3D Printer

[DirtyDamage]

Was thinking of purchasing a 3D printer. I was looking on CL and found a few. No luck on responses...so I started to look new. Was looking at the XYZ Da Vinci 1.0 or the pursa 8" i3v Kit...think it would be cool.

Would be interesting to try to build an entire RC boat using the 3D printer...for the hull the the jet drive, and steering linkage and fins.

Would also be useful for all the plastic tid bits I tend to break on my karts, and would be a good tool for mocking parts before making them out of wood or metal. Just a thought, what do you guys think?

Below is a link to a jet drive printed from a 3D printer, moves a lot of water. Maybe someone will find it as interesting as I did.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:153579
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:147897

 

[itsid]

Hi, personally..
I'd say build a prusa...
I made a darwin back in the days.. that made my mendel and that evolved to a prusa..
(haven't stepped up since)
Only thing I did, was to get a aluminium cast extruder (that's actually nice to work with)
and cheap too.. payed ~60 bucks on ebay incl the hot end.

If you do not want to build one yourself, then personally I would buy a grr neo (german reprap) but for you I'd recommend a Makerbot.
(basically no big difference other than it's US based )
the makerbot is actually an extremely nice printer, a bit steep for my taste but well worth it's money.

if you want to get into 3d printing for cheap, buy a prusa kit on ebay (plastics kit shouldn't cost more than maybe 30-40 bucks)
some rods, threaded rods, fasteners
and an electronics kit (complete ~200 bucks) and you'll be printing for less than 400 bucks, you can always upgrade later, basically up to any size and pricerange if you want.
But you get a good idea of the process and that's half the fun IMHO.

Or check ebay (search for "reprap"), it's quite common to find a completed machine for around 300 USD nearly anywhere sometimes even new ones.. all reprap based
(check reprap.org for details and advice)

'sid

 

[DirtyDamage]

I got someone who is willing to sell me a Afinia H480 3D Printer, probably going to pick it up!

 

[machinist@large]

What types/ grades of plastic can these machines handle? Are they basically just a hot glue gun, or do the parts produced have real structural integrity?

My brother built one several years ago, and was proud as punch until he actually tried to use some of the parts he made and found out they looked great, but disintegrated at the drop of a hat,,,,

 

[DirtyDamage]

This printer can print at ABS, and the strength is just like any other plastic part. Can order parts to use PLA as well, which is more ridgid as I understand it. Or maybe I have it backwards. I'm picking up the printer Wednesday. Be prepared to see an off topic build thread for an RC jet boat.

 

[itsid]

PLA, ABS and PE are common types of plastic for most spool printers.
So the integrity is solely based upon printing quality.
It's not steel of course, but it the same stuff nearly all your plastic belongings are made of.

I print in ABS 99% of the time (the stuff LEGO is made of for example)

Resin printers are manifold... great details, but most of the time only good for "show pieces"

But you can also wax print, then Alu/Steel/Silver cast if you want metal...
(just not exactly spool printer friendly.. soooo yeah)

'sid

 

[DirtyDamage]

Glad to see someone else on the forum has experience with 3D printers. Going to pick this up for $300 hard to beat for a $1000 printer. Not going to bother with PLA but I'm going to have a lot of fun with this. Comes with all tools, gloves, and documentation as well as 3 spools of ABS.

 

[itsid]

good price indeed..

I don't like it's appearance too much for some reason (and that means absolutely nothing, other than it's not aesthetically pleasing to my eyes)

apart from that.. good deal,
according to Make: Magazine the best and easiest to set up in 2012..
can't be a bad choice

looks easy indeed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFtElAJfBMk

'sid

 

[DirtyDamage]

Yeah seems I get VERY LUCKY on my CL finds, between my racing karts and this...

 

[chancer]

But why make an RC boat? I heard you can make Firearms parts with these things.

 

[DirtyDamage]

Yeah can always do that too! Goal is to make a 75MPH boat. We'll see

 

[J_Walker]

Can't these things also print Nylon and Dacron too?

Anyway these printers are catching on in the car/motorcycle world. printing parts that you can use off the printer for like plastic bits in carbs and things alike. or for old cars being restored. knobs for radio controls/temperature.

 

[DirtyDamage]

Can't these things also print Nylon and Dacron too?

Anyway these printers are catching on in the car/motorcycle world. printing parts that you can use off the printer for like plastic bits in carbs and things alike. or for old cars being restored. knobs for radio controls/temperature.

Yeah it can print nylon. Just watched a video actually of a mechanic that printed a gear for a 1980 Honda. Printed it with nylon and it worked nicely. Should be a fun addition to my tools. I want to try to print some over sized sockets.

 

[DirtyDamage]

Got my printer today. An Afina h479 And the print quality is amazing. My first print was a ball bearing, called a stress test for the printer. At medium quality it was completely snooth and well functioning. Very excited to use this more. Pics coming tomorrow.

 

[chancer]

Cool I like my ball bearings "snooth" too! lol

 

[DirtyDamage]

Me too. Go with the flow.

 

[machinist@large]

While I am curious to see what yours can do, you need to be aware that any part you print won't have the same strength and durability as the same part formed by injection molding.

Even with who knows what reinforcing additives added, you basically are using a fancy hot melt glue gun. Injection molded part's are made from homogeneous, pressure injected material, with the temps controlled all the way through the molding process.

In industry, machines with well over the price of your new toy rarely find their way into anything more than "hold it in your hand's" prototyping.....

 

[chancer]

I agree. That kinda makes gun parts out of the question. But your RC boat should work great.

 

[DirtyDamage]

I know, just something fun to mess with. Makes plastic parts for my race kart extremely cheap (pennies instead of hundreds in comparison) for things like mounting hardware, and pins. Also lets me prototype what I want, and when I want to. I've already used it to print a shop-vac rotary tool (Link below) that spins at 60,000 RPM, who ever needed a dremel.

I think of it more as a tool that anything else and a way to test designs and models. I can make sand molds with my things too and forge them with aluminum if I really wanted to. Next tool is gonna be a CNC machine

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:76369

EDIT: I will be purchasing an actual dremel, just printed it and it worked extremely well. I don't need the "Thats not a good alternative" speech. I know

 

[itsid]

Hmmm..
well Pat, yes and no...

yes, well made injection molding is stronger than layer deposed plastic..
BUT well made layer deposition
(and don't misunderstand, the software is actually very good at this by now)
is very strong and rigid;
printed on a heat bed (sometimes in heat chambers) the new layer is applied at the right temperature (don't ask.. I can't tell which ne that is slightly above glass temp IIRC), that way the 'hotter' new layer semi melts INTO the previous layer, depending on the layer height, that's as homogeneous as you can get with ldp.
And that's actually not too far from injection molding anymore; plus you can do things you never could with an injection mold (hollow structures to name the most obvious)
and thus with some trickery you can also print steel reinforced plastic parts, that are much stronger than any injection molded part.

So I'm afraid, guns are not a myth!
(the undetactable gun is... since they all need steel parts, at least a spring )
I never printed one (not only because it's illegal in germany)
but I've senn printed guns, and I've seen them shooting rounds.

They will desintegrate after a few shots (some with the very first)
but it IS printable (I don't know if thingyverse still lists them though... there was a debate, some time ago...)

DD, try to make use of surface texture.
in the right direction minor roughness acts kinda like 'shark skin'.

if you overdone it, you can still buff or use aceton vapor to polish the boat to a high gloss.
or start over with different settings

'sid

PS At least I want to see the result for curiosity reasons
So if you don't mind, take a pic or two...
'sid