Jumped into the 3d printer pool

[Ericpwp]

Well here it is. I bought a prusa i3 kit from ebay for $200. There instructions were youtube vids. Got it together last night and printed the test file. It looks to be some kind of AA battery holder or something. The sky is the limit now... I have no training in such things, we’ll see how it turns out.

 

[Hop]

I could so get into this but don't need another hobby. Subbed to see what you create.

 

[2A_Tom]

 

[hoosierdoc]

Very cool! I have wanted to but no time to devote to something else.

 

[HoughMade]

I wouldn't mind one of these, but my son's college has multiple 3D printers "free" for the students to use, so I will likely be e-mailing him a file or two from time to time.

 

[Ericpwp]

Well, so far, so good.

I'm happy to report that it works. Being the cheapest model I could find, I was expecting a lot more troubleshooting. I bought a kit for the ground up working knowledge.

It is still in the infantile stages, but I'm making progress. The test print worked well, and I printed a couple of trinkets off Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects with the help of Slic3r - G-code generator for 3D printers for the g-code.

There is a lot of downtime watching plastic dry here at the beginning. I had it running overnight working on the latest project. So far, so good.

 

[hoosierdoc]

You should download plans for it to make filament, and additional printers. Then you can start selling them!

 

[Ericpwp]

Yeah, diy filament would be key. I saw some stuff out there for it, but did not dig too deep yet.

This particular printer has only 3 parts 3d printed. Most of it is cnc cut acrylic.

I want to build a cnc router once I get going on this. I figured a 3d printer would be a good starting point.

I WILL HAVE AN ARMY OF MACHINES MAKING ME STUFF!

 

[pute62]

Any chance I can get you to print me a new elbow joint?

 

[DapperDan]

Cool to see another ingo member in the 3D printer world. I recent picked up my first DIY kit as well, went with the micromake delta. Kind of wish I had gone with a Cartesian for my first printer since the delta is kind of complicated. Looking forward to seeing some of your prints

 

[Ericpwp]

Any chance I can get you to print me a new elbow joint?

Give me some time...

Cool to see another ingo member in the 3D printer world. I recent picked up my first DIY kit as well, went with the micromake delta. Kind of wish I had gone with a Cartesian for my first printer since the delta is kind of complicated. Looking forward to seeing some of your prints

Yeah, I wanted to keep it simple to start. Those look cool though.

 

[Ericpwp]

Here are my projects so far:
Harry Potter bookmark and Deathly Hallows symbol for the wife.



And...





[video=youtube_share;zu4tVzoaXbc]http://youtu.be/zu4tVzoaXbc[/video]





It's a shopvac bucket cyclone. I always wanted one but was too cheap to buy.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

This appears to be similar resolution to the printers we used at brownsburg library. I was a little disappointed in the texture, but we got what we paid for (free). $200 ain't too shabby either! I'd be interested in doing a similar kit for the convenience. I assume it comes with everything but a spool of filament?

Also... there's a way to give this stuff an 'acetone bath' to smooth it all out. Think csi fingerprint capturing (heated super glue/acetone in an enclosed container, so the gas fumigates and 'melts' the plastic).

 

[Ericpwp]

Yep, everything but the spool. PLA is the stuff I used for these prints. Amazon just delivered a spool of ABS. I read the acetone works with ABS for finishing. I need to pick some up.

 

[DapperDan]

Check out makergeeks.com they have a good selection of filaments at good prices

 

[Ericpwp]

Okay, here's the skinny.

There is a lot of experimentation happening here. I am learning the limitations of bed adhesion and importance of planing how the object will print. I had some adhesion failures when there was not enough surface contact with the object. Also that duck tape brand blue painters tape sticks to an object where 3M's does not.

I printed a raspberry pi case from thingiverse.com, I was not happy with the fit of the board in the case and two subsequent cases failed to stay put.


I tried some finer detail in a naked lady golf tee as a gag gift for my Dad. It failed due to the orientation of the print. I hit it with some goof off to turn it white to show some of the detail. The finer detail was achieved by setting the layers to .1mm vs .3mm. I'll just link it here: 20160614_2c2b9.jpg - imgup.net

And the finale...
My first ground up design and build. A mount for a $5 Amazon special 7 watt cree flashlight.
I designed it using a program called Freecad after watching some YouTube tutorials. I am happy with it, though some of the tolerances are too tight, and some are too lose, but some are just right.

 

[Sailor]

Good thread, just put my Hornady press up for sale, and an extra HF radio. Jumping in the pool also. Getting a Wanhao duplicator 6. Networking with some local guys for a semi private makers group, to share this stuff. A cnc machine would be nice.

 

[blacknwhite]

I've never played with a 3d printer much but I think there is a company down the road.from me in southern Indiana that makes the plastic for them.or something. Maybe I can get in on the cheap?

 

[Ericpwp]

I don't know of any locals that get together out by me. There has to be some that are not in high school, somewhere.

I need to sit down and figure out the calibration. I printed some stuff from Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects but am not having luck with the tolerances. I am finding the parts are too big. The most recent think I made was supposed to be an lc9 mag loader. The mag gets stuck in it, so I have to take some plastic off the inside to get it to work.

 

[padawan]

Saving my allowance for a 2nd press but you definitely have my attention...