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Re: Wood-based frames: are there processes that can make wood (composites) suitable for 3D printer frames? - 8 years ago
I tend to think that we are overengineering some problems. The printers are not going to be more precise than 0.1mm or maybe if you are really lucky 0.05mm anyway. So, if I ever get to build my second printer, I would choose plywood. What one can do to minimize warping or dimensional changes due to humidity is to infuse the wood with some kind of filler (stabilizing it). In the knifemaking communby uGen - General
Re: Wanted: Crazy Ideas! I'm building another RepRap! - 8 years ago
Yep, combining rigid members with tensioned ones is quite in the line of tensegrity. Properly preloaded dyneema should be reasonably unstretchy. They even considered using this stuff for the mooring line of a space elevator. So such a printer with clever setup could in theory be extremely lightweight.by uGen - Developers
Re: Wanted: Crazy Ideas! I'm building another RepRap! - 8 years ago
The print usually sticks so tightly to the platform that I have to knock or pry it off. How about a frame that is based on tension instead of purely on compression? Something like tensegrity with a lot of 2mm dyneema lines?by uGen - Developers
Re: I'm building n enclosure for my Printer, so I have some quick questions - 8 years ago
Also, coat the inside of the enclosure with aluminium foil for dat sweet IR reflectivity.by uGen - General
Re: z will be light "as feather"..? - 8 years ago
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Do you want to replace the leadscrews of the Z axis with a belt because of the Z-axis wobble some people get? I myself also want to use belts for my Z-axis, but I am thinking about using a pulley system for my belt Z-axis. You not only increase the resolution, but also only have to use a fraction of torque with pulleys. They add mechanical complexity, butby uGen - General
Re: CoreXY for bed instead of extruder(s), for small printer? - 8 years ago
You have to consider that the steppers only have a repeatability of +-5% or so, too. So 0.9° steppers not only increase resolution, but also precision. The positioning error is only applicable for full steps, though. Microsteps will have progressively higher errors (I think Nophead explained the science behind this on his blog). I only think in full steps when calculating resolution and precisionby uGen - CoreXY Machines
Re: Experiments in making a 3d printed replacement for an aluminum extrusion frame - 8 years ago
Off the top of my head: You could probably make use of tensegrity structures to stabilize the frame. That is an idea I am currently thinking over for a super lightweight and simple frame. Even diagonal bracing similar to the ones found on the Darwin, done with tensioned Dyneema should result in more stiffness. Or, if you can sacrifice some modularity, you could also replace the aluminium extrusiby uGen - Developers
Re: I am tired of thermistors and I think we all need to look for a better solution - 10 years ago
Some Polycarbonate or PC-ABS filaments seem to have terrible layer adhesion when printed with anything below 300°C. My interim solution was to print as low and slow as possible to transfer enough energy into the previous layer so that everything fuses together nicely. Obviously, this solution sucks, so a higher printing temperature might be quite handy for these kinds of plastics. Edit: This issby uGen - General
Re: I am tired of thermistors and I think we all need to look for a better solution - 10 years ago
You might want to have a look at the Prometheus hot end thread. We were discussing thermistor vs thermocouple issues in that thread, too and RP Iron Man seems to have come up with a neat solution.by uGen - General
Re: “Prometheus Hot End”: New Customizable All-Metal Hot End! 
[Many Pictures] - 10 years ago
Hey, this looks really nice! Good to see that you have found a solution to combine the best of two worlds. About the Polycarbonate problems: It's not only Chinese Polycarbonate, but also an American made PC-ABS that I have had trouble with. In the end, I am not too sure about these plastics (PC) after watching a documentation called "Plastic Planet". Endocrine Disruptors, endocrine disruptors EVby uGen - General
Re: Universal 3D printing filament spool standard 2014 - 10 years ago
Hey, this sounds like a very good compromise! The problem with a return system is logistics and hassle which might drive people to not return spools, so minimizing the spool (or the part(s) of the spool that has/have to be shipped) sound really reasonable to me. I wonder how the shrinkwrapping might be implemented best? In any case I can imagine, handling has to be extra careful when unwrapping.by uGen - Printing
Re: Universal 3D printing filament spool standard 2014 - 10 years ago
eades850 has got a point here. I, too agree that the less spools made the better - however, tangling of loose coils might get problematic as pointed out before. I am unsure about the environmental impact of cardboard spools, though. IIRC, it also takes a lot of energy, water and nasty chemicals to recycle cardboard or paper in general. Not to bash or badmouth your idea, Rich, but I would like toby uGen - Printing
Re: “Prometheus Hot End”: New Customizable All-Metal Hot End! [Many Pictures] - 10 years ago
You might want to ask the E3D guys about the 500°C thermistor. IIRC, they also found one for a reasonable price or something like that.by uGen - General
Re: “Prometheus Hot End”: New Customizable All-Metal Hot End! [Many Pictures] - 10 years ago
The Megatronics board from RepRapWorld has got 2 thermocouple inputs. That's also where E3D's adapter board and thermocouple originates from, seemingly. About the additional costs of thermocouples: that's also bugging me, but I think the best solution would be to have a way to choose during purchase. People who are willing to put in more money can while the ones who like thermistors more are equby uGen - General
Re: “Prometheus Hot End”: New Customizable All-Metal Hot End! [Many Pictures] - 10 years ago
One thing I am rather confused about is that about every all-metal hot end comes with a thermistor as default. This doesn't make much sense to me since the purpose of these hot ends is the higher temperature capability and while E3D also has thermocouples on stock, these are PTFE-coated, again limiting the maximum working temperature to 260°C. So, what I would absolutely love to see is an optionby uGen - General
Re: “Prometheus Hot End”: New Customizable All-Metal Hot End! [Many Pictures] - 10 years ago
Can confirm: 0.3mm layer height with 0.4mm nozzle is possible and looking good (I am using an E3D v4.1) From what I can see, you are using standard nut sizes. How about using half nuts for finer adjustability? Or are they too costly? One thing I am not too sure about is the nut below the heatsink. Judging purely from intuition, I guess that having a cooling fin in its place would constrict the tby uGen - General
Re: Nazi Mods - 10 years ago
How about reading the Rules and Guidelines of this forum?by uGen - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Re: Dual independent extrusion - 10 years ago
RepRapDiscount's RUMBA board might be an option or RepRapWorld's Megatronics 3 (which also supports thermocouples in addition to thermistors). I tend to favor the Megatronics because it's cheaper and shipping distance is shorter, but both should be fine. They are based on the ATMega2560 processors (so essentially, a fancy souped up Arduino+RAMPS). Keep in mind that the Megatronics 3 is relativelyby uGen - General
Re: 2 Extruders, 1 Hotend - 10 years ago
Seems like this got a little bit under the radar, but there seems to be a commercial version of a dual feed, single nozzle extruder/hotend already that works pretty well: 3D Builder Dual Feed blog postby uGen - General
Re: Rapid Tool-Head changer (very light multi-extruder) - 10 years ago
I still don't really get why you guys are so keen on detaching the extruder from a dedicated umbilical cord. You would need n+1 controllers (vs. n controllers) for n extruders since each one has its own parking position that needs to be addressed by one controller plus the one that handles the currently active one. The only advantage I see is that you only have one longer bundle of cables swinginby uGen - Developers
Re: 2 Extruders, 1 Hotend - 10 years ago
Wouldn't filament change be faster if you put the Y connector closer to the nozzle? There seems to be a lot of travel for the retraction and re-insertion every time there is a filament change.by uGen - General
Re: Made in Space is Malarchy - 10 years ago
Think about it this way: Down here on earth, when something goes wrong, you can easily just extinguish the fire or bail out if things so extremely awry. On the ISS, this isn't that easy. So they have to be absolutely certain that equipment they bring up won't cause catastrophes. They also have to make sure that the device doesn't need permanent maintenance and replacement parts as shooting stuffby uGen - General
Re: Rapid Tool-Head changer (very light multi-extruder) - 10 years ago
I am also more for individual connections to each tool head. As Dale Dunn correctly states, one would quickly run into heating problems if one was to disconnect the hot end every time. Also, this might be rather fatal for all-metal hotends that require cooling even after switching off.by uGen - Developers
Re: E3D V5 Hotend Lüfter im geschlossem Gehäuse? - 10 years ago
So geht's natürlich auch, war eher von einem "schönen" Kühlkörper aus Alu gefräst ausgegangen. Dann wiederum könnte man eventuell nen Heizblock modifizieren, also durchgängiges Gewinde in das Loch reinschneiden, wo normalerweise der Widerstand/die Heizpatrone sitzt. Natürlich vorteilhaft, wenn der Block breit ist wie beim Ultimaker. Vorne und hinten werden dann Schlauchfittings reingeschraubt undby uGen - Extruder, Hotends & verschiedene Materialien
Re: E3D V5 Hotend Lüfter im geschlossem Gehäuse? - 10 years ago
Wenn du den Standardkühlkörper durch eine Wasserkühlung austauschst, kannst du die Kammer ziemlich hoch heizen, ohne, dass du Probleme kriegen solltest. Vorausgesetzt natürlich, du hast irgendwie Zugang zu den nötigen Maschinen, um einen Wasserkühlkörper zu bauen. Aber ansonsten läuft bei mir das E3D ganz problemlos luftgekühlt in einer Kammer mit 45-50°C. Wenn du Sorgen hast, dass der Luftstromby uGen - Extruder, Hotends & verschiedene Materialien
Re: Let's implement colour mixing - [video] - 10 years ago
Yeah, I know, I happened upon this patent while reading through one of her papers (Functional Graded Rapid Prototyping). Still, it is bad news that a multi-material/color extruder that looks nearly exactly like our RepRap design ones is already patented. One can still hope that she and her associates are more interested in advancement of technology and science than making money by suing patent viby uGen - General
Re: Rapid Tool-Head changer (very light multi-extruder) - 10 years ago
Maybe printing some kind of tapered groove to guide the tooling part into the head part could help with repeatability? After all, the final mating between ball and pins should be accurate, so the groove might only be needed for the approach. Seeing your pin solution is very similar to using the side of cap screws that I can get my hands on easier, this might be the way to go. One thing popped upby uGen - Developers
Re: Let's implement colour mixing - [video] - 10 years ago
Guys, really bad news: Methods and Apparatus for Variable Property Rapid Prototyping (Patent)by uGen - General
Re: Printing with the new t-glase from taulman3d - 10 years ago
PET should have a slightly lower softening point and TG than ABS, I guess you should be ok with that. The link I posted in my last comment shows a polyester filament (most likely something very similar - if not - PET) after treatment in a dish washer @ 70°C, which still looks fine - if not better than before. If you want to have a really heat resistant material that is generally available, I haveby uGen - General
Re: Recommend a printer for an art/design school. - 10 years ago
I disagree about the new Makerbots. With the old (up to Replicator 2X) ones, it was possible to easily hang filament spools on the printer, fix stuff yourself (exchange extruder, nozzle etc) and so on, but the latest generation is very closed for several reasons: - spool mount is proprietary. You cannot (easily) use non-Makerbot spools on the printer as they are now stored internally in a kind ofby uGen - General