The Drought has ended, 3D is Back..!

[The Hat]

After what seemed like eternity I’m back in the saddle again..

I’ve got my KP3 up and running after receiving a cable loom and plug attachment from the Kingroon Tech support team, it was very messy refitting the new cables in because there was not much room to play with, plus the connectors were loose on the main board too. (Slightly dodgy)

It was a bit of bitch getting everything back together again, but once that was done she powered up like nothing had ever happened.

In my haste to do a test print, I didn’t reset the hot-bed height again and gorged the rubber base plate a bit and had to do a hasty adjustment on the fly, but it finished the test print and everything seemed ok.. SO

The first print for my standard lamp went without a hitch and I have done four little pieces and so far she’s working perfectly, mind you I taught I’m be a bit green to start with and make a balls of everything until I got my head in gear again, but not so..

This is the new electrical box that will fit inside the new lamp because of reconstruction and upgraded parts the old one wouldn’t fit, the cover lid was printing just as I am posting this.. I did the box in a gold colour this time….

This is the very first piece...

 

[stratman]

At first glance I thought the box was wood. Upon magnification I could see the diagonal striations left from laying down the melted filament.

Good job.

 

[The Hat]

Now that I’m back, I’m wasting no time trying to catch up emptying my job jar, this was the first overnight print.. the printer doesn’t stop for long before it gets going again... Up to 12 now..⬆
click to enlarge..
I’ve been rather busy making different types of joiners for 30 metres of piping I need to lay in the garden in sections, this is to stop Ted eating all my exposed electrical cables, there’re currently not on the ground but are within easy reach of the little sod.. He’ll chew anything..

I cut the pipe work into sections and use the printed pieces to re-join them, because it makes it easier to slide the cables through smaller pieces of pipe.. Straight, L's , T's and Curves..
Not quite a colour match..
And if I'm short a piece, I can always print another, saves a trip to plumber merchant Centre..

 

[stratman]

Ted eating all my exposed electrical cables

I am shocked!

Have you thought about burying the wiring?

 

[The Hat]

I am shocked!

So will he be, if I dont fix the problem quickly..
He has only eaten the 4.5 Volt cabling so far..
P.S. I couldn’t do anything till I got one of my printers working again….

 

[The Hat]

Another Update:-...
The drought may have ended but my poor old CR-10 is still laid up waiting on the correct mother board to arrive. It was supposed to be here last weekend (Promised) but everybody is using the current pandemic to do Feck all. It’s stuck in the parcel depot since the 4th of June.. I just want to go towards the Light…

 

[Steve J]

Congratulations on getting your printer running. I'm still waiting for the return of a defective motherboard for my new Prusa I3MK3/S. I still have the Flashforge Creator Clone (Monoprice Maker) running fine.

I'm curious what design software you use? I did a commercial project and have Alibre Design Expert.

Couple of comments:
1) What material are you using? I hope it's not PLA, because PLA will biodegrade when it is used outside. If it is PLA, I hope it is some sort of blend, perhaps with carbon in it. PVC electrical conduit is made with a blend that makes it waterproof and semi-rodent proof. That's why it is gray instead of white. I put down 5-175' runs of PVC electrical conduit and made sure I had enough couplings to finish the job. Haven't had a problem with rodents, but the stuff is buried about 1/2 M in the ground. I have tons of chipmunks around here and I need to trap some and move them along.
2) If you are running electrical stuff on the surface of the ground, it is really a hazard because you can trip over it or run over it with a machine. It's always wise to bury the stuff.

I'm in the process of designing a one-piece housing for a Raspberry PI 3B, it's camera, and a voltage converter to run the PI from 24 Volts. It will be used for Octoprint.

 

[The Hat]

I'm curious what design software you use? I did a commercial project and have Alibre Design Expert.

I am using OpenSCAD version .05, it’s not the best or greatest and that includes me also, if I get stuck with something I switch to Tinkercad and if that doesn’t help, then I use the big guns and try Fusion360.

I exclusively use PLA and find better to work with, I use a UV spray on anything that gets exposure to sunlight, and the only rodent I need to worry about is my dog, and before you ask.. Its pee proof…

My cables are in the bushes and along the fence line well away from any human interference, Higher voltage cables are off the ground, but here again my little rodent find everything that is of interest to him.

Getting a new/old mainboard for the CR-10 was proving impossible, not available in China but I did sourced one in the US which proved overall to expensive to get, Courier, Customs and VAT would have a field day with charges..

My CR-10 was an early model and could only use an old mainboard, so upgrading became a time issue and I was getting tired and anxious trying to find the right mainboard, so I decided to push the boat out and get a new CR-10 with all the latest bells and whistles on it.

Delivery is expected in the new week or so and I’ll put it through its paces straight away, after all the waiting, this was the best course of action, I will later upgrade the old CR-10 to take another mainboard, the new one set me back €400, I got a loan to cover it.. There will be light at the end of the tunnel…
P.S. I missed a sale on last month and could have got one for €306…

 

[Steve J]

You might look at FreeCad. I have been playing with it, and it's not bad. It does feature-driven modelling, which means you build up a model feature by feature (features are the things you add to a model, like circles, spheres, solids, lines, etc.). Then, you can go back and edit a particular feature, and if you set up your constraints properly, the changes to that feature will be reflected in the model. For example, the design of a Raspberry case I am working on for Octoprint, I had a bit of trouble figuring out the exact layout of the screw holes for the Pi V2 camera. I put what I thought was the proper layout and this became a feature. I then printed the case, and tried to line up the holes with the actual camera, they didn't line up (they were about 1 mm off. I then went back and only changed the hole layout feature, and this reflected in the new part. I printed the new part, and I was correct, the holes did line up this time. The feature-driven nature of this allowed me to only change the feature of relevance, not totally reconstruct the model. All the expensive 3D modellers (3D CAD), such as Solidworks, Solidedge, Cadia, etc. work this way, but they have different ways of achieving the same goal. It makes design MUCH easier. FreeCad seems to work this way as well. Alibre definetly works this way, which is how I am familiar with this.

Regarding materials, you might want to check out this link:
https://m.all3dp.com/2/is-pla-biodegradable-what-you-really-need-to-know/

and you will see what I mean about PLA degrading. PLA is a great material for beginning printing, and for doing concept prototypes, but isn't really good for functional stuff. There are lots of good 3D printing material information on the Web, but all3dp is a good place to start. When I run out of PLA (and my current printer won't print other materials very well), I'll switch to PETG, although Prusa claims they have developed a polycarbonate blend that is good to print. When I get my i3 up and running, I'll order a roll and see how it works.

All 3D printing material of the same type (but from different manufacturers) may not be the same stuff. A PLA from manufacturer A probably isn't the same as a PLA from manufacturer B, and the manufacturers won't tell you the blends they use. You really have to try them and see how they work for you.

My rule of thumb is that if I need a structurally strong part, I'll try to figure out the best material to use. Molded parts are always stronger then 3D printed parts, and if I can get a pre-made part designed for a particular application, I won't print it. That's why I said when I put some electrical wiring outside, I would use parts designed for that purpose and not try to design my own. When I did electrical runs to an electronic gate I designed, I used standard electrical conduit for the underground cable runs, and weatherproof PVC electrical boxes for the electronics and electrical components. I know that these will be appropriate for their use. If I tried to print them, I have no idea if I will be replacing them in a few years because the plastic parts didn't last. I also know, that if the conduit parts are glued together properly, they will be waterproof. If I printed parts that were to be joined with PVC pipe, the glue may or may not hold. If I am going through all that work, I don't want to have problems later on with materials that weren't appropriate for the application.

This is my philosophy. You can do whatever you like.

Some time ago, in this forum, a question was asked "is 3D printing more difficult than color management?". I answered this at the time, having considerable experience with both, and gave the answer "it depends on how much of an expert you want to be and what kind of results you want". Both can be either difficult or easy, depending on the outcome you desire.

For serious 3D prototyping, you need to be aware of:

1) The proper modelling tools

2) Proper printing technology, and keeping the printer in good working order.

3) Proper material selection

For hobbyist printing, you may not be so particular about any of these. Lots of people just download models from places like Thingverse and print them. Others use simple modelling tools and print to PLA.

Depends what you want to accomplish. 3D printing is only a tool to produce what you want. Just like any tool, it has appropriate uses, and inappropriate uses. You wouldn't use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail, so you don't use 3D printing technology when other tools will work better.

However, I'm and engineer, and think differently about this stuff. YMMV.

Steve

 

[stratman]

I got a loan to cover it.

The Mrs. has you on a short leash? I like her more each day.