shadowfiend

Ok here we go :-P Back Bottom, highlighted in blue to show that I have thought of people with dual extruders ;c) Trickle vent fitting Trickle vent fitting section The actual trickle vent, it doesn't look as grubby in real life (honest) Chamber fastening Chamber exhaust, with fan So I am getting to the point where I will be able to start getting quotes for the polycarbonate, once I have finalised all the dimensions and holes etc. The vent fitting is quite large and needs to be printed in four parts. It took me ages to get to this point because I am learning Solidworks and doing everything the hard way, meaning getting it wrong and then fixing it instead of reading the manual ;c) Comments and criticisms most welcome. Thanks.

Ahh, not really though, I have found a way to keep the PLA well stuck down is to paint a mixture of PVA wood glue and water onto the stock acrylic build platform and then place a sheet of normal A4 paper in water and carfully lay it onto the platform. I then paint some more glue and water on the paper and let it dry. Works every time :c) As you say gr5, there is'nt the need for much heat for PLA. I managed to get the chamber up to about 45C with the hair dryer, but got a bit scared after that as the hair dryer was inside the chamber! I think small amount of heat for PLA may improve printing, if only to provide a consistant, repeatable environment. ABS on the other hand obviously likes the heat and again the repeatability and controlled environment is what I was wanting it for. So it looks like I don't need to rethink the design after all YAY! Bonus! I think that having the chamber enclosed is generally a good idea. Although PLA is much more forgiving shrinkage wise, it is always better to control the variables where you can. This does lead on to another question I have though. How would I go about connecting a fan (or multiple fans) and indipendantly control the speed? Can I do this within Cura, or would I have to find some way of writing a little application? Further down the line I would like to be able to control the heating (heated build platform etc) and the fans programmatically. Suggestions would be very welcome. Cheers. P.S. Hoping to upload some pics later.

To gr5 Ahh I didn't know that, I might wait in that case. Thanks for the info about the glass transition point. When I printed my first attempts in ABS without any heating, just to see what happened, they all delaminated. I was expecting this, but it reinforces the fact that the shrinkage happens very quickly after the plastic leaves the nozzle. When I put my oven bags on and heated the air with the hairdryer the small part printed quite well and didn’t delaminate at all. So I guess that even heating at exactly the right temp is the key here. I had also thought about scaling the part up in the CAD software, wouldn’t it be nice if the software could model the shrinkage and adjust it, taking into account all the factors? This may be wishful thinking though. I am starting to understand the glass transition point better now, so thank you for all the info :c) To foehnsturm I had been reading through the post about a cross flow approach around the time I started this project. I think it is a very interesting way to improve the printing quality and I am now thinking of somehow working this into my design. I like the simplicity of the design and that it is similar in many ways to a fan assisted oven ;c) However I had not thought of the issue you have pointed out here about the heating up of the Bowden tube :cO A rethink may be in order, thanks for pointing this important fact out to me. As you will see in the coming posts, I have already put an extractor fan at the back of the enclosure in the top left corner. My thinking was to create a small pressure difference, enough to allow air to come into the Ultimaker through all the small gaps and be vented outside through a tube to the trickle vent in the window. The ‘hot / cold zones’ is an excellent idea that has really got me thinking. To Dim3nsioneer I see your point here Dim3nsioneer, but I was wanting to control the airflow is such a way as to exhaust the fumes out, whilst keeping a consistant inside temperature. I was therefore wanting to enclose the printer as much as possible. However keeping the Bowden tube cool is still a problem :c/ Cheers guys, updates to come, pending bad internet access :c)

Hi everyone :c) Sorry I heven't replied to your posts, but I have been having broadband issues, but I have still been working on my designs. I will respond to your posts shortly and post my updates :c) Cheers.

Hi again gr5, thanks again for helping me post the pictures :c) I had a feeling that thingiverse might have something like that. I think that Youmagine will be the way to go, and I intend to release all the files not just STL files. I will make sure to read up on the Creative Commons licences that you mention here. I'm not sure about which way to go, it will probably depend on how generous I'm feeling on the day ;c) I don't have a heated bed yet, but I will see how I get on with my very low tech hairdyer ;c) I do intend to get a heated bed but there are a few ways to go with this and I like to fully understand the pro's and con's first. I am going to be printing with ABS and later would like to try other materials too, Polycarbonate, Nylon and others. One thing at a time though. I have been reading up on the 'glass transition point' and this was part of the motivation for the build. My thinking was by heating the air in the chamber this might offer a more even heat distribution and therefore reduce non-homogenous distortions as the part is being printed. If you think about it the heated bed may be good at adhering the part to the plate, but the upper layers are cooling and contracting at a different rate. It’s all just about seeing what works best by experiment. I have read that the commercial FDM printers have the ambient air temp around 70C. This glass transition seems to be the critical thing to control. I had seen a post in here about mounting the motors outside and this also offers the option of direct drive, which I might do also. Great suggestion :c) However I think I would be simply changing the wiring, as for me this would be a permanent change. One of my design considerations is that no part of the Ultimaker will need to be cut or drilled, as I know some people really don’t like this. Many thanks, it’s great to be here finally :c)

Oops, forogot to append this :oops: Credit:- Many thanks to lampmaker for the solidworks assembly. Brilliant! http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:29513

Hi dear Ultimakers :c) I have had my Ultimaker original now for just over a month. I am very pleased with it and I have to say the money was very well spent. I am in the process of designing a heated build chamber that will double as a fume containment and extraction system. I have tried the ‘oven bag’ method and tried printing with 1.75mm ABS, no heated bed (yet) but got a good result by just heating the enclosed volume with a hair dryer. But then there were the awful nasty fumes! So I decided to do something about it. I introduce the Ultimaker Heated Chamber! Not a new idea, but I thought I’d have a go ;c) The transparent nature of the material makes it hard to render ;c) The design will be made in 6mm polycarbonate and utilises dog tooth edge joints with an ‘L’ section strip of polycarbonate fastened with M3 bolts, no ‘T’ slots as I think this method is much stronger. I have read good things about polycarbonate, very tough and with good heat resistance. I will be having this laser cut and am planning to make a kit to sell. I have no experience of this and would really welcome feedback on how to go about doing this. I am completely new to the maker movement and am very excited to start contributing back to the community. Any advice on the do’s and don’ts regarding a small scale commercial project, but without upsetting anyone in the process would be most welcome :c) Even though I would like to make a kit for people to buy, I will be releasing all the digital files to the community, again any advice on the different licenses would be great. The design is not quite finished yet but I will be posting updates as they happen. Cheers :c)

Hurray!!! I can see the upload button now :-P Thanks times by millions :cool: :cool: :cool: Oh and check out my post in the modifications forum :c)

Ahh! Thanks gr5, I will try that now. I have had the account open for ages but only just got round to posting :c) CHEERS :c)

Hi guys, I've looked in both places and they are not there, I'm guessing that they have not been enabled because I'm a new user or something like that. I would post screenshots but, well you know the rest ;c) What I am seeing is this text above this posting window:- 'You can make 18 more posts until Today, 11:40 PM. This restriction is in place until you have 23 more approved posts This post will need approval from a moderator before it is shown. This restriction will be lifted when you have 1 more approved posts' Perhaps this image upload restriction will be lifted after this post? Letts see what happens :c) Thanks guys.

Hi IRobertI, Thanks for your reply, I have looked and looked in every place but I cannot see an upload button :c/ What is the url to the page where the upload button is? I will try uploading to an external site and link to it toningt and see how I get on. Really appreciate your help though :c) Thanks.

Hi Guys! I am brand new here and have spent the last 2 hours trying to even find out how to upload photos, without sucess. I see that there is an issue, so I don't feel quite so silly now ;c) Obviously the techno gremlins are out to play!