What resin are you using for the PC filament? (Thank you for posting the resin info for your ABS and PLA!)by Have Blue - Polymer Working Group
As CdnReprap notes, the old Stratasys FDM series used a cable driven X-Y stage. Here's a photo: More details are here: [3d4u.org]by Have Blue - General
Andrew Diehl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Also, somebody (I'm pretty sure it's Stratasys) > has a patent for a method of keeping the stepper > motors out of the heated chamber. Probably easy > enough to skirt, but it's there nonetheless. Not all Stratasys machines keep the steppers out of the heated chamber - my FDM 1600 has the entire X-Y stage inby Have Blue - General
TreaterBot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am also very interested in testing different > materials. Everyone seems to be making ABS > filament, but no one says what type and brand of > ABS they are using. I guess their open source > doesn't apply to filament materials. Matt, this is precisely what has annoyed me when looking into materials - eveby Have Blue - Polymer Working Group
There is one really nice feature of AMF - the ability to have vertex normals! This alone could greatly decrease the size of mesh files, but at the expense of greatly increasing the amount of processing power needed to 'slice' a given mesh if the normals are to be used for curve generation. I've wanted vertex normals in STL for ages so that I could get decent looking output from POV-Ray when renby Have Blue - General
The FDM series machines as shown on my blog and John Branlund's blog (http://3d4u.org/MyFDM/) had two motors. The much newer Dimension series machines have the toggle bar to shift drive power to either the support or model nozzle. Brad Rigdon of printto3d shows how the toggle bar works on his Dimension at about 0:50 - droftarts Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- &by Have Blue - General
It should certainly be possible - the high-end Fortus machines that Stratasys makes can run polycarbonate (they are built to run at higher temperatures than the Dimension series machines). I'd start by trying a PC-ABS blend (hoping to try that myself once I investigate a few other ABS resins) before attempting straight PC, however.by Have Blue - Polymer Working Group
Looks like Wearlon is just a coating, not an engineering plastic...by Have Blue - General
Andrew Diehl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I hear MEK would be a possible solvent, too. Possibly, but I'd stick with acetone - MEK is some nasty stuff. I hear EMT's commonly refer to it as 'methyl ethyl killya'.by Have Blue - General
Andrew Diehl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That is what I was trying to get at I figured as much, but I thought I'd let people in on the secret if they weren't aware of it...by Have Blue - General
I've cleaned nozzles with acetone before, but the best method that I've found is to use a very small drill bit (0.001" smaller than what the nozzle was drilled out for) in a pin vise to clear out the blockage. Much faster than waiting overnight, too...by Have Blue - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Andrew Diehl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Because it is a $5000 difference between the break > away support model and the dissolve away support > model Actually, the models are identical - the $5000 extra is to change the 'GENDER' variable in /mariner/config/machine.cfg from 'DIMENSION' to 'SCHOONER' for a 768 or 'OAHU' to 'KONA' for a 1200...by Have Blue - General
My guess would be Objet, as those are great machines for elastomers (which it appears is all that the 'springs' connecting the discs are).by Have Blue - General
I don't yet have any suggestions for support material, though you could certainly try HIPS. If you can run 0.070", I have a few pounds left of the stuff I got from New Image (my Stratasys doesn't like it - keeps buckling between the drive rollers and liquifier inlet).by Have Blue - General
Just to throw another possibility for X-Y out there - old thousand series Stratasys machines (not sure about newer P-class models) used a cable drum system for the X-Y stage rather than belts or leadscrews: [3d4u.org]by Have Blue - General
If you're talking 50lbs. minimum, you may want to get set up with a plastics resin supplier (Entec, Chase Plastics, Nexeo, etc.) and then have a local extruder run the material for you. That way you can get the exact material you want if Chi Mei PA-747 isn't your cup of tea. Village Plastics still makes Makerbot filament as far as I know (http://support.makerbot.com/attachments/token/flymr4qerqby Have Blue - General
I don't disagree that the wiki is a sub-optimal location to upload my receiver file to if it's purely for the sake of discussing how to print better AR-15 parts. Thingiverse is the ideal repository, though it says 'please don't upload weapons' right on their upload page, so I'm not sure why the mag follower is allowed (though I'm glad it is - will need to print a few to try out). I'm much moreby Have Blue - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Just to add in my own two cents and a real-world example, I have an .STL file for an AR-15 lower receiver that I've modified in order to strengthen the lugs for the front take-down pin, strengthen the lugs for the bolt catch, and added a trigger guard. I've successfully printed it. (the white one was a 75% scale test of an unmodified receiver with sparse infill, the black one is a full size verby Have Blue - Administration, Announcements, Policy
You're best off doing an investment casting type of system with a burnout of the ABS in a ceramic shell - I don't think doing a 'loast foam' type of casting with ABS rather than foam will work terribly well (all the density will be at the surface of the part, so you won't be able to capture any detail, and the aluminum will be all crudded with burnt plastic on the surfaces). You can get some excby Have Blue - General
Corian would be super cool, but the particle size would be the limitation for reprapping. You should certainly be able to do something Corian-ish by using a fine powdered mineral filler in an appropriate polymer matrix. No idea what the cost would be to have something like that compounded and then extruded into filament, though.by Have Blue - General
The 756 series will be even easier than the 746.by Have Blue - General
MG47 prints much better on a Stratasys machine than PA-747 does. The biggest difference between the two is that the MG47 has a much higher melt flow rate (you can push the material through a nozzle much more easily at a given temperature).by Have Blue - General
AgeingHippy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @13'thfloor > > Be sure to manage the quality when talking to the > Chinese. Someone in the UK got a load of stuff but > unfortunately the quality was a little off - the > profile was oval at probably 3.2 by 2.8 or > thereabouts. Nasty profile. Also request material data sheets. 'ABS' has an increby Have Blue - General
I don't think it's WEAK at all, especially when compared to all the other books currently available on building your own 3D printer (yes, that's a sarcastic statement). Given that it appears to be documenting the build from start-to-finish, I think it will be a fantastic reference for people wanting to build a machine, but who are otherwise overwhelmed by the flood of disjointed information. Iby Have Blue - General
It's a plywood RepStrap. See buildyourcnc.com and his youtube channel for info on the 'whiteAnt' machine:by Have Blue - General
rhysjones Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can't speak for skeinforge, but the host > software *should* do this just by setting the > number of shells to a ridiculously high value. I believe this is what rhysjones is describing: It's not a spiral, as each road is a closed loop, but the effect is essentially the same. I think a more interesting infilby Have Blue - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Stratasys offered a nylon filament (P301) on the first two FDM series machine models they made, but they seemed to have quietly discontinued it around 1999. They used a chamber temperature of 40 deg C, and a nozzle temperature of around 130-155 deg C (versus 70 and 270 for their ABS). I assume they got rid of it for a number of reasons - ABS is far stronger and tougher, they seem to have had aby Have Blue - General
3RS_Vienna Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Has anyone every tried to trace down the source of > HighQuality Filaments back to their Source? Yes.by Have Blue - For Sale
Yep, it's the real deal, still sealed in the barrier bag. AgeingHippy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How can anyone be selling it for $25 a pound then? > Is it the genuine article?by Have Blue - For Sale