My new Ender3

[sbrownn]

On 11/29/2018 at 2:43 AM, RockyAussie said:

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

Very nice.  I like the outlining with the laser.

[sbrownn]

On 1/5/2020 at 8:32 PM, garypl said:

Printed my first mold forms today for a small case I make for trap machine controllers.  Took about 8 hours total time to print both  parts.  Tested it with some 2-3 oz bridle and it worked great!  Outer frame feels very rigid - made it with PLA at 25% fill - maybe overkill?

Why did you make it so thick?

On 11/29/2018 at 11:56 AM, chrisash said:

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

Why does it take hours and hours of leveling?  I can level my bed in 2 minutes and it's all good.

[sbrownn]

On 11/29/2018 at 1:30 PM, dikman said:

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.

The 3D printing part is easy compared to the CAD part.  All the printer needs is a STL file and some factory settings to produce a part good enough for leather work.

[sbrownn]

On 11/21/2018 at 2:02 PM, dikman said:

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).

I have found that PLA is strong enough for most leather work applications and is much easier to print consistently than ABS.  I have done lots of both over the last 10 years and now print almost exclusively in PLA.

[garypl]

2 hours ago, sbrownn said:

Why did you make it so thick?

Why does it take hours and hours of leveling?  I can level my bed in 2 minutes and it's all good.

First attempt at making a mold and didn’t know how strong the outer frame should be.  Turns out it seems plenty strong - maybe I will make the next one a bit thinner.

Takes me only a couple of minutes to level the bed using a piece of paper as a feeler gauge.

[Sterlclan1]

On 1/6/2020 at 6:15 PM, Rockoboy said:

Is it possible to print this type of thing with a smooth surface? That grooved surface might be undesirable to a lot of people.

cura has the option of ironing the top for a smoother finish.its in the advanced settings

[sbrownn]

On 11/22/2018 at 9:28 AM, chrisash said:

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

Leveling is overrated.  The machine will easily compensate for things not being perfect.  I level the bed of my Flashforge at three points in less than two minutes and it works fine.

[sbrownn]

On 11/29/2018 at 2:43 AM, RockyAussie said:

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

Very nice.  I had a fly press I used in my CAD class and I wish I still had it.

[sbrownn]

On 1/6/2020 at 3:15 PM, Rockoboy said:

Is it possible to print this type of thing with a smooth surface? That grooved surface might be undesirable to a lot of people.

That can be easily solved by using a two part mold that, when the sides bottom out, has a little extra clearance between the top of the male mold and the bottom of the female mold; no marks.

On 1/6/2020 at 10:00 PM, Rockoboy said:

I think I can see a 3D printer in my immediate future!

It's my most used leather working tool.

[sbrownn]

On 11/29/2018 at 1:30 PM, dikman said:

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.

It's the CAD that takes some time to get competent at.  The 3D printing part just goes to work on the CAD files.

If you have a local university, sign up for a CAD class and you will learn more than you ever need to know and have fun doing it.

[sbrownn]

On 1/16/2020 at 5:58 PM, garypl said:

First attempt at making a mold and didn’t know how strong the outer frame should be.  Turns out it seems plenty strong - maybe I will make the next one a bit thinner.

Takes me only a couple of minutes to level the bed using a piece of paper as a feeler gauge.

The critical part is actually where the top meet the outer frame; it needs to be thick enough to keep the sides from splaying out when pressed.  I design my molds to shape dry bridle leather because I don't want the color change that results from getting it wet.  Thicker leather takes a stronger mold...obviously.  

On 1/27/2020 at 3:55 PM, Sterlclan1 said:

cura has the option of ironing the top for a smoother finish.its in the advanced settings

So that means an automatic change to a higher resolution print on the top layer or more heat? 

What is the software actually telling the machine to do?

[Sterlclan1]

On 2/9/2020 at 6:40 PM, sbrownn said:

The critical part is actually where the top meet the outer frame; it needs to be thick enough to keep the sides from splaying out when pressed.  I design my molds to shape dry bridle leather because I don't want the color change that results from getting it wet.  Thicker leather takes a stronger mold...obviously.  

So that means an automatic change to a higher resolution print on the top layer or more heat? 

What is the software actually telling the machine to do?

it smooths the top surface by running the nozzle over the last layer while feeding just a little filament it moves in the opposite direction of the last printing movement and fills the ridges smooth.no more heat just melts the top smoother  

[sbrownn]

On 2/16/2020 at 4:04 AM, Sterlclan1 said:

it smooths the top surface by running the nozzle over the last layer while feeding just a little filament it moves in the opposite direction of the last printing movement and fills the ridges smooth.no more heat just melts the top smoother  

Thanks, that's good to know.