How to make a press for moulding leather pouches and such

[LumpenDoodle2]

Looking good.

I agree, nothing worse than your printer trying to print onto thin air.    Did you have any shrinkage problems with the filament?   I’ve been trying out different manufacturers filaments, and it appears that some I’ve bought are just awful to use.

[RockyAussie]

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

Excellent, Brian, . . . I would have had to go with wood, . . . chisels, . . . files, . . . etc, . . . and it would have taken at least a day to produce the same type product.

Computer printing it sure is a lot less physical labor, . . . 

How many to you expect to produce in a day with that setup??

May God bless,

Dwight

In the past I have mostly had to do this sort of thing in wood but there are quite a few advantages to working with printing plastic. One I like a lot is that if I want to change the mould a bit a little bit of redrawing and a new one gets made while I can keep on working. Another is once I'm happy with the mould I can get many more made whenever I need them and again while I keep drinkin working. As for how many in a day I expect 25 would be easy but I suppose 100+ if I wanted to get all serious.

[Dwight]

OK, . . . now you got my curiosity up, . . . what brand of 3D printer is that you are using?  

AND, . . . how long did it take you to learn how to program it to print what you wanted ?

AND, . . . if I can ask one more foolish question, . . . can you approximate the cost of the two pieces for that handcuff press mold?

May God bless,

Dwight

[RockyAussie]

How many to you expect to produce in a day with that setup??

1 hour ago, Dwight said:

OK, . . . now you got my curiosity up, . . . what brand of 3D printer is that you are using?  

AND, . . . how long did it take you to learn how to program it to print what you wanted ?

AND, . . . if I can ask one more foolish question, . . . can you approximate the cost of the two pieces for that handcuff press mold?

May God bless,

Dwight

Sorry Dwight I may have misunderstood your question with regards to the numbers. What I though you were asking was how many pouches do I expect to produce in a day not how many moulds could I print. The printer would be busy for nearly 2 days to print I set and the cost $8.23 for 1 and $12.96au for the other + a bit of power.

The printer is just a Prusa i3 with a few improvements I made with regards to stability of printing etc. How long to learn how to program it....... maybe 3 days of reading online in reprap forums and the like and the drawing stuff is just a bit more playing with stuff in AutoCad .Hardest part was teaching myself to always keep copying the part and move it by having a 2 line reference point to always get back to exactly the same position on any copy. Basically a couple of days or so. There are a lot of simpler and cheaper drawing programs out there that can do the same thing now days. Once the drawing is done you just make a stl file out of the part and then put it in to a program like Cura which is what I use. From there it works out a lot of what you want to print and has suggestions for settings and can be sent to any 3D printer in the world.There is a lot of forums and stuff on line to help with this but really it isn't all that hard. Many people on this forum could use it well as the main thing needed is the ability to conceptualise something and find a way to make it happen. Robots will take over much of the work  in the near future but there will be work for those that can conceptualise what people will want those robots to produce. Regards Brian

[Dwight]

Thanks, Brian, . . . it's kind of funny that today we are having this discussion of printing out pieces for things we conceptualize.

There was a TV show Tuesday night, NCIS New Orleans, . . . where the bad guy hired a machinist to design and build for him an air gun that could fire hard glass bullets.  It was to be used to assassinate a dignitary.  

They used a plastic Colt 1911 .45 as the model.  Somehow he had incorporated a high pressure gas system into the weapon.

I thought it was interesting the concept of a hard glass bullet, . . . driven by an air charge, . . . and it just goes to prove your statement wherein we will be tasked more to conceptualizing the product, . . . than being the one producing the product.

Thanks for the info, . . . definitely going to look into it.

May God bless,

Dwight

[RockyAussie]

On 25/10/2017 at 11:57 PM, LumpenDoodle2 said:

Looking good.

I agree, nothing worse than your printer trying to print onto thin air.    Did you have any shrinkage problems with the filament?   I’ve been trying out different manufacturers filaments, and it appears that some I’ve bought are just awful to use.

I have learnt to keep the filament in a sealed packet when not in use as it does suck up the moisture when the humidity is high. Also I have found it better in Cura to put the filament setting at 1.74 instead of 1.75 as this makes it pump a little bit extra which makes the adhesion to each layer a little more attached. I have found that with some colours that they like a different heat setting and so far my favourite all rounder is the  silver at 212c on my machine. Running a little hot can also give a better adhesion to itself. I run the bed temperature at 65c and as long as I clean the glass each time with a quick spray of isopropyl alcohol I almost never have any problems with the job coming loose or unstuck. Brian

[RockyAussie]

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

Thanks, Brian, . . . it's kind of funny that today we are having this discussion of printing out pieces for things we conceptualize.

There was a TV show Tuesday night, NCIS New Orleans, . . . where the bad guy hired a machinist to design and build for him an air gun that could fire hard glass bullets.  It was to be used to assassinate a dignitary.  

They used a plastic Colt 1911 .45 as the model.  Somehow he had incorporated a high pressure gas system into the weapon.

I thought it was interesting the concept of a hard glass bullet, . . . driven by an air charge, . . . and it just goes to prove your statement wherein we will be tasked more to conceptualizing the product, . . . than being the one producing the product.

Thanks for the info, . . . definitely going to look into it.

May God bless,

Dwight

Why not ice instead of glass? Just make em in the freezer. Could even just print the tray. Ahhhh tooo many project and so little time..... back to that radio controlled robot Brian

 

[Dwight]

I don't recall the movie or the show, . . . but there was one some time back, . . . used an ice bullet, . . . 

Been too long, . . . too many shows and movies in between, . . . but we didn't think of it first, . . . 

And, . . . you need to leave the gun in the freezer until you need it, . . . could pose a small problem.  

May God bless,

Dwight

[billybopp]

Three Days of the Condor, 1975, Robert Redford, Faye Runaway.   I think they did a piece on ice and meat bullets on Mythbusters and they sadly didn't work so well in the real world.

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

I don't recall the movie or the show, . . . but there was one some time back, . . . used an ice bullet, . . . 

Been too long, . . . too many shows and movies in between, . . . but we didn't think of it first, . . . 

And, . . . you need to leave the gun in the freezer until you need it, . . . could pose a small problem.  

May God bless,

Dwight

 

[LumpenDoodle2]

10 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

I have learnt to keep the filament in a sealed packet when not in use as it does suck up the moisture when the humidity is high. Also I have found it better in Cura to put the filament setting at 1.74 instead of 1.75 as this makes it pump a little bit extra which makes the adhesion to each layer a little more attached. I have found that with some colours that they like a different heat setting and so far my favourite all rounder is the  silver at 212c on my machine. Running a little hot can also give a better adhesion to itself. I run the bed temperature at 65c and as long as I clean the glass each time with a quick spray of isopropyl alcohol I almost never have any problems with the job coming loose or unstuck. Brian

I’ve invested in a board called printbyte (I think that is how it is spelt).   All my problems with the item separating are a thing of the past (touch wood).   It’s so good, I bought 2 pieces, so that I just remove the whole bed, and put it aside to cool, and pop on the spare bed.   Once cool, the job just pops off.