3D Printing F#%@*&%G B!@#$@%D!

[Neil.]

Jeez
I've done some stuff in my time, but it must be easier to learn Mandarin Chinese than this...

When I'm stuck on stuff, I usually turn to Youtube for help. But if I ever saw one of these expert 3D geeks tubers in the pub, I'd wazz in their babycham.

They tell you loads without actually telling you anything of any use. Its just a platform for massaging egos. Twats.

Anyhoo
Bout a month ago I picked up a Creallity Ender Pro off FB for a hundred quid. It came with half a dozen spools of filliment, so I thought I'd jump in and have a go
How hard can it be?
Started off well by downloading stuff off Thingiverse bung it on an SD card after squeezing it through a thing called a slicer and print..... So far so good

But yes, old OCD man got bored of that PDQ. "I'll make up my own stuff".....Righto

I tried everybit of 3D CAD software and got nowhere. The last bit I tried was Tinkercad. Couldnt get on with that neither, till I watched a tutorial.

Back in 1995 I did an ACCESS course to get to Uni as a mature student, one of the courses was Coreldraw. I had this program on an old 386 machine and wanted to use it, so off we went.

So it turns out that I actually knew how to use Tinkercad from summut I did 25 years ago.

Artemis CP1 stock in the making. It has to be made in 10 bits to fit the printers.

[thisisdonald]

Nice one! And bargain for your printer.. I've been saving for an ender for months but other things always crop up and the piggyback has to be spent. I'm hoping to get one in january..
Your stock looks excellent! I hope I can do equally as well when I get mine.

[Neil.]

Nice one! And bargain for your printer.. I've been saving for an ender for months but other things always crop up and the piggyback has to be spent. I'm hoping to get one in january..
Your stock looks excellent! I hope I can do equally as well when I get mine.

Better off getting a used one first. Hundreds about, as people get them and cant use em. Its dead easy if you know what you are doing.

[ora8i]

Neil it's only easy while they are working properly, a worthwhile fault and you suddenly find your fighting it out with a CNC bot.

ATB. Ora

ps. I've just finished putting LED strips in an old printer

[PLAGUE]

Nice start Neil - what filament are you using?.

Steve.

[Solvo]

Neil, are you planning to do any post processing like smoothing / filling / painting etc?
Would be interested to see the results and to know what type of filament you use. I've been enjoying PETG after years of ABS troubles. As with everything I just traded one set of issues for another. ABS never wants to stay put and detaches from the build plate too soon - PETG stick so well i have to use a release agent to ensure i can get it off without pulling chips out my glass build plate (again).

They're a great tool to have, but without understanding it's just a useless lump.
Downloading STLs from websites only gets you so far.

I've had one years and it gets used maybe once every 6 months, every time it fixes something I couldn't otherwise have achieved.
last few years I've done 6 & 7 shot Speed loaders for black powder / nitro pistols. Last week I made a set of 45acp feed fingers for a lee loading press that ate my last spare (stuff paying £20+ each for them).


You really need to know at least one 3d modelling package to get the most out of it. I use AutoCAD - because it's what i used to use for work once upon a time.

[bighit]

0penScad is good I have heard.


https://openscad.org/

[Anothermiss]

Jeez
I've done some stuff in my time, but it must be easier to learn Mandarin Chinese than this...

When I'm stuck on stuff, I usually turn to Youtube for help. But if I ever saw one of these expert 3D geeks tubers in the pub, I'd wazz in their babycham.

They tell you loads without actually telling you anything of any use. Its just a platform for massaging egos. Twats.

Anyhoo
Bout a month ago I picked up a Creallity Ender Pro off FB for a hundred quid. It came with half a dozen spools of filliment, so I thought I'd jump in and have a go
How hard can it be?
Started off well by downloading stuff off Thingiverse bung it on an SD card after squeezing it through a thing called a slicer and print..... So far so good

But yes, old OCD man got bored of that PDQ. "I'll make up my own stuff".....Righto

I tried everybit of 3D CAD software and got nowhere. The last bit I tried was Tinkercad. Couldnt get on with that neither, till I watched a tutorial.

Back in 1995 I did an ACCESS course to get to Uni as a mature student, one of the courses was Coreldraw. I had this program on an old 386 machine and wanted to use it, so off we went.

So it turns out that I actually knew how to use Tinkercad from summut I did 25 years ago.

Artemis CP1 stock in the making. It has to be made in 10 bits to fit the printers.

Coreldraw! A blast from my past. Corel suite 12 used for designing imagery to be used on dye sublimation printing.... Takes me back.

[Anothermiss]

If you want a p15 stock sending to get measurements I have one you can borrow.

[Retracted_Yeti]

Jeez
I've done some stuff in my time, but it must be easier to learn Mandarin Chinese than this...

When I'm stuck on stuff, I usually turn to Youtube for help. But if I ever saw one of these expert 3D geeks tubers in the pub, I'd wazz in their babycham.

They tell you loads without actually telling you anything of any use. Its just a platform for massaging egos. Twats.

Anyhoo
Bout a month ago I picked up a Creallity Ender Pro off FB for a hundred quid. It came with half a dozen spools of filliment, so I thought I'd jump in and have a go
How hard can it be?
Started off well by downloading stuff off Thingiverse bung it on an SD card after squeezing it through a thing called a slicer and print..... So far so good

But yes, old OCD man got bored of that PDQ. "I'll make up my own stuff".....Righto

I tried everybit of 3D CAD software and got nowhere. The last bit I tried was Tinkercad. Couldnt get on with that neither, till I watched a tutorial.

Back in 1995 I did an ACCESS course to get to Uni as a mature student, one of the courses was Coreldraw. I had this program on an old 386 machine and wanted to use it, so off we went.

So it turns out that I actually knew how to use Tinkercad from summut I did 25 years ago.

Artemis CP1 stock in the making. It has to be made in 10 bits to fit the printers.

Practice at it Neil.......here is one a guy called Bob Pattenden on facebook made for my PP750.....



Cheers.

Roy.

[Neil.]

Practice at it Neil.......here is one a guy called Bob Pattenden on facebook made for my PP750.....



Cheers.

Roy.

Wowser!!!!

<scuttles off to shed>

[Solvo]

If you have a glass bed try ABS slurry to get it to stick. I had better results with that then Elmers or tape.
Just dissolve some of the waste bits of support in a jar of acetone and wipe it on the plate before printing. Also gives a very flat smooth bottom surface.

Usual issue with 3D printing though, there is no answer global answer it's whatever works for you... and usually takes ages to figure out.

[GB2017]

if filament printing then environment also needs to be taken into account ie have it in a case (I used a piece of ikea cupboard with a glass front) and unless you have a big printer sometimes its best to come at it from a different direction and use carbon fibre rod for intersections rather than trying to print multiple pieces

It does take time to get right but is rewarding when you do (so I have heard) I have just got a resin printer and that gives amazing quality but also presents it's own problems

[Biker_Bob]

The Ender 3 Pro is a very good printer - I've had mine for a couple of years and it's been faultless.
Best tip I can give is that when the nozzle blocks up, don't bother poking at it with the cleaning tool. Take it out and hit it with a Mapp gass torch until it's glowing yellow. Then let it cool and refit. That treatment will burn away all traces of the filament and it will perform like new.
Second best tip, after printing, wait for the nozzle to cool down to below 50C before turning off.
Oh and filament can be very variable, I've had different batches of the exact same filament behave very differently, one of them was just crap and kept blocking the nozzle - don't bother fighting it, just ditch it and get a different filament.

[Steve barry]

Looks pretty decent that does for a first crack at it.
I had one of Bob patenden's for a pp750 that my brother claimed a few years ago for he's birthday