The Official 3d Printing thread

[RobbyMaQ]

I fried a board in one of my enders (don't ask, rookie mistake). So I have done a mks gen l swap in it for fairly cheap. Now no memory limits, can upgrade/swap steppers etc..
Picked up some more boards to do the switch on the remaining printers at a future date

 

[RobbyMaQ]

:crickets:

 

[4651feeder]

I picked up one of the few remaining printrbot Simple Pro bare bones frame kits earlier this month to facilitate a future project of converting a Simple Metal over to linear rail from rods. But gosh who's got time for 3D printing during the summer?

 

[Sailor]

I have the MFJ 259D and the Mini60s bluetooth analyzer that graphs to my phone.

 

[Jaredjosh]

Anyone heard from Larry? Any idea how he is doing?

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Anyone heard from Larry? Any idea how he is doing?

I have not heard from him in some time... I've seen some activity from him on thingiverse a couple weeks ago

Just bought an anycubic photon for $359 off 3dprintersbay and am printing parts while I wait for it to arrive...

 

[4651feeder]

...Just bought an anycubic photon...

What's your opinion of it? I see the price has come down even further and am interested in an unbiased review.

 

[Kurr]

I posted in another thread where my buddy had the plastic forward reverse gears break on our lathe and asked about having someone print them. Also I would like a full set of change gears for my craftsman 109 lathe and they typically run 120-150.00 for the originl zamak ones.

After reading through this thread some, and watching a TON if videos and reviews on youtube, I figured it would be best to skip the hassle and middlemen, and dropped the hammer on a Creality Ender 2. I figured it would be a good place to get started and learn, as i have 0 experience with anything really CAD or CNC related (i want to get into both) and for 130.00 i don't think i could go wrong. Going to start with 2kg of PLA filament to get me started and to figure out what I'm doing then ill order some nylon filament to upgrade the gears. I already have fusion 360 though I haven't messed with it much since I got it.

 

[maxwelhse]

I posted in another thread where my buddy had the plastic forward reverse gears break on our lathe and asked about having someone print them. Also I would like a full set of change gears for my craftsman 109 lathe and they typically run 120-150.00 for the originl zamak ones.

After reading through this thread some, and watching a TON if videos and reviews on youtube, I figured it would be best to skip the hassle and middlemen, and dropped the hammer on a Creality Ender 2. I figured it would be a good place to get started and learn, as i have 0 experience with anything really CAD or CNC related (i want to get into both) and for 130.00 i don't think i could go wrong. Going to start with 2kg of PLA filament to get me started and to figure out what I'm doing then ill order some nylon filament to upgrade the gears. I already have fusion 360 though I haven't messed with it much since I got it.

Good luck to you! You just opened the door to a really fun hobby. I don't have any experience with that specific printer (but I did just sniff at it a little, and I'm curious if it will be able to get hot enough to run Nylon), but the ins and outs of most of them are similar. Same with design software. I haven't used Fusion (no need as I have a a Solidworks Premium license at my disposal any time I want), but I've used about everything else.

I'm curious to hear how your gears turn out!

 

[Kurr]

The "nylon" turned our horrible, but it wasn't the blue nylon i see everyone using, it was clear an reminded me of a glue stick while i was trying to print.

Then, I got in 2kg of PLA and went again.....



I did those at 100% infill even though 2 others at 20% seem to be holding up on the lathe while running just fine!!

 

[ghuns]

We are machining our first set of 3d printed, steel, injection mold cores right now.

 

[maxwelhse]

We are machining our first set of 3d printed, steel, injection mold cores right now.

There's been a lot of talk around our water cooler about acquiring a metal 3D printer... What did you guys select and how's it working out?

We're looking at one to make actual prototype parts and I keep leaning toward the side of a machining center instead...

 

[ghuns]

There's been a lot of talk around our water cooler about acquiring a metal 3D printer... What did you guys select and how's it working out?

We're looking at one to make actual prototype parts and I keep leaning toward the side of a machining center instead...

We don't have a printer. Our customer has one and they provided us with the pieces.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[maxwelhse]

We don't have a printer. Our customer has one and they provided us with the pieces.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

Ahhh... I see. I'd still be curious to hear your feedback on the parts they provided once you get to know them a little more.

 

[fullmetaljesus]

after a bit of a break i fired up the ol printer again. Time to print some D&D mini's for a game we are running.

But im failing pretty hard. will get 10 minutes into the print and just stop extruding. i was just watching it as it reached its fail point. and it just prints air. i pushed the filament down into the extruder and it started working again, but it was too late to save the print.

i pulled the fan off and blew out the extruder gears but they have a bit of build up i cant get to.

any one have any advice?

 

[maxwelhse]

after a bit of a break i fired up the ol printer again. Time to print some D&D mini's for a game we are running.

But im failing pretty hard. will get 10 minutes into the print and just stop extruding. i was just watching it as it reached its fail point. and it just prints air. i pushed the filament down into the extruder and it started working again, but it was too late to save the print.

i pulled the fan off and blew out the extruder gears but they have a bit of build up i cant get to.

any one have any advice?

Well, if there's junk in the gears then it's not going to extrude correctly. If you don't think that's the problem abd you've checked the obvious stuff like the spool isn't jamming and the filament is free to move...

Run your hot end temp up STUPID hot (at least 30C over what the material wants), let it heat soak for a bit (it will likely ooze), and then run a hundred mm of material through it to purge at that high temp. Let the hot end come back down to normal temp and run a few hundred more mm through it, then try a print. I'm thinking you may have some fouled material in your nozzle.

If you're printing with PLA, try switching over to ABS for your purging. I've found that the ABS seems to really like to scrub old PLA out of nozzles, sometimes after a few thousand mm's of purging even. Then you can switch back to PLA if you want, purge the ABS, and try again.

Of course, you can just switch nozzles if you have another one. Same effect.

 

[fullmetaljesus]

I pulled the entire hot end apart to clean it.

I held the nozzle with pliers and then hit it with 4 torch cigar lighter. All the plastic came ooozing out.

Put it all back together but didn't get the nozzle all the way in so it oozed over. Back to square one. I'll take it apart hit it with the lighter then try again

I just ran out of time for it tonight.

I like your advice though I'm going to have to try some abs and see what happens.

 

[maxwelhse]

I've never had to hit a nozzle with a torch before... Whatever temp the hot end will come up to is usually plenty to get a good purge going. I suspect your issue is, or at least wasn't until it got all gooey from that small mishap, probably not a contaminated nozzle if you had to get that aggressive with it.

Other food for thought, if your print is failing at the same exact place every time, there's probably something up with your gcode. Maybe try a different slicer or attempt a different part and see how it prints?

 

[fullmetaljesus]

I've never had to hit a nozzle with a torch before... Whatever temp the hot end will come up to is usually plenty to get a good purge going. I suspect your issue is, or at least wasn't until it got all gooey from that small mishap, probably not a contaminated nozzle if you had to get that aggressive with it.

Other food for thought, if your print is failing at the same exact place every time, there's probably something up with your gcode. Maybe try a different slicer or attempt a different part and see how it prints?

I have tried two different models with very similar results.

I have been trying This goblin assassin
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1256348/files
And I can't find the link for the other module I'm trying.

 

[maxwelhse]

I have tried two different models with very similar results.

I have been trying This goblin assassin
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1256348/files
And I can't find the link for the other module I'm trying.

Try something completely different (such as a simple rectangle) and see how that goes. With 2 different parts doing nearly the exact same thing (printer fine, then stops extruding at almost the exact same point) I more suspect your slicing software. Seems like if it was the printer it would either break and stay that way or run. Especially if the filament isn't stripped in the drive.