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[Raxx]

Ok! 3D Printer Status update: Calibrated!

Yeah, three months later, I finally have the machine in the state that I want it.

What happened was that in January I had gone through four different firmwares and none gave me stable results. Frustrated, I took a break and focused on school and other projects. Spring Break arrived and now I found out that one of the firmware (Marlin) has gone through a lot of improvements, and the slicer that turns the 3D models into g-code is near perfect, so now I can finally make prints with up layer heights of 0.2 mm! It took a few days to finish calibrating it, and there are a few minor issues, but I have a feeling the problems will smooth over almost by themselves.

With that said, I've got a bit of excess PLA stock left over before I change to ABS, and I wish to offer a gift to the community: I'll print one of your models! I'm willing to do one print each, my offer stands until Friday the 6th of this month. I'm only going to print a maximum of 5 prints from this community. So it's first come first serve!

Some guidelines:

1. It must be completely manifold (no open edges)
2. Stick to the 45 degree rule. If the angle is greater than 45 degrees from the horizontal, it's good for printing. However, if it's less and therefore has too much overhang, there will be a lot more issues evident in the print. Bridging is possible, but limited (for example, if you wanted a bridge printed, the "bridge" part will be the overhang between two pillars, and printing "in air" is possible depending on the distance between the two pillars).
3. If you have a complicated model, it can be split up into smaller pieces for printing, then attached together (I can attach it for you or you can attach it yourself)
4. Naturally I need your mailing address. As far as I care, I'll ship anywhere international or not.

The scale of your print will be determined by me based on your model, but if it needs to be an exact size then know that the printer can't print anything bigger than 190mmx170mmx110mm. I'll give you advice on your model if you have questions or issues with it. I'd like this to be a "public" venture, so please submit your models in this topic so that I can post the progress. If you don't want your models out in the open where anyone can grab them, post a render of it and email me the actual raw model. .obj or .an8 preferred, untriangulated (for easier editing).

I'd offer to airbrush details onto it myself, but I'm not exactly a pro at that yet The most I'll offer is to airbrush one color in gradients to "complement" the details and make it look nice. As you can see by the picture below, it prints out to a nice shiny near-transparent quality which, when painted in minimal color, looks spectacular. Otherwise if you want full color detailing, I recommend plastering over it, sanding it, then painting on the details with acrylic paint and then add a gloss or matte finish to preserve it.

(Janro, Headwax, and ENSONIQ5, I haven't forgotten you guys--give me something to print for you as an extra to compensate for my tardiness!)
[edit above--I meant Janro!]

Available Prints Left: 0

Queue List:

• $imon - [Prep Phase]
• cooldude234 - [Prep Phase]
• siragin - [Prep Phase]
• Janro - [Prep Phase]
• Maximilianibus - [Prep Phase]
• 3Dgeek11 - [Prep Phase]

[$imon]

Hey Raxx, congrats on finishing your printer! That's quite the achievement! Would you mind sharing some photo's / video's of the completed printer (in action)? I admire your DIY skills a lot - it sounds like it was a very fun project to make, especially satisfying when the end result is a real working 3d printer! The idea that you won't have to stop with just a virtual representation of your 3d model, but that you can make everything from concept to 3d to real object in your own house is awesome!

If you don't mind I would like to subscribe to one of the prints. It seems like it will require a specialized model though so I think I would like to make something from scratch rather than adjusting a previous model.
Could you elaborate a bit on the 45 degree rule? is this because of the 0.2mm resolution? + what angles in the model will have to be more than 45 degrees?

Again congratulations on finishing it! great job

[cooldude234]

can I reserve a spot??  

PLEASSSSSSSEE!!?? 

[Raxx]

Ok, you guys are added to...."the list"!

Anyways, to answer your questions $imon, the 0.2mm resolution actually helps the printer work with more extreme angles. However, the 45 degree rule is a safe number commonly used because remember that it's dealing with melted plastic that's extruded at between 0.2-0.5 mm diameter. So as each melted thread gets layered on top of the other, and a more extreme angle means more overhang which means less support for the melted threads on top since it has to go farther and farther out from the threads underneath. The weight of the threads make it start sagging down and become less effective, eventually causing a stringy, ugly mess (sometimes it fixes itself if the threads underneath harden enough to support the weight and the overhang is short, but there's still a small amount of stringy mess at that area underneath the overhang).

This picture shows kind of how each thread (x-ray view, perpendicular to direction thread is going) might sag if there was too much of an angle. The bottom shows what can happen if the angle is too much and things start sagging. The top shows a good angle where there is enough support underneath each thread to maintain the integrity of the structure.

Bridging is different, but I won't go into that right now Let's just say that because there's support between two pillars, a thread of melted filament can be extruded across and attached securely enough on the other side of the gap without much if any sag before it hardens.

As for what you want printed, you can slice a pre-existing model into blocks or pieces that don't violate any of the printing restrictions. There's also a method of printing where support can be printed in all the negative space of the object, and the object is popped off or something, but I haven't really investigated it and it spends a lot more filament (sample picture)

Below is an example of how you could cut a chess piece for printing. Basically it's cut in half and then the model is printed with the cut ends down. Though in actuality, a whole model of a chess piece like this would probably have no problems in printing, I just used it as an example

I'm going to try to post timelapse videos of each of you guys's prints being made. At 0.2mm a print may take up to 24 hours to print, depending on its size (and therefore its number of layers), so it has to be a timelapse vid .

Oh yeah, remember I need to have these in by Friday so I have time to print them before school starts!

[Raxx]

One last bit of info. In Anim8or (and most 3D programs), one unit equals 1 millimeter. The maximum print size for one piece is about 190x170x110 mm. This is just to help you visualize the final print size when working on your model.

[cooldude234]

One last bit of info. In Anim8or (and most 3D programs), one unit equals 1 millimeter. The maximum print size for one piece is about 190x170x110 mm. This is just to help you visualize the final print size when working on your model.

What the hell?!
Really, I've been using one unit as one meter
I'm sure that would defiantly exceed your print size, yet alone THE COUNTRY (okay that may be exaggerating a little).

EDIT: I'm assuming the sizes you mentioned are in this order, x(width) z(depth) y(height),
correct I'm wrong/tell if I'm right

[siragin]

I would love to get one of my models printed if that's possible.

[Raxx]

cooldude234, you are correct. Don't fret too much about the size unless you're making something functional in real life, I can always scale it down otherwise.

siragin, you're added to the list. 2 more slots open!

[Janro]

Wow, congrats on that 3D printer Raxx! I'm considering having a model of mine printed, I'm not sure if it falls in the requirements though. Will have to check.

[cooldude234]

Question about over those hanges?
Clearly there are going to be some even slight thing over hanging, and I'm sure you know, but is it better to have something thin that is hanging over, or something that is thick?

What is the general thickness of lets say a pole (a lovely example = a boring example ), till were it becomes too weak and breaks?

EDIT: such as.. if you were making a house, were you have the roof over hanging, you could make it's base 90 degrees, from the side of the house see pic for example, would it work, or would it warp
and etc etc.

EDIT AGAIN: I'm sure in the end I'm going to have to do the infamous stump supporting the statue type of deal, but I want to understand what will and wont work

[Raxx]

When I mentioned the angles, I meant the angles from the horizontal (that is, on the x and y axis, with the positive x-axis pointing right as 0, and the angles proceeding counterclockwise from there). So according to that, anything between 45 degrees and 135 degrees from the horizontal is OK.

However, the 90 degrees you have on your house is actually 0 or 180 degrees from the horizontal, which is pretty bad for an extrusion 3D printer to work with. I can just about guarantee it would have ugly results all around where the roof overhangs the base part. It would definitely have to be separated into at least two pieces for it to print successfully.

The plastic, when it hardens, is pretty solid. If you want something to stay rigid without bending from external forces, though, I'd recommend at least a base area of 3mmx3mm. If you wanted it to serve as a pole just for support for odd angles, it's a little iffy and depends on a bunch of factors. If you wanted to print a human with its arms out doing whatever, the arms would have to be positioned so that the supporting poles and the body are no more than, say, 10 mm from each other. Sometimes it'd be easier to just print the arms separately and attach afterwards.

If any of the contours have an angle within the red, that's bad Anything below the horizontal will absolutely need support. Anyway, feel free to post what you've got and we can figure out how to get it printed.


By the way, I didn't really hit on level of detail much. Yes, it'll be 0.2mm layer height.

If that bull were to be printed within 7.5"x6.5"x4.5", which is the max size my printer can print, then all of the details would be fairly evident except for the smaller sharper details like the creases in the eyes and mouth, though you might be able to see it a little bit. If you want really sharp detail on a small figure, you'll have to put clay on it and carve it in, then plaster the rest of the model, sand it down, paint it, and finish it.

I intended on printing a few examples today, but lo' and behold, my hotend's not working. So you guys may end up having more time to work on your models if I need to order a new one I'll keep you guys posted.

Oh, and Janro, you're on the list!

Janro doesn't count against the tally, though, so there are still 2 spots open!

[Raxx]

And this is the last post I'm going to make about proper contour angles It's the most important concept for you guys to understand, but yeah...

I took an image from the 'net and drew an outline of where the good contours are and the bad contours. Green is good, red is bad, blue shows where a support pillar would probably have to be placed. The underside of his jaw probably wouldn't come out too bad

[Bugtrooper]

Great work!
I planned with my friends to make a 3d printer because we learn to be an electrical engineer. Anyway....... Can you help us if I'll have some questions?

[Janro]

Suhweet!

Well I'm glad we have potentially more time to work on our models. I kinda have a lot on my plate as it is. (I'd have a model used in my thesis printed, but alas, my friend modelled it and not I. xD) I guess I'll throw up some studies and ask for their viability for printing soon.

EDIT: For a moment there I thought you actually modelled/sculpted that picture Raxx. Then I read the paragraph that followed xD

[Raxx]

Haha, I wish I had the time to make something like that , it's been too long since I just sat down and modeled something for the heck of it...

Ok, so I have news about the hotend (the part that melts the plastic): it's busted. So I ordered a newer, more reliable model and it should arrive within a week. So the deadline for submissions is probably Friday 16th, March, assuming I get it back up and running by then!