Fillets will warp less than sharp corners (Or, rather, more evenly). You can test this by printing a cube vs a cylinder. The corners of the cube will probably warp up, whereas the base of the cylinder will (most likely) bow only slightly. Differences in cooling rates is the driving factor in warping. If you can minimize differences in cooling rates, you will minimize warping. Hot plastic that isby PomeroyB - General
No, I haven't. I'll do that next time I have access to the lab.by PomeroyB - General
To help convince anyone that prints are, in fact, pitted, I've got some nice pictures of some stuff from under a microscope. This first picture is ABS, and is the top infill from a Stratasys print. The infill wasn't perfect, so those huge gouges you see are the second-from-the-top layer showing through. The scale bar at the bottom is 200 micrometers. Image 1 This second picture is a close up oby PomeroyB - General
Quotemiso Probably because "protecting their patents" != "protect their intellectual property", it's sometimes just "preventing someone else to use their's". Company can throw out of window years of research and lot of money just because someone else finished research and applied for patent week earlier. But that's not the case in this scenario. 3D systems has had a stereolithography patent forby PomeroyB - General
Try printing a bit cooler. I print PLA at around 175-180.by PomeroyB - General
It seems like everyone who sees a company protecting their patents claims that the company is being a "dickbag". Why is this? Why is it a problem for a company to protect their intellectual property?by PomeroyB - General
The only other one I've heard about is PhysibleExchange, but I don't know how many people actually use it. I just know that I don't. What makes you say that traffic on Thingiverse is low? It hasn't seemed low to me.by PomeroyB - General
Quoteguille I got 245 temp. Then, i pass through the extruder the safety pin. After that, i could push down the filament while executing "run extruder" (i use RepSnapper) and i could see filament extruded (i think) normally. But when i closed the piece (putted on the screws again), the behavoir was the same that before: no extrusion. When i get the target temp and run extruder...nothing...maybeby PomeroyB - General
The main causes of frying electronics that I have seen are either bad connections or shorting the board. Bad connections tend to happen more often on diy boards (since you may not be a professional solderer, its possible to simply assemble the board wrong/badly). Shorting the board is completely up to the user. If you're careless and lay a metal screwdriver across your board while it's powered,by PomeroyB - General
There isn't really a "mount" for the extruder, per se. The extruder body (shown in the pink box) connects directly to the x-carriage (in the red box). I just looked up the Sanguilolo again, and it turns out that it's not an Arduino shield, like I thought it was, so ignore me on that account. Still, any board that you are assembling yourself will have just as much (if not more) of a risk of fby PomeroyB - General
Hey Jackster, check out the Prusa Mendel wiki page to see the parts list. This page will be your best friend during part sourcing and construction. ) Briefly checked your website, you seem fairly set so far. I can confirm that your ebay order of the plastic parts does include the Wade's extruder. That's the large and small gears and mount in the bottom right corner. It looks like you're confusiby PomeroyB - General
I'm loving that enclosure! It looks so clean and tidy, nice work!by PomeroyB - General Mendel Topics
brnrd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Also, repetier already pointed out that you can't > go to negative offset (below the endstop) with > most firmware unless you modify the firmware to > ignore the endstop which is dangerous as it can > lead to the nozzle crashing on the bed. I am well aware of that. Since Roger said that his nozzle is hittingby PomeroyB - General
Roger, it sounds like a problem with the software. Usually a software will run the axis to the home, then back off a couple of mm, then return to home again at a much lower speed. This ensures that the axis is just at home, and has not overshot due to the inertia of the carriage (Remember that while limit switches prevent the motor from turning in the direction of the switch, they cannot instantby PomeroyB - General
Slippery ones! In all seriousness, any old grease should do. I know a guy who uses WD-40 to grease his, and another that uses some sort of machining wax. I personally use tapping lubricant.by PomeroyB - General
I can think of two right away: ABS and PLA! So you are right, everyone is using these plastics. Getting the plastics to a "syrup" consistency is just a matter of heating them up enough.by PomeroyB - General
tmorris, you can always pay for KISSlicer, or netfabb studio. Those are, I hear, very good slicing programs.by PomeroyB - General
Chris33 - The process for recycling plastic bottles into filament is generally clean, then shred, then extrude. Whether you extrude into filament, then print with that, or extrude directly from the shredded plastic depends on the quality you want. Sniper4395 - Constantly remelting plastic can cause it to loose some of its desirable properties, with regards to bonding and warpage, so if you wantby PomeroyB - General
I've printed ABS without a heated bed by just smearing ABS juice on blue painters tape. I haven't printed anything huge yet, but I've not had problems with warping. Heated beds aren't completely necessary for ABS.by PomeroyB - General
You shouldn't have to manually straighten your PLA filament. Your extruder should do that for you as it pushes. It should not be a problem.by PomeroyB - General
1) Yes 2) Yes 3) Prusa is great. When you get right down to it, most FDM printers nowadays all have about the same limit of detail. The difference between things like the Replicator and homemade items is the amount of calibration needed. For a homemade machine, it's your job to fine tune and tweak things like extruded amount, steps per mm, etc. For a store bought machine, most variables should bby PomeroyB - General
Is that blue part a tiny mixer for combining the two colors? How is it supposed to be set in place (For lack of a better word/phrase)? The head is bigger than the hole it must go through.by PomeroyB - General
I thought that Stratasys had a patent on mixing colors in the extruder head, and that was why it hasn't been done a lot.by PomeroyB - General
Quotegtg252b Thanks for the input. I'm definitely concerned about warping... more so now than I was to begin with. I could probably build a large heated plate using some aluminum clad resistors mounted on an aluminum plate... the weight of the build platform wouldn't matter since it's not moving. Do you think having the build platform be heated would prevent curling at this size, or would the forby PomeroyB - General
Kevin, the 3D printing club at the University of Washington (WOOF) converted an old plasma cutter gantry to a 3D printer over the summer. We didn't have to worry about converting electronics or anything, as we just used the original CNC movement software, so unfortunately I can't help you there. Our blog has all the work we have done on our printer, but you may have to wade through some posts toby PomeroyB - General
Is it only the base? I have an issue in slic3r where the bottom layer does not extrude at all. The extruder motor never even turns.It did take me a while to figure it out, since it would extrude a little bit each time it did a retract (on a fast move), resulting in very little amounts of filament being laid down. I don't know why, but it's not that big of a deal. I usually open the gcode in a tby PomeroyB - General
Screw feeders themselves are not nearly as consistent as filament extruders, in my experience. There is a huge amount of resistance from the plastic, which can bog a motor down if its not torque-y enough. Variances in the screw feed will, obviously, affect how much plastic is extruded. You also have to have a nigh-perfect seal, else you get air bubbles that, again, affect how much plastic is extrby PomeroyB - General
Nothing will move in the STL, but I would think that you want your assembly to move once you print it. For things to move, you need some amount of clearance in between them. Joining parts eliminates this clearance and will result in a static printed part rather than a dynamic one.by PomeroyB - General
I would imagine that those options are available in the dialog box that opens when you save as an STL, perhaps under some advanced options tab. Joining parts convert the two parts into one part at the intersections. I don't think you want to do this if you want a movable assembly. I am not very familiar with saving STLs in solidworks, so this is the most I can help.by PomeroyB - General