Show all posts by user

Re: What is practical limit of layer shifting at all? - 9 days ago

I've been working on a new extruder design for 1 of my printers with 120c chamber hoping for more precise control. 30mm from dual drive to nozzle tip and water cooled with this CF/PEKK (260c max use temp) obsessing over print quality and accuracy. This stuff is a far cry from PLA when it comes to ease of printing but not bad for a bad ass polymer and with the light just right you can see the laye

Re: What is practical limit of layer shifting at all? - 6 weeks ago

I have spent some time working on this issue and theorize and/or have proven there are several factors at play but to summarize it's not just an issue with the mechanics. The way the plastic is extruded and its effect on the outer perimeter are big contributers along with the printing environment. At my work we have high $ FDM machines that will print a nearly perfect vertical surface with Ultem

Re: I think I found the material that Stratasys uses to insulate their printers - 2 months ago

Same material that is being printed although PEKK sticks real well to PEI. Not sure about PEEK but would assume the same

Re: I think I found the material that Stratasys uses to insulate their printers - 2 months ago

Sorry guys. I dont get over this way often. 14oz is what I have and is about .015" thick. he also has 32oz. I attached a picture of the design. I don't recall the dimensions but I have a note stating that its about 50mm tall when completely collapsed. I have been refurbishing my Haas VF-2 lately so I havent made any progress on the printer but I did make a simple cuff that attaches to the bottom

Re: I think I found the material that Stratasys uses to insulate their printers - 8 months ago

Centryco could probably provide you with insulation properties but that's only part of the equation. The design will also suffer losses from leaks and bellow pumping action. IIRC baffle surface temp was around 60c for a 150c chamber.

Re: I think I found the material that Stratasys uses to insulate their printers - 8 months ago

I'm sure. I put the calipers on them. The only reasoning I can see to make it thin is so it will behave (sagging/buckling) especially on the large x axis section.

Flexible filament? - 8 months ago

I am refurbashing may old Haas VMC. The ball nut seals are brittle plastic 28 years old. I have modeled the seal and have made some from 910 but want a material that conforms a bit. It needs to hold up to motor oil and will be well lubricated. I have never had any interest in flexible filaments until now. What brand/material is good for an application like this? The seal is just a disc with the h

Re: I think I found the material that Stratasys uses to insulate their printers - 8 months ago

No. Thats not what Stratasys uses. I'm building a rough copy of a Fortus 900 (only smaller volume). Fortunately we have 2 at work and I have been all over them. The accordion type baffles form a hexagon profile and are made from fiberglass cloth with silicone as the matrix, sewn with kevlar thread. Material is .008" thick. The company that makes them is Centryco , they are hand made and expensi

Re: kapton tape glue - 10 months ago

I haven't tried it but one eBay seller claims glue stick will hold it down

Re: Shafts lenght vs diameter 8mm x 500mm ? - 1 year ago

For the application I don't think the rotational inertia is significantly different between 8 and 10 mm. The stiffness may be though. If an example already exists with long 8 mm shafts and produces quality prints at the speed you want to print at then there is probably no reason to go bigger. With that said if there is something to be gained with larger diameter you'll never know unless you try.

Re: Question for material Gurus - 1 year ago

I would not use filled nylons. The modulus may go up but impact resistance suffers. Taulman Alloy 910 is my go to. Prints very well. You can beat it with a hammer and it just laughs.

Re: Question for material Gurus - 1 year ago

Nylon

Re: how long does it take your printer heated bed to heat up? - 1 year ago

Custom Cartesian Printer, 200x200, 110v 500w silicone heater with thin fiberglass/foil insulation stuck to borosilicate glass bed. 30-160c in just under 2 minutes

Re: Vacuum hold-down for 3D build surface. - 1 year ago

The Stratasys Fortus 900 uses a build plate with grooves and vacuum. Thin Ultem and PC sheets are used when printing their respective materials. I did some r&d on a similar design for a new machine I am building and had determined for abs, in a heated chamber, at least 750 mb of vacuum would be needed producing .77 kg/cm2 of holding force. PLA should need less (dah)

Re: E3D V6 with restricted Airflow - 1 year ago

QuoteKASA I am currently trying to modify my printer to use an E3D V6 Hotend but I have to work with limited space. My current mounting idea leaves only a few millimeters of clearance behind the air outlet behind the heatsink before the Extruder carriage. Here’s an Image: Is this enough to ensure enough cooling of the heatsink? What types of plastics will you be printing with?

Re: Are delta printers still relavent - 1 year ago

Quoteveryevil My current thought is an anycubic kossel upgrades with a duet wifi Pretty sure the developer of the Duet does much of the development work on a Delta so I doubt you would have much issue getting that combo dialed in

Re: need help for choosing my board - 1 year ago

Duet and Panel Due. I have 2 printers and 1 cnc mill using this set up. I'm a coding/firmware retard. If I can make all this work, and work well that's saying a lot. Strong support system as well

Re: TMC2208 with 1.7A Stepper Motors. - 1 year ago

Re: Which is better-Nano Smart Stepper or MKS Servo42? - 1 year ago

I have the NSS's. I believe the MKS is a copy of his board. There is a Google support group for NSS and the developer is active.Go have a look I think the Nano Smart stepper you are looking at on Aliexpress is a clone too.

Re: which reprap printer can print reinforced carbon fiber? with 350c nozzle and 130C bed? I'm building a nano satellite - 1 year ago

QuoteWesBrooks Thanks for the notes on TG. I've got a few ideas on the back burner which will need a heated chamber. Sure. I was going off of memory this morning and the Tg for the 9085 was incorrect. It is 185 also so chamber and Tg are the same for 9085. The Ultem 1010 was the one that has the chamber set about 5 degrees lower than its Tg

Re: which reprap printer can print reinforced carbon fiber? with 350c nozzle and 130C bed? I'm building a nano satellite - 1 year ago

The Stratasys 400mc prints Ultem 9085 at 185c chamber temp. 5 degrees lower than the Tg. PEEK or PEKK would be a lower (chamber) temp option. A chamber temp slightly lower than the Tg seems to be typical. There is no heated bed in the 400mc. It is the same temp as the chamber. Intamsys is about your only reasonably priced option that can effectively print the high performance plastics other than

Re: Commercial/Industrial 3D Printer? - 2 years ago

I bought a Intamasys Funmat HT for our machine shop at work to make fixtures and tool organizers. It's basically a fully enclosed Ultimaker with 90c chamber cabability and a 160c bed. Direct drive extruder, ball screw Z and 450c hotend (includes a lower temp hotend). It really shines with ABS and PC. Does all the lower temp plastics well. Trinamic drivers and over all built well. The company was

Re: Adapting Extrusion Based Cantilever for Thermal Expansion. - 2 years ago

QuoteWesBrooks That is toasty! Which material needs that heat - or is it more with the heat the part is better rather than 'need'? Heard that PC wasn't really happy until the bed temperature exceeded 135C. I haven't done PC on it yet but some 9085 Ultem and PEKK at 90 chamber and 150 bed. It does those materials ok but not as good as the Stratasys machines we have. The higher temp materials idea

Re: Adapting Extrusion Based Cantilever for Thermal Expansion. - 2 years ago

I have a Intamsys Funmat at work that I have run at 90c (max) chamber temp and it suprisingly does very well. Although I haven't torn into it yet the kinemetics appear to be the same as the Ultimaker. All of the belts, steppers, direct drive extrusion system and bits are inside the chamber and get very hot but still work as intended. Unfortunately I don't know what materials they are using but I

Re: Can Micro stepping affect retraction and stringing - 2 years ago

This may be far fetched but have you verified the extruder motor has stopped completely on non print moves? Perhaps there is a tinny bit of creep. Also do you have linear advance or some type of pressure compensation active?

Re: Defense Distributed - 2 years ago

This probably isn't going to help is efforts

Re: reprap 3d printer power consumption??? - 2 years ago

I have a cheap Kill A Watt P3 P4400 meter bought off of amazon on one of my printers and it bounces around between 90-150 watts while printing. if I set the bed and hotend (50w cartridge) to a high temp (so both are 100% duty cycle) while printing it shoots up to around 600 watts. This particular printer runs the X and Y motors on a separate power supply set at 38v. Z, E, hotend, control board,

Re: Idea for greatly increased speed - 2 years ago

Like TDD mentioned above the limiting factor tends to be the rate that you can melt and deposit plastic.Try extruding in air at the rate that would be required for your target print speed first and work that out.

Re: 24 volt power supply - 2 years ago

Several months ago I put a 200×200, 500w silicone heater on one of mine. Over kill for most but ambient to 160c in a little over 2 minutes really makes me hate the time I used to wait for the bed to come up to temp. 70c in less than a minute, I would never go back to a weaker setup

Re: Duet Network Sucks - 2 years ago

QuoteLoboCNC I'm a little reluctant to dive into this snit-fest, but despite cwaa's abrasiveness, he does have a good point - a lot of products (not just open source ones) have really poor documentation. There's the assumption that certain things (network configuration, how & where to make connections, what have you) any halfway competent person should be able to figure out, but that's only