The Everything 3D Printer Thread

[mike93lx]

On the smaller/cheaper units, I wouldn't overthink this. Any printer will be a good start to help you figure out what you need and one. An a1 mini might be all you ever desire, but if you realize that it isn't the right one for you, you can sell it to recoup nearly all of your investment or keep it as a small, inexpensive second printer to supplement the next.

 

[Jehannum]

Got the ESP32s mounted. I'm pretty happy with it. Got to make a box for the INA226s and CAN transceivers now, with a dupont header for all the connections.

 

[Old tool guy]

No, the a1 is a bed slinger. The head can't move front to back

 

[Old tool guy]

Got the ESP32s mounted. I'm pretty happy with it. Got to make a box for the INA226s and CAN transceivers now, with a dupont header for all the connections.

Nice toes.

 

[Citation]

See … i have no desire to get into that.

At the moment the bambo A1 is my first choice, with their ams lite which holds 4 spools, and a hardened steel nozzle. I’m arguing with myself if it’s worth stepping up to an enclosed model. The print area doesn’t get any larger which would have been a big factor, so it’s down to what i perceive as minor details.

The desk space needed for an A1+AMS is greater than an enclosed printer with the AMS on top. The dust control is nice and part of why I enclosed my 5M.

BTW, my story about hunting down a slicer setting is a bit of an odd case and was also done before FF released their own version of Orca. I wouldn't presume it's something you would need to mess with. That said, if the difference in price between the A1 (~$300 without AMS) vs 5M ($150-220, around $260 if you want the 5X that has multi color) isn't an issue you aren't going to go wrong with the Bambu. Worst case (ignoring tin foil hat concerns about the company) is you pay more for similar results. Not the end of the world.

 

[jeepxj]

Nice toes.

at this point im convinced most 3d printer people have a toe fetish with how often i see them in photos. all over.

 

[burger]

I have two, a sunlu and an eibos. Both work well but the sunlu is better, so I am swapping out the eibos this weekend.

Both sunlu's were bought open box on Amazon for $90.

My third drier is a sunlu s2, which is really helpful for things I can't run though the AMS (tpu and CF) plus stuff I want to print on a smaller nozzle so I can keep the 0.6's in printers with the ams's

Thank you for doing my homework! Gonna pick up the Sunlu.

indeed.

the green line is printer count * 24 hours. thats the absolute max we could print in a day.
the blue line is how many hours a day used.
orange is the %.


as we add printers the green line moves up.


there seems to be some lag on the analytics picking up new printers and their usage.

You win! I feel accomplished if I run my single printer 8 hours a day.

 

[jeepxj]

my home printers run like 20%. but the print farm the name of the game is wringing production time out of them.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Interesting video showing filament production

 

[Old tool guy]

How much filament is on a spool, in feet or meters?

 

[mike93lx]

How much filament is on a spool, in feet or meters?

Depends on material. Petg and pla are going to be 330m-ish

 

[Firebrick43]

Made some adjustments to the funnel trap. The lid will now stay open without a magnet in the tab.



The main base now is modular. The raised bushing can be changed out for different sized funnels by unscrewing the 4 M3 screws from the bottom mount underneath and another put in its place. This is a straight 0.915" bore for the the vented funnel I designed to fit my ZTR mower engines dipstick tube. The OG for the Subaru style thread funnel isn't practical for it however, but medium to small commercial tapered funnels can be used with just a bushing change.



It fits my FH500V Kawasaki very well and my 21hp Briggs vanguard. It doesn't fit a command pro Kohler quite as well but its acceptable.

This was entirely printed via schoolhouse filaments, my first time using them and excellent. I have been using hatchbox for its consistency over several other brands like sunlu and overture but 10 bucks a roll for the schoolhouse vs 25 ish bucks is much better.

 

[bggrnchvy]

I wanted to force air through the oil cooler so I modeled and printed some scoops. The center support interference fit is wrong and it cracked in the weakest point. I'm remodeling and printing a new one shortly.

 

[Old tool guy]

A horizontal radiator doesn’t catch much air, so that should be a huge improvement.

 

[cody1325]

My A1 is now getting pretty close to a whopping 1000 hours; and I've done the maintenance based on the prompts.

At this time, what should I check and/or replace? I'm planning on ordering some odds and ends for it in June. My PTFE tubes are looking a little worn, and I replaced the textured PEI plate with a smooth one from Hobby Lobby (still use both, however).

 

[Old tool guy]

What is a good app to scan an object to be 3d printed?

 

[kaymccampbell]

What is a good app to scan an object to be 3d printed?

I use Eyes and Caliper.

 

[Old tool guy]

Smart ***. There is a bracket on my pressure washer to hang the wand, problem is they set it too low and the tip of the wand is on the ground. It‘s a little complicated, it secures to the round handle and comes up at an angle, i want to scan it and add 2”. I can’t imagine trying to get it designed by hand.

 

[Firebrick43]

Since buying reasonable priced filament from schoolhouse my railcore is been running all day for a week so far, I need a second smaller printer.

I thought about building a 250mm railcore but alas many of the aluminum parts are not being made anymore.

It must be enclosed and needs a dryer on top for space. Anyone running a flashforge 5m pro with some kind of printer top dryer?

 

[kaymccampbell]

Smart ***. There is a bracket on my pressure washer to hang the wand, problem is they set it too low and the tip of the wand is on the ground. It‘s a little complicated, it secures to the round handle and comes up at an angle, i want to scan it and add 2”. I can’t imagine trying to get it designed by hand.

Mine has that same ****** design. I just screwed a couple pieces of PVC pipe to the steel handles to hold the gun and extra wands.

 

[Old tool guy]

Mine has that same ****** design. I just screwed a couple pieces of PVC pipe to the steel handles to hold the gun and extra wands.

Oh how crude!

 

[kaymccampbell]

Oh how crude!

But how apropos for such an ephemeral thing as a pressure washer.

 

[Firebrick43]

ephemeral

word of the day!

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Smart ***. There is a bracket on my pressure washer to hang the wand, problem is they set it too low and the tip of the wand is on the ground. It‘s a little complicated, it secures to the round handle and comes up at an angle, i want to scan it and add 2”. I can’t imagine trying to get it designed by hand.

Sounds like a fun challenge. Many years ago we had a product that was simple to manufacture but impossible to model using 3D CAD. Today’s software could handle it.

Post a couple photos of the bracket. I’d love to see if I can model it.

 

[mike93lx]

Agreed, share pics and I bet you can get some help. I'm no CAD expert but would be up for the challenge.

Ultimately, you need to hold one thing and attach that to another. Shouldn't be very complicated.

 

[Old tool guy]

word of the day!

I didn’t realize i was dealing with logophiles. Then … I change crude to pedantic.

 

[Old tool guy]

Agreed, share pics and I bet you can get some help. I'm no CAD expert but would be up for the challenge.

Ultimately, you need to hold one thing and attach that to another. Shouldn't be very complicated.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

That looks pretty straightforward to model. I’m more concerned about picking the right material and printing orientation for adequate strength when 3d printed. Did you just want the circled portion to sit 2” higher relative to the portion that bolts to the pressure washer frame?

 

[Yankeefarmer]

I had a few minutes thia afternoon (ok, probably about an hour) so banged out the basics of the model in OnShape. I set it up parametrically so I can plug in exact values to adjust dimensions to exactly your needs without having to redraw things. Adding the bolt holes and other refinements will be easy. Posting this feels a little like posting a picture of myself in my underwear, just like sharing source code with other programmers.

 

[Cruzan80]

Agreed, this isn't that bad to design, but the layer adhesion/stresses are trickier. Biggest "design" issue is setting the offset plane angle correctly.

For the bolt holes, I would just use the "Hole" command, and possibly add some small ribs for a extra support (like the original has). Also, would round over those sharp edges before printing.
The above is not intended as a criticism of @Yankeefarmer , just what other steps I would do beyond his basic design.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Agreed, this isn't that bad to design, but the layer adhesion/stresses are trickier. Biggest "design" issue is setting the offset plane angle correctly.

For the bolt holes, I would just use the "Hole" command, and possibly add some small ribs for a extra support (like the original has). Also, would round over those sharp edges before printing.
The above is not intended as a criticism of @Yankeefarmer , just what other steps I would do beyond his basic design.

Just by eyeball, it looks like the portion that holds the wand is at a 45 degree angle to the portion that bolts to the upright. That would lead me to print it with the upright portion vertical, thus keeping the layer lines at a 45 (or whatever close-to-that angle it is) in the cantilevered wand support portion. The two screws in the upright portion would tend to use the steel frame to reinforce the layer adhesion.

I would expect that the design for 3D printing would look different than a molded design. In my experience, adding ribs for extra support does not add the same value as in homogenous molded or cast parts, because once you get below the surface of the walls, you are dealing with whatever infill geometry and density you have chosen. I recently did a design where I used a modifier in the slicer to add additional walls and higher density in the stressed area, only to have the part fail along the layer lines.

And yes, the screenshot I posted was only the beginning of a design effort. I typically rough out the basic geometry, add any necessary bosses and holes, etc, then add fillets and or chamfers to smooth sharp edges of the model to be printed. My next steps will be to finish this out to dimensions that look comparable to the photos, then produce a drawing so @Old tool guy can supply his desired dimensions for the critical ones.

 

[Old tool guy]

That looks pretty straightforward to model. I’m more concerned about picking the right material and printing orientation for adequate strength when 3d printed. Did you just want the circled portion to sit 2” higher relative to the portion that bolts to the pressure washer frame?

My thought was to 3d print a duplicate with that part stretched another 2”.

 

[Old tool guy]

34* angle. The “single cut” was pointed straight down at 90 when the arms were closed. Handlebar is 1-1/4” dia.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Still a work in progress, but wanted to try posting an .stl to see if it's a practical way to collaborate on the design without trying to work through a series of orthographic drawings. Couldn’t post the file directly, but here’s a link to it on DropBox. Dropbox says anyone can access; no DropBox account needed.

Changes since prior version:
-Corrected wand and handlebar diameters to 1.25”
-Changed wand holder angle to 34 degrees relative to upright
-Thinned holder thickness to make it more visually similar to original
-Added bosses and bolt holes for mounting
-Extended wand holder upward to raise wand (proper height still needs to refined)
-Extended wand holder downward to serve as base for 3d printing vertically


Still need to work on reinforcement for upper portion of wand holder.
**Link deleted due to login request***

 

[Old tool guy]

Still a work in progress, but wanted to try posting an .stl to see if it's a practical way to collaborate on the design without trying to work through a series of orthographic drawings. Couldn’t post the file directly, but here’s a link to it on DropBox. Dropbox says anyone can access; no DropBox account needed.

Changes since prior version:
-Corrected wand and handlebar diameters to 1.25”
-Changed wand holder angle to 34 degrees relative to upright
-Thinned holder thickness to make it more visually similar to original
-Added bosses and bolt holes for mounting
-Extended wand holder upward to raise wand (proper height still needs to refined)
-Extended wand holder downward to serve as base for 3d printing vertically


Still need to work on reinforcement for upper portion of wand holder.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

It’s asking me to log into something. Going to send you my email address.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Oh how crude!

Oh, but how useful in many more ways than the original, as it holds much more than just the base gun. And it only took maybe 30 minutes to cough it out.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Kay’s design reminds me of the downside of 3d design and printing. I am currently mounting a winch on a receiver hitch mount, and have gotten caught up in designing a 3d bracket to hold the contractor, on/off switch, and wireless remote receiver. Before I got my 3d printer, I would just scrounge through my metal stash and cut/weld/drill until I had something that served the purpose. Now I spend time designing every last detail so I can just send the model to the printer and avoid reworking my screwups.

I also applaud Kay’s use of PVC pipe in that application. I mentioned a failure of a part I 3d printed last week in an earlier post; I addressed it by just printing a bracket that bolted to a piece of 4” PVC pipe instead of the printing the whole darned thing.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

It’s asking me to log into something. Going to send you my email address.

Sent via email. Bummer that happened. I’ll experiment trying access from my wife’s device.

 

[Old tool guy]

Sent via email. Bummer that happened. I’ll experiment trying access from my wife’s device.

Worked great. A couple of comments, and i think it’s done. Some of this you might already have incorporated. The wand holder needs to be deep, more than just a half circle. And i think there needs to be a gusset between the two main elements. Except for the location of the bolt holes, the rest is not critical.

 

[Old tool guy]

Oh, but how useful in many more ways than the original, as it holds much more than just the base gun. And it only took maybe 30 minutes to cough it out.

Nice, but where is the bolt head?
.