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General discussions. For specific printers / electronics / fabrication methods / softwares, please see other sections.
Re: Gcode too big for pronterface to hande - 12 years ago
Win 7, 4GB ram. Its also taking about 60 seconds to load a 30MB file.by Simba - General
Re: Are there any drill bit screw extruder heads out there? - 12 years ago
What level of consistency is needed? I remember reading a link online for a recent home made extruder (http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,166442). The filament was like 1.78 mm +- 0.02 mm. I can bet you that the rest of a reprap system doesn't have enough accuracy (i.e., 0.02 mm) at the hot-end level, + hobbed bolt, + heat flow differences, for this to matter. I think it would be a problem iby Simba - Developers
Re: Motor not moving for print - 12 years ago
Yes if the motors are on a different supply line from the heated bed (I believe). The motors will only draw 1-3 amps, the hot end about 2, but the bed about 5-10. If they are all on one line they may max it out.by Simba - Developers
Re: MOD for 1 mm extruder nozzle - You'll want one! - 12 years ago
I would love to try, and I will as soon as I get the time... What is a good measure of performance though? we need a way to rate the consistency, smoothness, etc. It may looks like it fits but that doesn't mean it runs 100% the same. As of right now, my quams are with Slicer. It is a great program, but it locks you into one nozzle width per area type (perimeter, infill, etc). If you want toby Simba - Developers
Re: Are there any drill bit screw extruder heads out there? - 12 years ago
This idea still seems obvious. Am I missing anything? I've built and started testing granulate extruders now in two sizes (1/4" and 3/4" with 192 and 450 watts power respectively). I have a 300 deg C temperature limit based on new thermocouples and kaptop-wire-copper-furnace cement only designs. I'm not seeing why the extruder couldn't work attached to a gantry, but I could certainly see maby Simba - Developers
Re: Motor not moving for print - 12 years ago
If this is controlled by RAMPS, did you tweak the amperage regulator to supply enough current?by Simba - Developers
Re: Plugs For Stepper Motors - 12 years ago
Does anyone know where to buy the jumper cables already made (like 6 foot length, 4 pin, dual female jumper connector)?by Simba - General
Re: Rough extrusion - 12 years ago
Agree with the above poster. All I can add is that cheap filament has shard of old used junk added to it. You can tell when you compare white vs. black. They hide stuff in the black apparently. Once a plastic is molten, it can not be re-molten properly if it is aged. So that begs the question, what is your polymer source? With white pla I have succeeded at 180C. With black nowadays I'm up tby Simba - General
Gcode too big for pronterface to hande - 12 years ago
My computer is crashing around 60mb file sizes. And this is only a 5" tall standford bunny with .25mm layers. What do you do when you want to print a 12" bunny and the file is 8 times the size? Has anyone found an alternative that works?by Simba - General
Re: How do I get rid of the pimples on my prints? - 12 years ago
Reduce the extrusion ratio from 1.0 to about .985. Also get rid of any retraction if you have any.by Simba - General
Re: Advice for my printer design - 12 years ago
I hate to highlight and focus on negatives but it is written here: "The Bowden cable system has one major drawback: Hysteresis. The plastic filament will compress in any extruder, but putting pressure on such a long length of filament will multiply the effects of this compression, leading to springiness. The flexibility of the PFTE tube exacerbates this problem." Balance that with the obviousby Simba - General
Re: Which way for retraction? - 12 years ago
Don't retract at all. I never do (especially for concentric rings it is not needed). Instead increase your speed, acceleration, and movement between print areas. Also use a wider nozzle to reduce backpressure. Retraction also makes prints take about 2.5x longerby Simba - General
Re: Advice for my printer design - 12 years ago
FYI, you need VERY surprisingly little space between a hot end and the housing behind it to keep it cool (i.e. 60C or less). I dont know why everyone worries about it so much. A simple piece of 1/4" oak wood or many layers of kapton is plenty to shield the back from getting too hot. Its not like heat will conduct up the filament or anything, just the few mm of airspace is enough to keep the teby Simba - General
Re: Advice for my printer design - 12 years ago
I agree with James. I think two drive gears near the extruder head is going to be far more reliable and require less (or no) retraction. Instead of attaching light motors there (which is hard) how about translating the mechanical motion over a long distance? Just a thought, but I once had a toy helicopter that was driven with a steel wire inside a plastic tubing. The whole thing stretched butby Simba - General
Re: Where can I get PLA pellets? - 12 years ago
I acknowledge your frustrated emoticon and shared your emotions at one point. Now that I've dealt with many companies for my businesses, I realize there are many reasons companies do this as I have learned. I'll try to summarize it briefly: 1) You have to have double margins - one for manufactuer to resellers, and one for the reseller to consumers. If the consumers realize that wholesale is oby Simba - General
Re: Advice for my printer design - 12 years ago
I'm curious, what program are you using that produces such awesome renderings? where did you get the 3D color model of RAMPs 1.4?by Simba - General
Re: Advice for my printer design - 12 years ago
I think the printer look is fairly clean. It's a bit blocky (large, chunky), and has too many exterior screws, but that is my artistic opinion. It looks like a solid design, and has better symmetry than I'm used to seeing.by Simba - General
Re: Wondering people views about UP! 3D Printer ! - 12 years ago
It appears to be $1500 here.... From what the owner of the company tells me, the Up! printer is similar to many other repraps, but print quality is extremely surprisingly good because of mostly software optimizations.by Simba - General
Re: Advice for my printer design - 12 years ago
Having built and modified many extruders, but not the one you speak of, they can do anything, at any size. In particular, most nozzles have enough space to be modified within a range of .3 - 3.0 mm. Don't let the pundits of over-engineering be the enemy of good. In the end, whatever you do or make will work VERY well, it just won't be "perfect" in the eyes of some overly-complex engineering caby Simba - General
Re: Where can I get PLA pellets? - 12 years ago
on my list... Add this to my frustration with the non-open source nature of business. There must be at least 50 reprap filament suppliers for PLA, and not one says who there source is? I imagine it would be similar to other industries where 6 companies or so dominate the supply chain (i.e., Kraton, Chagrill, Shell, Exxon, Dow, etc).by Simba - General
Re: Where can I get PLA pellets? - 12 years ago
Who is the company that will ship a truckload? Did they give an estimate $/lb?by Simba - General
Re: Layer Thickness improvement - 12 years ago
I have iteration 2, and i've had it work at 0.05 mm before. Turn up the temperature 10-20 degrees, and increasing the movement between print areas (speed and acceleration) dramatically, to prevent ooze. And for the record, almost nothing is worth printing less than 0.1 mm per layer.by Simba - General
Re: Very easy extruder that works great! - 12 years ago
With great admiration. Much respect. Keep chugging! Hows the printer coming along / what are the specs?by Simba - General
New Arduino DUE in reprap? - 12 years ago
Will the Arudino DUE be compatible with the Ramps shield? Has anyone tried it? Are any printers using it? Is the 3.3V limitation going to totally ruin the functionality of ramps? Thanks!by Simba - General
Re: Uh Oh, formlabs is a no go? - 12 years ago
PomeroyB Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 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? agreed. A dickbag move is when they sue without just cause in their claims, as a drawn-out legal proby Simba - General
Re: New Filaments - Heavy Weight, Rubbery, Conductive, Semi-conductive - 12 years ago
Happy Thanksgiving Preview! *Note what is special about these filaments compared to TPE is that they have a stronger difference between 3mm filament and 0.5mm-1mm extrusions. They will be easier to push. If you have a 5 mm distance between bolt and hot-end entrance, it could work for you. More testing to be done.by Simba - General
Re: Electroplating plastic - 12 years ago
Excellent. Is there any place you are posting preliminary info?by Simba - General
Re: Electroplating plastic - 12 years ago
The "electrically conductive" ABS is conductive because it has 10^10 times more conductivity than normal plastic. IT is still 10^10 times less conductive than copper. Number are approximate. Look in the literature for percolation theory + carbon black and you will find a lot of data about this. Making electrically conductive polymers + electroplating is a BIG deal for reprap. It would meanby Simba - General
Re: HBot using fishing line - 12 years ago
This is a GREAT IDEA. Maybe possible to tie the fishing line in a knot through the center of the pulley, and have a second pulley on the same shaft to collect wire? No real stopper to success here if you use a thick enough line to prevent stretching.by Simba - Developers
Re: Are there any drill bit screw extruder heads out there? - 12 years ago
Sounds like you know how to motivate people. Why do you think it is so impossible? Its sounds really straightforwards if you keep the part light by having a conveyor belt of sorts for plastic pellet.by Simba - Developers