🤖3D printers and what kinds of cool stuff you can print.🤖

[Dirty_habiT]

I recently purchased a 3d printer.

It's a Prusa MK3S, and I intend to get a resin printer (AnyCubic Photon Mono X) soon that can do higher detail prints.  I don't, currently, know much about CAD or slicer software that is used to take 3d computer models and turn them into "sliced" models that can be printed in layers.... like a 3d printer does.  My intention is to:

1. Learn CAD.
2. Make some art & practical parts.
3. Learn how to cast metal parts, potentially using 3d prints to make molds for such casting.
4. Learn how to do 3d laser scan and subsequent point field manipulation to make scans of real life 3d objects.

I'm tagging you guys here because you expressed an interest or previous experience with such things.
@thealmighty...
@mr.yuck

[Dirty_habiT]

https://www.thingiverse.com/

 

This site is like a library of stuff that people have already created.  You can print it yourself by just downloading the files.

[One Man Banned]

Been there, done that already.  Here's my 3d print of me:

 

[Dirty_habiT]

I'm going to make a your weird little OMB figurine there carrying two bigger dicks on his shoulders when I get my printer.

[One Man Banned]

6 hours ago, Dirty_habiT said:

I'm going to make a your weird little OMB figurine there carrying two bigger dicks on his shoulders when I get my printer.

Might as well give him a helmet too

[thealmighty...]

I haven't really created anything myself, just altered available files from Etsy, thingiverse, cgtrader, etc... I'll post up my printers in a bit. Heading to work. 

[ndv]

Found this to be interesting.  But it's kind of useless because very few really do check authenticity and how can you through photographs on internet second hand retail outlets.  

Besides, what's the point really?  I mean when you have an entire street here in Houston that sales nothing but knockoffs and this little area of Houston brings in so much money city officials will always look the other way. 

but anyhow, non the less I found it interesting

 

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-magnetic-janus-balls-foil-counterfeiters.html

[Dirty_habiT]

That is pretty neat.

 

I'm now wanting to get an Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) printer.  They're quite a bit "in a different ballpark" than many of the Filament Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers that most people are using.  I have some parts for my printers that are upgraded/made out of SLS printed P12 material.

 

 https://www.protolabs.com/media/1019528/sls-data-sheet-pa-12-white-f.pdf

 

They are quite a bit stronger and you can tell the layer adhesion is quite a bit higher in quality than the FDM printed parts.  The PA12 (nylon basically) can also withstand a higher temperature.  What this means is, you can make a printer out of PA12 parts that can live inside a heated chamber which is required for printing with really high temp materials.  NASA uses heated chambers to print 3d parts "tHaT aRE UsEd iN tHe ShUtTlE".

 

https://www.lulzbot.com/learn/NASA-high-temperature-printing

[ndv]

I hear ya,  there's a lot of 3d printed parts used in aerospace and defence.  The resolution tho is super high to a point where it will make you question the manufacturing process.   I haven't ran the job in a while but I had to lase a guide sleeve for tank periscope.  I thought it was just some type of graphene composite all while I cannot find the material on the internet by its name so I gave up amd just had to shoot it with the laser amd hope for the best.  Amyhow, I put the parts under the stereoscopic to inspect the engraving and thats when I immediately noticed the layers which told me the parts were 3d printed.  Very impressive what an unlimited supply of money can buy as a far as quality.

[Dirty_habiT]

Would love to see pictures if you have them. 

[ndv]

I'll see what I can dig up. 

[Dirty_habiT]

So, now that I've been printing for months now.... I've learned some things about this "hobby".

 

* Bad settings within your slicer software can cause all kinds of stupid problems.

* Store your filament in a dry location.  I'm using 20Gal. Husky containers that have 6 latches each and an o-ring seal to keep air/moisture from easily going in/out.

* PLA is good for printing models/figurines/etc but not good for mechanical things that need strength; PETG is better for that task.

* z-height adjustment settings are a bit challenging to get proper and will cause all kinds of weird problems when it's not right.

 

Anyway, I think building a machine shop is a better idea.  3d printing is fun, but I think milling metal and cutting it is where it's at.  The CNC machines that do that work run on the same type of code that the 3d printers do.... so the knowledge learned from 3d printing can easily be used to make production, long last parts out of metal.

 

I'd also like to have the machines that can do SLS on metal... as in below.

 

 

[diggity]

i've been pretty interested in 3d printers for along time but have always held back because of a few issues.

* Seems like you spend all your time waiting on prints or troubleshooting, this doesn't bother me so much since I like figuring out puzzles

* the quality of the print just doesn't seem as smooth as what i want. I think this might be more a problem on the filament side but i really despise those ridges that come from the multilayered prints. I've got a decent amount of experience in 3d modeling so I think I would be able to adapt to the software fairly easily but I really would be bummed out if I waited that long for something to print and it wasn't smooth/perfect.

 

[Dirty_habiT]

you can post process your prints depending on material.

 

Feel free to ask any questions.  I own 2 filament printers and 3 resin printers and have been printing daily for many months now.

 

@diggity

[diggity]

@Dirty_habiTcan you post some samples of the resin vs the filament?

 

[Dirty_habiT]

Sure. Here is a phone stand printed at .3mm layer height using two colors of filament (PETG) and some printed scans of the Kearns Columns (sp?) printed at .05mm layer height in resin. 

 

[diggity]

@Dirty_habiTthese are hollow on the inside right?

 

Have you ever used them to make molds and to cast things? any chance to get something that feels soft rather than hard brittle plastic?

[diggity]

That quality of those look alot better than what I am accustom to seeing. is that the printer, the model or filament size?

 

Which printer do you like better, the filament one or the resin?

 

When i looked into them before I was thinking of getting the Creality Ender 3 v2.

[Ko SprueOne]

Some of the models that I've been purchasing lately are 3D printed resin. They arrive in my mail box still attached to the supports.

 

Other kits, 3D print the 'master', then make a rubber (RTV) mold to cast production kits in urethane resin. 

[Dirty_habiT]

On 2/9/2021 at 7:37 PM, diggity said:

@Dirty_habiTthese are hollow on the inside right?

 

Have you ever used them to make molds and to cast things? any chance to get something that feels soft rather than hard brittle plastic?

 

The resin prints are solid all the way through and the Filament Deposition Modeling (FDM) print has a 20% "infill" of gyroid design.  This means that the software will fill in the interior "hollow" portion using 20% of total volume as plastic in a pre selected pattern.  You can of course print at 100% infill and this will create a solid part with nothing on the inside.  The settings are numerous and exhaustive in terms of being able to control aspects of the final output.

 

You typically use a software for cad modeling to make a solid model/object out of wireframe or w/e...... and then you import a solid object in the the slicer software.  The slicer software is what generates the GCode necessary to make your object print on your printer with your settings you've selected for the print.  The work flow is, design model, export as solid model, import solid model to slicer, export gcode from slicer, save gcode on disk or otherwise upload it to the printer over the network, print.

 

On 2/9/2021 at 8:00 PM, diggity said:

That quality of those look alot better than what I am accustom to seeing. is that the printer, the model or filament size?

 

Which printer do you like better, the filament one or the resin?

 

When i looked into them before I was thinking of getting the Creality Ender 3 v2.

 

The quality of any printer has largely to do with the layer height of the print.  This is selected in the slicer and has to do with many aspects of the printer you have.

 

My opinion is to not use a resin printer for anything that you intend to be "functional" despite the fact that there are very expensive "engineering" resins on the market that advertise being capable of exactly that.  The strength of resin can be extremely strong, but the fact that the objects are printed w/ UV and there's an exothermic reaction when they're cured, it creates a media that isn't "exact" enough to be used for functional things (IMO).  People do use resin prints for functional stuff, but I think it's MUCH better suited for doing detail type work and models of figurines and such.... rather than things like a door hinge, wall hanger bracket, etc.

 

If you intend to get into printing, I'd aim to get both.... and I'd probably avoid using the Ender as your first printer unless you're doing it solely because of it's cost.  You will be tuning/upgrading/changing/fiddling on that printer a lot constantly to "get it to print right".... and the goal in 3d printing and most any other hobby is not to fuck with the tools that make the hobby possible, but rather to "do the hobby".

 

I'll give an example.... blacksmiths.  They spend all their black smithing time and knowledge making tools for...... blacksmithing.  Lol.  It's kind of hilarious if you look at youtube videos about it now.  Anyway, old ladies don't need to know how to make yarn or crochet needles to make you a doily.... they just make the doilys.  I encourage you to do the same w/ your printer selection. 

 

The Prusa Mini + is a bit back ordered but I would 100% recommend it to anyone looking to get into this because the quality is high, the cost is killer for what you get, and the software/community behind the product is solid af.  I have some friends that recently got Ender printers and they've been jacking w/ them for weeks now trying to get various things improved and printing better.  It's not that they don't work, but rather that they've been fucking with them a lot to get them to work.  The Prusa's just kind of.... no bullshit work.  I have a MK3S+ and  Mini+.

 

They're working on an MK4 and a MK3S Mega.... however, the Mini has enough build volume to make most of what anyone would want to make.

[Dirty_habiT]

30 minutes ago, Ko SprueOne said:

Some of the models that I've been purchasing lately are 3D printed resin. They arrive in my mail box still attached to the supports.

 

Other kits, 3D print the 'master', then make a rubber (RTV) mold to cast production kits in urethane resin. 

 

Hit me up on DM if you find any models you would like printed.... or if you have a source for models online that you are paying for to have printed, I'd be interested to see them.  People out there are making some really wild detailed DnD type shit and it's super impressive.  I'm not into it personally but the characters and detail they're creating are just out of this world.

 

I've thought a whole lot about being able to print small features for a model train set.... like trees, train stations, etc.

[Ko SprueOne]

Conversion parts and sets are popular items that model builders will purchase. These sets are made to upgrade or convert the boxed model kit to a specific version or variant. For example, the kit boxed, plastic headlight guards on a Sherman tank are too thick looking and the photo etch (PE) set included is far too fiddly for some builders to deal with. Same goes for a finely detailed Trophy defense warning system on an IDF tank.  And as you mentioned, scale figures and busts are almost all made from 3D printing these days.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Ko SprueOne
I completely forgot where I was going with this ...

[Dirty_habiT]

I will look those things up. Sounds neat!

[One Man Banned]

You can do some aboslutely cool and amazing things with 3d printing, even life saving shit.  So it amuses me greatly that in the little time it's been out man has used it to do this:

 

 

Why we can't have nice things lol.

[One Man Banned]

[One Man Banned]

 

Print a bigger booty 

[Dirty_habiT]

https://fredmandigital.com/products/fredman-clip - this is pretty cool.

 

 

 

@One Man Banned- link the models to stuff and I'll try printing.  I'm not good enough w/ FreeCAD yet to be expanding booties.  I could probably make the Penis Champion from the first page that I promised you.

[KILZ FILLZ]

https://singularityhub.com/2021/03/19/a-community-of-swanky-3d-printed-homes-is-going-up-in-california/
 

$15 million development in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs in California’s Coachella Valley. The developer is Beverly Hills-based Palari Group, which was founded in 2014 and focuses on“integrating technology, wellness and sustainability.”

 

The community will consist of 15 homes built on 5 acres of land. Unlike other 3D printed homes, though, there won’t be printers putting down layers of a concrete mixture on-site. Mighty Buildings has a modular, prefabricated approach: they print individual panels at their manufacturing facility in Oakland, which are then shipped to the construction site and put together there. They developed a synthetic stone material that starts to dry and harden upon contact with UV light.

[ndv]

On 3/19/2021 at 11:54 AM, KILZ FILLZ said:

https://singularityhub.com/2021/03/19/a-community-of-swanky-3d-printed-homes-is-going-up-in-california/
 

$15 million development in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs in California’s Coachella Valley. The developer is Beverly Hills-based Palari Group, which was founded in 2014 and focuses on“integrating technology, wellness and sustainability.”

 

The community will consist of 15 homes built on 5 acres of land. Unlike other 3D printed homes, though, there won’t be printers putting down layers of a concrete mixture on-site. Mighty Buildings has a modular, prefabricated approach: they print individual panels at their manufacturing facility in Oakland, which are then shipped to the construction site and put together there. They developed a synthetic stone material that starts to dry and harden upon contact with UV light.

 

I am curious to know how these types of materials will last, what I am curious about is the sun's uv rays of the same wavelengths that are used to cure the synthetic stone what happens of time?  Does the stone become brindle?  Will it gas out as does plastics and degrade over time similar to car parts made of platics?  

 

Are there going to be coatings to protect the materials, maybe an option like ceramic coatings similar to what we can apply to our automobiles?  But if so then that's only 10year lifespan for the ceramic coating.  

 

I am really not sure what to think of this?  It's cool, buuuut...

[Dirty_habiT]

I'm sure you could protect it from UV with a nice coat of paint.  😄