Cheap 3d printer kits – Experiences?

Yeah i’d read I needed a new temperature proof bit, and I was planning on printing some corner bits for an enclosure. Is it to keep the temperature up, or just steady? I have a load of insulation from my camper build I could use potentially. Had figured I’d need a dry box, but those don’t seem megabucks.

That fix on the motherboard looks easy enough, i’ll pull mine apart at some point and see which variant of the board I have.

Need to get component printing with normal stuff first. Dave chucked in a reel of PETG as well, though that might be impacted by this capacitor issue.

Yeah i’d read I needed a new temperature proof bit, and I was planning on printing some corner bits for an enclosure. Is it to keep the temperature up, or just steady? I have a load of insulation from my camper build I could use potentially. Had figured I’d need a dry box, but those don’t seem megabucks.

I think it is to keep the temperature of the whole part elevated. ABS shrinks a lot as it cools & if the part cools unevenly it can warp or just pull itself apart.

You also need to get the bed temperature up to ~100 degrees C. which I think can be challenging on the Creality printers without an enclosure.

From what I have seen, people have made enclosures from virtually anything – including just sticking a cardboard box over the whole thing.

ABS also gives of quite a lot of fumes from what I understand. It is a good idea to have some kind of ventilation in place.
There is a plastic called ASA, which has similar properties to ABS but gives of a lot less fumes apparently.

Do you really need to print ABS? Not something I’ve done personally, seems like there are loads of disadvantages (fumes, warping, needing enclosure, environmental impact) and you’d be better served by PETG or even HTPLA maybe?

“ABS also gives of quite a lot of fumes from what I understand. It is a good idea to have some kind of ventilation in place.”

Not really tbh, you might notice a slight smell if you’ve got it running open in a room but in an enclosure, you notice a smell when you open the door but that’s all. No need for ventilation imo, not on a diy machine anyway

But an enclosure does make all the difference for printing without warping. It really depends what you’re printing- ABS is great in a lot of ways as you can acetone polish it, it glues well, it’s pretty heat resistant- PETG has some hangups of its own including not really being able to paint it (if you care) and it being pretty hard to glue to and remove supports from.

FWIW I’ve had zero problems with removing supports from PETG or gluing it (with superglue). The best tip I’ve picked up for using supports recently is to always make sure they’re at 45 degrees relative to what you’re printing, makes them WAY easier to remove.

@Ewan

The PLA is this stuff: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073PB9XWY/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and the PETG is:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MG5QQY9/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers Slackman.

Had a bit more success last night – was a bit naughty and changed multiple variables at the same time:

– Tried printing the cat again using the same gcode. It broke in almost the same point and i noticed the print had stopped binding together at the top, so cancelled the print.
– The print not binding together and a bit of chin scratching made me think that one of the problems was that the feed reel was on top of the machine – this gave a fairly sharp angle into the feeder tube. So i dismounted the reel and mounted it to the side of the machine on top of the control box – this now gives a straight line into the feeder thingy.
– I also downloaded he STL(?) file and shoved it into Cura and resliced it using the defaults of PLA on the CR-10 (doesn’t have the mini, but i’m assuming they’re essentially the same other than volume).
– I then printed the cat again (my version) – at this point I noticed bed temp and hot end temp had both increased by 10 degrees over the original gcode – now printing at 200 degrees and 60 degree bed temp.
– The cat worked, so I also printed the benchy thingy. That seems to have come out ok, tho i’ve not had the calipers out yet to check the measurements. The name plate at the back doesn’t seem to have come out at all – not sure if that is the nozzle size or the layer height that’s done that (think i used 0.2 – the middle setting in cura).

Note that the top layers didn’t stick together, i think this may have been a feed issue due to the position of the spool. Also see that it snapped in the same point as the last one.

Success! Can not rip this ones head off despite trying.

Note artifact on the side of the boat towards the bottom and the middle – looks like little bumps – not sure what’s caused that. There is something similar on the other side but not in quite the same place.

May try and print some upgrades for he printer next.

Re: the comments above about ABS, i was thinking of using it for UV resistance so I can use it on the outside of my camper van, or at least places it will be exposed to strong (And hot) sunshine. Ultimately I want to get nylon working once I upgrade the hotend.

Good that you’re making progress!
If you want to try my cura PLA profile, it’s here. No promises 🙂 Keep it separate and you can always switch back. (it’s for the CR-10).

You’ll have to alter some of the things you normally decide ‘per print’ like support, infill, brim etc. If you were just using a default Cura profile, you should notice that the time estimates are much more accurate with this as it’s got correct jerk/acceleration figures.

Cool will do – is it obvious how to load it?

I think so! – I don’t want to open Cura right now because Adobe Premiere is eating every last drop of cpu

I’ll have a look later. Will feedback!

Ewan Member
Cool will do – is it obvious how to load it?

Simple. Open Cura>Preferences>configure Cura>Profiles & then import…..you can save it as a new profile.

Super thanks

Anyone use a cheap ip cam for monitoring? What you got? Same question for wifi plug.

Love the look of some of these silk/satin filaments, gold etc. Any recommendations?

Well 2nd print is running

Might have got a bit ambitious….

Printing a 💀 flowerpot been running overnight & still only 1/3rd of the way through.
Should have checked a bit closer, its more skull than pot

It’s ok wife’s birthday is on Friday, so should be ready by then !

papamountain

Member
Anyone use a cheap ip cam for monitoring? What you got? Same question for wifi plug.

I use an old Android phone with a camera viewer app. It only works over the house wi-fi though, but I’m generally at home when prints are running.

It’s ok wife’s birthday is on Friday

A bright orange skull flowerpot. I’m sure she’ll love it! ;o)

I also bought her a new steam mop

I am a smooth operator

Anyone use a cheap ip cam for monitoring?

I use a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with the official Pi cam (about £60 for both). Not the cheapest, but it’s a very neat setup plus you can run OctoPrint on the Pi as a print server which is an amazingly useful bit of software.

Love the look of some of these silk/satin filaments, gold etc. Any recommendations?

I’ve been using Polyalchemy Elixir which looks great! Everyone on the FB 3d printing groups raves about CC3D Silk, don’t think it’s readily available in the UK though unfortunately as I’d love to try some.

Same as zilog… Pi3B+ & Pi Cam, running Octoprint with a Pi touchscreen. I don’t have a WiFi plug for the printer, but it seems like a good idea, especially if you need an emergency stop. I also use Telegram plugin so it sends me a message & photo when it starts/finishes/pauses, you can set it to send updates during a print too. You can also send commands via Telegram to pause/stop/etc.

How have you mounted the pi cam to pi and pi to the printer? Any pictures of the set up?

Have a look on Thingiverse, there are loads of Pi cases & camera mounts. Obviously depends on your particular printer!

I had a fancy segmented, articulated arm to hold the camera at first (still visible on the pic attached to the left Z motor!) but actually in practice it wasn’t great, the Pi cam has no autofocus so you need it a fixed distance really. Now using a much simpler mount which attaches to the front left corner of the bed, way better for monitoring/timelapses etc.

I did have my Pi case attached to the frame but I’ve taken it off at the moment as I added a relay module to control the lights I’ve stuck onto the inside of the frame so need to come up with an integrated mounting solution for that as well. I think I will end up printing a new extended front control panel, with space for a touchscreen for the Pi as well as the Pi itself & the relay module. This will neaten up the cable routing for the camera as well now I’ve got that mounted at the front.

View post on imgur.com

How have you mounted the pi cam to pi and pi to the printer?

Ummm.. Not very well! I designed a mount for my Printer/PiCam. The problem is the PiCam focal distance seems to be 50cm and I need it to be 20-25cm. I tend to get blurry photos, also the FOV isn’t great, so unless I’m printing dead centre, you only see a little bit of the print.

The problem is the PiCam focal distance seems to be 50cm and I need it to be 20-25cm.

Did you know you can adjust it? At least on the v2 cam. You can carefully rotate the lens, or there’s a little tool you can buy for a quid (or print!!) that fits over it to do it.

Thanks. Not too bothered about messing with raspberries and pies at the moment 😉 Just not sure which cheap ip cam to get. As always there’s good and bad comments about them all on amazon.
At the moment i use a webcam connected to my pc using yawcam but id rather not have to have my pc running. I’ll just take a pot shot on one probably.

I’ve been trying to source the cc3d filament but not much joy in the UK. The polyalchemy stuff looks pretty nice but pricey! The Polyalchemy merlot looks very nice and the silver and the purple rain. Got any pics of something you printed with it?

IP Cam wise, I have a couple of yi cam 1080p dome cams – they’re very good (don’t use them with the printer tho).

I tried to get octopi working last night – got it all installed on the pi ok, but it’s not detecting the printer (CR10 Mini) when i plug it in – any ideas?

The Polyalchemy merlot looks very nice and the silver and the purple rain. Got any pics of something you printed with it?

This is one of my favourite prints, aesthetically & functionally. It’s a really well designed (not by me!!) business card holder, the faceted design works awesomely with silky filaments as it catches the light beautifully when you pick it up. Photo doesn’t really do it justice! Agree the filament is expensive, but for the right print you can’t beat it IMO.

View post on imgur.com

I tried to get octopi working last night – got it all installed on the pi ok, but it’s not detecting the printer (CR10 Mini) when i plug it in – any ideas?

My printer (not a CR10) only connects reliably when serial/baudrate settings are both AUTO and you add a pause before baud rate detection in the settings menu. Also apparently cheap USB cables are a common problem. Failing that, the OctoPrint FB group is very active, someone on there can probably help.

Yeah i wonder if it’s the cable – i’ve ordered a couple of ones off fleabay.

Printing he fang mod today.

@ stumpy01
Used your thingiverse calibration test to tweak my Ender 3
Nice and simple. (posted a make as SpuggyDee)

@ stumpy01
Used your thingiverse calibration test to tweak my Ender 3
Nice and simple. (posted a make as SpuggyDee)

Ha! Nice One. I got a notification earlier and wondered if it was someone from here!

Managed to model the snowdown horseshoe in Blender, then extrude in Fusion, and then slice in Cura. The bit in Fusion was a total pain in the cock, as my 9 year old computer was starting to creak!

Will make a little oak plinth for it I think.

Thanks zilog6128. Is that Polyalchemy Elixir Gold Rush? Looks good.

@Ewan

I had Astroprint running and connected for a while with the cable that you’ve got. It took me a little while to get it to connect to the printer and it was all to do with the baud rate. As soon as I typed in the correct value everything connected within a few seconds. I can’t remember what the rate actually was but might be worth checking that you have the correct rate set in Octoprint

Managed to model the snowdown horseshoe in Blender, then extrude in Fusion, and then slice in Cura.

I probably should have saved a link; perhaps I have somewhere….but I found a website that lets you create 3-D geometry of any location in the world. You can add a vertical scaling factor etc. & export it – probably as an stl. I meant to do a few places, but have never got round to it.
I’ll have to try & dig out the link.

Your print of Snowdon looks good; what layer height were you printing at?

To late to edit my post – but found it!

http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

Oh, and this one lets you change the aspect ratio of the bounding box that might be useful.

http://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/

If you want to cut out a whole country, there is some info here:

https://www.prusaprinters.org/how-to-print-maps-terrains-and-landscapes-on-a-3d-printer/

and a website that appears to let you download svg files of countries, that are mentioned in the link above, for cutting out an entire country:

https://mapsvg.com/maps/

If you scroll back some pages, you can find my map work and some instructions.
It’s based on LIDAR data from the government. Each file is a square km. I found the number of triangles too much to edit in fusion though, so I printed them as 1sqkm tiles and turned it into a puzzle:
Relief-map-14 by Alex Simon[/url], on Flickr

Is that Polyalchemy Elixir Gold Rush?

yup! Itching to try another colour but I’ll wait until I’ve got something worthy to print!

Quick Q for the 3DP Boffins of the forum, if I may? Not world ending, but I’d like to find a fix.

My printer (or more likely Cura) settings have been a bit off since day 1. Prints are not centred on the print bed on the Y Axis – I have to drag the model towards the very front of the bed in Cura in order to get the resulting print somewhere close to the middle of the bed. I’d guess it was somewhere in the region of 60mm off.

I have checked the bed dimensions in Cura (correct) and the nozzle touches ‘home’ perfectly in the bottom left corner of the bed.

Any ideas? Printer is a Tevo Tarantula in case that makes any difference, and works very well in every other regard.

AlexSimon

Subscriber
If you scroll back some pages, you can find my map work and some instructions.
It’s based on LIDAR data from the government.

For reference, it’s page 10 – I just had a look.

I can’t get some of the links to work.

The environment survey data page, just returns a blank page – I wonder if that is the work firewall stripping out some plug-in or functionality? I tried in Chrome & IE, but got nothing.
I did strip back the link & then searched for LIDAR, which have me this link (if it works!):

https://environment.data.gov.uk/searchresults;query=lidar;page=1;pagesize=20;orderby=Relevancy

but I wasn’t sure where to go from there.

The accutrans link works fine: http://www.micromouse.ca/

The WikiTech instructions page didn’t work, so again I stripped back the link until I got to the root & then found this page, which I think is the one required:

https://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/3D_printing_of_digital_elevation_models#Dealing_with_ArcInfo_ASCII_grid_.28.2A.asc.29_files

I love the youtube video for how to print onto wood! Great idea!

I had Astroprint running and connected for a while with the cable that you’ve got. It took me a little while to get it to connect to the printer and it was all to do with the baud rate. As soon as I typed in the correct value everything connected within a few seconds. I can’t remember what the rate actually was but might be worth checking that you have the correct rate set in Octoprint

Turned out it was the cable. I think it’s a power only one. New cable and it will works fine with the Pi.

Your print of Snowdon looks good; what layer height were you printing at?

0.2mm. I tried a 0.1mm print the other day on a small object – looked great. But I figured 0.2 would be ok as it’d look like countours. Quite like the effect.

Re: the LIDAR data, I looked at that (along with the OS Terrian 50 data set), but it doesn’t seem like Snowdon has been LIDARed – that surprised me, but seems to be the case (feel free to let me know if someone finds something different!).

I got my terrain data from https://terrain.party/ – seems to be astrim data. Will check out the other links.

Next landscape on the list is to make a rectangular one of the Bernia Ridge in Alicante (climbed it and proposed to the mrs a couple of years ago, so will make a good present).