Brew Your Own 3d Printer

[phileakins]

Well - it's done and dusted!

The V3 is now sitting happily 'singing' to itself as it works on its second test print, the first was sliced at 0.2 mm this afternoon; this one is at at 0.1 mm (100 microns) to examine the differences.

The build was trouble free, couple of times that I had to dive in and strengthen some joints and the spirit level came out several time, but overall I am impressed by the smooth way it came together (as long as you followed the instructions ... don't ask). I now have no fears about taking it apart for any purpose whereas I'd be definitely chary of interfering with a bought one.

Big plus, I've found an active on-line community for the printer, with future improvement plans for it.

Further reports (and pictures Graham) will follow.

Phil

 

[phileakins]

I'm now a fully paid up member of the Microsoft hate club!

The printer is linked to my wife's Win 10 desktop (well, she doesn't use it) and I have been playing around with various slicing settings to see what came out best.

Halfway through a four hour print sliced at 50 microns (just to see if it would) - Windows updated itself without warning and everything ground to a halt with the half-printed object stuck to the hot end.

Not a happy bunny ...

On the plus side, what was printed was fairly encouraging and would need minimal finishing; and that with the bargain basement filament supplied with the printer part work.

Phil

 

[JimG]

Halfway through a four hour print sliced at 50 microns (just to see if it would) - Windows updated itself without warning and everything ground to a halt with the half-printed object stuck to the hot end.

Phil,

Windows PCs are used to run Mach3 software for CNC work and the first rule writ large is to keep the PC off networks and the Internet, or you can get what you just got. I've got a PC dedicated to the CNC setup and it goes nowhere near the Internet.

Jim.

 

[phileakins]

Lesson learned Jim!

There is a mod to the printer which allows off-line printing which I think I'll invest in.

Just finished a successful print sliced at 75 microns (o.o75mm). Although still obviously 'striped' it will need minimal finishing.

I've got some better quality filament on its way to repeat the exercise (200, 100, 75 and 50 micron slicing of the same subject) for comparison.
Overall I'm very happy with the machine which has amply repaid the investment (and the care in construction - it worked perfectly first time ). It has to be said that the design, in the main, was first rate. The £7.00 each week it cost wasn't too painful at all.

I'll organise some photo's as soon as the table it's on looks less like a bomb-site.

Phil

 

[Dog Star]

Phil,

How about disabling the auto-update feature so that Windows updates are applied only when convenient got you?

 

[phileakins]

How about disabling the auto-update feature so that Windows updates are applied only when convenient got you?

Unfortunately the version of Win 10 on Lyn's machine has very limited control over updates. I'll pursue the off-line approach which will not require a PC to be attached at all.

Phil

 

[Steph Dale]

Phil,

How about disabling the auto-update feature so that Windows updates are applied only when convenient got you?

Only the Pro version allows that to be done...

Steph

 

[SimonT]

Windows 10. There is no control of this spawn of the devil.

 

[phileakins]

Windows 10. There is no control of this spawn of the devil.

Is there an exorcist in the house?

 

[oldravendale]

I'm on Win 7 which is very well behaved. It only updates when I shut down at night, so I just leave it on to do it's own thing. Vista was a PITA though. It updated randomly and in the middle of work if it wanted to. If Win 10 does the same thing it's a very good reason to avoid it.

B

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I've noticed no problem with Win 10 updating. The updates download at any time and only update when I shut down the machine (I refer to my computers as machines as that's effectively what they are).

You can customise the Windows Update in the Update and security tab. One is active hours i.e. tell the machine when it is in use and it will not restart following updates during this time and/or set a restart time under Restart Options.

 

[oldravendale]

.....didn't work with Vista, Dave.....

B

 

[Steph Dale]

Phil,

Can you post some pics of the output you're describing, please?

Steph

 

[phileakins]

OK Steph.

Firstly - the thing itself then (after the group photo - they insisted) the prints in order of slicing size and without finishing. Close-up is cruel, but the latter two are noticeably less ridged to the touch.

Phil

 

[phileakins]

The free sample of the better quality filament arrived yesterday and a test made using the same model. Unfortunately the filament was translucent as can be seen.

Sliced at 75 microns and printed as before - not a bad result I think.

I'm trying to put together a railway based sample - an LCD brake van side - but am having to re-learn TurboCad 3D to do so. Progress might be slow, but in the meantime if anyone has a (small!) design to throw at me I'll have a bash at printing it out.

Phil

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

an LCD brake van side

Is that LCD as in LCDR? If so I have a Skinley 4mm blueprint for an LCDR brake van if it's of any use.

 

[phileakins]

Thanks Dave - I've got the same one - somewhere.

This drwg is one Malcolm Parker did many (many) moons ago and which, by coincidence, I 'acquired' from an old 'Model Railways' magazine from the rubbi ... second hand stall at Corfe Station on Thursday whilst I was impersonating a Guard (they'll find me out sooner or later! ).

Actually achieving the 3D output was reasonably easy when I caught on, but accuracy suffered because I was tracing 'holes' part way into a block to represent the outside framing on top of a scan of Malcolm's drawing, which looks as if it was printed using a crayon. OK for a test run though not good enough for production. If I go back through my South Eastern & Chatham Society mags/newsletters I'll probably find a better copy Malcolm had provided.

Nothing from Mr Dale after I posted the pics - is he dumbfounded or disappointed?

Phil

 

[Steph Dale]

Phil,
It's just that I haven't had time to get to a machine with a reasonable-sized monitor; on a smartphone they all look the same!

I'm wondering about using a relatively simple machine like this to produce a few large-scale patterns. I can see there's a degree of post-finishing to be done (but, arguably, there is even on 16micron stereolithography) so it's a case of letting the cogs spin and see where it leads me. One advantage with these machines over stereolithography is that the patterns will retain geometric stability.

Many thanks for posting the pics.

Steph

 

[phileakins]

Thanks Steph.

I'm quite happy to print a test piece if it helps the cogitation - max size 140 x 140mm.

Phil

 

[phileakins]

Well, here's the van side, at a strange angle to highlight the outside framing, just need to save it as an .stl file now.

We'll see how it prints.

Phil