The Everything 3D Printer Thread

[Jehannum]

Made another drill bushing, as I need to center up a 1/4"-20 hole in a couple 5/8" dowel pins on the back of the 455 in my GTO (need .007" offset pins in place to fix the >.010" but <.011" total indicated runout of the bellhousing for the Tremec 5 speed). Gotta pull it out, and my first idea (3/8-13 allthread welded on to the end of the pin and used as a puller) wasn't feasible for my Lincoln 135 welder at highest voltage and lowest speed. Couldn't get enough penetration even at the highest voltage and lowest feed rate.

New plan is to thread a hole in the pin for a 1/4-20 bolt, and then use a washer, a pipe ******, and a nut to pull it out. Space is kinda tight, so I'm using the drill bushing to center a right angle drill (not pictured) up to the pin.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Nerd!

Just kidding. Glad to see you back in the thread! I'm still a notch or two below novice so more than half of what you said went over my head, but I look forward to seeing your posts and subsequent builds!

Cheers!

Uh... that's Geek, not Nerd. Just sayin'

I can give you more detail on it if you want me too. But basically two critical components that make the printer work are the extruder and a hot end. The extruder is the motor part that feeds the filament into the hot end. The hot end has the nozzle that melts the filament so the extruder can push it through the nozzle.

I was referring to a few brands that make a couple different versions of extruders and hot ends. Bondtech, MicroSwiss, and E3D are the biggest companies that make the extruders and/or hot ends. There are other extruders and even open source designs available to print yourself to pair with your hot end of choice. The E3D V6 or it's clones is by far the commonly used hotend in the 3D printer space. Creality uses clones or genuine extruders of E3D models and their hot ends are based on open source designs from E3D primarily... so the Creality extruder and hot end isn't just from one manufacturer. They also have some compromises made due to costs driven by their price points. I will be upgrading the whole extruder and hotend on my CR10.

 

[4 FN 27]

This is going to be a fun one. Tekton Chisel Tray made in 3 pieces. Design in Solidworks...took a few hours and a lot of head scratching and chin rubbing. Tried a few new things in SW.

 

[Jehannum]

I'm still trying to work out how to use the visual editors like Fusion360. I'm most comfortable using OpenSCAD right now, because I'm just a crusty C programmer at heart.

 

[nicholam77]

This is going to be a fun one. Tekton Chisel Tray made in 3 pieces. Design in Solidworks...took a few hours and a lot of head scratching and chin rubbing. Tried a few new things in SW.

That looks great! Please post the final result!

 

[4 FN 27]

That looks great! Please post the final result!

Thank you!

I will...just started the first 18 hour print this morning...2 more to go.

Just finished one this morning. I didn't like the Spool Holder that comes on the Pursa. Remade it. Works for the bigger diameter spools too.

Need to reprint the end parts. Didn't use any supports and have a few voids. I'll practice my skillset of plastic welding using a Soldering Iron...



Square Nuts are my new best friend.

 

[loganb]

Just finished one this morning. I didn't like the Spool Holder that comes on the Prusa

That looks great Pat! My spool holder is actually being helped with zip ties right now and thinking about what to do to fix it...this has really got me thinking!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I need to reprint my Bear Prusa spool holder arm. I had a partial failure on the current one so it only has one bolt holding it on instead of two.

The CR10 before:




And it's current state now:




Since I am converting all 3 axis to ExoSlide, I basically stripped it down to the base frame. On top of that, I wanted to be able to use the diagonal Z braces again, but they won't work with the Z belt conversion. I realized I can use the diagonal braces if I mod them slightly (shorter length) and attach them from the back at the top to the back rear corners. So I had to flip the front and rear 2020 frame sections. I tightened the Y gantry then just removed all 4 screws at each end, flipped it 180deg, and squared everything up. Then I flipped the Y gantry 2040 extrusion since the bottom rear is milled out for the OE Y axis motor. I will probably add diagonal 2040 braces from the front of Z uprights to the base frame too, but I have to have the conversion fully installed to check for clearances.

One thing I noticed on my frame was that there was a pretty wide variation of the torque on the screws from the factory assembly. Since everything is off the frame and it's all squared, I took advantage of this and put thread lock on all the screws that won't be removed for the actual ExoSlide installations. I'll thread lock the remaining screws at final reassembly.

I'm probably going to order a lightened bed carriage plate and a lighter weight build surface to remove as much mass from the bed as I can. I'll combine that with TH3D's direct bed mounting kit to get rid of the springs and just use ABL. I'm not sure how much speed I'll gain, but even 20mm/sec would be an improvement. It will be really interesting to see what Klipper can do with the accelerometer(s) added as well in the future.

I got my latest COVID booster last night so it dropped me on my a$$ today. Worse than the first booster. No progress will be made on the ExoSlide install tonight.

 

[4 FN 27]

One done and 2 to go. Next print is 16 hours. Got up at 4 am to get the next one rolling so I can print the third one overnight.

 

[4 FN 27]

Hot out of the Oven...last piece of the puzzle baking right now. Should be done about 4 am.

 

[Jswain]

Hot out of the Oven...last piece of the puzzle baking right now. Should be done about 4 am.

Something you'll be proud of every time the drawer opens! Looks awesome man

 

[4 FN 27]

Last piece of the puzzle...





Completed



Just started the remake of the Spool Mount for the Pursa. 10 1/2 print with a pause to add 10-32 Square Nuts. Think I need another printer to keep up.

Where was this technology when I was a kid???

 

[Bessy]

Last piece of the puzzle...





Completed



Just started the remake of the Spool Mount for the Pursa. 10 1/2 print with a pause to add 10-32 Square Nuts. Think I need another printer to keep up.

Where was this technology when I was a kid???

Those look great! Can I ask, what kind of clearance #s did you afford for the connections? Did they turn out looser or snugger than you had planned?

Cheers!

 

[4 FN 27]

Those look great! Can I ask, what kind of clearance #s did you afford for the connections? Did they turn out looser or snugger than you had planned?

Cheers!

They are a little loose for my taste but that is better than tight. I am all about precision and tight fits. This design uses 1/64 or .015625 or for our friends "nordth" of the border .396875mm.

Next time I am going to tighten it up to half of that. Printing in .2mm layers using the "Quality" setting.

Need to do a Capability Study to see what kind of tolerance it can hold. Wondering if the tolerance changes the higher you get from the bed???

 

[loganb]

I would if I cared. The spool is almost done. I’ll live with the oozing.

I printed almost a full spool of 3DO petg, making a cooling fan duct for the printer, a pen holder for the desk, and a holder for the electronics pliers. Everything printed beautifully.

Curious...couple more weeks into the rat rig...still working beautifully? I'm getting anxious for a bigger machine and oscillating between a good enough for now CR-6 Max and the end goal of a large format corexy machine like the ratrig. I have a 400mm one configured in the cart and the Euro to dollar exchange rate is helping....just haven't pulled the trigger yet

 

[4 FN 27]

Yesterdays print. Tray for the O2 Sockets that have been rolling around in a Drawer.





Over night print, Set of Jaws for the Vise on the Faro Scanner. Trying to come up with better mounting solutions. Once tested I'll cut them from Aluminum.

 

[gte718p]

Curious...couple more weeks into the rat rig...still working beautifully? I'm getting anxious for a bigger machine and oscillating between a good enough for now CR-6 Max and the end goal of a large format corexy machine like the ratrig. I have a 400mm one configured in the cart and the Euro to dollar exchange rate is helping....just haven't pulled the trigger yet

Rat rig is still awesome. Two issues I’m finding annoying. First is I can not get the machine perfectly square. I will get pretty damn close, and then the next time I map the bed it is all out of whack again. Probing and bed mapping seem to compensate perfectly, but for really large prints the bottom is going to be .5 mm out of true. Not a huge deal, but I have a machining background and I think I should be able to get and keep the machine to less the .2 mm or one layer.

The second is it loses its offset every time it restarts. It is not hard to reset, just annoying. I really wanted a printer I could just hit print and the damn thing would work.

I guess three issues. My original bed heater was defective. There must be a small nick in it somewhere because I was getting mains voltage to the bed. Very bad. Rat Rig took care of it quickly though.

With those two complaints aside, the machine has been almost flawless. I have run three spoils of filament through it so far. Prints that would have been 2+ days on my Tevo are 12 hour prints on the rat rig. I finally calibrated everything and my parts are coming off perfectly to spec. It is cool especially the big parts come off. I can do bridges that the old printer couldn’t even imagine.

I would not hesitate to recommend building a Rat Rig. If I were to do it over again, I might self source some of the parts. There is a surprising aftermarket for the VCore printer. There is an after market build plate that is surface ground that is supposed to be much better then the OEM build plate and aluminum arms available for very reasonable prices.

The community has also been great as I had some struggles getting everything dialed in perfectly and dealing with the shorted heater. Any questions I had, I had responded from the community and from Rat Rig on Facebook and Discord in less then a day. Often within minutes.

As with everything I do want to upgrade already. The volcano extruded does not work with the stock cooling duct so I will be printing a new one in a few weeks. I also want to switch to a .6 nozzle. Finally the 3.1 kit with real ball screws instead of threaded rod looks cool. At this point it is working so I’m not going to mess with 3.1 for a while.

 

[4 FN 27]

Going to try another method of assembling a 2 piece print. This time there are Rivet Back-up Washers embedded in the parts. 10 total. I will rivet them to a piece of .060 SST cut in the Water Jet.





Played with a few more features within Solidworks. These parts are 100% parametric thus change one thing and it all updates. Took me from about 2:30 this afternoon until an hour ago to get this one sorted out.

Practice makes perfect.

Next I'll do the Metric Wrenches.

 

[F-22]

Hot out of the Oven...last piece of the puzzle baking right now. Should be done about 4 am.

I love the puzzle design! Allows for easy future replacements of "segments" too.

I have a Prusa i3 Mk3 for a few years now, bought it on preorder. Great machine, it just works. I printed lots of vintage motorcycle related parts on it in the past, and also sold some parts on ebay. Earned back the investment multiple times by now, and I wasn't even really trying, I only sold designs I already made for myself....

Anyway, really considering getting the Prusa XL now. Could probably still sell the Mk3 for ~500€ too. Or if a mk4 comes along...

 

[gte718p]

Going to try another method of assembling a 2 piece print. This time there are Rivet Back-up Washers embedded in the parts. 10 total. I will rivet them to a piece of .060 SST cut in the Water Jet.





Played with a few more features within Solidworks. These parts are 100% parametric thus change one thing and it all updates. Took me from about 2:30 this afternoon until an hour ago to get this one sorted out.

Practice makes perfect.

Next I'll do the Metric Wrenches.

Have not tried rivets, but the heat set threaded inserts and machine screws are awesome.

 

[Jehannum]

Results from using my drill jig, one dowel pin down, one to go. The other side is considerably more tight, so I think I'm going to have to try something different.

 

[loganb]

Going to try another method of assembling a 2 piece print. This time there are Rivet Back-up Washers embedded in the parts. 10 total. I will rivet them to a piece of .060 SST cut in the Water Jet.

That looks awesome! No experience with rivets and backup washers in this application but interested to see how it turns out. Like @gte718p mentioned I've always used heat set inserts but am interested to see how this turns out!

Anyway, really considering getting the Prusa XL now. Could probably still sell the Mk3 for ~500€ too. Or if a mk4 comes along...

I've got an XL on preorder, several others here as well do as well so join the crowd! I'm honestly struggling with it vs a Rat Rig of Voron 2.4 build though, I love the ease of the Prusa and how it should just flipping work and the multi extruder tool head is so cool, however the price is high and the speed of the Rat Rig or Voron should be impressive...but the Prusa should be able to move pretty quickly too...what may end up pushing me 1 way or another is timeline. I want it for this winter so if shipping delays continue on the XL I may switch to one of the other options.

Rat rig is still awesome. Two issues I’m finding annoying. First is I can not get the machine perfectly square. I will get pretty damn close, and then the next time I map the bed it is all out of whack again. Probing and bed mapping seem to compensate perfectly, but for really large prints the bottom is going to be .5 mm out of true. Not a huge deal, but I have a machining background and I think I should be able to get and keep the machine to less the .2 mm or one layer.

The second is it loses its offset every time it restarts. It is not hard to reset, just annoying. I really wanted a printer I could just hit print and the damn thing would work.

I guess three issues. My original bed heater was defective. There must be a small nick in it somewhere because I was getting mains voltage to the bed. Very bad. Rat Rig took care of it quickly though.

With those two complaints aside, the machine has been almost flawless. I have run three spoils of filament through it so far. Prints that would have been 2+ days on my Tevo are 12 hour prints on the rat rig. I finally calibrated everything and my parts are coming off perfectly to spec. It is cool especially the big parts come off. I can do bridges that the old printer couldn’t even imagine.

I would not hesitate to recommend building a Rat Rig. If I were to do it over again, I might self source some of the parts. There is a surprising aftermarket for the VCore printer. There is an after market build plate that is surface ground that is supposed to be much better then the OEM build plate and aluminum arms available for very reasonable prices.

The community has also been great as I had some struggles getting everything dialed in perfectly and dealing with the shorted heater. Any questions I had, I had responded from the community and from Rat Rig on Facebook and Discord in less then a day. Often within minutes.

As with everything I do want to upgrade already. The volcano extruded does not work with the stock cooling duct so I will be printing a new one in a few weeks. I also want to switch to a .6 nozzle. Finally the 3.1 kit with real ball screws instead of threaded rod looks cool. At this point it is working so I’m not going to mess with 3.1 for a while.

Thank you so much for the time and reply! Rat Rig and Voron 2.4 based stuff has been high on the youtube list the last couple days....learned a lot and still not sure what I may want to do for the next machine but I'm gonna finish a couple other projects first(or so I tell myself now) before I order anything so it should be a good winter project.

 

[ER70S-2]

I whipped up this emergency beer holder. I think I made the ID about 0.020" over the diameter of the container, so it's a nice tight fit. I actually have to press it in. It keeps it from jiggling around and making my beer all foamy.

https://imgur.com/0ceL0ju

https://imgur.com/8OmWCvb

 

[loganb]

I whipped up this emergency beer holder. I think I made the ID about 0.020" over the diameter of the container, so it's a nice tight fit. I actually have to press it in. It keeps it from jiggling around and making my beer all foamy.

https://imgur.com/0ceL0ju

https://imgur.com/8OmWCvb

Seems like we are missing part of the story...hope you get better soon!

 

[Jehannum]

Fabricobbling a replacement headlight adjuster for the headlight of my '95 Audi.

Originally they had plastic gears that you could stick an allen key down through a hole in the radiator core support to get to. Those have long since bitten the proverbial bucket, and since I have easy access to the ones that are busted, I'm going to go with a plastic version of the popular community fix (a coupler nut drilled for a set screw).

The popular community fix (and what's already there on the Driver side of the car):


My replacement, so far:

 

[ER70S-2]

Going to try another method of assembling a 2 piece print. This time there are Rivet Back-up Washers embedded in the parts. 10 total. I will rivet them to a piece of .060 SST cut in the Water Jet.

I love multiple piece prints that connect together. I designed holes into the parts of one of my prints and connected the pieces with printed dowels and superglue. It worked awesome. I put pics somewhere in this thread.

 

[4 FN 27]

That looks awesome! No experience with rivets and backup washers in this application but interested to see how it turns out. Like @gte718p mentioned I've always used heat set inserts but am interested to see how this turns out!

Thank you!!! The Print is done now I have to fire up the Water Jet (tomorrow night) and cut the Stainless and we will see.

Everything fits as it should.



Here is a pic of the Washer set in place be for resuming printing this morning.

I love multiple piece prints that connect together. I designed holes into the parts of one of my prints and connected the pieces with printed dowels and superglue. It worked awesome. I put pics somewhere in this thread.

Glue had crossed my mind but way way back in the day I did some sonic welding. Just a little bit and I am looking into either TIG stile welding (Solder Iron and filler rod) or designing a Wirefeed welder for 3D Prints.

I have already taken a few pieces and joined them together with a Solder Iron and filler but I need my fingers closer to the tip on the Iron to have better control. Weller makes an adjustable temp Iron I might try.

I should mention anyone on GJ that wants either the Solidworks Models (native, STEP or PARA), STL's or G-Code for these just send me a PM with your email address and I'll get them sent out. Let me know which type of file and format if Solid.

I have also been dumping all these designs on Grabcad.

 

[loganb]

I have also been dumping all these designs on Grabcad.

Well you now have 7 followers on grabcad! Thanks for sharing the files and mentioning it...I had forgotten about it but fortunately LastPass hadn't so didn't have to create a new login.

 

[cycle61]

The Prusa has been sitting idle for about six months now, time to get it going again.

First up after a cleaning and a couple test prints, dust collection adapters. Recently purchased an Oneida Mini Gorilla for the larger woodshop tools, and it's amazing, but the supplied 5" hose fits absolutely nothing. Even just sitting in front of the table saw's 2.5" outlet it works better than the shop vac, so once it's connected I expect things will be amazing.

Found a parametric dust hose adapter and after installing OpenSCAD to manipulate the model for the dimensions I need, sent it to the printer and it's cranking away nicely.





Trying to teach myself Fusion 360, and modeling one of these from scratch with an offset was a fun challenge too. I may try this design for some of my tools.

 

[gte718p]

The Prusa has been sitting idle for about six months now, time to get it going again.

First up after a cleaning and a couple test prints, dust collection adapters. Recently purchased an Oneida Mini Gorilla for the larger woodshop tools, and it's amazing, but the supplied 5" hose fits absolutely nothing. Even just sitting in front of the table saw's 2.5" outlet it works better than the shop vac, so once it's connected I expect things will be amazing.

Found a parametric dust hose adapter and after installing OpenSCAD to manipulate the model for the dimensions I need, sent it to the printer and it's cranking away nicely.





Trying to teach myself Fusion 360, and modeling one of these from scratch with an offset was a fun challenge too. I may try this design for some of my tools.

I did this same project a few years ago. I only have a small vacuum and single hose. I'm redesigning the adapters with quick connects to be able to change machines quickly. Taking 10 seconds to unscrew the hose clamp is just uncivilized. Probably could by an injection molded product cheaper, but that is not any fun.

 

[cycle61]

I'll probably do a modified version of these: https://magport.net/collections/all

At some point.

 

[zanyad]

I have also been dumping all these designs on Grabcad.

Well you now have 7 followers on grabcad! Thanks for sharing the files and mentioning it...I had forgotten about it but fortunately LastPass hadn't so didn't have to create a new login.

Couldn't find you on grabcad, @4 FN 27. Can you or @loganb provide a link? Thanks!

 

[Jehannum]

Couldn't find you on grabcad, @4 FN 27. Can you or @loganb provide a link? Thanks!

Just search "Tekton" and you'll find familiar pictures.

 

[loganb]

Just search "Tekton" and you'll find familiar pictures.

This is how I found it

 

[AffableCurmudgeon]

Trying to teach myself Fusion 360, and modeling one of these from scratch with an offset was a fun challenge too. I may try this design for some of my tools.

This looks good, nice job! Looking at the list on the left, it looks like you made 3 bodies and combined them?
If that is what you did, another way would be to make 3 offset planes (one each for the top of each ring in your picture, bottom is already on a plane) and 4 sketches (one for each circle) and just use the Loft feature to connect each circle. You will get one body and design time will be a couple of minutes tops.

I love Fusion 360. It is so powerful!

 

[kppolich]

Slowly parsing through this thread and made the decision to purchase my first FDM printer.
ANYCUBIC Vyper will be here Friday and I can't wait to submit some stuff in this great thread.

 

[Griff79]

3-D Masters,
I have a problem that I believe this forum can solve quite easily. I’m on the tail end of an extensive remodel of the main floor of my home. Part of the remodel Required me to move several electrical outlets. What has transpired is that I have placed two three gang electrical switch boxes side-by-side.

This is where the need for a solution comes in. I cannot find a six switch cover plate that spans two 3 gang electrical switch boxes. The spacing between the third switch and the fourth switch is greater than the spacing between the other switches. I have tried connecting 23 switch cover plates but that did not work.

Would it be possible to 3-D print a six switch cover plate with wider spacing between switch three and four for a reasonable amount of money. I believe I assume correctly that using a CAD program It could be designed quite simply but that is a comment from someone who knows nothing of 3-D printing.

What are your thoughts?
Thanks much,
Griff

 

[kaymccampbell]

3-D Masters,
I have a problem that I believe this forum can solve quite easily. I’m on the tail end of an extensive remodel of the main floor of my home. Part of the remodel Required me to move several electrical outlets. What has transpired is that I have placed two three gang electrical switch boxes side-by-side.

This is where the need for a solution comes in. I cannot find a six switch cover plate that spans two 3 gang electrical switch boxes. The spacing between the third switch and the fourth switch is greater than the spacing between the other switches. I have tried connecting 23 switch cover plates but that did not work.

Would it be possible to 3-D print a six switch cover plate with wider spacing between switch three and four for a reasonable amount of money. I believe I assume correctly that using a CAD program It could be designed quite simply but that is a comment from someone who knows nothing of 3-D printing.

What are your thoughts?
Thanks much,
Griff

Sure, you could make a printed switchplate. It would have to be done on a resin printer, cause the FDM printers leave a lot of layer lines. The printing should be cheap enough, less than a day's pay, but it's the CAD development time that would kill you.

When I need a switchplate like yours, I just take two switchplates, scribe the difference, and belt sand the meeting edges til they match. It takes a couple minutes and switchplates are cheap. I don't join them, I align the switches properly, and the screws hold the plates in place quite nicely.

 

[AffableCurmudgeon]

3-D Masters,
I have a problem that I believe this forum can solve quite easily. I’m on the tail end of an extensive remodel of the main floor of my home. Part of the remodel Required me to move several electrical outlets. What has transpired is that I have placed two three gang electrical switch boxes side-by-side.

This is where the need for a solution comes in. I cannot find a six switch cover plate that spans two 3 gang electrical switch boxes. The spacing between the third switch and the fourth switch is greater than the spacing between the other switches. I have tried connecting 23 switch cover plates but that did not work.

Would it be possible to 3-D print a six switch cover plate with wider spacing between switch three and four for a reasonable amount of money. I believe I assume correctly that using a CAD program It could be designed quite simply but that is a comment from someone who knows nothing of 3-D printing.

What are your thoughts?
Thanks much,
Griff

Printing a continuous, one-piece, 6- gang cover plate would require a printer capable of handling that size. My printer is limited to 230 mm. Others may have bigger printers. On a printer like mine, you could print it in multiple segments and join them, but if you go that route, why not just take two 3-gang cover plates (like @kaymccampbell suggested) and cut and join them, rather than doing the same with 3D printed segments.

 

[Jswain]

Assorted Wall Plates by faultedlogic

I recently moved to a new home that needed replacement faces for nearly all the power outlets, light switches, and a few blanks to replace some dreadful phone jacks that had turned yellow from UV and age. I was uploading these models individually, but decided it would be easier to maintain these...

www.thingiverse.com

Even someone with no experience could make an account with tinkercad, go through the tutorial, play around a bit then load up 2x plates from the link and cut/copy/paste for the right spacing in the middle.

A lot of local libraries now have 3d printers you could check yours, or simply find someone to print you the file. Agreed if you have to pay for the design it might exceed its value.

With white filament it would likely look good enough as is as long as it's sliced well and the printer is setup correctly but you could always lightly scuff and paint if you want it perfect