Oliveros

Hey guys, So, I'm onto another avenue which is injection molding, unfortunately it costs about 5-10K just for the mold so that's off the table already. Next thought was a pour-able compound into a 3D printed mold, it seems there are some pour-able materials which might work but will need testing. To do the testing, I'll need to make a mold and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with designing 3D printed molds? from what I saw on Cura, when I clicked the "mold" button it just made it so I could pour something into it but gave me no way to release the part once finished, no air holes or anything either. I have absolutely no experience with plastic molding so any advice or ideas you guys have is welcomed. The guy I spoke to from the company who makes the compound said I could do a 2 part mold and just bolt it together or whatever, then just squeeze the material into the mold and bobs your uncle, once it's finished, open the mold and voila. Here's the material I'm thinking of using. https://www.smooth-on.com/products/sorta-clear-40/ I also attached the file of the part to be made in the mold. Original Peg O.G.obj

You need to know the setting for PLA and ABS?

Well, I ended up using Ninjatek Armadillo since the Ninjaflex wouldn't feed. Turned out okay, not as flexible as I wanted but probably enough.

Awesome, thank you for sharing that. I'm going to try to make a strain relief today for a cord and see how it works.

Interesting, okay, perhaps I'll try my own advice and ask Monoprice, lol.

Okay cool, good to know. I'll probably give it a shot and see, after some googling it seems that it COULD work, but it might not work as you are describing. Perhaps it could work for making water tight gaskets for enclosures, maybe not for pressurized applications.

Hey Guys, I was talking to a co-worker about printing and different filaments and he mentioned he had some TPE and TPU filaments which are essentially polyurethane but one is more rigid than the other one. I got to thinking if printing gaskets would be possible and for what? It seems it's resistant to oil and fuel but I'm thinking more in terms of service temp, could I print my own 2" dialectric union gaskets when one is leaking and it's 2 AM and no one else has one? would it hold up to 140*F water? Could be cool to be able to make my own electrical enclosures and then make a gasket for them as well. Anyone have any experience with these?

If I wanted to get a hardened steel nozzle for my Monoprice Ultimate 2, any idea how I could do that? Monoprice does not offer one.

No clue, but I just call Monoprice when I'm looking for something, otherwise just find an aftermarket nozzle with the same thread, you could ask monoprice what the thread size is on the nozzle it came with and just find another one that fits it.

Clearance would be distance from one thing to another. So if you are trying to make these 2 things go together, there needs to be a certain distance between the print at all points in order for it to do that. Try to do a cut view of the part if possible and you'll be able to see if the walls touch at any point. When designing bolts and nuts, you run into this clearance thing, and that's how I normally do it.

Me neither, I just googled it and found out about it after I manually did it.

It's up in the top left corner, whichever tab opens up "Modify G-Code" or something like that, then it opens up options for it.

Yeah, that seems to be a common thing to do, which is great. I really think there'a lot that can be done with 3D printing, just gotta figure it all out.

Just realized I put this in the materials section, could a moderator move this to Engineering.

Well, I had an idea the other day as I was faced with a missing magnet for a safety reed switch on a piece of equipment and came up with the idea that I could probably 3D print one, pause the print, set the magnet inside the part and let it finish the print and encase the part inside. I did and it worked and I then found it was a common thing you could do and I hadn't just made a great discovery. Lol Here's the result Top view where you can see the magnet inside. The next day I then had the idea that maybe I could encase a reed switch in a 3D print and make a part myself instead of paying $150.00 a piece. Sure could, here's the results. Reed switch is placed very close to the front, you can't see it though, it's about 3 or 4 layers in to keep it from getting wet. Back side where the wires come out, I ended up making a template of the wiring channels I made in the piece so I could prefab the wiring before the print was ready so it wouldn't be stopped for too long. Lastly, a top view I figured I epoxy the opening where the wires come through and that should pretty make it ready to install. Turns out Cura actually has a "Pause print at height" feature, either at a MM level or layer height, who would've thought?

I'm currently printing with Nylon and have been for the last 2 days, turning off the bed heat and the cooling fan did it for me. Nozzle temp was 250*C both Nylon 6 and Nylon 12 worked for me like this. With bed heat, they both warped and my printer is fully enclosed.

I have a fully enclosed printer and turning the bed heat and fan off did the trick. so now I know.

This nylon warps like it's no one's bussiness. I'm trying to print something with a bit of a surface area, about 90 MM across and 15 MM tall, it keeps warping off the bed, with bed heat of 110*C, straight glass, blue tape, glue on either one, no heat. Trying to figure it out right now.

Layer adhesion seems to be really good, I think putting it in the machine and letting it run through those heat cycles will reveal any problems with delamination but so far it seems good. Luckily because the material prints at such a low temp (240*C) I still have room to make it even hotter if needed. I don't think it's quite a solid block, I would like to make it into one but I'm running 0.3 layer height so I think it would be difficult to get that. I think you are right on the wording.

Wow, that's really good.

Could be. Regardless I don't think I'm running it hot enough as it seems the layer adhesion is not too great once I picked up the broken part. Nylon 12 so far is working much better for me and it prints at 240*C which I can easily do, so I'll probably stick with that. Also, running 0.15MM layer height would double the time it takes to print, currently I can print 4 of these in a night, takes about 13 hours, if I cut the layer height in half, it'll be 24 hours or more.

Update. The part lasted about a week or so before it failed, the layers started seperating and I think it's due to me not being able to print it hot enough. Not a good filament for me with the printer I currently have.

Printed a bolt and a nut with nylon 12, makes the threads really well defined, very impressed.

No, it comes in 2.85 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1443515-REG/kodak_ny123non_nylon_12_filament_2_85mm.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A514&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgbylmePx5QIVl5OzCh0CJw9XEAQYAiABEgI9IfD_BwE

Dimensional stability, what exactly are you referring to? If it expands and contracts? if so, not very much. When printing it will warp slightly, at least on my printer which is a Monoprice ultimate 2, I'm sure if you turned off the fan and kept the bed at 110*C it probably wouldn't warp but I'm not too worried about a little bit of warping. It's not a lot, it's slight. When it gets wet and hot it will flex a little, when it's cold and dry it is very rigid.