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Printing Printers (2)

Discussion in 'Projects' started by WheresWaldo, Jul 25, 2015.

  1. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    I have just started my quest for a dual extruder printer and decided on the HercuLein (https://github.com/eclsnowman/HercuLien). Eric Lein has done a wonderful job with his printer design. It will be a slow build as some of the parts are on the rather expensive side when you compare it to the Robo. I am using the Robo R1 to print all the printable parts. This allowed me to fine tune my filament profiles since all the parts I have printed so far are at 100% infill.

    I am finding that 100% infill changes the way you think about different slicing parameters and can be a real challenge. I am also printing multiple iterations of identical parts, changing filament types as I go along and comparing the results. Right now I am printing in PETG and ABS. After the ABS part cools I measure it against the PETG part and I have got both of those pretty much dialed in. The cooled ABS part is identical to the PETG part in every dimension. I am going to print a set in Taulman Alloy 910 and may play around with RIT dye. I have used RIT in the past with prints from Shapeways so we shall see how it goes with self-printed parts.

    I plan to continue to use my Robo for nearly all my printing as it will be some time before this project is completed. There is a lot of talented people contributing to the HercuLien and Eustathios Builders Google+ group. Their community seems as friendly and inviting as this one has been. I will update this thread whenever I get a chance to add to my project.
     
  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Update: After much consideration I gave up on the Herculien and decided to do a Eustathios Spider V2. Now that I have all my motion hardware and bearings, I can finish printing all the remaining pieces. I am about 80% done printing. Of course as with all Open Source projects the original creator made some design choices that were based on what was at hand, rather than looking from the perspective of someone starting with nothing. So I made some changes to the original design and BOM. They will be outlined in the Google+ group.

    Reason for the change is that after seeing a lot of images of the HercuLien, I noted that it is really a huge printer, I don't need anything that big. Since the Spider and HercuLien can share some of the same parts, if I ever want to go dual extruder, I just need to print a new carriage w/ fan shrouds and add a second E3D-v6 as well as a second extruder.

    All parts are now printed in PETG. I thought I had it dialed in, but on the Makergear forum, there are a lot of guys who have been using it longer than I have. Using one of their profiles (just needed to lower the extrusion temp a few degrees), I am getting some of the sharpest prints I have ever gotten out of PETG. And I am printing a lot faster also.

    I do want to shout out to RobotDigg, they have all the motion parts you could want, at incredible prices. Shipping is reasonable, and they use DHL which only took 6 days from China to my door.
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Good luck.
     

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