My new Ender3

[chrisash]

Just opened up my new machine and run a couple of Benchy tugboats in PLA after a frustrating 2 hours trying to level the table (all finger trouble), they came out excellent

Anyway the point of the post, I aim to make stamps i can press using a Arbor press, will at the start be using Tinkercad or Freecad and can find my way around them both but definatly not a expert

Question

• What should i use as filament for the stamps PLA or ABS
• What thickness for the base of the stamp
• assuming about 2mm for embossed image
• Any advice welcomed 

Using Cura 3.6.0 does anyone have a clear pdf of the meaning of the settings and what major ones i should consentrate on

[dikman]

PLA should be fine (you can now buy PLA+, which is supposed to be a bit tougher). ABS requires higher temps and a heated bed, my attempts so far at making small items with ABS have been mostly unsuccessful - the item tends to lift from the bed part way through. Bigger items are fine.

I use Slic3r, although I have tried Cura. I learned to use it through trial and error and lots of googling! I'm not aware of a simple guide to using them (which doesn't mean it's not out there).

[chrisash]

Many thanks

At present i am having a problem with the Bowden connecter to the filament tube, but should have replacement items today, have also brought some flexible to build the grand kis a couple of toys whilst learning

Looked at the popular 3D design software like Tinkercad, Freecad, Sketchup and also Bender, thinking of settling on Freecad at moment but could change, always welcome to suggestions

Chris

[dikman]

I have 123D Design, solvespace and FreeCAD, all free programmes. I haven't spent much time on them yet, but I need to figure out which one will do what I want without spending (wasting?) a lot of time on them - if that's possible! I'm also interested in trying to make stamps for tooling.

It's a good idea to start printing existing designs first to get familiar with using the beastie. Thingiverse is a good source for all sorts of things.

I forgot to ask, are you using a glass bed for printing on?

[chrisash]

No glass bed just a special top made for the ender, taken me a long time today to get it leveled, i think the next purchase will be a auto level kit

It seems very like leather work, the more goodies you buy the more you want or need and as my grandson says" I I I Neeed it" aged two

[dikman]

A common "mod" is to cut a piece of picture frame glass the same size as the bed and clamp it on with a couple of spring binder clamps. This prevents wear on the original bed and is easier to clean if using the hair spray or glue stick method to hold the printed item in place. A razor blade scraper can be used to clean the glass, but the downside is (for me) it needs regular checking for bed levelling. Which doesn't matter as I'm getting good at it!

And yes, mine has been modified somewhat from the original. It seems the more you learn the more you see needs to be done........

Chris, I just looked up the Ender 3 and found a nice review on it, sounds like a nice machine. The reviewer mentioned this youtube site -

It has some basic settings for Cura. It might be of some interest.

Edited November 22, 2018 by dikman
More info

[RockyAussie]

On 21/11/2018 at 8:39 AM, chrisash said:

Just opened up my new machine and run a couple of Benchy tugboats in PLA after a frustrating 2 hours trying to level the table (all finger trouble), they came out excellent

Anyway the point of the post, I aim to make stamps i can press using a Arbor press, will at the start be using Tinkercad or Freecad and can find my way around them both but definatly not a expert

Question

• What should i use as filament for the stamps PLA or ABS
• What thickness for the base of the stamp
• assuming about 2mm for embossed image
• Any advice welcomed 

Using Cura 3.6.0 does anyone have a clear pdf of the meaning of the settings and what major ones i should consentrate on

Congratulations @chrisash on getting a very worthwhile tool. Be patient and do a lot of getting used to your settings and how the can vary before trying to do too much too quickly. Lots of things like your temperature in different colour filaments and ideal bed temperatures for the given filament and a hundred other various adjustments,  can make a big difference to the outcome. I have had a lot of health issues of late and along with a huge backlog of work to catch up on I am sorry I am limited to the help I can give you in a hurry. In order to help some with the above questions I can say that the pla+ has worked excedingly well with the stamp project I am currently working on. I am still working on this project at the moment and will give a more full break down of it over the next week or so but here a a few pictures to help show you more of what I mean.

I should start by saying that the stamps in this case are a letter set that I have designed a font for that I want to use for stamping onto belts that have to be painted in different colours as well. This involves the use several different processes including the 3d printer and a 2.5 watt laser as well as a clicker press and so on.

First I designed a guide to hold the letters which were going to be used with the Ivan letter set. As I could not get a font for the laser work I then designed my own.

The following pic shows my stamp test held up well to the hammering down with the clicker press.

This one shows that the Ivan letter set is thinner and a bit smoother but I have not bothered to smooth out the pla+ printed ones either.

This one just shows where I am testing the line up of the laser cut masking tape with my stamp.

AS you see I did not have it quite aligned as needed and I have to say that the thickness of the letter width is only .77 mm so it does take a little patience. There's that word again.

Oh nearly forgot.... the letter height I used 2.5mm high off the block and 2mm wide at base extruding up at -15 deg inside the letter and 15 degrees outside the letter. I work in Autocad unfortunately so I cant help much in the other programs.

Brian

[chrisash]

Hi

Thanks for the info, the names look great

I have just signed up for Fusion 360 which is free for the full version as a hobby person. far exceeds the other software in ease of use  and selection of tools, there is a handy new book "Fusion 360 for makers"by Lynda Sloan Cline, it is designed for 3D printers with good talk through projects

One thing i have found out about my printer is the time taken to get the pad to fully hot, it shows the heat at correct but when you try a print it fails in some places, but if you then clean that off and immediately start again its all ok, i guess the sensor is in one position and it takes more time to spread evenly over the whole pad

Can you say what the difference is between PLA and PLA+, at present just using a cheap PLA and getting good results after hours and hours of leveling, apart from the above what else do you make

Are your stamps made with straight edges to the letters or do they widen towards the base i.e. triangular shape rather than rectangular

Bit surprised that not many using this part of the forum

Chris

[dikman]

1 hour ago, chrisash said:

Bit surprised that not many using this part of the forum

Chris

I'm not. Unfortunately 3D printing requires a fair bit of effort to sort out, as you're finding out. I suspect that for most it's either too daunting a prospect or they don't have the time.

Brian, sorry to hear you've been on the sick list, hope you're on the mend.

[RockyAussie]

14 hours ago, chrisash said:

Are your stamps made with straight edges to the letters or do they widen towards the base i.e. triangular shape rather than rectangular

Yes the letters are splayed wider at the bottom. As I tried to say above the height I gave from the base of the letter is 2.5mm and the base width of each letter is 2mm wide extruded up with a taper angle of 15 degrees inward from both edges at the base of the letter. In AutoCad this can be done in several different methods but in this case I started with the letter line in the middle and offset from that 1mm either side of the polyline.  This helps for doing the laser cutting later which has to be a single line with no thickness otherwise the laser cuts both sides of the width of the line. Pain in the but....but sort of like solving a puzzle I guess. To make it more complex the dxf file that goes to the laser can not use polly lines and so must all be exploded first back into all of the broken up lines again. Until you get familiar with doing 3d drawings it may all sound a bit confusing to start with. Letters that have no holes in them like an A or an O can be just done at 15 degrees but for ones that have the holes the inner lines should taper at -15 degrees.They are best done first in order to make them easier to subtract the solid parts you need to get rid of as you go. Sorry if this is confusing yet but I will try and do more of a step type of process with some pictures when I finish the above project next week I hope.

 

12 hours ago, dikman said:

Brian, sorry to hear you've been on the sick list, hope you're on the mend.

Thanks for the thoughts dikman. Amongst several issues I am now dealing with a bad case of rheumatoid arthritis which for a few years I have been ignoring and taking anti inflamitories etc to keep it at bay. Now I find out it can paralyse and even kill you. GREAT... and they have done enough scans now in three months to equal nearly a thousand x rays. If I don't have the big C already , I probably will get it  now anyway.  They wonder why I don't want to go in every time they call me for another Non urgent appointment.

That's the end of my bitchin on this subject for now.