Ahhh...the good old days of crazy architecture studio deadlines. I miss the nicotine and caffeine fueled haze that was the final week leading up to presentations. Good times. What school are you attending?by archistrong - General
Most brass bushings are oil impregnated (some are carbon impregnated) to aid in lubrication. I would fear that the heat generated from the current and potential arcing would cause the oil to "boil" out from the bearings causing them to fail prematurely (source - welding too close to brass bushings). Then there's also the safety risks. Two un-sheilded, very large conductors and high current areby archistrong - General
Just to play devils advocate here for a minute. How would your business differ from shapeways or i.materialise? Is it that you would be offering the actual 3D design rather than just printing? I'm not trying to be critical, just trying to make sure that your business has a unique enough "flavor" to differentiate itself from the established printing houses out there.by archistrong - General
1) From time to time you will need to apply some type of lubrication. White lithium grease seems to work well for me. So does "White Lightning", a wax based lubricant for bicycle chains. 2) ??? Dunno. I use Cura (a simplified package based on Skeinforge) which has a check box that turns off the top layers. 3) In order to properly "Joris" the exterior you would need a single wall. Try .5mmby archistrong - General
You can try a source in Kansa City, http://www.buy3dink.com/. I buy my filament from him and he's always had good prices. I think he is selling 1L resin for $75. Not sure how that compares as I don't know what volume you were buying from Bucktown. If you have any questions, shoot him an email as he is pretty responsive. Hope this helps.by archistrong - Polymer Working Group
Yeah, I have to agree that nearly any current design can achieve 100 micron layer heights. Mendel Max, Prusa, Ultimaker, Eventorbot, etc. are all capable of amazing prints. I find that the difference between a good print and an awesome print comes down to the slicing program. Even an Ultimaker will yield crap prints if the slicer outputs inefficient or bad gcode.by archistrong - Reprappers
Inventor Fusion does look interesting. I'll have to check that one out. A pretty strong contender to Solidworks for a fraction of the cost is Alibre. From what I can tell it has nearly all the same functionality for $70-$120. I know SW is pretty pricey, I'm just lucky to work in a firm which has an unused license.by archistrong - General
Sorry to hear about your loss, DA. I can only imagine what it must be like and I'm glad to hear that you have family with you now. Take care and let us know if we can help in any way, even if its just to talk. Regards, CJAby archistrong - General
I tried it and I found it to be even more cumbersome than Solidworks. The user interface was not the most intuitive for me. I know solidworks can be challenging but after a few days using it learned most necessary functions. 123d just never really cut the mustard for me. Maybe I'll try it again in a few years after they refine it some more.by archistrong - General
Often times the blobs are a result of too much plastic being laid down and as the excess builds up it has to go somewhere and produces little "pimples" all over your print. The root cause of which could be a couple of things: E-Steps - make sure you have truly dialed in your extruder step rate. Slicr - I've heard (cannot confirm) that some versions of Slic3r introduced incorrect extruder feedraby archistrong - General
I've given my first batch of Laywood a go through my Budaschnozzle 1.1 w/ .5mm nozzle and have had "relatively" good success. There are a few things I have noticed which can complicate printing: 1. Filament diameter (in my batch) is a little larger than 3mm. I think this has to do with the rough nature of the filament. I had to bore out my PTFE sleeve inside the printhead to accept the filamby archistrong - General
Ditto, need a fan on that thing. I had the same issues with PLA. The heat takes a while to creep up into the filament which allows it to soften and expand within the aluminum threaded cylinder/PEEK isolator. Once I added a fan, all was good.by archistrong - Reprappers
If you want heat resistance I would suggest looking into ABS. I sincerely doubt a mini-itx case with minimal cooling would get hot enough to warp either ABS or PLA but better to be safe I guess. Best thing to do is try both. Get a pound of each and try them out to see if they meet your requirements.by archistrong - General
You know, that's a good question. I know that I have heard some talk about self homing print nozzle but I'm not sure what the consensus was (or if there ever was one). One problem I could see is that if your nozzle is not completely clean you are not going to get an electrical connection. I think you might run into some repeat ability issues with this and if the nozzle doesn't make a clean conby archistrong - General
The little blisters are often indicative of too much filament being driven through the extruder. When there's too much plastic coming out it has no place to go but out the sides. It will also wreak havoc on your surface finish. Make sure that you extruder is properly calibrated (if you tell it to extrude 10mm of filament, it actually pulls 10mm of filament into the extruder).by archistrong - Printing
Per the Repetier Git, it does come bundled with Slic3r 0.9.7. I can confirm that the most recent install on my laptop does include Slic3r (has been the case far the past few versions). The bundled version of slic3r is the same that can be downloaded from Git. I can also confirm that I've had the same issues as the O.P. directing repetier to an external version of Slic3r does not appear to worby archistrong - General
Its a good start and I'm glad to see that you have finally gotten your printer in a working condition. Without know exactly which kind of printer you built I would assume that it is a Prusa or Mendel variant with a moving Y-Axis print surface (i.e. your glass or aluminum print bed). I found the same troubles with heated aluminum / kapton printbeds. They were not the most reliable and were, forby archistrong - Reprappers
I'd love to eventually see a granule extruder, similar to the one built by Dirk Vanderkooij: Creating an endless chair I'm sure there are some economies of scale that are helping him but I'm still impressed. I'm not concerned about constructing dense models. To me, the biggest advantage to FDM type fabrication is being able to control the interior structure of an object. Typically I like toby archistrong - Developers
ElectronicMAN - I think you do understand the basic premise of what I am saying. Manufacturers like SEEED and Elecrow are fully allowed (based on Arduino's license) to produce boards that use the Arduino technology and software. They have pursued the appropriate path of producing a product (Seeeduino) which is an Arduino but is not labeled as "An Authentic Arduino made in Italy". Based on theby archistrong - RAMPS Electronics
No one is doubting the fact that there are several Chinese companies who are actively contributing to the Arduino community with genuinely good products which are in agreement with the minimal licensing requirements asked for by Arduino. This discussion has more to do with Arduino boards being produced by manufacturers other than those listed on Arduino's website being passed off as "genuine" prby archistrong - RAMPS Electronics
Again, I recommend the 4:1 PVA glue (Elmer's white glue) to water applied cold or hot with a paper towel. Once applied it is usually good for at least 5-10 prints with a bed temp of 55-65C. I've never had the issue with the PVA solution remaining on my prints. I always get a nice, glass smooth surface.by archistrong - General
Again, I would say that if the Arduino in question is coming from Hong Kong or China it most almost certainly a fake. The only legitimate manufacturers of Arduino are either in Italy or the U.S. I sincerely doubt that Reprapdiscount.com is importing Arduinos to turn around and sell them for a loss. I also noticed that they stopped showing any images of the ADMega that is included with the RAMPby archistrong - RAMPS Electronics
Well, yes actually, you do need to care about the wavelength. Most of these curing resins respond to UV light smaller than 405nm. If the function of the hood is to prevent the premature hardening of the resin while at the same time preventing the powerful UV build light from damaging your eyes or skin then you need to make sure you block these wavelengths. The reason the plastic FORM1 uses isby archistrong - Developers
Without having seen one in person my bust guess is that the radiused shell (left/right/top) was molded as one piece and then the endcaps (front / rear) were sonic welded to them. The fact that the bottom has inward radius' it couldn't have been formed in one go, had to be manufactured in pieces.by archistrong - Developers
I've ordered from both Ultimachine and 3DInk and have nothing but praise for both of them.by archistrong - General
Didn't we have this same discussion back when the topic about 3D printed guns came out? If anything the fact that the government is investing in the development of this technology should be a positive sign. The construction of an institute for the distinct purpose of making 3D (additive) printing cheaper and more accessable is a good thing. If we were hearing rumblings about censorship or bannby archistrong - General
-DarkAlchemist If you take a minute and look through the Objet website, the printer is just an upscaled version of their Connex series printers. They use a UV cured resin to build up the model. It has a resolution of up to 16 microns which is why you are not seeing the telltale banding. The machine can hold up to 3 different polymer types (each with different cured material properties) whichby archistrong - General
I wouldn't be surprised to see this technology cascade down within the next decade or so. Keep in mind that 3D printing only started to emerge in the 80's and was inconceivably expensive to own / operate. Look where we are 30 years later, we now have technologically simplified FDM machines sitting on our dining tables. What Objet is previewing is merely an up-scaled version of known technologyby archistrong - General
My best guess is that they are fake. From the Arduino website: Most of the official Arduino boards are manufactured by SmartProjects in Italy. The Arduino Pro, Pro Mini, and LilyPad are manufactured by SparkFun Electronics (a US company). The Arduino Nano is manufactured by Gravitech (also a US company). If the seller is based in Hong Kong, I would say that there is a very strong chance thatby archistrong - RAMPS Electronics
dslc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks guys. Both look like good options. My > primary concern is crimping the wires. The last > time I checked the crimping tools necessary are > fairly expensive - so availabilty and price of > these will be a factor in whether I choose a Molex > or JST connector. As with most things, the skies the limit oby archistrong - Reprappers