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[3D Printing] A toy to build toys...New to the hobby....
Yotebeth
IlluminatorB'hamRegistered User regular
IlluminatorB'hamRegistered User regular
Hey all! I hope this is the right place to post, if not, my apologies!
Just got my first 3D printer for mybirthday, and I’m lovin’ it! Don’t really have any close friends who print, so I’m really winging it! This is def a case of fake it until you make it.
Machine:
Prusa iMk 2.5
Slicer:
Prusa control system and Cura...and so,Times mesh iced if I want to manually messup er...add supports.
Creation software:
Sculptris and tinkercad
I’m hoping to chat with other folks doing the 3D printing thing, any tips, advice, or images of your current and past builds would be great!
Cheers!
Just got my first 3D printer for mybirthday, and I’m lovin’ it! Don’t really have any close friends who print, so I’m really winging it! This is def a case of fake it until you make it.
Machine:
Prusa iMk 2.5
Slicer:
Prusa control system and Cura...and so,Times mesh iced if I want to manually messup er...add supports.
Creation software:
Sculptris and tinkercad
I’m hoping to chat with other folks doing the 3D printing thing, any tips, advice, or images of your current and past builds would be great!
Cheers!
Full Time Artist. Rescuer of Reptiles. Engraver of Things. Occasional Coyote.
+5
Posts
So I'm dual wielding right out of the gate.
The thermistor seems to have died on my v1 already, but who needs a heated bed!
Going to have to look at Sculptris, seems like there should be an easier way to modify a design, but maybe I just need to learn the ones I've looked at better (mmeshmixer, tinkerpad is basic but like just remove a part of an object is clunky.
I just made a holster for when I'm using my phone as an music player around the house with headphones and no pockets, then I realized I also got some bluetooth headphones recently too and well, now I have a holster for something I guess!
Here's my wheel:
Nice. Neat. Symmetrical.
Here's the downloaded wheel:
Weird. Messy. Asymmetrical.
I don't have access to a printer yet, but I'd like to avoid a lot of trouble when I start printing. Any idea why this is? I've seen the same thing in other downloaded shapes where they seem needlessly complicated when I simple polygon would do the same, but I feel like I'm missing something about 3d printing.
Though your symmetrical one looks less restrictive than that weird one.
Maybe the person modeling it was just bad. A lot of them are free so probably not the best skillset to pull from.
Actually, researching it further, (hooo boy I'm such a newb) it seems like generally most people in the 3d printing business use NURBS and not polygon meshes for modeling because NURBS has smoother results which you when when making mechanical tools, etc. So I'm guessing the 3d model I downloaded was exported from a NURBS model to STL file, which means it was converted into a triangle polygon mesh where every polygon is approximated based on the curves.
That said, it seems like there is no reason not to use mesh models for a beginner, especially if you're just making sculptures or whatever. But if you want your grommets to perfectly fit your widgets for your manufacturing process, you'll want to use some kind of CAD software like SolidWorks instead of Blender since it has better NURBS options than Blender.
EDIT: And here's an example I found showing the difference between a STL file and CAD program using NURBS:
So you can see how the NURBS model will be more accurate especially for getting mechanical parts to fit together.
I know roughly dick about 3D printing, but I've been knocking around with the idea of picking a 3D printer up for making custom wargaming terrain, so I'm curious to see your results.
Recently, my prints just stop printing after like half an inch of layers. the head keeps moving, the extruder gear tries to pull the filament still I think, but the filament is defintiely stuck. It isnt a simple clog though(I think?).
I thought it was the model I was printing at first, but it started happening on everything. I had 1-2 successful prints (after switching spools) so I figured the spool was bad, or the model was bad.
At first it happened with some wood filament, so I figured it was clogs and bad filament. But forcing filament through cleared it out ok. It always cuts off in the /exact/ same way. I did a full tear down and put the nozzle in acetone for a few days, and it seemed pretty clear. I could probably use a new nozzle anyways, so I might pick a new one up. But it doesnt seem to be the issue.
The only thing I can think of that is happening, is something is stuck in the nozzle, and the heat causes it to unlatch and fall into a spot where it blocks the nozzle in the time it takes to print that half inch of model. When I force more filament through, its doing something that temporarily knocks it out of the way. I thought maybe the heat was traveling up the filament to the gear that pushes it, which when soft no longer can be pushed. The filament is slightly warm up there, but it doesnt wrap itself around or eat away, it just doesnt push down. My gear was worn down, so I took it off and flipped it so let fresh teeth at it. No luck.
I could just buy a new hotend for like $50, but I believe I would need calipers to realign everything once done and I am not looking forward to doing such a thing. It's a monoprice maker select, so a i3/prussa clone.
This is just general "Hot plastic through a nozzle" thinking but it sounds like you're outfeeding your heating capacity. What keeps the nozzle nice and hot? It sounds like it may no longer be operating as well as it should. This works with your symptoms, when it preheats itself it builds up a thermal bank and as you push more plastic through it fails to put enough heat out to maintain the average temperature so it lowers until it is no longer enough to make the plastic flow.
Also I have no idea what I'm doing. Maybe buying a cheaper 3d printer to start out with would be the better idea.
Also if you guys aren't aware Thingiverse is the coolest of things.
But now I kind of want a CNC machine...:P
So I'm working on fixing that up (there were some broken parts), and then will likely sell.
But even if you dont go with the carbide 3d line, CNC stuff is really amazing. I think the favorite project I've done so far has been this raspberry pi type case from a file on thingiverse:
Also yeah, I've seen a few really good low level 3d printers and may hop on that first. I have access to a few, but it's always nice to have your own. There's a 3d printer meetup group here that I may just start chatting up. It's likely easier to chat in person about problems or feasibility of making my own. Someone likely has gone down that rabbit hole.
Please leave torches and/or scrawled messages on the walls because I might be following you in about a month.
I wanted a higher resolution though. Today I spent my day attempting to install and setup prints with a .3mm nozzle.
I know folk say you can achieve awesome results with a .4 nozzle, but I wanna give longer and more detailed prints a shot.
(Also have heard the argument that smaller nozzles and longer print times mean more heat and disruption on the print)
I'm having trouble dialing in the settings for the .3mm nozzle in Cura.
Spent about a day tinkering around with it, and I'm having fun, but not having much success.
Feels like the filament isn't being extruded fast enough to contact to adhere to the bed. Like it's extruding the filament too far away.
I know the bed is leveled, and I've relisted the machine's nozzle as .3 mm in the settings for Cura.
I'm just wondering if there is something I'm missing in the slicer settings, some measurement I need to input, so that the filament successfully builds.
Can def slow the speed down, but I'm worried I'm missing something about the vertical distance.
I guess there could be a clog, or I need to adjust the heat too?
I ran out of the starter pla that came with the machine, and I'm using esun's grey pla+.
It requires more heat than regular pla, which I've have it set, and I suppose I might need to increase the heat more to accompany the smaller nozzle?
Currently running it at 225 (max listed for the pla), but I'm hesitant to go higher.
(could be that it's too hot right now too)
I mainly don't wanna melt the little plastic tube in the hotend.
At first I thought the feet were uneven on it, but it turns out my desk is a bit crooked. Maybe I can print a new desk.
I think the Z axis accidentally got shifted when I installed the new nozzle, so when I was leveling, the bed and nozzle was actually shifted in a dumb way.
Test print on some gloomhaven cultists seem to be starting ok.
I'm excited to see how the .3mm nozzle works. (.2mm seems like way too much work)
Tune to spend the next week printing upgrades, wondering why you didn’t just print a 3D printer to start.
Super stringy though, and I made the mistake of using "brim" with such a small layer hieght.
I had turned off retraction and jerk and other settings, so I understand why the print had so much stringing.
I'm figuring it out though.
Link to the cultist.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3272098
Thomas Sanladerer - Super informative videos on 3D printing in general.
If you need to make some change to your machine, this guy has got you covered with well produced videos.
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In the Holiday forums, helpful folk turned me onto Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors.
He gives technical information for tabletop 3d printing.
I feel like his settings and stuff will work perfect for .4mm, and I don't have the same machine.
You can go through the setting and adjust things as he goes over each individual bit of the process.
I'm on the frontier on settings for my pla, printer, and nozzle at the moment, but he helped get me started.
Glad I'm dialing things back in.
Is this the end of our party?
I think I need to level the bed again, that dark spot means the the front right corner is too high so the first layer is thinner there.
Description was a very sunny and happy elf in a frilly sundress.
So part of the reason I wanted to get a 3d printer was to practice modeling, so I decided to give it a shot.
So i didn't learn to craft the mini from scratch, but I shaped it piece meal as a remix of several other creative commons designs on thingiverse.
Lynn Minmay China Dress by Bluegazer
Published on December 16, 2018
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3290370
Dress Planter by MakerBot
Published on May 31, 2016
www.thingiverse.com/thing:292921
Commoner Collection! by mz4250
Published on March 2, 2018
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2812198
NPC Collection 2 by mz4250
Published on May 27, 2018
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2932866
A simple search of "dress" and "sundress" tended to come up wanting with regard to thingiverse and shapeways, so I went with Lynn Minmay China Dress by Bluegazer, as a start.
Kinda got the impression this original design was intended to be a bit pervy, so I needed to make some adjustments to adjust it to be a DnD mini.
Coincidentally, I found a skirt of a frilly dress published by MakerBot. It's a potted planter, but it looked like a good fit for the Frilly aspect of the project.
I altered and fused the two designs in meshmixer, a free 3D design software. Lots of trimming and re sculpting the design to get things to fit.
I scaled the combined model down and added some elf ears and a 1 inch mini base.
I noticed the super thin legs and high heels would be difficult to print, and they honestly weren't very in line with medieval fashion.
The face of the anime model was also a bit too subtle to print well on a mini, so that needed changing too.
That's where I borrowed some boots and a face from mz4250 (they're famous for creating free mini designs of all the monsters in the Dnd monster manual, and npcs).
They had a barmaid with a expressive face and a sturdy booted female alchemist, that I transplanted onto my mini design.
I also moved one of the bowties from the potted planter skirt, up top where I had removed the Chinese Dress accents.
Now normally this would be a impossible design to print, but I used the software from Autodesk, Netfabb, to run repair scripts and properly fuse these designs together.
All of the design needs to be completely encapsulated and merged with no holes or any weird bits.
I'm a college student so I had access to a 3 year free license for the professional version. I want to say that you can get access to a free basic version of the software though.
It worked pretty well!
Meshmixer has this functionality too, but often that program will just delete the added bits from the design as it's "repair".
And now I've got a new model to try and print. It was a fun evening project as I wait for college classes to start back up!
It's not a perfect design but I feel like it's pretty alright for a beginner.