Jumped into the 3d printer pool

[2A_Tom]

 

[Ericpwp]

Here's a quicky
[video=youtube_share;zE15la4W-18]http://youtu.be/zE15la4W-18[/video]

 

[cbhausen]

Don't count on any of the major 3D repository sites for anything gun-related... The stuff in MY head would NEVER end up there anyway... And yeah, I have a 3D printer at my disposal.

 

[Sailor]

Cancelled my 3d printer order reseller was crap. Almost bought a used seemecnc rostock printer but decided to go with a prusa kit and build it myself. Dual extruders. I have sold some stuff so I have money to work with. This one is on the way.http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/3d-printer-kits/12-pegasus-kit.html

 

[Sailor]

You try any glue sticks for adhesion Eric? How long did your build take?

 

[Ericpwp]

I have not tried glue sticks. I ran into a problem printing ABS. The bed does not get hot enough and the hot end does not stay at a constant temperature. I was going to try an acetone/ABS wash to see if I could run the ABS w/out the bed heat. It seems like a good PLA printer but struggles on the higher temp stuff.

Small builds take around an hour depending on the layer thickness and the % fill, some of the bigger stuff runs all night.

That looks like a solid setup!

 

[Sailor]

Hmm maybe a cheap enclosure like poster board / foil, and something small inside for a temp boost like a light?

Apparently is does not matter if you spend 100 or $2000 bucks you will end up with time spent tweaking.

 

[Ericpwp]

I actually had two heat guns on it to bring it up to temp. I don't think my board lets enough current through. Tweaking is a a big part of it. I have not had a ton of time lately to get deep into it, but I have some ideas when I do.

Edit: also I think the aluminum bed is acting like a heatsink and bleeding it off.

 

[Sailor]

Those heated beds take much more amps than I thought they would.

 

[Sailor]

So my 12x12 Makerfarm Pegasus is about 90%, but that Wanhao D6 I cancelled through my credit card company showed up at my door. That US seller is so bad. They drop ship from China. The box literally looks like it was kicked here. My credit card company already refunded me. Come pick it up and send it back to China. In the meantime I plugged it in and when I tried to level the bed got hit with a shower of sparks. The bed screwed and gauged into the heating element. Some Kapton tape and it is all good. Pre made or kit form. All 3d printing is a constant tech tweaking hobby IMO.

 

[Ericpwp]

^Is that PLA or ABS?^

Okay, I finally got some time for some tweaking. It is constant, but I was planning on that going in.

So my bed was not heating up high enough for ABS (110C). I ran it with a spare computer power supply. It was better but it was still topping out around 90C. Did some googling and found that the resistance of the heated bed was specced at 1.2 ohms between the 12v jumpers. I checked mine and is was closer to 3. I dropped $12 for a new heated bed to be one-day shipped.

When the new one got in, it was also too high of a resistance. So I ran them in parallel and stacked them. Now it was reading 1 ohm. It quickly got up to the 110C. I had been getting faster heat times with the computer psu, so I measured the 12v on the printer's psu. 10V, what? I looked and there was a sticker on it that said check the internal switch for the line voltage. It was set to 220.

I got the heated beds wired in parallel, stacked on top of each other, and the line running at 12v. I am quickly hitting the 110C now.

 

[Sailor]

Nice! That was PLA. Have zero bed heating or warping problems. The stock surface sticks too hard! with ABS my problem is bridging looks horrible. I am convinced its a settings issue but there are a million variables to adjust, I will get there. The Little one is enclosed when printing ABS that really helps. I need better cooling for PLA.

 

[Ericpwp]

You got to keep both!

ABS doesn't stick to the my aluminum bed. I am using the 3m painters tape with an acetone/abs slurry and it is doing the job. I will put up some pics later.

 

[Sailor]

It prints threads pretty well, that's important....

 

[Ericpwp]

Yeah, is what's the layer resolution of that print, .1mm?

 

[Sailor]

I think that was .15 from memory. PLA. Sliced with Simplify 3d

 

[Sailor]

Hatchbox PLA. . 2 layer at 200 degrees. I need better cooling getting a 50mm blower fan.

 

[Sailor]

This turned out better. Not sure why my uploads keep rotating this way cant fix this via a phone download.

.2 Hatchbox PLA again.

 

[Ericpwp]

Very cool.

Here are some Raspberry Pi cases. The left one was when I was having trouble with the heated bed. The right one had much better adhesion. The cover of the left one went through acetone vapor smoothing. It is glow in the dark abs.

 

[Ericpwp]

Here are my Yodas. The small one spent too much time in the acetone vapor. The big one had issues during the night. It looks like humidity in the filament.