PeterW Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 2 minutes ago, ProDave said: Most machines, at least any that I have had anything to do with, go through a "homing" sequence at power up, driving each axis until a home switch is found and setting that as the zero datum. Such a homing sequence would synchronise the 2 stepper motors. Not sure they do in this scenario as the unit I’ve seen that @Temp is referring to only has a single driver for the two motors and a single limit switch. These are pretty low tech units - nearly as low tech as the one I built from wood (yep..!) although it gave a pretty good accuracy. A guy I used to work with built a £99 3D printer and then used it to print another one, now has one that would have cost upward of £1500 if he had bought it and has only had to buy the linear bearings and the print head as the rest he has printed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 (edited) It has two outputs on the control board but only a limit switch one side. I've not seen anyone mention this issue as a problem but perhaps I'll think about a solution when I upgrade to a metal frame. Might be as simple as adding a toothed belt to link the two drive rods across the top of the rig. Perhaps a bit more complicated as the rods don't even have bearings that end. I can see me printing some simple L section brackets to hold some ball races. Edit: Might be harder than I thought because the belt would need joining in a way that would allow it to go around the pulleys. Unless I can find a loop roughly the right length and take up an excess in a tensioner. Edited January 28, 2019 by Temp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Its alive! Just. Having survived being powered up with a reverse polarity PSU (my fault) its printing it's first Benchy. Whole printer will need bolting down to something rigid because if the floor isn't dead flat the gap between head and bed isn't consistent. Should be able to sort that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 (edited) Close up results of first print. For scale its about 2" long. Pretty pleased with how it turned out. Surprised how much force it took to break off the chimney given that its got a hole down the middle. Edited January 29, 2019 by Temp 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 On 24/01/2019 at 16:36, PeterStarck said: As an update I've created an .stl file and got an estimate from the site that @Temp linked to. It all seems straightforward. Have you sent it off yet? I can't offer to print 50 as it would probably take me a long time on my machine but could have a go at printing one or two in black PLA if you want to see what it looks like before getting lots done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Temp said: Close up results of first print. For scale its about 2" long. Pretty pleased with how it turned out. Surprised how much force it took to break off the chimney given that its got a hole down the middle. Love it! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Temp said: Have you sent it off yet? I can't offer to print 50 as it would probably take me a long time on my machine but could have a go at printing one or two in black PLA if you want to see what it looks like before getting lots done. You could be making a rod for your own back here, offering such services....you'll have to create an STL file first though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 I don't plan to go into business :-) Peter said he's done the.stl so it should be just a matter of loading into Cura and turning on supports. Perhaps adding a brim to make it stick to the bed.... He said optimistically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 How much does it cost to make such a thing materials wise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Indicative only but how much to make one off battery adapter (the blue bit) similar to this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Material cost is one thing, labour another... If you know the weight of the part then material cost is easy to estimate. The slicer software Cura told me the boat/Benchy weighs 14 grams and used about 4.8m of filament. A 1Kg reel of 1.75mm diameter PLA or ABS filament is around £16-£18 from Amazon and is roughly 330m long. So the material cost was about £18*14/1000=25p or £18*4.8/330 = 25p. So even something 10 or 20 times the weight wouldn't be expensive in material. As for labour.. Cura predicted it would take about 2.5 hours to print Benchy and it actually took just over 3 hours. So if you had to pay someone to supervise the machine it would dominate the cost. It's why I don't fancy offering to print 50 clips for Peter, it could be 150 hours of time on my machine. I imagine the online places also get sent a lot of designs that don't print very well because they haven't been designed to be 3D printed. For example while you can print in mid air (overhang) there are limits or it sags. Typically you might have to add printed supports but again the slicer software can add these and you have to cut them off afterwards. The cost and times above could be higher/longer if you wanted to print 100% solid objects. Most people print hollow parts with a honeycomb inside. The slicer program does all that for you as well. You specify how thick you want the walls and what percentage of infill you want and it does the rest. I printed the boat above with 1.6mm walls and a 20% infill and it feels quite strong but I guess something like a part for a cordless tool might need a higher infill %. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Just for info I went to Thingiverse and typed in "Dewalt"... https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=dewalt&dwh=935c50e4a1c6da8 ...up came some battery adaptors other people have designed. This one... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1248463 ..is for a "Dewalt Lithium 20VMax to RYOBI One+ 18 volt Adapter" and is similar to both the blue and orange parts on your photo. I loaded it into Cura and it estimated something like 8.5 hours of print time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 2 minutes ago, Temp said: Just for info I went to Thingiverse and typed in "Dewalt"... https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=dewalt&dwh=935c50e4a1c6da8 ...up came some battery adaptors other people have designed. This one... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1248463 ..is for a "Dewalt Lithium 20VMax to RYOBI One+ 18 volt Adapter" and is similar to both the blue and orange parts on your photo. I loaded it into Cura and it estimated something like 8.5 hours of print time. You know @Onoff never goes for the easy option 8.5 hours - wow!! I guess it's like everything - it all evolves over time. In a few years I'm sure they will be laughing at these relatively primitive slow machines whereas we look upon them with wonder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Not exactly the Replicator is it. 8.5hrs...even SWMBO could make the tea in that time! Do you have to be keeping an eye on it during that time? Does it smell also? Interesting ref the hollow/solid thing, never knew. I can see me buying one I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Anyone suggest a good piece of free software to convert an AutoCAD model to an STL? Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 4 minutes ago, Onoff said: I can see me buying one I think. I can see you buying one too. Can see it now “can’t finish the bathroom love, still need to watch the 3D printer for another 7 hours” ? 4 minutes ago, Onoff said: Anyone suggest a good piece of free software to convert an AutoCAD model to an STL? Cheers. Would Autocad not export into that format? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 8 minutes ago, newhome said: I can see you buying one too. Can see it now “can’t finish the bathroom love, still need to watch the 3D printer for another 7 hours” ? Would Autocad not export into that format? Haven't looked tbh. On 2010 here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 7 hours ago, newhome said: 8.5 hours - wow! Some of that may well be due to my inexperience. Tweaks to the slicer settings can make quite a difference. You can also control the head speed but I don't yet know how far I can push my cheapo machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Can I ask what program you model in? In fact what are the stages in all this. Never heard of Cura or the "slicer". Ta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted January 30, 2019 Author Share Posted January 30, 2019 15 hours ago, Temp said: Have you sent it off yet? I can't offer to print 50 as it would probably take me a long time on my machine but could have a go at printing one or two in black PLA if you want to see what it looks like before getting lots done. Thank you, that's a very generous offer, but I have ordered them from 3DPRINTUK and should receive them next week. I hope it all goes to plan as I know next to nothing about 3D printing although I do understand about triangulated surfaces as it was a large part of the modelling work I did 40 odd years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted January 30, 2019 Author Share Posted January 30, 2019 2 hours ago, Onoff said: Anyone suggest a good piece of free software to convert an AutoCAD model to an STL? Cheers. I used FreeCAD to create the model and .stl file. The cost of each of my hooks printed in nylon was 75p and they are 41.5mm long and solid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 I was half eyeing up the Balco one from Aldi: https://www.aldi.co.uk/balco-3d-printer/p/086887240233900 £299 is a bit more than I'd like to pay. I'm also assuming there's clones of the Balco available cheaper on eBay etc. Tempted to go the route @Temp has and order the same one on the basis he'll know all the issues with it. Aldi filament reels btw online at £12.99, 1.75mm, 1kg, PLA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) Could be the answer to my prayers a generic Makita battery adapter. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2156290 Thinking I could take the top off of the "no name" 18V tool batteries and bolt the 2-piece adapter to that. Edited January 30, 2019 by Onoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Revamp those old 18V cordless tools to take Parkside Lidl 20V Li-ion ones: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3005395 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Have done three small prints so far. Main issue/difficult I'm finding with the A8 is levelling the bed.... To get the first few layers to stick to the bed the nozzle has to skim over the bed the thickness of a sheet of paper above it. So the bed has to be level to that accuracy. However the printer mechanics make this quite difficult to set up. It's adjusted using M3 bolts and wing nuts but the whole thing isn't very rigid, move the printer and it twists enough to make the gap too big or two small requiring readjustment. I've got a bit of 25mm MDF on the way to bolt it to. I've seen references to auto levelling add-ons but not investigated that yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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