mgg942

I'm using this arrangement which seems to work fine. Standard acrylic bed covered in blue tape. 6mm glass with diluted PVA spread with a (too coarse) paint brush One 75mm wide Bulldog clip on the left side and one on the right clamping the glass to the acrylic. I started with two on each side but have cut back to one per side with none discernible downside. Of course my glass is full width... Mike.

Hadn't thought of a roller, but do think that I needed a softer brush. The bottom looks better, I think, with translucent grades of PLA rather that opaque grades. I've just printed some butterflies and the undersides are super flat and shiny. After my initial teething troubles I'm pleased with the results and the convenience. I have two pieces of 6mm thick glass. I went for 6mm as I know that my acrylic bed is warped. Mike.

I tried to print mathgrrl's Hinged Butterfly. The stl file is available here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:144645/#files I used Cura 13.10 with little success. The wings were not the same and the left antenna unattached. Then I checked the layers view - which showed the same. Tried the 'fix horrible' options. One fixed the antenna but stuffed the wings. Tried repairing the stl in Netfabb basic, Meshlab and Meshmixer. Cura then got the wings to match and look right but the antenna was still inattached. A helpful soul on Thingiverse suggested that I use Slic3r. I did so using the latest version (0.9.10b) and compared the gcode output with that of Cura 13.10. For both slicers I used the original Thingiverse stl file, not a repaired version. Shown in the gallery link are how the gcodes look in the 3D view of GCode Analyzer (http://gcode.ws/) I'll be very interested to learn how to get a good result in Cura. BTW the Slic3r gcode printed fine. Mike

Had mixed results with this. Tried to print an item in PLA with a large flat base approx 110mm square. 3rd time lucky. Not sure what went wrong but suspect that my Z zero was too high - that is the first layer was too squashed. Done another couple of things since then OK, with shiny bases, though picking up patterns from the uneven spread of PVA. BTW, I think that it is a good idea to de-grease the glass before applying the PVA. Mike.

Interesting technique - anybody tried it with ABS? Mike.

Just 'stumbled on' Moment of Inpiration: http://moi3d.com/index.htm A NURBS package, said to be written by the developer of Rhino. Mid priced - USD295 Tempting... Anyone using it or tried it? Mike.

There seems to be an incompatibility between the Carmine 1.09 and USB 3.0 despite the listing of USB 3.0 as being a compatible data interface. To my horror my Carmine 1.09 did not work on my shiny new Acer S7 392 (running Windows 8 64 bit) though it works fine on my desktop running the same version of Windows. A quick Google search showed that I'm not the first to have this problem which is some slight comfort. I saw this on the Primesense site: "The new firmware V5.8.22 includes support for USB 3.0 ...." It is made clear that this new firmware is for the 1.08 only. Perhaps a similar update for the 1.09 will solve the issue. I emailed Primesense yesterday and will post their response. Mike.

Update - have now discovered Meshmixer 2.0 (free, from Autodesk!) which includes re-meshing capabilities. Nice set of introductory video tutorials. Looks fairly straightforward to use. Available from here: http://www.meshmixer.com/download.html Mike.

I've found it worthwhile to print spool holders and a mount for them. Wrapping the loose filament onto the spool can be tedious. It pays to spend some care ensuring that the 'end' that you start with hasn't poked through the bulk of the material. Anyway the spools I make and use are: "Heavy duty printable filament spool" available here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10219 And the mount for the spool (which I designed) is: "Hub for Heavy Duty Filament Spool - parameterised" available here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:142050 I'm presently printing my 8th spool holder - the first seven have all got material on them and have been used. Mike.

Thanks - I'll get to grips with Sculpturis and try with Meshlab and see whether that's good enough. I can export an .obj file from the free version of Skanect and Scupturis will load it. I can export from Sculpturis as a obj file and import that into Meshlab, and export from Meshlab as an .stl file so there is a possible - free - work flow. Now for a bit of learning and evaluation. Mike. EDIT. Realised that the free version of Skanect is crippled by the limitation on the number of faces that can be exported to 4,000 (I think that's what the number was - I've splashed out on the Pro version now).

Received my Primesense Carmine 1.09 a couple of days ago and have made some half way decent scans via the free version of Skanect. Hope to complete the reading glasses add on today. Very impressed by your video and, of course the finished model. Am I right in thinking that it is necessary to have the pro version of Skanect to be able to progress to the cleaning stage? I was staggered by the cost of zBrush - have you tried cleaning a scan with Sculpturis? Mike.

I have stumbled across a tool that I find invaluable for cleaning holes in printed parts. It is a hand tapered reamer with a claimed size range of 0(!!) - 14mm. I bought it from Aliexpress. Here is a link to a current offer: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-RC-Tools-Repair-Rc-Pore-opener-taper-reamer-purple-0-14-For-helicopter-heli/642579787.html Mike.

Thanks for the tip. Along with the range of instructional videos looks well worth at least a trial run. Might wean me from OpenScad. Mike.

Hope that you're on commission! I'm doing my bit to swell Israel's GDP and have a 1.09 on order as of yesterday. Now to print the glasses holder... Mike.

Thank for the data, Nick. BTW, how to you get to 280/290C? I'm using an Ulticontroller which seems limited to 260C. Mike.

How interesting! What size and brand of ABS have you used? Have you run into a limitation on part size? And, have you experimented with Kapton tape? Mike.

Far too slowly to help you! I've received the Mk3 unit (from here http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MK3-RepRap-PCB-heat-bed-latest-Aluminum-heatbed-dual-power-3D-printer-accessories-mk3-heat-bed/1185929644.html) - which looks fine - but have not yet ordered the remaining parts. Will do so over the next few days but it will be some weeks before I receive them, I expect.

Not so bad - about 12 minutes, assuming tools are to hand. I don't know, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I had quite a few losses of extrusion with the V2 head and more than I hoped for with the E3D. I might try the rather pricey Hagen drive. But first I'll open the E3D Al to 3.3mm once I've received the tapered reamer to chamfer the lead-in so I can do both changes in the one hit. Mike.

Had my first loss of extrusion since starting using Diamond Age PLA. Have not yet opened up Al to 3.3mm. A distinct advantage of the E3D hot end is the ease of dealing with a loss of extrusion. Here's what I do: 1. Preheat to PLA temperature 2. Unscrew the Bowden tube fitting ( Pisco PC6-01T.) with the Bowden tube still in the fitting. 3. Remove the extrusion nozzle 4. Gently insert a long series 1/8" drill (haven't been able to find a long enough 32.mm drill) mounted in a battery powered drill into the top of the E3D and clean out both the Al and the stainless steel in one go. It appears as though material builds up in the cooler sections of the head as I can get a length of swarf in the flights of the drill. 5. Check that the through hole is clear by inserting a 3.2mm drill bit into the top of the E3D and ensuring that it falls freely through. 6. Refit the extrusion nozzle 7. Turn the nozzle temperature up to 260C 8. Refit the Bowden tube fitting 9. Check tightness of nozzle 10. Reduce the nozzle temperature to PLA prepare (210C) 11. Remove and clean the extruder drive knurled shaft. Not exactly a pleasure, but way, way ahead of the tedious business of cleaning my original Ulitmaker V2 hot end. Mike.

Looks like cheap 3.3mm reamers are hard to find, and stainless steel can be difficult to machine. When I open up the Al to 3.3mm I'll try and make a better lead in as getting the filament past the entry point is a little problematical. No doubt due to the gap between the bottom of the Bowden tube fitting and the start of the 3.2mm hole. Now I feed the filament into the top of the E3D quickly, that seems to work better, perhaps the filament doesn't have time to remember that it's spent most of its life curved. I've ordered a small tapered hand reamer which might be useful on the Al to improve the lead in. Might be... http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/258137041.html Increasing the Al to 3.3mm shouldn't make entry into the stainless part any more difficult as the top of the entry chamfer measures close to 4mm. Mike.

Andrew, I'm glad that you've 'trail blazed' - I think that is worth doing to extend the range of usable PLA. Someone (maybe you) put me onto Diamond Age PLA which is very round and about 2.83mm so few problems (none!) with this material so far. BTW did you drill out the Al with a drill or did you literally use a 3.3mm reamer? Mike.

Just realised that my Acrylic bed is warped. I was trying to print a batch of 10 small parts and the print failed when trying to print near the centre of the bed. I rechecked the corners - good, then the centre. A bit more that 2 thickness of paper lower than the corners! By this I mean that the nozzle offered significant resistance to the sliding of a single thickness of paper at z=0 at each corner, and less than this resistance with three thicknesses of paper in the middle of the bed. Just checked the cost of getting a replacement Acrylic bed from Ultimaker using the cheapest shipping option. Totals approx A$77. I think that I'll order that Aluminium plate for A$49 including delivery and use it as a cold print surface for PLA! (And later on as a heated bed for ABS).

Certainly should. I've thought of one minor(?) disadvantage. I've read that some people have more than one glass sheet so they can take a new print off the machine still on the glass and let that glass cool and free the print, while starting another print with the alternative glass.

Starting to research in earnest to add a heated bed to my Ultimaker. I like the look of the Aluminium bed with integrated heater approach as seen here: http://reprap.me/Alu-Heatbed-MK3 and here: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MK3-RepRap-PCB-heat-bed-latest-Aluminum-heatbed-dual-power-3D-printer-accessories-mk3-heat-bed/1185929644.html Does anyone have any experience with one of these? (I think that it's is fairly new.) Any for or against comments? Would appreciated tips from those who've already travelled the 'add a heated bed' path.

Printing! Received my tube fitting this morning. Good quality, metal body. Pisco PC6-01T. Cost A$2.17 excluding postage. (For Australian readers available via Australia Post from Profile Automation). 12mm A/F, 13.66 across the corners of the hexagon. It's chrome (or zinc) plated and looks the bee's knees on the E3D. I'm using the Ultimaker Bowden at the moment. Print quality is looking very good.