Acid's adventures in 3d printing

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Acid666
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Detroit wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:44 am
Acid666 wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:40 am

So far I'm loving it, but it definitely takes some problem solving skills to figure shit out and get it printing right. Maybe if you spent a bit more money you wouldn't have some of the petty problems that I've had, but then again you will still need to figure what settings work best for your setup and materials. I pretty much nailed the nozzle and bed temperatures and speeds for basic PLA plastic, but ABS is still giving me weird issues. I still can't get it to properly adhere to the bed, it'll retract several hours into the print and start to affect the layers above that. Basically it'll curl in on itself as the bottom cools. I'm still messing with it to figure it out, and usually you can find a way around things like if you know it curls up, then print it with a surface that's almost sacrificial that can be sanded down after it's done.

All in all it's a pretty cheap tool for rapid prototyping things. I haven't even begun to print things that I've designed from scratch yet other than this winch cover. And I'm learning the tolerances of the holes it creates, and how the surfaces take sanding. Once we get into the Lemons MR2 I'll start designing some interesting pieces from the ground up.
I've come to realize that I'm really an engineer in mind, I just sucked at math so couldn't hack it in school to get the degree. I REALLY want to tinker with something and create things and I've always been intrigued by the opportunities 3d printing opens up. I enjoy problem solving and constantly improving.

:popcorn: for your learning as you create things from scratch.
A lot of people are like this. They just don't have the tools to do some of them. Like I design all sorts of weldments and bent sheet metal and fuck, you name it. All for work. But I don't have the tools or cash to get any of my own stuff. I've been looking at a 2d CNC plasma table that I want to get when I eventually build my shop space. There's so much shit I can do from scratch if I had that and a welder setup but $$$ and no space currently. The 3d printer is kind of that first tool that finally allows me to prototype modeled parts. :melon: and I went to school for what's essentially rapid prototyping, so we know the process to get something useable, it's just time and money now.
If you're interested I'd suggest jumping in if you've got about $300-400 to spare. That'll get you started and there's TONS of things you can download and print even if you can't model up your own stuff. I can't tell you how many things I've searched for and just been like... "Oh shit I want that... *click, download, print*"
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Acid666 wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:56 am
Detroit wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:44 am
I've come to realize that I'm really an engineer in mind, I just sucked at math so couldn't hack it in school to get the degree. I REALLY want to tinker with something and create things and I've always been intrigued by the opportunities 3d printing opens up. I enjoy problem solving and constantly improving.

:popcorn: for your learning as you create things from scratch.
A lot of people are like this. They just don't have the tools to do some of them. Like I design all sorts of weldments and bent sheet metal and fuck, you name it. All for work. But I don't have the tools or cash to get any of my own stuff. I've been looking at a 2d CNC plasma table that I want to get when I eventually build my shop space. There's so much shit I can do from scratch if I had that and a welder setup but $$$ and no space currently. The 3d printer is kind of that first tool that finally allows me to prototype modeled parts. :melon: and I went to school for what's essentially rapid prototyping, so we know the process to get something useable, it's just time and money now.
If you're interested I'd suggest jumping in if you've got about $300-400 to spare. That'll get you started and there's TONS of things you can download and print even if you can't model up your own stuff. I can't tell you how many things I've searched for and just been like... "Oh shit I want that... *click, download, print*"
Printer go brrrrrt.
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Acid666 wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:56 am
Detroit wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:44 am
I've come to realize that I'm really an engineer in mind, I just sucked at math so couldn't hack it in school to get the degree. I REALLY want to tinker with something and create things and I've always been intrigued by the opportunities 3d printing opens up. I enjoy problem solving and constantly improving.

:popcorn: for your learning as you create things from scratch.
A lot of people are like this. They just don't have the tools to do some of them. Like I design all sorts of weldments and bent sheet metal and fuck, you name it. All for work. But I don't have the tools or cash to get any of my own stuff. I've been looking at a 2d CNC plasma table that I want to get when I eventually build my shop space. There's so much shit I can do from scratch if I had that and a welder setup but $$$ and no space currently. The 3d printer is kind of that first tool that finally allows me to prototype modeled parts. :melon: and I went to school for what's essentially rapid prototyping, so we know the process to get something useable, it's just time and money now.
If you're interested I'd suggest jumping in if you've got about $300-400 to spare. That'll get you started and there's TONS of things you can download and print even if you can't model up your own stuff. I can't tell you how many things I've searched for and just been like... "Oh shit I want that... *click, download, print*"
I'm installing a hybrid water heater, which acts as a heat pump and blows cold air as a byproduct. It can be ducted out of the house, which is what I plan to do, but the duct adapter kit is sold out everywhere AND $120 MSRP when it is available, for a plastic piece that's maybe 10" square. I stumbled across a thread on reddit where people were discussing this exact thing, and some dude posted up a print file to print one yourself. Not only would that save money in theory, but it's also more robust than the OEM one because in the same thread people identified weaknesses with the oem one that the dude addressed in the print file. That just got me thinking about all the possibilities and how much fun it would be to play with and get into rapid prototyping on my own. I have so many ideas for things that I just can't get into the physical world, that I feel like if I could learn 3d modeling and printing software I could do it myself. I love the rapid prototyping process, my passion is innovating. Fail fast, fail often, constantly improve. Nobody wants to pay me to do it, so I'll just do it on my own.
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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Acid666
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Did some sanding and some dowel making. I already see where I'm going to strengthen this thing. Anywhere there's a hinge pin needs to be stronger. It'll work but I could easily quadruple this and prevent flexing by making the hinge area super strong. Also not allowing the infill to be so thin in areas to add some mass in there. Next iteration is going to be a little more defined with something other than big flat profiles, and have a built in snap clip or something to hold it together.
Not too bad though. It's on the trailer now just to see how it holds up. Gonna put something under it to see how dry it keeps it since it's been raining for 47 days straight here. Also gonna add those rubber tube gasket strips when I get a chance.

The warping of the edges shows here when you line it up


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Man that looks really nice.
4zilch wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 8:46 am I'm a fucking failure.
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Melon wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:24 pm Man that looks really nice.
Yea, it really does!
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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Acid666
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Shifted the cover to the winch itself since it seems to be handling the weather decently. I velcro'd the corners so it's removable. Will likely pull it off and paint it. This ABS is weird and just transfers any bit of grease or smudges onto itself.
Glued in 2 orings that I cut and put along the lengths where I made oring grooves. The right side is missing because my printer decided to bail during the last hour of the print and decided to print floating air spaghetti instead of my part. So I'll superglue that seal on later.


Also printed up a scaled down version of the 2.5 liter marine engine I helped develop. I sectioned it in half with the intention if printing a massive version of this, but I wanted to go really small first. I'll likely still go big just for the hell of it (we're talking about 8"x8"10"). When I go bigger it'll also up the resolution so some of the layer transitions won't be so obvious. Oh yeah, printing that big will take 5 days to print. LOL. I need to build an enclosure around my printer to keep the temp consistent when I do this.




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That marine engine is cool AF printed like that!
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Here's an older version for reference.

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Acid666
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Needs some cleanup, but it's pretty decent. ABS isn't that great when it splits and shit. Gonna have to patch that shit up.
Wife wanted a planter for a baby succulent so I found this online.

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:dat: 's pretty :neat:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Acid666
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Welding helmet had great Amazon reviews, but they all said the headgear sucked. They were right. A lot of people swapped over to other brand headgear that was better built. I found a Hobart one at Northern Tools that I liked. Brought my helmet in to see if I thought it would fit. Looked like it would, but when I took it apart I noticed this one bracket piece was profiled to fit the YesWelder headgear and had a 3 circle design, but the Hobart was a rectangle with rounded corners. I was gonna just return it till I remembered that I had a 3d printer, like a dumbass.

Modeled it up in Solidworks and printed in ABS, Fits like a glove.
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:neat:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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