Should I get a 3D printer...?

[Umfriend]

So I am not posting here but following this with interest. One of my kids is into making D&D dice and is thinking about using a 3D printer to print molds. So please keep it coming.

[Evildead666]

Finished in 17 hrs 55 min. "Solid enough to pummel someone with it" and "wouldn't want to get hit by it even if thrown". Comments from a few friends lol

Good piece
What are the dimensions of this vase ?
And the weight ?

[VJ]

I finished rewiring and refitting the BLTouch (it was outside of specs, hopefully that was the reason it was off) but still have not had the time to try again... so many things ongoing... and very busy at work.

So I am not posting here but following this with interest. One of my kids is into making D&D dice and is thinking about using a 3D printer to print molds. So please keep it coming.

One thing: if you build from scratch (like I did), it is great fun and you learn a lot, but don't expect to have good prints fast. I am at the point that I saw the potential of my printer, but still was not getting consistent good prints due to the issue with the z-probe. Now I need a couple of hours of undisturbed time to continue with it, if the z-probe issue turns out to be solved, I can start optimizing speeds and start printing.
So, if you want to print fast, look at a finished machine or a full kit.

[Greebe]

Good piece
What are the dimensions of this vase ?
And the weight ?

Ctron vase as sliced per my insane need to make each piece tell me how my machine is off, lol, is exactly to spec at 180mm tall (~7" peeps) and weighs in at 200g

[Greebe]

I finished rewiring and refitting the BLTouch (it was outside of specs, hopefully that was the reason it was off) but still have not had the time to try again... so many things ongoing... and very busy at work.

That would only affect the first layer, if too close to bed can possibly clog nozzle and an least over extrude leaving excess crusty residue that can potentially have detrimental effects on subsequent layers. If too large gap turn up the volume on the extruder til first layer is done. Helps to drop speed way down for this. Additionally make a skirt, say 6 wide and get your extruder tweaked manually prior to actual first layer of part. It helps. I do not have auto bed leveling operational as of yet. I'm all manual for that atm

One thing: if you build from scratch (like I did), it is great fun and you learn a lot, but don't expect to have good prints fast. I am at the point that I saw the potential of my printer, but still was not getting consistent good prints due to the issue with the z-probe. Now I need a couple of hours of undisturbed time to continue with it, if the z-probe issue turns out to be solved, I can start optimizing speeds and start printing.
So, if you want to print fast, look at a finished machine or a full kit.

My full kit has so many mods to it now it's hard to say what it really is, Frankenfurters CR-10S S4 Heavy Duty V6 Gold dual dual... installing dual bmg clone extuders per hotend to prevent filament being pulled off the spool from torquing the hotend out of alignment. It will have the filament end sensor between the two so to have plenty of wiggle room for splicing if required and amply slack that will remain synchronous without putting print at jeopardy.

Yesterday spent half the day installing and reinstalling new anti backlash Z only to come to the conclusion they were incorrectly machined. One high res closeout of the specific part installed confirmed. RMA incorrectly machined. Uggg that is a lot of work requiring removal of everything up top so that the gantry ca be removed. Not together yet, later today.

Waiting on AMAZON to deliver more filament, 1kg spools of petg in transparent purple, blue, red, rose, fluorescent yellow and green. Also picked up a spool of transperant aqua blue pla. All of these, minus red and rose are 3D Solutech. Good stuff.

Stringing issues with petg, turn down the temps, if too cold object will lose glossy luster, but will extrude. Up it and hair til glossiness resumes. All parts even non glossy are very strong, just too low in the glass transition region.
Turn up retraction rate, helps as do faster moves between hops.

Those little crusty, zit, dendrite like nasties are almost 100% from over extrusion!!!
Turn down flow rate. Example. Mine calibrated exactly 100mm required 8% reduction in extrusion before it stopped completely. The end result was a more accurate exterior layer

[VJ]

That would only affect the first layer, if too close to bed can possibly clog nozzle and an least over extrude leaving excess crusty residue that can potentially have detrimental effects on subsequent layers. If too large gap turn up the volume on the extruder til first layer is done. Helps to drop speed way down for this. Additionally make a skirt, say 6 wide and get your extruder tweaked manually prior to actual first layer of part. It helps. I do not have auto bed leveling operational as of yet. I'm all manual for that atm

My issue was that the BLTouch was not consistent and gave an increasing error on each subsequent Z-probing. So a first homing was ok, but a second one not. Probing for mesh-correction yielded very weird result, as the error increased with every probing. The BLTouch issue may have been due to the fact that it was mounted with a Z-offset that was outside of specifications (very important to check which version of BLTouch you have, as they all have different specs). I refitted it to be within specifications but have not managed to test it since.

As for auto levelling: my printer has 2 z-screws, each with its own motor and the mainboard does support independent addressing of the z-motors to achieve left/right levelling. I have not yet done this as it is a bit more complicated (currently, both motors are run as one), but it is on my todo list. First though, I need to be sure that the Z-probe is probing correctly.

[Greebe]

Anti backlash Z axis nuts were improperly machined, so off they can. Put the machine to the side for a few days. Modified Left side of gantry with a concentric nut, matching the right gantry side. This made it much better in alignment, smoother for sure. Added additional Stepper/ BMG extruder clone to pull filamentoff of reel without causing any issues with hotend being torqued around. It's Hogepog'd with Ty wraps and Hotglue atm.

Red translucent PETG vase this time. 2 layer walls this time around

[Greebe]

OMG has my machine been extruding things, nice things, very high success rate. Found there maybe a few things that can improve quality, but mostly at the physical limits of what can be done. It's an Hbot design with inherent limitations. Biggest issue is the mass of the bed, that can actually be lightened by over a pound (450g) but that really is not enough and being the Y axis anything built adds to the problem, skews your jerk settings etc.

Time for a change and bought a SainSmart Coreception CoreXY. At the same time picked up a BL Touch and a Meanwell SPS as upgrades.

I have two Titan extruders here that are on this machine, including the conversion to either filament size types. Hotend looks the same as a Creality type, so MEGA upgrade to a E3D volcano /CR10 Heavy Duty hotend setup is in order... I have all these part on hand

This machine looks to have all the basics done very well, dual Z, 4 linear rail guides on the bed alone, perfect. XY are on linear rails of some quality and the top, most critical for proper operation and long term stability is one piece machined aluminium maintaining perfect squareness of the top. Most pullies have shaft support needed for the tensioning/accuracy. Belts are square to each other so no torquing to mess up aligment. Not as touchy with less or more belt tension that way.
The MB must have the newer MKS Robin Nano, which doesn't have wifi, aliexpress ~$7 wifi card.

OR as I've been checking out use a Duet 3 6HC. Drool

P.S. I now have over a grand of filament on hand on over 37 spools
P.P.S. need another Octopi / cam
P.P.P.S. build temp controlled enclosure
P.P.P.P.S. convert to IDEX

[Greebe]

Off the deep end I go Bought two CoreXY machines, one for 27% less and it shows it. Wow mired with problems, but cheap enough to overlook and spend on upgrades. Both do 300mmx 300mmy but more expensive machine is 350mmz whereas the problem child with different hardware is limited to 330mmz atm Upgrades now account for 75% cost of two machines combined. Arriving shortly are an SKR v1.4 Turbo with 5 TMC2209 v1.2 stepper drivers in UART mode and an SKR Pro v1.1 with 5 TMC2209 v1.2 stepper drivers in UART mode. Displays and accessories abound. Upgraded one machine with an E3D V6 hotend/Triangle Labs BMG clone/pancake stepper. Will be replacing stock bed with MIC6 6.4mm alum cast plate, 750w AC bed heater, SSR/ckt breaker and a Wham Bam 310 build system. Have on hand, but much to get done. Stock bed on more expensive machine isn't bad atm, so added a sheet of Ultem 1000 PEI so tricky crap sticks and stays put. Have yet to install real Grade 10 chromium steel BB's in the linear rails for X/Y. Shortly, I keep saying lol Install BL Touch and one of the newer control boards Pi4b 2gb running Octoprint&Klipper Just had to have! HS/fan My names written all over it! lol Pics shortly

[Greebe]

How to spend thousands real fast, try 3D printing as a hobby! LOL

[Greebe]

Coreception 300 has endless hardware mods now, new MIC6 750w AC heated bed with 4 different bed build types, including spring steel Wham Bam FBS 310. Also glass mirror, dimpled porous painted glass that came with machine, smooth side now has a sheet of Ultem 1000 PEI. Even rebuilt the linear rails with Grade 10 Chrome Steel bearings. Still to go are the new controller/Pi4b OctoKlipper. Had issue over weekend with mod'd hotend couldn't maintain 270c with fans on full tilt and had to slow machine down by 33% to print same quality factor at 260c. Fixed problem with oem designed e3d V6 mount blasting the hotend directly, redirected airflow is like a cyclone with new brass nozzle on secondary 5015 dual BB 5015 blower. It is not quiet when it comes to fans, but when the machines default speed is set for 100mm/s and you have it set to run at >200% you cannot print these speeds without big airflow. Honestly am investigating a small flexible pipe / fang attached to a remote blower that will move 60+ cfm.
Dilitante will be receiving the Big 5" Baby Yoda and two small copper ones like seen in pic.

[Greebe]

Playing with 3D printers more. This time around with my Koonovo ELF CoreXY #2 that I bought for experimenting on. It's basically a duplicate of my Coreception 300, just cheaper and the quality shows, but very worth it to upgrade. Anywho picked up another 1/4" (6.35mm) MIC6 cast aluminum bed plate from DW ENGINEERING LLC (web page coming soon) custom made to fit any variation of Creativity3D ELF type printer or Creality CR-10 with it's 310mm x 310mm print area. New 750w AC bed heater and SSR should be here tomorrow. Flipped the top Halo and rotated it 180°, so now there are no belts in front. Also rotated the saddle mount 180° and a few other mods. Still much to go, nothing permanent yet (evil laugh), just getting a feel for what I might do, ehh depends, I'm playing atm... with the thought of a TriangleLabs water cooled BMG dual drive direct E3D style V6 Gold and Volcano hotend. With said configuration would allow me to print PEEK with a bed temp of 150c using a WHAM BAM FBS 310 or Ultem 1000 to build on and a hot end temp of 400c at speeds of >120mm/s and high quality.

[VJ]

I've probably discovered why I had irregular results. The top belt of my coreXY type printer was tightened too much, causing the X-rail (the one that moves back and forth for the Y axis) to be askew. Problem is that I cut the belt too short, so I can not loosen it and have to order a new belt.
At the same time, I plan to order some parts to make more order in how the different parts (mainboard, powersupply, ...) are mounted. I'll also add a drag chain (which I already have) and will rewire it all as I also got some issues with that.