help-with-3dprinting

[vestal thicket]

You've got a good printer - make sure you review the Bambu wiki for the maintenance schedule for the printer

[neat lynx]

Glad to hear I made a decent choice on the printer. Heavily considered a prusa, but X1s enclosure, and slightly increased simplicity of use outweighed the open source aspect for our purpose. Putting a manual together on maintenance for whoever comes after me for exactly that :)

[faint sky]

The X1 is an excellent printer with all the goodies. 3D printers are really only limited by budget. If in a corporate or educational use settings I'd have a way to send STL files to print but not allow people to change any settings without an admin present. or perhaps they could make their own profiles and have an admin double check that a profile will work. no physical access to the PC (or network page) for the slicer and only physical access for removing prints after they're finished and/or an emergency (stop) button.

I think Makers Muse has commented in some past videos he was responsible for something like that and it was a personal nightmare to administrate. He eventually stopped providing support as issues became too frequent from people accessing the printers without authorization and completely hosing his custom profiles.

Profiles in particular can take a ridiculous amount of time to dial in per filament, per nozzle size. To have an entire swath of dialed in profiles for every filament type (PLA/PETG/ABS) and nozzle sizes can take hundreds of hours with calibration prints for almost every possible setting. Printers generally work great out of the box, as they age and parts wear down they must be re-calibrated again, and again. Maintenance is required just like a car. They're not brand new forever.

Anything mechanical wears down over time, that's a fact. It's practically a law of physical mechanics. Expect anything mechanical to require maintenance over time.

[raven coral]

ok can someone help me dial in some slicer parameters

mainly for support structures

because it seems like several supported parts arent "supported" so they jsut warp for me

im not sure which setting would help to prevent that

im printing at a 0.1mm layer height and the support Z distance is 0.4

i'd assume thats too high?

[whole onyx]

Hello

My ender 3 v2 prints x,z measurments correctly, but y measurment is always a little smaller

How can I callibrate it?????

I am using cura

[elder oxide]

How much smaller is the y lengths than they should be?

Like a millimeter?

You can scale the y axis by unchecking the uniform scaling box, and adjust the y scaling

[whole onyx]

0.2mm

Good idea

[arctic yew]

Are you using a calibration cube to test this?

[arctic dragon]

If y is off by 0.2 mm regardless of model height, check your first layer height. If it’s proportional to your model height, adjust steps per mm?

[whole onyx]

I made a simple rectangular piece with a hole

[whole onyx]

Ill check it thanks

[arctic yew]

Did you measure in multiple areas along the y face?

[whole onyx]

Yes I did

[arctic yew]

Ok

Make sure that your Y belt is tight and that your Y axis doesn't have too much play

[arctic dragon]

Wait, just checking, is your Y axis parallel or perpendicular to your bed? I’ve seen both interpretations before…

[arctic yew]

It's an ender 3

[arctic dragon]

Is Y the vertical height, or the front / back motion of the bed?

[arctic yew]

Y is front back

[vocal flax]

You shouldn't willy nilly change steps per mm. Set them to theorical value. If you "calibrate" for given length you will get exactly {calibrated_length} when printing {calibrated_length} but any other print will be smaller or bigger

this was one of the first pitfall of reprap project

[arctic yew]

I agree

[short crag]

Why would this happen there was nothing on the vat or the screen

[balmy pulsar]

i dont know what im looking at

[short crag]

the holes

[balmy pulsar]

ok, but what is it, what is the orientation on the plate, etc

[short crag]

oh its a box , and the bottom is facing the camera

[balmy pulsar]

and the sides were meant to be smooth and flat?

[short crag]

yes

[vocal flax]

By bottom you mean screen side or plate side?

Lazy answer changing orientation probably would fix it

[faint sky]

print holes with support material?

when you get globs like that it's from extra filament slowly building up on the nozzle, turns into a blob, then attaches itself somewhere.. and most times knocks the print off and its spaghetti time.

i'm dealing with that right now actually after changing my nozzle didn't tighten it enough and there's a slow leak coming out from the side of the heat block.

for holes i always use supports because if something goes wrong it'll end up with a bad roof/ceiling or overhang which eventually will at the very least make the print uneven in one spot.

but most times it'll just fail or have a result as pictured

multiple pictures to show different angles also helps when asking for help. specifying settings, printer, filament type, etc.. does too.

[short crag]

plate side

[vocal flax]

I think it might be because it doesn't have support

[short crag]

its sla

[short crag]

no it did have support

[faint sky]

oops sorry missed that part

[short crag]

ur fine

[faint sky]

I don't have SLA or any of the helpers here. If anyone has experience with SLA and can help please do.

[balmy pulsar]

it does look more like an adhesion / curing weirdness than a geometry one

[weary lichen]

Are the holes straight through the printed object, or are they more like craters?

If they're all the way through, your screen might have some dead spots. Depending on printer, there's quite a few ways to test this but most often it's to put it in some type of clean mode with a piece of paper over the screen (because UV is not good for your eyes)

[short crag]

they are through holes and now its not printing at all

[weary lichen]

Sounds like a screen issue. I'd recommend looking up how to test the screen in your type of printer

[short crag]

alr thx

[weary lichen]

Unfortunately, UV light is also terrible for the screens that go into these printers, so they are consumables.

Fortunately, printer companies know this and replacing screens is generally not difficult

[short crag]

This is with paper and without

[weary lichen]

Does it feel like there's any texture on the screen's glass?

I've had some super thin residue caked on mine in the past. Had to really carefully use a scraper blade to get it off.

[short crag]

no its under the screen i took it off and found that out so im gunna buy a new screen

[balmy pulsar]

actualy lcd screen or fep?

[short crag]

lcd

[faint sky]

You can learn a lot from the 3D printing reddit. Weird issues that come out of left field. Filled with tons of issues and solutions.

After about 400 comments OP finally figured out the cause.

[elder oxide]

Oof

[strange ledge]

trollololololol

[balmy pulsar]

haha

[elder oxide]

My first thought was someone was playing with a lighter and low and behold lol

[strange ledge]

I'd kick him in the grapes... Seriously.

[elder oxide]

Maybe let’s not condone physical retaliation.

[vocal flax]

Does anyone know if unparallel y axis belts introduce cosine error?

I added bearing holders to y axis and now my belt is not level with motor or idler 😕

PSA. Unless you have to try not to modify bed/y axis structure for prusa style printers

[faint sky]

technically it shouldn't as long as the carriage is centered. 2 belts should only provide more torque for the additional weight of the bed (larger beds) compared to smaller lighter beds.

your y axis motion should be dictated by the center rollers and extrusion. with dual belts something would have to be really off, noticeably off to cause issues.

i'd look more into your v-rollers, check for play, snug them up

[vocal flax]

It doesn't have dual belts

Single belt loop but the bed mount is little higher than where motor sits

Also don't have v rollers either

[faint sky]

oh you said unparallel y axis belts, i thought you meant plural as in 2 belts.

i don't have any experience with linear rails sorry. :/

[vocal flax]

It's rods

Anyway my issue was belt on motor is lower than where it connects to y axis so it is angled, and it does introduce some cosine error but since angle is real tiny it's fine

[vivid helm]

I have linear rails and a custom y axis idler/tensioner on my Prusa. Haven't noticed any issues with it.

(I can link to it if you want, but I don't want to spam too much shameless self-promotion)

[green reef]

POV: I'm trying to go to bed and I hear a strange sound coming from my printer and now I gotta get up to check on it

[vivid helm]

If you really want to get suspicious of any noise that might come from your printer, try listening to the Portal soundtrack :p

[bleak flare]

my hunch/brain is telling me that it shouldn't be a simple "pull the file from Printables, ignore the fact the model is designed for PET, and slice it"...
but I tried it anyways and it immediately printed poorly but in a way that could also be my own spool of PLA being wonky
so... to make this into a question instead of a bunch of data lacking statements...

do I have to follow some "do this to make this work" steps when trying to print on my Ender (using PLA) something that is labelled (on Printables) as a Prusa thing-a-ma-bob that has PET in the data?

hmm, the notes in the item from the author says it should print fine using any filament

I wonder if my bed is not allowing for a good layer 0 adhesion

wanders off to go read up on bed cleaning

[vocal flax]

I use dish soap and sometimes %70 ethyl alcohol. Usually dish soap works better among two. Fyi my build surface is pp (polypropylene), dish soap should be fine with both glass and pei but do your own research.

Also, my filament supplier says they also use dish soap.

[bleak flare]

that's one of the things I'm looking into - what exactly the surface is that I'm using

[vocal flax]

About the model, it should work, i can't think of anything being easier with pet than pla.

Anything I can think of printed better with pla than pet (except speed, we don't have capable enough printer for speed test)

But out filament was pet without additives (aka petg)

[bleak flare]

ok, so I should definitely look at cleaning the bed as the first thing to test/adjust before blaming the universe as to why it's not working :)

[vocal flax]

7 out of 10 that's the cause

[bleak flare]

sweet, thanks for the confirmation

[vocal flax]

Oh I don't exactly remember but, pet might be sticking to bed harder than pla

[bleak flare]

it's ok, i'm learning so much so i'm glad that this could be it and how to fix/verify

[vocal flax]

I mean pet sticks better than pla

[bleak flare]

I wonder if this really should be "solved" by me just getting a spool of PET

[vocal flax]

My experience with pet is limited to only 1 spool (Basf brand)

[bleak flare]

I am only 1/3 into my first spool of PLA and printing in general

[vocal flax]

Quite high end spool (glad I wasn't paying 😁)

[bleak flare]

so I'm loving all the new learning

[arctic dragon]

Generally changing the material won’t magically fix printing issues. Recommendations for material are usually for functional purposes.

[vivid helm]

PETG has an additive: glycol.

PET without additives is usually labeled HTPET, and it's nothing like PETG.

[vocal flax]

It's fun until you start to modify and realize how many people design and never share the solid files 😫

[vivid helm]

I make it a point to always share those when I am capable.

[bleak flare]

I am ignoring for now even the thought of modifying a design

[vocal flax]

Good to know. What should I expect if I decide to try petg in future?

[arctic dragon]

Switching materials often involves calibration of a new profile to print the material properly. Temperature, speed, fan settings…

[bleak flare]

tho, I do want to print a hex wall grid thingy and the article lists parametric this and parametric that... so I'm in for a fun weekend

[bleak flare]

this alone is making me not want to switch until I get more prints done

[vivid helm]

In comparison to PLA it usually likes to print slower and may curl a bit more on overhangs. Run the part cooling fan at 30-50% (75-100% on bridges). 230-250°C hotend temp, 85°C bed. It's very good for functional parts and soft enough to self tap screws up to M4.

Printed parts can usually handle temperatures up to 50°C before deforming under load. It's also more chemical resistant than most other filaments.

Downsides are that it's very sticky, so good luck removing a blob of death. You'll definitely want to regularly clean your nozzle with a brass brush. It's also more hygroscopic than PLA.

[bleak flare]

welp, off to get some isopropyl alchohol ... thanks all for the chance to rubber duck this with you all

[vivid helm]

If you're looking for good filament brands, I recommend Polymaker, Printed Solid, and Prusament.

[vocal flax]

Can it printed without heating bed? I generally don't bother with heating bed with pla.

[vocal flax]

Not really. In office we use Basf (we have agreement or something) and at home I'm using local brand because it's cheap

[vivid helm]

No, you need to heat the bed.

[vocal flax]

Aww maan

[vivid helm]

Pretty much everything made in the last decade has a heated bed at this point.

[vocal flax]

My printer has it, i just don't like using it

[vivid helm]

Why not?

[vocal flax]

It's one of the older style printer.

Mk2a PCB with glass and magnetic pp bed

So it takes a while to heat up

Also, psu noise

And in general I feel safer because those old beds are quite sensitive to pid calibration

[arctic dragon]

Pla might be the only material that prints decently without a heated bed…

[vivid helm]

Oh, another thing to keep in mind about PETG: when I said it is sticky I meant it. It will permanently fuse to glass and PEI if you don't put in a separation layer of glue stick or Windex.

[vocal flax]

At this point abs or pla plus sounds better choice than petg

[vivid helm]

You'll need an enclosure for ABS.

[vocal flax]

I have cardboard box 😁

[vivid helm]

ABS also puts out some toxic fumes.

Nothing life threatening in the short term, but definitely not something you want to be breathing constantly.

[vocal flax]

That idk if I can solve

At work we use abs and it do be smelling nasty

[vivid helm]

ASA is very similar to ABS, but has better UV resistance and smells less. It still has styrene though so you don't want to be breathing it constantly either.

[iron remnant]

I mean, it probably behooves you to ventilate the heck out of your printer area regardless because there's plenty of toxic stuff that you can't smell, whereas at least styrene has the decency to be simultaneously stinky and toxic.

I dono, I actually like PETG a heck of a lot more than PLA, but for reasons. PETG is much easier to do compliant designs with and it can handle higher temperatures, even if PLA tends to be a bit easier to print precisely and is stiffer.

[vivid helm]

This is the exact reason I use PETG as my 'all purpose' material.

[vocal flax]

Have anyone experienced hotend clogging with too little retraction?

[vivid helm]

Heat creep?

What printer do you have?

[green reef]

Anyone have any ideas for 3d printed projects

[vivid helm]

https://tenor.com/view/evil-plan-evil-smile-fight-me-evil-raccoon-gif-13886764

That's pretty broad

The general rule is that if you have a 3d printer projects will find you.

[bleak flare]

I have found that my first set of projects to print are all the things needed to organize the tools that i'm gathering for this

allen wrench handles, parts bins, deburring tool case

[faint sky]

there are a lot of tool case designs on printables you can base your designs from. deciding on a hinge design is honestly the hardest part.

[vocal flax]

Custom bed slinger. E3d V6 with 90mm length between creality single gear extruder (aluminum mk8). Tried 3mm speed 40mm/s too much and clogs, 0.85 35mm/s too little both clogged. Acceleration is quite low 1000 or lower can't remember.

[vivid helm]

How much cooling do you have on the heatsink?

[vocal flax]

12v 40mm fan but it's not quality one

[vocal flax]

Does anyone know how to do retraction speed and length calibration? Kinda similar to temperature tower

[vivid helm]

https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/

[elder oxide]

Hmm 🤔 I don’t think that’s supposed to happen lol

I wonder if the power bumped last night

The printer has never done this which is funny

[faint sky]

@vocal flax a retraction tower can be setup just like a temp tower

[elder oxide]

I don’t need advice, just though this was funny lol

[faint sky]

😦 it happens

[elder oxide]

Unlike Kanye, imma let this finish so it can go on the shelf of beautiful disasters

[faint sky]

looks like your tool head is trying to eat the print. that's an interesting looking one.

[elder oxide]

It’s still printing fine

Just.. 3” to the left lol

[faint sky]

it's only stuck at a small point on the nozzle? that's kind of amazing

[elder oxide]

It’s not stuck, it’s printing

[faint sky]

wait what lol

[faint sky]

so it's a shift?

that's a wicked shift

[elder oxide]

Yeah lol

Proof we’re living in the matrix

[vocal flax]

I copy pasted a layer change script for temp tower idk how it works

[faint sky]

what slicer are you using? cura has calibration shapes plugin built in.

[vocal flax]

Prusa slicer

[faint sky]

sorry i don't know anything about prusa slicer yet 😦

[vocal flax]

I could use cura but last I tried it was worse/behind prusa

[faint sky]

if you have the gcode for doing a temp tower then you should be able to replace temp changes with retraction changes.

[vocal flax]

Right now probably in front of prusa but i kinda value prusa as company so will try to use/help them when I can

[faint sky]

that is a benefit of going with prusa, can always ask them for support directly

[vocal flax]

Retraction is a slicer setting (in prusa slicer machine setting). retraction is just extruder moves unlike temperature it's very hard to distinguish between normal moves. Also I don't really want to change lines one by one

[vocal flax]

Yeah. I don't own a prusa tho 😔

[faint sky]

https://www.printables.com/model/378291-retraction-tuning-with-prusaslicer

[vocal flax]

I think i figured out my problem

the 0.8 retraction was probably fine. My nozzle clogged again today

I pulled out and cleaned while heating with lighter and I am pretty sure there is some metal pieces stuck at the end

makes sense because I recently changed nozzle

[bleak flare]

hmmm, I printed some handles for allen wrenches and the two pieces are so very tight, is there a known good way to scrape away some material on a thread ?

[vivid helm]

You can just use a tap.

Or a screw if it's something soft like PETG.

Also a deburring tool may be useful.

[bleak flare]

I used the deburring tool to get the initial thread lead clean, currently using a small file to slowly work my way down the thread

and ... just (re)learned to look to see if the tool holder your printing can actually hold the tool you have

the deburring tool handle holder is a tad too small for the tool I have :(

[green reef]

K but how did it stay in the air?

[elder oxide]

Magic

Jk, strong bed adhesion

[vocal flax]

Sandpaper is generally my preferred method, and sometimes metal brush, metal wool to get into the details.

Steel wool and brush doesn't leave a nice finish but good texture

[balmy pulsar]

you exceeded the maximum recommended overhang.

looks like it lost position twice. lost steps. most likely model warped up a little and the nozzle hit it hard. very good bed adhesion, when that happens to me the model usually gets dragged with it

[elder oxide]

I’m honestly impressed that it didn’t spaghettify

[balmy pulsar]

yeah

i couldlt make that happen on purpose

haha

[elder oxide]

Same haha

[balmy pulsar]

ive been drooling over the new high speed 12k resin printer.

[elder oxide]

Second attempt, only ended up with a mutilated arm

That would be fun

[balmy pulsar]

4" an hour

[elder oxide]

I just have a Halot One

Current resin I’m using prints like.. an inch an hour

Not very fast

[balmy pulsar]

yeah.

[elder oxide]

But it was $160 so I can’t really complain too much

[balmy pulsar]

the 12k one seems idea. its large, its high res, and its fast.

ah yes

cheap is good

haha

i saw one for $99 even

was tempted

but it was too small

[elder oxide]

The resolution is definitely much better than my Ender 3 pro

[balmy pulsar]

well, thats a given. but the parts are less functional.

its a trade

[elder oxide]

Halot One is like a 6”

Yep

Resin is great for non mechanical parts

[balmy pulsar]

resin is for printing miniatures and selling them on etsy. hahahaha

[elder oxide]

Things that need high detail and will receive much less mechanical shock

Hilariously, my little brother loves games that have miniatures as has been getting pretty decent at painting them. He’s going to try and print/paint/sell them

[balmy pulsar]

i need a printer that can print me a guitar. then i will be a multi hundredaire

[elder oxide]

Hehe

[balmy pulsar]

yeah the miniature thing is doing well. if you know how to sculpt good models, you can make a real full time job of it

[elder oxide]

Every two weeks I’m a multi thousandaire

Then back to a dollaraire

[balmy pulsar]

and thn the mortgage is due

ha

i wonder if you can resin print a miniature with built in light guides and a space for an mcu board with rgb leds

[elder oxide]

Anyway, my brother is planning to start out licensing other people’s models

You might be able to with the right design and resolution

[balmy pulsar]

license and print them to sell all painted up? thats cool.

[elder oxide]

Yeah

He has a little air brush set he’s been getting pretty good with

[balmy pulsar]

keyboard keycaps is another one thats big. bascally a miniature built onto a key.

no idea how you type on those, but...

[elder oxide]

I could see doing that to the esc key or even the function key row

[balmy pulsar]

i want to do some of my halo models. not or sale, just for me in a reasonable size

[elder oxide]

Print off life size versions?

[balmy pulsar]

haha

[green reef]

Hi

[elder oxide]

Some dude printed a life size master chief

[balmy pulsar]

the drone is 2m wide. i would probably do 1/4 size

[elder oxide]

And an Arbiter

[balmy pulsar]

longsword is. um. 34m long. soo, 1/48?

[elder oxide]

Print a life size corvette ship

Only 956m long

[balmy pulsar]

corvette model is bad. background res only.

[elder oxide]

Ah, that stinks

[balmy pulsar]

yeah ha

[elder oxide]

Maybe make a new one?

Then print it life size and send it to space

[balmy pulsar]

haha

[elder oxide]

Take over another planet

[balmy pulsar]

you gone crazy

there was one ship thats 14km wide

i forget which

[elder oxide]

Hey, if musk can do it we should all be able to be deranged billionaire lunatics fantasizing about colonizing other planets.

[balmy pulsar]

haha

[elder oxide]

CSO-Class Super Carrier

[balmy pulsar]

7km that one. there was one bigger

[elder oxide]

It made one appearance, Halo: Reach

[balmy pulsar]

there was a guy at 343 who's job is basically resident nerd. he would find all the specs and decide what sizes things are.

most of the ships were actually consistent, but a lot of the big background ones were random fudged

[elder oxide]

The forerunners vessel was 142.7km long

[balmy pulsar]

ah yes, forerunner ship was 14km

thats the one

and high charity i think is 400km

[elder oxide]

The actual size was 142.7km long, 136km wide, and 371km high

[balmy pulsar]

thats wrong. the scale factors is ft to inch.

so divide everything by 12

[elder oxide]

Mantel’s Approach?

[balmy pulsar]

bungi's screw up

haha

[elder oxide]

https://www.halopedia.org/Mantle's_Approach

[balmy pulsar]

or was it blur. one of them botches it, and then then kept it

oooh

[elder oxide]

Anyway, gotta run

This 35min commute isn’t going to drive itself

[balmy pulsar]

haha

[elder oxide]

Last day and then a 4 day weekend

[balmy pulsar]

ah. our holiday was last monday

in honour of our soon to be evicted monarcy

😛

[shy kelp]

Did all decent 30€ pre mounted bowden 12v nozzles disappear?
Everything is 24V
I don't want to assemble it myself because I never managed to, and it's a pain

[balmy pulsar]

O_o

define pre mounted

the ones for my anycubic are a single unit with heater, sensor, etc. they are 12v i think

v5 i think they are called

[trail turtle]

Can I just solder the bottom wire back?

It fatigued

[vivid helm]

You should probably just replace it. It'd likely just break again at the joint.

[shy kelp]

Indeed but they suck
Or at least they keep failing in my experience

That's what I mean premounted anyway

[vocal flax]

Technically, yes. Solder melts at 370 ish degree, which your hotend shouldn't reach but i suggest go get a new one. If you manage your cables well, cables shouldn't move relative to carriage which eliminates cable fatigue. Next time consider leaving some slack and fixing it to carriage well. You can make 3 (4 would be better) plate use 2 holes for cable pass through (so you can't yank the cable) and secure it to the carriage with 3rd (and 4th) hole. In my experience this worked real good.

[trail turtle]

I plan to I just want to keep printing for now

[trail turtle]

Its an older printer and the wires are corroded as well, it lives in the same room as a very large tank so its definitely a bad environment. Hasnt been used in a year and the break happened within about 20 minutes of the first print. I like to think im pretty good about my cable management but ill definitely look into a plate to secure it.

Thanks both of yall!

[vocal flax]

I'm not a big 3d printers are delicate machines but they need some care and maintenance

[trail turtle]

Yeah, it definitely needs a tune up

old mk3s, left it at my parents house when I went to college and just got to pick it up

[balmy pulsar]

I've never had one fail. 3 machines, i have extras of them for different materials to make it easier. I mean, its just a tube a nozzle and a heater...

[arctic yew]

I've have had both thermistors and heaters fail. I would not recommend resoldering them since they are cheap to buy. Make sure you have good strain relief on your wiring too so it doesn't mechanically overstress the wire.

[faint sky]

I see them fail like that on reddit every day. Usually it's due to a huge blob solidifying around the hot end. With enough pressure a blob can snap the wire too. It's always best to replace the thermistor if you can.

[arctic yew]

That's why you avoid getting blobs in the first place by ensuring your prints stick properly

[faint sky]

and checking on it regularly, if you're going to be out of the house you need to find some way of shutting off the printer remotely.

[arctic yew]

I never walk away from a print without seeing that the first couple of layers print properly

[half dew]

I got one of a certain brands printers that does all the fancy first layer inspection and such - its been good enough that I no longer check and haven't had any failures for almost 1 year. Hoping that the tech just gets better and better

[simple hedge]

which one of these am I supposed to use?

ender 3 pro with v4.2.2 board

dont tell me i have to take apart my printer for the 3rd time 😭

[simple hedge]

remind me to buy the $200 printer next time

[faint sky]

Yes remove cover, take pic, put cover back, never lose pic.

[vocal flax]

Print it out put it next to the printer

Or build custom and this is what you have to deal with😄

[arctic yew]

Is that an acrylic prusa i3?

[vivid helm]

Prusa never made them with acrylic, for good reason. I believe the most acrylic clone was the anet a8.

[balmy pulsar]

acrylic is for painting walls. not 3d printers

[arctic yew]

They did exist, they were not originals though but they were still prusas

I had a folgertech i3 acrylic a very long time ago, anet and I believe geetech made them too

[balmy pulsar]

ive seen acrylic panels on lots of printers. but not structure. as soon as it gets warm it starts to warp/sag/bend

i assume yo umean something like a laser cut acrylic structure?

sounds bad

ha

aha. i found the anet

ew

[vivid helm]

It's also flammable.

[balmy pulsar]

not at 100c

but it will crack from rapid heat cycling

its also really exepensive. kinda ticks all th e"dont use" boxes

[vivid helm]

At 100C no, but those printers have a reputation for thermal runaway, and 300+C is definitely enough.

[balmy pulsar]

560c

everything else bad will happen first

haha

[arctic yew]

None of them had any heated parts that would contact the acrylic

The thermal runaway issues were firmware related since they would ship with the setting off

[vivid helm]

They are still famous for catching fire, regardless of the exact failure mechanism.

[balmy pulsar]

sure, but lets not conflate all the different issues. dont learn nothing that way 🙂

[vivid helm]

Indeed, though I wouldn't encourage buying one.

[balmy pulsar]

no. terrible looking machine

although, its good in a way that people did, cause what we have today is a direct result of people buying all those terrible printers 10-15 years ago

[iron remnant]

When they said the 3D printer market was on fire, tho, they didn't mean that literally.

[vocal flax]

Yeah. Not exactly prusa but has a lot of similarities and some common parts

Also, it's not acrylic it's plexiglass (slightly better plastic iirc)

[vocal flax]

Nothing has cracked for 10 years other than user error, and no real bents to speak off

It's not as rigid as I'd like but that's because it's laser cut construction. 2d planes flex, who would have guessed 😄

The piece was offcut i bought from raw materials source. I was a kid so they made it cheaper.

[balmy pulsar]

plexiglas is acrylic. nothing more, nothing less

[vocal flax]

I thought there were some additives 🤷‍♂️

[balmy pulsar]

its the original "brand name" for acrylic cast sheet

[arctic dragon]

Plexiglas is a brand of acrylic, so it would not be wrong to consider them the same.

Strictly speaking, plexiglass is used as either acrylic sheet or a specific subset of acrylic sheet, depending on context.

The main distinction Plexiglas claims is that they cast their acrylic sheets between glass, which tends to result in a more durable sheet compared to extrusion.

[balmy pulsar]

extruded acrylic is prone to crazing, and other issues. also not suitable for machining

[vocal flax]

I'm glad I go with acrylic, if it was MDF or plywood, it would be already warped and stuff

And in that case idk if I would fix it

[balmy pulsar]

ha

baltic birch may have been ok.

but any wood "moves"

[vocal flax]

It's been 10 years

[balmy pulsar]

ah

[vocal flax]

And 5 of them were in pretty humid environment

[balmy pulsar]

time for a new one 😛

muhahah

[vocal flax]

Naah man I love this one

[balmy pulsar]

ha

[vocal flax]

Almost every part is in different color

Some have witness marks

[balmy pulsar]

get a resin printer. than you can print new acrylic parts

😛

[vocal flax]

It brings me joy to see imperfections on it

Tho I probably should fix the mains switch it's dangerous for people other than me

[vocal flax]

I can't deal with resin, seems like too messy process and the gains I'd get doesn't seem worth it

[balmy pulsar]

you gain mess. thats the point

makes you feel like your doing science

[vocal flax]

But i want another printer soon. This time less experimentive more for functional/aesthetic parts

[balmy pulsar]

eos m280

[vocal flax]

Yeah naaaah

Not like that

Probably ratrig voron etc.

[balmy pulsar]

haha

[vocal flax]

I really like the hevort build but it seems pricey

Might just get a voron kit from fytech and call it a day

But im also curious about prusa xl

[balmy pulsar]

i want one of the crazy fast printers. that do 500+mm/s with a 0.8 nozzle

[vocal flax]

Maybe I build xl clone or miniature xl

[balmy pulsar]

but i think those are still experimental

[vocal flax]

I'm not into fast printers but

Even simple printer with Klipper is quite fast

Fast enough for me

[balmy pulsar]

I need large structual parts made fast. cover panels and ducts etc

[vocal flax]

10x10x5 is most common part size for me and with Klipper that would take 30 mins maybe less

[balmy pulsar]

thats not too bad

my stuff its more 400x400x300mm

but mostly empty space

[vocal flax]

Those are cm

Not mm

[balmy pulsar]

last one i did was 0.8 nozzle in petg. was ok ish, but it took over a day. i need more like 10 a day.

i know

[vocal flax]

My print quality is bad tho

[vocal flax]

Are you selling parts?

[balmy pulsar]

not directly. they are for a device that would be sold

[vocal flax]

Commercial use

[balmy pulsar]

yes

ideally i would use an sls printer, but $$

ha

aint got no $500k lying around

[vocal flax]

Sls texture is so nice

I've heard of sls builds with CNC lasers but CNC laser isn't cheap either

[balmy pulsar]

the laster is the easiest part as well

[vocal flax]

Explosive powder and diy machine is questionable combo

[balmy pulsar]

yeah

you need an argon purge or a low vacuum, something that lays out the powder reliably at 0.05mm thickness..

its obvious why they are expensive

but, maybe one day they will be like 5k 🙂

ha

[pliant iron]

what beginner-friendly foss creation software is recommended for designing a 3d object and exporting a standard file format that various printers can read?

[vestal thicket]

FreeCAD is the first FOSS app I can think of

But then again, I wouldn't call that beginner friendly.

[pliant iron]

there's nothing geared to printable objects and not full-blown CAD All The Things?

[vivid helm]

Not really, no.

Unless you count tinkercad, which I don't.

[pliant iron]

maybe the better question is... what do people use to design their 3d objects, and which ones are the most beginner-friendly?

[iron remnant]

I mean, the FOSS community tends to have a harder time delivering beginner-friendly things without a corporate overlord to deliver it to the community for free.

Also, 3D is kinda always going to be tricky.

So... yeah, I guess TinkerCAD or Sketchup would be beginner-friendly in general.

A lot of people end up using Fusion360 because there's lots of tutorials and stuff for it.

If you want FOSS stuff, there's FreeCAD, Blender, and OpenSCAD.

One of the things that's been nice lately is that people have started making FreeCAD tutorials on YouTube, which really fills in that gap.

I think that the current model of CAD All The Things is all kinds of broken. I'm not actually the right kind of engineer to know for sure, but I do know that the people who are the right kind of engineer are really resistant to change, probably to a fault.

But, at the very least, what's actually interesting for me in the 3D printing space is things like OpenSCAD because the true advantage is in mass customization.

[pliant iron]

thanks all, plenty of things to research now. I just need one relatively simple part that has been printed before (not by me) but the file is lost

[faint sky]

I started using Fusion 360 because that's what the Ruiz Brothers use, most of their files are drag & drop compatible. If they moved to something else I probably would too. It's helps to learn on the same software as the people you're getting guidance and learning from.

I like that there's a wide variety of tools people are using. So if you have a question about a new piece of software you're using chances are someone might have the answer.

[vocal flax]

Blender is Foss?

Didn't know thay

[toxic kite]

funny story
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software)#History

[hidden sable]

When you realise that you forgot to bring across the m420 s1 in another cura install to retrieve the mesh, haha

[hoary wind]

So this isn't 3d printing related directly, but does anyone have a recommendation for turning an SVG from Inkscape into Gcode? I can't seem to figure out Gcodetools

Specifically for a CNC router

[keen raft]

This seems a bit unreasonable, doesn't it?

[vocal flax]

Have you done repeatability test before?

Depending on printer mechanics it could be belt tension or bent/unaligned something

[keen raft]

Yeah, it looks pretty much the same every time. Some of it is bad tramming (right side is a little low, front a little high), but there's still a pretty big dent in the middle and lots of ripple. I'm just wondering if that's normal? I did this after heating up, so it might be the heating wire in the bed.

[vocal flax]

The ripple sounds like a problem

Which can be caused by belt tension. I had similar artifacts with loose and uneven belts

[keen raft]

Guess I'll play with the belt tension a bit then after the current print is done 😉

[arctic yew]

I'd say it's not unreasonable to have that amount of deviation but for sure the pattern looks very odd. How many points did you take?

[vivid helm]

Your bed should be flat to within a single layer height. Ideally less than 20% of a layer height.

[keen raft]

It's a 20x20 grid

Here's a 50x50 after tensioning the belts a little more. I'd say they feel too tight, but the result does look a little better. And I did overcompensate the bad tramming 😉

[keen raft]

20% of a layer would be no more than 0.02mm, maybe even less. I doubt that's achievable on this printer. Even with a flatter print bed, the tramming probably won't get there.

[vivid helm]

Hmm that's about what mine is.

[keen raft]

Could also be pilot error 😛

[vivid helm]

Oh sorry .08
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/712207796120322118/1096926747615830076/image.png

Still less than half a layer though.

[keen raft]

I put on a 0.2 mm nozzle today. If it works well, I might try a 0.1 next, but that would reduce layer height to at most 0.05mm. I think that would really push this printer to the limit. The stock bed certainly won't get to this level of precision, apparently. Maybe I can replace the metal sheet with a glass plate to make it more even.

[vivid helm]

What are you trying to print that would need that much detail?

Because .05mm is getting into the realm of SLA.

[keen raft]

Need... nothing actually. I just think it looks nicer 🙂

[vivid helm]

Print time loosely scales with volume, so it will take a very long time to print most parts.

[keen raft]

Yeah, but I'm not doing this commercially, so print times don't matter that much

[vivid helm]

Oh I'm just impatient and like to iterate my designs

[keen raft]

These are 20 point meshes, one on a cold bed and the other on a hot bed

(With different tramming)

[vivid helm]

Yeah you always want to probe hot.

[keen raft]

I'd say the large ripples in Y direction are somewhat permanent, but the smaller ones in X direction are worse when hot

Maybe that's just the way it is. I don't want to tighten the belts any further, they already give a tone when plucked.

[vivid helm]

Yeah, your bed will tend to warp when it heats up. You can try loosening the screws while hot, letting it settle, and then retightening it.

[vivid helm]

What frequency?

[keen raft]

155 Hz

[vivid helm]

That's very high. 90Hz would be more typical (although it can depend on the printer).

[keen raft]

It's an Ender 3 S1, probably won't require anything unusual

[vivid helm]

Does the E3S1 have a dual z drive?

[keen raft]

Yep

There might actually be a slight problem with the Z axis. The prints have very slight banding and the grease on the Z screws has a noticeable pattern. But it's not enough of an issue to troubleshoot and probably has nothing to do with the mesh

[vivid helm]

I wouldn't dismiss it that quickly.

[keen raft]

But a wobbly Z screw would most likely create a regular pattern across several layers and I'm not seeing that

[vivid helm]

Yeah, but I'm not convinced it's fully unrelated.

[keen raft]

This is the benchy I printed immediately after installing the new nozzle

You can see on the lower part that the banding really isn't that noticeable. The more interesting thing are these huge ridges 😉

But they all correspond with a feature on the model, so this is probably not a hardware issue

[vivid helm]

The giant ridges in the hull that look like layer shifts? None of those are in the model.

[keen raft]

I know

But they also aren't layer shifts, because they go all the way around

[vivid helm]

Could be related to cooling.

[keen raft]

Not really sure what to even search for. I'd guess it might be a slicer issue.

[vivid helm]

It's definitely not a slicer issue. If it were you'd see it.

[keen raft]

But the correlation between the features and the ridges is too strong to dismiss. That can't be coincidence, there must be some connection.

[vivid helm]

There is a connection, but it's not an issue with the slicer.

Benchy is a (light) stress test. It's meant to show issues.

[keen raft]

Well not as in "the slicer wants to print that", of course. But settings like printing the outside perimiters first or last can have an impact on such things

[vocal flax]

You have some high standards dude

I am not sure if most probes that repeatable

[vocal flax]

Sandpaper exists 😶

[vivid helm]

Whatever probe Prusa uses is pretty good.

[keen raft]

Pressure Advance is miscalibrated and there may be some slight overextrusion. The rest is... ok, I guess. Quite possible that the Z screws are a major contributor to the remaining wobble.

[keen raft]

Yeah, but I'd prefer not to use any 😛

[elder oxide]

I found this 3D scan of a GameBoy Advance shell. Not bad

[sand mountain]

Is blender worth learning for designing and printing ergonomic enclosures for projects? If not, what are some FOSS alternatives?

[iron remnant]

So, your three options are Blender, FreeCAD and OpenSCAD.

Blender is mostly about just editing meshes and it's not really intended for 3D printing but it works just fine for the purposes.

FreeCAD is mostly oriented towards duplicating the functionality of a "serious" CAD tool so it's actually pretty good for designing things you'd fab with traditional methods but it can work for 3D printing just fine.

OpenSCAD is a programming language for generating 3D models which can drive you up the wall or be just fine, but it also has a lot of higher functionality that make it easy to make chassis designs if you look at NopSCADLib

If you want it curvaceous, it'll probably be easier to get started in Blender.

[random urchin]

I use OpenSCAD for roughing out designs, and Blender for turning them into more organic shapes when required. I learned enough about Blender from a tutorial that had me create a glazed doughnut that I could at least manage the basics.

[shy kelp]

That said both freecad and openscad vs commercial alternatives are an eyesore
Rhino/grasshopper are cheap and have plenty of functions

[vocal flax]

Fusion 360 is free for hobbyist use

[iron remnant]

Oh, yah, like, I've spent a lot of time with Blender and FreeCAD and OpenSCAD for different projects and probably I'm just proving that Naomi Wu is right and we should all just get over ourselves and use TinkerCAD, LOL.

And one of my friends learned the heck out of Rhino and she loves it.

At least that doesn't have that weird "you are the product and AutoDesk will screw with you to wringle money out of your hide as they see fit" thing that free Fusion 360 has.

[shy kelp]

Small scale imperialism, lets all learn rhino
Anyhow that's mostly personal preference at the End of the day

[iron remnant]

Yeah, pretty much the open source model has not been very successful in any particular set of markets at making that which is not an eyesore with a coherent design.

[shy kelp]

Where I work they use bricscad which I personally hate, because it's like autocad but cheaper
Autocad itself is junk imao
I can't use rhino with it, because stuff gets broken

[iron remnant]

I used to work at a place with some Seimens NX obsessives.

[shy kelp]

So you end up taking measurements by hand of like 200 access points and wasting hours
While in grasshopper you could just make it in few minutes
Ah there's a grasshopper plugin, but it's broken

[iron remnant]

I dono, I feel like the CAD/CAM marketplace is due for a shakeup but I feel like all of the actual engineers are all like "WHO MOVED MY CHEESE" any time anyone tries to do something even vaguely cool.

Maybe KittyCAD.

[shy kelp]

i wish there was something similar to tinker cad but with more options

i like building something up with basic shapes

instead of draw a outline and extrude

[iron remnant]

I mean, you can kinda get the same sort of constructive geometry out of OpenSCAD, just with programming

[balmy pulsar]

Fusion was the shake up. It has done well to serve the people that would never (be able to) pay for mastercam, gibbs, catia etc... but it sorta has not made any dents in their sales either.

Youd have imagined it would have wiped them all out, but nope

[shy kelp]

Bah as I see they exploited the 3d printing hype to gain userbase, then limited the program
They're pretty known for it, like let everyone use their junk for a while then place gateways, like the endless fake student program

[balmy pulsar]

err

fusion isnt limited, its pretty full featured. not 100% on part wioth some others yet, but at only $450 or so a year, there is nothing else close.

The presonal version yes, they restrict and its annoying, but its free so, you cant whine too much

[shy kelp]

Once it was fully free, if my memory doesn't lie to me
Although I never liked it, so I didn't end up using it

[balmy pulsar]

solidworks with cam is still insanely prices

[balmy pulsar]

your mewmory lies to you.

it started as the "123" suite of software, which i guess was free, but largely useless

then adek rebuilt it into fusion for $300 a year for basic, and $1500 for ultimate, plus a personal edition which was mostly the same as the basic one. the CAM came from HSMworks which they bought and integrated. PReviously HSMworks was $7000

over time the ultimate went away, merged into the basic, with some optional add ons. the personal got more limited

not liking it is a different topic, which it probably which it didnt walk all over the existing expensive packages. people get adapted to software and do not want to change.

[arctic dragon]

Did something happen with the student program? I used it to great success back in the day and I think it still works with my .edu emails.

[balmy pulsar]

i dont know if its changes much recently.

the personal license evolved from the start up license, but they found people were abusing it (large companies using free version) so they basically separated out the free personal version.

[vivid helm]

Short version: engineers want to design things, not to muck with corporate bureaucracy and try to figure out how to get their software to launch.

[keen raft]

Just to follow up on my two issues from the other day: The Benchy looks fine when I slice ith with PrusaSlicer 2.5.0 instead of 2.6.0a6, so the rdges it must be related to that.

I've also installed a glass bed, thinking that maybe the metal bed was warped and my mesh now looks like this, which leads me to believe that this doesn't actually have anything to do with the bed itself. The wheels in X direction make exactly three revolutions to cover the distance, which corresponds with the 3 grooves in the mesh. Not sure why the one in the middle is deeper though. Also not sure what I could do about this.

[toxic kite]

if you want to ease yourself into OpenSCAD, blockscad3d.com uses a very similar engine and offers SCAD export

[vocal flax]

Get better wheels or install a linear rail. I remember seeing people installing mgn9 rails onto enders should be possible for yours too

[keen raft]

I've been looking into that for the last hour or so. My expectation was that if the wheels were flat or elliptic, the grooves would be in a different location if I rotate the wheels. That isn't the case though.

[vocal flax]

Good thinking, that's true

[small bay]

hey everyone. im gonna get some magnetic beds for me ender 3v2 from the creality store to replace the glass one. and there's a option for 3 or just 1. would it be better to buy the 3 pack and have backups or just the 1

[keen raft]

You mean the flexible PEI coated plate?

They can last for a bit if you're careful

[small bay]

i know thats why im asking

from the printer we have at school i can tell i dont need to change em like every month

but then again 3 for 30 bucks also seems like a good deal

[keen raft]

Only if you end up liking them! 😉

[small bay]

true true

[vocal flax]

does anyone know how to download fusion 360 shared design?

because i couldnt find any download icon

[balmy pulsar]

O_o

the free personal version does not allow sharing

you need the paid version to share projects with other peopel

[placid grail]

is a creality cr-x a decent choice along with solidworks indie ?

The filament for it seems to costs a lot though

[vocal flax]

I have education license

Almost the paid version

[balmy pulsar]

ah

hmmm

im not sure how that lic works.

[vivid helm]

Like I said in the other channel, Creality doesn't make good printers. They are popular because they are cheap. If you want something reliable, I recommend a Prusa, LDO Voron kit, or RatRig.

[hushed turret]

I got an ender 3 at the beginning of 2022, and after about 100 hours of futzing with it and not being able to get even a single good print, I sold it heavily discounted to a friend (who was aware of its issues and was okay with messing with it) and bought a Prusa (which worked out of the box, and has been amazing ever since). The time wasted on the Creality was a bigger loss to me than the higher cost of the Prusa.

[half dew]

My creality (Ender 5) printed amazing for a year or 2...then once things started going wrong it was an endless loop of fixing and replacing. My friend has a Prusa mk3 thats super consistent. I'm printing with a Bambu x1c these days and I don't even bother watching the first layer anymore. Its important to keep in mind that there are users of all these printers that have issues, though.

[placid grail]

I feel like something like that will costs over 1000$ especially if I have to import it to Canada

Id rather not have one that I have to solder either

but assembly is fine

[weary lichen]

At work we have a farm of Prusa Mk3S printers. They're solid. We do maintenance on a rotating 12-week schedule (each printer gets maintenance every 12 weeks) and they rarely need anything other than a good cleaning. Maybe a nozzle. Thermistor wires have broken, but Prusa knows how to make things easy to service.

If you can afford one, I would definitely recommend one.

[placid grail]

well for me the price is basically how many enclosures can I print before it costs less than having bought industrial high-grade enclosures at like 20$ each

Like so far that number is 65 (1000 eur ~ 1300 cad + taxes = 1500) (even more actually because of filament costs)

[vocal flax]

Creality is good modification printer. It's not a tool.

[placid grail]

yeah that's the thing to. It seems that some 3d printers like the elegoo mars are not classical 3d printer but are modeling printer and dont use normal filaments like other 3d printers

alledgedly they are more intended for printing modeling/sculpting renders than for says printing small parts to make a contraption

It's just that 2 years ago this same channel keep giving me coupons code for creality and telling me they were just 399$ etc 🤣 so Im kinda surprised

Id mostly use it to make custom enclosures with holders in them so I can hold sensors/mcu without needing to glue them/screw them / include space to glue a battery compartment make lego technic sized though plastic beams / gears etc (hopefully a base plate could carry 4-5 pounds) / panel-mount space thing by sliding them in etween two notchs / brackets / motor adapters. Im willing to forego a small level of detail as Im willing to hammer in an M2.5/M3 if needed . I have a makerspace with makerbots 3d printers and one with a huge 3 cubic feet industrial 3d printer so it would mostly be for says 15cm long things maximum otherwise Ill make a reservation for them.

I have limited space and this will go a counter when it uses near a smoke alarm

[arctic dragon]

Elegoo Mars is what is more commonly referred to as a resin printer. Instead of extruding filament the way a CR-6 or Prusa would, it cures a resin layer by layer using UV light and an LCD. These types of printers are great for high-detail models, and can definitely print pretty clean looking enclosures, but they come at the cost of having to safely handle uncured resin in setup and post processing. In case you’re not aware, all UV curable resins are quite toxic and release some nasty fumes you don’t want to be exposed to.

I really don’t think the creality printers are nearly as bad as everyone else says, but my background comes from the days of Anet and their actual fire hazards, not the golden child Prusa was, so my opinion is somewhat biased.

Creality printers are pretty capable printers, as long as some maintenance and learning is within your expectations. There are solid machines at almost every price point from as low as 200, so don’t let non-perfection make your decision too difficult.

[placid grail]

atm I have eyes on an elegoo neptune 3 pro

[elder oxide]

I have a Creality Halot One that has been pretty easy to work with

[placid grail]

I have the huge constraint of living in canada and bought several things from elegoo a find it to be a good value brand

[elder oxide]

For SLA

And I also have an Ender 3 Pro that’s been pretty easy to use

[arctic dragon]

With any resin printer, be aware of the need for a decent wash and cure station, and plenty of ventilation.

They’re fine printers with their own intricacies, but I want to make sure you’re not surprised by the hidden costs.

[placid grail]

sounds like resin isnt for me. Is resin some kind of P*** something ? Or PTFE / Petc is all filament ?

[arctic dragon]

Resin is its own thing, and doesn’t have a filament equivalent. Filaments are extruded from a hotend, so PLA, ABS, and PETG at all thermoplastics. Resin is cured, so they’re closer to some kind of epoxy than any of your traditional thermoplastics.

@placid grail If you know your price range and what you want to make, I’m sure we can suggest some decent options.

[placid grail]

The specific problem Im trying to solve is lack of access to something like mcmaston-carr in Canada and having to spend several hundreds on lego technic clones/construction system + all the time I spend wasting time on it . Also all the minimum order that make me add unnecessary stuff to orders. Also I'll probably only uses solidworks indie

[arctic dragon]

So you basically just want a lot of building blocks, but can’t afford to buy them in large enough quantities to justify a bulk order?

[placid grail]

well it's always the shipping and customs and dhl fee that kill me. That add like 50 to 200$ before I even add anything to the cart

let me grab a pic

This is what I wanted to get for the last 6 months. It's aluminum but being able to assemble things together allows for a lot of projects. But it went back in stock recently, costs 95$ shipping + customs fee + shipped from lithuania even if I order from robotshop canada since it is a marketplace item

[arctic dragon]

Some Lego technic parts are indeed printable, but relying on a 3d printer to mass produce pieces will likely drive you up a wall haha

[placid grail]

But that would be the type of things Id like to print

Also custom enclosures where I can snap in sensors in holders/plastic latch to easily slide them/out and make holes for the usb "debug port" and a sub-latch to hold panel mountings

[arctic dragon]

Printing custom enclosures is a fairly common use case for a 3d printer. For the construction sets, maybe not ideal, but it could work.

[placid grail]

Just having a decently though L-shaped printed brackets and generic stuff like this to affix things with m2/m3 standoffs would already help a lot

[arctic dragon]

It’ll be very time consuming to print a meaningful number of pieces, which at that point you’re more likely to simply print larger custom pieces instead

[placid grail]

Is it actually easier to say combine different parts using says the solidworks assembly tool and 3d print it at once vs printing separating parts and putting them together like a puzzle ?

[arctic dragon]

I think the budget printer of choice these days is the Kobra from Anycubic.

[placid grail]

Oh also very important

[arctic dragon]

I can’t speak for solidworks, but for most modeling software it should be fairly easy to join bodies.

[placid grail]

Im a newbie, not very confident with my electronics knowledge dont want to solder anything or assemblre a lot of small parts to be able oot use the printer

that's why I didn't get in the creality ender 3 pro wave a couple of years ago

Would like to avoid modding too but open-source software / lot of config would be nice

price range would be the neptune 3 pro to plus max I guess and available on amazon canada / digikey canada / manufacturer site shipping from canada. Very important I avoid customs fees

[arctic dragon]

Honestly, most printers don’t require assembling the small pieces anymore. Printers like the Ender 3 S1 should come with the electronics and frames somewhat preassembled.

Mostly plugging cables into connectors and tightening screws.

[placid grail]

been looking at this https://www.reddit.com/user/richie225/comments/rx4lyi/generic_fdm_recommendations/ so far and a couple of reviews from other sites for a couple of these.

Resuming printing / not having to wait 16 hours for a small enclosure would be great too

[arctic dragon]

I’ve heard pretty good things about the sv06. Most of the printers in the range you’re thinking are probably going to be pretty close to each other: autoleveling, magnetic PEI…

[placid grail]

Also like I said if I have something big / require lot of filament I can make a reservation for a sorta free commercial 3d printer. Just gotta wait and pay the 5$ fee

[arctic dragon]

I’d worry less about which one you want and consider which one is easier to get haha

[placid grail]

definitively elegoo always have stuff in stock had issues and they are great by email. But amazon.ca has a lot of them like the kobra and the kingroon and the sovol

but the elegoo doesnt have the plus in stock would have prefered it to the biggest plate that is on the max (otherwise they are all the same)

[arctic dragon]

If you’re really not into troubleshooting, Prusa’s reliability and support might be worth the extra 200 dollars, but otherwise you shouldn’t be too unhappy with anything in the kobra-sv06 range.

[placid grail]

225x225x240mm might be something I might regret later

so I would have prefer plus with about a 30% upgrade to the size of the plate for around 350x350x400mm

[arctic dragon]

If you’re okay with letting prints run overnight, sure, get a larder volume. Just be aware that bigger printers are actually harder to print fast with, due to the larger bed.

[placid grail]

seems that larger bed also means less print quality

the plus would have been between the max size bed and the highest print quality so good compromise

[arctic dragon]

Not necessarily, if you print slow enough you’ll get the same quality across the board.

[placid grail]

prusa arent easy to get in canada btw or Id have considered it

[arctic dragon]

It only makes a difference if you’re impatient

[placid grail]

saw one sus site selling it and that's it

basically they says This Product is ETL certified and in compliance with Canada Electrical Authority. which clearly shows they arent from Canada (it's called the CSA or Industry Canada). Also ETL is a self-certification

so sounds like a aliexpress clone reseller to me

[arctic dragon]

Digitmakers.ca? They do have a retail location, so I can’t imagine it to be aliexpress-level quality.

That being said, that’s not cheap haha

[placid grail]

You mentionned hidden costs earlier ?

[arctic dragon]

Oh that was for resin printers mainly

Filament printers mainly just need a printer and filament

Cheap nozzles will wear down over time, print beds may need replacing after significant wear, but the overall cost is mostly in material.

After the initial investment anyways

Cheaper printers may break and cost time and money to fix, but overall machines are fairly reliable these days

[balmy pulsar]

resins are usually some form of acrylate

[vivid helm]

More accurately, UV resin is a photopolymer. Liquid resin consists of the photopolymer "activator" suspended in a concoction of different monomers and a few other organic cells. When hit with UV light, the photopolymers bind with the other components and form a solid object.

[elder oxide]

Resin is good fun when you get the settings right

I, in a way, wish I would have got one sooner

[vivid helm]

I'm wanting to get rid of mine.

It's too much of a pain and I print mostly functional parts.

[balmy pulsar]

My friend ordered a 12k resin printer. Should be fun.

[vivid helm]

And smelly

And sticky

[balmy pulsar]

its in an industrial space

nopt the worst thing there

haha

[vivid helm]

Well that's good.

[vocal flax]

That looks like same class as creality printers. No real linear guides (linear rails or smooth rods) to speak of. It relies on v sigma extrusions and rollers which is inferior.

[vocal flax]

Sovol sv06 is pretty good. linear rails all along decent performance

[vocal flax]

Resuming generally doesn't really work in practice because when power goes out print most likely unstick from bed and loose it's position. In that case print remaining half and super glue it together. Which most printers should be able to do

[faint sky]

Get a beefy UPS for your 3D printers.

It can definitely help if you’re in an area prone to brown outs or short black outs.

[dense garnet]

What's a good fdm 3d printer for a classroom maker space environment?

[arctic dragon]

How old of kids are we talking here? Do you have your own projects planned for it or just want to provide another tool in an open design space?

This list of printers might be a bit dated, but it provides a pretty comprehensive overview of what printers are available for your classroom needs. I’d probably recommend you stay away from the Creality Ender 3 V2, as that price point has since been saturated by a large variety of better printers since.

https://all3dp.com/1/best-3d-printer-for-school-education/

Also worth consideration off my own knowledge are the Flashforge Creator Pro 2 and the BambuLab X1 carbon. Both are great, fully enclosed printers with solid performance for all ages.

[shy kelp]

Usually with 1k you can get printers that don't need costant troubleshooting
Under that, especially with those 200ish printer or less, it's always about that
In my experience

[dense garnet]

High School. I started with a couple Creality Ender 5's but have had nothing but trouble with them.

[arctic dragon]

The old Ender 5s? Yeah those guys can be questionable haha.

@dense garnet if you have the funds, consider https://www.matterhackers.com/store/c/education-bundles as well. Some of these come with curriculum materials, others are just a really good deal haha

[winged helm]

What causes bowing like this? Prusa Mk3S, prusament PLA from my dry cabinet, 0.3mm height, standard settings
This was the plate side down portio

[balmy pulsar]

whats the bowing? was that the surface on the plate?

peeling up off the bed?

[winged helm]

Yes peeling up

[arctic dragon]

Usually an issue of not enough bed adhesion. Typically the cooling fans are off for the first few layers, and turn on after the base is established. However, it’s pretty common for the first layer with cooling to shrink too much and pull the base away from the bed, causing a slight deformation.

[random urchin]

I usually get that with long, thin prints. The combination of low surface area on the sheet, plus the length tends to make curlung more likely. The factors involved are: 1) poor adhesion and 2) the printed plastic shrinking as it cools. You can try a few things to remedy this. A heated enclosure helps a lot, The plastic doesn't shrink as much. Products like BedWeld help to hold difficult parts in place while they're printing. You can also add "helper discs" to the ends of the print (using the slicer app), that will help hold down the part.

[arctic dragon]

If it’s an adhesion issue, make sure your bed is clean and your temperature is as you expect. If you’re not printing a part with significant overhang, you could also turn your part cooling down a bit.

And if you really don’t feel like troubleshooting the printer, brims and rafts are always valid workarounds.

[balmy pulsar]

bed adhesion but also just uneven cooling. normally not a big issue with pla on a heated bed, but if the print is solid and weird shaped it can peel. best solution is always to enclose the machine. but thats not always possible

[faint sky]

Uneven bed heating can cause it too. On my Ender 3 I noticed it’ll warp in the same spot on the bed regardless of what print i was throwing at it if the bed temp is barely too low. Easiest fix its to turn up the bed heat by 5-10C and turn down cooling. Temp ranges for both nozzle and bed also depend on filament type to help prevent warping.

Brims and rafts can help depending on the base area but are ultimately band aids for too low bed temp or too much cooling.

I’m just reiterating what Hem said though.

[hollow furnace]

Anyone know what's causing the crazy resin warping? Internals dimensions are okay.
https://twitter.com/JoshuaBeck7088/status/1667640100023566337?t=ZS61_1xFQ2K2a6OKdYXbBQ&s=19

Joshua Beck (@JoshuaBeck7088)

Hang on, I forgot to add the photos.
https://t.co/x1eZKMspjI
#3Dprinting

Twitter · Jun 10, 2023, 9:09 PM

[keen raft]

I'm trying to print these caps. Left one with my usual settings looks ok, but breaks between layers when the slightest force is applied. Right one is with +10°C and no cooling at all, looks impractically bad and still just barely holds together when bent. Thickness of the broken segments is 1.2mm. Both of these are Extrudr NX-2 PLA. Would this work better with another type of filament?

[vocal flax]

Here is a list of things I think that could make difference
Try lower temp (high temps sometimes make filament more brittle)
Increase flow if tolerances allow. (Squish layers so that they bind together better.)
Try faster minimum layer time if extruder can keep up (same idea as first point filament spends less time with heat)

[keen raft]

Mh, didn't think of heat as the problem, I'll try that! Thanks 🙂

[faint sky]

That type of design would break more easily than something injection molded yes. You might not need the cuts to go that far down. Might be able to get away with no cuts at all if it's a snap fit design.

If it's FDM printed the part will only be as strong as your layer adhesion, might still snap off anyway. Depends on the use case and how much torque is applied to a layer.

PETG can be more durable yet more brittle, it really depends on layer adhesion even with PETG.

overall PLA is the best material for most applications

[vivid helm]

PETG is less brittle than most other filaments, with the exception of TPU.

[faint sky]

PETG is an advantage only if your layer adhesion is very good and your speed is very slow to remelt a previous layer. PLA can have similar results, again strength with any material depends on layer adhesion.

For SLA.. I have no experience so if you're doing SLA that's out of my ballpark.

[keen raft]

Yep, they're FDM printed. These are plugs for connector sockets that have a groove at the bottom on the inside, which the cap is supposed to snap into, to keep a not-yet-implemented seal on the socket. Currently the design is an exact copy of the manufacturer's stock plugs. My thinking was that keeping the deep cuts would stretch the stresses over a larger area, because one major concern is that no part may break off under any circumstance while inside the socket. But you can literally put no pressure on them whatsoever, which was a bit of a surprise. And they're equally brittle all the way to the top, so reducing the cut would just make them break further up.

I've only ever used PLA, so not sure where the limits are with any of the materials. The dimensions are fairly small, after all.

It's definitely a layer adhesion issue though.

[faint sky]

Sounds like you might need to slightly adjust the design to compensate for a more brittle material than the OEM part.

[vivid helm]

SLA parts are very rarely more durable than FDM.

[faint sky]

Where each section is make a T junction to provide more lateral strength. That might help.

each tooth would end up looking like a T in a way.

[keen raft]

There may not be room for that, the connector looks like this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:6-pin_Lemo_connectors.jpg

[vivid helm]

Those parts though look to be sort of at the edge of what you can practically print. They might hold up with PCCF. Otherwise you may want to take a different design approach.

[faint sky]

ah if there's a center core yeah that's a tough one

[keen raft]

Yep

[vivid helm]

Another thing you can try is putting little slots or holes in the base between the vertical pieces.

[faint sky]

yeah you don't want it to be a ring to get stuck in there. make the cuts between them as small as possible. or maybe even reduce the amount of cuts to make each tooth bigger? not sure if that's possible inside that thing. the more surface area you can provide to the teeth the stronger the layer should be.

it's a mechanical part that will see some stresses. that's not an easy problem. not even sure if FDM would be a good answer for it.

[keen raft]

Continuous rings seem to work, I've seen other people use them. I just don't see them making everything watertight, which would be the only benefit of a new design, really

[faint sky]

and you need it water tight? yeah cast it in resin with a rubber o-ring.

[keen raft]

But then again, if a ring breaks off down in there, that's going to be pretty much impossible to get out

[faint sky]

use the OEM part, get some silicone for mold making. mold the part in silicone, remove it, cast it in resin.

[vivid helm]

Yeah or just get the OEM part.

[faint sky]

because FDM will absolutely not be water tight. solid resin is a better way to keep moisture or water out.

[vivid helm]

Well... unless you dip it in epoxy.

[faint sky]

that's a good idea, will add thickness to each part and might make each tooth bind together. it's something.

[keen raft]

Well, the device manufacturer claims water is not a problem with out without the cap, but I know from experience that sand and dust will be a problem, so that's what I'm aiming for.

[faint sky]

liquid electrical tape on the outside., slather it on.

[keen raft]

It's also a great learning experience to see what's possible, what isn't and to maybe buy my first spool of TPU to print the seal as well 😉

[faint sky]

TPU is a good idea, yup, didn't even think about that.

but TPU won't be water proof will still need a coating

[keen raft]

TPU might actually be the solution, doesn't that have great layer adhesion?

[faint sky]

depends on your printer 😉

[vivid helm]

I recommend Polymaker TPU95-HF. The stuff prints like a combination of PETG and PLA, but has the properties of TPU.

[faint sky]

your layer adhesion is a personal thing between you and your printer 😛

[vivid helm]

TPU has very strong adhesion yes.

[faint sky]

depends on the TPU too there are many different varieties and I've tried none of them.

[vivid helm]

As a general rule though TPU has strong adhesion.

[keen raft]

I'll have a look at that. 95A, I'm assuming from the name? Is that soft enough to make a seal?

[keen raft]

Currently not adhering to standards, I'd say 😄

[vivid helm]

Should be

[vivid helm]

It also has strong adhesion to the nozzle and print bed. Make sure you use a textured sheet and have a brass brush on hand.

[keen raft]

I've just fallen in love with my new glass bed, is that ok?

Has some fancy extra special nondescript surface treatment on it

[faint sky]

as long as a printer isn't on fire everything is fine.

[keen raft]

I've got PEI sheets as well as an alternative

[faint sky]

good luck 🫡

[vivid helm]

It's fine if you want the bed to be permanently attached to the part.

[vivid helm]

You'll need a decent layer of glue stick at minimum unless the sheet is textured.

[faint sky]

don't rip it off with petg. tpu should be fine. if it sticks and won't come loose can always put the bed in the freezer (after it fully cools down), to get it unstuck.

people do the same thing to remove candle wax from glass. stick it in the fridge or freezer for a little bit it'll come right off.

[keen raft]

Maybe I'll throw an old PEI sheet on to try it out then, just to be safe 😛

[vivid helm]

Yeah that's a good idea

[placid grail]

so I went and got a 3d printer... supposed to get it today but i hasn't shipped yet so I dunno so I can still cancel it if you guys are convincing 🤣

[faint sky]

Congrats 🎉 I recommend you watch as many youtube videos about how to use your specific model of printer as possible.

[placid grail]

I cant have ABS in my small room(toxic fumes apparently and I lack ventilation) but Im so confused if PLA can do if it has a bigger fill rate etc

Like I mostly want to do lego technic like beams/L-brackets/screw sizes converters etc

[vivid helm]

I recommend PETG. It's soft enough to self-tap screws and it has better temperature resistance than PLA.

[placid grail]

how dioI know if a random petg filament roll will fit the 3d printer ? printer maker dont sell petg or anything else than pla filament

[vivid helm]

What printer is it?

[vocal flax]

@keen raft try printing your part horizontal than vertical with supports. it sounds counter intuitive but if it makes it manageable than doesn't work that's a progress.

[vivid helm]

As a general rule most machines take standard spools of 1.75mm filament. Personally I recommend Polymaker.

[placid grail]

An elegoo neptune 3 pro

I can still cancel like I said 🤣

[vivid helm]

Honestly I don't know much about it, but I think elegoo might be one of the better cheap brands.

[placid grail]

yeah that is usually my experience with them that is why I took a risk on a east asian brand

the was also a socol at close price range and a kingroon but the kingroon is too small. prusa costs too much and dont seem to ship from canada without customs costs

[vivid helm]

I've heard good things about sovol

But yeah elegoo should be ok

[keen raft]

Also a good idea!

[vocal flax]

Depending on the model I'd prefer kingroon but elegoo is a totally fine choice.
Ps. Not implying you to change. It's debatable if the cantilever printer with linear rails is better than fully warping around the frame.

[placid grail]

I had self-tapping screws in mind as it seems making screws with 3d printing is bad. Also I prefer to have a smaller circle on the print and force a screw in rather than having a circle that is too big. Im gonna need a bunch of 2-56 adapters too..

[placid grail]

the kingroon is too small it can print like 60mmx60mm

[vocal flax]

And recently sv06 intrigues me because it's basically a cheap version of prusa with limited community and support

[placid grail]

And I want to make 200mm ish enclosures

also Im really bad at assembly dont want anything requiring hardware modding/soldering

Like last time I had a drone to assemble it ended up looking like a battlemech with fans as weapons on the arms

[vocal flax]

Yeah size is a big constraint for some people. I think everything I do can be done with voron 0 or similar sized bed. 😄

[placid grail]

yeah a shame voron and prusa cant ship from canada

it has shipped 16 minutes ago so Im stuck with it

[vocal flax]

You might have benefited from something a little more expensive but it'll be fine if you are willing to practice some maintenance.

[placid grail]

can I put it on a wood desk or that need some mat for the heat ?

[vocal flax]

You don't need anything, but some isolation layer is beneficial for acoustics

I put 2 slices of big cork and fairly heavy marble piece then printer on top

Reduces echoes from coupled noise

[keen raft]

I actually put mine on the floor to reduce noise and vibrations.

Not the most space efficient solution though 😉

[placid grail]

was planning to put it on a counter but someone borowed my tape and I think it wont fit under a cabinet. Also the fans are there so probably too close to wood anyway

[vivid helm]

Yes, that's why you want to be using PETG. PLA will crack.

[balmy pulsar]

or use heat set inserts

screws in most plastics, printed or otherwise are poor

[vivid helm]

Heatset inserts are nice, but can be overkill. If you're not going to be repeatedly screwing and unscrewing self-tapped threads are fine.

[half dew]

I mostly use heatset inserts aesthetically. They look cool

[placid grail]

Polymaker PETG Filament 1.75mm, 1kg Strong PETG 3D Printer Filament Black - PolyLite PETG Black 3D Printing Filament 1.75mm, Dimensional Accuracy +/- 0.03mm, Print with Most 3D Printers looks fine ?

[vivid helm]

Yeah I buy that stuff like 4kg at a time.

[placid grail]

does 3d printing transparent/clear filament works ? google speaks about PLA and PMMA (not sure my printer can use these). Reddit says it looks bad and to use resin or epoxy

like for LCDs/leds in the weather

[vivid helm]

It can work for some parts with enough post processing. My experience has been that it's a pain.

Using a printed part to make a silicone mold and then pouring epoxy will likely work better.

[iron remnant]

So, there are certain filaments that work... well, better?

[vivid helm]

Yes, but your parts will not come off of the printer transparent.

[iron remnant]

Clearly.

There's kind of an axis. On one side, acrylic or glass. On the other, white. For LEDs in the weather, you might reach a happy point where it's clear enough to look cool. For LCDs in the weather, probably not.

[vivid helm]

PETG has decent UV resistance and can be fairly clear.

PVB is similar to PLA but can be smoothed with alcohol.

[iron remnant]

Ugh, OK, I was trying to post links but I hit the spam filter.

[placid grail]

yeah that was weird lol I was tryuing to read and the text kept moving up and down 🤣

[iron remnant]

Basically, for LED stuff, I tend to treat clear PETG (or PETT or PCTG) as a semi-diffusion material to make the LED look less LED-ish.

And I had to spend a lot of time making it look more diffuser-ish and less clear for the clip-on bits I've got on my bookshelves because part of the goal was to not look at the bookshelves and have my retina fried by looking at the COB strips.

Here's two links:
https://blog.prusaprinters.org/3d-printed-lens-and-other-transparent-objects_31231/
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/15310-how-to-print-glass

[placid grail]

can you 3d print some kind of nooks/crannies/pockets to put/slides in sensors and MCUs in instead of using screws in an enclosure or that wont work as well as I imagine ?

what about long hollowed cylinder to pass a wire to avoid a wires spider ?

[iron remnant]

So, making nooks and crannies to slide sensors in requires that you actually model the part to enough fidelity that you can slide it in? Calipers help!

Basically, a loose fit that you use a screw or two to keep it stationary is much more quickly achievable than a friction fit.

Oh, also, while it's in my head, as per the past discussion, I've been doing a lot with nut-holders such that I can slide a nut in and it'll hold it mostly stationary while I screw in a screw. That has much of the advantages of heat-set inserts without requiring the heat set inserter thingie.

[placid grail]

solidworks annoy me a bit cant pay for a yearly sub for some reason

[arctic dragon]

This is actually not totally true, tapped screws actually have slightly more if not comparable strength to that of heat set inserts. Threaded inserts are ideal for screws with intent to unscrew and rescrew multiple times, but the remelting of the thermoplastic actually reduces its strength by a significant amount.

Depending on geometry, there’s also the option of slotting or embedding metal nuts in prints. If you can pause your prints at the right layer, you can press fit nuts mid print.

[balmy pulsar]

remelting a print will usually increase its strength by a large margin as it will make layer cohesion better.

im not sure how you figure a tiny threaded screw in plastic is as strong as a melted in large diam insert (which takes the same tiny screw in it)

[arctic dragon]

Hm, I guess the polymer chains don’t degrade that fast. I remember someone doing a stress test and showing pretty similar results, but I guess the type of screw and the filament itself matter too.

Never mind me…

[balmy pulsar]

petg does degrade on remelting, but not enough to be relevant in this case.

[vivid helm]

https://youtu.be/iR6OBlSzp7I

Stefan tested it. Strengths are comparable IIRC. Each approach has its own set of benefits and drawbacks.

[placid grail]

eh never thought of using an iron to heat up a screwdriver to make holes for screws 🤣

I wonder if it would work for my mean zumo 32u4 and its 2-56 holes 🤣

[vivid helm]

What you're referring to is called annealing, and it usually consists of heating the print up just beyond the Tg of whatever material you are using and baking it at that temperature for awhile. With heatset inserts you usually run your soldering iron at the hotend temperature. Done repeatedly that can probably degrade the material.

[placid grail]

Im mostly interested in lego technic like parts and tamiya like universal carrier plate so they would be like 2-3mm thin max

so too thin to do this or to uses a power drill to make holes

Im just going to have to use a screw and hammer it in to make the hole then force screw it in

finding the correct screw pattern in a hole to pre-print the correct threads seems difficult/unnecessary

[vivid helm]

For small screws there's no need to bother modeling the threads. You just need to put in a slightly undersized hole (for example I use 2.8mm hole to self-tap M3 screws).

[placid grail]

not bad for the thickness Im planning

13 pounds weight on PLA/PETG/"strong resin"

Seems like PETG hard to print, adheres to bed, stringify etc seems you need to tune up on most printers for it to work

[vivid helm]

PETG isn't too difficult.

"Tough resin" would be printed from an SLA machine, which is totally different.

[placid grail]

what's with that little mship everybody seems to print anyway 🤣

[vivid helm]

mship?

[placid grail]

Like on most 3d printing tuts I check online or videos there is a little ship like this somewhere in the suggested videos / test for the 3d printer etc. Is it like a 3d printing meme or something ?

Ive seen it like 10 times so far in 20 websites/videos since yesterday. Most common it is gray

[vestal thicket]

It's a Benchy and used to test how accurate your printer is

[vivid helm]

http://3dbenchy.com/

[placid grail]

does it serve as some kind of communication device when talking about 3d printers in a maker space or something ? Like instead of saying your issue / printer specs you show your best benchy and it tells the other person everything they need to know ?

[vivid helm]

The website covers it.

But if you really want to do meme prints...
https://www.printables.com/search/models?q=rock

[placid grail]

been reading about g-codes today as well like changing the filament to have more than one layer of color

[vivid helm]

For the most part your slicer will handle that.

[placid grail]

what do you mean? My 3d printer dont support 2 filaments installed at the same time so it would have to pause and I would have to switch it manually. firmware that come with it dont support pause either

[vivid helm]

Ok that's kinda weird. You may want to see if there's a community Marlin build.

[placid grail]

are cardboard petg filament that bad ?

[vivid helm]

Cardboard spools from decent manufacturers aren't bad. I recommend Polymaker and PrintedSolid.

[placid grail]

I did look at a polymaker one but one reviewer said to pick plastic ones: "My only problem with this PETG is that it comes on cardboard spools. I only purchase this product when I cannot find the color I want from another brand wound onto a plastic spool. I have to rewind every spool of this to a plastic spool in order to use it in my Bambu Labs Carbon X1 or the AMS gets filled with cardboard dust. This would be my go to brand for all my PETG needs if it came on plastic spools as it prints so nice." .

[vivid helm]

Everybody has been moving to cardboard spools because it's much less wasteful (you can't really recycle the plastic spools). Polymaker has some of the better ones.

[placid grail]

what about the filaments and misprint ? will they get reused / recycled / made into filament when sent back ?

[vivid helm]

A few places do it. Not sure if there's one in Canada.

[balmy pulsar]

not it is not what i am referring to.

[balmy pulsar]

Not so much accuracy, but a part that tests many abilities of the printer and slicer at once. bridging, overhangs, etc. And it looks cooler than a box 😛

[iron remnant]

Understanding all of the different properties of plastics will bring anyone to their knees.

Hence.. annealing.

[balmy pulsar]

go stand in the corner

[vocal flax]

I like the rock duck

[arctic dragon]

Sounds like something specific to BambuLab. If you use an external spool holder I wouldn’t worry about this.

[faint sky]

Benchy is a good first print but you have to know how to interpret the results. A calibration cube is also a good first print testing for dimensional accuracy. There are more advanced dimensional accuracy tests you can do.

This one looks pretty good for testing your axis accuracy after initial build. https://www.printables.com/model/164018-xyz-dimensional-accuracy-calibration

You'll want a set of good accurate calipers for dimensional accuracy tests. You measure everything and compare it to what the model should be. Can help you account for thermal expansion offsets too.

and if you're running Cura there's an excellent built-in plugin called "Calibration Shapes".

calibration shapes includes things like flow test, tolerance test, temp tower, fan tower, retraction tower. all things you'll need to fine tune your printer.

[vocal flax]

looks pretty wasteful 😶

[balmy pulsar]

how so?

you need a reasonable sized object to check pricision and squareness

[placid grail]

Im just gonna print lego technic like things till they comes out fine 😄

Dont really care if a miniature comes out ok or not

got the test filament before the 3d printer 🤣

[placid grail]

and obtained it but I cant really install it at the moment

[faint sky]

proceeds to print a large model and ends up with spaghetti... but the lego was fine.

[placid grail]

My new kitty

[faint sky]

a bed leveling print is also handy. it's never wasteful if it's for calibration.

Here's a bed leveling print by Prusa. You might need to scale it to fit your printer. https://www.printables.com/model/36706-bed-level-test

Now let's see a pic after it's setup. One step at a time.

building is actually the easy part. calibration can take longer and more effort in some ways.

[placid grail]

oh cant I check with a spirit level/bubble level ?

[faint sky]

no, leveling really means tramming so the bed surface is perfectly perpendicular to the gantry.

has nothing to do with actual spirit leveling

you can print on a 45 degree angle if you want as long as the bed is perpendicular... and there are actually 3D printers out there which do that.

i think the creality print mill is best known for that

some people actually mount them to the wall

[placid grail]

I have to learn a 3d cad now too 😦

thats the hidden cost of all this

I say 😦 because solidworks/pro-creo/autocad was one of the last class before I failed in engineering due to the maths

|- Manual says "In case of emergency, please cut off the power directly" - OK 🤣 But more seriouslyhow many amps are these things ? says 24V in the manual but not the amps

and need to know to install it on counter

[balmy pulsar]

O_o

10 amps

[vocal flax]

For 24v models should be around 10 a at full load but generally speaking you only have full load for a 3 to 5 minutes

[vivid helm]

Yeah generally speaking unless you're running at high speeds peak power will be while both the hotend and bed are initially warming up.

[placid grail]

10 amps / 240W is ok for a counter socket

Just didnt want a 3k W thing on my counter landlord told me several types that counter sockets arent full amps like the wall ones (but it doesnt sounds right but anyway...)

[vivid helm]

Might have smaller breakers, but generally speaking 3d printers won't draw too much.

Granted, they'll still draw several hundred watts at least while running.

[placid grail]

I have 3 sockets and 2 are wired together so I use the 3rd one for higher load

I feel comfortable arguing they should follow the code and not blame me for their shoddy work in front of tenants court if they throw a fit about the 3rd one on such a small load

but on the 1st and 2nd one especially that it is wired to neon lights I can understand a lot of amp capacity is taken

[balmy pulsar]

code right now is silly for sockets. almost everything needs independant breakers and afci

blah

(im wiring a bedroom this week)

😛

also your 15A breaker is not actually rated for 15A continuous. only 12

(fuses are actually 15)

[placid grail]

code basically says that if there is a socket it should have a minimum capacity

[balmy pulsar]

and at 15A the wire, plugs, etc can heat up to 90c. so that's a bad idea as well for long duration.

[placid grail]

As the tenants or house owners shouldnt be expected to be electrician to understand their sockets

[balmy pulsar]

no

[placid grail]

So they tell me the counter sockets are different and I shouldnt use them even if Im very far from the minimum 30A@120V

[balmy pulsar]

but the point is, 15A is the trip limit, but in most cases, if you have a device that runs for a long time (hours or days) you want to stay well under that limit

counter sockets?

like in a kitchen?

those are 20A usually. with a special shape.

and required to all be independant of each other

(they never are though cause people do silly things)

mine are cause they are new.

ive seen 30A 110 fuses, but im not sure what they are used for except direct wired things (radiators etc)

electricity is fun! :x

[placid grail]

they connected two of them together on the left side along with neon lights

[balmy pulsar]

ooh. thats not allowed. oh well

[placid grail]

and neon lights are usually very high voltage and a lot of amps initially for the starter in the ballast

[vivid helm]

I would report it.

[placid grail]

I tried to explain to them that if a socket cant handle 15A because something is wired to it in the walls that's against the code

[balmy pulsar]

not worth it. old wiring is grandfathere din unless its actually unsafe

[placid grail]

and they cant threaten to kick out a tenant because they didnt know their landlord isnt following the code

nah building was built in 2019

[balmy pulsar]

O_o

ok, thats needs to be redone by their original contractor under warranty

unelss some idiot did it on their own in between

anyhow

my condo was full of electrical mistakes

washer and dryer on same circuit etc

most of the plugs were half wired as some sort of cheat (only one socket on the outlet worked, the second was dead)

[placid grail]

it seems they dont actually have much electrical knowledge

[balmy pulsar]

they dont need to. they just need to get the person who did it to fix it

[placid grail]

like less time they didnt like I had my computer speakers/screen/computer/external hard disk on the same outlet so I did the calculations and Im way down vs 1800W

[balmy pulsar]

code changed in 2020 as well. so some new things dont apply

[placid grail]

And I was like huh, that is how a normal person plugs a computer...

[balmy pulsar]

like afci

[placid grail]

canadian code in my case but still

[balmy pulsar]

in any case. your printer does not use much power.

[placid grail]

very similar to the american one since we are stuck with your electrical stuff/standards 🤣

[balmy pulsar]

im in canada. dont accuse me of being american. thats rude.

😛

but the code is mostly the same. 2020 revision kinda unified them

which is why i am annoyed. giant electrical panels and $100 outlets.

grrr

[placid grail]

who should I report it to anyway? tenants court ? provincial engineering association ?

[balmy pulsar]

err

[vivid helm]

Whoever enforces the electrical codes.

[balmy pulsar]

ESA https://esasafe.com/assets/files/esasafe/pdf/Business_Property_Owners/ESA_Aging_Tenant_Factsheet.pdf

but decide first if its worth the fight.

[placid grail]

oh there is a trick with that - I learned with age it's better if someone else pick the fight

like if I have an issue with a shop it's better if my credit card company handles it

and if I think something is unsafe in my apartment better to let my huge insurance company with an army of lawyers handle it

[balmy pulsar]

yes, but worst case you are frowned at by the owner of the shop

messing with landlords can be quite bad

suddenly they will tell you they need the unit for personal use

[placid grail]

yeah mine dislike me already and Ive been here since the building been built

every time there is an issue in my apartment (like their aliexpress range hood blows up) they try to imply I messed with the electricity because they know I do electronics or I dont connect things correctly to the sockets etc

but that is their management, when their handyman comes he is quite happy I have almost everything he needs and he dont have to constantly go back to his truck

[balmy pulsar]

is this a large corporate building?

[placid grail]

not sure what you mean exactly but it is owned by shell company for a REIT on the toronto stock exchange

Like I have to open a ticket with a third party to get repairs and they uses a costly middleware to send/receive emails

[balmy pulsar]

yes. i mean not owned by an individual condo unit owner. a "real" apartmentr

[placid grail]

yeah it's condos for rent/apartment

[balmy pulsar]

its one or the other. not both

[placid grail]

Well not sure what it the correct word, but they basically built condos and rent them. So condos-style apartment for rent . I have marble counter in the bathroom/granite in the kitchen/italian shower and bathroom etc. that's why I tolerate it pretty much what I always dreamed off

[balmy pulsar]

in condos each unit is owned by a different person, and they are the ones responsible for everything

[placid grail]

Anyway we are getting a bit offtopic but at least Ill disconnect my laptop on my inside exterior wall socket when using the 3d printer

so they dont whine about it

[balmy pulsar]

ha

[placid grail]

I can explain more about what I live in in #general-chat if you want 😄