3-D Print General - Feeding Printers Filament

I'm in the process of printing out a full scale Halo Assault Rife in-between printing out smaller items.
rifle.jpg

You can see a gap with the second piece on the left to the one under it. It actually curves up on the ends. I'm pretty sure that was a bed leveling issue. Don't want to reprint so I'll just fill it in somehow when I glue them together. It's not even half done. That's 9 out of 31 pieces.

I've been designing and printing some plate pieces for a 1U rack chassis I foolishly bought. It's designed to fit two mini-ITX boards, two FlexATX PSU's, two 2.5" drives and two 3.5" drives. But goddamn that would be fucking hard to do. The FlexATX I bought has been modded for modular cables so didn't fit in the designated area in the chassis. Since I'm only putting one motherboard in, I put the PSU where the second MB would go and designed a new IO plate to secure it too. I'm moving my Garage PI setup into this chassis too. This actually isn't even the final piece but one of the prototypes I printed for fit checks. The final piece has two large round holes to the left of the PSU for panel mount cat5/6 connectors for the Garage PI to use. The PSU screws to the IO plate. To keep it from flexing back when I plug in the power cord, I also printed a simple flat piece that fit around a couple standoffs built into the chassis to the right of the PSU that fits snug.
backplate left.jpgbackplate right.jpg

Here's the mounting plate I just did tonight. The RPi (RPi 1 A, I think. Two USB ports and only two mounting holes) mounts on the left and the relay board mounts on the right. The slightly bigger holes that are slightly offset from each other are for screwing it in to the bottom of the chassis. Luckily, it has a few countersunk holes on the bottom and comes with some slightly course threaded countersunk screws that worked perfect for this. The RPi is slightly loose feeling because it only has two mount holes and I still used standoffs to clear stuff on the bottom. The relay board has four but only the top two can actually take screws because the wire block was installed two close to the other two screw holes. Design flaw.

rpi plate.jpg

The IO plate for the PSU was designed using FreeCAD. The RPI mount was designed using TinkerCAD and holy shit, I'm sticking with that. It is much easier to design simple things like this in TinkerCAD than FreeCAD.
 
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Distant Stare said:
The state of the art is relatively excellent. To get a high end machine for home use you can spend about 700 dollars or so on a Prusa MK2. This printer runs its self and in many years I have never heard a single complaint about it. For 200 dollars you can get an Ender 3, which is perfect for everyday use. It can print PETG (a strong material) really well.

Over the last few years what has really caused machines to increase in quality is

1) Better software (slicers and Marlin firmware)
2) Decreased price from more manufacturers entering the market

The Ender 3 comes with an all aluminium body. A few years ago that would have been rare.

There are also resin printers for 200 dollars that create prints so detailed that they are measured in a few microns. These printers are perfect for making miniatures, models, and other small things.


View attachment 1042375View attachment 1042380View attachment 1042376
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The caveat with resin is the hazards and fumes that come off during prints. Not that FDM is much better for your health.
 

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My college offers a cheap 3d printing service for students. Since I don't have space for a 3d printer, it's pretty convenient. Sadly I'm no longer a student there so I might have to go elsewhere or jump though some hoops.

I printed a few minis with PLA and resin. What I like with PLA is that it's cheap and can build big things with it. Resin allows for more minute details but it's costly, fragile and toxic.

Made a herd of kobolds and an army of bandits with PLA. The little critters were fine (had to glue a few of them together since I'm a huge ree.tard) but the bandits supports were nigh impossible to remove. They had very fine weapons so I'll inevitably break them no matter what I do.

I did two of my D&D characters in resin. I was genuinely impressed at how detailed the figures turned out. I had a dragonborn and a dwarf (who I had to glue his hammer together, very fragile) and someone will be painting them for me.

One day, I'll have my own printer... one day...
 
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More prints, for my nephews. Painted them myself, was good fun. Theme of the week is ocean for their giftbox.
20200211_151318.jpg20200211_151243.jpg
These little guys aren't that big, my hand is small. But they move and wiggle super well, even with paint.
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These guys are really cool, their mouths open and shit. Painted inside segments with pink to simulate the meat, plus white on the joints to mimic spine bones.
20200211_151407.jpg
The blue one unfortunately came out a bit stiff, and while I was trying to wiggle the joints loose I broke one of the tips. Superglued it back on. Will try with stronger material next time.
2786.jpeg
Group pic before they are shipped off tomorrow to their new homes!!
Dm me for requests

Distant Stare said:
Neat! Do you print anything functional?
Click to expand...
Define functional?
 
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Does anyone else have an Ender 3 Pro and is it a giant piece of shit for you too?

I realized after printing the complete Halo rifle, a complete Falcon 9, and got only 2 pieces away from completing a Falcon 9 Heavy that all my prints were sub par quality. Being new to this, I thought it was just what it was. I realized this by doing a new slice of a piece in a fresh copy of Cura and it printed way better. Somehow before I think I had my printer set up as an Ender 3, not a Ender 3 Pro in Cura and that seems to have made the difference. Either that or it was CHEP's profiles.

Ok, so that problem solved. I have a BL Touch and have an issue with the Z Offset changing. It's not consistent when it does it, and it's usually only .1-.2mm, but still, it matters. I also, probably related, seem to have a problem with the Z axis motor not locking correctly or something. I can have it raise up to whatever, say 120mm, and let it sit, and it'll drop uncommanded. Sometimes alllll the way down till it hits the bed. And it's not a loose coupler problem, the motor unlocks and it drops. It even did this in the middle of moving to home and that fucked up the home operation. I suspect it slipping might be causing the Z Offset change. I've had to adjust it before and then a few minutes later change it right back to what it was.

Speaking of motor issues, since I keep stopping prints when they get fucked up, most of the time the Y (bed) motor unlocks and I can freely move it. Sometimes it doesn't. Is the firmware just that shitty or is my control board going bad?

Edit a day later - I think I got it all sorted out. Tightened the slip nut on the Z axis bearing and that seemed to help with the falling. Can still happen, but not as bad. Also started wiping the bed down with wet paper towel and then drying it and that seems to solve the issues I was having with the first layer peeling up and not sticking with small prints.
 
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Sam Losco said:
Does anyone else have an Ender 3 Pro and is it a giant piece of shit for you too?
Click to expand...

well, it's one of the cheapest for a reason. doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, just that it requires a lot of tinkering.
my advice would be to lurk /3DPG/ on /diy/, they do a lot with FDM and those threads have more eyeballs and traffic than this one. they can probably help you out more with some of the stuff (and how to fix it).
 
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I saw this post in an r/moderatepolitics thread about gun control as it relates to 3D printing. You can tell they have no idea what they're talking about.
The possible solution? Ban the creation of 3D printed guns by non-licensed people. Ban the sale of 3D printed guns if they don’t go through the ideally strict background checks from a licensed provider. People who buy 3D printers should have to get a license to purchase one. People with 3D printers who have the ability to create guns should go through random inspections by police if illegal creation of these guns become prevalent.
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They want to require a license to buy an Anet A8? Although on the other hand, those things are firetraps, so that might not be such a bad idea...

But home inspections for people who have 3D printers that have the ability to print guns? Well almost every printer has the ability to make at least some parts of a gun.

This proposal is just completely unworkable and reeks of someone who doesn't even have basic knowledge of 3D printing.
 
heyitsmike said:
I saw this post in an r/moderatepolitics thread about gun control as it relates to 3D printing. You can tell they have no idea what they're talking about.

They want to require a license to buy an Anet A8? Although on the other hand, those things are firetraps, so that might not be such a bad idea...

But home inspections for people who have 3D printers that have the ability to print guns? Well almost every printer has the ability to make at least some parts of a gun.

This proposal is just completely unworkable and reeks of someone who doesn't even have basic knowledge of 3D printing.
Click to expand...
Their knowledge of how guns work and what is involved with making a functional gun is lacking as well. Should we require a license for any tool that can be used in the creation of a gun? What a fucking moron.
 
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What would be a good 3D printer for small hobby stuff like decent figures (not looking for anything spectacular here) and cosplay parts?
 
Sam Losco said:
Their knowledge of how guns work and what is involved with making a functional gun is lacking as well. Should we require a license for any tool that can be used in the creation of a gun?
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Exactly. It's just another tool. And tools already create guns now.

A 3D printer is nothing but a computer controlled 3D pen. And a 3D pen is nothing but a hot glue gun that uses filament. Should we regulate hot glue guns too?
 
heyitsmike said:
I saw this post in an r/moderatepolitics thread about gun control as it relates to 3D printing. You can tell they have no idea what they're talking about.

They want to require a license to buy an Anet A8? Although on the other hand, those things are firetraps, so that might not be such a bad idea...

But home inspections for people who have 3D printers that have the ability to print guns? Well almost every printer has the ability to make at least some parts of a gun.

This proposal is just completely unworkable and reeks of someone who doesn't even have basic knowledge of 3D printing.
Click to expand...
Imagine being such a domesticated liberal faggot that you think making something illegal makes something impossible. That you think some nigger is not going to print a gun because the law says no. These people need to be put up against a wall
 
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heyitsmike said:
I saw this post in an r/moderatepolitics thread about gun control as it relates to 3D printing. You can tell they have no idea what they're talking about.

They want to require a license to buy an Anet A8? Although on the other hand, those things are firetraps, so that might not be such a bad idea...

But home inspections for people who have 3D printers that have the ability to print guns? Well almost every printer has the ability to make at least some parts of a gun.

This proposal is just completely unworkable and reeks of someone who doesn't even have basic knowledge of 3D printing.
Click to expand...
He's not wrong, is he?

I mean, it's only a matter of time before it becomes trivial to 3d print a (nice) gun without any engineering skills or special tools. Of course, gun control is total lunacy, but if you want to do gun control, you have to do gun control.

The only reason we haven't seen it yet is because nobody's done a school shooting with one. The moment some edgy kid 3d prints an AR-15 and buys a parts kit online, the Democrats are going to start whining.
 
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hundredpercent said:
He's not wrong, is he?

I mean, it's only a matter of time before it becomes trivial to 3d print a (nice) gun without any engineering skills or special tools. Of course, gun control is total lunacy, but if you want to do gun control, you have to do gun control.

The only reason we haven't seen it yet is because nobody's done a school shooting with one. The moment some edgy kid 3d prints an AR-15 and buys a parts kit online, the Democrats are going to start whining.
Click to expand...
We are lucky the door-cuck in Germany did not use his printed luty. If he did than the tribe would have been after printers
 
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Sam Losco said:
I'm in the process of printing out a full scale Halo Assault Rife in-between printing out smaller items.
View attachment 1124855

You can see a gap with the second piece on the left to the one under it. It actually curves up on the ends. I'm pretty sure that was a bed leveling issue. Don't want to reprint so I'll just fill it in somehow when I glue them together. It's not even half done. That's 9 out of 31 pieces.

I've been designing and printing some plate pieces for a 1U rack chassis I foolishly bought. It's designed to fit two mini-ITX boards, two FlexATX PSU's, two 2.5" drives and two 3.5" drives. But goddamn that would be fucking hard to do. The FlexATX I bought has been modded for modular cables so didn't fit in the designated area in the chassis. Since I'm only putting one motherboard in, I put the PSU where the second MB would go and designed a new IO plate to secure it too. I'm moving my Garage PI setup into this chassis too. This actually isn't even the final piece but one of the prototypes I printed for fit checks. The final piece has two large round holes to the left of the PSU for panel mount cat5/6 connectors for the Garage PI to use. The PSU screws to the IO plate. To keep it from flexing back when I plug in the power cord, I also printed a simple flat piece that fit around a couple standoffs built into the chassis to the right of the PSU that fits snug.
View attachment 1124852View attachment 1124853

Here's the mounting plate I just did tonight. The RPi (RPi 1 A, I think. Two USB ports and only two mounting holes) mounts on the left and the relay board mounts on the right. The slightly bigger holes that are slightly offset from each other are for screwing it in to the bottom of the chassis. Luckily, it has a few countersunk holes on the bottom and comes with some slightly course threaded countersunk screws that worked perfect for this. The RPi is slightly loose feeling because it only has two mount holes and I still used standoffs to clear stuff on the bottom. The relay board has four but only the top two can actually take screws because the wire block was installed two close to the other two screw holes. Design flaw.

View attachment 1124854

The IO plate for the PSU was designed using FreeCAD. The RPI mount was designed using TinkerCAD and holy shit, I'm sticking with that. It is much easier to design simple things like this in TinkerCAD than FreeCAD.
Click to expand...

Within minis I use green stuff or liquid green stuff to fill in gaps. It might be worth a shot with that as well. Overall it looks good.
 
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