aaronalai

@Geeks, really interesting print, the explanation and video of the process are appreciated. Is the rest of the submarine 3D-printed? @Valcrow, thanks; the entire thing is 3D printed. I deposited a very small amount of sewing machine oil with a hypodermic needle type glue applicator. Here is a cross section of the spinning interface, I made sure the space at the tip was smaller than the wall portion in the cylinder, this way it wouldn't be able to fall apart. I think 50 or 100 microns smaller distance at the tip interface may make it better, but it didn't seem worth it to test it out: Edit: Also, the gear was for a contraption to open and close a screen door for my cat. I just wanted to see if I could make something with what I have around the house. It didn't work out as well as I wanted, but was fun to make!

Hey guys, is there any objection to doing the bracelet, other other similar smaller item that we can vote on, starting on the 15th? If I can get 5 votes by then I'll start the thread, if not I'll try again for the end of the month. A yup, and a suggestion if applicable. Scratch that, how about we start voting up until the end of this month and follow an approximation of the prescribed rules below?

Usually when I don't check this forum for a couple of days there are many more prints, people must be busy :mrgreen:. I've been busy for a while as a function of perhaps too much printing. I printed this for my father, I designed it in one evening, printed it that night, and woke up to a functional print. I've never designed a gimble before, and I guessed on all of the design features. I'm definitely getting better at tolerances now, there is little play between the rings. Here is a video of the device in action, a stationary magnet tries to keep the center of the gimble from rotating. My father and stepmother came for a visit, and I printed her these flowers. They were both really impressed with the prints and took great care with their presents. I printed illuminarti's cylinder and another big flower on the printers while they were at my home, for them to watch and understand how they operate. I also tried to make this contraption that I thought would be cool, but did not work as intended, so my success this weekend was mixed :wacko:. It involved a gear, which turned out to be the best part of the print; this was also a case of never designed before, printed perfectly with one try. I needed some failure to keep my ego in check I suppose :mrgreen:. Here is a link to a video of the thing in action, the damn gear cut my thumb while making this video. I started the weekend printing this little organizer for my bathroom, I have little counter space and these take up a significant amount of it; this little item has been a real benefit. I put a giant hole through the entire thing so water wouldn't just sit at the bottom of each item well.

@cor3ys, that is really great looking, especially for a first go around! Really nice stuff, it sort of reminds me of the alien from Enemy Mine, great movie BTW. @Dieselpower, the design seems to be gaining popularity; I would be interested to hear how well it works out for you. @Chrisp, I always love the utility posts; even the small things like a hook which looks very robust. If you notice your hook degrading, send me your .stl file and I'll print it out of PET+ plastic and mail you the hook if you like. It's suppose to not absorb water and be ultra durable, I've been printing with it and am really pleased with the results. @Vinay, Ultimaker would totally win, it would print a solution :mrgreen:; quality prints, those two side robots look difficult to print. @Valcrow, Wow, those are really nice prints, very professional looking! Thank you very much for sharing your tips. I also appreciate the photo with all the parts disassembled. That top piece looks really great, was that printed as one piece?

Hey guys! Just wanted to touch base with ya'll, I've been pretty occupied these last few days. I like the directions this non-specific thread has gone. I'm not much of an exercise person, but I'll share with you a secret to my physique. I do a lot of yard work! Having a large yard is a great form of exercise, you do a lot of hard work in the sun and have something beautiful to look at when done. My last few days have been really busy! Last Friday a labmate and I went out to celebrate a successful test from the previous week, and I had my whole weekend planned out until... I was eating breakfast Saturday morning and had what I thought would be a great idea. I was going to design a pulley system to open and close my screen door so my cat could freely go out onto the deck. I just needed something to open and close the screen door a small amount and something that was button activated; my cat currently touches a spot on her food dispenser to feed herself, so I figured I could train her to touch some buttons as well. Anyway, I was happily designing and testing designing and testing all of Saturday, I got a little too involved; and it turns out not to work; blarp. I was trying to make something with what I just had on hand, and I definitely need to approach the problem differently. The bright side is that I had to make this gear with very fine teeth, and it worked perfectly on the very first try! I'll be posting a video of that later. Then on Saturday evening, I get a call from my father telling me his flight is still on schedule. Double blarp, I totally forgot him and my stepmother were visiting for a couple of days. So I quickly designed an idea I had for a gift and printed it out, and it too worked on the very first try. I'll be posting pictures and a video of the gifts later as well. Yeah, so about the only thing I did that I had planned was design and print a little stand for the stuff I regularly use in the bathroom; which I'll also be posting. Also, on another note I have procured a UMO!!!! Here is a photo of a photo of them in my illuminated picture frame. The frame sits with me on my desk and it's nice to look at when I miss my printers. Anyway, I plan on spamming the post your latest print thread late this evening when I say my farewells to my parents. One more also, I've been preparing a tutorial for how to design glasses frames for one's self after many inquires at the Maker Faire; I'll be posting that soon as well. I've got so many projects going on simultaneously; I feel like I need to clone myself .

@Jonathan Gueron, that's a fantastic application of 3D printing, really nice looking as well! Do you think you saved money doing it yourself?

Interesting simulation, I think PLA is pretty solid still at 50C, at 60C though it can deform a little. Can you show a temperature plot and not a displacement plot? I see what you mean about the pumping action, sort of like chewing gum.

Not sure why I've been summoned as I got my printer around March 10th, coming up on 3 months soon :-P. But I'll answer as I like to inspect and watch the machine a lot :shock:. I too print daily and have only missed a handful of printing days since I got my machine. How do you change filament? Standard way or heating up and pulling the filament out? Standard way sort of. I'm using the latest stable firmware of Cura, but have always had an issue where sometimes the extruder motor will stop before it has moved all of the filament out during the change filament route. I power the machine off briefly pull out the filament then turn it back on again. I try to get out as much of the string as possible while doing this, if it's PLA I just leave it in the Bowden tube, if it's ABS I clean it out with a paper towel. Do you "sharpen" the filament tip so it doesn't get hung up inside the teflon piece? I have not felt the filament hang on the teflon coupler, but I do cut the filament at an angle to prevent squishing the cut surface and deforming it. How often do you change filament? I have 14 spools of filament (I ordered overseas and it's to justify the shipping). Out of these spools 4 are empty or only have about 2 meters on them. They consist of PLA, ABS, XT, PET+, and flexable PLA; out of these I have not yet printed out of XT or flexable PLA. I switch the filament out about 1.5 times a week. Do you let the nozzle heated up for a long time? Nope, definitely always conscious to keep the filament flowing through the hot end and if I'm not I get it out of the hot zone as quickly as I can. There was one instance where PLA was sitting in the nozzle heated for an entire day without any issue. The filament wrapped under itself and knotted almost at the beginning of the print and I didn't see it until I got back late from work that day. The motor just ground the filament down. Do you perform _very_ long prints? Yup, I've had a couple of multi-day prints with no problem. I often am working the printer for most of the weekend. Room temperature where the printer is stored. 20 - 27.5 C Wich filament do you use (spool, loose, brand)? Ultimaker, ColorFabb, MadeSolid Did you change motion settings? Yeah, heated bed 50-60 for PLA, default settings for ABS, acceleration 2000; I believe it's 3000 in the newest firmware by default. Did you increase stepper motor current? Nope. Do you use an alternative feeder? Nope. I do use a filament guide and an existing bolt hole on the UM2 frame. This significantly reduces grinding down of the extruder motor casing. Do you have a filament dust filter? Yup, ziptied paper towel around filament tightly. This assemblage sits at the enterance to the stepper motor box. I also blow out little bits of ground down filament from the extruder motor case frequently just using my breath. Have you took the electronics cover off and checked where the extruder motor wires are guided? (maybe if they are guided wrong and are too close to other componentes, the extruder motor might be influenced during prints). I took the electronics cover off and didn't notice anything odd with the wire guiding. Unlikely RF interference would change the stepper's behavior. I've also had under-extrusion a couple of times but it was usually because of something I did that ended up grinding the filament down, like printing way too cold or knoting up the filament on the reel. I have had two clogs that were easily remedied by a hypodermic needle. And there have been a few times where I did not clean the nozzle well enough, but have only had to do the Atomic Bob method twice. To clean out the nozzle I usually use the move filament command, if I'm switching from ABS to PLA I tell the machine I'm putting in ABS so it heats up real hot. After the install filament sequence I quickly go to "move material" and start pumping out PLA as fast as it will come out of the machine, I frequently induce skipping during this action. Once I'm satisfied with the speed and consistency by which the filament comes out of the nozzle; thick, smooth, and straight down out of the nozzle, almost like dispensing a liquid, I move the filament backwards until it's barely out of the teflon coupler then let everything cool like normal with the 3rd fan on. Once cool I'll take the Bowden tube off at the print head end; clip the bit of melted plastic at an angle; with the machine off, spin the filament reel backwards manually to get it completely out of the Bowden tube; remove the other end of the Bowden tube and clean the tube with a rolled up paper towel. If I've been printing with ABS for only a short time I skip cleaning out the Bowden tube, I notice ABS collects over time. Once I got a really stubborn clog after using PLA for a while, and I didn't have a suspicion as to what the material could be. I was too lazy to do the Atomic method so I just used move material at I think 220 to plunge the filament into the nozzle and back out again. The clog eventually went away. I recently inspected my teflon coupler and could not identify any deformation to the interior cylinder wall, and did notice an almost invisible deformation to the surface of the teflon coupler that interfaces with the nozzle. I could only see it when light was reflecting off the surface. Also, I used a beta firmware once and the new filament start sequence tried to push filament through the nozzle too quickly and usually ended up grinding it down. Hmm, I think this response is getting long enough, I'll answer any more questions if needed or for clarification.

I've been thinking of a way to submit prints to determine a winner; each participant takes whatever photos/videos they want and writes whatever they want but by a specific date, people then read them and vote. An example submission could include things like closeup photos of hard to print details, an overall photo of it on the printer bed not removed, a photo of it off the bed; some information about the print, how long it took to print, how many attempts did it require, printer type, bed temp, nozzle temp, filament type, print speed...; and potentially some shared files. This way it negates any real set of rules, except for example a bold header for official submissions, and allows people the opportunity to show what they think is most impressive about their print.

@Nateokane, very nice! I'm very fond of this technique as well; it's so easy to print and measure print and measure. Also +1 for sporting the glass! @Dieselpower, definitely not bad at all! The machine looks fragile but is surprisingly rugged, I think the shipping of these things is a pretty traumatic experience.

Interesting FE mode I have a coupler of questions: How did you measure the force the spring exerts on the coupler? What is the temperature of the coupler at the spring/coupler interface? Did you detect any deformations at the coupler heated nozzle interface? Thanks for the post!

Yeah, that looks like an intricate print; definitely looking forward to seeing it in its entirety. Also, I agree with you Skint; I grow more jealous of ZBrush users every day, anything I made it would probably resemble the elephant man more than anything else though.

Interesting; I get grinding but it happens for very specific reasons: if I print really cold (5C away from no extrusion cold), the buildplate is too close to the nozzle, or I'm trying out new firmware. Do any of these apply to your situation? The only other time I got grinding was actually in the middle of a print because my filament was weaved under itself and knotted up; the extruder pulled like hell on the filament though, it was full of kinks where it interfaced with my filament guides.

Hey CptanPanic, regarding the holes; I think that's trial and error. Myself and others have found that about 0.2 mm of shrinkage occurs in many PLA's. For holes I add 0.2 mm to the radius of the hole, making the diameter 0.4 mm larger.

Just a friendly reminder to clean out the Bowden tube. The first time I used ABS plastic little bits of it were scattered throughout the tube, and I could see them being ejected out the nozzle occasionally, some were really big. Every time since then I clean the Bowden tube as depicted below and no longer have little bits of ABS making their way to the nozzle. I've seen a lot of people trying to pinpoint underextrusion and surely a gunked up Bowden tube can't help. I also blow out the extrusion motor case with my breath, this helps prevent any more ABS from worming its way into the Bowden tube. Rolled up paper towel, both ends of the Bowden tube unattached, shove filament through tube.

Alright, that's 3 for the dragon and 1 for the bracelet so far. I propose we submit more designs and discuss any rules that may be necessary and start next month or the middle of this month; the more designs we have now the larger our selection pool will be in the future. Even if just a few of us participate I think it will be fun enough, if not the experience will at least be educational with respect to optimizing print strategies.

Yeah, it turned out a bit bigger than I had initially planned, it's loosely based off the bird feeder my mom already has; her's is about half the height and more of a C shape. Blarp, the longer I'm on this thread I find myself wanting the skills of others; the grass is always greener I suppose. I didn't even notice the orange thing in the picture. It's a cylinder neodymium magnet covered in http://sugru.com/, I was using it with a home built magnetic stirrer.

Wow some really great prints you guys! @Nateokane, nice print; I also see you took a note from the Ultimaker design crew . @LeoDDC, just wow that is a beautiful paint job! The creases around the face are done really well and show a lot of emotion. I made this last weekend for my mom, it's based off a bird feeder she likes; jelly is placed in the blue container. The white frame consists of 4 pieces glued together with an ABS/acetone solution. I messed up on a dimension for the center link and had to carve some of the plastic away.

@Didier Klein, man you've been busy; nice prints! You recovered that bird feeder really well, I think it turned out fantastic. @nudelmannrichter. another functional print, nice! I really love seeing these things. Even if the rod doesn't fit, there are only minor adjustments to be made; it looks perfect in the photos. @BaasB, nice paint job, the white eyeballs freak me out. The ownership thing can tricky sometimes, I'm sure next time you'll get everything straight.

Alright, I just found this thread I really like the idea of a monthly challenge as well with a new thread for every month. I don't have much time to invest in controlling the project but would be a willing participant. Perhaps the first months' print should be illuminarti's dragon without the baked in supports, but supports we generate on our own. Or perhaps a bracelet with many holes; I've seen this stuff printed in may different ways that one would not necessarily expect. Dragon: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:218026 Bracelet: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:192211 Or perhaps we don't need anyone to actually control the monthly print sessions, but simply for people to suggest ideas we vote on at the end of each month; only requiring someone to start the monthly thread. New prints could be suggested during the print for that month, so at the end of the month there is a winner and a new print, and everything starts over again. Some rules/guidelines would be nice. Like a photo of the object on the print bed and one without supports.

Also, I updated my yo-yo files on YouMagine and blarp Thingiverse; I'm really backlogged in uploading stuff and I got a couple of requests at the Maker Faire to post the functional files. Just click the yo-yo image below, download, and print.

Hells yeah! This is going to be great! I've never been there either, I'll look for some things that might be interesting in the area. I'll be able to put a voice to the picture :mrgreen: .

Hey guys! Well it looks like I’ll be in Berlin Germany August 8th – 14th, my boss was very adamant that I submit a paper to a conference called IRCOBI (International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury). I submitted my paper a while ago and just re-submitted it with reviews, although the paper hasn't been officially accepted yet my boss made me go ahead and register for the conference, book a flight, and book a hotel; all of which are non-refundable so even if my paper does not get officially accepted I’ll still be going I guess :mrgreen:. Anyway, if any of my fellow Ultimakers are going to be in the area at that time we should definitely hang out!!! I should have significant free time and would love to meet some of you guys!

Yeah, very professional looking; very nice! I too am looking for a good IP camera that can zoom in and allow me to check the quality of the print; I'll keep you posted if you do the same for me, nothing I've found so far can give me the focus and resolution I'm looking for.

@Ian you might be mad, regardless that's totally doable. I'm always surprised by how strong my prints are, even little things withstand way more force than I expect. If you are having problems with durability for some reason you could check out PET+ from Made Solid, it's suppose to be much stronger than ABS or PLA. I just received my order in the mail and made a couple of test prints with their colorless clear filament and it feels really durable, it also does not absorb water.