cloakfiend

I was in my garage finally finishing my most split object ever. Took 2 days to print and ive spent about 4 days just fixing it over and over again learning how different solvents and fillers work together and sandability. I could have easily just printed again but i learn more this way and improve my filling sanding techniques. One thing i learnt was that you need to regularly wipe clean and regrease the main screw or else dust gathers on it which in turn create subtle unwanted layer lines. Also my garage umia like a desert. It gets freezing at night and hot in the day. These following objects have been there for over 6 months now. The lady was hollow and split so bad you can see how many layers of filler i used. Squadron filler white and tamiya putty grey. Squadron putty does not fair well to moisture. I filled the lady full of plaster so the pla (red tr colorfabb) should not split anymore as the trapped air inside is now gone and as it heats in the sun it cant warp as much as it doenst have as much freedom to move as before. So far so good. Last time it split within days of being perfectly rescued. Twice. Third time lucky i guess. Large stuff where acetone gets inside and in direct sunlight and cold temps is very prone to splitting. I think its finally settled now. The arm is glued on, so is the hair, and the hand. But its really solid and properly stuck. I did a great job attaching it if i dont say so myself. As good as a good doctor!! The models that split were all black pla and burger kitty was the light brown. Slight splitting on that one. All models are hollow apart from the lady and painted face. Again did the primer aid the cracking??? Dutch orange colorfabb pla pha cracked when hollow and acetone reached inside. Black colorfabb pla pha hollow primed with thinned tamita grey primer. Red colorfabb tr primed with valejo mecha black. Hollow not capped. Light brown pla pha colorfabb (discontinued) hollow primer. Tiny splits Black colourfabb pla pha primed with thinned tamiya primer. Filled solid with plaster. Eithet the black or paint thinner paint mix or both has split the models. And of course repeated direct sunlight heat and cold exposure Regardless of plaster filling. The lady split due to acetone abuse! Lol. My bad, im a bad influence!

Not sure if its just me but ive noticed that when i load the ultimaker page for the first time and scroll down in the menu. It NEVER shows join the community. It ALWAYS stops at community (which you cant actually click on) and then you have to scroll again. Weird? Dunno maybe cos im still on a note4? Just starting to bother me having to scroll to the bottom and then scroll again.

It could also be the primer paint?... often paint also contain solvents. Thats why the transparent colorfabb works so well it already has solvents mixed in. Generally, too much acetone releases these solvents and thus causes the cracking in my opinion but J really dont know? So many variables im doing a big print for work soon. I hope it doesnt split as its for live TV and would be a disastser! It aslo has to be solid at the base but flexible-ish at the top! More unknown territory for me then.... and multi part.. what do i get my self into lol. All because i love 3s printing. I always say yes to ANY job that requires it!

Well here we are... reaaaaally old prints all avetoned and totally hollow and all in the same room. Basically colourfabb black was the worst. All black models split (the grey primed one) also my trex skulls but i forgot to photo those. (They were my first EVER) acetone experiments so ill make sure to photograph them too. Thats 6 years old! The rest are 1-4 years old my Red colorfabb was good. Brown poor like the black and marine blue was good and i acetoned the hell out of the blue!!!. The brown was ancient btw and I bought it on sale so no surprises there, but my lighter colours seem fine and I use them all the time even though ive had them laying about my house for years. Age only really affected the darker colours? Mind you I may have gone heavier on the black and brown but in hindsight all my acetoned black prints split ovet time. The pics... all brushed on no dipping. Ill do a test on something i dont like...but i cant really justify wasting time on things i dont like.... but il do it for you @geert_2!....I guess printing another kello kitty cant hurt. At least I can show you a nice quick way of filling the splits in a video. I haven't done one in a while! Light brown Colorfabb PLA/PHA (A FEW SPLITS) “This product will be discontinued. Once there is no stock anymore no more products will be produced. Offer is valid until stock lasts.” Special Price €19.97 for those interesed from their website. Transparent Red Colorfabb PLA/PHA (NO SPLITS) Ultra Marine Blue Colorfabb PLA/PHA (NO SPLITS) Black Colorfabb PLA/PHA (LOADS OF SPLITS) Traffic Red Colorfabb PLA/PHA (NO SPLITS)

After some experimentation I can confirm that cura 4.4.1 and the new firmware 5.4 or whatever it is works just fine. So all good. All my old stuff however no longer works but im ok with that as i have too much on my stick now anyways and it takes too long going through it all. I'd rather archive my obj files rather than curas sliced files anyway. ive gathered quite a few now.

No but I may do just out of interest, to be honest I have had almost no models split on me since i have stopped dipping and only using the brush on method. will try again soon, but im making much larger models than before so dipping becomes very inconvenient as I dont do my whole 5ltr acetone tank dip routine anymore!! lol. I have bought loads of paints recently and am painting my old skulls with flat matts lol. this skull is about 2 years old and has been above my fire place for a year, and its fine still. as well as the plated and patina'd one. I think its funny showing you an example of a smooth surface using one of the darkest flattest mattest paints available! still no splits! lol side by side for comparison.....Ill post non painted stuff when I get home! gonna slap a shiny laquer over the patina skull as well. just to see what it looks like!

Not chatted on this topic for a while, but I've been having havoc with my curly hair lady, and had to repair it sooooo many times. I used tamiya putty to fill the cracks twice now, but realise what I had done wrong in the first place! I acetoned it with holes in the model and then proceeded to leave it in the window in full view of the sun, now I have many models in full view of the sun but the only ones that cracked were the hollow ones, so if your gonna acetone models like me and leave them in heat or the sun, they will crack. I have 6 year old hollow models that I've kept inside and they are fine, mind you in the room with my fire place I've noticed a few cracks. Its the acetone weakened walls that simply are drying out and splitting. once filled with plaster they are eternally damp inside so won't split in my opinion, maybe uv spray could prolong the hollow light and heat related splitting but who knows. I doesn't really matter. my unacetoned print look fine on the same window sill, but also most likely with my lady print, is that I glued 4 parts onto it, One arm, hand and the back hair bit and acetone got inside when doing my heavy brushing! When acetone gets inside your print it almost ALWAYS spells disaster in the long run. one of my prints directly above my fireplace expanded like a balloon, looked well funny! I'll post a pic if i find it! BTW That grey tamiya putty is the business!! goes on too thin, so nice! even though Id rather never use but in case you get tiny splits or something its soon easy filling them.

Thanks, I'm normally Mr Legacy and I've had long argument with people who always think the newest versions of everything are the best and how I warn them to wait a bit unless they are happy being guinea pigs. Some people even refused to roll back or use older versions and struggle on with their issues because it meant they werent using the latest and 'greatest'. So silly. In this case guess I was away for bit and didn't read about the issues some people had as normally they are fine. Ill just leave it at 5.2.11 for ever now! Lol. Lesson learnt!....unless I update the actual machine. I must have been waaay behind firmware wise though because the auto levelling seems much quicker. Im just gonna reslice everything again to make sure my stick is not corrupting or any other weird issues. Ill stick to the new cura v4 as well. Seems nicer! Well done there cura people! Been using v3.4 for waaay too long now!

Actually nah I take it back. New firmware is a lame duck, for me anyways more random failures on files I've printed repeatedly. Perhaps due to my machine series and lack of addons, eitherway, rollin back to 5.2.11.... or I've been away for a bit and my machine is upset I've left it alone for so long!lol. Im getting really creative again now... so I need my reliability back. Not waking up to loudly blowing fans that have been doing that all night whilst i was sleeping. Shame. If this keeps up may have to go back to the um2 after all!

They have a full colour lcd display it could simply display the symbol and writing in big. Even though anyone whos bought one with half a brain would already know its hot. I feel this is a warning for no win no fee claims idiots. I mean you have to physically open the door or put your hand all thd way in to touch it. Doing that to any machinery you dont understand is pretty stupid if you ask me. And yes i know....curiosity.....killed the cat!

Hopefully all good now! i installed cura 4.4.1 after about 6 or 7 weird failures in a row but now seems to be printing. I noticed that printing started from the center rather than from the left or right side as before. Also wait times when aborting seem to be much longer for some reason. Will post if I have any further issues. But I still think the warning should be red, lol. That's what I get for not reading threads in full.

I just updated my S5 now and its basically useless, none of my old files from my usb card work, I can't print, it crashes all the time tried both nozzles and none work. just endlessly grinds into the bed oozing out and giving errors before i have to switch it off or it just dies. I get a weird unreadable orange warning which i later read, caution hot surface ( whoever though white text on yellow was a good idea? seriously? Its completely unreadable it should be white on red or something) basically upset that I have to go back to my UM2. and leave the s5. 😞 Will try with cura 4.4 but I have so many files I made with 3.4 i reprint off my current stick do i reallI have to redo slicing them all???? Im going into a corner to sulk now. Can I rollback my firmware somehow? Back one year if poss? Is this easily readable? I dont think so.. just curious but does anyone disagree?

In my opinion after much use I am very happy with my 3d pen which was a gift from my girlfriend for my birthday which was nice. I consider all 3d pens to be pretty much identical and of poor quality so i dont think it makes much difference which one you get as long as it works without breaking and uses both pla and abs. I think having a wireless one is pointless as I cant imagine it lasting a long time and i just bought a 3m long super thin usb cable to use with mine and i can print forever. The one it comes with remind me of the ipad 2 charging cable which was about 0.3m long. Lol. All the brand names seem like made up names and dont even exist when you google them so its gonna be hit and miss in my opinion. The only thing i hate about mine is when i press back it ejects the whole filament instead of retracting. But i can get used to that. I post a pic when i find it.

Its the grey power version that even i cant always find. Its identical to elmers in application but much stronger and more scratch resistant on the buildplate hence printing more on it without re application. However.... in all seriousness i would always apply a new coat to an important print regardless. You never know if a spot has worn through and it could just happen by chance to be in a critical spot where your model sits or some support is required. But for casual prints and tests and gifts i just keep printing and printing. Sometimes ill prime it with one print as the first print sticks a bit too much. Then ill do my main one to avoid issues gettng it off. I generally stick a scalpel blade under it to let in air to get it off. Salt is much better but im told its not good for tall stuff? I still need to test this out because i use it to print on fabric.

Great to know! Thanks!

Ah thats great to know thanks! i though that might be the case, if i go even two layers on my glue. I fear for my prints. Too hard to remove. I even chipped my um2 glass trying to remove a large print. I never did do the the whole rubbing glue around with water. I found the glue it shipped with was just too weak, i did try but ut failed on my second print. My prittstick has never failed. But it has made me destroy a couple of prints while i figured out ways to remove them in the process. Will give this magigoo a goo. Any recomendation? For a strong pla one or are they all pretty good?

I may try some of this magigloo looks interesting! As for low level cf pla defo salt method but only at 210 for colorfabb and above othewise it doesnt always stay down. But its a dream to remove after. ... i have printed loads (50+)on my gluestick which is prittstik power. But it only a matter of time before you ruin it or it starts fading and re-application is required!

Here you go, like I said not much happed after the 1st hour, but I left it in anyways.... some close ups as well. 4 seconds of action spread out over 1.30 lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heCkyfcGW8c Not sure how to embed a video here anymore, is the option gone?

Doing another one now but every 4 seconds and added some salty ammonia in a few spots hopefully bringing some blue about adding to the green. Also shot in video mode as the aperture in photo mode isnt consistent and has that stopmotiony flicker that annoys me. Also the shutter is so violent that it shakes the camera creating a tiny wobble on each frame. Annoying but a touch of stabilisation should sort that..... getting loads of crashes trying to stabilise 5K footage on my crappy macbook air!.....oh dear. long crash logs almost there!! did a few dogs ones as well 4 secs between, still green. Gonna try a few other things in the mean time....this skull anim should be done by tomorrow! only the first 5 seconds is interesting so ill do a bunch of close ups after the 14hrs time lapse reveal. I now know 4 hrs time-lapse is plenty.

Sadly it failed. Have no idea why. I need to hit up some time lapse forums. Instead of 14000 photos. I have 1 folder of 0001-2170 and another folder of 8999-9999 so upset and gutted. It would have looked so cool. Either way ill speed up what I got but the magic happens at the start. Last frame. I don't even have the first..... what a dumb system. I've been f-ing and blinding for the past 30 mins. So annoyed. Oh well. Bugger.... Hold up... its weird... I actually think I have it somehow? But 1 photo every 15 secs is 4 per min and thats 240 per hour......for 15 hours....thats 3600, I'm such an idiot. I some how calculated 900 photos per minute and expected to find like 14000? Whatever it worked!!!! Yay! Don't think the last few hours added anything but I guess ill find out. First photo, after acid (re-positioned and de-focused a touch as predicted) photo, and last photo. Video will be tomorrow. I'm working at 5am tomoz!

Ok in progress. Probably out of focus now because I was rushing as it starts rusting immidiately and with the timervactivated i cant refocus. Will need to make some hidden placeholders to be able to pop it back in the right place easily... living and learning... To tell the truth i dont think more time will change anything but i may add some acid on by brush to even the green but still debating. Will sand it after lightly to highlight the raised areas in copper.

A good example of a patina is the green coating on the originally copper statue of liberty. Its the 'rust'. But it also protects the copper. You can accelerate it to film which is what i will try tomorrow. I just need to make space for about 14000 photos on my sd card. Gonna take a photo every 15seconds. My avatar is also a patina. It can be faked with paint, created with heat (obvs no good for plated pla!) And created with acids and chemicals. Spray and be amazed. Very easy to get great results even though you cant always predict what youll get.

Doing my first time lapse patina on an old print! So excited! Shame I have to wait a few days to do it as the darn camera is too frickin loud at night with its clicks as the gopro is a nogo. I can hear the clicks at night and they keep me awake! So I cant do more than 14hr timelapse. Quality on that gopro thing sucks! Only good for filming accidents on the road! My high tech setup. 1 Cannon eos d60 or 60d cant remember, 1 timer, 1 room light, 2 lamps with warm led bulbs 4 rubble bags to cover the windows and some masking tape. 1 old ipad 2 for the model to sit on, random black folder as background, Done. And the plated model of course.

Sup! Welcome dude! Ask away!

Haha @AndersK yes transparent CF has lots of awesome properties. Kinda looks like an sss shader. Also under some lighting conditions you can get a weird hologram effect where by you can flip between seeing either side really quickly. Looks odd on video, its just the light reflecting and passing through alternating very quickly with just a slight rotation. Ok. Enough rambling about my observations.