Month: November 2016

Thinking about finally getting my first 3D print. Can I get some feedback? (Eyeballing the Original Prusa i3 MK2)

I’ve looked into 3D printers for years now, but the technology always seemed days away from being outdated and I never actually got around to getting one. But I think I’m finally ready to get one and I’m looking for the best I can get for my buck.What I’m looking for in a 3D printerI’m a programmer who frequently works with 3D and am pretty familiar with electronics as well, so I’m not super worried about things being too technical or requiring a bit of tinkering, but still easy to use, especially once I have everything calibrated and setup.My budget isn’t extremely limited, but I’m not looking to spend multiple thousands on a 3D printer that I’ll probably mostly use for hobbying. I’m willing to pay premiums for good quality but don’t need industry quality.Quality > speed. I really want 3D parts that don’t look like 3D printed parts. I really want smooth looking final products.Big print platform. This is important to me. I don’t want to be limited when making solid pieces. Especially if I wanna use this for cosplay stuff. If I wanna make big pieces or armor to cover with Worbla, I wanna be able to print in as few parts as possible.I view a 3D printer as a tool and I like to buy tools that will go above and beyond what my current use case requires, so just assume I’m wanting to print anything, but not in mass quantities.Would like to avoid proprietary parts, but am willing to accept them if they aren’t extremely expensive and actually add something worth having.Want either the software to be really good or compatible with really good software.What I’ve foundSo far, the one that’s peaked my interests have been the Original Prusa i3 MK2 (prebuild, because I rather have my first one just work) and ordering the multi-color upgrade as well. From what I’ve seen it seems to be fairly well liked and open source.So my question is if anyone has this one, what do you guys think? Also, do you have any other recommendations I should try out that you think look into? http://ift.tt/2fzMalV

Anyone else having rapid degradation issues with e3D silicon boots?

I just got a new pack of silicon boots for my v6, and I am suddenly having a lot of issues. I dunno if they changed materials or I got a bad batch, but my boots have been degrading after only 50hrs, and they are leaving little blue specs in everything.It is especially odd since my last ones lasted for over 200hrs before there was the slightest sign of any wear. http://ift.tt/2eIyndr

New printer design based on Tripteron motion platform

Hey folks,I’ve been digging into (and building) some of the more esoteric motion platforms and their kinematics when I ran across the Tripteron. It’s a fair old idea (ca. 2002) from a Canadian university lab, and I found it fascinating. Furthermore, I can’t seem to find a single one that’s actually been built into a 3D printer, though it would appear to have many unique and desirable qualities for one.So I decided to start building one. I’ve got a thread on the RepRap forums I’m updating as I iterate on the design, and I’m far enough along now I figured I’d share it here.Here’s a simplified CAD overview of where I’m at currently:http://i.imgur.com/xQTTP9q.pnghttps://youtu.be/AQf8r-eMf2wAnd I just printed and tested out some fun-colored tests of the new arm designs, which are performing flawlessly:http://ift.tt/2eQqj7X of the details are in the forum thread, but the elevator pitch of why I think this is a worthy pursuit is:Due to the decoupled nature of the axes, this is known as a parallel cartesian system — i.e., the error of any one axis doesn’t compound with or amplify the error in other axes. In contrast a serial cartesian would be the standard i3 type design, where X and Z are serial and XZ-Y are parallel, and other cartesian variations with 2 or more combined axes.The kinematics are fully cartesian, so actuation and IK math is dead simple. All three axes can be moved any way you like, on any kind of rod/rail/screw system.Specific dimensions of the constraining arms are adjustable to fit whatever build volume you want to cover; they can also be replaced with other types of linkages, so long as they’re stiff parallel to the joints and free perpindicular to them. Scissors, curves, etc.The design of the orthogonal, jointed constraints (the arms) is actually an over constrained setup, where each arm is constrained by the other two as well as its own joints, resulting in an extremely stable and accurate effector response.The primary engineering concern is purely in the arm stiffness (in only one axis!), and joint stiffness, while remaining fluid in the joints. My joint design is very simple yet effective (2 bearings, all M5 hardware, 2 washers, 2 printed bearing spacers, nylock nut), allowing the joint to be very tight (thus stiff) without affecting bearing motion.And the latest arm design I came up with using modeled truss substructures results in incredibly stiff arms. These things take a serious amount of force to cause visible deflection when they’re anchored on a flat surface. I haven’t put it all back together yet (and some of the new parts are printing) but there’s lots of pics and videos of the whole thing operating in the thread, so I won’t litter this post with them.I need to adjust the “shoulders” (arm/rail block/belt carrier junctions) a little, possibly tweak one of my motor brackets, and I’m getting the remaining idler pulleys and 2020 extrusion I need in the next few days, so I should have it reassembled and able to test exactly how well the new arms perform a little later this week.Any feedback is welcome, let me know what you think! And FYI, I’ll have a Thingiverse/GitHub/etc up with all the parts as soon as I finish this design iteration, but I can provide the files any time if someone really wants to see them as-is. http://ift.tt/2fjJ4Sb