looking for Perspex for the ultimaker v1

[lee 2]

since my ulti is sat on my kitchen table and the wife moans that the kids could lose a finger or 10... so i thought maybe have some perspex made up for the sides any maybe a door with perspex for the front...

so to start with does anyone know anywhere in the UK that will supply perspex to fit the sides of the ult v1 which fits around the "axes-caps" or a data sheet i could send to a supplier?

also secondary... if anyone has done a perspex mod, does it dampen the sound a bit ? if so then i can put it in the bedroom without the wife going nuts (and yes my wife moans A LOT)

 

[gr5 2,167]

It will always be as loud as a dishwasher which is too loud to sleep by but okay for watching television maybe.

Some time when your printer is printing, grab the extruder drive and remove it from the back of the UM (yes, *while* printing). Notice the change in volume of certain pitches. Then re-attach. It gets louder. This part can take away that sound but not the other sounds:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53690

 

[lee 2]

thanks

printing now

 

[lee 2]

as i said I'm printing... I'm still using the ...

"Fast low quality"

"normal quality" <<<< always this one...

"high quality"

on the speed settings, what can i safely boost everything to... currently i got the "fill" at 145%

this is obviously wanting to get the item printed fast as poss

 

[gr5 2,167]

I never use those - even on the first day I got my UM I started playing with all the parameters.

There is a relationship between temperature and speed.

If you print hot like at 240C you can print fast like at 100-150mm/sec with .2mm layers but you might get a little underextrustion and you won't get quite as good quality and also you will get TONS of stringing.

If you print real cold like at 190C you can't print much faster than 30mm/sec but at 20mm/sec I get very very good quality (still talking .2mm layers) and you will get almost zero stringing.

If you try to print cold and fast you will get severe underextrusion (lots of pressure in the nozzle) and likely filament grinding and slipping.

 

[mostlyatomicbob 34]

I'm based near London and I have used this company:

http://www.hamaracrylic.co.uk/

They can laser cut and supply acrylic etc.

I'm not going to say they are cheap, but they are pretty reliable.

 

[lee 2]

Thanks guys

I sense a graph coming up.

[lee 2]

 

obviously theres a lot more to go in, density, etc but as a basic when you say there is a relationship between these two figures this 'in theory' should be it?

 

[IRobertI 520]

Rather than mm/s it's mm²/s or volume/second. So say you are printing 0.1mm layers @100mm/s, if you increase your layer thickness to 0.2mm you're suddenly trying to squirt double the amount of material through your nozzle. To compensate you have to increase your temperature OR you can lower your speed (or a combination of both of course). Both will make sure you're not under extruding but in different ways and with different pros and cons.

If you raise your temperature the plastic will be able to heat up faster in the chamber and have an easier time getting out of the nozzle so you can keep your speed up.

If you lower your speed but keep the temperature the same the plastic will spend more time in the chamber and have a chance to get up to temperature and again, have an easier time getting out of the nozzle.

The temperature that is correct for one brand of PLA may not necessarily be correct for another brand. You might be able to print one at 220C but the other is happier at 230C.

Another thing to consider is If you're printing a small object, or more correctly any object where one slice has a small surface area, cura (or whatever slicer you're using) might be hitting the "minimum time per layer" limit and thus reduce the speed of the print for that layer.

So, as you might start to gather it's a bit of a black art to get everything juuust right and it will require experimentation. You may find that a setting you've used for one object creates awesome prints but only ok prints for a different object. The good news is that you will very quickly develop a gut feel for what ball park settings you should use depending on what you're printing and what results you're after.

The more you print the better you'll get at it, and try not to be too disappointed if a print fails on the first try. Depending on what I'm after I often have to print 2-3 copies before I'm happy.

 

[lee 2]

I purchased my um1 to make a rear car head rest holder for an iPad mini.

as i have two kids i want some sort of attachment that sits between the two head rests and the iPad sits in the middle...

anyway (thats a bit in the distance) but for this build, i would need stability and strength... especially on the supporting bars that reach between the two head rests and would need to support the weight of the iPad itself. (damn kids)

what would you recommend for this sort of build... layer height, density, etc. I ask so i can get an understanding of the strength of an item... at an educated guess the density would be 50%+

ps.

shame no one on thingiverse or youmagine has already made one.

 

[IRobertI 520]

For starters you'd have to get something more temperature stable than run of the mill PLA. The inside of a car can easily reach 50C on a sunny day. Unfortunately 50C is also around the temperature where normal PLA will get a wee bit on the soft side and will likely deform in a car.

There are different kinds of materials that will stay stable at higher temperatures. PLA90 for example goes soft at 90C. ABS is another option but I don't know how easy it is to use on the UM1 as I've never tried it myself and haven't kept up on it. Someone else will have to jump in there.

I seem to recall there being a thread about this very subject but I can't remember it right now.

As for strength I'd go for a thicker shell rather than more infill. An outside wall setting of 3mm should be very strong I think. Make a few small test pieces and see if it's enough. Also make sure that you print it so that ..hmm, second language word finding troubles here... when you put pressure on it it's "on top" of the layers and not from the side of the layers. Does that make any sense? ASCII art to the rescue perhaps

 

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[lee 2]

i think you mean "exerting pressure"

also: 50c in the car !!! have you ever visited the UK hahaha more like 5c

 

[IRobertI 520]

I think the words I may have been looking for would be "shearing force on the layers". Something like that

Hey man, I'm from Sweden, I know cold But in the summers it gets pretty scorching in a car. Even though the air outside the car is only 25-30C, the inside of the car gets significantly hotter.

 

[Daid 306]

since my ulti is sat on my kitchen table and the wife moans that the kids could lose a finger or 10... so i thought maybe have some perspex made up for the sides any maybe a door with perspex for the front...

 

I've had my hands in just about any place possible in the moving machine, and the only part that caused real pain was having my finger stuck in the gears of the feeder.

I haven't had my hand "crushed" under the platform, so I'm not 100% sure about that part. But you wouldn't lose a finger. You can get some nasty burns from the hotend, but that's the worst that can really happen.

 

[IRobertI 520]

I've had my arm "crushed" under the platform. I can't remember how I managed it (2+ years ago) but I had my hand by the z-axis coupler when the platform caught me on the way down. I ripped my arm out of there and came away with a scratch on my arm. It did take a little bit of force to get my arm free but it didn't hurt bad or anything. But the stepper didn't lose any steps before I got my arm out so I certainly wouldn't want a kid to get his/her arm stuck under there.

 

[gr5 2,167]

also: 50c in the car !!! have you ever visited the UK hahaha more like 5c

 

In the UK, any PLA you leave in the car all year round will not survive.

I suggest you get PLA90. ABS is more difficult to print and you practically are forced to get a heated bed that can go to 110C if you print ABS prints more than 2 or 3 inches long.

PLA90 I believe is even easier to print than regular PLA I believe as I think the thermal coefficient is better (less shrinkage).

 

[gr5 2,167]

Regarding the graph above, those numbers I posted were kind of wild guess memories that I know are safe to print at. However there is a little more accurate data here:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=13194

And Illuminarti did some interesting tests with a .65mm nozzle here:

http://www.extrudable.me/2013/04/18/exploring-extrusion-variability-and-limits/

I recommend scrolling down to his graph. .65mm nozzle has 2.64X the area of the .4 so you might have to divide all his values by 2.64? Or maybe not quite 2.64 as maybe his limitation is the power of the heater to melt versus the hole size?

Also I did some tests on the UM2 for extrusion rates:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3418-um2-extrusion-rates/

 

[tommyph1208 55]

since my ulti is sat on my kitchen table and the wife moans that the kids could lose a finger or 10... so i thought maybe have some perspex made up for the sides any maybe a door with perspex for the front...

so to start with does anyone know anywhere in the UK that will supply perspex to fit the sides of the ult v1 which fits around the "axes-caps" or a data sheet i could send to a supplier?

also secondary... if anyone has done a perspex mod, does it dampen the sound a bit ? if so then i can put it in the bedroom without the wife going nuts (and yes my wife moans A LOT)

Ive been working on designing some plexi glass side panels for my UM original...

There's a FabLab nearby where I live that has a laser cutter I can use, so I started modifying the laser cut drawings for the UM1 parts that are available on Thingiverse. Maybe you can use those if you can find a laser cutter somewhere?

I havent gotten around to finding a solution to securing the panels to the frame yet... Currently I'm thinking magnets... Hinges requires a lot of space for the panels to open...

Anyways, I put the design files here for anyone interested in using or modifying them:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1259814/Ultimaker%20Acrylic%20side%20panels.rar

 

[jameshs 42]

Kind of in the order of the stuff you are discussing;

Side panels are easy - I ordered some A3 pieces of 3mm lexan from ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-PIECES-3MM-LEXAN-POLYCARBONATE-SHEET-A3-SIZE-420MM-X-297MM-/121147350303?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:3160

the 297 width is great and by scoring it both sides as deep as you can with a Stanley knife and strong arms (wear gloves and use a straight edge and/or clamp) you can break it pretty cleanly.

To hold it to the machine I just printed up some clips - they slot onto the wall and the lexan sit in them - I have the sheets off fairly often when I am doing stuff and they pop on an off.

I have done these on the sides to block drafts - but you could do the front too - either a cut out for the controller or pp the controller in the box.

Does it reduce noise - not one jot. To reduce this kind of nose I think you would need a lined box! (which would be good for heat stability.)

Personally I would not go to the expense of getting them cut - but then I am after the end effect rather than beauty

In terms of materials apart from PLA - I am a big fan of colorfabb XT - really strong and good bendabilty. only in clear and needs a higher temp (240) but seems much more indestructable and a higher glass temp.

I made a larger nozzle (0.65) for printing most of the time because of the reduced print times - and most frequently print at 0.3mm layer height and 70mm/s - which has reduced my print times to less than 1/3rd of that for the 0.4

James