3D Printer is awesome

3D Printer is awesome

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Discussion

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
So I decided that the business requires a 3D printer...for, er, stuff.

Following tons of research decided to get a Makerbot 3D 5th generation and its absolutely bloody brilliant. Have so far printed out everything from a plastic chain to a 1/72 scale Viper MkVII. Detail is exceptionally good, its pretty quiet and fast and the finished items are just great.

Currently printing in PLA which is good but needs hand finishing for real smoothness so a slight pain compare to ABS - but its damn tough stuff which is good for detail printing

Reason Im posting is that Id ideally like it to get as much use as possible - I want to find out if there really is any value to these in terms of being useful household/hobby thing (and to be fair we have already had a rush prototype job for a supercharger timing wheel which was completed in 2 hours start to finish)

So - if anyone would like anything printed...please shout. All free (unless you're going to use absolutely tons of plastic and that's only £45/kilo) - email over STL or OBJ file which you can output from any 3D program, and I can print overnight and post next day. would be very cool to do some modelling stuff smile

Cheers
Night

enjo

339 posts

137 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
Very generous offer!
Any pics of the printer or printed parts so far? I'm thinking of getting one also to aid in freelance product design.
What did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

Mutts

284 posts

157 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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There are some nice mini-quadcopter frames that can be 3d printed.;)

dr_gn

16,130 posts

183 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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We just finished a 3D printed quadcopter frame at work. It's part of this project:

http://www.amrc.co.uk/featuredstudy/printed-uav/

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
Mutts said:
There are some nice mini-quadcopter frames that can be 3d printed.;)
fun you should say that - this was a broken hubsan yesterday smile
print took 48 minutes


blueST

4,371 posts

215 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
Hi,

This a bit cheeky, but my wife teaches in dentistry and has wanted an anatomically correct 3d skull for a long time. Is that something you might be able to do? It doesn't need to be 1:1 size, but the bigger the better. If I could present her one of those I'd be in favours for the rest of my life!

I don't know anything about the 3d software so I'd need to source a file already in existence. Any suggestions?

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
enjo said:
Very generous offer!
Any pics of the printer or printed parts so far? I'm thinking of getting one also to aid in freelance product design.
What did you pay if you don't mind me asking?
it's this printer (better than a crappy iphone pic i think!) http://store.makerbot.com/replicator
and it cost about £2500. Not cheap...but a real drop in price and increase in quality in the most recent ones so decided it was worth getting one now......some prints:

some random prints....

The cogged wheel for the supercharger:


Pendant by some designer someone i know likes


Viper


Owls and nuts

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
blueST said:
Hi,

This a bit cheeky, but my wife teaches in dentistry and has wanted an anatomically correct 3d skull for a long time. Is that something you might be able to do? It doesn't need to be 1:1 size, but the bigger the better. If I could present her one of those I'd be in favours for the rest of my life!

I don't know anything about the 3d software so I'd need to source a file already in existence. Any suggestions?
Sounds good to me!

You will indeed - luckily skulls are quite popular! Start at www.thingiverse.com and search there. I'll have a look in other places too and see what I can find. whether anyone has done an proper model Im not sure....but fingers crossed! If not....we can look at getting a 3D model done

blueST

4,371 posts

215 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
Nightmare said:
Sounds good to me!

You will indeed - luckily skulls are quite popular! Start at www.thingiverse.com and search there. I'll have a look in other places too and see what I can find. whether anyone has done an proper model Im not sure....but fingers crossed! If not....we can look at getting a 3D model done
Thank you! I'll trawl through that link, if you search skull tonnes come up. Any tips on what to look for in a "good" model. Is there some equivalent to resolution or quality?

Voldemort

6,058 posts

277 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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Fascinating thread.

As a modelling request in general, could I ask you to print out some random part in different scales? I'd be fascinated to see how small it can go retaining detail.

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
Voldemort said:
Fascinating thread.

As a modelling request in general, could I ask you to print out some random part in different scales? I'd be fascinated to see how small it can go retaining detail.
Good idea - anything spring to mind? I've got to print my brother an Assassins Creed pendant - ill do a few in different sizes ...though possibly a bit simple for that plan.

Min step is 100 microns - so that's the min gap size as well I guess

Civpilot

6,235 posts

239 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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Email sent 😉

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
blueST said:
Thank you! I'll trawl through that link, if you search skull tonnes come up. Any tips on what to look for in a "good" model. Is there some equivalent to resolution or quality?
This one looks very good - but it costs (not much), rather than being free which sucks: http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/anatomically-s...

this one is free but not sure how accurate....http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400/#made
also is missing a bottom jaw which i sense may be considered important by a dentist!

garethj

624 posts

196 months

Friday 25th April 2014
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I've got a car stl file here if you fancy a go at 1:32 scale? It's a 1972 boat tail Buick Riviera.

Nightmare

Original Poster:

5,180 posts

283 months

Friday 25th April 2014
quotequote all
send it over smile will see how it looks in the printing software.....

blueST

4,371 posts

215 months

Friday 25th April 2014
quotequote all
Nightmare said:
This one looks very good - but it costs (not much), rather than being free which sucks: http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/anatomically-s...

this one is free but not sure how accurate....http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400/#made
also is missing a bottom jaw which i sense may be considered important by a dentist!
Thanks. I'll have look round over the weekend. Would be happy to pay for the linked one if I can't find anything comparable.

350Wedge

2,364 posts

272 months

Saturday 26th April 2014
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Quick tip, as I work with 3D printing amongst other things....

I'd move away from PLA in the long term for a couple of reasons. The material is designed to bio-degrade and as such it will pull moisture out of the air and eventually fall apart. If you leave a reel exposed to air for any length of time you will find it will become very brittle and will crack and break very easily. If you put PLA in water it will eventually dissolve as well, so its not a good idea to make a PLA boat wink

ABS is a good engineering material that will last a long time, also try PETT. Its the same material that plastic bottles are made from. It doesn't try and warp as much as ABS....


Oakey

27,504 posts

215 months

Saturday 26th April 2014
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Surely the thing to do is now start your own Lego mini figure production line?

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Saturday 26th April 2014
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If you do me a life sized Ed Balls, will knives stick in it...?

Kozy

3,169 posts

217 months

Sunday 27th April 2014
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Excellent, I have a CAD file of the Hartley V8 engine some where...

Will be in touch!