3D Printer
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I have a Prusa, love it and print all kinds of goodies. You'll be needing a good CAD program before long. You can only print so many things that others create before you start saying; "WHy hell I can make one better than that". Until then Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects[^] has a lot of stuff to wade through.
I'm not sure how many cookies it makes to be happy, but so far it's not 27. JaxCoder.com
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I have a Anycubic i3 Mega-S, and it works really well. For CAD, I can strongly recommend AutoCad Fusion 360, with Ultimaker Cura for the actual slicer. Both are free, or free for hobbyists / startups. Have a look here: Adventures in 3D printing Part 1: Fusion, you CAD![^] - it covers my initial steps.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I built an Ender 3 for my brother in law... check the connections inside the main control board box, the hotbed power connector was loose on arrival, and tried to overheat the connector. Other than that it is a good little machine.
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013And another Anycubic I3 Mega S here. A good choice if you want a filament printer and a big build volume. However, if you need a better quality and can live with a small build volume, then take a look at the Anycubic Photon.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I read and watched a lot of YouTube videos on FDM printing, but all of the printers in my price range appeared to need a lot of fiddling around to get quality prints. I wound up getting an Elegoo Mars Pro resin printer. After 10 minutes of unpacking, plugging it in and setting the build plate height, I've been printing lots of miniatures and board game upgrade pieces. The post processing is a lot messier than FDM, but I knew I wouldn't have the patience to get an FDM printer dialed in. Now I've got another new skill to work on - airbrushing, because it would take far too long to prime and base coat everything I've printed using brushes.
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I read and watched a lot of YouTube videos on FDM printing, but all of the printers in my price range appeared to need a lot of fiddling around to get quality prints. I wound up getting an Elegoo Mars Pro resin printer. After 10 minutes of unpacking, plugging it in and setting the build plate height, I've been printing lots of miniatures and board game upgrade pieces. The post processing is a lot messier than FDM, but I knew I wouldn't have the patience to get an FDM printer dialed in. Now I've got another new skill to work on - airbrushing, because it would take far too long to prime and base coat everything I've printed using brushes.
It does take some work to get the base leveling done, but it's effort well rewarded. I got it roughly right, then printed a dovetail to attach my dial test indicator to the head. Then I could slot the DTI in and get actual measurements across the plate, which makes it a load easier than faffing with paper thickness. And once you have it right you shouldn't need to do it again until you swap out the hotend or the nozzle.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt -
Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I have an Ender 3, hooked up to a raspberry with OctoPrint on it, modeling with Fusion 360 and slicing with Cura, I love it I didn't order any upgrade except for the glass panel, because I messed up the height on a print and bore a hole in the plastic one :(( But I printed a lot of upgrades :D
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I have an old Prusa, it's paid for itself many times over. Check out Tinkercad | From mind to design in minutes[^] for a very easy way to design stuff. You will have teething problems but stick with it and try to fix one problem at a time. Don't use super cheap filament it nearly always causes problems and level your bed before each print. Have fun!
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I built an Ender 3 for my brother in law... check the connections inside the main control board box, the hotbed power connector was loose on arrival, and tried to overheat the connector. Other than that it is a good little machine.
Yep, just checked that. The connections are tight, and it appears as if Creality is listening to youtubers, because my printer came with a genuine XT60-H connectors on the power supply pigtail. The print area is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I'm considering getting the Ender Extender 300 kit (300x300mm print area).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
It does take some work to get the base leveling done, but it's effort well rewarded. I got it roughly right, then printed a dovetail to attach my dial test indicator to the head. Then I could slot the DTI in and get actual measurements across the plate, which makes it a load easier than faffing with paper thickness. And once you have it right you shouldn't need to do it again until you swap out the hotend or the nozzle.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I ordered a BLTouch setup for mine.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
I read and watched a lot of YouTube videos on FDM printing, but all of the printers in my price range appeared to need a lot of fiddling around to get quality prints. I wound up getting an Elegoo Mars Pro resin printer. After 10 minutes of unpacking, plugging it in and setting the build plate height, I've been printing lots of miniatures and board game upgrade pieces. The post processing is a lot messier than FDM, but I knew I wouldn't have the patience to get an FDM printer dialed in. Now I've got another new skill to work on - airbrushing, because it would take far too long to prime and base coat everything I've printed using brushes.
Well, I'm a car guy, so working on something until it's right is kinda my thing. There are a lot of things to consider: 0) Initial construction - for me, that means making sure the gantry is trued up as it goes together. 1) Ensuring you have a level bed - while you are not absolved of manually levelling the bed the first time, there are several auto-leveling systems available that help out later on. 2) Make sure your filament is feeding correctly. The printer I chose has a problem with a cheap plastic extruder, and I've oredered an all-metal extruder to replace it. 3) If your printer uses a bowden tube to feed filament, make sure it's properly connected/seated to the hot end. 4) It appears that you need an enclosure to ensure that the printer's environment is as stable as possible. This is even more important when you try to use ABS, carbon fibre, or other more exotic filament material. Making sure the hardware is right is key. If you know your hardware is good, all you have to worry about is the slicer configuration.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
I have an Ender 3, hooked up to a raspberry with OctoPrint on it, modeling with Fusion 360 and slicing with Cura, I love it I didn't order any upgrade except for the glass panel, because I messed up the height on a print and bore a hole in the plastic one :(( But I printed a lot of upgrades :D
I'm gonna do the same thing RE raspberry pi. I'm using a Pi4x2 because it's faster, more RAM, and faster networking.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
I ordered a BLTouch setup for mine.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I already had a DTI, so it made sense to stick with that.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I have the same - as anyone else will tell you levelling is a real faff but extremely important, choice of filament can also be tricky, I've had cheap stuff that age hardens in no time flat making it unuseable, also different colours from the same manufacturer that require different settings to get a good print - strange but true! I'd start with PLA and get some smaller quantities from different manufacturers until you find something that works well. I have a couple of test objects that I print regularly to check everything is ok - a 30mm cube for checking dimensions and visually checking print quality, also a 150mm x 150mm square 1mm thick for checking levels after adjusting, thickness can be measured all around with a vernier and it doesn't take long to print. Printing larger objects always seems to be a problem for me, I'd suggest a test object (150mm topless cube?) with 5mm walls before tackling anything complex. FreeCad and Slice3r have been good to me, both free, reasonably easy to pick up (I've never used CAD before) and fairly flexible.
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I'm gonna do the same thing RE raspberry pi. I'm using a Pi4x2 because it's faster, more RAM, and faster networking.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I found it's not really needed (I have both a 3B+ and a 4(4GB)), the 3 is more than enough, only thing to be careful about is power draw, the raspberry, the webcam for recording timelapses and the printer board (even when powered on by itself) make it very easy to go over the limit (it always was a warning and it never crashed but it might be a thing to keep an eye on), this considering a 5V3A micro usb power supply. I don't know if things are better for the pi 4
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I found it's not really needed (I have both a 3B+ and a 4(4GB)), the 3 is more than enough, only thing to be careful about is power draw, the raspberry, the webcam for recording timelapses and the printer board (even when powered on by itself) make it very easy to go over the limit (it always was a warning and it never crashed but it might be a thing to keep an eye on), this considering a 5V3A micro usb power supply. I don't know if things are better for the pi 4
I also have a Pi3b+, and if I decide to use that, I'm gonna draw power from the printer's psu with a purpose-made power converter from th3d: Raspberry Pi - 3 Amp Direct Wire Power Adapter - TH3D Studio LLC[^]
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Yep, just checked that. The connections are tight, and it appears as if Creality is listening to youtubers, because my printer came with a genuine XT60-H connectors on the power supply pigtail. The print area is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I'm considering getting the Ender Extender 300 kit (300x300mm print area).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I've had an Ender 3 for about 7 months. You can print a lot in 235x235x250 mm^3 and you can always split a model into several pieces in the slicer or, better, design it so it prints in pieces which fit together. Also, printing smaller models means that when a print run screws up you haven't wasted as much filament. :)
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Does anyone else have a 3D printer? I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 Pro, and was looking for one or more kindred spirits. After watching a crapload of videos, and reading a crapload of articles, I ordered a crapload of upgrades, and hope to soon be printing a crapload of little plastic things.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Welcome to my world. For community I can recommend: twitter and google groups. The focused discussions on Facebook are okay, but the general 3D printing discussion on facebook has devolved somewhat. Also, facebook's archives are crap. If you want some quick discussion and quick answers, get on discord Also, I've got a ton of youtube videos about 3D printing myself. Here's one: 14 Things every 3D printer owner MUST have - YouTube[^]
Visit Cymon's Games for a new program each week!
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It does take some work to get the base leveling done, but it's effort well rewarded. I got it roughly right, then printed a dovetail to attach my dial test indicator to the head. Then I could slot the DTI in and get actual measurements across the plate, which makes it a load easier than faffing with paper thickness. And once you have it right you shouldn't need to do it again until you swap out the hotend or the nozzle.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Why is it that it's taken me 7 months to find mention of using a Dial Test Indicator to level the bed? :doh: I've been fiddling about with paper and even considered getting a BLTouch even though I don't think it's a true solution since it just compensates for a non-level bed rather than actually adjusting it. And since I would still need to do basic bed levelling manually, I might as well do it properly so, since I have a glass bed which should be flat(1), I don't need a BLTouch! Of course, as soon as I search for "3D printing dial test indicator" Google returns loads videos, mounts, etc. I've ordered a cheap DTI off eBay and will be designing(2) an attachment shortly to see how well it works! :) -- (1) The glass could be warped, in which case a BLTouch would help, but if it was noticeable, I'd just replace it. (2) I have a custom mount for cooling fans round the hotend so standard fittings aren't going to work.
