help-with-3dprinting

[faint sky]

yup, got tired of searching for the thing so now it's always in the same place.

Got a long 8' USB cable extension running to a usb power hub. Cable wraps around the back of my storage stuff so it's out of the way.

[coarse coral]

cables are the worst, even after managing them they always come back. someday, somewhere

i can only imagine how those guys felt who's job it was was to make wire looms. all day

[faint sky]

if you ever figure out how to transfer 3-5 amps wirelessly let me know 😛

[coarse coral]

i'll do that

[faint sky]

i might end up making a custom circular PCB with 12V RGBW lighting for it. The fume extractor is 12V so it would make sense.

I need a bigger printer. 220x270 is just not enough for me. This is my 3rd project that is just beyond a flat footprint. Printing vertically at full volume always gives me anxiety and Cura has a serious issue with supports for this kind of shape. It keeps wanting to fill in the vacuum cavity inside the main body. 😞

[coarse coral]

maybe it's worth building a voron to your own spec

i heard cr10 max are good

but there was another which is similar to cr10max but a way cheaper

[faint sky]

I have all the materials to extend the bed to 500mm just need to plan it out.

but that's not going to provide more width which is what i need for this particular project.

[coarse coral]

nice

[faint sky]

they don't make ender extender kits for the S1 Pro specifically. 😦

[coarse coral]

https://www.elegoo.com/products/elegoo-neptune-3-max-fdm-3d-printer-massive-printing-size-of-420x420x500mm

[faint sky]

well not all the parts. i still need to design a new main carriage and custom sized bed heater.

[coarse coral]

$470 new

420mm x 420 x 500mm

[faint sky]

tempting but only cost me about $100 for the supplies for a 500mm y extension

so far anyway...

[coarse coral]

yeh i'm all for upgrades

[faint sky]

it'll basically look like this after i'm done, hopefully. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFpR9NgYveU

[coarse coral]

wow

crazy stuff

[iron remnant]

My urges to enlarge my Ender 3v2 are counterblaanced by my urge to just get a printer meant to be that large.

[faint sky]

Yes, that is the dilemma. I continually find myself making bigger and bigger projects. At first I was like I just need a little bit longer y-axis and now I've run into a situation where even that wouldn't work. I just need a massive printer. 😛

Now whenever someone asks how big of a thing can I print I'll just say "a full sized mailbox".

[blissful wasp]

Hello! I am interested in eventually learning how to design objects for printing. Which software and resources would you recommend?

[vestal thicket]

Check out FreeCAD if you want something free and open source; check out Fusion360 or OnShape if you want a professional "free for hobbyist" software, or Tinkercad for a good starter software, or openSCAD if you have programming experieince.

Fusion360 is arguably the most popular

[blissful wasp]

Because I'm a programmer with zero design skills, I've definitely thought about picking up openscad a non-zero amount of times :P

[vestal thicket]

Foamyguy has done some Saturday morning streams of him using openSCAD, I wish my coding skills were better

[blissful wasp]

If you make enough projects and read enough code, they'll improve

[vestal thicket]

I agree! My favorite podcast episode I've done is the interview with Nick Tollervey where he compares coding to music - need to practice every day to get better

[blissful wasp]

I don't know who that person is, but they seem to have it right. You also have to get used to feeling that you are not understanding a thing for a while, and be comfortable in that feeling

[coarse coral]

sketchup for web is nice

altho not parameterised

[iron remnant]

Oh yeah, I really really really love OpenSCAD.

So, the trick is to understand that there's BOSL2 and NopSCADLib.

Like, the under-appreciated not-well-factored real benefit of OpenSCAD is that you can create a library of parametric part features and it's kinda painful to do the same in FreeCAD.

The intersection point, I guess, is that FreeCAD (and presumably the paid CAD programs that I don't use) have really good constraint-based modeling where, if you get used to how to not fight the constraint solver you can have your objects resize in a friendly fashion based on some parameters you set in a spreadsheet.

Whereas in OpenSCAD, you just use math and code to make the same thing, which eliminates fighting with the constraint solver but sometimes one or the other is more natural.

It's a lot easier to do deeper algorithms and math using OpenSCAD code tho.

Basically, I look at NopSCADLib and see all of the parametric primitives there that are totally designed for making OpenSCAD-based 3D printers because that's one of the things the initial developer of the library was doing and it causes me to want to make a really really good CoreXY open source fully-parametric 3D printer design because a lot of the really good modern open source CoreXY 3D printer designs assume non-open-source tooling.

It's a fool's errand and I'm like "Well, instead of making a 3D printer for some weird ideas of intellectual property purity and hackability, I'd rather make weird art" so I never quite get to it.

[faint sky]

my first 45 degree print. 35 hours to go. 🤞

Breadboard wire storage box. https://www.printables.com/model/449455-breadboard-wire-storage-box

This is just the bottom lid. 1 of 2 parts.

[faint sky]

Supports are hanging in there, adhesion is good.

[faint sky]

My nozzle is starting to hiss. Brand new filament just out of the plastic. It's starting to get really humid in FL. :/

[coarse coral]

that said i've just realised breadboards have clips (non locking) (my case has a use! yay!) on them

[elder oxide]

Nice!

[coarse coral]

was useful

[faint sky]

About 1/3rd through and looking ok. Had a weird layer line happen.

[coarse coral]

the lcd on ender pro is cool

good luck with the print

[faint sky]

The supports aren't actually touching the piece. WTH Cura?? It started moving and shifting. Looked closer at the supports in Cura and sure enough there's about a 1mm gap between the part and the supports.

Everything looks ok...

until you zoom in... which i didn't do. there's about a 1-2mm gap shown and in the real print too.

this tiny little sliver was the only thing supporting the weight of the 45 degree structure.

so i took my portable soldering iron and starting making some emergency support welds between the supports and the part. melted both surfaces together in multiple places. now the supports are connected and the print isn't teeter-tottering on that sliver. it'll ruin the surface quality but should hopefully save the print.

keep an eye out for stuff like this in the Cura 5.3.0 update. custom supports didn't work, at all.

[faint sky]

45 degree prints waste so much material 🥹

[vestal thicket]

Made a neat vise to help with microcontrollers. Link: https://www.printables.com/model/51074-fast-operation-vise

[coarse coral]

.6mm for prototypes that's for sure. .4mm for bigger final pieces and .2mm for detailed areas in small quantities

.6mm low quality, .4mm standard quality and .2mm super quality as per cura default profiles with personal tweaks

[faint sky]

35 hours

@vestal thicket quality of your prints is awesome. I can’t do threads.

The shine on it makes it look like aluminum. 😮

[vestal thicket]

I always get so nervous on those 24+ hour prints

[faint sky]

This means i might be able to print a tr cowbell enclosure in 2 pieces

[coarse coral]

It's amazing it worked especially with that gap in supports I remember having a weird slicing issue which led to a complete fail . Yes gravity may help but not always

I'm printing 6 prototype parts at the moment about a combined total of 30 hours. Quite a basic shape so all parts printing at a nice speed

I'm hoping to make a radxa powered handheld with a good size screen. I've really enjoyed testing my last handheld which is going at the start of the month to my cousin

[faint sky]

Emergency welds at the bottom held it together all the way to the top

Support doesn’t touch even at the top.

[coarse coral]

I actually had to react to a stupid one at a time print earlier today, places the items too close and the other would have been hit by the nozzle. Two parts identical, at 49% I removed the first part as it was moving to its first start point of second part. Happened to be nearby at the time. Lesson learned.

[coarse coral]

It's unreal how this is holding together haha

Looks like it could do a ski jump any moment 😂

[faint sky]

Textured PEI and perfect z-offset FTW

[coarse coral]

Haha 💯

[faint sky]

The line there is about where i caught it rocking back and forth. It was about to go. Can see some layer droop as it filled back in and caught up to level.

Having a portable battery powered soldering iron really saved the day. I had minutes left before it would have failed. This is why we should always continually check in on a print no matter how well its going.

Minimal damage. I can live with that.

[coarse coral]

If that's the only side damaged you could sand it down maybe

[faint sky]

Its just to store breadboard wires in the workshop. Aesthetics don’t really matter for this one.

Still have to print the top. My first hinged box.

[short crag]

how can i prevent the extruder gears grinding through the filament

[elder oxide]

Increase end temp

Increase flow rate

[vestal thicket]

and make sure your z offset is right too

[short crag]

ok thanks ill try that

[faint sky]

There's only 1 person in this community I'm aware of that also uses rhino. yes you'd be much better off seeking Rhino support from a rhino forum. Glad you got it figured out.

[faint sky]

Figured out why my support wasn't connecting. After updating to Cura 5.3.0 it wiped out most of my profiles and set support x/y distance to 2mm... instead of 0.0 which would be touching.

zoomed in close this time to ensure the material is there after slicing. hopefully the top will go a lot better with actual supports. 😅

[coarse coral]

any ideas how to make a spring loaded trigger for a custom gamepad?

all i can think of is a basic wind pot that rotates with the mechanism but before embarking wondering if there are ready made solutions?

[elder oxide]

I think most have strain sensors connected to the spring

Oh wait

Scratch that, they use hall sensors

Small magnet in the trigger, moves across a hall sensor and the voltage is read back from the sensor

PS5 uses a worm gear https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/how-the-ps5s-genuinely-clever-adaptive-triggers-work/

[coarse coral]

thanks

complex

i could get 2 of these and attach them to the armbars on my chair

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5460

[faint sky]

wow i'm blinded by the shine on that

your quality is awesome

spent the morning designing a mount to replace the tank turret with a first person video (FPV) camera mount

this little guy is about 2"x3"

The turret will do a 360. Don't think there's enough space to get the camera to pan upwards for full articulation.

[coarse coral]

Too cool

[bleak flare]

my Ender 3 S-1 arrived! Unboxing it and starting to assemble - oh my word are the diagrams in the quick start guide tiny - wow

I am slightly concerned that the paper manual is v1.2 but the downloadable manual is v1.1

[coarse coral]

ah very nice

my top tip is to level your gantry

essentially that means making sure that your gantry is the same distance on the left rod as it is right rod. but of course you should level your build plate, make sure the gantry is tight and not sloppy (it's an eccentric nut)

creality qc is bad but you can fix it by tightening bolts and levelling nice

[bleak flare]

I'll add to the pre-flight checklist

[coarse coral]

also don't make belts too tight

my stepper motor literally sheered with too tight belt

[bleak flare]

one of my first concerns is that it seems to be setup for non-US power

[coarse coral]

i think you'll have a 240 or 120 switch on it somewhere

[bleak flare]

yea, the screen had a note about that

so I have to find it and make sure it's set to 120

[coarse coral]

yeh

it's just a toggle

[bleak flare]

cool - i'm mostly color blind, so always worry when people try to get fancy

[coarse coral]

If it similar to mine the visible text indicated the voltage that is set. So I am in the UK and working with 240

[bleak flare]

I saw a clear window with a sticker like that

so I may have to tilt it and break out the flashlight to check

[coarse coral]

Yeh

Happy new printer day 🎊

[bleak flare]

thanks!

I am purposefully rolling slow on the setup

letting all the parts settle to the room temp and also not rushing the install

[coarse coral]

it's a nice looking printer

[coarse coral]

in my printer push to right for 120v and push to left for 230v it's currently to the left and the text tells me that i am running 230v. i always find these switches confusing but when looking at it like that i don't think there is any mistake

[bleak flare]

yea, I remember from my early PC days when power supplies had these switches

[coarse coral]

what's your first print going to be with? pla?

[bleak flare]

I believe so, I went with the laser bundle so I'm using whatever filament it comes with

[coarse coral]

https://giphy.com/gifs/reactionseditor-shark-laser-xUPGcoQ8sfEbaP2JYA

[bleak flare]

indeed

I'm looking forward to laser engraving wood panels for some personal projects

[coarse coral]

no doubt

i want to get laser on mine only so that i can print a plastic part and then obliterate it with the laser beam

[bleak flare]

LOL

[coarse coral]

https://giphy.com/gifs/mike-korea-north-xl5QdxfNonh3q

[bleak flare]

everyone needs an evil plan

even if only kept in your heart of hearts

[coarse coral]

totally

[bleak flare]

question I didn't think about, but now I'm wondering - do I need to worry about fumes?

[vestal thicket]

Not with PLA or PETG

ABS and ASA, yes

[coarse coral]

agree pla is odourless ive never printed with anything else

[bleak flare]

I am quite sure I will be graduating to a larger printer before I attempt anything other than PLA

[vestal thicket]

yeah, with ASA and ABS you would need an enclosure anyway

[bleak flare]

but I will keep that in mind - my office does have a window that opens, so I can alway rig up a hood/fan

[coarse coral]

i recommend getting a box to store all your pla in and every packet of silica gel load it into the box

i've left a reel of pla out my box and well it became very brittle but literally the same pla in the box is fine

[bleak flare]

ah, i noticed the spool was sealed tight

[coarse coral]

I keep mine like this

[bleak flare]

my girlfriend swipes all the silica gel packets for her use - so i'll have to keep some hidden

i'll get some tight sealing boxes to store everything between runs

[coarse coral]

that's ideal

[bleak flare]

oh - the paper manual is titled Quick Start Guide

the downloaded manual is Quick Installation Guide

[bleak flare]

goodness the head is making a racket during the leveling process - like it's trying to go past the right side

[bleak flare]

oh - one of the cables wasn't fully seated

[bleak flare]

the first print totally did not stick to the base, I realize I missed the z offset adjustment after levelling

[coarse coral]

yeh that's worth getting right

you should do the calibration print and take note of how the squares are

if some points are loose it means the build plate is too low in that area and adversely too high

you can take off the print sheet and tighten the bolts to remedy this, if there are really bad fluctuations you can use tape

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4667894

[faint sky]

Use Cura instead of Creality's slicer. Creality just rebrands their slicer from Cura anyway and they're usually far downstream of any recent updates.

Setup a custom profile in Cura, the S1 might be in Cura by default, my S1 Pro was not but I just used the S1's profile as a basis for my custom profile anyway.

The 240/120 switch on my S1 Pro had a sticker over it when it arrived. Luckily I watched a lot of videos about setup before it arrived so I knew to look for it before ever powering on the printer.

Ricky Impey's video series should be mandatory viewing for any new owner of an Ender 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ic00W18_ck

The only major difference between the S1 and S1 pro is the pro has an all metal hot end allowing for up to 300C nozzle temp, S1 can do 260C (PETG & ABS no problem)... and the touch screen interface. Other than that they're pretty much identical.

and this one in particular is excellent for setting up your BL-Touch for bed mesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKpNxqWie_8

One of the many nice features of the S1 and S1 Pro is unless it's printing, your stepper motors are disabled (between prints) allowing you to freely move them for easy retramming.

The most important things to learn as a new owner is getting your bed trammed to pure perfection (within 0.05 on each corner), ensuring gantry is perfectly perpendicular to the build surface, and nailing that sweet spot for z-offset.

Here's the entire S1 Pro playlist. A lot of this will directly relate to your S1 as well except you would go about it in a slightly different way due to the control screen being different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmhBYOEb-ro&list=PLC4bOo0vesmJ8MGg61gIaQkLePp1R1DXw

[bleak flare]

thanks for that amazing list of resources, I will go thru them each

I will need to check that my printer is on a level surface, that the gantry is squared up and all level, I was considering getting a 0.1 feeler gauge but for now will use the sheet of paper method

the only thing that I think I will need is to get a proper spool - but I also realized that I could probably print one ! ;)

[shy kelp]

Even if pla and petg are safer than stuff like abs, it's best if you have a fume extractor or ventilated area of some kind
Burned plastic is not great to have close

Personally I use superpleccer slicer, I can make arc supports, so I use 0 infill but make a thicker shell, so I can save filament and some time

[rugged apex]

Does anyone know how I can find the driver for NAU7802?
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4538

[shy kelp]

There are links in the description

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NAU7802

[faint sky]

I thought that at first too. I'll assume you're referencing the small handfull of starter filament they provide. Yeah just get a spool. Amazon has a great selection of filaments. Micro Center (if you have one nearby) is also known to have a wide assortment. I think even Walmart has 3D filament these days.

Recommend you start off with PLA. Pretty much ignore PLA+ as it has no real additional benefit vs its additional cost. Standard PLA is the most popular filament for every 3D printer for good reason. It's not UV resistant and will warp in the sun so don't make something to put on your car dashboard from it. Start off making some small simple things. Get everything calibrated and slowly step your way up to larger prints.

[bleak flare]

good points, I will definitely keep the printer closer to the window in the office and put in a small fan to pull air out of the office

[bleak flare]

yes, my plan is to order a few spools, keep to using only PLA until I get a feel for what the heck I'm doing and stick to small uncomplicated projects - hard to learn when more than one or two items are shifting/changing at a time

I was looking at my supply closet and noting all of the small boxes and hooks that i've bought in the past from the big box stores, i'm thinking that I can start with those items. Small boxes, flat plates for signs and decorative hooks and inlays to hang art around and in

[shy kelp]

For the same price petg is better
It's stronger let's say

[bleak flare]

i'll put PETG into the "things to explore next" bucket

right now I'm working on what a slicer is, why I need one and finding out how to not get lost in the sheer number of available things to print

[shy kelp]

It just gets your 3d model and converts it in instructions (gcode) to execute

My suggestion is to not get lost with crappy YouTubers and websites that make stuff more complex and longer than it really is for placing more ads I guess

[bleak flare]

i've only gone to youtube for two examples of the installation - they helped me validate that my attempt was at least not a complete botch job :)

everything else has come from here - lots of knowledge in the channel history

[rugged apex]

I mean the firmware used by freeRTOS which cannot use the Arduino library.

[faint sky]

Benchy btw is an obligatory print. It's limited in diagnostics but it's the standard to compare against so it must be done. 🙂

I'd rather not recommend someone go straight for PETG. The amount of stringing and dialing in does take a level of knowledge compared to PLA.

Didn't get the hole diameter of the hinges right and had to hammer in the 2mm rods. It works, hinges stop at a 45 degree open angle. end stops work well.

[coarse coral]

cool box

nice inset open tab

@bleak flare

sorry for the quality ffmpeg -i input.avi -s 720x480 -c:a copy output.mkv
turned my video into a potato

[bleak flare]

no worries

my first print was going to be benchy and a calibration cube

[faint sky]

Very nice video guide @coarse coral !

[coarse coral]

https://giphy.com/gifs/warnerarchive-classic-film-warner-archive-silk-stockings-3orif3j4dRfClbz18k

[faint sky]

He's got an Ender 3 S1 and I saw there's a profile for it.

Hmm I've not run into the issue where the files don't show up on the printer interface. Sounds like a bug.

[coarse coral]

frankly yes, it's odd

[faint sky]

There is a setting in preferences somewhere that will rename the file automatically. I actually turned it off because it makes the file names too long for my screen.

[coarse coral]

i think it's maybe a linux and file issue, i had the same problem with ender 3 and also cr6 before i upgraded firmware. so the common denominator is the fact i'm doing this on linux

[bleak flare]

that is an AWESOME guide - so many clues and tips

[coarse coral]

there are people who go way in depth with the configurations for slicing

[faint sky]

In preferences>general> scroll down and you'll see "add machine prefix to job name". If you only have 1 printer you don't need that enabled. Only makes the filename longer.

[bleak flare]

honestly when presented with so many options to tweak, I try to stick with good defaults until presented with a reason to adjust

[coarse coral]

ah nice tip

[coarse coral]

yeh same here there's only so much time in the day

[coarse coral]

got it - thanks

[faint sky]

It is very easy to get overwhelmed because there is a lot to learn. The rabbit hole with 3D printers is as deep as you want it to be.

[shy kelp]

I have no idea what are you talking about, try asking in other more related subsections

[shy kelp]

Mah I always printed randomly, it never gave me a problem, except for leveling and making stuff stick to the bed, that's really annoying but that's for everything

Also you can postprocess things, to have a nice grain, I do place prints in the oven covered with salt

[coarse coral]

https://giphy.com/gifs/meme-steak-seasoning-l4Jz3a8jO92crUlWM

[faint sky]

That's true, too much bed heat, not enough bed heat, level here, adjust there. It's a never ending dance.

It's like stacking stones. Once you have it just right you don't want to touch it least you unleash the wrath of the 3D printer gods.

[minor shore]

Anyone on a corexy?

[bleak flare]

oh wow - that z offset is a very very tedious adjustment

now I have some material that is very solidly adhered to the plate - waiting for it to warm up so I can scrape it off

[coarse coral]

sounds like your nozzle is too low, maybe more offset

feeler guages are useful to have

or you can become one with your printer

https://giphy.com/gifs/theoffice-the-office-tv-episode-801-zhRA0okWxTGiu78uSk

[bleak flare]

I ordered a set of gauges

I kept starting one of the built in projects it came with, since they all start with a single line on the left side

following the video that DJDevon3 posted above, I manually leveled the bed

and with my hand on the knob to tweak the Z offset as it was starting each, got it tuned in

printing my first benchy now

oh! love that Cura recognized the fact that the printer was plugged into the laptop as COM4 (usb-c cable)

it offered a direct print option and it's working wonderfully

[coarse coral]

that is great

im jealous you can send direct to printer

sounds like you are on the right track

[bleak flare]

I'm going to print the calibration cube next - that way I can look at the vertical measurement to see if my Z offset is good and other details

oof - benchy is going to take 4 hrs

[coarse coral]

.2mm nozzle really slow .4mm slow but nice quality .6mm much quicker and for some parts good .8mm nozzle fast but lacks a lot of detail

[iron remnant]

CHT nozzles are fun too. I've got a 1mm nozzle so I can print organizer things.

[coarse coral]

oh that's a good tip i do need some storage and never thought to do that

nice!

[shy kelp]

There are some printers that have functions of lidar/photo scanning the extruded filament and compensate the leveling from it
But dunno if marlin has integrations

[faint sky]

Gauges are not absolutely necessary to get. They'll definitely increase your accuracy but a sheet of paper will suffice. Everyone usually starts with a sheet of paper.

I actually don't use feeler gauges or paper anymore. I use the speed of light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkGcRJ83Vnk

[faint sky]

I don't sell them but you can have them produced by JLCPCB using my files. https://oshwlab.com/djdevon3/bed-leveler_copy

[vocal flax]

I've never printed a benchy

[vocal flax]

Not yet but I'm planning out one rn

[vocal flax]

Suggestion. Manual focus could be better suited for top down bench video. 🙂

I also plan on making similar contraption because everytime i remove and install my probe the offset changes. This would help with offset

[faint sky]

I did switch to manual after that video specifically because auto wasnt working. Sucks to record a whole video then find it was too blurry.

[vocal flax]

Yeah I tried making video once, not my cup of tea

[faint sky]

Ive also gotten better at checking my monitor for focus but the pc monitor is 5 feet away from the camera.

The camera setup and recordings are a work in progress. Expect better videos in the future.

I got the idea from chep and just designed my own pcb.

[vocal flax]

Adding probe auto calibration would be nice but idk how many people would use it

[faint sky]

https://youtu.be/715Xop79Sus

[shy kelp]

I'm sorry but this thing looks really dumb and unnecessary
I think that's better using a random switch with bed auto leveling

But everyone has it's own preferences so it doesn't really matter

[faint sky]

I think there are flaws in his design which is why i designed my own. It actually works really well.

[vocal flax]

Watched that one too. And now I'm wondering how can I make 2 same sized PCBs probably tape them up and sand together 🤔

I have dual z screws

[faint sky]

Print a crossbar to hold both.

[vocal flax]

Imo it needs a Schmitt trigger

[faint sky]

A pressure switch would be a better idea except the amount of z adjust is going to take forever with a bigger switch.

One of those flat pressure resistor things could work.

I also thought it looked dumb the first time i saw it. Maybe its just that my design is better, but it actually works well and has advantages over a sheet of paper.

[vocal flax]

Ohhh

Now that I think of it probably wouldn't work for my bed

My bed is little squishy

[faint sky]

Squishy?

If you have bed springs then it’s supposed to be a little squishy.

[shy kelp]

Dumb question, you can't exploit eddies currents to get an efficient (and cheap) maglev axis right?

[vocal flax]

Nah I use pp (polypropylene?) bed. It's not rigid slightly squishes

But i can print without heated bed 😁

[faint sky]

Potentially brilliant idea. Never seen an implementation of it. The weight on the bed surface would vary with material..

[vocal flax]

What would the energy consumption be tho? 🤔

Kinda feels like would not worth extra energy, because my understanding that you would need to constantly power that contraption unlike screw mounts

[faint sky]

Might be a neat modification of a linear rail. I bet the high speed enthusiasts might like it. Would increase power to weight ratio.

[shy kelp]

Nothing? just get a rod, and a magnet of some type; I think that it wouldn't really work, because Eddy currents as I know opposite the original field, but in a way you might get rid of attrition?
Idk

[vocal flax]

Oh real magnet I was thinking electro magnet

[shy kelp]

Yeah that won't be cheap
Having an array of neudinium magnets or electromagnets isn't cheap

[faint sky]

I don’t think it would necessarily even need to be powered or have a stator involved. Just use magnets to help reduce friction coefficient, would still be beneficial.

Using rectangular bar magnets on the linear rail might be enough in itself.

[shy kelp]

Indeed if you want to be lazy, just add odrive
Although they are still more expensive than a single metal rod and fewer magnets
So I was somewhat curios to know if eddie currents would help at all or not or do nothing to begin with lol

[faint sky]

Magnet would have to be as long as the rail itself though, and powerful, and expensive.

[shy kelp]

I am not sure if we are talking about the same thing 😅
https://youtu.be/bP200zhX63Q
Although here it's used for breaking systems so I guess not

But at the same time

I'm sorry fore being annoying and text walling 😓

[faint sky]

Would be neat to attempt fora personal project but i doubt manufacturers will go the route of expensive maglev vs roller bearings.

[faint sky]

Got some Ender PLA and they sent PLA+ have to print it at 220 instead of my usual 210. Same for the bed heat have to raise it up 10 degrees for PLA+

Did some "test prints" which were really just failures

Ender PLA+
Nozzle: 210 Bed: 60 = Adhesion failure
Nozzle 210 Bed: 70 = Ahesion failure at 25% lifted (hot end blob)
Nozzle 220 Bed: 70 = Adhesion failure at 50% lifted (spaghetti)
Nozzle 220 Bed: 80 + brim = Adhesion success
``` PLA+ is almost PETG territory for nozzle & bed temp

sometimes it's like that

and with adhesion failures if you aren't watching the first layers go down and walk away... that's how you end up with a huge chunk of melted filament covering your entire hotend or a plateful of spaghetti.

Doesn't quite fit, printing another. turret a little too tight and cannot turn. Camera mount fits great though.

[faint sky]

When you start hearing little tiny cracks, like ice cube creaking, that's your adhesion lifting from the surface and it's just a matter of time before the entire thing lifts from the surface. small cracking noises = bad

why all the sudden issues? i retrammed my bed trying to make it better and made it worse. so have the slow process of dialing it back in.

[bleak flare]

I tried to upload a picture of my first print, but the system didn't allow it as it thought it was an explicit image :/

[coarse coral]

are you happy about it?

not the fact you are printing explicit objects but more so the overall quality?

[bleak flare]

haha - my first print was Benchy ;)

[coarse coral]

ryt "benchy" 😂 🙄

[bleak flare]

hahaha

[coarse coral]

lol

[bleak flare]

the ship was printed with the default PLA so was very white

and it was in my hand

so I think the automation thought it was something much more risque

[coarse coral]

.4mm nozzle? my first test print was a dog and then a benchy, both came out incredibly well. it was all downhill from there

[bleak flare]

yes

benchy was very smooth, all of the curves had no major issues that I could see or feel

the edges where sharp and the details on the roof and all of that seemed accurate

I was very happy

the calibration cube seemed perfect

now I am looking for a few SBC cases to try next

[coarse coral]

that's cool, over time you'll learn your own likes and dislikes and tune accordingly im sure

oh sweet im gonna be doing an sbc case soon also

[bleak flare]

the lack of cases to purchase is what spurred my purchase

[coarse coral]

haven't printed any yet though, i'm eager to see snap fits @faint sky has designed his own snap fit case in #show-and-tell for a seperate project

which sbc are you working with?

[bleak flare]

VIM3 is the primary, also looking at the adafruit Metros

and a few projects in mind for some of the feather boards (I forget their specific name)

[coarse coral]

v cool

im looking at rock or orangepi

[bleak flare]

orangepi was on my short list

but the one project needs to run Home Automator

err Assistant

[coarse coral]

everyone is into home automator

i dont get it

[bleak flare]

I am a system programmer at my core

so my take on this is to sniff the network traffic

and see what it's doing

then work up diagnostic and/or debug tools

so when I tell the google lady to "turn on the light" why does it fail

[coarse coral]

neat

[bleak flare]

so boards that run python are my focus

since that's my primary project language

[coarse coral]

i might have to veer into android world with this sbc due to driver support which has left me into a big unknown at this point

[bleak flare]

i'm sure there are projects that do this somewhere on the internet

[coarse coral]

i dont even know if i can run python on android

[bleak flare]

you can

[coarse coral]

and pip libraries?

[bleak flare]

the same issues that you have with circuit python

you have to be really ready to dive into the code to tweak assumptions

[coarse coral]

well thanks for that, basically just answered my big worries

i mean all i really need is 3 main libraries

[bleak flare]

there are a number of android apps that basically are python frameworks

[coarse coral]

actually it's dank one of my libraries is based on uinput which i doubt android uses

[bleak flare]

python is good because most of the standard library will do 90% of what you need

[coarse coral]

if i can avoid android i will

the ui is nice tho especially for touch screen

[bleak flare]

I would avoid android also

instead use a network or bluetooth aware circuit python tool

[coarse coral]

on rock and orangepi vulkan isn't main yet but i hear they are working on it

i mean i could break out all my inputs into a teensy and make it usb but that's too much for me

i want a basic all in one project

[bleak flare]

I feel that

[coarse coral]

i've got too much cake to eat

[bleak flare]

hahaha

the best problem to have for fun projects

always something to fix

[coarse coral]

spreading my time equally between cake and projects is imperative

battery powered rock will be interesting, it runs at 3a / 5v and can be powered over gpio so that should work

but it definitely needs a fan

exciting. well congrats on ur new printer

[bleak flare]

small fans shouldn't add that much to your power load

thanks!

I appreciate all the tips and help you and the others gave me

[coarse coral]

and u

i've got a 3d part to design and print which will be tiny increments. i need to make a spring loaded potentiometer moved with a trigger

making a handheld again and analog triggers are so desirable

so first i need the right pot which is loose enough so choosing from the zillion out there is a job

[faint sky]

@coarse coral what snap fit case are you referring to? the breadboard wire box is magnetic not snap fit.

I've done a couple snap fit projects. The C510 camera case, TR-Cowbell, and alphanumeric display are snap fit.

ah probably talking about the alphanumeric display, that was a tough one. a lot of parts crammed in there.

I did get the FPV turret print done in time for this weeks show & tell. 🙂

[coarse coral]

ah yeh i was referring to the show and tell from a week or so ago

i really need to get the snap fit into my parts

happen to have an stl of your print so i can see how you did it?

[faint sky]

I learned it by watching Adafruit's Layer by Layer videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVmOtM60VWw

I wish they would make more of them. Layer by Layer is an amazing series but there's so few of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXZvdST_OSs

All the STL's I have are on printables. As soon as I think a design is ready I upload it there. Same for all of Adafruit's STL's 😉

https://www.printables.com/@TreasureDev_469699/models

Here's the files for the QT Py Snap Fit Case by Noe. https://www.printables.com/model/117246-qt-py-snap-fit-case

[coarse coral]

thanks for the links

i get it - grabbers. very cool

[faint sky]

I recommend printing some small tests pieces first to ensure your 3D printers tolerance will match up to the 3D model. I usually build in a .2 to .3 gap into the model.

Too tight and you'll need a sledgehammer to fit them together (which will break something)

Too loose and the lid won't fit at all

With that said, the way you've already printed tiny buttons for your handheld you'll have no problem with snap fit stuff.

Your printer's tolerance is dialed in better than mine. From what I've seen your tolerances are like .1mm and mine are like .3mm

[coarse coral]

Good tips I will try and sort this

[winged helm]

Is something leaking?

[faint sky]

@winged helm Did you check under the sheet? Under the carriage plate and look at the bed heating element? Maybe it's burning hot in that area? Is it actually liquid?

[winged helm]

I have looked there. It's ok. It's def liquid. Greasy

[faint sky]

Only thing I can think of is some kind of bearing leaking. The tiny little streaks in the corner are pointing at the z-axis motor. I haven't seen nor heard of anything like that one before. The splatter pattern is really odd. Some of it points in the direction of the z-axis motor but the huge globs that landed suggests some kind of high pressure water fountain effect as if it was high pressure hydraulic fluid.

I don't see any evidence around the z-axis motor mount... it had to come from somewhere. Weird mystery juice. 😛

Do you oil your lead screws often?

[coarse coral]

cool shortcut in cura to rotate a piece, hold shift for smaller increments

[coarse coral]

can anyone help with the best way to insert springs to two moving pieces of a 3d print, probably a latching system?

tension on pull, returns to default on release

[coarse coral]

that's how springs work 🤣

im thinking something like this

these may be the right kind and strongest

[faint sky]

That last one is what I was about to recommend before seeing it. You can turn any of the springs in your box into that style. Cut them short and put them round the end shafts on either end. One will work, use 2 if you need more tension.

[coarse coral]

yeh the more i think of the last not only are correctly orientated they are short and appear to be as reliable as any would be, using 2 would bolster it which is going to be important since it's the analog triggers for a gamepad

[faint sky]

Actually just saw this kind of spring for the first time this week, it's inside the tank turret. I was like "oh that's a neat idea".

It's so the barrel of the turret recenters itself up/down while driving

[coarse coral]

i hope it turns out to be a simple solution is the one that works just right. looking at how other gamepads do it the trigger systems appears to be a few more steps elaborate

that makes sense for a centre point to be helped along with a spring

[faint sky]

It's tiny tiny wire but it works

[coarse coral]

absolutely

i'll give it a chance and see how it goes, having to shift the other basic mechanisms to fit a more advanced trigger gear / pulley system wouldn't really work

trying to build on version 1, not wipe it out. which is why it's good that the springs fit within the footprint

[faint sky]

The thickness of the wire and how many coils will affect how much tension there is. You can easily modify it to be just the right amount of tension you need through trial and error.

[coarse coral]

if i have to use 4 thick springs i'm all for it. there's about 4cm horiztonal to work with

and the nice thing is the rod which the trigger rotates on will turn the potentiometer

need to wait for some cash flow to get these itsy parts and detail it in, thanks for help there. that's the plan

i'm tempted to 3d print molds rather than final parts, and use resin to cast all the pieces

[bleak flare]

second print "day" with my Ender S1 and except for having to scrape the outer bits (brim?) after removing the piece, it's going very well. Now printing a SBC case for the VIM3 - it's 4 pieces and the base is starting now

cannot thank you all enough for the guidance and support

oh, and I'm on my first real spool, some lovely gray PLA :)

[vestal thicket]

glad to hear it's going well. 🙂

[faint sky]

That's great bear! Keep us updated.

[bleak flare]

this case bottom has been going for 30 minutes, it's not very tall yet...

but it's also, by far, the largest in surface area, of my prints (haha, "prints" - i've done 3!)

[bleak flare]

I am finding that my work surface is littered with small bits and strings of filament, going to have to find a nice bucket to work over when removing excess filament :)

part 2 of 4 printing, cleaning up the first piece while listening to meetings

[coarse coral]

Yep I keep a bucket right next to the printer. I try to send all the loose bits straight to the bucket but some times I miss and they end up on the carpet. You can melt the scraps down in the future and re purpose

But as others told me I hope you have good patience because 3d printing you neeed logssss lol

[coarse coral]

I think they're called torsion springs

[rough trout]

For real, and the small, stringy, flat bits stick to everything

[faint sky]

same, i keep a little trash bin next to the printer for excess support material, failed prints, purge lines, etc..

[bleak flare]

just had a model that is showing it being printed standing on edge - it's a lid but was oriented on edge. Cura was very intuitive on how to rotate the item and "snap" it to the bed. Printing this now!

i'm guessing the edge style has some benefit for different printer types? less surface area adhering to the bed?

[rough trout]

Sometimes the models are just produced with a weird orientation

[coarse coral]

@rough trout like this u mean 🤣

you can actually set the layer line orientation angle in cura

[faint sky]

The snapping is nice until you have something that doesn't have a completely flat surface. Have run into that a couple times with public models of figurines with concave bases meant to be stacked inside a diorama. It'll snap on odd angles.

So I run it through Fusion 360, cut a flat base for it, export and print that STL instead.

Extremely detailed models with more than 10,000 triangle tessellations can crash Fusion 360 pretty quick no matter what CPU or RAM you have.

Generally you only want to print vertically if a part is too big to be laid flat. Horizontal printing is better than vertical because of gravity. It's easier to knock over a tall print than a long one.

If your settings, bed, tram, alignment and everything is perfect then you can print full volume height objects without worry. It takes a while to get to the point where you have confidence a tall object won't turn into spaghetti.

[coarse coral]

https://youtube.com/shorts/z_iiM2FHn1M?feature=share

[faint sky]

Came back to a filament runout error. Somehow it got caught in the sensor and the printer yanked on it until it was stretched thin enough to trigger the sensor.

No knot on the spool. First time this has happened.

[faint sky]

and it's a clog, z-offset was too close and it eventually backfilled the nozzle.

ramped the nozzle up to 275 and got nothing out of it with a manual push. whatever is in there is solid and won't budge.

means melted filament might be backfilled all the way up to the gears.

[rough trout]

All metal hotend on that one?

[faint sky]

yes and ramping the heat up didn't help 😦

[rough trout]

Daaaaang, it's stuck real good!

[faint sky]

I'm afraid I'm going to find bits of metal gears in the nozzle.

5 months of almost non-stop printing since I got it. this is going to slow down my rc tank project. 😦

[arctic dragon]

Yikes. At that point, I think it's worth buying a replacement hotend to minimize printer downtime.

Once the prints are going again, plenty of time to look at the original one.

Wonder if there are any cooling upgrades you can make to help prevent that in the future.

[faint sky]

Actually wasn't that bad to fix. Maybe 10 minutes, 6 screws.

Went to the kitchen got an oven mit and laid that on the bed. Gotta fix it while it's running and hot.

I uhh did zap something by hitting the thermistor wires against the frame accidentally. Everything seems to work again including the fan. 😬

Started a new print and the fan kicked on layer 2 whew.

Today has been a day of sparks. First the RC receiver then my printer.

Nozzle is putting down nice layers.

[shy kelp]

whats the latest recommended 3d printer kits?

[vocal flax]

Probably voron

Maybe ratrig

Prusa depending on what you want

[arctic yew]

Depends on your budget and needs

[shy kelp]

Indeed depends on budget but odrive>

[vocal flax]

I kinda wanna try making bunch of closed loop controllers with atmega328p (because I have excess supply at hand) and 3d printer with it

I am just unsure about how to program the controller

Like gcode engine and stuff

[arctic yew]

Shouldn't be too difficult

I mean if you have some experience

I have done stuff like that for work with some stm32 controllers and tmc2300 with encoder feedback

[vocal flax]

It's still step dir en interface

I am thinking DC motors close loop control

To get full benefit of continuous movement the drivers should be provided with distance/position, speed(?) Data

Also tuning of that system would be nightmare for sure

[arctic yew]

Oh it will be a nightmare to tune

That's the fun part

[iron remnant]

I think there are some open-source projects that do closed loop control with a brushless DC motor.

One advantage there is that you can move everything faster, although I guess I'm wondering where the threshold of advantage is.

Like, it's a clear advantage for large CNC mills but will a 300x300x300 printer benefit? not sure.

Another fun project to build is the Jubilee printer, which is a toolchanger design

[faint sky]

This is a valid idea and I might pick up a spare for hot swapping nozzle sizes too. The simplicity of swapping the entire hotend takes less than a minute with 4 screws.

The clog should have been something that could have been melted. The piece I pulled out of the hotend was a long stuck piece. Didn't seem to be any reason it couldn't have remelted. That's what boggles my mind the most. There was nothing in the gears. Clog was from the nozzle to about 10mm into the hotend, all completely well within the remelting zone especially at 275.

[coarse coral]

you might have to clip your bowden tube or give it also a clean

residue build up is bad , i discovered that last week. can lead to a biscuity type print

[faint sky]

S1 Pro is a full metal hotend, no bowden tube.

[coarse coral]

oh cool

[faint sky]

filament is inserted directly into the extruder gears at the top. direct feed.

[coarse coral]

oh i get this whole scenario now

i never knew s1 pro was direct

not good

[faint sky]

all the youtube videos make the sprite extruder out to be a nightmare to clear a clog

[coarse coral]

nothing worse when prints are happening and you get a thing that stops it in its tracks. more patience plus skill

[faint sky]

which is true if the clog is in the extruder gear high up. if the clog is lower in the heatblock it's not much different from a nozzle clog on a bowden.

[coarse coral]

i haven't been printing much, really should do some protoyping

[faint sky]

Here's the video I followed to clear the clog. Was anxiety inducing having the hot end detached, on an oven mit, completely energized while working on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T993A2laSc

The clog I had looked almost identical to the one he pulled out of his hotend too.

I was going to take a picture of it to share but I lost the piece that clogged. It vanished into thin air lol

[coarse coral]

i wonder if there's a liquid that will disolve the clog

not a good idea really

[faint sky]

yeah that would be a really bad idea, any remaining liquid might explode your hot end or at least make a cute steam engine for a little.

[coarse coral]

yeh and there's electronics in the area

BAD IDEA

[faint sky]

ordering some spare nozzles including a .8 based on your recommendation. now i might actually just pick up a spare hot end just for hot swapping between .4 and .8

[coarse coral]

hot swapping desirable but imo not a game changer

definitely a good move to swap nozzles depending on the part tho

[faint sky]

well the difference is i don't have to deal with removing hot nozzles and can cold swap the entire extruder assembly.

[coarse coral]

yeh more power to you if you see the gain

[faint sky]

for bigger less detailed parts the speed gain from .8 is something i'm looking forward to.

because i mostly do large prints

i don't print my own custom buttons like you do which require a lot of detail and smaller layer heights.

[coarse coral]

yeh the speed gain is huge. you might want to make sure you are using arachne for the .6mm and up

i hear it does a great job at fidelity even for higher diameters

[faint sky]

i think my default is arachne but not 100% sure, will look into it.

[coarse coral]

i printed with with marlin afaik which is not arachne unless cura has it enabled by default. it ships with v5 and up cura

[faint sky]

ohh yeah i'm using marlin

[coarse coral]

the speed gains are insane - satisfaction shall be restored

[faint sky]

if/when i get the spare i'll be picking your brain for .8 setup

[coarse coral]

i always use gyroid supports now, can get away with lower percetages - think it was you who mentioned that or @rough trout

[faint sky]

yup, gyroid is the way to go for infill.

[coarse coral]

i mean i just rolled with default and didn't try various manual settings / layer heights. i used the low profile on some and even the draft on others

[faint sky]

for really detailed prints i'll do .12 layer height with the .4 nozzle.

[coarse coral]

my prints may be seen to be quite successful - when supports didn't fail or w.e the common denomenator is i've been printing at 100% infill on all the parts. again inexperience here

[faint sky]

you know the massive TR-Cowbell 4-part enclosure? yeah that was all on .12 layer height which took days per piece.

[coarse coral]

.4mm is my fav nozzle by a mile. it can do lettering at .45mm the .6mm nozzle will never do that

yes i remember watching the print, +35 hours iirc

.4mm also does circle like and rounded edges like a champ without supports

altho a little support doesn't hurt

[coarse coral]

such a nice paint job on that thing

[faint sky]

Your holes look great!

yeah the detail on the toy is amazing

[coarse coral]

yeh the holes are ok but i prefer .4mm. doesn't matter if the holes are not for show but external you want them all to be precise

[faint sky]

finally got the top shell printed, doesn't quite fit. first have to replicate it with all dimensions correct before i can customize it to be waterproof.

[coarse coral]

i bet there's a spray you can use for waterproofing to avoid resin or whatever liquids

[faint sky]

the toy has the power switch, recharge plug, and holes for a little speaker on the bottom... not good for putting into water.

[coarse coral]

building the unsinkable tank. GL

🙂

[coarse coral]

uft. can't water proof this easy

[faint sky]

starting on the top shell. then will make the bottom shell all one piece, thick with low layer height.

yeah some type of hydrophobic coating would be cool.

[coarse coral]

yeh got to work with what you have, that's going to a be a very thorough thing required

i've seen people use a pvc tube for submerssible things

but your parts are fixed so i don't know

[faint sky]

yes the precision they designed it with is normal for injection molding, 3D printing would have a hard time with it.

hopefully it won't be submersed.

maybe i should add a mini propeller and rudder to it lol

[coarse coral]

haha

[vocal flax]

Maybe paint it with nail polish?

[arctic dragon]

Only works for smoothing ABS, but works well if so.

[vocal flax]

For water proofing

[arctic dragon]

Yes

Ohhhh polish

Not polish remover

Wow, am I blind.

Not sure how well it’ll adhere to plastics, but an interesting approach.

Problem is you can’t apply nail polish on the gears to seal that hole…

Gotta design some kind of protective shell for that.

[vocal flax]

I'm pretty sure gears will work fine if they contacted with water

It's just to cover up electronics

[faint sky]

I'm thinking of some thick epoxy/resin coating on most of the shell. Rubber grommets where axles enter the shell. Pretty much the same approach you'd take with an amphibious tank. Ahh I should have designed it around the WWII landing craft instead. 😛

[vocal flax]

Functionally everything except electronics should work with some water splash or sth. Can't you just let it be?

[arctic dragon]

I mean, conformal coating is a thing, if you want to get some of that.

[balmy pulsar]

conformal coating is fun when you want to repair industrial gear

[faint sky]

Yeah I don't have any of that. I do have some purple nail polish though haha

[balmy pulsar]

glitter1

purple glitter for all the caps. blue for resistors. colour code it

[coarse coral]

Put lipstick on the turret too

[shy kelp]

how easy is it to get the raw materials for metal 3d printing?

ive seen some places sell aluminium powder and Fe powder but not sure if they are suitable for printing

[shy kelp]

It depends on your budget
Atomized metals for starters aren't cheap

how about the cheapest or mid range available?

https://www.barnes.com.au/single-product/aluminium-powder/

seems like it could work?

https://www.jaycar.com.au/1-75mm-aluminium-finish-3d-printer-filament-250g-roll/p/TL4128 seems like a better start with filament I guess

[coarse coral]

.6mm works for this, no supports

i did 2mm depth on the grabbers and latches around the full part perimeter - latches are at 45 deg and grabbers 47.5 with a .2mm gap - with this part now assembled i see very little play which is ideal

https://tenor.com/view/unlimited-power-star-wars-gif-10270127

[coarse coral]

used this as the guide

thanks @faint sky for pointers

[balmy pulsar]

I think that is going to be way too coarse to print with. also for many of the metals (aluminium especially) they can never see air. vac sealed and then argon chamber in the printer. otherwise the oxide will prevent proper sintering.

[shy kelp]

that sounds like a good point

[faint sky]

A new world of design does open up when you learn snap fit. It does kind of feel like that the first time you click everything into place. 🙂

[coarse coral]

Yes I wish it was on my first project now. Nevermind, it was very satisfying to put in place

Snap everything now basically

[iron remnant]

Yeah, you don't want to try working with aluminum powder of any sort close to that which would be useful for printing without a lot of care, a safety plan, and probably approval from the local authorities.

Aluminum powder is what makes sparklers go, so it's a major major explosion hazard, plus it's small enough to get into your lungs, etc.

If you want to experiment with 3D printing metal at home, things that use metal wire are probably a far better bet.

Or, for that matter, BASF UltraFuse.

[violet gust]

what is the cheapest worthwhile 3d printer i can get that wont kill me on filament costs?

[rough trout]

They all use the same amount of filament. The cost difference is how much time you want to spend fixing it/getting it to actually print stuff

[violet gust]

i mean types of fillament, which one is cheapter

resin abs pla etc

[arctic dragon]

PLA is generally the cheapest.

[violet gust]

@arctic dragon what are some good pritners

for pla

[arctic dragon]

Any decent FDM printer will handle PLA just fine. What's your budget?

[violet gust]

idk what the scale is for 3d printers recently

whats the scale recently?

price scale

[arctic dragon]

Scale?

You can print decent quality for as low as 150USD IIRC

Price goes as high as you want, but the best printers for hobbyist use today are between 600-2000.

[violet gust]

im willing 250

[arctic dragon]

https://www.anycubic.com/collections/kobra-series/products/kobra is probably a solid 250USD printer.

[violet gust]

and what are filiment prices these d ays?

[arctic dragon]

PLA is around 20/kg?

[violet gust]

usd?

[arctic dragon]

Yeah

[violet gust]

and what can u print with 1kg of filament?

[arctic dragon]

Quite a bit?

[violet gust]

@arctic dragon do u by chance have any examples?

[coarse coral]

@violet gust good questions. I usually print about 1kg a month, that gives me little ornaments, and I can work on my project with custom gamepads and cases for small computers.

To print a full gamepad. That's about 200-500grams

So you could print two gamepads with 1kg. So maybe about £20 a month for that, then you have the electricity of your printer and you should put £3-5 each month for spare parts

Some things use very little filament, like you could print a little tray or tubs for storing memory cards. They are maybe 50g

[violet gust]

im mainly print rocket stuff

and airplane stuff

[coarse coral]

But you can always adjust your print sizes if you want to save plastic or make larger sizes.

Well if you print a small RC plane it would take time as 3d printing is slow

So really even if you print all the time you wouldn't use more than 3kg a month

https://youtu.be/fGMmA4YTeQY

[arctic dragon]

Realistically, you're going to be mostly printing lower density objects, so a kilogram goes a pretty long way.

[violet gust]

thats what i thought

thanks for video

im printing mostly aviation and rocketry related parts

[arctic dragon]

Has anyone ever used an Ender 2 before? Considering a cheaper 3D printer for my brother-in-law and wondering if it's worth consideration.

[violet gust]

@arctic dragon would u say ender 3 worth it fro 279?

[arctic dragon]

Which Ender 3?

[violet gust]

v2

[arctic dragon]

Still a bit on the high side

You can get it refurbished for 180 or on sale for like 220-240?

[violet gust]

even better

is it better than the kobra?

[arctic dragon]

They're comparable

You wouldn't be likely to notice a significant difference unless you put them directly side-by-side

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7Q9NYSJ/

[coarse coral]

Shout-out to the cr6se

[arctic dragon]

There are a lot of options in that price range, and CR6 SE is one of the better ones from what I hear

Hard to say one printer is better than the other, it depends on a lot of other factors like print size, speed, convenience, material, etc.

[violet gust]

which one is this?

[arctic dragon]

In the sub-500 price range, you're almost guaranteed to be making a compromise somewhere somehow.

[violet gust]

also all of these can print from autodesk inventor right?

[arctic dragon]

https://www.sainsmart.com/products/open-box-creality-cr-6-se-leveling-free-fdm-3d-printer?variant=39436474187855

Anything that can create .stl files.

[violet gust]

perfect

[arctic dragon]

You'll need a slicer to convert STL to G-code.

Cura, Slic3r, and SuperSlicer are all free and work with almost any FDM printer available today.

[violet gust]

cool!

do u say fusion or inventor is best?

[arctic dragon]

Each have their own strengths, but Inventor is only free to students, while almost anyone can access Fusion360 for free.

[violet gust]

ok

[violet gust]

can the slicer estimate how long the print will take if i input a printer type?

[arctic dragon]

Yes

[violet gust]

@arctic dragon which slicer u say is best?

[arctic dragon]

I’ve only tried Cura and super slicer and I don’t think either is necessarily better

Just personal preference IMO

[violet gust]

for beginer which one u recomend?

[arctic dragon]

They both have pretty easy to use basic modes for beginners.

[violet gust]

alrgith thanks

[faint sky]

This comes with a caveat that Cura in particular are way off on their ETA for most 3D printers except their own (Ultimakers), sometimes by hours.

So don't take the slicer's ETA for a print as gospel. It's a rough estimate which is usually wrong. By the time you print a couple of things you'll get a feeling for how far off your ETA's are and can do some mental math for the real ETA that a print will finish in.

For a 24 hour print, Cura for my printer can be as far off as 2-3 hours.

Always taking longer than the ETA, so about 26-27 hours in reality.

[faint sky]

My mail boombox took approximately 1 entire spool of clear PETG. https://blog.adafruit.com/2023/03/15/a-fully-custom-mailbox-alert-system-with-lora-circuitpython-lora-feather-treasuredev/

[iron remnant]

It was clearly worth it.

[violet gust]

ok

thanks

[vocal flax]

Not really you can buy sovol sv06 for 260 or sth which is way better anything that uses v extrusions and rollers

[vocal flax]

Imo again sv06, but if it's cheap cheap (sub 200) why not.

[shy kelp]

Likely not the answer that you'd expect but they sorta are all similar in the cheap area

But unusually anycubic has great customer care. Although free repair parts do come from china and so stuff takes ages to come.

[coarse coral]

I actually bought from here and their support is quite nice, they have sent me replacements for faulty parts within the warranty. Friendly too

[coarse coral]

I wondered why I missed all those appointments 😂

[arctic dragon]

I know a lot of the bedslingers are good, but I was hoping to find something a little less… permanent? Space is a concern, but I don’t know too many portable printers outside of the basically-a-toy class.

[iron remnant]

I guess the big problem is that the printer really needs to be aligned and making it foldable or portable is going to work against that greatly.

[coarse coral]

You can just print a handle if portability is important

Cr6 is carryable

[arctic dragon]

Less so carryable, more so collapsible for storage...

Wonder if there are any foldables with auto-leveling...

[random urchin]

Well, there's this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_QLxTVtyng

[arctic dragon]

I do remember that thing. If only those were available off-the-shelf...

Unrelated, but the upside down printing reminded me of https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kokonisota3dprinter/kokoni-sota-3d-printer/

Hopefully this thing is as good as it advertises when it ships

[balmy pulsar]

printing upside down seems like a bad idea. its hard enough to keep heavier parts secure the right way up.

[coarse coral]

You mean gravity doesn't reverse with printer orientation. That's definitely a feature request

[faint sky]

Well you'll know pretty quick if you have bed adhesion issues

and also faster in 3D printing doesn't mean better, actually it usually means worse quality.

unless you really know what you're doing. most of the fastest printers are not commercial enterprises because there's way too many things to go wrong at higher speeds.

[balmy pulsar]

fdm printers arent really ideal for commercial anyway.

some of the new crazy fast ones ive seen are interesting though. 1000+ mm/s

[vocal flax]

Idk kits are out yet but positron v3 is probably one of the best portable thing out there

[vocal flax]

I was talking about this. I found reprap version of this on GitHub called (iirc) positron lt.
Edit. Sorry for the ping forgot to make it off.

[vocal flax]

With good bed leveling and well calibrated probe it's not an issue for 180mm cube

I was thinking of building reprap version but 10x10 sigma profiles are not that standard

In future might think about converting to box profiles, because there are not many reprap builds around anymore.

[coarse coral]

96% what could it be

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2719434

I printed at .4mm standard quality profile in cura

Cr6se

205c

[balmy pulsar]

da plane

[coarse coral]

It's got articulated wings. So cool

[elder oxide]

I’ve seen these, I’ve been tempted to print some

[coarse coral]

they're nice

fun prints

.4mm total time about 3 hours at 50mms

[sleek crag]

Why would you want an F14. Nah, just joking, that's slick. But seriously though, the F15 is better. (I'm biased, because I fixed F15 for 3.5 years.)

[coarse coral]

i'd personally want a f117

actually i might model one for funsies

[sleek crag]

Dude. The F/A117 is so ærodynamically unstable it will fall out of the sky if the flight computer fails. The F15 on the other hand is hydraulically controlled and has 4 hydraulic pumps driven from two different engines that are started with an onboard JFS. It takes a lot to lose control of an F15, as demonstrated that one time one landed whilst missing an entire wing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision

[coarse coral]

wow. aesthetically tho the f117 is so appealing to me

[sleek crag]

Also the only airframe with a confirmed kill on a satellite, helped drastically by having a greater than 1:1 thrust to weight ration in certain configurations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT

[coarse coral]

i'm still modelling an f117 😂 sketchup is good with sharp edges

[sleek crag]

The F117 is fun, too, but for completely other reasons, like the ball it has to extend so other aircraft don't run into it while taxying, because the ground radar can't otherwise see it:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9540/the-mysterious-case-of-the-f-117-nighthawks-flip-down-radar-locators

AH! That article has pictures of the thing, but talks about something else entirely.

[coarse coral]

must have been fun to work on those rigs, i had a flat mate who was training for commercial pilot license. he started with smaller engine planes and accumulated around 120 hours

he's now doing commercial from africa to madrid

big people carriers

[sleek crag]

ooh!

Also, the F/A117 is was designated as a Fighter Attack airframe for international treaty reasons. It's the same size as planes with similar designations but was used almost exclusively for bombing.

[coarse coral]

i suppose we just found my long term 3d project. model an f117 and make it fly (again)

if only i knew what dehydral meant 😂

[sleek crag]

Also the F15E is almost more of a bomber than an Fighter, too, since they beefed it up with more hardpoints, tech, and carrying capacity, but it can still hold it's own in the increasingly rare dogfight, if they drop all that ordinance first.

[coarse coral]

i need to check the f15 out, sounds like a champ

[sleek crag]

Yup. Should have been replaced with the F23, but politics got involved. I have literally fixed an F15 by pulling parts off of the YF23.

The F22 took a lot more work and money to get it flyable, let alone usable. F23 was basically ready to go.

[coarse coral]

it's nice when they come out like that lol

[sleek crag]

We're still using the F15 and making new ones, but the F22 project has ended. They're still using the ones they made, but not buying or making new ones.

[coarse coral]

im actually visiting the transport museum here in scotland soon. mostly old buses 🙂

[sleek crag]

I think that would have gone very differently if they had gone F23 instead.

[coarse coral]

there's a dinosaur in the building next door tho

[sleek crag]

Old busses are fun, too!

What's wrong with dinosaurs?

[coarse coral]

i think my cousin will suggest we visit the dinosaur instead that's what wrong with them hehe

[sleek crag]

https://tenor.com/view/why-not-both-por-que-no-los-dos-yey-gif-15089379

[coarse coral]

exactly 🤣

lo siento mi amor, porque carro es muy importante para mi. que

[sleek crag]

hehehe

[coarse coral]

maybe we can do both

[coarse coral]

https://tenor.com/view/jim-carrey-liar-liar-funny-gibberish-blah-gif-12443056

[balmy pulsar]

f15? f117? american planes are like american cars.... no thanks. 😛

[tender sparrow]

How do i fix bad bed adhesion on a flex bed?

[vocal flax]

Make sure temps and offset is right

Try cleaning bed surface. Depending on surface alcohol (may damage pei) or dish soap

[tender sparrow]

They are

[balmy pulsar]

what filament and what exactly is causing it to lift off. some materials do better with a coating

[lyric totem]

I like to use glue stick, especially on parts with a small footprint

the better you spread it the better the surface will be

but not as good as without

[tender sparrow]

Dish soap fixed it

Thx

[tender sparrow]

PLA

It was peeling off then the nozzle was moving

[balmy pulsar]

ah

yeah, nozzle too high /not level / grease on the plate.

[tender sparrow]

It was as level as level can be

[faint sky]

You do need to occasionally clean your bed. Filaments over time can leave a small residue and that's even if you're obsessive about never touching the bed with your hands (like me). An occasional cleaning does help. 👍 I'm against putting anything on the bed surface like glue stick or hairspray as they're just band-aids instead of dealing with the real issue which in this case is simply, time to clean the bed.

[balmy pulsar]

for PLA yes. other materials adhesion aids are mandatory

[faint sky]

i disagree, i've never used them for PLA+ or PETG. i have yet to do ABS or Nylon though because I don't have the fume extraction setup for something like that.

[faint sky]

FPV camera mount for an RC car. Didn't quite fit, used a soldering iron to make more space. Forgot to add the little screws on the side so got the model a bit wrong.

[balmy pulsar]

ha

3d scupting...

[faint sky]

It works though. Drove it around the yard today from inside the house using a little 840x480 camera monitor screen.

[balmy pulsar]

(i always love how the printing community will rename centuries old tech as something new and exciting cause they just found out about it)

the lighting rig is not printed i assume? part of the car?

[faint sky]

yes, soldering irons are great for making "fixes". will redesign another one. wanted to get this one put together before it got too dark to drive it.

yes that's part of the car and they are super bright, like cree flashlight bright. turns everything in a 10ft radius into daytime.

[balmy pulsar]

nice

i printed an rc car but have not got back to it to assmeble it up

i think im still missing a few bits

[faint sky]

the car itself was a christmas gift, it's pretty nice. will be modifying it with a new transmitter/receiver.

want to 3D print a cup holder in it and drive a beer to my neighbor. 🙂

[balmy pulsar]

https://3dsets.com/product/model-4-landy-4x4-hardtop/

[faint sky]

didn't know things like that existed, that's awesome. even the gears are printed.

[balmy pulsar]

i printed the gears in nylon

[faint sky]

the whole transmission, hubs, everything. that's cool.

[balmy pulsar]

i have a pic but i cant find it of everyting ive printed so far

its purple pla mostly

[faint sky]

haha it's even got a little radiator in there

[balmy pulsar]

i "silver leafed" the wheels as a test. looks cool as a base for being all rusty and beat up

[faint sky]

wow even interior bits like seats, steering wheel, shifter, etc.. that's very detailed.

[balmy pulsar]

everything

its huge too

18" long or so

takes a good 2 weeks to print

(on your typical small printer0

[faint sky]

you're right i didn't realize the scale at first. the seats are huge

[balmy pulsar]

the newest one is an a team van haha

the vw bug is cool too. that wasnt out when i started this one

[faint sky]

there's no mention of the scale there. 1:16?

[balmy pulsar]

1"8

[faint sky]

ah i see it 1:8

[balmy pulsar]

theres another group that does huge printed RC planes too

[faint sky]

yeah that's big. could drive around a cat in there.

[balmy pulsar]

haha

baby kitten could fit in the back for sure

[faint sky]

Excellent print quality. Love the color too.

[faint sky]

barely fits... i'm going for it. 4 days 🤞

[iron remnant]

Well, I guess you'll have a supportive audience.

[strange ledge]

#dadjokes

[iron remnant]

I have earned my role on this server.

[strange ledge]

I still haven't gotten it.. #disappoint

[faint sky]

and it failed 30 mins in. overextruding. need to recalibrate. that would have ended horribly.

[coarse coral]

I do wish I wouldn't get these random transitions from flawless finish to scratchy on the same top layers though. Any ideas what's causing this?

[faint sky]

how many top layers are you using? this is happening with ironing?

[coarse coral]

yeh i enabled monochromatic ironing

sorry monotonic ironing

0 top layers

but i'm assuming 0 is a magic number for cura to automatically figure out how many to make

[strange ledge]

It almost looks like the head is sticking..

tiny little jumps across the surface.

[coarse coral]

yet the perimeter wall adjacent looks unflawed

[strange ledge]

I'm just guessing based on how it looks.. I have zero expertise.

[coarse coral]

it's also uniform so it looks like it's gcode problem

yeh something is definitely happening in that whole quadrant and comes to an almost sharp stop for the lower right portion

it's too precise for me to think it's calibration

but the slicer was showing steady lines on the whole part, no changes at that cut off point

[vocal flax]

Have anyone tried bimetallic heatbreaks?

I've ordered one and supposed to arrive soon. Can't wait to see if it makes difference

[vocal flax]

Happy to report mine worked great. Its a huge difference considering I'm coming from cheap Chinese knockoffs and Teflon lined ones

[faint sky]

What layer did the ironing happen on? Seems like it's the top of the bottom dish. It's simultaneously a top ironing layer and a roof.

If you have a bed mesh z-fade if it's below the z-fade height then it might not be done with leveling over x amount of layers yet?

I have my z-fade set at 10 so if this were to happen on layer 8 for example then it's still got 2 more layers to go until it completes the entire z-fade adjustment. This basically means your bed isn't perfectly trammed. Reason the higher bezels are fine is because z-fade would have finished leveling after layer 10.

The surface not ironing properly on lower layers but succeeding on higher layers is a clue. 😉

M420 S1 Z10 in your printer settings gcode will fade bed mesh correction over 10 Z-axis layers. I'm not sure if you're using z-fade for a bed mesh or not but something along those lines seems to be happening.

Getting your bed trammed to within 0.01 for ironing is a darn near impossible task without the help of a CR-Touch. I don't know about your CR-6 but my S1 Pro can only adjust z-offset in 0.05 increments so I have a 1/5 chance of getting it perfect. Most other Creality printers can do z-offset adjustments in 0.01 increments, mine can't. So the CR-Touch is an absolute necessity for my printer.

I have mine set to fade over 10 layers, if I have a roof below layer 10 it's a toss of the dice if it'll iron correctly because it's below the z-fade height.

Here's an excellent video about M420 which most new Ender's on Marlin use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra07eaJeL2w

It's doesn't cover z-fade but you can look that up in the Marlin wiki.

https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M420.html

[vocal flax]

Hey, Does anyone know a toolhead that incorprates 40mm hotend fan, mk8 (creality single gear) extruder, e3d v6 hotend and 5015 blower for print cooling?

for mendel prusa style printer.

[mental plume]

I am looking at the resin listed here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWLRJJJN. They have the resin listed in terms of weight (1kg), but they do not specify the volume this provides (how many liters).

Or perhaps there is an easy conversion I am unaware of to determine the liter equivalent of this resin?

[balmy pulsar]

resin is about 1100g per l

so about 900ml

the print software should know this and tell you the weight of your part. but it is a bit annoying.

[arctic yew]

Are you trying to rebuild the toolhead of a mendel?

[vocal flax]

pretty much

i have custom printer

[arctic yew]

Send some pics

[vocal flax]

I can send some pictures tomorrow (late at night) but it started as graber i3, some prusa influence with mostly geetech electronics (ramps 1.4)

added custom probe (made my own 🙂 🙂 )

[arctic yew]

I 100% know what you mean, I started way back when those were the most common printers

[vocal flax]

current holder is also designed by me but has flaws and i want to use something tried and true this time

[vocal flax]

its been 10 years since i started on this thing

[arctic yew]

How much are you willing to spend?

I can probably take a look around when I get home

[vocal flax]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/431179425241890826/1105832119349030912/image.png
Currently have this, but it doesnt have enough clearance on x axis and extruder holder is bolted on (seperate piece) not rigid enough also airpath is somewhat of a joke because its restricted by custom probe

I might go back to 30mm fan and use slower extruder acceleration

also my motors are interesting motors. They are 0.9 degree but have stubby shafts (only 15mm)

[arctic yew]

Yeah thats an interesting setup

[vocal flax]

its too much of a custom build

[arctic yew]

3Dman Dual Drive Bowden Extruder Universal Geared Extruders for Ender 3 V2, Ender 3 Pro, Ender 3 Series, CR10 Series, Mega S, Tevo Tornado, Wanhao D9, Anet A8 E10, Prusa I3 and DIY 3D Printer https://a.co/d/fxgGKB0

I would do one of these extruders and mount the hotend directly to it

[vocal flax]

I'd love to stay and tell you about my custom monstrosity but gotta sleep

Gonna work tomorrow

[arctic yew]

Are you in australia or something?

Its 5pm here in the east coast of the US

[arctic dragon]

I assume Europe

[vocal flax]

My shaft is so small (hehehheh) that it can't seat bond tech gear and fit on prebuilt enclosure

Around EU

[arctic yew]

I see

[vocal flax]

Tr to be exact

[arctic yew]

Go to sleep

We can talk about it tomorrow or whenever

[vocal flax]

As I mentioned these are too big for my motor. Also, i am planning on creating something inspired by prusa's nextruder

Possibly with bondtech's lgx gears

[arctic yew]

I think you should

You should see if you can source them

Also have you thought about changing your motor?

They are not expensive

[vocal flax]

Don't really see the point

Already have this thing and it works

Nextruder seems like a better extruder compared to dual gear extruder

[arctic yew]

Nextruder is nice

[coarse coral]

@faint sky didn't have any ironing issues, it may have been belt tension

[faint sky]

good to hear 👍 print looks great.

[coarse coral]

yeh i've optimised this area to avoid rubbing on the band and chamfered the holding blocks to prevent it tearing

[faint sky]

i would not have guessed that to be a hardware issue. the learning never stops.

[lusty summit]

I made a housing for a nena 17 motor and didn't realize how hot they get. It melted the housing I printed. What other options do I have? Can I get a more heat resistant filament, or should I get someone to just machine /print it out of metal for me?

[arctic dragon]

That depends on whether or not your printer is capable of printing higher temp filaments. Do you know how hot your motors are getting?

What kind of printer do you have?

[lusty summit]

I do not really have an idea, however it melted the pla.

I have an ender 3 V2 neo

[arctic dragon]

Does the motor enclosure have to be printed, or could you possibly redesign it for something like sheet metal?

[lusty summit]

I could probably use sheet metal. I even thought about buying a metal bracket, and then printing the rest that wouldn't be in contact with the motor

I am new to all of this

So I appreciate your help

[arctic dragon]

Laser cut sheet metal is a lot cheaper than 3d printed metal, if you do go that route. You probably want to start with seeing how hot your motors are actually getting before digging too deep down that rabbit hole, as heat resistant filaments do exist.

[lusty summit]

That's a good idea. I can try to run it for a bit and see how hot it gets and then see what filaments I can use. Thank you.

[coarse coral]

to be clear this change was for my model mechanism not the printer itself - printer seems to be running well but i have noticed some movement noises which i've yet to pinpoint. 6 months down with a lot of printing for 3 months after a solid calibration at start and then some smaller recalibration when repairs were needed. definitely feeling good about cr6se today after my horrible newbie experience with badly faulty ender 3 as my first printer 8 months ago

tighten v rollers, adjust belt tensions, tram build plate as best as possible, align z lead screws, firmware update, capricorn tubing

[faint sky]

ahh ok

[vocal flax]

Abs might survive. More engineering version of abs is asa. Both are used with enclosed printers such as voron. Voron suggests printing parts in ABS. Additionally ratrig prints their parts for petg which one of their printer is enclosed (vcore)

[faint sky]

PETG has a slightly higher temp tolerance but it depends on how hot the motors are getting. I know some can almost burn if you touch them which even PETG won't handle.

Yes ABS or ASA but those are special engineering filaments that require ventilation.

[vocal flax]

For general nema 17 holder all you need is a vice (or something to hold metal firmly) and a drill

[faint sky]

I'm not even sure if ABS could withstand being directly against something that hot for extended periods of time. Silicone socks work very well for shielding printer nozzles.

Whatever they make silicone socks out of would do it but it wouldn't be a rigid structure you could build other parts onto.

If you only want a protector cover so kids/pets don't get burnt then yeah a silicone material would be worth looking into.

a heatsink might help. get a CPU cooler setup. seems overkill but should work.

[lusty summit]

I ordered a roll of petg, will give that a try. I didn't want to do abs because I cannot ventilate the area, and if petg doesn't work I'll move the printer to try abs. And these motors can absolutely hurt to touch, but I did leave it energized by mistake which wouldn't ever be necessary for what I'm doing. Also they won't be working too hard, I could probably undervolt them if heat is too big of an issue.

[lusty summit]

I have some heatsinks I could use, and can probably rig a fan to cool the two motors down. Thanks for this idea.

[iron remnant]

The Voron people will patiently explain why A Voron Must Be Printed From ABS.

Nylon is still fairly reasonable to print and a bit better than PETG, if your printer is up for the heats. Nylon has the positive property that it's still fairly sturdy above it's heat deflection temperature in ways that most everything else isn't, but apparently it's still prone to creeping.

[faint sky]

The difference in glass temp between PLA and PETG is only like 20C. It's only slightly more resistant. Chances are if it's deforming PLA it'll deform PETG. Since you don't have ventilation it's worth a shot. Maybe a combination of heatsink and PETG?

I have yet to print ABS, ASA, or Nylon. All of them require ventilation.

[faint sky]

Figured out why I've been having issues with failed prints. After clearing the nozzle from a clog apparently didn't tighten it enough and there was a slow leak.

Filament was filling the gap above the heater block and slowly dripping down onto the nozzle which would randomly leave little blobs all over the print.

Couldn't see it at first because I'm using black filament and the gap is small without a flashlight.

Got a pack of new nozzles and socks. I'm going to try .8 nozzle because most of the stuff I print is industrial and doesn't need super fine detail.

[balmy pulsar]

O_o

[arctic yew]

0.8 is cool to use, it can print very fast. Just make sure to adjust your flow rate to ensure that your hotend has enough time to heat the filament.

There are flow rate calibration scripts and models

[faint sky]

yup, will have to recalibrate everything.

actually got another all metal sprite extruder for hot swapping nozzle sizes 😉

on the s1 pro it takes about 1 minute to swap out the entire toolhead

[arctic yew]

That's very cool

I like that

[vocal flax]

Do a double extruder setup

.4 and .8

[arctic yew]

.6 is going to end up becoming the standard

Not too much quality degradation from 0.4 to 0.6 and prints significantly faster

[balmy pulsar]

if your parts are structural, 0.6 and 0.8 are ideal. stronger bonds, and faster builds.

for the ornamental models 90% of printer buyers make, 0.4mm will likely stay the standard

[faint sky]

Never even thought about that. Not sure the S1 pro is setup for that I'd have to modify it somehow. I have no experience with dual extruders.

Would the gcode from Cura automatically handle that? I could see a problem with the unused nozzle oozing while not being used.

[iron remnant]

Yeah, I feel like most of the things I've been 3D printing are more towards the structural side so I have a full assortment of fat nozzles.

The big thing is kinda in the middle, tho. If you are just making cute models for painting or display, then FDM is kind of a bust anyways. Versus somewhat-useful-but-also-decorative stuff where 0.4 vs 0.6 is a bit of a toss-up still.

[vocal flax]

Why wouldn't you? It should already have marlin configuration you just need to modify for dual extrusions

[faint sky]

Would I need a dual x-axis? it would use the same axis belt?

[vocal flax]

Hardest part about dual extrusion setup is calibrating offset but if you aren't using both extruders in one print it shouldn't matter

[vocal flax]

You can use same x gantry

You need to set offsets and stuff

[faint sky]

but what if i want to use both extruders for dual filament? that's very tempting.

[vocal flax]

You can disable heaters, but if you want to do both nozzles then you need wipe tower

[faint sky]

ah

[vocal flax]

It opens up possibilities

And iirc you already have spare nozzle

[faint sky]

definitely, didn't even dawn on me duh lol

[vocal flax]

You just need to mount and calibrate

My next project is dual extruders, but i couldn't get my machine working as well as I wanted

So still struggling to start

[vocal flax]

thats called idex Independent Dual EXtruders what I'm suggesting is dependent dual extruders

[faint sky]

think i'll just stick with swapping out the toolhead for now. it's 4 screws and super easy. i looked into IDEX and that's a rabbit hole I really don't want to go down right now, maybe in the future

[arctic yew]

Idex can be annoying

The main issue with it is that the toolheads have to be perfectly leveled with each other

[neat lynx]

Hey all, I'm spearheading a project at work to get a 3D printer setup for our patrons (We are a public library) I am currently putting together a procedures manual for our staff, as well as a patron guide. Does anyone have any good material for library staff and patrons alike? Any good recommendations for the way to handle things? We have a X1 Carbon and I have already gotten a good chunk of 3D printing supplies, the essential hand tools, a food dehydrator and plenty of dessicant. Any feedback is appreciated, feel free to ping or reply.

[balmy pulsar]

My only recommentation is to not let the customers directly touch the machine. if you want it to survive.

[neat lynx]

That is the plan

[balmy pulsar]

cool

i dont have anything to offer on the admin side