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SMITTY'S PRINTER

Discussion in 'Show and Tell' started by Smitty, Jun 25, 2014.

  1. Smitty

    Smitty New Member

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    Greetings to all! I just recently received my new R1. I am a home business owner that focuses in costume and prop design for cosplay enthusiasts. I plan to be printing fairly large projects and am looking for suggestions on how to improve my printer. I would like to focus on speed and efficiency mostly. I am very new to the 3D printed world so if anyone has upgrade ideas please share. I will be posting pics and status updates of current projects regularly as well as any bumps I may run into.
     
    #1 Smitty, Jun 25, 2014
  2. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    Well one thing to keep in mind is 3d printing is not extremely fast it can take hours for small prints and much longer for large ones it is all based on what you are trying to print and the resolution you choose.

    .2 is the probably the most common size so keep in mind that going to .1 will double the time

    The time frame given in the software is generally short for the most part and they are only estimates I usualy look for about 150% of the time stated.

    The material used for printing varies in so many ways it is almost impossible to explain them all
    PLA is probably the easiest for newcomers it is very strong but brittle but it does usually print well

    ABS tends to be a bit more felixible but prints with large flat bases tend to get warping issues

    You will go through the normal pitfalls most of us have already it just takes a bit of time and prints under your belt
    to start getting great results learning the nuances of these things will take some time.

    The trickiest thing by far for newcomers is getting the first layer put down on the bed correctly. It is more critical than any other single aspect of the print job others things like have looser tolerances but the first layer height really does not if it is bad everything else can be perfect and it will still fail. So learn about how to set that up and with the R! the Z offset aspect will be critical
     
    #2 tesseract, Jun 25, 2014
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  3. Smitty

    Smitty New Member

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    Thank you tesseract. I have seen many of your successes throughout the forum and greatly appreciate your input. I have already encountered many of these first layer issues. I just recently printed a set of prop guns from the video game Deadrising 3 (i will post pics soon). The print turned out great with the exception of warping found near the front of the barrel. There was a gradual curve and my curcular barrel ended up more like a sideways egg/oval.

    I am assuming it was due to there not being as much weight on that area as the handle/grip section so i think a stronger or alternate treatment might be needed for that area. I have been reading about the use of "juice" and it seem quite sound. My question is if it works for PLA or just ABS prints. I have used printers tape and hairspray sofar with acceptable quality on the first layers. I do see where layers are being "gappy" at times and I am thinking of using acetone to smooth and strengthen my prints over all.

    I will soon be printing 2 helmets for my customers. one will be the STARLORD helmet from Gaurdians of the Galaxy. The other is a rocketeer helmet.
     
    #3 Smitty, Jul 10, 2014
  4. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    Pics, pics, pics :)
     
    #4 Galaxius, Jul 10, 2014
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  5. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    the geometry of ABS and PLA as well as all other filaments will be identical so that oval should you found if it should have been a circle will still be an oval in ABS or PLA that is a geometric function which is controlled by the physical setup of your printer not a physical aspect of the filament type.

    I hope I explained that correctly

    The oval you see is caused by the controller moving more or less than it should be doing and needs to be corrected by possibly adjusting the steps per mm or something along those lines

    but as I said with that adjustment out of whack it will always print like that
    Images go a long way as to resolving issues like that.

    When you filament issues it is more of a dynamic failure meaning warping for instance it won't repeat the same way twice it could warp again but not in the same way thus it is more dynamic

    A physical aspect that does repeat id more of an adjustment of the printer itself such as a loose belt or pulley etc. Your oval is more along those lines
    , however even those things can vary somewhat due to what is happening during the print
     
    #5 tesseract, Jul 10, 2014
  6. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    the juice or ABS slurry won't respond as well to PLA as it does to ABS so focus on that first layer with PLA the glass bed and a good hairspray with the right chem in will be just as good IF the first layer is done right
     
    #6 tesseract, Jul 10, 2014
  7. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    I just love seeing the pics from others, good and bad. Pics of bad prints allow others to help to improve the print, and pics of good prints help inspire others (me included) and show what can be done with the Robo.

    It sounds like your printing some cool stuff hence my request for pics :)
     
    #7 Galaxius, Jul 10, 2014

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