cloakfiend

I agree, if you want more detail overall you need to decrease the nozzle size as well as the layer height. But get ready for some long print times!

I'd be interested in how you achieve your prints @kmanstudios without a prime tower as it means you are saving time and I'm a big fan of saving time!

Nice, I really like the red base as well!

Looks like the ultimaker one was printed quicker due to the size of the stepper lines? Photos of identical models side by side would be nice. Some settings are wrong thats for sure. Id try default settings before changing anything.

Nice man. very nice models. love the wheels! I always wanted to print me some fat wheels.... but overhangs scared me away, lol.

Thanks, but you do some great stuff yourself!

Nicr work! My friend asked me to make one of these for them with a center poece! Remonds me of my games workshop days!

No. The blue is the salt. There is no paint or masking work here. Just nature at work after 5 hours. Need to try it again almost had what i wanted! But the original plate was too thin.

Hi folks, I've been incredibly busy at work lately but had some ammonia and salt handy to try my hand at some blue patina fun. The problem i had was that these were 5 minute plates and the copper plate was so thin when i added the patina it ate right through even after sealing it! The They Live one was a thick one but i over did it, ill need to sand it back down. blue patinas are much tougher than green ones! usual ghetto photo setup.....

Shouldnt be too difficult to make an adjustable one, you can always fill an old comfortable shoe with plaster or something and then scan it or simply construct it yourself, but modelling is key. I think basic modelling skills are essential for ANY bespoke work or desires. I should thank Ultimaker for forcing me to learn Zbrush! I would have never got round to it before, you could do the organic side in a sculpting programme and adjustable stuff in a cad prog, or just all of it in a cad prog. working with nurbs is probably better due to the shoe shape. Dont worry 3D has a steep initial learning curve, but if you are interested, there are more than enough youtube videos and helpful people on forums to aid you. Mind you I just looked on the internet and they only cost like £15 or like $20. so you could just carve into it if you wanted something bespoke? some things are just cheaper if you buy them. I tend to only print bespoke stuff that i can't buy or have personalised. That way you could also 3D scan it and make your own from a good base.

so annoyed i didnt see this earlier. Where can i even buy these nozzles anymore??? i dont have the ob installed. im after just stock um2 nozzes

COLORFABB (I ASSUME ALL COLORFABB) A: What is the filament brand: colorFabb B: What is the type of filament: PLA/PHA (various colours + transparent) C: What is the diameter of the filament: 2.85mm D: What is the weight of a 750g full spool: 1052g (Sealed Normal pha/pla) - (1045g Sealed Transparent) E: What is the inner diameter of the core? 53mm F: What is the outer diameter of the core? 105mm G: What is the outer diameter of the whole spool? 201mm H: What is the weight of an empty spool? 250g I: Width of full spool (only when it is completely full because it can expand) 55mm J: Width of an empty spool (only when almost or completely empty) 55mm

Lol, Thanks for the compliments, My next piece is a mix of an old marble sculpture 'Undine Rising' and my crazy hair styles mixed into one. I got tired of doing all the folds and spent too long on it already, I need more practice. Seeing as it took so long I thought id adapt it and make it my own but I really wanted to keep the character body and pose of the original as I love that oldskool look. stay tuned! Im gonna print it big too!.....well as big as my UM2 lol!

Here we have the classic T-rex skull, i was gonna throw it out a while back because the paint job was poor, as i was experimenting with sculpt nouveaus metal paints which turned out nice for a few months but as i didn't seal them they went matt and lame. then I decided to patina the metallic paint and then paint over it a few times i think and then I just left it. So now i plated it and it was not the best as the many layers of paint act as a pillow against the solid PLA so buffing it took longer and it was harder to make super shiny. My Mecha Black primer is much better than my old primer which the conductive paint didn't stick to at all and came loose after heavy buffing or wire brush sanding/polishing. I wasn't sure whether my plating solution is dead yet as i poured in some more acid and some brightener, but still no bright shiny plate. My next plate will be with new solution, and I will monitor much more closely when the solution starts to either dull, salmonise or just slow down. I could plate things in 10 - 50 mins before, now it takes hours. 4-6 to be sure, but I must admit if you are going to be plating and patina or buffing or sanding after, then longer is better as burning or scraping a hole while polishing is a real let down. Lucky I have a feel for it now. It tend to go wobbly before you go through, but its easy to get bored or pissed of with polishing taking too long which makes you go too hard and fast and ruin the job!!! patience is key here and the midas touch.

Any more? Even one hot end stuff or coupler would be great?

Took some better photos whilst I was doing the hair one...

Thanks Kman, a good hour or two of polishing on this one, I'm going to plate a t-rex skull next, I have hd two laying around for ages and one is painted badly, I've been meaning to chuck it out or do something with it for ages.... heres a few more pics for the hell of it as photos are my way of signing off. Once i've taken the photos thats marks the end of my effort with it, time to move on to the next. Tag, Document, Learn, move on! a few more pics.....

Heres a pretty photo, took way too many again!!!

Hmmm I'll have to see how much detail i lose in sealing my models as well. every additional coat removes detail, which is why vapour acetone was a nono for me. Too much lost detail. If its gonna be shiny or smooth it needs to be perfect and hold all the detail of the model, which is why i stay well away from the vapour method. Im pretty certain the plaster is doing it. but then again plating larger things could be exhausting the electrolyte disproportionally as well, so so many variable when you are plating, it could be anything really!! Could be my voltage, as I never really change it but i doubt it seeing as its worked for the lasrt two years. Might also need to renew my wires, they are looking worn and frayed! The electrolyte hates organic materials in it. Anything organic will destroy it.

Just the bog standard support! and the usual zero infill. The way the new support system works is MUCH more forgiving that the old one in cura 15. It is actually possible to print with support (unless you have fine details on the bottom that is) and then easily sand it down with 80 grit paper followed by my usual 320 or 400. then a slap of acetone and you're good to go! Im going to be doing a lot more of this unless I have a really detailed model because gluing stuff takes ages, but I've even seen most resin users do this for detailed models so it cant be avoided at times regardless of the printer? well I am doing a nice reconstruction of a fave sculpture of mine at the moment so another few evenings work and it should be finished, I dont have enough time to finish it in my usual two evenings, too much folds in the clothing and not enough reference photos!!!! Plating is going wierd, its giving me a good thickness to buff and polish without worrying too much about going through to the print but its not shiny, Im spending too much time polishing the stuff, but it does look good! I've bought yet more electrolyte and paint to experiment with, so if my next plate goes perfect, then I know it must be the plaster of paris that is ruining my copper sulphate. Before it would last a lot longer and i have notice a lot of bubbles coming from tiny holes here and there in the objects as I dont bother sealing them. I may have to!. Also the primer im using is much better then my old home made one and the conductive coating seems stick to it real well and I have not seen any peeling at all compared to before!

Hi folks im back again with another plate n polish test. And my first time with support material since cura 15 and boy what a difference. Much better printing all in one as i only spent about an hour cleaning it up and i forgot to even sand it down lightly to remove the subtle layer lines after the acetone. Slightly annoyed but hey it a test! The other was printed in loads of parts and glued which in time i see it has split and the filler has come away. It took me many hours of filler and sanding to make and a total waste of my time. Ill be printing with support from now on! No pro pics just UM2 advertising lol.

Ill just use my drill, it will be a truly multi purpose drill. I already use it for very slowly rotating my turntable to film my models. I attach a large buffing pad and press it against the side of the record player and put it at the minimum speed. This is another ghetto setup that looks pretty good. I have technics SL1210s. That come in very hand for this purpose! Ill make another vid about how i do it! i made 3D printed supports for the sacrificial record I put on top of it to raise it above the centre needle that the models go on!

Nice, Looks good, but my main concern as you said is the speed of the device I use the polishing heads on. I may just end up using a standard drill which tends to spin a lot slower than my dremmel and has trigger pressure sensitivity also unlike the dremmel. The dremmel should have a speed setting all the way down to zero! I wish i could have a hanging device, but then again, my house is crammed full of 'stuff' and if i cna get aay with repurpoing a drill ill go that route. M

If you look at my you tube video of copper plated prints, I show you the problems of the plates coming loose, but on my recent plates I've used a different primer and the plate seems real solidly stuck on so when I polish it it doesnt move. If you have a gap in the plate and air gets in and you start polishing, theres a good change you might massage the air into the gap between the model and plate and then force the air into new parts slowly separating the plate from the surface, resulting in bubbles and delamination. Also if you acetone PLA like me, then the shrinking will affect the plate as teh acetone does its thing. But filling it with plaster first does slow this somewhat, however it also contaminated the solution, so you need to make sure the electrolyte does NOT come into contat with ANY plaser of Paris! Heres the vid:

Thanks, Yes I remember you showing me at the print house!. Ill have to experiment with these because doing this by hand is near impossible in all the tiny hard to reach areas and under the overhangs and such.