Anyone used online 3D printing services

[SteamyTea]

Just a thought about all these printing slipping on the bed.

Could you not put put a thin plate on the bed, which will be attached well.

By drilling some holes in the plate, printing into those holes first, the component should not be able to slip.

Or you could put small pins in.

You would have some holes to fill, or upstands to sand off, but has to be better than wasting all that printer time.

[Onoff]

10 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Just a thought about all these printing slipping on the bed.

Could you not put put a thin plate on the bed, which will be attached well.

By drilling some holes in the plate, printing into those holes first, the component should not be able to slip.

Or you could put small pins in.

You would have some holes to fill, or upstands to sand off, but has to be better than wasting all that printer time.

 

This printer bed is allegedly designed to allow printing of ABS without adhesion promoters. You need however to protect against draughts causing sudden cooling of the piece etc. One worry is what size/speed fan for fume extraction that doesn't take out too much heat. 

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Onoff said:

allegedly

Says it all.

 

ABS needs baking in an over for a few hours to drive any moisture out.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Cast acrylic, it more stable and optically clear.

Probably get away with 4mm, maybe need 6mm.

 

I split the difference and ordered a cast piece 5mm thick, 550x550 with polished edges. Just over £20 delivered. Cheers.

 

Lad is mulling a Pi camera set up so he can remotely see what's printing. 

[SteamyTea]

28 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Lad is mulling a Pi camera set up so he can remotely see what's printing. 

I have used a very cheap webcam on my RPi, it worked alright.

[Temp]

On 26/04/2020 at 22:23, Onoff said:

 

My glass seems like its stuck on to the aluminium bed. With double sided tape maybe? 

 

Possibly some sort of heat conducting tape? My printer only had an aluminium bed, had to add glass myself.

[Temp]

I saw a video on YouTube where someone printed a wide brim or raft around the part then paused the printer and stuck the brim down to the bed with tape, and then restarted printing. 

 

I've only ever tried pausing a print once and it didn't go well. Instead of just stopping the print head shot off to one side and tried to keep going stripping rubber teeth off one of the belts. I assume there is a bug in the firmware. Stopping works ok but you can't then resume.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Temp

[Onoff]

6 hours ago, Temp said:

I saw a video on YouTube where someone printed a wide brim or raft around the part then paused the printer and stuck the brim down to the bed with tape, and then restarted printing. 

 

I've only ever tried pausing a print once and it didn't go well. Instead of just stopping the print head shot off to one side and tried to keep going stripping rubber teeth off one of the belts. I assume there is a bug in the firmware. Stopping works ok but you can't then resume.

 

 

 

 

 

The Anycubic i3 Mega S we have will restart where it left off even after a power failure. Yesterday it ran out of filament. It senses this and pauses whilst you change the reel then carries on. No visible "join" or anything.

[dpmiller]

put the printer under the body dryer in the bathroom?

[Temp]

Just finished printing another batch of face visor bands for the project I'm involved with. So far I've printed 80 which is no mean feat on my printer. I've gone through the three reels of filament and two ball bearings in the printer with another on the way out. It's the tiny bearings inside the idler pulleys that are failing. 

 

Another member of the project team found a way of printing and then ejecting the print into a bucket so another one can be printed! He uses some hand crafted gcode to get the nozzle to knock the print off the bed. 

 

[Onoff]

Continuing down the latest rabbit hole that is an enclosure for the 3D printer...

 

Oddly enough the neighbouring farm didn't want anything for this. Let me and my lad take it FOR NOTHING! His loss! ? AND I can take the scrap back to the pile. 

 

Got to go back for the filament storage area (bottom draws) and doors. Just hoping the assorted greenhouse glass I've got will fit the sides without cutting. Got a bfo thick piece of chipboard for a nice heavy shelf for the printer. Castors too sitting in the shed looking for a home.

 

 

 

Find the Sharpie & fire up the grinder!

[Onoff]

I really think SWMBO is pretty stoked at the thought of this coming indoors...

 

 

 

?

[Onoff]

Update: Old fridge freezer 3D printer enclosure project ABANDONED. Back on the tip where it came from!

[Temp]

https://blog.prusaprinters.org/cheap-simple-3d-printer-enclosure/

 

Quote

Using Ikea Lack as an enclosure is the most popular choice among the 3D printing community. If you search online, you’ll find dozens of Ikea Lack enclosure designs. 

 

Think it's a pair of tables they use..

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Temp

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

https://blog.prusaprinters.org/cheap-simple-3d-printer-enclosure/

 

 

Think it's a pair of tables they use..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks. Have seen this one. At the moment SWMBO is the biggest barricade to a full height enclosure moaning about "Where's it going to go?".

 

The printer at present takes up I guess half to a third of her desk next to my lad's bespoke gaming one. Plan was to make a full height, wheeled enclosure, printer on top, storage below and site this in a corner of an adjacent room. She'd get her desk back.  (Venting outside still an issue, as in where). She didn't like that idea. "Why can't you make a box and sit it on "a table"?". Go figure!

 

Irrational? Oh yeah!

 

I give up! ?

 

 

[Onoff]

Scored a sheet of 2mm "perspex" today for nowt! A bit thinner than I'd like but beggars can't be etc.

 

 

And ripped the start of the legs up from some scrap:

 

 

Will all be sanded, filled, painted black etc. Plan is double doors on the front. Sides fully removable with wing bolts and penny washers.

 

Just printing some "feet" up. These will be screwed to the base board and the legs will slot in allowing the whole top to be lifted off. Front feet will incorporate hinges for the front doors.

 

 

The base board will hopefully become a top for a bottom storage unit on castors, later on.

[Temp]

Filament plug...

 

Having run out of filament recently while printing PPE I went looking for some new sources of reasonable price reasonable quality filament. Came across this stuff...

 

Colorfabb "Economy" White/Black..

 

vhttps://www.idig3dprinting.co.uk/shop/3d-printer-filament/pla-filament/colorfabb-pla-filament/colorfabb-economy-white-pla-2-2kg/

 

£37.80 for a large 2.2Kg reel which works out at about £17/kg. 

 

OK so here might be cheaper filaments out there but prices seem to have gone up recently so I reckon its not bad. Its not a glossy filament more a matt/silk finish but that's OK for me.

 

The headbands I've been printing are produced in stacks of 8 which have to be split apart. With three other brands I've had problems with stringing and getting the fan speed right. Too fast/cold and the prints curl up or even delaminate, too slow/hot and they all bond together and you rip bits out of them trying to separate them. With this colorfabb filament they are are separating OK but not delaminating so I'm more than happy.

 

I have used normal (as opposed to economy) colorfabb filament once before and think that was also ok.

 

[Onoff]

Something like this. Not the most flattering shot. It'll look better when sanded and painted up with it's "glass" sides and door! Who needs IKEA? ?

 

All the wooden bits connect together with the 3D printed PLA bits at the corners OK. (Though I did break one hinge...I had had a couple). You can just see the door hinges on the front. 9mm ply sheet on the back. I'm a couple of mm out somewhere but I'll get away with it with a bit of trimming!

Can't decide whether to let a clear panel into the top.

 

A kilo of RS Pro black PLA coming tomorrow for some reprint bits. Not tried it before, it was just the quickest I could get any. 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Onoff

[Onoff]

A bit more progress. Though you can't see them the reprinted bits are done. All joints slackened and re tightened for a better fit.

 

Two front doors cut to size from 2mm perspex or whatever this freebie stuff is. As I feared 2mm is a bit flexible so on one door I've clipped a length of copper bus bar that fits over the edge a treat. Makes things much more rigid.

 

Sides just stuck on with Sellotape at the mo.

 

 

As a little test ran the bed up to 40degC. Using a little remote thermometer the internal temperature held at around 38degC. On the face of it that's good but when you think for ABS it needs a bed temp of like 110degC that will not be at all good for the printer's internal electronics; the psu, MOSFET board etc. Looking now to move these parts outside the enclosure.

 

Got some blingy, wi-fi controlled, USB powered LED light strips coming for the inside. Comes with remote and can be controlled via an app. 

 

Picking up a 2G, MK  USB socket to go on the back later.

[Temp]

I've never tried ABS, does it need to be that hot?

 

My printer has been running for long periods recently and I've managed to wear out the bearings in four belt idler pulleys. They aren't expensive but a pain to keep changing. Mine uses quite small 16 tooth GT2 pulleys and the bearings inside don't seem to be upto the job. I've redesigned the tensioners to use drive pulleys and separate/larger bearings.

[Onoff]

44 minutes ago, Temp said:

I've never tried ABS, does it need to be that hot?

 

My printer has been running for long periods recently and I've managed to wear out the bearings in four belt idler pulleys. They aren't expensive but a pain to keep changing. Mine uses quite small 16 tooth GT2 pulleys and the bearings inside don't seem to be upto the job. I've redesigned the tensioners to use drive pulleys and separate/larger bearings.

 

Yes, for ABS, bed at around 110degC. They reckon even with fan exhaust the internal enclosure temperature can reach 45degC. 

[Temp]

Today the last batch of visor bands I printed passed their QA check so that makes 100 I've now shipped. I've got another 30 or so being hand finished. Poor old  printer getting fed up printing the same thing over and over.

 

They give you points for each band delivered and these can be redeemed for filament. You don't get enough to replace what you have donated but gives me the chance to build up a collection of different colours. Latest one I've ordered is glow in the dark. Will probably use it to print stuff for Halloween later this year. 

[Onoff]

@SteamyTea, @ProDave, etc. I'm after having a real time temperature monitoring system for the 3D printer enclosure. 

 

I know what I'd like but have no idea if its possible!

 

- Wi-fi enabled Raspberry Pi

- DS18b20 sensors 

 

My lad I'm sure can figure that bit out.

 

- GUI on the pc. Ideally a simple graphical representation of the enclosure with the various temperatures. That's the tricky bit for me. Any pointers/links/guides? My lad just said "Why not use a list?" and went back to gaming. He's happy though reading pages of code like mere mortals like me look at pictures!

 

Aside I think these sensors are only good up to 105degC.

 

https://www.circuitbasics.com/raspberry-pi-ds18b20-temperature-sensor-tutorial/

 

Cheers

[SteamyTea]

If you are not bothered about logging the temperatures, how about ones of these:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Inside-Outdoor-Home-Electronic-Hygrometer-Thermometer-Precision-Tester-x-1/174205919478

 

But if you really want to use a PC to display it on, then SSH (connect) to the RPi with PuTTY (the software on the PC).

Your code on the RPi will look something like this:

 

#!/usr/bin/python

#imports necessary libaries
import os, time, datetime

#load drivers
os.system('modprobe w1-gpio')
os.system('modprobe w1-therm')

while True:
#Sort out the time format
    dt = datetime.datetime.now()
    runday = dt.day
    dt.day == runday

#sensor 1
    tfile = open("/sys/bus/w1/devices/28-030697945754/w1_slave")
    text1 = tfile.read()
    tfile.close()
    temperature_data1 = text1.split()[-1]
    temperature1 = float(temperature_data1[2:])
    temperature1 = temperature1 / 1000

 

#opens and reads the time
    ts = time.time()

#sets time to UTC and dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss format
    UTC = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(ts).strftime('%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S')

    logfile = '/home/pi/monitoring/data/temperatures/1wire-%s-%s-%s.csv' % (dt.day, dt.month, dt.year)

#creates and opens or appends data to file
    tfile = open(logfile, "a")

#writes to data file
    tfile.write("%s"%UTC + ",%s"%temperature1  + '\n')

#closes data file
    tfile.close

 

print (temperature1)

 

#sleeps for (n) seconds until next reading
    time.sleep(29)
 

 

The "28-030697945754" is the sensor number and will have to be changed to whatever sensor number you need.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Your code on the RPi will look something like this:

 

Thank you ever so much...though I haven't got much of a clue of what I'm looking at or how to implement it on the Pi. I last did any programming on a ZX81 then pcs running DOS. Since then, nada! Tbh I was never very good at it then. More hands on, monkey see etc.

 

I keep meaning to learn Python, I at least recognise it as that.

 

A bit like I keep meaning to learn another CAD / modelling package to compliment the hard learnt, now engrained AutoCAD. Maybe Fusion 360 or Solid Edge / Works etc. Old dog etc!

 

The single, off the shelf, digital thermometer isn't really what I want. I want to measure multiple internal points. Print bed temp is known so I want to measure the air space above the print bed maybe at two points.  Exhaust temperature is good to know too. It may be that the fan has to be switched in/out to maintain a stable temperature. Likely too some measurement around the printer's mobo and MOSFET boards and maybe it's air intake. So perhaps measurement at 4 points, perhaps 5 with ambient also.

 

I've heard my lad teaching a mate Python during lockdown of late, maybe he can teach me.

 

I presume I just add in code for multiple sensors?

 

How do you know the sensor number, the "28..."?

 

Is there a sensor good up to say 150degC? 

 

And WHY in Python don't you have line numbers like you did in MSBASIC?

 

1 IF

2 GOTO

3 LIST

 

Etc

 

Cheers