprice Maker Select V2. Basically a rebadging of the Wanhao Duplicator i3, which I believe was based on the Prusa i3.

So far it seems like a damn good printer for the cost (~$300). It took a bit of fiddling to get the bed evenly leveled, but I think I've got it dialed in pretty nicely now. I'm probably going to print out some more test blocks tonight to verify that.

Oh, I made a model thing:



FOR THE HORDE and shit. Colors pending (will be getting more filament on Friday), and I need to do a few tweaks to the model to remove the obvious polygons.
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Bobbias

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2017, 02:53:42 AM »
My GF says you should print a butt.
This is going in my sig. :)

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Zephlar

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2017, 10:51:52 AM »
That's friggin awesome man.

I am a pretty average 3D modeler. I use Cinema 4D R15 Studio. I know there are TONS of free models to download and print but if you have an idea let me know and I'll see if I can model it for you.

Bobbias

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2017, 05:56:16 PM »
* Bobbias points to previous post
This is going in my sig. :)

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Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #7 on: July 17, 2017, 10:24:18 AM »
My GF says you should print a butt.

TEMPTING.

I am a pretty average 3D modeler. I use Cinema 4D R15 Studio. I know there are TONS of free models to download and print but if you have an idea let me know and I'll see if I can model it for you.

Thanks for the offer! I might take you up on that if I run out of patience at some point.

I'm using SketchUp. It's definitely more of a CAD-like workflow than something like 3dsmax, Studio 4D, or Blender, and it's working out pretty well so far. The popular 3D packages are a bit, uh...out of my price range (like, by a lot) considering my current skill level, so if I want to do something a bit more freeform I might just suffer through learning Blender.

In other news, I printed out my Horde plate in color this weekend. It came out quite nice!



Since my printer only has a single extruder, I had to do the fairly common stop-and-switch trick between layers. Gotta say, I wasn't expecting the red filament to be that vivid--Hatchbox did a fantastic job.

Also had to deal with my first clog. Some cleaning filament ended up getting stuck just above the hot end, so I couldn't even clear it out using a cold pull (basically, pushing filament in far enough for it to melt, letting it cool, then pulling it out, taking some of the debris with it).

Fortunately, I have guitar strings! I started out with a G string (giggity), pushed it in through the cold end, and used it to push some of the gummy crap out through the nozzle. Then I just increased the gauge of the string until nothing more would come out, then I flushed out the rest with some PLA. Everything is flowing smoothly now. Gotta be a bit more careful with that stuff, methinks. It basically works by getting sticky when it heats up, so I'm thinking some of it got jammed in there when I was trying to clean out the unit. Oh well, live and learn! On the bright side, at least I was able to flush out my hot end while I was doing that. :P
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Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2017, 03:15:03 PM »
Split from the old HAPPY topic!

I installed a few mods on the printer. First of all, I installed a MOSFET board in the power supply so that the hotbed connector wouldn't melt and shit. That's a big problem with Melzi boards, apparently. The connectors on the Wanhao (and its clones) have been revamped over time, but the connector that comes with it still isn't quite good enough.

First off, I bought a Y carriage plate to replace the stock part, which was a really thin part) stamped sheet metal, I believe) that has a nasty tendency to warp and bend. Even my printer, which only has a few days of printing time, is showing some signs of warping. The replacement is much thicker (as thick as the heated bed, actually), is lighter, and is made of aluminum. As an added bonus, the Y motion is much quieter than it used to be as a result, and the bed is more level. Here's a pic of the replacement, as well as the new part. Should have done a side view, but oh well.



More recently (read: yesterday) I installed a pair of Z braces:



The printer is shipped in two pieces that must be assembled--the crossbeam with the extrusion unit (covers the X and Z axes), and the base that contains the bed (which covers the Y axis). The only thing holding those two pieces together are some wires and a few screws, so as the printer moves the crossbeam will flex a bit. In addition, it naturally sits at a slight angle--I estimate somewhere around 87 degrees. The Z braces prevent the wobble (which has already resulted in significantly better infill) and is keeping the two pieces at a 90 degree angle, so keeping the bed level has gotten a whole lot easier.

There are two more upgrades currently on the docket, both of which will happen at around the same time. First, I ended up ordering a Flexion HT kit. The extruder itself is pretty badass and will allow me to successfully extrude flexible materials. That should be fun to play with! Additionally, it includes two new hot ends--a normal one and a high temperature one. The high temperature one lacks a PTFE tube, so it can safely reach temperatures of 290-300C. That'll allow me to print just about everything, barring the really exotic stuff like PEEK, PAEK, and ULTEM (the 350-400C range is a bit scary to me, given that this isn't exactly an industrial grade machine I'm dealing with).

The second is an improved cooling solution. The 20mm fan included on the Wanhao i3 is subpar for PLA printing. On even small overhangs the print tends to get a bit messy (896846809921880064[/tweet]]here's a video of me blabbing about it). Additionally, since it blows from the front back, parts near the back of the print tend to sag a bit more. I've seen this happen on both prints that I've done for Aquaticus the Water Dragon, for example. There's minor sagging on her right head fins, but her left fins (and, in fact, the rear left of her head in general), which are situated toward the back of the bed, receive inadequate cooling, so the layers tend to sag in the time between extrusion and solidification.

I have a roll of red (gotta match the Flexion!) PETG filament and a 50mm blower fan on the way, so after I get that and the new extruder/hotend installed I'm going to try printing and installing the DiiiCooler. The larger fan will be capable of blowing more air--I might actually have to turn it down on lower layers!--and the cooler itself is designed so that the air is distributed around the print rather than simply being directed from front to back. That's likely going to be one of the more important upgrades that I wind up doing.

Oh, on the subject of practical prints, I printed a mount for my shiny new third Oculus sensor (rear right):



I used this design. I'm planning to mount my front right to the wall as well, since I could use better low-height tracking for SteamVR stuff. Currently debating whether I should bother designing it or just looking for an already-existing non-corner wall mount. :P As for my front-left one, I'm debating on whether I should mount it to my entertainment center or ceiling-mount it. We'll see!
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Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2017, 10:27:52 AM »
I installed a Flexion HT extruder and hotend this weekend! 898785220232568832[/tweet]]Here's a bit of a breakdown of the install process (includes pictures of the original MK10 extruder).

And here's a picture of the final product:



So fucking sexy.
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Zephlar

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2017, 09:37:18 PM »
Damn son. That's fuckin sweet. You're quite the engineer. I knew that back in the DDR days tho.

That's a really handy machine. Can't wait to see what else you come up with.

Now help me fix my guitar hero controllers.

Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2017, 09:25:49 AM »
I have to fix my Guitar Hero controller first. XD Alternatively, I might see if I can manage to transplant the strum bar into one of my Rock Band controllers.

As for the printer, my next step is replacing the paltry cooling fan. The DiiiCooler that I printed before didn't quite fit on my printer model (also, the nozzle for the Flexion kit sits higher than the standard Wanhao i3 nozzle does), so I'm going to need to figure something else out. That'll give me a chance to get better at printing PETG as well. :)
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Zephlar

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #12 on: August 22, 2017, 10:03:52 AM »
I have to fix my Guitar Hero controller first. XD Alternatively, I might see if I can manage to transplant the strum bar into one of my Rock Band controllers.

That's interesting. Let me know if you pull it off. I hate the RB strum with a passion. The GH3 Les Paul, GH2 Xplorer, and GHWT guitar are the only ones worth a shit IMO. Really wish they had offered up some more industrial 3rd party controllers. Since GH1 released and on throughout the genre, I have literally broken 8-10 guitars. That is not an exaggerated number (of course we're talking 12 years now so I guess it's not that crazy). I also used to regularly 5 star TTFAF around 95% so....there was plenty of abuse at one point and time.

The Rock Band guitars are just plain trash I have always hated the feel of them. Maybe I was just too used to the size and tactile clicking of the strum bar from GH.

Seems like all the guitars are like $50+ used these days. If you know where to find some decently priced let me know I'm always looking for new guitars.

Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #13 on: August 22, 2017, 01:37:37 PM »
I prefer the feel of the fret board on the RB controllers, but the clicky GH strum bar is far better. The RB strum bar gives so little tactile feedback that I tend to overcompensate and press it harder than I need to on more difficult songs, and the fact that the only thing keeping the strum bar in place are two pieces of foam, I think you can understand why they get very floppy very quickly.

Regarding the feel of the fret board, I like how the RB controllers have fret-sized buttons that have a definite click to it (not audible, but you can feel it). The GH frets are very mushy by comparison, and I find that they kind of feel cheap. That being said, the GH frets definitely seem to be more reliable. Might have to take the neck apart and see what's going on there should I get in the mood to play again.
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Spectere

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Re: 3D Printers
« Reply #14 on: August 26, 2017, 06:11:29 AM »
The DiiiCooler that I printed before didn't quite fit on my printer model

Turns out, that was me being an idiot. When I installed the new hotend I rotated it 180 degrees. Doesn't affect the way it mounts, doesn't affect the way it prints, but it definitely affects mods. I corrected that and now the DiiiCooler mounts perfectly:



It's a sliiiiiiiiiight upgrade. And by that I mean it's fucking incredible. While the original cooler had a fairly tiny slit (maybe ~4mm tall and 30mm wide) that would only cool from front-to-back, this surrounds the nozzle like so:



(Yes, there's a ridiculous amount of slop in that print--the idea was to print something that would work in a pinch and then print a better one later after dialing in some good PETG settings. And if you think that's bad, you should see the inside! It looks like what would happen if there was an explosion in a spaghetti factory)

Anywayyyyy, it's amazing how much air gets pushed around the print. One little catch is that it also works to cool the nozzle. With the stock Wanhao-style cooler running full tilt, the hotend can maintain my PETG print temperature (250C) without fairly little variance--maybe +/-1C. With the DiiiCooler installed with a 50mm blower fan attached, it'll actually drop the reported temperature as low as 247.3C! I'm not sure if it's just cooling the thermistor or what. Fortunately, there's enough wiggle room where it doesn't affect the print quality at all.

It's not as big of a drop when I'm printing PLA (I primarily print Hatchbox PLA at 200C. In that scenario, the DiiiCooler doesn't drop the hotend temperature much lower than the stock cooler does). The increased print cooling should drastically improve the quality of some prints. I have one in particular that has some issues with sagging due to the poor performance of the stock cooler, so after I get my PLA settings dialed in again (need to rework my retraction settings since I installed the Flexion extruder) I plan to print that model out. Basically, it's a water dragon model, and the fins on the back of her head would sag a bit before cooling, which made them look a bit messy and bunched up. Assuming the improved cooling improves the model, I'll post before and after pictures.
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