UKC

Afternoon,

About a month ago I brought myself a 3d printer kit off fleabay for less than 80 quid with delivery.

It's a CTC A8 prusia clone 

I had to assemble the thing from scratch (hence the price ) , but I'm handy with my  hands and have experience in electronics and such matters.   Also the project has kept me out of trouble for a few weeks and learning a new skill set.

Best thing is I can take it apart and put it back together and know what everything does, handy for when I have any issues . (none so far)

I'm now  starting to upgrade my printer with some improved bits and bobs to improve the noise, accuracy and stability and safety .   

Some of the parts I'm buying in such as Mosfet boards and some new stronger timing belts and new silent bearings, the other bits mainly structural I'm printing out on the machine itself.

I have to say though so far without upgrades how absolutely fantastic the thing is for less than 80 quid.  I've been very very impressed with it. 

Any other users out there?

TWS

My mate printed an Iron Man helmet and some phone stands (I have one on my desk). I have been thinking about buying one, do you have the search criteria for a popular online auctionsite come flea bay for the one you are using?

Mine gets used a lot for practical things, brackets, storage boxes, project enclosures, hinges, adaptors, gearboxes, battery holders, water pumps, picture frames, connectors, chargers, plumbing parts, fixings, and trying all sorts of inventions.  Nothing climbing related yet.

It's incredible you can get something good enough to make parts to improve itself for £80.

It's a bit Skynet!!

I know I need one, just not sure why, or even how it works.  But it'll make the perfect partner for my 3D camera somehow.

I have a Monoprice Maker Select something or rather. I have been pretty happy with it so far, turns out good looking parts in PLA and while a bit more temperamental handles ABS OK.

I have mostly been printing practical stuff (built a load of custom mounts and some pipe fittings for my greenhouse guttering).

For me the first upgrades are going to be a better part cooling fan duct (printed in ABS but needs some further work) and a temperature controlled build area to reduce the risk of ABS parts cracking.

Generally it seems the biggest improvement to cheaper printers is from actually truing them up and the increasing the stiffness of the Z axis.

Also I don't know what you are using for drawing up parts but you can get autodesk fusion 360 for free as an 'enthusiast'.

Free to good home - boxed 1Kg. reel of 3mm yellow ABS, unopened.

Location - Nottingham.

I've downloaded the complete iron man suit ,  I may get around to printing it. 

2018 NEW 3D Printer Prusa i3 Reprap MK8 DIY Kit MK2A Heatbed LCD Controller CTC

There are lots available with a search something alone these lines.

There all pretty much similar models.

The price has recently gone up, although still a bargain. 

Bugger I use the 1.75mm PLA 

I've so far been using autodesk's tinkercad online editors that are free and quite good although I will look up autodesk fusion if I can get a copy for use offline .

Thanks for that

I've printed some nice gas canister supports for my camping equipment.   

The one I had with my brukit was pants and wouldn't stay on and broke anyway.

I found a far better one on thingiverse and printed several of them .

Far better leg support and far stronger , even  at 0.16 layer height and at 50 mm/s 

I've also designed a front suspension fork mounting bracket for attaching cargo cages to the front end of my hardtail for bike packing .

Climbing holds would be interesting for those that have home walls and want to simulate a particular weird handhold. 

I've taken to carrying around a notepad to write down ideas for projects. 

I've not used ABS ,  I may eventually but PLA is robust stuff.

I printed out a fan duct before work this  morning.  It took a few days to find a design I was happy with ,  looks good , I'll be testing out tonight .

I've yet to install Skynet.  

I might get around to it being as i brought an auto levelling sensor that needs it.

I'm apprehensive that it I will come home to a T 800  terminator on the print bed and all my home appliances trying to kill me.

3d printing is old skool. Its all about the chemical industry these days.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a14528/the-chemistry-3d-pri...

Stick one of these, a 3d food printer and 3d printer together, and you have a Star Trek replicator.

I can't wait.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35581454

Interesting .

I'm all for full transhuman universal assemblers. 

I've just spotted some 3d printed clip stick designs as well as belay glasses and printed rocks and tricams.

Not sure I'd be happy with the safety aspect of those rocks and tricams.

Water leakage has been a problem for me. Even using the highest density, things don't hold water very reliably without painting them with solvent after printing.

I've made an automatic water tank filling system for my coffee machine, directly connected to the water main copper pipe and the pressure causes leaks. Some extra work will solve it. But I wonder if PLA would be better this time ? 

I'm near IKEA, are you far away ?

Does your slicer software tell you if your models are water tight ?

I use Cura and noticed that it alerts me if there is an issue, although I haven't designed anything to be water tight so far.  

Sounds interesting - you must love your coffee.

I have no plans to move to ABS personally because of the extra faff and higher temps and like you say cracking issues , although I have a heated bed.   I don't envisage anything so far needing it.

I'm printing as low as 1% infill and getting strong models ,  I haven't been above 20% infill for any prints so far.

I have watched a lot of tutorials on things like this online .

I might try the flexible filaments and maybe something like wood infused filament at some point.

Derby based

Cheers. For now I am just sort of "tagging" this thread so I remember to come back to it - I need one of these for my work (to make bespoke mounts for samples for inspection). Currently hacking away at styrofoam with a Proxxon hot wire cutter and coblinb things together with hot glue guns!

Probably that is indicating no holes in the design, rather than the plastic itself leaking.

ABS is necessary for many of my uses so it does not melt in hot sun.

Yuk !

 > I need one of these for my work

You really do.

Definitely the way forward I'd say. 

We have a lot of them, they are amazing, especially now you can 3D scan stuff in with DSLR.  Only a few years ago we bought them at a few thousand a piece, now we buy them at ~£100 and their resolution is far superior to the £1000 pound ones.

Cheers

Toby

I’m making extensive use of an Ultimaker 2+ for prototyping right now.  I’m watching the first few layers go down as I type - this seems to be the critical time where any problems with bed adhesion wreck things.

I found a lot of the “self replication” hype to be nonsenses; milling machines have been capable of replicating their mechanical parts for a long time now...  

What I see as inherently neat about 3D printers for hobbyist users are (a) cost - they’re very cheap and cool manufacturing tools and (b) safety - the lack of heavy moving robotic parts, high speed rotary cutting parts and metal working fluids makes them far safer without a lot of faff and training and dedicated workshop space.

In a professional sense the benefit to me is being freed of workshop requirements, meaning that whilst physical manufacturing is slower with the printer vs subtractive CNC stuff, the turnaround time is much faster.

Being able to scale up instantly with external contract manufacturers with hobbiest friendly pricing is awesome.  Eg protolabs.

Tied up with cost is usable free software partly resulting from momentum driven by low cost and early hobbiest adoption.  

I’d love to see some of the metal 3D printers, like the ones SpaceX made for manifacturing rocket reaction chambers.  Likewise 3D printers doing concrete structure manufacturing will be something to see, especially ones using lunar regolith on the moooon!

I considered designing a drone based system.

In reply to Arnold8:

Not a 3D printer though is it ?

This thread is making good reading. I have often wondered what I might do with a 3d printer and there is some good suggestions on here. I have sort of gone the other way though and set myself up a blacksmiths forge and am learning to Smith. 

Yes the first layers are always the critical time.

What do you print onto ?

I use borosilicate glass with an application of very very cheap hairspray. 

Works a charm .

1) Buy a 3D printer

2) Use printer to print a 3D printer

3) Return original 3D printer for a full refund 

(Nicked from a meme I saw on instagram just now...)

Fascinating!  I have a fascia part for a van that I want to replicate (they are rare and expensive).  I looked into getting it printed commercially and it ran into hundreds - possibly because it is 370mm * 280 * 100.  It is too big a part for the model you are discussing, but I am inspired to look around!  It looks like I may be able to find a printer to do it for less than the commercial quote!

I've had a reprap Huxley for a few years now and use it all the time. It's small enough to sit on the end of my desk. I've made allsorts with it. Just recently "made" an enclosure (upturned plastic storage box) with an extractor so I can now run ABS, but PLA has done me fine for ages. If your parts aren't strong enough print hollow and fill with bits of metal and epoxy. Ninjaflex is great stuff if you need rubbery things.

I've always used Sketchup but now starting to move to FreeCAD. If you use sketchup with wine in linux, backup your ~/.wine folder when you install it, then when the pro trial ruins out overwrite with the backup and enjoy infinite pro features.
I've learned loads along the way, and more than happy to share, but tbh you're probably better off on a 3d printing forum than a climbing one.

Just chop it in half  

My approach to larger parts is chop them into convenient sized parts and then bond them together. ABS is particularly easy to do this with, you use a slurry of ABS dissolved in acetone as the adhesive and if done well you'll never find the join.

I have been coating my print bed with masking tape and applying a bit of pritt stick to aid adhesion. For ABS is use kapton tape on the bed and then coat that with abs dissolved in acetone. 

Don't apply abs slurry directly to your print bed as it is near enough impossible to remove. 

Long live Marlin! (or Klipper...)

The standard glass bed.

I’ve tried a dedicated spray but in the end I decided most of my problems were down to not levelling the bed well enough and using a large nozzle.

Once the bed is level (I resorted to a set of feeler gauges) then a layer of masking tape coated in pritt stick made a big difference for me with pla, for ABS kapton tape and ABS slurry was a huge improvement although the kapton tape is a bit pricey as a consumable. 

Yeah, but try explaining that to my ex-wife.

Yes the print area is 220mm x 220 mm  x 240 mm

Unless you can break it into manageable parts

Just ordered one of these for £86. Should get it in the next few days so will have to think of something to build.

Today I found out that there is such a thing as a 3d printer for food.  

Wow.  

youtube.com/watch?v=FP06iB1qF8k&

https://www.procusini.com

First thing you will have to build the printer but then you are away. 

If you have any problems or need any advice from someone who has built one feel free to ask .  Alternatively there are hundreds of pages of info online about the A8.  

Enjoy.  

Thinking about getting a 3D printer as a Christmas present for my daughter.   Are there any health and safety issues with the plastics/solvents it uses?  If she got one she'd need to keep it in her room so I wouldn't get anything that would be safer in a workshop than in the room where you sleep.

CIn reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

Good summary here - https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/1430/abs-filament-safety-con...

I only print PLA and wouldn’t do so in a room in my house.

You could shout her £100 of parts made by e.g. Protolabs and if the novelty doesn’t wear off, then figure out a ventilated arrangement for the printer. 

Thanks for that!  Looks like a 3D printer in a teens bedroom is a terrible idea.   Will see if she's interested in Protolabs as an alternative.