General 3D Printing Thread

[WBegg]

I still prefer printing anything that's going to be in the sun with ABS. I print cases in Black ABS and have had no issues with warping, but I do typically leave my settings on 50% infill with 3 outside layers. Black actually will last longer, as it does not absorb UV rays (the sun), and thus resists deterioration over time compared to other colors (especially white). It will heat up, though.

EDIT: Ok, I just read that somewhere (the Google machine). Not sure if it's true or not.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Yeah black ABS has worked perfectly with no heat-warp in full Florida sun use here no problems at all. I just get some crazing stress marks on the faces that sit on the print bed when I print the 4.3 case with it. It's just cosmetic but people are buying them so I want them to look as good as possible. The black color is the only one that it really seems to show up on but is ironically the only color that really should be printed in ABS. It's the most popular color in the HeaterMeter store, but I think it comes out the worst looking so I was considering not carrying it any more. Black PETG prints fine but I am worried about their long-term exposure causing a failure, which would be much worse than any minor cosmetic issues from the crazing and heat gun blasting.

I've also tried to sort of anneal the face of the black prints by removing them, then putting them back on the print bed and closing up the printer enclosure and reheating the bed. I've tried a bunch of different temperatures and duration which range from no effect to fully adhering the print back to the bed or even creating a warp. I'm certain there is a time/temperature combination that will work but I haven't found it, and can't have the process take hours to complete either.

 

[John Bostwick]

The crazing can be removed by using a heatgun.

 

[Troy Gamm]

Have you guys ever heard of or tried ASA filament. I hadn't heard of it until I started shopping for a place to buy my Bondtech QR extruder (Which is awesome BTW) recently. The cheapest place I could find them was a shop in New Mexico called filamentone.com. I was browsing their filaments and ran across the ASA stuff and then started to do some research. From what I have read it has the strength and is in the same class of plastics as ABS but has specific UV inhibitors that makes it suitable for items that are outside in sunlight all of the time. Here is a link on the Matterhackers site about it. The only issue is that is a bit pricey but like anything, may be worth the pennies for the long term if it does well outside in the sunlight. It is weird that most places I have read about it says it is relatively unknown even in the 3d printing world.

It would be interesting to see how it prints.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

The crazing can be removed by using a heatgun.

Yeah that's what I do, but the prints have this nice gloss finish and using the heatgun makes it matte where the crazing was. Also there's a chance of the thin LCD frame or button cutouts starting to melt. It comes out looking ok for a 3D print, but definitely the worst looking compared to other colors that don't need the heat gun treatment.

I'd heard that ASA is finicky to print, and it costs more, and is not available from as many suppliers, so I've never even tried it.

 

[KennyDado]

So I picked up one these probe spools from Bryan's store, this thing is great! I wish I had this thing 10 years ago.

Got me to thinking, what about an additional "spool module" designed to hold a wall wart? If I had the 3d skills to draw something up I would but I'm still trying to learn.

I know an obvious problem is power bricks come in all shapes and sizes but maybe there is some cleaver way to rig something up w/ adjustability?

--EDIT--
Something like this that snaps into the probe spools : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:340144

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Huh, that's a really good idea actually. Like you say, they come in all shapes and sizes, but the outlet hole bits are the same for the standard US wide-pin narrow-pin deals. The bigger problem being the vertical vs horizontal configurations and making it snap in. Something to consider next time I feel like 3D modeling something!

 

[Troy Gamm]

Bryan,

Which toothed idlers did you use for your C-Bot?

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Randoms off amazon! 16T GT2 Idler, 6mm belt width, 3mm bore

Sucks that you need 6 of them and they come in packs of 5. If you're willing to wait a few weeks you can get them for like half the price off eBay.

 

[Troy Gamm]

Perfect! Thanks for the eBay tip. Good plan

 

[Ryan H - thehebs]

New member here. Ive been jonesin' for a project lately, and been eyeing the heatermeter for a while. I finally pulled the trigger and I was going to go ahead and print some parts while I wait on the hm kit, but I was wanting to do a little customization to the case and whichever damper design I choose. Are the raw files (or even a step, etc...) available?

I am pretty big into open hardware, and 3d modeling and printing. Here is my work horse:

Here is a build thread if anyone is interested: https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?178,714397

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Ooh I do love a nice looking delta printer, and that's a big one! The source file for the 4.3 case is in git. For the dampers, I don't think anyone has released their source files, just STLs. If you want to mod one of those, you can either just model an adapter or just model the piece you want to change, or just use the STLs and "model over" the bit you want to change. I've done all of these methods, as well as modeling a clone of one of the designs from scratch for my personal use.

 

[WBegg]

Here's a link to my Adapt-a-Damper design in Fusion 360. You're welcome to play around with it and make any mods you like!

https://a360.co/2DcJ5Fk

 

[Ryan H - thehebs]

Ooh I do love a nice looking delta printer, and that's a big one! The source file for the 4.3 case is in git. For the dampers, I don't think anyone has released their source files, just STLs. If you want to mod one of those, you can either just model an adapter or just model the piece you want to change, or just use the STLs and "model over" the bit you want to change. I've done all of these methods, as well as modeling a clone of one of the designs from scratch for my personal use.

Yea I tried to import the case stl and convert mesh to brep but the mesh broke along the way. I guess I will try to see if I can somehow import scad.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a link to my Adapt-a-Damper design in Fusion 360. You're welcome to play around with it and make any mods you like!

https://a360.co/2DcJ5Fk

Cool. I think you made up my mind on which damper design to go with

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Yea I tried to import the case stl and convert mesh to brep but the mesh broke along the way. I guess I will try to see if I can somehow import scad.

OpenSCAD generates some invalid triangles in the heatermeter case that I have never been able to work out. You might try running the STL through the netfabb repair service first. I'd suggest just editing the source of the file to get what you want output instead though, depending on what modifications you want to make it could save a lot of time. Fusion360 also imports it although it can't really do much with a MeshBody. What are you trying to modify about it?

 

[Ryan H - thehebs]

OpenSCAD generates some invalid triangles in the heatermeter case that I have never been able to work out. You might try running the STL through the netfabb repair service first. I'd suggest just editing the source of the file to get what you want output instead though, depending on what modifications you want to make it could save a lot of time. Fusion360 also imports it although it can't really do much with a MeshBody. What are you trying to modify about it?

I didnt really need to modify much with the case, just kinda wanted to extrude some text and/or a little nerdy kamado logo into the first couple layers, and do an m600 color change on layer 3 like this:

Ill fiddle with it later. I went ahead and started this morning.

Im trying somethin new. 200% first layer extrusion width.

Kinda hard to get a decent pic with the effector whipping around, but heres a shot comparing layer 1 to 2.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

I didnt really need to modify much with the case, just kinda wanted to extrude some text and/or a little nerdy kamado logo into the first couple layers, and do an m600 color change on layer 3 like this:

I was about to try to figure out what that print is, but as soon as I read QX7 I realized I also have my own QX7 18650 I threw together in 5 minutes as a quick stopgap until I had time to model a good one which hasn't ever happened :-D

Yours is much fancier, although I have only seen mine 3 times because the 3200mAh cells I've put in there last over 20 hours per charge. I see what you're talking about now though and I want you to succeed so we can see what your final design looks like! The first image you posted shows up for me, but the other two googlecontent gives me the big NO symbol so they're not showing up.

If you haven't figured it out already, you can difference() some text and a logo out of the HeaterMeter body

Bitmaps are the same code except instead of "text" use "import" and import an BMP or PNG. The -0.24 magic number in the translate is the depth of the inset.

 

[Ryan H - thehebs]

Yea same here, I can run like 20 or 30 packs in my fpv drones, and never turn the qx7 off and I dont really have to change the 18650's in the qx7. I even power my goggles off the transmitter, through the charge port. You can check out the design, files, BOM, on my website here: http://innov83d.com/index.php/product/qx7-18650/

One of the mods I was debating doing to the HM case is possibly adding in a spot for 18650's to run it battery powered, but im not quite sure how long it would last, and it may just be easier to build a little external battery bank that I can connect to with a little diy barrel jack cord.

The 2nd 2 pics were just showing the 200% extrusion width for layer 1. It made for a pretty beautiful first layer. Heres a little album, lemme know if this works: https://photos.app.goo.gl/b1WYdoZNNcGDzXUg8

 

[Bryan Mayland]

That is a pretty awesome mod, and really nice instructions to go with it. Even stranger... one of my batteries is that same IMREN brand!

Running a HeaterMeter off 18650 cells is doable, but you'd want at least a 3S pack although a 4S would probably be fine as well. The DC input is good up to 24V but when the blower first turns on, it gets a fraction of a second of full battery voltage to kick the fan on before it steps down which could cause an issue with 4S voltage? I know it works on the test bench, but I'm not sure if there's long-term damage to the blower slowly building up. A Pi Zero + a HeaterMeter pulls in the 250mA ballpark though, so if there's a fan spinning as well, you'd max out at around 10 hours from 3500mAh cells. SLA batteries (from UPSes) or car / motorcycle lead acid batteries work great, and the 7AH size lasts a whole pulled pork cook for me with a good 30% left to spare. Plug the battery directly into the barrel jack.

Let me know if you need any help understanding the OpenSCAD case file, I'm happy to help.

 

[Joe Widmayer]

Just a thought for battery power. Car jumper packs are now made out of LiPo batteries. They output 12V. Most folks could use one anyway. Some even come with the proper cord.
Joe Widmayer