Hi Optimist, Most of what you say is true, but it is still nothing to worry about. Most people - including the anti -science anti-technology brigade know that most things politicians say are rubbish. Most (or more than 50%) spend some of the time thy are not doing harm doing useful things for their constituents - which is why we put up with them at all. As far as technology goes, only a few yeaby leadinglights - General
I think that anybody messing around with 3D printers is, almost by definition, a technophile, geek, maker or whatever, so we are preaching to the converted when we complain about people being less knowledgable than we are. As to the degree by which they are less knowledgable or more phobic, I say again: This changes with time. For example:- In the 1900s a popular display in stands at trade fairsby leadinglights - General
Love of the products of technoligy does not imply love of technology. Many people protest at any sign of science, mathematics, technology or engineering as if confronted by somthing unclean, but love their iPhones, televisions or cars. It would probably be accurate to say most people. Confusing technophobia with the fear of the products of technology is like confusing the fear of sex with the feby leadinglights - General
Correct! It is not just you, but there is nothing (much) to worry about. There will always be politicians and others who want to regulate everything: Sometimes from a misplaced feeling that they are doing right, sometimes to gain power, fame and /or money. They, like the poor, will always be with us, and they, again like the poor, have little real power as people mostly do what they think is righby leadinglights - General
Thanks Rich, I have registered to attend with 1 colleague (better half/chief cook/bottle washer) I attended last years TCT, but at that time I was employed by a desigh consultancy. I found it a very good show even though the small and/or DIY section was just a little enclave in one corner. Mikeby leadinglights - General
There is an upcoming additive manufacturing show in the U.K. at the Birmingham NEC: the TCT Show + Personalize . A good part of the show addresses the DIY and hardware hacker community and it is being widely advertised - e.g., RichRap posted this So I am a bit surprised that registration to attend the show discourages and maybe positively prohibits any non-commercial attendees. Company Name, Coby leadinglights - General
One way to heat up rapidly is to use an insulating cover for the bed. I use a 200mm square piece of 6mm mdf with two layers of metalised bubble fim glued to the surface. You do have to make sure that you take the cover off before starting to print though. Mike.by leadinglights - Reprappers
I hear what you are saying about companies that are unwilling to do business with individuals. While much of the U.K. is becoming O.K. with this*, some companies which are pushing their commitment to the new 3D community will still not do business with the same individuals who are driving it. I am particularly thinking of Igus which won't do business with individuals, and also the upcoming TCT/Peby leadinglights - General
If you fined a nearby hobbiest of the model engineer type who has a fretsaw (U.S. scrollsaw) then I daresay they would cut it out for a pint of beer. A good fretsaw will cut without distorting the metal and can easily handle aluminium up to ca 10mm. Mikeby leadinglights - General
I recently came across a posting from somebody who advocated using Kapton on aluminium instead of glass. His logic was that the thermal conductivity of glass being lower than the aluminium spreader plate, the highest temperature would be under the print - the further from the nearest print edge the higher, and that the lowest temperature would be on the parts of the bed without any print on it. Tby leadinglights - Reprappers
Hi Marinus, On my first Prusa printer I was forced to redesign the X and Y carriages due to breaking the plastic bits - and my wish to use LM8UU bearings instead of the printed PLA parts. As a consequence I ended up with very heavy aluminium X and Y carriages - and have been trying to keep to this rigidity while reducing the mass as far as possible. One idea that i have come up with for my latby leadinglights - General
For some reason I hadn't looked at this thread previously, but now i find a huge amount of good info here. Perhaps I can return the favour by putting the results of some of my attempts on here. Having used ca 1.5M of stainless steel rod on hot ends which are typically 50mm long, I can claim to have been through lots of variants and iterations. My hot ends now work (mostly) very well. My typicalby leadinglights - General
Hi woodencase01, The reason that I put that on this forum was to point out that careful thermal profileing could give both a shortish melt chamber and PTFE lining on most of the filament path and have that up to high temperatures without a true all metal hot end. I admit that the model in the CAD is a little over the top, but it is just an exploration of some techniques - in this case, rapid coby leadinglights - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Although this won't solve your immediate problem, once you have got that sorted out you can dramatically reduce the time that the bed takes to get up to temperature by putting a "blanket" on the top of the bed. I use a 200mm square of MDF with two layers of metalised bubble film on it. Time to 110 degrees is shortended from 20 minutes to 8 minutes. ******* Please remember to take the blanket offby leadinglights - Reprappers
I tried some experiments a while ago. Quoting from an earlier post: QuoteI have just tried out cuttlefish bone for it's thermal properties and was mightily impressed: I set up a block of cuttlefish bone 25mm thick with a 25mm deep hole 12.5 mm from the bottom surface and a type K thermocouple in the hole. A similar block of expanded polystyrene was made. Both blocks were put on a heated bulld stby leadinglights - Reprappers
I used cuttlefish bone as it can take the temperature and is much better than plastic foams -which mostly are no good above about 100 degrees. In previous iterations I used a PEEK shelll. On the Prusa, my X and Y carriages broke and/or didn't have good linear bearings -so I machined parts from aluminium, added fans extruders etc and had 1kg of heavy metal.Very accurate but very slow.by leadinglights - Reprappers
Hi Yvan, You asked if I have put any photos of my Prusa printer on the web - I haven't, but may do when it looks a little more "concours d' adequate" * I have attached some pictures of my latest hot end with the PTFE tube moved up away from the heater. As the lowest part of the PTFE never geta above 70 - 80 degrees C, it is a sort of semi-all-metal hot end. You can also see on the pictures thatby leadinglights - Reprappers
Having come from home made CNC machines to 3D printing, I know what you mean about rigidity - I tend to automatically make everything as rigid as possible; this usually means extra mass. My first machine is a sort of Prusa with X and Y carriages built like the incredible hulk, but even the vibration ripples on the prints from this printer were cured by little corner braces to stabilise the rectanby leadinglights - Reprappers
I use a design of hot end that should work at 300 degrees - a semi-all-metal with a PTFE sleeve which extends only as far as the point where the metal is at about 80 degrees. The nozzle is made of stainless steel with a thickness of only 1mm between the heated block and the melt chamber. A heatink holds the temperature where the incoming filament enters to less than 40 degrees. Photo (CAD sectioby leadinglights - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I have done some printing with Taulman 618 and am totally in love with it. You need temperatures only slightly higher than with ABS - so all metal hot end is not strictly needed. As the filament is quite a bit more flexible than ABS or PLA, there is a risk of the nylon kinking and excaping from the extruder - redesign the plastic arround whatever extruder to maximise the containment of the filameby leadinglights - Reprappers
If that is the bottle that looks like a lemon then is probably what is sold in England as Jif. I will try that. Thanks, Mikeby leadinglights - Printing
Spot on. Thanks Sublime. I looked at the view on Repetier in the G Code Editor and it showed what was printed out to an almost sureal level of detail - like the first 4 layers of one of the struts being O.K., followed by unfilled bits. Mike.by leadinglights - Printing
Out of interest, which lemon juice? The reason that I ask is that I have found:- Blue tape that has very variable from a "Pound shop" Blue tape that is consistant - made by 3M and about 10 times the price 50mm Kapton tape from Farnell that holds well at 100 to 105 degrees 200mm Kapton tape from Hong Kong that works O.K., but needs at least 115 degrees to hold. "Extra Hold" hby leadinglights - Printing
I can't say for certain, having got only poor feed with glow in the dark PLA, but I came closest to getting something reasonable with the hot end a lot hotter than I was comfortable with: I used 230 degrees instead of the 210 which seems to be the sweet spot for other PLA filaments. It may be worth trying with the ABS. If you are already at a high temperature, it is possible that the PLA in theby leadinglights - Printing
Not 'that' bad compared to what? I would be happier if the foreground strut had even a bit of structure. Mikeby leadinglights - Printing
I am having a bit of a problem printing out a model of the Eiffel Tower. The thinest struts come out as little more than a string of blobs, but only slightly thicker struts and girders come out quite acceptably Apologies for the picture - which is the lowest boxed part on one orf the legs and shows the bad struts closest, inner struts just behind are quite good and bridging at the top looks fiby leadinglights - Printing
And now it gets interesting." The Eiffel Tower - Fixed by jameswood" did print at 2 times scale. The printer crashed about 30% of the way through, but showed that it can be done. At the same time, another computer was slicing at 2.4 times scale - and ran out of memory about 95% through generating the G code. Previous attempts to slice at 2.5 times and 2.25 times had failed with " terminate calledby leadinglights - Slic3r
I am trying to slice the Eiffel Tower but Slic3r fails every time. I have tried a number of times and am getting nowhere. Early failures typically complained of lack of memory, but after setting the Slic3r's Advanced setting to resolution 0.05mm and Threads to 1, the most common error is:- 10:13:50.812 : => Processing triangulated mesh 10:32:12.484 : => Generating perimeters 10:56:46.562by leadinglights - Slic3r
I am trying to get a sanguinololu running for a friend, but am getting readings from the thermistors of 220 degrees plus even without a thermistor being connected. Diagnostics that I have carried out: Check voltage at thermistor pins (33 & 34) on Atmega MCU, 0.24V & 0.55V Removed MCU and checked voltage at same pins on MCU socket, both 5.00V Checked software configuration.h. Board 62 (sby leadinglights - Sanguino(lolu)
In answer to the original question about sources of smooth rod, a very good source of 8mm highly polished rods is retired printers. The material is very straight and accurate, but is not hardened - hence better with bushings than LM8 bearings. HP printers seem to use 8mm even in the cheapest printers. Mikeby leadinglights - Reprappers