jameshs

If I am doing a one off for a friend then I charge nothing - but I make it clear it is a one off. If it is for an unknown person then it is a complicated set of questions How do you value your time How do you value your machine time Machine time is easy - write off the machine plus spares plus maintenance over a three year period. Allow for 35 hours of printing a week - then do the maths Your time - well, I assume you are not currently a full time 3D printer ... if you want to be then divide the salary you want over 35 hour week, plus taxes, plus overhead and you have an hourly rate. Use this for set-up time, computer time, difficult part of print time and then things like client relations and packing. However, you will rapidly find that what looks like a slightly poor injection moulded part is ending up costing $$$ - so most people would only pay that amount if they are prototyping or can't get the product elsewhere. Or join the hobby printers who more or less do it for the price of filament. There is no right answer, but I know when I used to do 3d hubs the price valued my time below minimum wage, hence I no longer do those, whereas the printer has been invaluable to me as a tool for my own work (architect) but not a money earner as a tool in its own right. Hope that helps!

Hmmmmmm - plate sounds a bit inflexible - what are you hinge arrangements, or is it flexible in some way? Anyway - with the e-nable fingers the pulling string is almost always offset from centre - so when pulled applies an asymmetric force around the fulcrum and hence the bend in that direction. I have played around with this - the further away from the fulcrum you place the string, the stronger the pull force, but the lower the potential overall movement. I have also played with non-linear 'holes' for the string - placed closer to the fulcrum, so when the finger is flat it takes a degree of force to pull, but as the finger bends the string can rise in the elongated 'tunnel' improving its force characteristic. The point of this was to vary the hole shape in each finger and thus control which bend started first. Pop a piccy of what you are trying to do if you want and it may be clearer. James

100% agree with the pva - I dilute it more like 5:1 and it works well - even after mould grew in the container I just took it off the surface, shook the jar and used as normal - if I am in a hurry I heat the glass with a hair dryer to speed up the drying. works for about 10-15 prints and then I wash and re-apply. To make life really easy I have blue tape on the bed under the glass, so if I want to print XT I just take off the glass and take off a little 'end stop fooler' and print the xt - and then do the reverse - often without a re-level I have closed in one of my UMOs https://www.youmagine.com/designs/james-holmes-siedle for simple clips and some lexan. I would not say it makes a huge difference to the one I have not closed in. James

All the vendors have their issues - but IMHO fusion is the way to go. It is not all about features - often it is about resources (like instructional videos etc) and Autodesk has always managed to generate the largest number of user installed seats. I have been an Adesk user for the last 25 years and am by no mans a fanboy (I pay £0,000s for subscriptions to their architectural software) and was amazed when fusion came oiut and had more, and easier functionality that the functions I was using in inventor that I pay a hefty subscription for - so have transferred to F360 while I have inventor on my desktop! It is not perfect, but is getting better and better each relase, and more than suited to the small and complex(ish) models that I am using it for. What I really love it for though is that in the same model - on a different tab, I can output a stl for 3dp, a dxf for laser cutting and gcode for a mill - that truly does amaze me! We all like different flavours and I guess i may have been brainwashed into autodesk way of doing things. They have an import for 123d into fusion, so models can be brought back to life!

2 ways to do it. If they are similar filaments (i.e. both PLA for example) then just release the tensioner on the drive and pull the filament out when the nozzle is hot (immediately after your last print or just use the heat PLA routine, and then just load the new filament. I find it easier if I cut a diagonal cut on the new filament with pliers before I feed it in as it gets into the feed guide, bowden and nozzle easier. Push it into the nozzle until you see a string coming out, tension the filament holder and then manually turn the drive until the old filament has purged and the new filament colour has appeared - and you are ready! The other way is the atomic pull - well written up on this site - so search for it precisely, but basically you heat up to 210, then turn this down to 90 for a few minutes and pull hard on the filament (I turn the filament reel on the back of the printer) and the filament will come free and bring with it a cold impression of the whole nozzle and hot zone. Be warned that this demands some strength as the 'plug' takes a bit of pulling to get it out of the nozzle and melt zone, and is also exactly bowden tube size and so takes quite a pull to get it out of the tube. The point of this is that it brings all the filament and any detritus out of the nozzle - so it is a 'clean' as well as a change in colour. But I only use this say every 10 changes of coloour or when I am chanign materials. Hope this helps - a great machine!

'fast' is a bit of a non word - there is print fast, and move fast and most printers can move fast (between print moves) and slow down during print moves - so the 'speed' part of what they publish can be a bit meaningless. Which machine you buy depends on where you are and what you want to output .... MB has publicly stated they are moving away from the domestic market - they have just laid off another 30% of staff ..... there are other, better machines out there. If I were setting up a 3dp business - while I would LOVE to have a UM3 I would probably buy 2 UM2+ ......... the UM3 has so many design features to encourage reliability and ease of use - which as i say, I would LOVE - but if you offered me that or the superb UM2+ twice ..... then I would always go for capacity ..... But it purely depends on your business model and capability in the 3dp field. Please don't expect the printer to pay back in the short term if you are doing work for others - platforms like 3dhubs used to be able to 'help' you pay back, but have become diluted to a point you are competing with some very experienced and hungry 'neighbours'.

I would try some other filament that you know to be 'fresh' (I have had this happen on older filament). At the same time I would order all the components for a new hot end and start with a fresh set-up - sometimes it is too gunked up to carry on working - so nozzle, heater, thermister etc. But start with new filament as the nozzle looks clean from one of the shots and it is gradually either clogging or over heating the filament. Check that all the heating routines and temps are for PLA and not for ABS - and drop the temp until the PLA just works.

without the above .... sounds like the nozzle is blocked, but heating, and has come loose so is leaking pla through the threads ...... time to do a bit of hot end maintnance ...... try an atomic pull a few times and then - warm up the nozzle - turn off the printer and gently undo the nozzle - take care here to be gentle or you can break everything - I use a round end spanner and pliers to ease everything apart. then clean everything up (a hot air gun and hard work) - warm up hot end and reassemble. Before you start I would personally have some spare bits for the hot end available as it can be quicker to swap out the old one for a new one, get the printer back working while you clean up the old one for a spare.

I use Iroberti's filament cleaner with a bit of oil on it (in the UK 3in1 dripping oil) which smears a thin layer of oil on the whole printer. Not too much oil though or it can 'drip' so really really thin.

Hmmmm - I think there may be some confusion - WD40 is a penetrating oil/cleaner and water dispersal *(hence WD) agent and is used on electrical (cars) to push water away where it is shorting the engine (traditionally sprayed on spark plug leads) and works brilliantly. Also good to a degree as a penetrating oil. 3in1 is a lubricating oil (yes there are other products in the range now that are spray cans etc - so to be clear I am talking about the DRIPPING OIL) and is fine for use on all your axes except the Z axix which should be grease. So if you are spraying it - then NO - if you are dripping it then YES

The beauty of fusion 360 is that you can do 3d printing, CAM and laser cutting - pretty much from the same model with slightly different operations. Have to say though that I am an autodesk fanboy and use lots of their other programmes in architecture - so they already had me with the name - they seem to be putting a huge amount of effort into ease of use and features in what is a free programme - better than Inventor which I pay a shedload for! seems to have many of the sketchup features without the failures in su to produce manifold models.

what material are you printing with - each material shrinks to a different amount and this needs to be taken into account when designing tolerances. counteract this by increasing the size of the model by different (small) percentage in cura before you slice. James

OMO no heat, dilute pva on the glass - great adhesion and easy removal. Agree glass needs to be really clean, then paint on a thin layer of diluted PVA - dry withhair dryer or allow to dry naturally and off you go for 10's of prints - I only wash off and reapply when the surface looks bad. I have no heated bed and happily print anywhere and any size on the bed. The only other aspect is to make sure you are only heating up the filament just enough for proper layer adhesion - too much heat in the filament can cause a bit more shrinking in my experience. I never use brim either

I for one am really annoyed - I bought my UMO three years ago and I get what? - nothing??? - oh yeah, I drew a + on it and there is no room for another one - I am really annoyed about that!

Agree with all the above - I use an IRoberti filament cleaner (see youmagine) with light oil (in my case WD40) and a modified UMO extruder and a temp of 240 and a .6mm nozzle and I get a passable result - did a 19 hour print with it last week. Not as good as direct drive, but workable. Rubber down a bowden is always going to be 'tricky'. Semiflex is easier as it is a stiffer filament, but it is also much harder. Play with retraction - pulling rubber down a bowden is also not necessarily the best. So you have picked a tough filament for a bowden setup. Possible, but needs tinkering.