I realize this is somewhat overkill, but I realized that many people don't realize what PLA is capable of, myself included. So I am conducting experiments for the sake of experiments, to see what PLA is capable of.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Finish
Experimenting with PLA today. I have a large industrial upright deep freeze that has been in the family for longer than I have been alive! Long story short it had a dial with a knob on it.
Note the 'had'.
Upon looking for things to do a few weeks ago, my Mother pointed that same fact out to me. Apparently at some point during the three different moves it has made in its life it had lost the little knob, and noone knew what it looked like anymore.
Cupcake To The Rescue!
I took measurements last night, came up with a preliminary design in sketchup, and promptly exported it wrong and didnt notice until the outline was already down.
...Oh well! Something to run in the background while I made asthetic design adjustments. As soon as that print finished the next started. And after THAT print finished, I take it over to the freezer and...D'oh! Forgot to compensate, my models are usually 1.5~2mm smaller when they come from sketchup! Fix the holes, print, It Fits!
But...
Its Ultimachine Green! Thats not good at all! Print another! Make Sure it fits! Sand it! Prime it! Paint it! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
Note the 'had'.
Upon looking for things to do a few weeks ago, my Mother pointed that same fact out to me. Apparently at some point during the three different moves it has made in its life it had lost the little knob, and noone knew what it looked like anymore.
Cupcake To The Rescue!
I took measurements last night, came up with a preliminary design in sketchup, and promptly exported it wrong and didnt notice until the outline was already down.
...Oh well! Something to run in the background while I made asthetic design adjustments. As soon as that print finished the next started. And after THAT print finished, I take it over to the freezer and...D'oh! Forgot to compensate, my models are usually 1.5~2mm smaller when they come from sketchup! Fix the holes, print, It Fits!
But...
Its Ultimachine Green! Thats not good at all! Print another! Make Sure it fits! Sand it! Prime it! Paint it! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
Friday, January 14, 2011
I'm cheating, I know.
I ordered a MakerGear Hybrid Prusa kit today, and I think I got the last one!
Does this mean Im giving up on printing my Imperial Lime Prusa? No! It means I intend to have several Prusa Mendels!! :D
Does this mean Im giving up on printing my Imperial Lime Prusa? No! It means I intend to have several Prusa Mendels!! :D
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Of Lampshades and Robots
This week I made a lampshade. Seems mundane, I know, and it isnt as fancy as MBI's python lampshade generator, but it works, and I am pretty pleased with the results. It has crossed my mind to do an in depth research project on it, but I have to put it on the back burner for now.
Right at the end of my lampshade print my Makerbot decided to eat itself. Apparently the setscrew on the rear electronics side z pully had come loose and that rod had just been freewheeling for the last several layers. At the time I didnt know this, all I knew was my z platform bound at the last two layers.
Tighten the setscrew, level the z platform, rediscover zero, and lets find something else to print!
Right at the end of my lampshade print my Makerbot decided to eat itself. Apparently the setscrew on the rear electronics side z pully had come loose and that rod had just been freewheeling for the last several layers. At the time I didnt know this, all I knew was my z platform bound at the last two layers.
Tighten the setscrew, level the z platform, rediscover zero, and lets find something else to print!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Introductions
Well, I guess I kind of got ahead of myself here!
I'm relatively new to the 3D printing world, I got my batch XIV Makerbot in...April? I've spent the passed time building and dialing in all my settings. I was having a hard time printing due to the acerbic smell that you get from printing with ABS, to the point of not being able to even be in the same room as the printer when it was running.
In mid November (The Eleventh of November, to be exact) I started printing in PLA with a One pound MBI Clear PLA chub. I went through it in about two days. That weekend I ordered five pounds of Green PLA from Ultimachine, and I'm REALLY close to finishing it off, close enough I ordered five more pounds of White Ultimachine, I've really been impressed with how the White looked with some of the 2010 Christmas competition put on by Pattywac, so I figured I'd get my fill of it.
In the works is an Imperial Prusa, and my pet Project the FRB 3D printer. In the mail (I hope) is a MG Stepperstruder, and I CAN HARDLY WAIT!
I'm relatively new to the 3D printing world, I got my batch XIV Makerbot in...April? I've spent the passed time building and dialing in all my settings. I was having a hard time printing due to the acerbic smell that you get from printing with ABS, to the point of not being able to even be in the same room as the printer when it was running.
In mid November (The Eleventh of November, to be exact) I started printing in PLA with a One pound MBI Clear PLA chub. I went through it in about two days. That weekend I ordered five pounds of Green PLA from Ultimachine, and I'm REALLY close to finishing it off, close enough I ordered five more pounds of White Ultimachine, I've really been impressed with how the White looked with some of the 2010 Christmas competition put on by Pattywac, so I figured I'd get my fill of it.
In the works is an Imperial Prusa, and my pet Project the FRB 3D printer. In the mail (I hope) is a MG Stepperstruder, and I CAN HARDLY WAIT!
Barrel Opener
Pretty Sweet, everyone at work was impressed, and was full of ideas for making it better!
Printing with PLA pt. 1 of ???
Since mid-November I have been printing with PLA onto a MBI Automatic Build Platform, with the PET film wrapped in blue painters tape. Initially I was just using the same settings as I was when I had been printing with ABS, but here recently I've been making changes and getting better calibration for when I finally get around to finishing the parts for my Imperial Prusa Mendel. This post, and possibly more to follow it are about my casual observations, and is mostly here as notes to myself, and I hope you can find some assistance from my follies!
w/t: Keep mostly the same as with ABS, while PLA can have a much finer thread, a Cupcake is ill equipped to handle it with the platform/carriage system, so don't get carried away.
Ooze: PLA Oozes like you wouldn't believe, makes all kinds of a mess if you let it go.
ABP Belt: See Ooze. The PLA will ooze out of the barrel and glue your nozzle to everything and anything it touches, Kapton, PET, BPT, whatever. It just sticks to it all. Also the belt will 'Curl' as Charles Pax likes to put it, Basically the outside edges of the belt will pull up during builds, though the part will remain securely on the belt most of the time.
ABP: Temperature: 0! You do not need to heat, in fact, I think that due to the way PLA behaves at any temperature above 60C, it's a waste of time since PLA tends to 'Melt all Together'. While this isn't a bad thing, when you are trying to print small parts like pulleys and gears(Like the p1011pull.stl of Spacexula's http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4711) it WILL have an affect, since you have such a small mass you will have droopies and the gears will 'poof' out.
X-Y Carriage: Bearings are going to be a must from what I can tell. Its hard to see in any of my pictures, but you will if you print something off you will see artifacts of any vibrations, not enough tension in your belt, any slipping, backlash. All of it shows up in your X-Y stages.
Temperatures: When I first started I was just printing at 185C. While this is all fine and dandy, it was too hot, and I was getting inconsistent plastic flow. What I find is 177C to 180C is fairly good.
Infill: On small parts, you need very little infill, to the point its almost scary. On bigger parts, you can actually get MORE infill by raising the temperature slighly and reducing your layer height slightly, the plastic will melt down inside itself, and you will actually be able to get a heavier piece in the same amount of space, so long as you are not interested in the amount of resolution the outside has...
There will undoubtedly be more coming later, however I have work!
Ta!
w/t: Keep mostly the same as with ABS, while PLA can have a much finer thread, a Cupcake is ill equipped to handle it with the platform/carriage system, so don't get carried away.
Ooze: PLA Oozes like you wouldn't believe, makes all kinds of a mess if you let it go.
ABP Belt: See Ooze. The PLA will ooze out of the barrel and glue your nozzle to everything and anything it touches, Kapton, PET, BPT, whatever. It just sticks to it all. Also the belt will 'Curl' as Charles Pax likes to put it, Basically the outside edges of the belt will pull up during builds, though the part will remain securely on the belt most of the time.
ABP: Temperature: 0! You do not need to heat, in fact, I think that due to the way PLA behaves at any temperature above 60C, it's a waste of time since PLA tends to 'Melt all Together'. While this isn't a bad thing, when you are trying to print small parts like pulleys and gears(Like the p1011pull.stl of Spacexula's http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4711) it WILL have an affect, since you have such a small mass you will have droopies and the gears will 'poof' out.
X-Y Carriage: Bearings are going to be a must from what I can tell. Its hard to see in any of my pictures, but you will if you print something off you will see artifacts of any vibrations, not enough tension in your belt, any slipping, backlash. All of it shows up in your X-Y stages.
Temperatures: When I first started I was just printing at 185C. While this is all fine and dandy, it was too hot, and I was getting inconsistent plastic flow. What I find is 177C to 180C is fairly good.
Infill: On small parts, you need very little infill, to the point its almost scary. On bigger parts, you can actually get MORE infill by raising the temperature slighly and reducing your layer height slightly, the plastic will melt down inside itself, and you will actually be able to get a heavier piece in the same amount of space, so long as you are not interested in the amount of resolution the outside has...
There will undoubtedly be more coming later, however I have work!
Ta!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)