fablab013

totally agree on wanting to have the windows as large as can be, but we have enough square windowed UM's sitting around for regular print-jobs. This printer is primarily made to attract the attention of pedestrians passing by our shopwindow. It's goal is to show people that technology (and 3D printing) is not scary and can look a bit fun too (we're a fablab that aims to lower the technological threshold for people from all walks of life). Hence the disney-ish frills ... for the serious, no-frills characters we have the plain-jane printers inside. having said that, the side-by-side pic shows it sitting next to a heatbed-UM ... plenty of room to spare ....

some pics of our latest UM build. (w.i.p.) * Custom frame * incorporated skyline Tilburg (NL) * 11 led progress indicator to do : * moodlighting for cavity connected to progress indicator bars * heatbed * E3D hotend * print ALL <?> printerparts in PLA/ABS instead of lasercut wood (except for frame obviously) this ultimaker will eventually replace our store-window UM which promotes 3D printing & UM's to the general audience (also viewable through our 24/7 ulticam)

duhh... fixed that ... tnx ...

Here's a quick & dirty sneak peek at our LED progress bar work. We'll be adding it as full ambient light indicators on our next concept UM. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6XSvEhJWvJnYldlSFhQX1dIVjQ/edit?usp=sharing http://fablab013.nl/blog/ultimaker-3d-printer-led-progress-indicator/

Agreed ... laybrick is in our top-3 favorite filaments too. Although not sanitary, printing 'stone' cups with laybrick at the correct settings really makes them almost indistinguishable from their 'real' counterpart. All that's missing is a dipping-test in 'koudglazuur' (cold enamel ?) of remaille - (not implying this is FDA approved :-) )

love the "desert structures" .. we get a lot of student-architects in and would love to show off your models to them (printed in laybrick / sandstone filament). Would you care to share some of your work(files) with the community so people can see what is possible and to spark their imagination ? demo3dmodels @ fablab013.nl grtz, Pete

Dont mind doing some destructive tests on various materials but looking for an objective repeatable / measurable strenght test. Assuming some form of leverage / weight structure ??. but then how to deal with 'grain' of material as some have grains/layering and others don't. / temperature & speed settings etc. Seems we have too many variables to conduct proper tests. Who has a solid way to perform a batter of material tests ? cheers, Pete

This morning formfutura (our filament provider) was so kind to ship us a test spool of laybrick filament to test with. Below you can read our findings, but if you can't wait to read the whole story, simply remember this : WOW !!! ......... New filaments open up new ....... [edit] Well ... since forum restrictions apparently all of a sudden prevent me from pasting wordpress posts (including pictures) I guess you'll have to read the review on our own site ... sorry : http://fablab013.nl/blog/laybrick-3d-printing-filament-test-review/

PET glass temp ? hmm ... I'm guessing 70 degrees ?!?

Tday we received a first batch of PET at the lab. Since we haven't been able to find much info on this new printing material we'll give you a quick review : PET - the stuff plactic coke bottles is made of The problem with materials like PET is that we have all handled it before and it's been perfected in the industry to create disposable consumer containers like bottles and crates. Since PET as a simple bottle is so perfect in strenght, clearness, weight & safety it was easy to get our hopes up high ..... waaay high ..... when we received our first spool of 2.85 mm. PET. As fablab prototypers we know better though .... first see ... then believe .... Cool but not impressive Our first print with PET went as expected. Intuitively we set the temperature rather high for a new material and we hit the sweet spot around 232 degrees for printing PET. Surface adhesion on standard blue tape worked well, similar to PLA, and printing was smooth and uneventful. PET is sold as clear / translucent material, and it is, but due to the printing proces we'll never be able to achieve window-pane like clear materials as the layering in our prints will always scatter the light. So ..... no see-through bottles ... not even with PET. Our print came out clean and very smooth. Upon close inspection we must admit that the surface of the PET bottle was surprisingly smooth with light bumping. No signs of the usual layering (on the surface). A simple break-test revealed that PET also simply snaps at the first weak layer, not unlike PLA, but further temperature test may still hold a secret strenght-sweetspot. We haven't found it (yet) so strenghtwise we rate it along the lines of PLA. PET when printed is not brittle and hard, but somewhat silky and flexing. No flex like nylon, but it gives a bit and boinks right back. short conclusion : PET is still new and undiscoverd. Up till now we are unimpressed. Apart from the silky textured surface and potential resistance to certain acids/materials we have not seen anything that made our jaws drop. It's still expensive and we haven't found a specific use for it yet. At any rate, being able to add a new material to the filament list is always a good thing. We'll move on to masonry style filaments next ... sounds more exciting ... stay tuned. fablab013 - Tilburg

we're expecting our first batch of PET in the next few days (the stuff plastic bottles are made of). Supposedly super strong and crystal clear. Has anyone printed with this stuff yet ? How strong & how clear is it (how clear can it be printing in layers anyway ?) ? Cannot find much info on this yet.

Cura 13.05 testing version ..... We've been using it on all our UM's ... haven't found a bug or glitch yet ... just want to state once again what an awesome improvement Cura has undergone .... Kudos ....

maybe better to try this : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34419 works perfect .... tip : while you are printing it , why not print the DUAL extruder version (for when your UM starts going dual color) http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34680 edit : sorry didn't see "Ich drucke prinzipiell mit Standard" the 1st time. Will leave post anyway for reference.

Don't worry, your UM will not fall apart due to missed screws etc. you are supposed to have extra. (save them though, you'll likely be making awesome little add-on's later which may just use the 3mm. screws). I am confused about one thing. still have a box left with many screws in them, including some screw types I did not use at all ?!?!? Did I miss something? Or is ultimaker just very generous with their screws?

Nice job ! Can you tell us more about the casing ? PMMA has proven to show hairline cracks over time. Is this PMMA ? How long have you been running it ? Any stress markings in the material around the tension points ? How much does the total build weigh ? This puppy is srcreaming for more LED's :-) We'd love to receive more pics for our fablab ( we'll display custom UM's in our 3D printing section ) -> UM {at} fablab013.nl

To be honest there was hardly any cleaning needed on this model. The only thing that went wrong was one support column inside the cathedral misprinted which was hardly noticable. Getting the model off of the printing bed took a little patience though (and a good sharp filling knife). It looks quite stunning in the sun .. cannot wait to add some LED's cheers, Pete

See our ulti-cam streaming live from ultimaker-space Tilburg @ fablab013 http://fablab013.nl/live-video-feed-fablab013/

Fablab013 announces the birth of the ultimaker-space ! Final preparations are underway to accomodate Ultimaker as core-partner of the lab in downtown Tilburg. Soon Featuring : [*]weekly recurring ultimaker evenings, [*]continuous ultimaker workshops, [*]a walk-in store for ultimakers, filaments and parts, [*]the ability to drink coffee and exchange information with highly trained volunteers and often also with ultimaker employee's [*]exhibits of cool printed items you can actually touch and hold, [*]recurring ultimaker fine-tuning & tweaking events. [*]printer hacking marathons Tilburg has always been a special place for ultimaker ... soon it will become just a tad bit more special as fablab013 opens it's doors around May/June 2013. stay tuned ....... http://fablab013.nl