I finally received my Makerbot Replicator (makerbot.com) and I am VERY impressed. After printing a handful of objects off of Thingiverse and dialing in my printer I promptly began work on my version of 3D printed quadcopter. I had a fair bit of practice using Google Sketchup from time is spent designing a handful of tricopters so naturally I started there. Sketchup is a very powerful program for being free and is very easy to learn, however there are some shortcomings to the program when it comes to 3D printing. I'll cover this in later posts but for now I would just like to show you my progress up until now. The incredible thing about 3D printing is how quickly you can prototype a concept. Sketchup is great for visualizing and object but it can never beat actually being able to hold it in your hand and inspect it. You get the feel of it. The weight of it. You can flex it and bend it. To flimsy? Add more material there. Overbuilt? Remove material here. It is simply incredible, a couple of late nights after work and I pretty much have the arms the way I want them.
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Ellison- What are you basing your assertion on? I haven't seen more post-print shrinkage with accelerated speeds. The flow rate increases along with the head speed, so beads are fairly consistent, or I suspect the print would generally fail. It works. Shrinkage issues are more about uneven cooling during the print, which is why I enclosed the replicator, that made a huge difference. ABS printing *really* doesn't like drafts, unlike PLA where you actually want to flow some air on it, as it has different TCEE properites. (I'm going to print an annular ring for my extruder when I shift to PLA soon, so to feed an even air stream around the head). As for squishing the bead, could be, but the results are quite good. So either my gcode generator is accounting for spread by reducing flow rate accordingly, or it just doesn't matter much. I've printed the Totoro model out at both .23 and .15, and the .15 model looks great, .23 not so much, due to unfavorable curves getting jaggy.
Anyway I think we've hijacked this thread far enough, we should start a 3D printing page or something...
Jay, the thing is that if you feed and travel at such a high speed you end up stretching the thread. It results in more shrinking, post printing, and of course the level height can be set to much smaller than bead diameter, but you just end up compressing the bead. I'd be interested in seeing what a print looks like, with those parameters for some comparisons. Perhaps you can post some pictures.
Also, another question I have is, what problems are solved by enclosing the printer? Does it help in keeping things from warping, due to inconsistent cooling?
Well, I"m running a replicator 1 with 5.4 firmware (I hear I should go to 5.5 or 6, but it's working and I haven't had time for another round of calibration lately), using the standard accelerated settings (80 feed/150 travel, 220C for ABS) I just set the level height to .15 from the default .23. It is quite slow, due to the increase of layers, but for certain things the smoother finish is very worth it. Also, my replicator is enclosed, which solved a lot of issues. I also print raftless most of the time. HTH.
Jay, please elaborate, as I would also like to print with 015mm layers. What parameters do I need to set?
Ellison- incorrect. Nozzle diameter is not a hard limit of total resolution. It took me a while to figure this out, but the resolution of head movement and plastic flow precision is more important. I print with .15mm layers with great results. Well, slow but great results. I've also noted that my bead is much smaller than .4mm, I suspect due to the flow rate not equalling the traverse rate by design. So it's more complex than you'd expect.
Marty- Thanks for the link, I've got blender but didn't have the time to really delve into it. Also it seems like it was more oriented towards compositing than just object modeling, but if the modeling is there I can ignore the rest.
If I was looking for a 3D printer today, I'd take a look at the Bukobot: http://deezmaker.com/
The pulley system is of particular interest, doesn't use belts and looks like it is both cheaper and more practical. Printrbot is suffering from success, don't expect a lot of support they're swamped.
Jay, you are right, intuitive is a word that is relative to your experience with 3D modeling programs in general.
I use blender for 3D modeling, and for the price (free) and for the community (open), it is one of the best tools for 3D graphics production. I also recommend blenderguru for some great videos to get you started in blender.
It is not a drafting program, it no native capacity to do layout and dimensioning for drawings. It is however extremely good at producing 3D structures and exports to dxf.
I took a closer look at that APM2.5 case model, I don't know if its suitable. It has no top for one thing. Obviously the concept is sound though. I look forward to the day when I can start messing about with 3D printing.
Marty- Downloaded the APM 2.5 case. Looks eminently printable, I guesstimate that its about $0.50 of plastic at most, maybe more like $0.20 per unit of media cost, RepG says it's 1Hr to print, so for a one off or a few of them, no brainer. Mass production, not so much.
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