3DR (V2_001) Release.
This post will be Part 1 - Release files, print some plastic parts and source other materials.
In future posts we will look at the following as a guide to the whole process of building and setup of a 3D printer.
Part 2 will look at preparation of parts and starting assembly of the 3D printer and extruder.
Part 3 will tackle the final machine assembly, hot-end, electronics setup, and wiring.
Part 4 will get to grips with the firmware, setup, calibration and first movements of the Printer.
Part 5 will see us setting up Slic3r with 3DR, use some test parts to level our bed and have some 3D Printing Fun!
If you missed my Intro video last month about 3DR, take a look at the video below, I explain some of the reasons I designed this printer.
I also had it running live and printing all sorts of multi-coloured objects (that's another future post :) at the recent London Mini Maker-Faire,
A really big thank you goes out to the faberdashery team who kindly offered me space on their stand to show off 3DR, we had a great day and a lot of fun!
3DR attracted a lot of attention for the entire Maker-Faire day, much more than I expected. It was also great to meet and talk to so many of you who follow my work, read my blog and were also inspired to do something or even start businesses in this great booming industry, thank you all, it really made me very happy.
In past years I have done many different 3D print colour mixing developments, so for the Maker-Faire I had the very British Red,White and Blue 3DR setup with a dual bowden fed extruder mixing Hot-End Nozzle, allowing some nice looking prints to be made during the day. Extruders and the blends of filament feed are controlled in Gcode, still experimental at the moment with this two channel and a new four channel fed bowden version, still some rather complex mixing control to get sorted, but looking very promising!
Here are a few photo's of some of the objects we printed using the fine filament faberdashery provided to all exhibitors during the faire. It's a fast, accurate, and quiet printer, I hope you like it and decide to build one.
Gear Vase Designed by JelleAtProtospace
This was a popular one - the colours mix between clear at the bottom, bands of increasing rainbow and gold eventually fading into silver. - Print time of 67mins / 0.125mm layers @ 105mm/sec 0.3mm mixing nozzle.
A Joris Weekly cup (Nr22) printed in Bling Bling Gold, mixed with various rainbow colours.
A collection of other prints I did just before the Maker-Faire, and one very important thing to point out here, this Printer is not just for Pots and Vases! it was just a lot quicker to test out the Gcode mixing settings with a whole load of different single wall printed objects. This printer can print anything my MendelMax can and at better quality and speed.
Hex Cut bottle designed by Perry Engel (Cerberus333)
I had a lot of people at the Maker-Faire ask if Delta's are better for printing round or organic objects. I would have to say not specifically, it's simply a different way to position the printing head in 3D space. Delta's can move everything about much faster, so have less chance of ooze or print defects, and you can 'lift' the nozzle a lot on each move because Z is as fast as all other axis (unlike most other 3D printers, that tend to have a slower Z drive) to ensure parts do not get knocked off.
For me Delta's are a natural choice to get things printing faster and ensuring a much better Z axis alignment on parts, so for now I'm developing more Delta printers and improving whatever I can.
So much more I could post about the Maker-Faire but many other people have already covered it well. It was a great experience.
It was also the first time I managed to get 3D scanned by the team at Thingmaker.
They used an Xbox Kinect and swivel stool - producing a full colour .PLY file
I ordered and paid £35 for a full colour print, and a few weeks later this little mini-me turned up!
No comments:
Post a Comment