My 3DC

[Vidar]

Ah, the joys of filament printing... 

If I somehow got the settings right it is a no touch zone until all material is used!

[Grant Lamontagne]

I am tending to be that way too.  Right now I have a grey filament installed, so for the foreseeable future, everything will be printed in grey.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Now that I have designed and printed a few things, it was time for the next step of my 3D printing journey- 3D scan something, convert the scan to an .STL and print it.

In this case, the "something" was my coworker Moe.

I used Polycam and my phone to create a 3D scan of Moe, then printed him out.

And of course I added Googly eyes, because why wouldn't you?

Def

[Vidar]

You have scary coworkers! Interesting scan though.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I wasn't happy with the print- I forgot to use supports and so his earlobes got all stringy.  I'm doing it again now with supports, but it's going to take forever because I forgot to change the infill back from 50 percent after the project I did in the meantime.   

Hopefully the new print will come out a little less Palpatine-y.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

The second print came out a lot better. V

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

As much fun as that was, this was the main reason I got a 3D printer.

Last year my basement apartment flooded when we had three month's worry of rain fall in less than 12 hours.  After that I had a company come in, take all of my belongings to storage then tear the flooring and walls out.

When I finally got my things back, there were odds and ends missing- some things like this were harder to replace than others.

I have these bike racks called Bike Nooks, and they are a great way to store a bicycle.

https://bikenook.ca/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwhvi0BhA4EiwAX25ujwDzel6BpUdHsK5Ym0UPC63IfvvCBb_g4jTGTtFIX0_tg60YMB_RNhoCEccQAvD_BwE

At the top of the Bike Nook is a notched piece of plastic that basically just protects the bike and the nook from contacting.

When I got both my bike nooks back, there was only one plastic cover, so I tried to duplicate it.  My design skills aren't the best, but I don't think I did too bad a job. 

When I get home tonight I'll see if it fits.

Def

[AzteCypher]

Great use for a 3D printer and that's a great system.  I might have to look into that because we have 4 bikes to contend with at the moment and they eat up a lot of floor space.

[Vidar]

That seems like a good copy to me. 

We have an old car trailer which I sometimes think I should just weld some construct to hold bikes onto. Would be an easier way to transport cycles than this thing at the back of the car. Maybe add some storage box for gear or similar. Anyway, that would need some holders that clamps on without damaging, and for some reason I haven't considered 3D printing contacting parts. Now I do. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Great use for a 3D printer and that's a great system.  I might have to look into that because we have 4 bikes to contend with at the moment and they eat up a lot of floor space.

Believe it or not, I actually designed almost exactly this system in my head a few years ago, although I'd intended to build it out of wood.  I thought I was something of a genius and had come up with a revolutionary new way to store bikes.  I actually looked online to do some research on how best to produce it when I found out that it already existed.   

As for the copy, I forgot that the top of the steel is angled, and I made my copy with a flat bottom inside, and so now I need to figure out how to hollow the points.

I think I am going to cheat and make some cutouts in the side that I will then push in, which won't hollow the points really, but should achieve much the same result.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Bringing this back up again because I've been having some fun.

Last weekend I picked up a Cybertool with blue scales that were quite broken.  No problem I figured, it was a good price, and I have some replacement scales lying around.

Or better yet, I can make some.

Or even better yet I can 3D print some.

Or even better-er yet, why don't I get some awesome filament and 3D print some?

I ordered some iridescent filament, and it arrived yesterday.  I couldn't wait to put it to work and printed some awesome scales.

It wasn't the iridescent colors I'd ordered, but that's okay, they look awesome.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the finished product so you will all have to wait until later to see the SAK scales.

Its okay- while they look cool, they don't actually fit, so more experimentation is needed.  Also these ones don't have the toothpick/tweezer/pen/pin slots, so other than being a cool looking proof of concept, they really aren't good for much.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

The iridescent color I got is pink, blue and green, and don't worry, I may be leaving you hanging on the scales, but there's more!

I decided that I needed to print something else with this filament right away, and something worthy.  There's a lot of cool options for sure, but I wanted to recreate the old polycarbonate Juice sheath.

Back in the day, you could get a clear plastic clip sheath for the old Juice models, and I've seen files on Thingiverse that allow you to print one, so I did.

It was dark when I left this morning, but I snapped a picture of it while it was on the printer still, and here are some bad photos of it on my dashboard.  Its raining pretty good, so no really good photos of it but hopefully you can see the colors well enough.

It also holds a Juice so tightly that you'll probably never get it back out, but it might wear in after a while- which will likely never happen. 

The design itself is a bit of a fail, as there is too much stress on the back, just below where the clip attaches, and it broke almost instantly.

But it looks absolutely awesome and that's the main thing- the design can be altered and made functional, and having an idea of what it will look like, I have to say that it will be worth it.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

This is the only type of filament that should ever be used for a Juice sheath.  Nothing else can match the bling factor!

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

The rain let up briefly and I managed to snap a few slightly better photos before once again getting wet.   

Its important to note that it's not truly iridescent in that it doesn't actually change colors.  There's a pink side, a blue side and a green side and they all pretty well merge into eachother.  The filament has three seperate colors in it, similar to toothpaste in the 80's. 

Whichever way the filament is oriented in the machine determines which color each side of the object is.  Of course there is nothing keeping the filament oriented any specific way, so you'd never get the same pattern twice.  Additionally if I was to rotate the printing orientation the colors would all face a different way and again you'd have a totally different looking end product.

Def

[Cypren]

If you’re going to refine the design of that holster, you may want to consider making the belt clip and the holster itself two separate pieces which are screwed or mechanically clipped together. 3D prints are always weakest along the axis of the layer lines, so you ideally want the belt clip to be printed on its side so the axis of stress is perpendicular to layer lines running lengthwise. Meanwhile the holster itself should be printed vertically with the layer lines spanning the shorter axis as you’ve done in the photos, so that interior pressure on the wings from the tool as it’s inserted and removed doesn’t cause the holster to crack.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I had much the same thought.  The break was definitely the result of layer adhesion- or rather lack thereof.  I've been noticing that different filaments from different manufacturers have very different results when it comes to layer adhesion-.

I have printed another version of the blue Wave sheath above and you can hear the belt loop crack when applying even the slightest pressure, versus the blue one that is quite solid feeling.  Same machine, same file, different filament.

Overall I don't have a lot of faith in these sheaths, although I have worn the blue sheath a few times for testing and it seems to have held up fine.

You are right though, seperate pieces printed in directions with optimized layer axis makes a lot more sense.  Its also a good opportunity for me to learn how better to work with other people's files, something I haven't had a lot of success with yet.   

Def

[Vidar]

I had much the same thought.  The break was definitely the result of layer adhesion- or rather lack thereof.  I've been noticing that different filaments from different manufacturers have very different results when it comes to layer adhesion-.

I have printed another version of the blue Wave sheath above and you can hear the belt loop crack when applying even the slightest pressure, versus the blue one that is quite solid feeling.  Same machine, same file, different filament.

Overall I don't have a lot of faith in these sheaths, although I have worn the blue sheath a few times for testing and it seems to have held up fine.

You are right though, seperate pieces printed in directions with optimized layer axis makes a lot more sense.  Its also a good opportunity for me to learn how better to work with other people's files, something I haven't had a lot of success with yet.   

Def

Some of these filaments are also glue friendly so laminating different directions could be an idea?

Resin printers have less directional challenges than filament ones. (I have some resin that is supposedly ABS like, and sounds suitable for tasks like this, but I haven't had any excuses to use it yet).

[Grant Lamontagne]

I've been drooling over the idea of getting a resin printer for a while.  I keep thinking about buying a second hand one that comes with the UV curing station and so on, as it seems simpler to buy the whole setup rather than try to figure it out for myself.   

I am also give ng serious thought to upgrading to a Bambu Labs filament printer.  Mine has a small build area (150mm cubed), is restricted only to PLA and doesn't have a heated bed.  Its also restricted to its own software, and the company has gone under so no updates, fixes etc, and I'm stuck with the very limited options for customizing things like layer height, temperatures etc.

Its a great machine to play with, but I'd like to take my builds to the next level.

Def

[Cypren]

I really can’t say enough good things about the Bambu Lab printers. I bought an X1 Carbon a couple of years ago to use as my “printer of last resort”: I’m constantly tinkering with my other printers, so they may or may not be in a usable state at any given time, but since everything is proprietary on the Bambu printers, I won’t be tempted to tinker with it and therefore it will always be available to print rescue parts to fix the others.

That was the plan, anyway; instead, it rapidly became my primary printer, because it’s just so much easier to work with and produces such excellent results. I’ve had a half-built RailCore II ZLT sitting unfinished for almost 18 months now because the Bambu works so well that I just haven’t had any sense of urgency.

The best way I’ve seen it put is that Bambu printers are loved by people who print things for their hobbies and loathed by people whose printers are their hobby. Turns out that I’m more of the former than the latter, when all is said and done.

[Vidar]

I originally bought the first 3D printer (a filament one) to make metal prototype parts via lost wax casting. Basically you 3D print what you want as a wax model which get surrounded by a mould material and melted out - metal is then poured in to fill the space where the wax used to be. (This is a few deep rabbit holes in itself).

Although I did find some usable wax filament there were issues with practical resolution, uneven scaling of measurements and other geometric issues like flat not being flat enough and so on. Thus I gave up on filament printing fairly early for this, although I have used it for some other tasks later on. The first resin printer I got fixed the resolution issue, but uneven scaling and other inaccurate geometric features like bent flats remained to some degree. Which eventually led me to a DLP based resin printer. Scaling is consistent enough for my use, and the geometric precision is way better. 

For many doing 3D parts like miniatures and the like it isn't all that relevant, but for me making tiny parts fitting together it is a critical feature for the use I intended. So if anyone has the same needs those are my experiences with those various technologies. (I've also used a few commercial direct to metal 3D print services for prototyping - that is a very nice way to save yourself hassle if you only need a few parts).

But thinking back as it used to be: Amazing possibilities these days!

Edit: I've also been thinking about using 3D prints as forms for glass- or carbonfiber parts. And it would be interesting to make a electric conductive form (that can later be melted away) and add thick metal plating using electroplating. One should be able to make some really intricate parts that way.

[Grant Lamontagne]

My current unit is an XYZ Printing Da Vinci Mini W+.  It was inexpensive and I got it on sale at the big blue box store.  Its a good machine to use right out of the box, and decent for anyone not wanting to tinker.

That having been said, it relies almost completely on its own proprietary software and it's very limited.

I had a smaller one, I think the M3D?  I didn't much care for it.  It was too small for pretty much anything, no heated bed and no auto leveling.

Prior to that I built an Anet A8 that was great for what it was, but again, no bed leveling and no heated beds.  There were various kits to upgrade it, but in the end it went to my nephew's son. He likes tinkering with stuff- I want to mess around with building stuff, not with the equipment that builds stuff.

Def

[Vidar]

I want to mess around with building stuff, not with the equipment that builds stuff.I want to mess around with building stuff, not with the equipment that builds stuff.

Totally with you on that one. I'm sure 3D printers are interesting to tinker with as such, but for me they are tools. Thus I look for ease of use, predictable and good results, economy and reliability. And they have come a long way towards that since I got my first one in 2016 or so. Future models will surely be better yet 

[Cypren]

He likes tinkering with stuff- I want to mess around with building stuff, not with the equipment that builds stuff.

You're definitely the target audience for the Bambu printers, then. If it's inside your budget, I'd recommend just going with the X1 Carbon: it's pricey but you get your money's worth in both the reliability and capability of the machine itself and the additional safety/verification features that can detect problems, halt the print and alert you if something starts to go off the rails. It's as close as you get to "it just works" in 3D printing, at least for a budget under six figures.

[AzteCypher]

I run the original Ender 3 that my wife got me a few years back for a Christmas present.  I slowly upgraded it as I learned more about it and it's fun tinkering with i.  Now, I'm really interested in the Bambu X1 carbon, especially since it can print in nylon and carbon fiber.  I've been itching to try and print a manifold adapter for some ITBs.

[Grant Lamontagne]

You're definitely the target audience for the Bambu printers, then. If it's inside your budget, I'd recommend just going with the X1 Carbon: it's pricey but you get your money's worth in both the reliability and capability of the machine itself and the additional safety/verification features that can detect problems, halt the print and alert you if something starts to go off the rails. It's as close as you get to "it just works" in 3D printing, at least for a budget under six figures.

That is the one I have been drooling over.  I was thinking the P1S but I have decided that it is worth the extra $$ to have the option to print in carbon as well.  I feel like if I take that plunge, I might as well go all the way with it.  I also like the idea of being able to expand it in the future with the AMS units, so I can keep it loaded with all kinds of different materials and colors.

I also think using Cura instead of the XYZ Printing software will make a huge difference in setting things up.  I miss Cura.   

Also, I have had three different 3D printers and I have committed the ultimate sin.

I have never printed a Benchy. 

Def

[Vidar]

Also, I have had three different 3D printers and I have committed the ultimate sin.

I have never printed a Benchy. 

You're clearly a maverick rebel fighting the system, man, alluminati and conventions in ever so subtle ways.

I'm sure the world has enough Benchies anyway.

Edit: I see my brain got twisted there, but if alluminati isn't a word yet it should be.

[Grant Lamontagne]

It amus a me that many printers are rated by how fast they can crank out a benchy, which makes sense since it's a benchmark they can all be measure eachother against....

But I've never done one.

Maybe I should, just so I can see how much better a Bambu Labs model would be over mine.   

Since I have decided that my life is too cluttered already, I have been avoiding printing decorative things, toys, figures that kind of thing. Instead, I've decided to for the most part anyway, only print useful items.

For the most part I have stuck to that. Although there were a few figures I did print off for my amusement and I printed a sheet of chain mail just to see what it was like.  It's not a hard and fast rule but it's something I do try to stick to.

That having been said the other day I tried printing a model of Samhain for Megan since she's a big Halloween person.  Unfortunately it was very teeny so I scaled it up and I'm printing a second one.  This time I am using the multicolored filament which I think will add a lot to the figure.

I started the print last night and this is what it looked like when I left for work this morning. So far so good. I hope the rest of it is not a spaghetti monster when I get home.

Def

[AzteCypher]

That's pretty cool.  Is that the one from 3D cults?

I downloaded this ghostie to 3D print for our trick-or-treaters this year.

https://www.printables.com/model/581996-halloween-ghost

[Grant Lamontagne]

It might be.  I got it from Thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6695457

I have a few things from Cult3D but my go to sites are usually Thingiverse and Printables.com.  The only things I have really gotten from Cult3D are some o-ring action figures, like a Boba Fett an Eddie from the Aces High cover.  I've had very limited success with those small, intricate parts, and I can't help but feel that a resin printer would be better than filament for that kind of thing.

Def

[Vidar]

It amus a me that many printers are rated by how fast they can crank out a benchy, which makes sense since it's a benchmark they can all be measure eachother against....

Are filament 3D printers so similar/ good these days that speed is the key difference? I printed a Benchy or 3 when I got the filament printer, but the thing back then was as a quality and capability check more than anything. At least I thought it was.