The cheap digital calipers that you can buy on eBay from China for less than AU$20 (about 10 to 15 pounds sterling / euros) are perfect. As others have said, make sure you get ones which read to 0.01 mm, not the 0.1 mm variety, and get steel jaws, not plastic. (The plastic / composite jaws might be useful if you need to measure live circuit boards etc, but I much prefer the machined stainless sby julianh72 - General
Are you printing from a PC console UI application such as Pronterface, or from SD Card and a graphics controller? Either way, you should be able to manually drive the printer on all of its axes - what happens if you manually nudge the Z height from 0 to 1 mm to 5 mm, 10 mm and so on? Check that the machine is actually able to move over its full design range, with no mechanical interference etc.by julianh72 - Printing
When I first started printing from SD card, I found that my Arduino Mega would reset mid-print if I was connected to the PC, and then pulled the USB cable while the SD Print job was under-way. I now do all of my "production" printing stand-alone using the SD Card on the LCD Smart Graphics Controller. While calibrating / tinkering with my printer's firmware etc, I drive it from Pronterface on thby julianh72 - Reprappers
QuoteElmoC I have issues with the survey itself too. You ask to evaluate products without defining the goal the product is trying to meet. Hard to really evaluate something when you don't have information as to the job it is trying to fill. Also, you ask about my experience compared to my friends. Maybe it asks in the part I didn't see, but it didn't ask what the experience levels of my friendsby julianh72 - General
QuoteDjDemonD I know for certain that for example when I print a 2x2x1 cm cube it is not usually showing z=10 on the LCD when it finishes, despite this the part is 10mm thick (+/-0.05). So what DOES your LCD show? My Marlin firmware shows the Z-height to 0.1 mm precision (truncated, not rounded) on the LCD display; Pronterface on the laptop shows the G-Code print height to 0.01 mm. If I printby julianh72 - General
By default, Slic3r will try to extrude a "generous" amount of filament for the first layer, so that it will create a fully contiguous sheet when it is "smooshed" into the print bed. Second and subsequent layers are less generous, as the intent is to just get the parallel filament threads to touch, not to fully fill the space. The actual thickness of the first layer will depend upon the Z0 gap yoby julianh72 - Printing
A rubber O-Ring or rubber band sounds ideal, or maybe you could get some inspiration from this "Flexible Bracelet" on Thingiverse: I've printed a few of these out of PLA, and they're surprisingly flexible and robust; I imagine they would be even tougher and durable if printed in ABS.by julianh72 - General
Quotethe_digital_dentist Translation to English: methylated spirit == 95% ethyl alcohol + 5% methyl alcohol Just use vodka. Preferrably Rehorst Vodka No wonder vodka gives me a shocking headache, if it contains 5% methyl alcohol!by julianh72 - Printing
QuotePARADOXICLES im.not gonna wast time recording nothing.... You wouldn't be recording nothing - you would be showing us EXACTLY what happens when you try to print. Is the extruder turning? Is raw filament going into the extruder? Is molten filament coming out of the hot end? Is the molten filament flowing freely as a continuous thread, or is it coming out intermittently? Is the melted fby julianh72 - Printing
QuoteElmoC If your company is called Apple here in the States, they would give you a patent too. So, what would a "wheel with rounded corners" look like?by julianh72 - General
QuoteJ-Max If I design a wheel and I post it on thingiverse, did I reinvent the wheel and am I allowed to licence it ?!? If you call it a "circular transportation facilitation device", IP Australia (the Australian Patents Office) will grant you a patent!by julianh72 - General
Quoterealthor I've read many articles citing the adaptive pattern density as an invaluable trick to compete with injection moulded parts strength for strength. In many cases, I would argue that we're already there - at least as far as making RepRappable replacements for original parts. Injection moulding imposes its own design constraints - the part has to be able to be released from a 2-part moby julianh72 - Slic3r
Quoterealthor What about the Voronoi adaptive stress pattern density do you think we'll ever have those in the major open source slicers? I learnt a long time ago to "never say never", but it will be a while before such a concept becomes part of the mainstream RepRap workflow in my opinion. In order to do adaptive stress design, you need to do a stress analysis, and that means your modelling sby julianh72 - Slic3r
Why "Solid infill every n layers"? A Structural Engineer's perspective: For non-mechanical parts which are largely "unstressed", the infill pattern and density should have very limited impact on the functionality of the printed part. You can experiment with all of Slic3r's infill patterns, and you will probably find that any / all of them work fine. However, if you are printing something whichby julianh72 - Slic3r
Quoterealthor I never thought it that way. I don't know why would you print 0.25 and not 0.3 or 0.2. It's like you would ask: "how would you print a 0.33 layer if tou can only do 0.05/microstep". Once you start printing and calibrating, you quickly get an idea of what works well for your machine. I get results that I'm happy with using a first layer of 0.35 mm, and second and subsequent layers ofby julianh72 - General
For successful prints, you need to get the first layer "just right". The gap between the nozzle and the print bed typically closes as you heat the machine, so you need to adjust the Z0 height to make the gap precise if you change your print settings (eg printing with ABS vs PLA). Even changes in ambient temperature can affect the gap, as the frame expands and contracts. It's much easier to adjustby julianh72 - General
QuoteDownunder35m Hmmm, noone said anything about burning the candles. The second picture in the original post is what concerned me ... Personally, I wouldn't put a real candle anywhere near a plastic holder, I'd only use one of those LED "tea candle" thingies, and make sure it's built-in, so that nobody is tempted to use a real candle.by julianh72 - Printing
This is normal for most 3D printers - the filament will solidify in the nozzle, slightly fatter than the approach duct, and won't be able to back out once the extruder cools down. The extruder is then effectively "pre-primed" ready to go when you start the next job. If you want to be able to change filament after every print job, you should fully retract the filament while the printer is still hby julianh72 - General
(On a side note: Is it a good idea to make a candle-holder out of plastic?)by julianh72 - Printing
If you want things to fit together, try using sightly tapered holes and tapered pins - the two conical surfaces (or pyramids, if your pin and hole are square) will push together until they meet. Push a bit harder, and they will grip, pull them apart a smidge (yes, that's a technical term!), and they will move freely. (This will only work if your design allows the two parts to mate with +/- a mm oby julianh72 - Printing
Quotefrankvdh 101-colour auto-changing multi-filament. Why stop at 101 colours? How about 24-bit full colour printing?by julianh72 - Developers
QuoteMechaBits I Can't wait to get going with honeycomb infills, but wish there was a way to shift them on a layer by layer basis, rather than keeping continuous, Why? Having a vertically-stacked honeycomb infill provides really good mechanical strength. What would be the advantage of random (or leaning) honeycomb infill layers? If you want something that seems more "random", Slic3r also offerby julianh72 - General
For most typical components, most of the strength and stiffness is contributed by the outer "skin", and the interior will function perfectly well as an open honeycomb or similar. It's main function is to provide stability to the outer load-bearing shell, preventing it from buckling under load. In my design concept for a RepRappable structural strut, I used 20% honeycomb fill for the two "solid" eby julianh72 - General
Well, firstly, I AM an experienced Structural Engineer, so there is in fact some method to my madness! (However, I am a lowly hobbyist RepRapper, with only one build to my name - A 1st-gen Prusa Mendel - so my method may be very misdirected! ) Secondly, I need to correct a mistake in my previous post: The 20 mm PLA square tube will have a flexural rigidity of about 65% of an 8 mm steel rod,by julianh72 - General
OK: Challenge Accepted! I have a concept for a 3D-Printable structural member, suitable for use in making the frame of a RepRap 3D printer (or other application). The typical member would be a 20 mm x 20 mm square hollow section (SHS), which is the same overall dimensions as the HFS5-2020 aluminium extrusion as used in the MendelMax RepRap and similar 3D printers. Individual members could be prby julianh72 - General
I hear your concerns about the "pollution" of the RepRap ideal, but for me, when I started my adventure in 2011, my primary objective was to buy or build an affordable, upgradeable 3D printer. "Buy" was way out of my budget (how things have changed in 4 short years!), so "build a RepRap" was the only viable option. I only encountered the RepRap project because it was the only affordable way intoby julianh72 - General
To paraphrase Descartes: "I think I am not a bot, therefore I am not a bot (I think)"by julianh72 - General
So, now take a look at your G-Code file, and understand what it does: Lines 1 to 7 are introductory comments Lines 8 to 20 get the machine ready for printing Line 21 moves the printhead to a z-height of 0.2 mm Lines 22 to 266 print the first layer by shifting the x and y coordinates and extruding as you go Line 267 shifts to a z-height of 0.4 mm Lines 268 to 513 print the second layer Lines 514by julianh72 - Printing
How are you planning to test the layer-to-layer bond strength? Remembering that each layer is itself made up of numerous parallel "filaments", when you try to separate two layers, it will probably tend to tear across the layers as well.by julianh72 - Printing