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People building or using RepRaps.
Re: Maybe the World's Lightest Extruder - 1 year ago
PLA? Really?by the_digital_dentist - Tech-Talk
Re: How to cut model into parts to fit bed? - 1 year ago
What file format is the model?by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: thermistor and heatsink compound - 1 year ago
Heatsinks normally don't get much over 60-70C. It seems unlikely that heatsink compound of any type is intended to work at hot-end temperatures, and will probably decompose quickly (accompanied by dripping, smoke, and stink). I always use antiseize compound (from auto parts store) on everything that is mounted in the heater block. I'm not sure it's intended to be used at hot end temperatures, aby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
youmagine.com seems to work OK most of the time.by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
I'm no fan of Thingiverse, but why do you need to upload a pdf file? You can't just copy and paste text, and upload a few pictures?by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: general question - 1 year ago
Notepad++ can compare two text files and highlights differences...by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: New no-stab wire twister design - 1 year ago
Storage mode- a piece of wire snapped into the Wagos will keep the two pieces together in your tool box. I added a piece of rubber to keep it from slipping when you pull on the wires tight to twist them. Video:by the_digital_dentist - Look what I made!
Re: Remodeling my existing printer for better prints - 1 year ago
It's actually from the print not sticking to the bed. All that plastic came out of the nozzle. One thing that I have found especially hard to drill into people's heads is that they should keep their grubby hands off the bed. For same reason, people insist on touching it to see if it's hot. It has always stuck me as strange that they don't also touch the nozzle to see if it's hot.by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Remodeling my existing printer for better prints - 1 year ago
I ran into one of my pictures of the plastic encased heater block on a Prusa printer. This would be failure of the first layer of the print to stick to the bed, not an extruder failure. I've seen this particular failure 3 or 4 times at the makerspace. When we train people we tell them to be sure and watch at least the first layer of their print before they walk away, but this happens anyway. Oby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Remodeling my existing printer for better prints - 1 year ago
I don't know why PLA causes clogs- it melts at a low temperature, so maybe it decomposes at a low temperature, too, and leaves residue that builds up inside the heater block. I've been printing for 8 or 9 years and in all that time I might have used two spools of PLA. I used to print ABS almost exclusively, but these days mainly PETG, TPU, and occasional ABS. I haven't had a clogged nozzle/hot-eby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: DELAMINATION ISSUE - 1 year ago
What type of filament was it? ABS is the type most people have problems with because their printers aren't enclosed/heated and often the bed doesn't get hot enough. You can make small (like 1/2 the size of your fist) ABS prints on most machines, but try anything larger or long narrow prints and you're asking for trouble. The problem is that ABS shrinks as it cools, and the shrinking applies a lby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Re: Remodeling my existing printer for better prints - 1 year ago
Driver chips soldered to the board are generally more reliable than those tiny driver modules that can't dissipate heat. It's usually easier and more accurate to set the motor current via the config file than to have to mess around with adjusting tiny, easily broken pots, while guessing at the motor current. Some people think "I want driver modules so they can be replaced easily when/if they failby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: X and Y axis in strange behavior - 1 year ago
Where to begin...?? Corexy refers to a very specific arrangement of belts and pulleys. From what I can see, your mechanism does not appear to be corexy. It looks like a standard cartesian mechanism with two motors driving the Y axis and a single motor mounted on the X axis and moving the extruder in X. The controller has to know exactly what type of mechanism it is trying to drive. If you toldby the_digital_dentist - CoreXY Machines
Re: Sci-Fi table lamp - 1 year ago
Thanks! My brother makes the whiskey. He started/owns the Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee.by the_digital_dentist - Look what I made!
Sci-Fi table lamp - 1 year ago
I recently designed and printed a table lamp that looks a bit like a prop out of a 1930s sci-fi movie: The print is about 270 mm dia x 300 mm tall and the lamp is about 400 mm tall overall. It is designed to fit a Feit Electric G63 light bulb that is about 200 mm in diameter. I printed in PETG with a 1 mm nozzle, 1.2 mm line width, 0.5 mm layers, 30 mm/sec and it finished in a little over 3 hoby the_digital_dentist - Look what I made!
Re: Please help tinkering slicing profile - 1 year ago
Note- when Prusa took on development of their version of Slic3r, they broke the spiral vase mode- it will print but will leave a seam on the print. See: Cura's spiral vase mode works without leaving a seam in the print.by the_digital_dentist - Slic3r
New no-stab wire twister design - 1 year ago
If you're building a printer or other machine that has long cable runs, twisting the wires helps keep everything neat. I designed and printed a wire twister a few years ago and used it for many projects but never liked having to use a screwdriver to clamp the wires in the tool. I recently designed a new tool to use wago lever nuts to clamp the wires and it is a huge improvement. All you do isby the_digital_dentist - Look what I made!
Re: Newbie / junkstrap - 1 year ago
The motor mount for the cable driven machine use the extra pulleys to steer the cable over the drive pulley and prevent the cable from winding over itself. It also provides a fixed position for the cable to wind/unwind from the drive pulley so you can keep the cable parallel to the guide rails (just like drive belts and screws). There are limits to how and where you can position the steering pullby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Newbie / junkstrap - 1 year ago
Not really. There's no magic and it isn't rocket science. When you tighten the first belt, leave it a little looser than you ultimately want it to be. It will pull the X and Y axes out of square. When you tighten the second belt, the first belt will also get tighter (that's why you left it a little loose). Tighten the second belt until the X and Y axes are square again. If the tension feels adequby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Newbie / junkstrap - 1 year ago
I've played a bit with cable drive for a corexy mechanism and I can't recommend it. Doing it right is too difficult, and even if you do it right, maintenance is a nightmare. Doing it right requires motor mounts similar to this: Installing the cables is a good introduction to what maintenance will be like. Cables require multiple turns on the drive and steering pulleys to get sufficient fricby the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Can any slicer do that? - 1 year ago
#1- yes. Prusa silcer and slic3r in the print settings>advanced select solid infill every XXX layers. You'll have to calculate the number of layers based on desired spacing and layer thickness. #2- yes, but fiddly. You can insert modifiers and change wall thickness at each section, so the bottom will have thickest walls, and then set the wall thickness to smaller values as you go up in Z.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Belt noise - Help on belt alignment and idler mounting - 1 year ago
I let the belt teeth run on the smooth surfaces of the stacked F608 bearing pulleys without any visible artifacts in the print surfaces. There's a Gates technical paper somewhere that says if you're going to use belt teeth against smooth pulleys there should be at least 9 teeth in contact with the pulley at all times. In a corexy mechanism, belts bend 90 degrees around the pulleys (except the drby the_digital_dentist - CoreXY Machines
Re: Belt noise - Help on belt alignment and idler mounting - 1 year ago
Those little pulleys can be difficult to use properly, and I've always had doubts about their operating life in a 3D printer. I prefer to use stacked bearings to make pulleys from larger ball bearings that are likely to last a lot longer and are easier to mount, both because of the larger size. They are heavier, so moving mass increases. In my 3D printer I used stacked F608 bearings for the pulleby the_digital_dentist - CoreXY Machines
Re: Belt noise - Help on belt alignment and idler mounting - 1 year ago
The pulleys have two bearings each so should not "tilt" as they turn. If they are tilting, it is likely that the shaft is too small in diameter. You should probably use either a 3mm steel rod, cut to length, or get shoulder screws that have 3mm diameter shoulder. You will find they fit tightly in the pulleys and do not allow them to tilt. As far as alignment is concerned, that is best addressedby the_digital_dentist - CoreXY Machines
Re: Back to 3d Printing - 1 year ago
I don't get to the space very often these days, but I'm going to try soon. I have some projects to work on. I am no longer 3D printing area champ- Tim took over for me. Carl runs a Monday night class on Fusion360 that you might want to check out. I think they do it virtually. Maybe I'll see you around the space soon.by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Back to 3d Printing - 1 year ago
I'm a big fan of DIY, but if you're more interested in just printing rather than in the design and problem solving required to make it all work, a kit might be a better way to go. What do you want to do and what do you want to print- size, material, etc.?by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Help needed for a 3D printing issue - 1 year ago
Try a different slicer.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Re: Follow Up to "Vent Your Printer. Do it Now" - 1 year ago
Glad to hear you're doing better. Maybe you should not print PLA any more. I get prescription meds through Canada Pharmacy. The stuff I use ships to me from New Zealand and costs 1/15th what it would at a US pharmacy. Look them up.by the_digital_dentist - General
Re: Reducing weight on Cartesian printer X and Y axis - 1 year ago
You could make a printer with interchangeable beds of different sizes and use the bed that is just large enough to accommodate each print. You can print on a sacrificial foam bed without a heater or metal plate. If you were really concerned about ringing, you'd just print slowly. "Ringing" is a euphemism for printing fast. You're not really concerned about ringing. You really want to print fast,by the_digital_dentist - Mechanics