How many of you have 3d printers?

@dronebot-workshop

Bill, that's a nice one. Really expensive @699, but, nice. It's got most of the things I've had to manually fashion already built in

Borosilicate glass is awesome to print on. I had to special order a piece, then it broke on me, and I'm back to putting painter's tape on the print bed

Heated bed... CRITICAL. You've GOT to have a heated bed. I know experts in the field who say it's pointless, but, there are some filaments that you simply can't print properly (well, *I* can't anyway) without a heated bed

Resume print after power loss... HOLY COW ! Mine still can't do that. That would be an AWESOME upgrade if I could figure out how to make it happen

The print head... The replacement part looks like a tube. That would be a Bowden setup. That's where the extruder motor isn't mounted directly on the print head. The loss of the weight of the extruder motor means that you can print faster due to not having to toss the weight of the motor around. The down side is trying to print soft rubber. See, the rubber compresses when the motor pushes the filament into the tube, which complicates automatic measuring of how much filament gets pushed out the nozzle. Otherwise, Bowden is a nice setup, and this one says "short distance extruder", which probably means that while the motor might not be on the actual nozzle, it's probably real close. Still, I like the Bowden setup. That's theoretically the way to go

Fully enclosed... CRITICAL. 3D printers NEED a stable environment to print. There are times that a soft breeze, like when my AC or dehumidifier kicks on that can cause a print to fail. In fact, it's SO critical that I built enclosures for both my printers. They look like doodoo, but, they're functional. The enclosure also means that printing things like ABS (which smells horrible) are possible without stinking up the house

Print size... 205x270x205... eh. Considering the price, that's only so/so, but, with all the other accouterments, not too bad. You MIGHT be able to print an IronMan helmet if you turn it just right 

Filament runout sensor... Nice. I had to make one, and THEN I had to flash the firmware in order to get it to work. (It uses the arduino IDE, so not a HUGE deal, but, still, a pain)

The spool holder... looks chintzy. You need bearings on the spool (hey, I can't say EVERYTHING nice, can I ?)

Automatic bed leveling... I might be missing it, but I don't see it on there. It'd be nice to have tho, cuz a fraction of a millimeter off on one corner can puzzle you for hours if you're new to this

Auto power off... Yea, have I mentioned Octo-print ? I know I mentioned Jarvis, but Jarvis is a toy. Octoprint on the other hand, you NEED OCTOPRINT

If anybody out there has a 3D printer, and they're NOT using Octo-print, what are you waiting for ?

It's free

It's awesome

It's cool

It's usefull

It's up-gradable

It's customizable

And cool. Did I mention cool ?

https://octoprint.org/

Find yourself an extra raspberry pi that's not doing anything, download the software, connect your printer, and start LOVING IT ! 

Seriously. Octoprint. Do it. Now.

Now, @byron I like printing my own custom cases. I do it all the time, but, for DB1 (or, in my case toolcart1) I don't plan on putting anything in a case. The electronics are going to be in the "basement" of the toolbox, with ventilation, and active cooling. I don't want heat to be any kind of issue, and the only thing I see a case doing is collecting heat monsters

On the other hand, I don't always print all my cases 😉

When I got my first Pi Zero W I almost laughed, it was so small. I made a joke that I wouldn't have to print a case for it cuz I could probably fit it into a box of tictacs without first taking out the tictacs

Which gave me an idea... I just happened to have a box of tictacs handy, soooo...

Yea. It fit.

Without first taking out the tictacs. Sooo...

I'm using it as my NAS server (with Samba, cuz, why not ?)

Yea. I'm a geek

Posted by: @spyder

Bill, that's a nice one. Really expensive @699, but, nice. It's got most of the things I've had to manually fashion already built in

I thought it was nice too. And remember, that's 699 Canadian dollars, which is about 530 US. With the sale (that is over now, I resisted the urge) it was about 100 US dollars cheaper.

I will get one soon, but not today. There are a lot of unopened boxes here in the workshop, stuff I bought that I haven't even looked at yet, so I have no lack of new toys to play with.

And I have to keep track of priorities. A new NAS isn't as "sexy" as a new 3D printer, but if my current one dies I'd have to close down the DroneBot Workshop until I could replace it, so the NAS takes priority. Just like robo-pi and his woodburning stove. 

The NAS I'm looking at will run me close to 1500 dollars (Canadian again) once I put all the hard drives in. Once I get that online then a 3D printer is next on the list.

And one needs to remember that the printer itself is just the tip of the iceberg, after that, I'd want to buy several spools of filament in different colors and materials.

@spyder - I was happy to see you thought it was a good printer, as you seem to be quite the authority on the subject. When I do decide to take the plunge I'll be sure to start a thread and see what everyone's opinions are.

Bill

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

There are a lot of unopened boxes here in the workshop, stuff I bought that I haven't even looked at yet, so I have no lack of new toys to play with.

Yippee! Yippee! Yippee!
Videos on toys!
This deserves a poem
that's full of rhyming noise

I want to play with Python
I want to program Pies
I want to play with Jetson Nano
to give my robot eyes

I want to learn of LIDAR
with quarternion degrees
and set my robot roaming
to go where she shall please

And communicate with RF
so my robot's wild and free
but learning all the secrets
is the main essential key

So open up those boxes
let's see what's there inside
as Billy makes his videos
to be our lecture guide

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

you seem to be quite the authority on the subject.

I wouldn't say that. I just learn from my mistakes, and, having made an abundance of them provides for a lot of learning opportunities, with the upside being that I never make the same mistake twice, the downside, however, is that I find new ones to make.

If you don't have a teacher to tell you that what you're about to do is stupid and won't work, you just go ahead and do it anyway

Posted by: @spyder

I've got 2 of those Anet A8's.  They needed some upgrades after building them, but, they print fine now

After numerous upgrades, they print pretty well...

The upgrades were necessary, like, for instance, there's no wire management included (other than a packet of zip ties), the power supply was a fire hazard, the filament management system needed upgrading, and changing the filament initially required taking the print head apart. Luckily, I had a 3D printer handy to design and print my own upgrades

 

@spyder

If you don't mind could you give me a ballpark figure of what the costs were for the "upgrades"? So far I think I'm leaning towards either the Anet A8 kit or the Prusa i3 MK2 clone. Just need to decide whether to start out with a scratch built CD player hack or go straight to the 2 previous mentioned printers. Plenty of time for me to decide. Probably a winter project. But now would be a good time to start gathering parts. ? 

After watching a bunch of videos all day yesterday I'm swaying back and forth between the Anan A8 and A6.

The A6 seems to have a few improvements over the A8, at least the original A8, and it is a couple dollars cheaper.  But the new version of the A8 has a metal frame instead of the acrylic frame and has a updated controller board.  There are a bunch of enhancements available for the A8 but0 I can't tell at the moment if they are available for the A6.

Anyone on this forum had experience with the A8 and A6?

@etinkerer

Styrofoam for the enclosure about $30

New 450W ATX power supply about $35

2 mosfets a few dollars

Raspberry Pi $35

Micro SD card $10

Webcam $20

Relay hat for the RPI to control printer, power, and lights, maybe $20

Everything else I printed. Fan covers, wire chains, shock absorbers, electronics cases, filament guides, belt tighteners, frame supports

You'd want these things for most printer "kits", while the Pi stuff seems not actually necessary, once you start using your printer, you'll find that they're more than just "nice to have". The mosfets isolate the power between the controller and the heated bed, and the controller and the hot end (nozzle). The power supply is cuz the one that came with mine was a fire hazard. The enclosure is something that very few printers come with, so all these are things that you'd want no matter which printer "kit" you choose, and in fact, very few printers that aren't kits come with an enclosure

As to which one you should start with. I can't tell you that. I don't think that building a cd player printer from scratch is a great idea without you knowing the basics of what makes them work in the first place. Your first kit would give you that. Besides, the parts that you'd need to buy for the cd printer would run into money anyway

You need more than one motor, and the extruder and hot end isn't something that comes with a cd player

Think about this... the nema 17 motor is $20 each, and you need 5 of them. The controller board can be anywhere from $20 and upwards of $200. A heated bed is $20. You're already up to the minimal price of the cheapest kit and you haven't even bought the threaded rods or belts, hot end, or nozzles yet, nor do you have even the beginnings of a frame to bolt it all to

I would think that the cd player mod would be something you would do if you already had spare parts on the shelf for your other printer

For me, the next "upgrade" I'm looking at is the Creality CR10, and the only reason is due to the build space. I've run into too many things that I want to make that I can't because my current printers simply aren't big enough to build what I want. The problem with that dream is that I just don't have the room for a 3rd printer. Something like the AnyCubic that Bill was looking at is one thing. You can put it on a shelf, and that's all the space it takes, but with a "kit" type, you need to get to the whole thing, not just the front, that's why I built mine on a lazy susan, so I can just spin it around to get to the parts in the back or side

Now, the Prusa models are supposed to be the best design, not sure if that translates well to the clones, but, of all the cartesian style printers, prusa is supposed to be one of the best. From the picture, the frame looks a little flimsy, but, you can easily print frame supports once you get it working

@spyder

OctoPi makes you weak and lazy 😉  Well, I guess I am too! OP is a great and easy addition for any printer. 

@codecage

It looks like when they say "controller" they mean "controller interface" rather than the actual motor controller. It also says that the build space is the same as the A8, but with a smaller footprint (interesting). The picture isn't clear where the metal is in the frame, but, the picture still looks acrylic (which hasn't been a huge issue for me personally, but, acrylic does crack) but you can print frame supports no problem

Comparing build space to price, that's not bad, as long as you're willing to tinker and realize that it's not going to be perfect right out of the box. Also remember that "unassembled" means completely unassembled. There are no 2 parts that are connected to each other

Posted by: @triform

@spyder

OctoPi makes you weak and lazy 😉  Well, I guess I am too! OP is a great and easy addition for any printer. 

If a thing makes what you're doing easier and more convenient and proficient, then, yes, it does

@spyder

It does. I have it on both my current printers and started with it on my PrinterBot.

@spyder

Not sure which printer you are referring too.  Do you have the A8 or the A6?  And I realize the "kit" is just a bag of parts that need to be completely assembled.  The A6 seems to remedy some, but not all, of the shortcomings of the A8.  The A8 Plus seems on the surface to be a step up, but I've not seen any reviews on it yet.

Watched a complete build of an A6 yesterday but did some fast forwarding through some portions (total run time was over 5 hours!). From the video the A6 seems to be a little easier to assemble than the A8 and a bit sturdier.

The A8 Plus seems to have a power cable using the C13/C14 plug/socket pair and a power switch.  Just a little hard to tell from the skimpy photos on Amazon. 

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

I will get one soon, but not today. There are a lot of unopened boxes here in the workshop, stuff I bought that I haven't even looked at yet, so I have no lack of new toys to play with.

And I have to keep track of priorities. A new NAS isn't as "sexy" as a new 3D printer, but if my current one dies I'd have to close down the DroneBot Workshop until I could replace it, so the NAS takes priority. Just like robo-pi and his woodburning stove. 

 

It seems to me a few of the forum members have so many projects going they aren't going to finish any of them soon. My priority is to get a robot up and working hopefully by xmas? I am interested in seeing what your DB1 robot can actually do when you finish it. As for a 3d printer, yes I looked longingly at a few of them but figure I can always get someone who already has one to print anything up for me without me buying one myself. If I had the money I would buy one of those robotic arms with enough precision that they can also do some 3d printing when not doing other things.

Now that's cool!!!!  ?    Great. Now I want one.  ? 

posted by @casey

It seems to me a few of the forum members have so many projects going they aren't going to finish any of them soon.

I resemble that remark! ?