help-with-3dprinting

[iron remnant]

That beefy module looks interesting but the reviews on that specific vendor are bad, but it's amazon, so yay whateves.

Like, there's only so many ways to build a simple switchy thingie that doesn't have too many performance requirements in terms of switching fast or handling super-high voltage.

[gloomy anchor]

what do you guys think of a printer like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001412815588.html

im mostly looking for something that can print things out relatively fast and require low maintenance. What kind of price range would you recommend?

[arctic dragon]

Honestly, my impression on these things are basically gambling. If it works, it'll probably do just fine. If it breaks, good luck fixing it. Treat these guys as a consumable that will only last so long before the whole thing needs to be outright replaced.

Something in the 200-300 price range will at least be maintainable, though you may have to go higher if you want something reliable and easy to use straight out of the box.

If you're simply looking to print stuff without any of the technical tinkering efforts, Flashforge might be a good place to start?

[gloomy anchor]

ah that sounds right from the reviews ive seen. Would you say something like https://3dprintersonline.com.au/creality-ender3-s1-3d-printer/ is pretty fair?

[gloomy anchor]

thanks i'll take a look at them

[vestal thicket]

If you get an Ender, prepared to learn as much about its hardware as you will about 3d printing in general. 🙂

That was the advice i was given when I bought my Ender 3v2 6 months ago, and they were right.

[arctic dragon]

Creality Ender3 is solid thanks to its community support, but it does take some assembly IIRC.

[vestal thicket]

Absolutely agree - you can find almost anything you need help wise

[arctic dragon]

Not the low-maintenance printer you'd expect to be perfect out of the box, but a fine machine.

[gloomy anchor]

hmm so what about flashforge's community? Is it as good as enders?

[arctic dragon]

Probably less so, but it's a closed unit so there are a lot less people looking to make modifications to their Flashforge printers compared to Creality. Different sort of mentality there.

[gloomy anchor]

since enders are pretty easy to get on amazon, i might just go for it. I want to learn more about 3d printers in general too. Though a lot of things can also be done with cnc for subtractive

[gloomy anchor]

ah i see

[vestal thicket]

If you do get an Ender, check ou the BV3D channel on YouTube, Bryan does a lot of Ender 3 videos, they're good

[quaint torrent]

I currently have ender 3 I think it is good 3d printers for beginners it's cheap, easy to learn and modify. there are tons of mods out there for this printer and only thing that you need to worry about is hot end and when you assemble the printer make sure the frame is level

Thingiverse has lots of mod files to print only thing that you need slice it on Cura and print

[iron remnant]

This is the list that the 3D Printing discord uses as the default "What printer to buy?" question: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QjCOsMmEbKsQXktG-MrRGlfk_lk5pMwYuc7GaMYguNg/edit#gid=1788915849

I kinda suspect we're starting to see some Ender 3 alternative printers on the marketplace more recently.

The good thing about the Ender 3 is that there's a lot of community support, interesting mods, et al. The bad thing about the Ender 3 is that it kinda requires you that in order to be a useful printer.

There's also the Prusa printers which are more carefully oriented towards less messing around, at a much higher cost.

[vestal thicket]

@iron remnant May I ask which Discord server that is? I'd be interested in joining it, but a few different ones come up when I search

[iron remnant]

DM'd it to you given that I think invites are removed by the bot, LOL.

[vestal thicket]

👍

[spring herald]

hi! so

3d printed hinges

how reliable are they

i'd like to model a box without having to like

use much glue or screws

im using a prusa i3mk3s for reference, so i think the printer can make them reliably?

[oak heart]

Do you have a more specific question? I’ve had no trouble with moving print-in-place stuff myself.

[spring herald]

yeah that's fair, i guess im like

trying to figure out whether i should spend the time to sit and model them if they're gonna be brittle and break

I'd want to design something that can swing back to a certain point and then stop and support like, a 5" screen

but is that possible with PLA+, or am i better off looking into a different solution than print in place hinges

im mostly asking because a similar project uses a lot of separate pieces and i dont want to spend a lot of time and energy making this if it isn't feasible

[oak heart]

I’d recommend borrowing an existing hinge design if you can

I will say I’ve found PETG to be all but necessary for hinges that snap together as opposed to being print in place

(I’ve only tried PLA and PETG; can’t speak to other filaments)

[spring herald]

that's fair, i have a roll of PETG that i (think) is fine for printing

[iron remnant]

Hmmm.

So, getting the whole design together with print-in-place hinges can be a real pain.

You probably want to know about this: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/120766-print-in-place-geared-hinge

If you want to make a laptop-y thing, the swing-back-and-stop thing is a little tricky.

The part you are looking for is a friction hinge and I've not seen anybody as yet demonstrate a print-in-place friction hinge.

[carmine peak]

every time I print something on my brand new PEI bed, permanent marks are left

should I worry about this?

i've tried using alcohol to get them off.

Also, using a spatula to remove the prints leaves scratches

[stoic echo]

which bed did you get?

[stoic echo]

this is normal, and you shouldn't use a spatula or anything metal on that bed, if you are having trouble getting the print to detach, and you have a magnetic bed, you can remove the PEI surface and bend it slightly to make the print pop off

I use this one, and it's fantastic:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PFHBR2D

[carmine peak]

Alright. How do I damage control?

I got the Creality magnetic PEI bed

its basically a cheaper quality version of yours. Spring steel.

[stoic echo]

the one I have was $14.99 when I bought it

😄

[carmine peak]

well by cheap i mean quality

[stoic echo]

"supply chain problems" and "material shortages"

as if they actually stopped the mines in China 😄

[carmine peak]

the creality one is like 40$. I guess im paying for the convenience of them being readily availiable in a store

[stoic echo]

wow

OK, so best way to clean a PEI bed is with warm water and soap, and then you can blow-dry it gently.

obviously don't use anything that will snag on the bed, like cloth or paper, I usually just wash my hands with soap and then rub some alcohol on them to get rid of as much oils as possible, then I scrub Dawn and water with my fingertips on the PEI surface.

[carmine peak]

dang, my plan was to use a washcloth

[stoic echo]

it'll snag on the PEI surface... it's basically heavy grit sandpaper 😄

[carmine peak]

how often should I do this?

after each print?

[spring herald]

PEI is kinda

well you wanna wash it every time you touch it to be honest

ur biggest enemy is grease

acetone might be good but if you use it too much it'll ruin the sheet

i've heard the best way to clean it is like

lots of dish soap, and hot water

dunk no scrub

[stoic echo]

Thanks for Bee-splaining what I just said. 😄 You can safely rub it with your fingers, though... just don't use like something with bristles or whatever.

[oak heart]

The bottom part of this vase mode print is sagging significantly - about a finger’s width. Does that seem like a part cooling issue?

[carmine peak]

what's a good 5015 part cooling duct that won't break while I remove support material from it?

its getting ridiculous

[spring herald]

hey

so

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/888037322568896576/952376853165932585/unknown.png

how bad of an idea is this

i can print this in a lab where it should, ideally, not be touched or interfered with

and im using a Prusa i3mk3s

[stoic echo]

Personally... I would not dare do that. It's a time-consuming print, and there are so many factors that can affect how the scaffolding behaves... any gusts of air or changes in temperature can make spaghetti out of that in no time at all.

I would look into splitting it up and using joiners to make pretty seamless joints between the parts

for instance, with OpenSCAD, you could use https://github.com/revarbat/BOSL/wiki/joiners.scad

I am not sure what you have at your disposal in your CAD app of choice.

[spring herald]

im working in fusion 360 for this

[stoic echo]

Not sure what Fusion has available. Maybe someone else knows.

[spring herald]

see i did make the model with splitting it in mind for the most part, but then someone in the lab suggested i just alter the print rotation and see what happens

[stoic echo]

but, yeah, that part is taking up pretty much the entire build plate, and unless it's 100% level, it's going to be gnarly trying to get it to print right

it would require constant attention and manual adjustments to nozzle offset and whatever

See what happens... "Just print this 3 day part and see what happens!"

[spring herald]

well we have 3 decent printers in the lab, i guess it's not a huge concern and they probably wanna use it as a stress test, knowing them

[stoic echo]

and supports are weebly-woobly as it is, and to make them that tall... hic sunt dracones

I mean, if you don't have to pay for material or really care, go for it. I would not try it myself, with my own printer.

[spring herald]

yeah that's fair, honestly just not having to glue it together is the most tempting part of all of this

[stoic echo]

To me, that takes a back seat to how long it takes to print, because reprinting is a sad affair and it always makes me annoyed.

so, the joiners that BOSL have available do not even have to be glued, they snap together

you can also elect to have screw holes to literally screw the parts together

[spring herald]

see this is the kind of thing i'd like to carry around as a unit and im a little worried about joiners just, snapping on me one day or something

[stoic echo]

aaah

[spring herald]

screws would be nice but i dont have any taps so it becomes an issue of like... hving to track down some self tapping screws

[stoic echo]

BOSL has screw modules that will create the thread for you

[spring herald]

honestly i don't think anything under an m5 is accurate enough

3d printing wise

[stoic echo]

I have had great success with PLA on an Ender 3 V2 down to M2.5

obviously not an option for you now, but I would recommend taking a look at OpenSCAD and the BOSL library (and others). They are amazingly easy to use when creating enclosures for 3D printing.

there's super easy ways to split parts up and add joiners and whatever as well

and the programmatic nature of OpenSCAD enables you to add a boolean to the customizer to select if you want the part split or not

[spring herald]

ooh actually

you mentioned enclosures

might be worth seeing if i can just. put a box over the printer

the windows are supposed to stay closed at all times buuut... just in case

[carmine peak]

I washed the everloving heck out of my PEI bed and there's still tiny bits of plastic that won't come off

Am i printing too close to the bed?

The first two layers are always transparent for me

[vestal thicket]

Yes

I highly recommend going through this: https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html

This page at the bottom has some great pictures of good and bad first layers: https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html#firstlayer

[spring herald]

hey does anyone know what would slicer settings would cause a printer to not push out the filament at the right rate?

whenever i slice in Cura i get a pretty perfect slice, but i know someone else who sliced in the Prusa slicer and had an issue where the filament just, wasnt coming out of the hotend properly

tested it on the day of too and it was definitely a slicer issue

[empty sedge]

Filament diameter? Flow rate?

[oak heart]

@spring herald I think this one’s for you

[spring herald]

oop I have no idea, can’t check right now sorry !

[undone raft]

Hi everyone! So this isn't 3D printing but it's somewhat related imo haha. I got access to the laser cutter at my school and I'm going to design a new chassis for a robot I'm working on so that I don't need to use ducttape to hold to imu, rpi, etc in place haha. I'll leave a picture of what it looks like right now. First question: should I make a completely new chassis or build something to put on the existing one? And second question: laser cutting (never worked with it before) cuts (well technically 3D objects) but like I can't really cut something like I would print something with a printer you know? So does anyone have some tips for how to build a chassis with a laser cutter then? How do I hold the "walls" on the "floor" or how do I make something to make wires go through or to screw my rpi in. But mainly the walls and floor thing, not sure what to call it but like how would I use these 2D (not really but hey) parts to make a 3D robot? Thank you so much in advance! I need to catch a deadline and could use any help haha, I'm going to sleep now though so that's why I may not respond, any resources or tips are welcome :)

[thin breach]

Design a totally new chassis. Wires go through: round holes. Screw in: round holes, tight fit. Search Amazon for little robot designs; they all look laser cut. You usually don’t need walls. Use standoffs to get vertical separation/support if needed.

[sacred hamlet]

if you have access to a press break you can bend walls after you laser cut the chassis pattern

[arctic dragon]

If not, you could also 3d print some right-angle brackets and secure with screws?

[muted cloak]

anyone know anything about usb-c otg adapters? got one to try setting up octo4a with a cheap tablet, but charging doesn't work with the tablet. If I connect to my phone instead, charging works, data appears to work. With tablet, charging doesn't, and data only works if charging cable is disconnected.
Tablet may not be capable of running a print anyway, so don't want to keep buying adapters hoping to find one that works.

[undone raft]

Yeah, a completely new chassis seems to be easier for the wires and rpi than adding one to the existing haha. Searching Amazon is a great idea! I may get some inspiration from it haha I didnt even think of not using walls, thanks for the advice :)

[raven coral]

What are the most common things that are broken which cause my 3d printer tool heating element not to work

Because due to static electricity I might have fried something

Can the heating element itself die from static electricity

[raven coral]

Oh god i somehow fixed it by unplugging and plugging back in the heating element

[oak heart]

When I hit enter, I'd expect it to delete the selected vertices, but instead, it hangs for a bit with the menu open, then the menu closes and the selected vertices are still there but deselected now. I'm getting this behavior with both Blender 3.1.0 and 2.93.8 on Windows 10, so I suspect I'm doing something wrong but I have no idea what. Any suggestions?

[haughty thistle]

does anyone know if the Semitec 104NT thermistor (e3d thermistor https://e3d-online.com/products/thermistor-cartridge) can work with the bigtreetech octopus pro

[oak heart]

I figured it out - because it's a 3D scan, vertices are sub-pixel, and I didn't have x-ray enabled, it was only deleting vertices at the density of my monitor pixels. Turning on xray fixes this.

[winged helm]

I'm using my friends 3d printer for something. I think it's an ender pro 3? I'm making a piece that is rectangular. How much, if at all, should I fillet the corners?

And edges

[stoic echo]

Rounded edges on the X/Y planes can be problematic with adhesion... the corners (Z) you can fillet how ever much you want. Does that make sense? And I hope I used the correct planes, haha!

[winged helm]

Hmm, my buddy with the printer actually recommended filleting the bottom edges.

[stoic echo]

Sometimes you can use it to avoid "elephant's foot" issues, but it can also lead to some issues with the edges curving upwards and pressing into the nozzle as it prints, and if you're not careful with how your piece is sliced and it has a lot of crossing printed parts, you can knock the piece off of the plate.

[winged helm]

hmmm ok, well he's doing the slicing and knows a good bit more than me.

One day I'll own a 3d printer

[stoic echo]

hey, if he's got it dialed in, go with his advice

I generally run into issues if I have chamfered or filleted edges on the bottom X/Y edges unless I run the plate really hot to make sure that the edges don't curve upwards as they cool

[winged helm]

If I didn't need to spend the money on a new laptop, I'd be considering a Prusa right now

[stoic echo]

Get an Ender 3 V2 instead

way cheaper

and just about as good

[winged helm]

Hmm I've read that Prusa is what you want if you want minimal fiddling

Which is what I want, badly

[stoic echo]

I didn't need to fiddle with my Ender 3 V2, and it has a larger print surface, and below $300. A Prusa is $349 for the kit, which has a wait-time of something like 12-16 weeks, or about a month for the semi-assembled for $399.

https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/ender-3-v2-3d-printer

[winged helm]

Hmm OK, I haven't looked super deeply into it. I'll get more into when I go to buy

[stoic echo]

$262

[winged helm]

I really want one for my job

This would be about the 1000th tool that I will be bringing with me whenever I leave lol

[stoic echo]

You've been listening to fanboys, most likely. Prusa fans can be a bit... zealous.

[winged helm]

Could be

[stoic echo]

My stepson has several Prusa printers, and they are great, for sure. My Ender 3 V2 produces Benchys that are almost identical to what his Prusas do. There are a few minor things to tweak with the Ender 3 V2 when it comes to bridging, but once configured, it's dead-on.

FWIW I use Prusa Slicer with my Ender.

[winged helm]

Hmm, yeah aren't there a lot of upgrades available for the Ender?

[stoic echo]

Yeah, a bunch. It's very easy to upgrade. Best upgrades are BLTouch sensor and filament sensor.

[winged helm]

Hmm, yeah I guess what I read was that once you upgrade it to the "level" of a Prusa, you've spent the difference in cost essentially

[stoic echo]

Then you just 3D print a little T-slot case for a Pi and mount it to the side of the printer

nah, not really

[stoic echo]

the Prusa doesn't come with BLTouch or filament run-out sensors either, so they're on equal footing there

And either way, you'd use Octoprint.

So that argument doesn't hold water either.

The BLTouch kit is $41.99 on Amazon, totally worth it. You can definitely print without it, but it's great to have when you are running prints back to back because the mesh leveling is clutch.

https://smile.amazon.com/Creality-BLTouch-Leveling-Mainboard-Printer/dp/B08MD45N9H/

that's the kit you'd want

then the filament runout sensor will set you back $18 https://smile.amazon.com/BIGTREETECH-Printer-Filament-Detection-Detector/dp/B07Z97582P

And you don't HAVE to have OctoPrint on a dedicated Pi connected to the printer. You could run it locally off of a laptop and only start it and plug it up as you wanted to print. If you didn't have a spare Pi 3/4 about.

[winged helm]

hmmm what kind of pi?

Pi 4s are real hard to find right now

[stoic echo]

I think OctoPrint would run on a Zero W or a Zero 2 W.

But, the issue is mainly CPU related, you have to make sure the Pi is fast enough to send the instructions to the printer.

Please note that the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W are not recommended explicitly since severe performance issues were observed, caused by the WiFi interface when bandwidth is utilized (e.g. the webcam is streamed), negatively impacting printing quality. See also here. The Zero 2 however is recommended.

Recommended hardware: Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B+, 4B or Zero 2.

you could use a Zero W as long as you don't have a webcam that's streaming from the same device

for instance

Or, you can run OctoPrint on some other computer, doesn't have to be a Pi. OctoPi is just super-easy to maintain and run.

[arctic dragon]

https://depau.github.io/3dprint-wiki/wiki/hardware/octoprint-devices/

You could set up a rock pi or orange pi, just a couple of extra steps it seems.

[winged helm]

neat thanks!

Is octoprint related to octopart?

[stoic echo]

not that I know of... Octopart is an NYC company, and OctoPrint is written and maintained by Gina Häußge, who lives in Germany.

[winged helm]

Neat thx

[glass relic]

I run octoprint in docker so that the pi can do other stuff too

[winged helm]

How feasible is it to seal a 3D printed object to make it more water resistant?

like a part with a cavity that you don't want water getting into

[willow sedge]

I'm fairly sure it's feasible. Noe and Pedro have done it, but they might have used Ninjaflex to create a seal, which is possibly outside what you're set up to do. Hot glue can be used to seal things, though. If you 3D print it to screw the cover into the base, you can put some kind of seal around the opening, and use the screws to create pressure on the seal as well.

Hot glue could even be a seal if applied properly, I believe.

[arctic dragon]

You could use a spray sealant like flex seal, if you don't need to fit tight tolerances?

I remember seeing a vase with clear flex seal on reddit somewhere....

Epoxy resin would be Ideal, I believe, but not super easy to work with. Acrylic conformal coating would work, too, but I think flex seal is more cost effective?

[winged helm]

The portions that would be sealed wouldn't really. Do you mean because the sealant would add to the dimensions?

[arctic dragon]

It might add some unknown thickness, yes.

[winged helm]

Ah ok, that's fine on the outside

[iron remnant]

Here's two Prusa articles:

https://blog.prusaprinters.org/watertight-3d-printing-pt1-vases-cups-and-other-open-models_48949/
https://blog.prusaprinters.org/watertight-3d-printing-part-2_53638/

[winged helm]

Thanks folks!

[muted cloak]

Is Orange pi still available? the buy links all seem to have expired

[arctic dragon]

Hm, they do seem to be gone...

Have you tried the LTS?

[muted cloak]

maybe they've moved to newer models? orange Pi LTS seems to have valid buy pages, don't know the difference

[arctic dragon]

Me neither. I only heard they work, never tried myself.

Yeesh, some of these prices on Amazon. Might as well get a win10 mini PC at that point...

[muted cloak]

looks like LTS has less gpio, If things are equivalent, orange pi Zero2 might be the way to go, since RPI zero2 works.

so I googled orange pi zero 2 octoprint, reading up on it now

I've already had a microSD decide it wasn't formatted in under a month of having an ender, and not even powering it on most of those days, so that's probably one of the top reasons to try getting octoprint going.

through amazon, still comes to $64 and delivers march 31-april 7. through aliexpress, $30 april 25

[broken orbit]

Is there a good 3D printing network that the average person can volunteer their printer on to print custom models for money??

[winged helm]

Huh, that's not something I'd ever considered might exist. Neat!

[broken orbit]

Like MakeXYZ or something, but that's not available for the average person...

[iron remnant]

I've used treatstock before I had a printer.

I'm not sure how lucrative it is, actually.

[muted cloak]

likely between shipping, processing fees, probably eats up a lot of potential profit, then the time you spend, and materials, power, ends up being real hard to be worthwhile.
Someone with a large number of printers with a standard setup where power is cheap can spend the same labor hours printing many times the quantity.

[stoic echo]

if you don't care about taking out what was put into the cavity... fill it with epoxy. 😄

Also: https://www.polycase.com/waterproof-enclosures?ip_rating=23&nema_rating=188

https://www.polycase.com/an-02p

this for instance is $11 and it's IP68 and NEMA 13

wireless will be harder with that one, though

[winged helm]

Haha not an option unfortunately

[stoic echo]

there's a few cheaper alternatives from Polycase that's still waterproof, and not alu but plastic

[winged helm]

I think the fact that I can get a decent sized O-ring on a 3-d printed design is more attractive. I can also do custom mounts for the things that go inside

[stoic echo]

Not to rain on your parade, but Polycase enclosures usually come with mounting bosses or similar inside, I 3D-print my mounting solution for those, then just screw it and the project into the box.

Are you building something that's going to be 100% submerged for longer periods of time?

[winged helm]

I'm familiar with them, but the O-ring thing is still attractive to me. And I'd end up lasering/printing something to match the polycase insides anyways. I won't dismiss it out of hand, I just don't think it'll work out for me precisely.

No, just needs to survive being underneath an awning that will get rained on.

[stoic echo]

oh snap, you'll be good with 3D printing then

when you said waterproof I was like... "so IP68"

what are you putting in the enclosure?

[winged helm]

A light bulb

So I also have to sort out wiring

[stoic echo]

Oh. Then you should be able to 3D print something for sure.

[winged helm]

Yeah I think that's probably the least effort

thx for the input

[stoic echo]

also, check out this silo from Ruiz Brothers:
https://learn.adafruit.com/air-quality-sensor-silo-house

you could adapt it and use some translucent materials

[winged helm]

I like that! But it's not quite what I need.

[winged helm]

Anyone have experience mounting printed things onto wood using tabs and wood screws? Anything I should be aware of?

[iron remnant]

I wood not think it would present much of a problem.

[winged helm]

Lol

I think that print orientation could be a concern

[iron remnant]

I mean, it depends on how creative you want to be.

You can always make a french-cleat or dovetail thing that just holds the screw tab to the wood and then clip the rest of the piece into that.

[winged helm]

Nothing wacky

I was thinking of something similar, except I need force holding the plastic against the wood

[iron remnant]

Yeah, I was goofing with that exact problem but just haven't been adequately motivated to play with it as yet.

For some reason my ESP32 HUZZAH board suddenly drew too much power.

[winged helm]

Hmmm, I'm happy to do my design and let you know how it works

[shy kelp]

So I bought this
https://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B07WSBW18M?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
Because it was cheaper than getting a thermoster locally

But I have no idea what thermoster does it use, checking the resistance at Ambient temperature it says 128.5 ohm

On marlin for custom values I do see this, but I don't know how to turn it around
Is the 25C a costant or does it vary? Ence I do need another sensor to get the first sensor value

[broken orbit]

Cool

[unkempt lake]

I am not sure, but this looks like an Ender 3 hotend clone. Perhaps it uses the thermistor standard to that hotend?
<looking to see what that might be...>

@shy kelp Here is something I found on the stock Robo R1+ hotend:

The R1+ comes with a hexagon hotend. This is a hotend for 1.75mm filaments. Compatible nozzles must have a M6 thread (1mm thread pitch) which are the most common online. The top collar/groove that holds the hotend to the X carriage in a Robo R1 is 4.2mm and is hold by a "Quick Release" bracket.

I got this replacement set in amazon.

Thermistor is EPCOS 100k ohms, 4.7k pullup. You may use others but must be configured on the firmware.

The rest is found on this page: https://github.com/ctkjose/robobo3dr1plus/blob/master/readme.md

Maybe you can find something else?

[shy kelp]

Thanks man

[unkempt lake]

I got some sensors that Klipper calls a "generic 3950". the thermistor is attached to 1m of wires.

I got another set of thermistors from another vendor a few months ago, and each was split with inline jst quick-release connectors. I like this method as it makes changing them simpler.

I split the new ones and crimped on a set of connectors for each, so they are all quick-change now.

Does this affect the resistance? I would think if it did it would be small. I only have an Ender 3v2, not a high end printer, so will this make a significant difference?

PID tuning seems good so far.

no problem @shy kelp

I guess that's an r1+. so maybe not the same. i didn't see much for the r1 out there

[sullen zinc]

oof, my mk3s is not happy. I just changed out the nozzle (2nd time ever) and I'm trying to run first layer calibration. during mesh bed leveling, it reaches the 3rd point (front on my right) and announces "Some problem encountered, Z-leveling enforced" on the LCD. octoprint sees "Recv: Bed leveling failed. Sensor didn't trigger. Debris on nozzle? Waiting for reset."

it's not hitting the bed, but it's consistently in that particular spot. the sensor always works fine at the first 2 positions.

steel sheet is in place. if I remove that, it fails at the 2nd position instead of the 3rd (front center)

[sullen zinc]

trying "manual z calibration" and it seems to have fixed it. I guess I wrenched ahem something out of alignment when changing the nozzle, that the automatic calibration couldn't fix.

"manual z calibration" just seemed to move the Z axes to their top of travel a little more vigorously and then do the magnetic sensor calibration a bit more forgivingly

🤷

if it's fixed I'm happy

[empty sedge]

Yeah, it aborted the z probe because it measured the movement parallel to the bed as being off in z by more than about 2mm across the length or width. Crashing into the top is how it gets the x axis close-enough-to-aligned with the bed

[muted cloak]

Trying to figure out how I would print something like https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4687847 without a massive amount of supports. Not seeing any info in the comments, or in the comments on the one it's remixed from to indicate how. Someone mentions printing it with less supports, but doesn't explain.
Bed only supports don't look sufficient, everywhere makes it fill with a solid block of support, tree somehow uses even more support material.
I've tried in cura and prusa, and just not seeing a setting to reduce the support in a reasonable way

[muted cloak]

currently trying to learn custom supports in cura, but since the print is so big it has to be placed diagonally, scale and move tools aren't oriented conveniently.

[raven coral]

ive got a question, what 3d printer plastic brands are reliable?

because im looking for some petg and tpu plastic rolls and im not sure about which ones i should choose

[iron remnant]

The last time it came up, Atomic Flaments was mentioned and so I got some and have had good results with those, plus they've got some amazing PETG formulations.

The only TPU I've used so far is the Matter Hackers BUILD series and it's been fine. I've gotten a buncha filaments from Matter Hackers because it's not Amazon and it's relatively close so it arrives fast.

TPU in the 90A-98A hardness range is relatively easy to get going on, whereas the super-flexy Ninjaflex is going to be more work to get all dialed in. Matter Hackers BUILD is in that range. I've got a roll of the 85A Ninjaflex that I haven't tried yet.

[muted cloak]

I got my pla from matter hackers, One of the colors is translucent, and I've seen posts saying they can vary from one order to the next. Seems to be good printing quality, maybe some spiderweby stringing, and I couldn't get a temperature tower to fail going up to 260 so gave up on fine tuning.

[arctic dragon]

I've tried a couple of PLA rolls, and so far the most consistent has been from MatterHackers? Some of the cheaper stuff like Geeetech translucent seem to need some dehydrating prior to use, though, so I'll be on the lookout for a hot summer day to bake my filament if I don't get a dehydrator anytime soon...

For the "drying filament in the hot car" option, do I just need an airtight container and dessicant? If so, is there a recommended amount of dessicant or any setups that work better than others?

[shy kelp]

What's called on marlin that travel optimization that makes it travel something like the first squarebox and not like the second?

[empty sedge]

Avoid crossing perimeters? Also would be a slicer option not marlin

[shy kelp]

No, but In the end I've solved, though I can't quite remember again it's name 😅

[arctic dragon]

Hilbert space-filling curve, I believe?

[shy kelp]

Yes

[carmine peak]

I'm on an Ender 3 Pro with an Skr Mini E3 V1.2 running TH3D firmware

At the very end of a print that was very tall, it stopped printing midair and started emitting a loud beeping noise. I turned it off and when i turned it back on, the LCD had only a solid blue screen. I turned on my pi to check octoprint and it couldn't connect

I reflashed the firmware, and it still does the blue screen

It's been like that for half an hour now

[carmine peak]

the heck do i do?

[oak heart]

How did you flash the firmware? Put it on the MicroSD card? If it’s that dead how do you know it performed the flash if it didn’t display a boot screen? Have you modified the wiring at all, like by adding a bed or filament sensor?

@carmine peak

[carmine peak]

I added and later removed a BLTouch a long time ago

[raven coral]

is there a way to show the differences between two print settings on superslicer?

because one seems to show me 8h print time and another one shows 4h

oh wait the width is different

0.4mm vs 0.2mm

[shy kelp]

the beeping noise and shutting off could be a lot of things... from a temperature sensor not working, heater not working, it's a mystery... The printer does this out of a safety precaution. -- turning off is better than not knowing what temperature something is and starting a fire.

i'm guessing you weren't able to catch the error message on either the printer or the octoprint

oh. i just noticed i'm responding something from 5 days ago.

rip.

[cosmic star]

Is there a recommended modeller software for complete 3-D printer noobs to use on Linux?

Also, does the concept of "parts" exist that I can just add to a model? Like, can I just say "add snap-fits at this point to hold down a PCB of dimensions X by Y"? Or do I have to draw all that manually?

[empty sedge]

@cosmic star openscad is pretty approachable, so is tinkercad. Maybe solidworks or inventor would have a library of features that would include sprung latches like you describe but I expect most people just model them themselves

You can also try freecad. All of the applications I mentioned have different workflows and ways of working that might make them more or less suitable to the ways you think or the parts you have in mind

(blender is an art tool but is also useful for manipulating 3d models)

[arctic dragon]

https://itsfoss.com/cad-software-linux/ lists some good options to start with. From those, I can personally recommend FreeCAD and OpenSCAD as two options I've actually played with a bit. I don't think TinkerCAD is available on Linux...

[empty sedge]

you use tinkercad in the browser

[arctic dragon]

...duh. How did I forget that...

[strange ledge]

"Top 7"... ?

Is that an example of RNG, or are there only 7 options?!? 🤣

[arctic dragon]

Linux systems are fairly limited in terms of available software, but I’m sure there’s more than that. That “top 7” list has a couple of additional honorable mentions…

[carmine peak]

No. Couldnt see the error

[strange ledge]

Personally, I think it's more the case that quality options are limited...

I'd never opt to use something created by an opinionated neckbeard who thinks he knows everything and doesn't grok "meritocracy".

[raven coral]

okay so i have two pca9685 pcbs and they both have normal pin holes and pin headers for the stuff like vcc, sda and scl and i see that theres direct contact between them with a multimeter

so can i like just daisychain them like that simply?

[arctic dragon]

Yes, so long as you make sure to give each board a unique address for your software to differentiate them.

[raven coral]

alright

[winged helm]

Anyone have an opinion on the new AnkerMake printers?

[iron remnant]

🤷 A company the size of Anker or Creality shouldn't need to do crowdfunding for their printer and if they are promising all sorts of things but disclosed that the software is only 2% done, I've got a lot of sympathy for their software team.

[winged helm]

Reasonable

[iron remnant]

I mean, the 3D printers discord server has a repeat bot that reminds people to not buy 3D printers off of kickstarter because the record is so bad.

[winged helm]

I'm shopping for one for my work to buy. I don't think I can really come close to justifying an industrial grade one, so I'm leaning towards Prusa. The claimed 250mm/s print speed of the Anker is impressive, and I like their chargers a LOT, but these are different techs

[iron remnant]

Yeah, there's a giant blob of chaos that comes when someone who gets the electronic and low-level controller side of things tries to interact with software folks....

...I lived that for a bit and it sucked.

[empty sedge]

Get a prusa. The reliability is worth it

[winged helm]

Yeah of the kinds we can afford, I think they are the best option

[broken orbit]

https://tenor.com/view/blob-gif-18374235

[cosmic star]

Is tinkercad.com supposed to duplicate the object when you click and drag?

Or, wait, is that just this stupid learning thing not acting like the real app?

[strange ledge]

Much rather build my own, just for the experience.

[winged helm]

I can see the appeal

[strange ledge]

As a technician/builder, yeah. 😁

[winged helm]

I have to find something that minimizes setup time and debugging

[arctic dragon]

Creality claimed 250mm/s as well, but the stock settings aren't equipped for that. Unless people are already running at those speeds, take em with a grain of salt.

[muted cloak]

On anker and kickstarter, it's more in the line of marketing for them. They get preorders made, and get a bunch of hype, and when they ship their usually quite good product they get a bunch of free word of mouth advertising and unboxings/reviews etc. But with a 3d printer, and they are planning on all that new functionality they don't have the software for yet... for someone who already has 3d printers and the money to spare might be worth the risk. For a first printer probably want to wait for launch. might be delayed launch, revised specs, etc.

[arctic dragon]

That being said, some of the higher-end Creality printers are worth considering too, depending on your needs.

For a work setting, if you can convince the office to get a nice printer that comes with an enclosure, those usually come pre-assembled?

[winged helm]

Ooh, well the person making the decision probably wants the best they can get.

Reasonably of course

I like everything I've read about prusa

[arctic dragon]

I'd love to put down some money on a Prusa XL if I had it...

[empty sedge]

I doubt the XL is arriving this year but I put money down for one

[winged helm]

Wow that's a wild machine

[carmine peak]

How do i check if my printer's motherboard is dead?

The display shows nothing but a solid blue screen. The hotend fans work but not the board fans

USB doesn't work either.

I've removed and re-inserted everything

[arctic dragon]

Have you tried reflashing the board?

I've seen flash memory get corrupted before, and sometimes it's recoverable.

[carmine peak]

Any guide online?

Also if it helps i did try updating the firmware

[arctic dragon]

Well that would count as reflashing the board.

So uh, did anything happen between it working and it not?

@carmine peak If you've opened up anything or rewired anything, it could contribute to an issue? If you felt any kind of static while handling the board, it could be dead?

[carmine peak]

I felt a little. Is therr a proper method of checking fir static?

[arctic dragon]

Nope, if the board stopped working, it could be any combination of things getting zapped... I've zapped a couple of boards at my job, and even as a professional Electrical Engineer responsible for these boards, I can't always figure out exactly which component failed. All I can really recommend is doing your due diligence to try to determine whether or not it's recoverable, and replace it if it isn't...

Which motherboard are you using?

Display is a solid blue? Usually I'd expect a TFT LCD to go white or stop working at all in cases like these... What kind of display?

[carmine peak]

The stock Ender 3 one

it's TFT

[hot hearth]

If you want to build your own 3D printer and need large size and quality, then RatRig V-Core 3 is a viable option.

[grave helm]

(Keyblade) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3582947#Parametric Customization
Hello everyone! This might be a long shot, but I might aswell ask. I am trying to scale down the Keyblade design Adafruit released on Thingiverse. But I can't for the life of me edit the perimeters, no matter what I do in Fusion360. Is there a way? Can even find and edit perimiters on STLs? Because the tube tester needs some "fixing" at 75% it seems. Best wishes, Rasmus. :D

[muted cloak]

anyone know where to look for why I can't connect to octoprint with the web browser? I'me trying to get it set up, on an orangepi zero 2 following the guide at https://blog.cyril.by/en/3d-printers/installing-octoprint-on-orange-pi-zero-2 but I can't get the browser to connect. connection times out. searching has so far found no helpful info. I can ping it, and the ssh window is giving server heartbeat messages.

[empty sedge]

@muted cloak are you connecting to port 5000?

[muted cloak]

attempting to, yes

192.168.1.150:5000

and now I try again and it connects, after trying all day

ok, been using the same window all day, and even last night, and I typed it starting with 198 ....

[muted cloak]

ok, more directly printing question, starting to use petg, using default generic petg profile in cura, and the first couple layers look like this. Not sure what to adjust

[shy kelp]

Those two drivers are dedicated to what?

Trigorilla 2560 board

I could reopen the thing up and test it without
But actually I'm trying to understand why at one point it does stop
Googling I find out that stealthchop doesn't work well on the extruder
So I replaced the last one on the right from a tmc2225 to an a4988

But the issue is still present

[arctic dragon]

E0 and E1 would be Extruder 0 and 1, respectively. If you have 1 extruder, try replacing the second one from the right instead?

[shy kelp]

In the end I kinda solved by replacing the last driver with an a4988, and disabling linear advance from the config adv on marlin, I'll later retry with the tmc2225, to confirm if they are both, or it's just the linear advance that does give issues

Though there's a further issue, the bed leveling bilinear isn't working, the printed thing is uneven; on the start gcode is specified to use the stored valued, it doesn't work, then I tried to recall g29 after g28, it doesn't work anyway

And since it's not like working, playing with the z offset it's useless, because, since it's uneven, it might fix in one side, and break the other side

[arctic dragon]

That... would probaly be better answered by someone else. I'm mainly a hardware guy, haha.

[empty sedge]

Hotter nozzle and slower maybe, but it's not going to get completely clear

[muted cloak]

Going to try hotter slower later today, main issue though is the mess of chunks of plastic

[empty sedge]

Ooze is a common complaint printing petg. There isn’t one easy solution

[muted cloak]

Seems to not be an issue once it gets past the first layers. Haven't figured out if it's ooze or is pulling bits already printed off the bed or what

[muted cloak]

Sliced in prusa, 240c first layer was looking good, but now blobs. Maybe I need to examine the nozzle

[empty sedge]

First layer can also be too low. your bed leveling or offset needs adjustment

[muted cloak]

extruder esteps might have been too high, I'd recalibrated with another color, and was almost 20% too high with this one, recalibrated and trying a print again

[muted cloak]

ok, with redoing bed tramming after changing nozzle and recalibrating esteps: printing cleanly, though I do see the edges lifting off the bed

[hot hearth]

Raft is often the easiest solution.

[muted cloak]

I think I may have the bed lowered a touch too much. Will have to fine tune before next print. Got to look into how to add mouse ears or otherwise do partial rafts, since a full raft is just more work to remove than really needed. Printed a fang duct a couple of days ago, small bit in the middle came loose from bed like 5 mm into print, so added raft, but less lines, still was a pain getting it all cut out.

Of course now the fans I ordered from mouser to use with it may have burned up in a UPS fire, so may not be installing any time soon

[muted cloak]

I actually added some adafruit tools to that order, since it didn't add to the shipping charge, and their ground shipping rate is lower than adafruit's. $7.99 ups ground for the whole shipment, while Adafruit's ups ground starts at $20.85
I guess Mouser negotiated a much better rate somehow

[loud silo]

Even though we ship thousands of packages a week, we don't ship at the rate of the really big sellers.

[vocal pilot]

I'm currently working finishing my Commodore's Pi 2.0 with adafruit's DIY Hdmi but I don't know how to make a little casing to have the board inside.

[muted cloak]

Seems like big sellers are either not getting hit by increased rates, or they are eating the cost. And it seems like the adafruit rate may be more than full retail rate? I both don't see how Mouser has kept it so low, and don't see why adafruit's rate has gotten so high. I can put a small breakout board in cart, and shipping is 20.85.
I can go on UPS and calculate NY to my zip simple rate cost for up to 100 cubic inches is 10.15 without any discounts. Have to go over 650 cubic inches to get over $20
Just seems so extreme it seems like an error.

[ionic heath]

hi hi @muted cloak (dan alerted us to your message), ([e-mail] here...) ... that's correct, sometimes the rates are higher for us than Digi-Key, mouser, or other resellers, and sometimes other sellers subsidize their shipping or have other calculations, ours is a pass-through directly, whatever we have is what we are quoted

sometimes we used additional packaging for something that needs it like a screen or a product that requires a box, and dimensional shipping is used

and sometimes there are address locations that are residential vs business or an area a carrier charges us extra for

all depends on a lot of things, however - if you can get the same adafruit item at a lower shipping cost from Digi-Key or mouser, totally OK with us, please do 🙂

[elder oxide]

Many big distributors have negotiated rates with shippers which allow them to offer a specific price based on a promised minimum monthly or quarterly volume shipped. It’s hard to negotiate rates like that consistently for smaller companies. Sure Adafruit sells a lot, but probably not shipping the volume that shippers are looking at for guaranteed flat rates.

Adafruit technically could go through a third party shipping vendor who negotiates rates on behalf of customers (Shippo is who I’ve used) and first class/USPS and other rates tend to come out close, sometimes a bit lower than what I see Adafruit quote

[iron remnant]

I end up getting a decent chunk of my AdaFruit stuffs via DigiKey just because then I can bundle it up with my other random circuit bits.

[muted cloak]

I was going to order a product pick a couple of weeks ago, about the only time I've caught the video, since I'm normally working, but the shipping was much more than the product, and I couldn't come up with enough stuff I needed to make it worth it. Seems like shipping went up even more since then though. I just can't figure out why it's quite so high looking at UPS shipping calculator unless they ran out of boxes smaller than the ones adabox ships in or something.

[loud silo]

UPS has a fuel surcharge that keeps going up: https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/shipping-costs-rates/fuel-surcharges.page

As Phil said, the shipping charge is strictly a pass-through, and can vary based on box/bag weight vs dimensions, etc. in unexpected ways. Digi-Key ships so much they have UPS trailers parked outside that they fill up, and other large distributors are similar.

See https://www.adafruit.com/shipping for some background. We offer USPS shipping to some places, but sometimes don't provide it: "We do not ship USPS to some locations that have had known slow downs or issues."

[muted cloak]

I'm not even comparing to digi-key etc anymore, just to ups.com

[vocal pilot]

Is there any 3d models of Adfruit's DIY HDMI I could use to make a custom housing for it?

[spring herald]

Hey what’s best practice for screwing things into a print?

threading isn’t an option at the sizes I’m working at so I’m wondering if I just print a pilot hole and hope I can bite into the plastic with the screw??

[arctic dragon]

For applications without a lot of unscrewing/rescrewing, that should be fine. You might have to play with your model and 3d printer settings to really dial those sizes in right, as without additional hole expansion in your slicer, holes tend to print smaller than they're modeled IIRC.

If you plan to unscrew this frequently, I'd recommend a threaded insert instead. PLA/PETG threads aren't the most durable thing in the world, and they will wear down with time. https://www.adafruit.com/product/4255 would be a good example for ones you would use for M3 screws, though if you need smaller sizes you'l have to look for another supplier.

[spring herald]

Alright, thank you! I have some brass inserts in my basket for later projects but honestly it’s just for a prototype robot frame that isn’t gonna get too much stress, and I’m going with whatever’s easiest from this point because a lil bit of a time crunch 😭 chip shortage hours

[arctic dragon]

Another option would be to add a space to insert a nut on the side or back? Takes a bit more effort to model, but it might be more reliable if you don't have well-ccalibrated holes.

[spring herald]

truuue, I probably have some nuts around too, at that point I’d make the hole a little bigger than the threading and just rely on the screw and the nut pulling it together right?

[arctic dragon]

Indeed, if you decide to go down that route.

And if your holes don't clear the screw, you can just use the plastic hole to grip the threads directly haha

[spring herald]

omg yeah, fair, that does make the shrinkage issue a bit easier to work with

[iron remnant]

The embedded nut route, especially with a washer or two, is going to be stronger than the heat-set insert. Even though, yeah, the heat-set insert is cute and clean and not that weak.

[normal briar]

Hi. I've been really struggling with fixing a Y axis layer shift issue over the last few weeks and I was hoping I could get some advice.

Printer: Ender 3 Pro
Print Speed: 60 mm/s

Problem:

• Layer shift only in the Y Axis

I can reproduce this consistently with a hollowed out cube stl. Once the infill start printing the layer shift start's happening. I assume from the vibration caused by the zig-zag motion.

What I've tried:

• Checking the Y axis belt (it trums like a guitar).
• Tightening the eccentric nuts for the wheels on Y axis (just until they stop turning freely)
• Tightening the 4 nuts on the X carriage
• Swapping the X and Y axis steppers (issue still appeared in the Y axis so I don't think it's the driver unless the stepper itself is the issue)

Tightening the eccentric nuts did seem to help at first (and I made a few successful prints). But things seemed to have gotten worse again.

I may have over tightened the eccentric nuts originally but have since tried loosening them a bit (still no luck).

Any advice appreciated.

[half dew]

Have you tried loosening the belt a little? My printer doesn't like being tightened that much (the steppers get hot and skip).

Before adjusting the tension - its worth disabling the steppers and moving the axis yourself to see if you feel anything at a certain point.

[normal briar]

Haven't tried that. I've been some what reluctant to touch the Y belt since it seemed ok and this issue wasn't happening before. Will try disabling the steppers and checking again. Would I just be checking if the belt feels like it's getting stuck?

[half dew]

yeah, feel if there are any snags

[normal briar]

So no snags as far as I can tell. Is there a good way to narrowing down electrical vs mechanical issue? Seems weird to me that mainboard over heating would cause only y-axis shift

[river cipher]

could be the y motor and/or y driver overheating, not necessarily the mainboard itself

confirm that the cooling fan is still working (the one blowing on the mainboard/drivers) and that the heatsink hasn't fallen off

you can try reducing infill speed/acceleration to make it less likely to happen

your belts basically only have to be tight enough that there's not any slop and not much tighter, too tight can cause VFAs and overheating

[shy kelp]

fdm do have marlin and some other free firmwares

resin printers don't have any of that?

[arctic dragon]

Not to the same degree, anyways. https://github.com/kondor3d/kondor is a work in progress, and nanoDLP is a thing, but if you’re expecting a marlin equivalent on every machine, that unfortunately doesn’t exist…

[snow moth]

Could someone redesign the case from link below? I have no 3D modeling skills whatsoever. I would like the hole for the screen to be filled in and for the hole for the switch to be resized to fit the Breadboard-friendly SPDT Switch. This would be greatly appreciated.
https://learn.adafruit.com/wordle-personal-esp32-s2-web-server/build-the-server-case

[winged helm]

What are folks favorite ways to get threads into 3d prints? I think I'm going to end up with the "soldering iron press in" method, but wondering 1) if there are better methods 2) what's a good brand to use

[iron remnant]

Depends.

You can generally just force a regular old screw in at least some of the time, you can use a self-tapping plastic screw.

Frequently I just print a thread.

Or tap a thread

I got some cheap thin M3 inserts off of Amazon to print other people's designs although I seldom use them.

Apparently the brand does matter? I think there was a Youtube video by one of the usual suspects.

[half dew]

I've used the type you're talking about and they work great. The benefit is they can take up less space since they come in different sizes.

For alternatives:

1. Just using a regular nut and carving a space for it in your model will usually be just as strong or stronger.
2. If its not something that will be taken apart a lot or doesn't need a ton of strength, I'll usually just leave a hole in the part, add extra walls, and tap it

[arctic dragon]

I like to think of the heat-set inserts as the ideal option for something that's going to be screwed often, like holding a lid to an enclosure. The embedded-nut approach is better for raw holding strength, and for prototypes you can often just directly screw threads in if your tolerances are dialed in properly.

I don't use them enough to recommend brands, but do make sure you get the ones meant for heat-setting, not the injection molding ones.

[winged helm]

My goal is to have something I can do well, once, and have it work for as long as possible

[half dew]

Inserts are probably the way to go then!

[merry cobalt]

I need to buy a replacement power supply for my Taz 6 printer, I know its 24V 21A 500W. Is there anything i need to look out for when buying power supplies for 3D printers?

[empty sedge]

You can buy the exact same meanwell power supply if you'd like

cheap amazon supplies with the same specs will probably work but legit meanwell supplies are good and aren't that much more expensive

I'm guessing in that case is a meanwell SE-450-24 or SE-600-24

though, maybe they switched brands when they made it external and slimmer?

[merry cobalt]

Thank you @empty sedge I’ll try and see if I can find a Meanwell one.

[shy kelp]

I don't understand
using marlin 2.0 bugfix
using bed leveling bilinear, it looks like it is ignoring the points
at the start gcode it's specified to use the stored points but it doesn't
I tried to make g29 after g28 it does not work anyway
the points do look stored in the eeprom, if I call them back via pronterface, I can see them stored

[oak heart]

I had my first print failure due to tangled filament. It crossed over itself and I hadn’t noticed; it was several hours in. :( Any suggestions for untangling spools?

[torpid grove]

Sorry to hear that. If you have a spool to untangle my suggestion is put on a nice podcast prepare to be very patient. I would personally say theirs not much to it other than that. I've had one case of budget filament that was so tangled I just used it for little prints that I could baby sit. At a certain point your time will be worth more than the filament you're untangling.

Some general tips to avoid tangled filament. Get filament from reputable brands I've only really had issues with twisted filament when I bought the really cheap stuff. Minimize the distance from your spool to Bowden tube / feeder. Try to have the filament following a straight path this will prevent it building up twisting stress about the filaments axis. If you get to much twist the filament will either break or get tangled.

[oak heart]

Good to know, thanks. I think this one tangled because I used a clip that clipped the end of the filament to adjacent filament, but I picked the wrong adjacent one and crossed them. I should probably find a clip that goes on the side of the spool to hold the end.

[river cipher]

your spools don't have holes on the edge for threading the filament through? and yeah, unloading/loading is the most dangerous part for tangling because if you slip and let the strand go, it flies back to the spool and can tangle itself.

[oak heart]

They do, but that seemed like it was liable to kink the filament by bending it too far. I guess that’s preferable to a tangle.

[river cipher]

I usually use them, I don't think I've ever had an issue with the filament being kinked, but even if it's kinked too far, imo its preferable to clip 2-3in of kinked filament than to lose 10-100+ meters of filament and hours and hours due to a tangle :/

the only issue i've had was with wet filament that after a few weeks/months, became too brittle and cracked due to the stress in the bend through the holes, so then it released and luckily didn't tangle, but could've.

[raven coral]

So i tried printing this part but for some reason the "top" side looks really weird and seems to have quite large line separation

The bottom is fine though

[tall osprey]

this looks overextruded I think? Run some flow rate calibration tests

[broken orbit]

So.... Noob question, but my 3D printer is printing really thin sometimes... I have tried increasing the temp, I've tried unclogging the nozzle (multiple times)

I'm using shiny gold PLA

It's also not underextrusion

since it still happens when I run an extruder test on my printer

[round reef]

Could be a broken extruder lever. Almost always happens with Ender printers and their plastic extruders. Hasn't happened to me yet, but it would account for under-feeding from the extruder.

[raven coral]

It might be because when inserting your filament you didn't get it completely on the idler wheel, causing the extruder not being able to grip the plastic, happened to me once.

[raven coral]

Can static electricity kill a heater cartridge?

It doesn't work for me for some reason, measuring the continuity between a new and the one that's probably dead, the new one has continuity but the old one doesn't

[tall osprey]

Heater cartridges are literally a loop of wire in some ceramic

Static electricity can't damage them in other words

[raven coral]

weird

but the thing doesnt have any continuity between the two ends of the cable

unlike a spare one i have

[raven coral]

How do i pick out the right thermistor for my printer

Like the values I should look for

Or rather

How do i find out the values I should look for

[broken orbit]

I figured out that the filament's grinding, but IDK why

[shy kelp]

I'm not so bright how do you assemble this?

[hushed lotus]

Something else probably killed it

[raven coral]

but when i connect a different heating element it works tho?

[hushed lotus]

Yeah the heating element is definitely dead, it’s just that it was not due to static electricity

[raven coral]

oh

odd

[hushed lotus]

It might have burnt out

Which printer is it for?

[raven coral]

i have an anet a8

except its modded so its using aluminum extrusions instead of acryllic parts i think?

[hushed lotus]

Was it the thermistor or the heating element that died?

[raven coral]

heating element died

thermistor seems to be working fine

[hushed lotus]

Ok, I was just wondering b/c of this

[raven coral]

although im ordering a new one because due to my foolishness and not realising the fan was cooling off the printer too much after fiddling with thermistor the insulated parts later along the cable have stripped off lol

but otherwise it works fine

[hushed lotus]

Ah

[raven coral]

im pretty sure it would have figured out that somethings not right with the thermistor if it were to short out

[hushed lotus]

Temperature problems in A8s are kind of common

What temperature was it reading?

[raven coral]

well ive been running it between 200-230 degrees

i got it to reach 240 degrees too

although when at 240 i cant use the fan because it cools off the print head too much and throws me a thermal runaway error

[hushed lotus]

So it is reading out the correct temperature

[raven coral]

waiting for the thermistor and a silicon sock to arrive tho

[hushed lotus]

if its reading the correct temperature but blowing too hard, then the issue isnt with the thermistor, its with either the fan or the control board

set the fan speed manually and see if it works

[raven coral]

yeah i know that

well i just dont let it blow at 100% usually and it works

but it might be that the part cooling shroud might be angled incorrectly causing it to blow on the block too much

well either way i cant test anything rn due to the heating element being dead and me not having the right allen keys on hand to replace the heating element

[hushed lotus]

wait so why arent you ordering a new heating element?

[raven coral]

i have another one that wasnt broken

a spare heating element if you will

[vestal thicket]

I've never printed with TPU before, and I have two different kinds, and they both say the bed doesn't need to be heated when printing - does that match other people's experiences?

[brittle hornet]

@vestal thicket I haven't tried printing TPU without heating the bed. My current settings for TPU on my Ender 3 clone are for 55c for the bed [and I am a gluestick fanatic]. I have had TPU prints separate from the bed a few times. Most of my success with TPU has usually involved printing slow [30 mm/s], or with up to 100% infill. Also more success with models /slices that don't have large travel distances in the print where the nozzle is not laying down filament.

[vestal thicket]

@brittle hornet Thanks! I went with a normal 60 degree bed and it look good half way in on my Ender3v2

[vestal thicket]

Slightly off-topic, but for the new LED Neon Sign learn guide, do you think white PLA or transparent PLA would work better for the flexible LED strip? https://learn.adafruit.com/led-neon-signs-with-neopixels

[weary lichen]

Personally, I'd go for white

[vestal thicket]

thanks, appreciate it!

[loud jolt]

This is my prusa mini plus mainboard and I have two questions, is this easily repairable (I have limited mobility in my hands) and if not should I get a like for like replacement or a different mainboard since I'm already running klipper.

[arctic dragon]

The grounding pads you pulled out are there for mechanical stability moreso than electrical function, so you might be able to get away with supergluing or epoxying the connector back down and soldering the USB pins on the back. Whether or not this is an easy repair for you, on the other hand, depends on your experience with this type of operation.

[strange ledge]

Doable, yes...
Easy? No.

[arctic dragon]

I don't know how limited your mobility is, but if you're not comfortable with soldering, I'd just replace the board.

Easy is relative, anyhow.

[strange ledge]

Well, yeah.. someone will make that look easy. 🤣

..not me

[arctic dragon]

The gluing is just gluing, you should be able to manage if you can place the connector in the right spot. Once it's glued down, reflowing the solder with a fine tip shouldn't be too bad if you glued it in the right spot.

You do need soldering experience and the right tools, but it's neither the easiest nor the most difficult of board repair tasks.

A larger tip and flux could work too, if you can get a good angle.

Mobility can be compensated to some extent with tools, but the prerequisite skills aren't something you'd pull out of thin air haha.

[loud jolt]

I used to do a lot of soldering, I think I can get it done, worth a try anyway. If I do screw it up can anyone recommend a good board to power a prusa mini frame?

[arctic dragon]

The Buddy mainboard is what, 4 TMC2209 drivers? If you're already locked into Klipper with a Pi, I think the SKR Pico might be a good replacement on a budget. Otherwise, you should be able to get a Buddy clone for ~50 USD?

Almost any mainboard designed for a 3d printer can drive XYZE, so if your budget allows, and you plan on doing additional upgrades, you could opt for something more powerful, too. Duet 2 Wifi would definitely be overkill, but plenty of options in between.

[iron remnant]

You could get a BTT Octopus just in case you want to convert your printer into a CoreXY machine with automatic leveling. * laughs in ender *

But, yeah, I think I know that connector. You'd probably want to clean it all out first, get any residual solder off, then you'd want to make sure the pins were aligned and tack them down with a tiny bit of solder and a bunch of flux, and then hit the big four support pins.

I used that connector in a bunch of designs but I am dissapoint.

[arctic dragon]

Oh, speaking of connectors, I never did double-check the connectors on the SKR Pico to make sure they were compatible with the mini. Chinese Buddy clone might be safest and easiest as drop-in.

[high stirrup]

Wait are these custom ones or can I ask questions about creality too?

[loud silo]

in this channel? You can ask about 3d printing in general, not just custom-made printers

[high stirrup]

Ok thanks

[dry sonnet]

Picked up a cheap HDMI 4 Pi: 5" Display w/Touch and Mini Driver - 800x480
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2109

Anyone seen / got a good way to mount this and the associated boards?

[half dew]

A quick look on thingiverse - this might be the right thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:571515 (theres an associated front panel

[dry sonnet]

i must have been using completely the wrong search terms as I also found this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2354850

[empty sedge]

I must have some garbage PLA. it’s been a while since I have seen parts curl up off a heated bed

[empty sedge]

tried again with glue stick on glass and part stuck so well I thought I was going to break the glass. Heated to 80C and peeled off the parts so I don't break the glass because this part I don't care about the shape of

[half dew]

My experience is that glass is a horrible surface and just isn't consistent... I switched back to PEI sheets for most things. I think that a lot of people in the 3d printing community are just really comfortable with having to do a lot of really weird things to get prints to work.

[empty sedge]

PEI spring steel would be nice but I don't know anyone selling that for this round bed. This printer is a rostock max 3

I don't want to print on bare glass because I don't want to pull chunks out of it, so I need to find something that lets prints release

I might just put a layer of that green pet tape lulzbot used to use down

[half dew]

Ahh, - gluestick is definitely the thing I've seen suggested for that then

I've also used painters tape but it leaves a texture

[empty sedge]

with glue stick prints stick down very well, but they don't pop off when cool

yeah I can do that too. I forgot about that

[half dew]

Do you have a delta 3d printer or one of those weird ones with the turntable? I almost got a delta when I started

[empty sedge]

this is a rostock max v3. it's a larger delta printer

I also have a kossel mini but I haven't used it in a year. I mostly use my printer that is mostly a prusa i3 mk3

[half dew]

Nice, yeah - I have an Ender 5 that is basically just the frame at this point... I have a Prusa XL on preorder but since I want to run Klipper-like speeds I'm considering risking the Bambu X1 Carbon

[iron remnant]

An Ender that's basically just the frame at this point.... Or, as we say.. an Ender.

Making it work better than it came out of the box, tho... That's hard.

[half dew]

Haha yeah - I really should have just built from scratch since the modifications were more than the cost of the printer....but its as close to "Press go and walk away" as you can get with an older style printer without AI, vibration sensors, lidar, etc

[shell adder]

hello all! I need to design a simple casing for a project I'm working on. Just needs to have like 6 or so places for machine screws and keep the components suspended. Any advice on best program to use to design it?

[tall osprey]

pretty much any cad tool, take your pick

f360 is nonfree (as in freedom) software but pretty popular and easy to use

there's also freecad and scad for free-as-in-freedom

and for 10$/mo you can get solidworks

[weary lichen]

I've used FreeCad for some time, it's decent enough. Not the best UI, but there's tutorials for pretty much anything

[hollow tartan]

Any recommendations for a 3d printer for home use by a hobby tinkerer?

Or a buyers guide?

[loud silo]

what is your budget?

I am not much of an expert but I found the discussions and reviews at https://all3dp.com/ to be helpful.

@hollow tartan ^

[hollow tartan]

Awesome! Thank you. I have no idea on budget (I don’t have an idea of price range, but I’m okay with saving up for the right one)

[loud silo]

something I would say about 3d printers: this is kind of like cars 100 years ago or something. They can break down often, and may require tinkering to keep them running. Also people love customizing them. The more expensive ones can be more reliable. Consider build volume (how big a thing can it print), accuracy, heated bed (needed for certain materials, but not others), noise.

[weary lichen]

Some of the cheaper ones can be super reliable too. My $200 Powerspec Duplicator i3 mini I picked up at microcenter a few years back just... works. No heated bed is about the only complaint I have about it.

Well.

Other than "The bed's too small" but I could have a printer that could fit a skyscraper and I'd find something that wouldn't fit

realistically speaking, the bed fits most things I'd want on it. There's a lot of features it doesn't have and you can definitely pay more for those - and they're often worth it! - but they're not necessary, per se

[loud silo]

i have a Flashforge Finder I bought on Craiglist for $150 from someone who refurbished them. He got them from another Craigslist (& eBay) person who bought batches of Amazon Flashforge returns, many of which were just returned, and never used (still had the zip ties, etc.)

[calm tree]

Ender 3 v2 is my recommendation for a starter printer. Advice and parts are cheap and plentiful, and the v2 has most of the upgrades you want over the original or pro.

[vestal thicket]

If you have more time than money and want to learn the hardware too, I love my Ender 3v2. If you have a bit more money and want something that just works without a lot of tweaking, I'd recommend a Prusa

[elder oxide]

Nice this about my Ender 3 pro is I haven’t leveled the bed in.. probably a year

[half dew]

3d Printers seem to be going through a technology jump this year - it also might be worth waiting for things to level out a bit

[arctic dragon]

These things jump forward every year though, to be fair. This year seems to be moving away from requiring some DIY ability and shipping fully assembled printers with advanced capabilities, but most of the hardware in the sub-300 range probably won't be changing all that much anytime too soon.

It's like holding off on a new car; of course the newer ones will be better, but they improve every year, so best to just buy what's available when you're ready to use it.

[half dew]

Previous years jumps were super incremental though and a lot of the "good stuff" were upgrades or DIY. This year we're seeing a lot of smart features - actual auto-calibration, ai, first layer inspection by the printer, and high speed out of the box.

If we're real - there really wasn't much innovation in the last 3 years for the maker space. Everyone was just racing to the bottom with i3 clones and sometimes you got to see a badly implemented core x/y from creality or somethign like that

[arctic dragon]

I don't fully trust the high-speed improvements, but the AI stuff looks pretty neat. I imagine it's only a matter of time before someone makes it a regular feature on Klipper or something, though.

Fair point. It is worth noting though, that the last three years were also hit hard with pandemic and shortages all around.

[half dew]

Yeah, I'm definitely being optimistic - but with that Anker, that new Bambu Lab printer, etc I think we might be hitting a crossover point from hobbyist -> functional

(My big worry about the shift is that both those printers have proprietary parts of their systems 😦 )

If hobby is the interest - its really fun to learn how to adjust and tweak the printers. Just keep in mind that upgrades stop being cheap when things go wrong and always be skeptical of the "just print and install" upgrades like fan ducts and such - I find that they rarely work/fit on the first try.

[tight cove]

does anyone know why im consistently getting a Z band?
things ive tried:

• Changing to a flexible couple
• Flipping the Z rod
• Loosening the Z-nut bolts
• Cleaning the Z rod
• Adding/Removing a spacer between the motor and the extrusions
• Removing the bolts holding the motor to the frame and removing the Z rod in and out until it perfectly goes into the coupler, measuring that gap and printing a spacer

after all that the Z band is noticeably better but still there

the band is roughly between 15mm - 16mm

left is at 0.3mm layer height and right is at 0.2mm also my latest

[brittle hornet]

@tight cove I have no idea. I like the rod flipping solution. Curious, does this occur in other printed models at the same height?

[tight cove]

i havent printed anything recently besides those cubes, ill try another model

[silent veldt]

Tips and tricks for the Prusa Mini?

I just got shipping notification so I'm getting excited.

[leaden mason]

Firstly… read the manual! I see so many people complaining it doesn’t work properly and they just skipped over the manual and thought they could go straight to work. Congrats though. I’ve had my Mini for a year now and I freaking love it! (Be sure to setup Octopi too, being able to just press print in PrusaSlicer is a game changer!). Also be aware the provided USB drive is a piece of crap and will probably flake on you. Use their live chat if you have problems, they’re awesome!

[silent veldt]

Excellent, thanks!

[shy kelp]

using marlin. it looks like they are using that the two steppers are using the same driver
then a Z port and the E1 port do make the stepper behave in the same way

the weird thing is that it worked well for a while, now it doesn't. I'm rechecking the pin declaration, and everything seems alright
the issue is nor about the drivers nor steppers, but it's either fw, or board

[empty sedge]

looks like you're plugged into Z and e0?

[that or the board has two z ports wired in parallel and one of your motors isn't working]

[shy kelp]

it has two Z ports, which one of them works correctly, while the other one doesn't and the E1 port seems to mimic the faulty Z port, giving the same issue; nor drivers nor the steppers are the issue, because swapping them, they work fine, unless you do plug the steppers to those two specific ports

here there are more informations...

https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/19503/marlin-2-0-x-bugfix-how-do-you-define-a-specific-driver-to-be-used-when-driving

[empty sedge]

Weird. I can figure out the firmware question today but we’re cleaning the hackerspace. However it doesn’t make sense to me one of the Z ports works but the other doesn’t. They should be soldered in parallel so unless the solder is broken or the connector or the motor they should both work the same.

[shy kelp]

I tried to change cables, motors and eccetera, and they are not the issue
all I know is that one z port works fine, the second Z port doesn't, and the E1 port doesn't too
and all of three seems to use the same driver

meanwhile one driver seems to not be used anywhere

[shy kelp]

the only thing that I did not try to change is the atmega board

[empty sedge]

What do the solder joints for the problem z connector look like? Can you test the connection to the pins in your plug and also to the other z plug with a multimeter?

[shy kelp]

connections do seem fine, also resting with a tester

[shy kelp]

indeed it might be the cables

it looks like that 1/10 cables works well
all the others when plugged do give problems
weird af

[empty sedge]

If you have a mix of motors they might have different pin outs on the motor end. There should be two independent coils in the motor and you can quickly find which is which with a multimeter. If the motor just buzzes instead of rotating when you wire up the two coils reverse one coil pair.

[shy kelp]

I did not understand the coil part, how should I reverse that?

anyway the motors should all be the same, besides they all work fine with just that 1 cable, so I suppose as you said that the isse are the other cables then, since everything that's plugged with those cables does give issues
also the cable are config the same

thanks

[shy kelp]

they do this behavior

[empty sedge]

At the control board the pin out is something like A+,A-,B+,B-
If it vibrates like that swap A+/A-, or B ones but not both

The motor data sheet shows the coils inside like this

[elder fulcrum]

Hi there! I’m having trouble with my Ender 3. The z axis keeps making this dreadful noise and for some reason will only go down when I attempt to run the move axis. At first I thought it was binding but then I tried all the reccomended help options and non of them seem to work. Then today I just wanted to see if the new motor I bought was actually working and it seems to have the same vibrating issue when it’s not even hooked up to the threaded rod. Any idea why this might happen? My initial hypothesis is it’s a dead wire but I don’t want to spend more money if I’m not sure thats the issue

[empty sedge]

Do you have a voltmeter?

[elder fulcrum]

I unfortunately do not

[empty sedge]

do you have a small paperclip? or male to male wire jumper?

[empty sedge]

with a jumper you can check the wiring of the stepper motor. From the connector that plugs into the control board there are two coils. One coil is across pins 1-2, the other across pins 3-4. If you unplug the motor from the control board it should spin by hand without much resistance. If you short 1-2 it should resist spinning in a "clicky" fashion, if it spins the same it's not wired right.

Same for if you remove the jumper then short 3-4 it should also resist spinning in the same "clicky" fashion and if not it's not wired right.

If you short both 1-2 and 3-4 with their own jumper the motor should resist spinning but not feel "clicky".

[shy kelp]

swapping two A in one motor and one port seems to work, now I'll try with tje others thanks

but I have a question, how is it possible that it worked just fine, and then all of sudden without touching anything it started with this problem?

@empty sedge

[empty sedge]

no idea

[shy kelp]

idk
now doesn't even work like before but the other cables do work fine

[winged helm]

Someone with better grab cad-fu, please help. I'm trying to find an stl of a 3d flame, like you might find over a cartoon campfire. Any ideas?

[muted cave]

Is anyone printing dragons over here? Can you help me out with some settings talk? I've been fighting with both printers for three weeks now on. Multitude of filaments and nothing will work. They all fail after getting some sort of jam, even though the only part of the print that looks melted or even warm is the very tip of any pull I do.

[thin breach]

Post a pic or video. That description isn’t enough. What have you done to calibrate your printer. Post details.

[muted cave]

The printers are dialed in to hit print and walk away. It's not filament, and both printers act the same. 5015 fans, new nozzles, new Bowden tubes, metal extruder kits, pei bed, bi metal heatbreaks.
I've been printing for seven years and I've never had this kind of trouble. I'm convinced it's in the gcode, and it's probably retraction related because everything else prints just fine.

It fails every couple hours. The only way to catch it is to hear the extruder clicking, and do a pull and cut at least the tip off the filament and put it back. Helps more of I push a good solid bit through the hotend before I restart too. But if I dont pull, I cant push it through

[empty sedge]

Is the extruder idler too tight or too loose? What retraction settings, on what extruder, on what hot side, with how long of a Bowden tube, with what polymer and brand and color are you using?

Are the teeth in the extruder drive gear clogged with plastic?

It could also be you’re printing faster than your heater can keep up with or your cold side is getting too warm causing jams.

[muted cave]

appears to have been heat creep. replaced some hot end parts and did the hotend fix

[coarse thistle]

Hi! I've been researching SLA 3D printing for a while and I might get my own SLA printer soon. But I have a question regarding disposal of cleaning materials. I've heard that once you wash a print in isopropyl alcohol or soapy water, that water then becomes hazardous waste. Does that mean I have to dispose of it at a hazardous waste dump? Or can I simply dump it down the drain? Also for water washable resins is it safe to rinse it in the sink?

[tender sparrow]

My 3d printer has a problem where not enough plastic comes out of the nozzle and i know it’s the gcode. does anyone know a setting in cura that increases the flow rate?

[tall osprey]

dump down the drain
No, it's hazardous toxic waste. Lethal in marine environments.
Water washable down the sink
Nope, still hazardous toxic waste. WW resin is a complete scam pretty much.

The most common way that isn't hazardous waste disposal is to just let the ipa evaporate and throw out the remaining resin that hardens at the base. This isn't really a great option but it's better than the sink.

You can get a lot of usage out of IPA and with a couple reclaiming methods you can use it for an extended period of time

This guy has a great blog covering a lot of resin printing and he did this just recently https://blog.honzamrazek.cz/2022/05/on-the-topic-of-disposing-dirty-ipa-washing-bath-from-resin-printing/

Also on the subject of resin printing you need to be able to provide substantial active ventilation for the printer- not just leaving the window open, actively pushing it out. Filtration systems are also a scam- ~40-60% effective on a good day.

Grow tents provide an effective and affordable way to do this.

I'd also mention to avoid anycubic resin printers because they have awful firmware and QC

I'd make sure any printer you end up buying has at least one * on this list https://mango3d.io/lychee-slicer-supported-3d-printers/

[arctic dragon]

No experience myself with SLA, but would an ultrasonic cleaner be a viable alternative to IPA washing?

[tall osprey]

it sure is- it's nearly strictly better as a process, but you're still left with toxic waste

some people use household cleaners like simple green to fill up their ultrasonic baths

[coarse thistle]

Is creality a good brand? I have one if their FDM printers but idk about their SLA ones

[tall osprey]

no

their resin printers in particular are known as mechanically unsound

resin printers need to be super built- a medium-sized buildplate will need to support 20-30 pounds of force on initial layers

(fwiw, they actually don't do it properly, they all have ~.5-.7mm of backlash in the z axis due to using improper bearings in the stepper motor and anti-vibration mountings)

the backlash tends to not matter if you're just printing minis raised off the printbed but if you want to print on the printbed it matters a lot

and some things (like gears) can't reasonably be printed off the printbed

you can resolve this by adding a thrust bearing and shaft collar https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/576711196829286400/981307626283470869/IMG_20220512_192948.jpg?width=531&height=708

like I have done here

which afaik is an original mod so I need to do a writeup on it at some point

[empty sedge]

There should be a flow rate option which lets you override this. First check the filament diameter setting is correct though.

[tender sparrow]

It is correct

[tender sparrow]

i found the flow rate setting

thx for the help

[inland galleon]

TIL if your printer keeps freezing up mid print, your sd card might be dead (Creality CR-10v2)

[balmy pulsar]

mine does that, but its the card reader i think, not the card

[tender sparrow]

A little isopropyl alcohol might fix it if you put it on the card contacts then insert and remove it a few times

It might be corrosion or dirt on the contacts in the reader

[arctic dragon]

The same applies to the card itself, as well.

Some cheap slots could also lose contact pressure on the card, especially if the card is exposed to external forces while in the slot. Not that there's an easy fix for this, but it's good to take precautions to prevent accidental bumping if possible.

[balmy pulsar]

i shall try that

i was thinking maybe the heat was hurting it

one printer is fine, the other craps out after some random time. often 90% through a print

cause it hates me

haha

[latent marsh]

@supple stratus @idle crest DONE!!!!!!!!!

[faint sky]

is it inappropriate to ask for someone with a 3D printer here if they're interested in designing & printing something for me? I don't have a 3d printer. i checked the rules and didn't see anything.

whipped up something in sketchup but it's far from usable other than an idea.

is there free software out there anyone can recommend for making 3D printable files? Sketchup won't import .brd or .sch files for the TFT from adafruits github.

[tall osprey]

Probably want fusion 360

But there's a whole variety out there

[exotic echo]

I might be interested, shoot me a DM with details.

[empty sedge]

Kicad can convert eagle files and output solid models of just the circuit board

[tepid geode]

Is that an open offer? I also need something printed.

[balmy pulsar]

hides printers and cnc machine

nothing to see here

[tepid geode]

Lol

[copper rose]

Is this a reasonable first CAD project?: A folding light bulb caddy, similar to folding dish racks like the attached but holds light bulbs instead of dishes. Won't necessarily 3D print this one, might just use CAD to show the design to a friend and then build it with hand tools. But I'd still like the skills I learn in the project to transfer to situations where I do want to 3D print.

Any resources, suggestions, etc. appreciated.

[balmy pulsar]

light bulbs? what is this 1987?

i cant realy visualise what you mean with bulbs

hehe

[copper rose]

no i'm designing it for my home in 2022

it is a somewhat ridiculous setup. I have a few table lamps that take ordinary E26 bulbs, and I achieve mood lighting by swapping in different bulbs at different times of the day. So I'm designing a little holder for the bulbs that are not in use at a given time.

[balmy pulsar]

ah, neat. anything with a defined end goal is a good cad project though. so as long as you know what this device has to do, it should teach you a lot

so, maybe a bit more like a cnc tooling rack

[copper rose]

awesome, thanks 🙂

[balmy pulsar]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/6123XVTONFL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

[copper rose]

yeah. Though I think a folding mechanism could be good here because it helps space out the bulbs, whose tops are bigger than their bases.

[balmy pulsar]

like that

except smaller, fold up,

[copper rose]

yep.

aesthetics matter here too. These are faux-walnut side tables, so wood with earthy colors is desirable

[balmy pulsar]

walnut i pretty

or contrast with maple

with printed inserts, kinda like that rack

makes the woodworking part more simple

modular

[copper rose]

yeah that makes sense, good idea

depending on the design, the woodworking could be easy regardless. For example some designs would contain solid strips of wood into which one simple needs to cut and sand some circular holes

[balmy pulsar]

yes, but if all holes were ther same, and your printed inserts could be made for each light bulb

makes it a bit cleaner

[copper rose]

yeah, valid

well. OpenSCAD looks real neat

[balmy pulsar]

fusion 360 is free for hobby. not to push an adesk product, but because so many people also use it you can get help and colaboration easily

[faint sky]

@copper rose "I achieve mood lighting by swapping in different bulbs at different times of the day" You do what? You know they make RGB smart bulbs now.

Why not print bulb sockets and screwing them in as a holder instead of a rack? I mean technically light bulb sockets are their natural holder.

[copper rose]

I do know that. I am not installing a freaking smartphone app to control my table lamp. Smartphones are a disaster and Internet of Things is a disaster.

[copper rose]

This is a cool idea. Probably want it to be quicker to insert and remove bulbs, but the perfect fit factor of what you describe is appealing.

[faint sky]

you can find bathroom vanity fixtures in e26. they would have a rectangular base with the benefit of mounting it under a cabinet or shelf for easy organization. depends on how many you have. if you have a large amount then a box organization system sounds like a better idea.

[copper rose]

Nice. I'm talking 4 or 5

[faint sky]

i have smart bulbs all over my house. while i agree about the app and IoT security they are very convenient. if you're swapping light bulbs multiple times a day then you're definitely the kind of person that should give serious consideration to a smart bulb.

[copper rose]

Yep, I gave them serious consideration lol

[balmy pulsar]

thats what i meant by printed inserts, to get a snug fit. you could print in a flexible clip that grabs the trheads, but doesnt make you actually twist the bulb

[copper rose]

oh that's a cool idea too, thx

[faint sky]

that's true, all you really need is a collar because bulbs are flanged

[fluid finch]

Does anyone happen to have an .stl for a pimoroni hyperpixel 4 screen and/or one for a pi 400 cyberdeck hat enclosure?

[tender sparrow]

Does anyone know how to stop or at least limit the corners of the print coming off of the print bed

[empty sedge]

getting the bed temperature exactly right is the biggest help. Trying going up another 5C. for PLA printing on blue tape or 10:1 diluted PVA (white glue) can help. For other plastics visionminer nano can help

[tender sparrow]

It’s fine while printing but when it’s finished it’s warped

[empty sedge]

do you let the cool before removing the print?

[tender sparrow]

Yes

It prints overnight and in the morning it’s warped

[empty sedge]

I doubt it curls after the print

[tender sparrow]

It’s fine for the first ~10 layers

[empty sedge]

Yeah, then I'd just repeat what I said above

[tender sparrow]

I’l try it

[empty sedge]

it can also curl off if your bed is too warm, or if there's too much ambient air movement

[tender sparrow]

The bed temp is 60c

[empty sedge]

what plastic of what brand on which printer on which print surface are you having trouble with?

[tender sparrow]

Amazon basics translucent red

[empty sedge]

if you're not using blue tape or PVA or nano it can help to clean the print surface with rubbing alcohol or dish soap

PLA?

[tender sparrow]

Ender 3 pro stock flex bed

It is pla

I’ve cleaned the bed with dish soap

[empty sedge]

I've had trouble getting uncolored PLA to stick before I put blue tape on this printer

[tender sparrow]

The filament says max bed temp 55c so i’l try 50c next time

[empty sedge]

eh, that's weirdly low

if it's too hot the plastic stays too soft so it can be pulled up. it's worth a try I guess

[tender sparrow]

55 degrees celsius

[balmy pulsar]

ive never had pla warp on my glass heated bed. i do keep the printer enclosed though. that i found 100% necessary for abs and nylon so i just keep it like that for pla too

[fluid finch]

Try releveling the bed and using a glue stick. Working through the same issue for one of my prints this week

[tender sparrow]

I have releveled the bed multiple times and the prints a bit big for a glue stick

[balmy pulsar]

O_o

glue stick (pva) works better the bigger the print is

more surface area

i only use pva for nylon though

acetone/abs slurry for abs. nothing for pla and petg

[tender sparrow]

Oh

[loud silo]

I print PLA just fine on my cheap printer with an unheated bed. Have you tried just turning off the bed heater?

I use a glue stick on blue tape

[balmy pulsar]

I do a lot of big and / or flat PLA prints. Make sure your printer is not in a breezy room, next to AC etc.

anycubic 60c glass bed, no glue or tape or anyting else, but the machine is boxed in to retain heat

[tender sparrow]

It’s in a compartment so not much airflow

[tender sparrow]

The problem just started

I had excellent results before

[balmy pulsar]

new filament brand?

[tender sparrow]

No

The only thing i can think of is needing to dehydrate the filament

[balmy pulsar]

thats usually a non issue with PLA

and not really much to do with warping

[tender sparrow]

Nothing has changed between the good prints and the bad ones

[balmy pulsar]

pizza grease on the bed?

ha

i dont really have any good ideas then

[tender sparrow]

I’ve washed it with dish soap multiple times

[balmy pulsar]

dish soap. that leaves a film

you need alcohol

ipa etc

[tender sparrow]

I haven’t dried it since February and the printer’s compartment is outside

[tender sparrow]

That might be it

[balmy pulsar]

yeah id get some IPA

[tender sparrow]

Is 91% isopropyl alcohol good?

Or should i use 70%?

[balmy pulsar]

any should be fine

the main thing is it disolves grease and evapourates

methanol works too

but methanol is... evil

ha

[tender sparrow]

I don’t have methanol

Thx for the help

[tender sparrow]

Methanol aka liquid death

[balmy pulsar]

methanol is more aggressive, but also the fumes are bad for you

[tender sparrow]

My printer has a problem where the bed gets unleveled constantly so i have to re level it every time i want to print anything

Does someone know how to fix it?

[balmy pulsar]

which printer?

beds move. thats kinda what they do and why levelling is so in your face. i relevel my small one every few prints. the big one has multi point levelling and seems to stay put

[tender sparrow]

Ender 3 pro

Even 5 min prints make it unleveled and the bed moves down instead of up so the leveling knobs are getting tighter

[balmy pulsar]

hmmm. maybe it is losing vertical steps

[tender sparrow]

That might be it

[tender sparrow]

How do i fix it?

[sacred hamlet]

I just got a Prusa Mk3 up and going with OctoPrint and Cura. Surprisingly not too painful.

[tender sparrow]

Fix this

[balmy pulsar]

you need to find out why its doing it, if in fact it is. could be a bad drive, loose belt, tight belt, too much weight bent lead screw, etc

[tender sparrow]

It can’t be the belt ones

[balmy pulsar]

i dont know the machine, just throwing out possible things to look at

[tender sparrow]

The printer had several issues when i got it so idk what it could be

[balmy pulsar]

printers are made of issues. haha. but you gotta narrow it down one variable at a time.

[tall osprey]

this is a common and known issue with enders

[balmy pulsar]

measuring some stuff might help. like, run a print with no heated bed and no filament,

common, but whats the cause?

[tall osprey]

they aren't made very well or designed very well lol

the screws just walk out

[balmy pulsar]

....

ok

[tall osprey]

I've heard replacing the springs can help

[balmy pulsar]

not sure i buy that, but i guess it could be.

[tall osprey]

when your printer costs 99$ there are going to be some corners cut

[balmy pulsar]

$99?

[tall osprey]

ya

plus their QC has fallen through the floor in the last two-three years or so

[balmy pulsar]

$280usd printer it says online

$479 actually

for the pro

[tall osprey]

microcenter (and a couple others) run 99$ coupons for it every other month

[balmy pulsar]

the pro?

[balmy pulsar]

yikes

sales like that are 'this product isnt very good, please take our stock"

[tall osprey]

They run it literally every other month

[balmy pulsar]

anyhow, this still doesnt tell us what the issue is.

[tall osprey]

This and the reputation they have from ~3-4 years ago leads to the ender3 being the most popular first printer on the market

Anyway I've seen people put on nylocks, use silicone dampeners instead of springs, locktite, etc

Installing an ABL probe also helps by just circumventing the issue

[tender sparrow]

Found the problem

Loose screws

The beam that the nozzle moves across was loose

Almost a 1/4 inch play

The last owner had half a dozen loose screws

That’s why he sold it as not working

[balmy pulsar]

aha

oh this was a basket case

thats fine then. i though you got it new not working

[tender sparrow]

It was a good 1.5 turns away from being tight

[balmy pulsar]

now now

[latent smelt]

hi. noob to 3d printing. is there a good guide/wiki for someone who wants to get a 3d printer? im pretty tech and handy so im sure i can deal with setup and minor adjustments. my first question i guess would be should i get an ender 3 or an ender 3 v2? most of the printing im planning to do would be for small casing/housing or parts for my electronics projects. dont need a lot of resolution but i want it to at least be semi reliable

[tall osprey]

don't buy an ender if you want reliability is what I would say

with a pretty small budget bump you can get significantly better printers

ie the artillery genius is ~350 and that's a much better printer

[latent smelt]

thanks @tall osprey. is the reliability more of a one time setup issue with enders? what are the alternative options?

[tall osprey]

I've never seen a settled ender

Everyone I know who has one always has something going on

But broadly if you want to print small stuff the prusa mini is relatively affordable and that's very nearly a press and go printer

[latent smelt]

ive looked at the prusas but they seem a bit out of budget at 700+. ive seen the mini but not sure if the 7” is good enough for printing cosplay props

although tbh maybe those 2” difference wont be that big in the big scheme of things

[tall osprey]

If you want the ~200x200 build plate that's common with "regular" sized printers take a look through the various chinesey printers- artillery, elegoo, anycubic etc

Oh no it's pretty significant

[latent smelt]

ive heard of the anycubic. ill go look for more info online

[tall osprey]

Anycubic resin printers are bad as a note

[latent smelt]

tbh ive been looking into getting into this 3d printing thing for years and now im really going to do it

[tall osprey]

It's a hobby accelerator for the most part
Lots of impossible things become possible

[latent smelt]

i know im going for an FDM instead of resin

i dont have a lot of use case for better resolution

most of the stuff i need before i hand carve out of old plastic cases and boxes

like a caveman. lol

[tall osprey]

Resin is tremendously difficult to work with just because of the safety hazards

But I can bust out 40 really tiny gears in a half hour

[latent smelt]

does anyone have an ankermake? based on what ive seen on promo videos it looks like the ultimate commercial 3d printer for beginners

[tall osprey]

I don't think anyone has one yet

Their marketing is at best untrue as well for various aspects

Broadly find them highly suspicious but who knows

[latent smelt]

ok so i guess its artillery genius or anycubic kobra?

[tall osprey]

Those are pretty distinct printers but I believe they're both good

Kobra is to my recollection a corexy large format

[latent smelt]

what does that mean?

corexy

theres also anycubic vyper which kind of spec’d the same in terms of print size

[tall osprey]

I was thinking of a completely different printer, disregard comments re:kobra

Also note you can get prusa mk3 clones for ~450 from China and I've heard good things for the most part

[tall osprey]

Corexy is a movement system type

Uses differential belts to produce movement
Results in a smaller, lighter carriage which works well for larger buildplates and retains speed lost by other mechanisms

[balmy pulsar]

the ankermake is curious, but yeah, i wouldnt touch one until a few hundred thousand other suckers have tried it out.

haha

i have anycubic megas and chiron

they mostly work fine

those are from the mega. but like all fdm printers, they are fussy things with many points of failure.

[latent smelt]

thanks. ive kind of semi decided to go with the anycubic vyper. dual z-axis does seem important for stability. ill read up some more recommendations and hopefully i can “push the print button” on it this week

[tender sparrow]

The printer works now :)

[balmy pulsar]

woo

[tender sparrow]

it has no more problems that i need to fix :)

[scenic musk]

im in the process of modifying a ring box for my friends proposal. unfortunately doing anything i would normally find simple has been extremely difficult. This is my first time working with a mesh models so maybe im overlooking something very easy. could anyone take the time to load this up in fusion 360 and give me some pointer on how i could create a sketch on the "flat" part on his back? https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2772227

[balmy pulsar]

ah. fusion in meshes is tricky. from memory, you would want to define a construction plane from vertices. i havent done it in ages so i dont remember exactly

[tall osprey]

You can convert mesh to brep and go from there

Googling mesh to body should help

But it's pretty funky to work with even after that

[balmy pulsar]

might be too heavy

[brittle hornet]

@scenic musk Sorry I don't have the fusion chops yet but I grabbed the stl and brought it into Maya where I'm comfortable. Maybe you would at least find this test useful. STL, Fusion -> OBJ export, OBJ -> Maya for boolean subtract /union. OBJ [368 MB] -> CURA to take a look. You can see by the picture that the boolean union text become illegible. It would need to be bolder. Boolean subtract sliced better. Also sliced for a .6mm nozzle but you get a basic idea. [need help? shoot me a DM. I will volunteer some time for a good cause...]

[balmy pulsar]

oooh. you can do that in fusion btw. you can convert the text to mesh and then boolean them inside there.

but all the text size readability will still apply of course

[brittle hornet]

Cool, i figured as much. I swear I will bite the bullet and start/end a simple project with fusion. Btw, the fact that the plane in question is rotated 31 degrees in x, also isn't helping with the "rasterizing"? "aliasing"? , whatever you would call the conversion to sliced print lines. I would be inclined to rotate the model in Cura so that plane is flat. Of course that might make for a messier bottom.

[balmy pulsar]

rotate the print

put a bit of support under his feet

[gloomy anchor]

do you guys use klipper?

seems quite fast. Paired with a pi zero

also what do you guys think of this https://markforged.com/3d-printers/metal-x. Supposedly prints metal

[balmy pulsar]

it is impractical

and expensive

dmls or similar is more useful for metal

(via services, owning one is silly)

[hexed sedge]

are you using a zero2? or running off of zero/zerow

[gloomy anchor]

a zero w. https://core-electronics.com.au/raspberry-pi-zero-w-wireless.html

[crimson pawn]

Hey guys, I am trying to build a case for my project. ( Consists of a 64x32 RGB Matrix LEDs, a ESP32 & a Metro M4 ). I was considering using TinkerCAD. What do you guys recommend? Should I use other software? I am new to 3D printing.

[balmy pulsar]

fusion 360 is free for hobby

i havent really used any of the other cheap/free cad softwares

[faint sky]

there are like a 20 different versions, can you link to the free version that's best for 3D printing design. there are so many versions it's really confusing.

[balmy pulsar]

id just start with fusion, but i am probably biassed at this point

[faint sky]

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

fusion 360 personal?

[balmy pulsar]

yes

thats the freebie

theres a start up version as well. but you need to actually provide real company data

and then theres the full paid "bite me" version which is now rather expensive ($500us/y?)

the downside to the free one is they tend to change features on a whim.

[tall osprey]

I'll be a bit contrarian here and strongly suggest going with the SOLIDWORKS hobby license at 10$/mo

I've had enough beefs and issues with f360 that SW can just chew through no problem

But transferring my learned skillset to SW is a pain in the but such that I really wish I had just started with it instead

[balmy pulsar]

sw hobby, this is new? normally you had to request the PE versions an it only ran a year

i like sw better overall, but i need fusions build in CAM

[tall osprey]

No clue on if it's new but it's a good deal

[balmy pulsar]

if it isnt heavily restricted

[tall osprey]

https://discover.solidworks.com/3dexperience-solidworks-makers

[balmy pulsar]

"Files and data created with your Maker account are digitally watermarked and can only be opened up in another Maker platform"

yeah thats a no then

also not compatible with plugins

they always do this

make it basically useless

sigh

[tall osprey]

Yeah that's the big footnote but it only applies to the native files- step and such is still OK

I wouldn't be surprised if it was somewhat easy to remove, just flip a bit or something....

[balmy pulsar]

if it was free, sure, i have no right to complain. but this is not viable for a paid product

[tall osprey]

Perhaps we shall get lucky and freecad will get the blender experience

Though it seems more likely blender will get CAD instead...

[balmy pulsar]

possibly

[thin breach]

I have used OnShape - geometry is strong. Not as good for organic features as Fusion 360.

[balmy pulsar]

ah yes onshape,w as trying to remember that one. my friend uses it, seems to like it

[faint sky]

got it installed, looks straight forward enough. now i can follow along with the Ruiz brothers 3D videos and learn new things. 🙂

[stuck trail]

if anyone replies to this, please ping me.... not much of a issue but I wanted a opinion if possible. I am about to buy the pursa mini+ and was wondering what extra sheets are worth getting. I do plan to mostly print with PLA but I might occasionally use something different

kind of only want to buy one sheet extra

[tall osprey]

smooth PEI sheet is a must I would say

[stuck trail]

I can't find out what sheet it comes with -_-

I think it is the steel sheet though

but I will take your word on the smooth pei

[tall osprey]

I would expect it comes with smooth pei

textured sheet is good for petg and other stickier materials

[stuck trail]

the site doesn't show the contents for the kit, the manual only talks about the steel sheet

kind of a missed opportunity X/ would be nice to get info on the full package contents X/

[tall osprey]

could just pop em an email

considering ship time from Prague its worth getting right

[stuck trail]

yeah, I was going to wait a bit until I saw

[tall osprey]

I don't have experience with the satin sheet but I will say having both is very good

[stuck trail]

what is different between smooth and satin?

[tall osprey]

smooth is... smooth

satin is kind of matte

[stuck trail]

ahhh

okay, so not textured but closer to that and easier to detach prints

[tall osprey]

the textured one is notably less sticky

[stuck trail]

yeah the last thing I want is prints moving midway

any accessories you'd recommend from their site?

I am getting the filament sensor

[tall osprey]

it comes with one

[stuck trail]

yeah, it is a option on purchase I am going with, just didn't know if there was any side accessory they have you might know

[tall osprey]

just took a quick scroll I don't see that I'd recommend anything besides one of the other sheets

threaded inserts are nice to have

[stuck trail]

oh I have some from my old printer still, but I will bookmark those now and think about that after I see the price with tax XD

the sheet in the kit is just called the PEI mini sheet

[tall osprey]

I'd pop an email

[stuck trail]

:/

yeah

was hoping to place the order tonight

[tall osprey]

or you could trawl their forums

[stuck trail]

I am guna watch a unboxing video XD

I was on their knowledge base for a minute

yeah, everything seems to point to them shipping with a steel sheet

Print bed material: Removable magnetic PEI spring steel sheet

I will assume that it is, I will buy it with the smooth sheet but email them as well

[shy kelp]

my printer does not update the temperature of the extruder
it reports 29C, when trying to heat it up, it gets in protection and shuts down
checking the thermistor with a tester it reports around 83 ohms, so I don't think that there are issues with connections
trying to use another pin, does give the same issue, another board pretty much the same, when shorting the pins it goes again in protection and shut down, so I don't think that's an issue of a faulty board

using marlin bugfix 2.1.x

https://mega.nz/file/hGVy0LYK#dlthg5T6EjH2mJuEbceuSkaoItKyaUjL427XIZkADes

[tender sparrow]

What model printer are you using?

[shy kelp]

an anycubic i3 mega, more or less

[tender sparrow]

Are you sure you’re using the right marlin config?

[shy kelp]

yes

[tender sparrow]

I meant to say are you using the config for the board version in your anycubic i3 mega

Nvm i just checked and it only has one board version

Check the heater

It might not be heating up so marlin errors as a failsafe

[balmy pulsar]

new hot ends for the mega are $18 or so. just get one and get bak to printing

[shy kelp]

and indeed it is new, and I did try with other hotends that previously did work