Years ago when I was building this CNC machine, I decided to design and print a NEMA23 stepper motor cover to wire the machine neatly. Today, I upgraded the stepper to an servo. All I took was a screwdriver....
I have an Ender 5 Plus with some upgrades (“Old” MicroSwiss Direct Drive, Exoslide XY, custom shroud) and I occasionally have the issue in which the Cables for the Print head as well as the Filament Feeding Tube interfere or get caught on something on the printer....
If you want it simple and cheap use the GFK. Otherwise, opt for the drag chain. If you need help selecting the chain feel free to ask. Btw. Upgrade to the Biqu CAN hotend/adapter and use a single can-bus/fieldbus cable.
Please, use adequate ventilation (with a heat exchanger if you need to keep A/C in the room) if you’re going to be resin printing inside. I don’t want to see all of you guys get cancer from this hobby.
Let’s say the chemicals aren’t healthy. Disclaimer: RTFM (MSDS and technical datasheet) and consult with professionals.
There are a few issues here at play. One major issue is that repeated exposure has a risk of sensibilization. Once this happens there is no way back. Your life will change.
The consumer industry has already moved. I remember explaining to Anycubic sales what an MSDS is and why I need it (if you need a good argument in such conversations: REACH). These days you can download it on their website.
To this day the packaging might not be CLP conform. At least their marketing got better: Water washable has now a section about waste treatment but plant-based resin is still advertised as “low odor and safe to use” or “truly environmentally friendly”. Worst of all they still suggest that the odors are safe to breathe as everything is soybean-based: The truth is they aren’t and neither is it soybeans. What once was soybeans is heavily modified.
Sadly this is not just an Anycubic issue.
Btw. If you use Anycubic though resin: According to their MSDS they switched the product and kept the name the same (approx. 2 years ago).
Don’t breathe it; don’t get it on your skin and wear safety glases. Don’t flush it down the toilet.
Gloves: Those single-use gloves are spill protection and nothing more. If you can avoid touching resin avoid it and swap them immediately if they contact resin. Keep in mind that approx. 1-2 gloves per box (100 pcs.) can have holes/defects.
For waste treatment: Follow local guidance. As a rough rule of thumb: expose the resin to the sun (fully cure it), let the IPA evaporate and dispose it as a solid.
Flammable liquid storage: Keep the amount stored (inside) as small as possible. If the room is an escape route move your IPA washing station to a different room. Obviously, have a smoke detector in every room of your household, test them every few months and replace after 10 years.
How to check for contamination? Most printer resins are UV-reactive. Get a handheld UV-lamp/black light (those to check bank notes) and if anything lights up in green (fingerprints or spots) you have contaminated it with resin at some point (unless the object/material is also UV-reactive). Especially at the beginning, such a device is useful for learning good work practices (e.g. resin on the glove and touching the curing station or spills on the silicone matt around the washing station).
Any chemical is as safe as you make it: If you are careless it’s dangerous. You do your homework and it’s suddenly safe to use.
If you don’t feel safe or scared by a chemical don’t work with it. In this case ask around if somebody already does resin printing and get familiar with it before doing it on your own.
They do and it’s China. That’s why I measured it in the first place as I wasn’t sure they get the area around 400-430nm without gaps where you still have significant emissions from the LEDs.
The good news this particular color blocks all the wavelengths without gaps.
The mixing nozzle/extruder is one of the better ones.
What you call medicore specs are decent parts. They use ball bearings fan, Misumi stepper, etc. paired with decent workmanship like strain relieving the cables.
What could be cheaper are the nozzle replacements at 70€ each. Still not the worst out there in terms of nozzle pricing (e.g.150€ for a brass nozzle + heater … [different company]).
Edit: It was 70€ for 2 builder nozzles or 175€ for 6.
Regarding the hotend you are right. 10-15 years ago they shipped their first printer (consumer around $1.5k). The only visible difference is the longer heating zone similar to what E3D did when they made the V6 a vulcano. The the current style is was probably introduced around 2014.
I’m thinking of building a new printer and would love to be able to make 2 color prints or dissolvable supports. Does anyone have any experience with this. I see 3 paths....
1 (Two hotends): Can be difficult to setup. Requires raising/lowering and ooze shield to lift and block the nozzle. Very reliable and no purging. My recommendation.
2 (dual filament hot end): Easier than option 3 but getting it reliable might be challenging and adds the constrain of filament cooking (requires extrusion of both frequently during the print or the filament/hotend will be damaged)
3 (y splitter): Requires a high-quality y-splitter and perfect setup. Very difficult to nail it reliably. Not recommended if it can be avoided.
more options:
ERCF/MMU/AMS: Overkill for 2 materials and purge block required. Setup is as bad as two hotends.
Toolchanger: Overkill for this. There are applications where they shine but for this general task they are expensive overkill.
Mosaic pallet. Interesting option but expensive. No printer modification required.
2 is mixing hotends. What you describe is 3 (y-splitter with the splitting integrated into the heat sink). They suffer basically the same issues like an “external” y-splitter. You can get them to work but changing materials requires you to do all of the painful setup/calibration once more.
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That they don’t have oozing issues is correct but I never mentioned this in the first place.
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The main issue with 2 (mixing) is cooking the filament and slicers aren’t great at this (operational challenge). There are more pro and cons but I think in the end it boils down to two applications: 1. cheap to integrate. 2. While they are advertised as mixing hotend the result is on pair with dual color/extrusion filament.
Depends. If you are talking to Asia or US just referring to yourself or a place as EU is the best option. Same goes for technical documentation. There is for example “EU machine directive” which would trigger the block list.
Grey area would be selling the plastic part and let the customer source a broadly available electronics/LED. The next option is design work and let somebody else figure out what is in demand and how to sell it.
For example, design it with LED strip in mind and have a small storage compartment for the controller and a strain relief in your print for the cable/connector to socket into.
There are still people not into FDM that could profit from it so there is still a market:
Run a local business that offers quick turnarounds. e.g. send it before 6 p.m. and production will start before 8 p.m. same day with early morning delivery if possible: The engineer finishes a design in the afternoon and has it the next morning on his desk ready to go. On your end it means once you get home do a little work. Sleep and deliver the order on your way to work.
The next strength is service. You run it. You know the process. You can guide them and answer any questions they have.
Offer basic CAD design work. This allows you to catch customers who have ideas but not the required knowledge.
underpromise, overdeliver
If you are into CNC milling offer hybrid manufacturing. Gain excellence and you have some very valuable knowledge.
Don’t take money out of the business at the start. Build up a reserve for the rainy day that will come (!!!) and keep reinvesting in new capabilities or improving your current offering. Once you reach a decent machine park pay yourself. Don’t forget to dedicate some funds for experiments: Keep innovating as otherwise you will fall behind and some new guy that’s hungry will replace you.
First of all I am not into food or GMP.
What filaments? Propably PP (if you don’t need foodsafe either use PP plates or packaging tape as build plate), ASA, Nylon and if those don’t cut it PEEK. I personal like FormFutura filaments as most of them print well.
To name an “unusual” filament brand: Igus. Not sure if they are food safe but they are plastics with solid lubricants. This could be interesting for moving parts but: Using injection molded skates and roller will have a higher durability compared to FDM 3D-printed. Request free samples or talk to them. Be warned they can be a pain to print.
I have a question, I revently found a old 3d printer in my brothers basement, apparently its a “nophead mendel 90” that he built years ago but then lost interest in....
Probably not. The brand reputation could be best summed up as sect.
While the car might be reliable but they are objectively anti-right to repair causing issues for the consumer and they need to build dozens before being reliable:
With VW you can get (most) software, order VW parts overnight or OEM and third-party parts within 2-3 days. At the same time, I hear that some Tesla repairs take months and workshops are 1-2 hours drive away …
Build quality is clearly not a strong point of Tesla. If you wouldn’t know one might suspect the car had an accident before (gap dimensions all over the place). I think Tesla is also the only car where it is strongly recommended to perform wheel alignment on a new car.
Remember how aggressive he was on the phone to support staff with the manufacturing requiring their first-party hub for updates (they never claimed to support home assistants in the first place)?
Might be a bad example but that stuck to me: Under no circumstance, you should talk like this to customer service. Always remember that the other end is a human and being rude makes it hard to offer a solution.
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How do I deal with support? Start nicely (with good companies that’s all you need) and slowly provide hints they screwed up allowing them to keep face as well as being the one offering it instead of reacting to the demand. If they don’t understand: tell them. The last resort is the blacklist (company, date, reason) paired with DNS blocking (in case I forget about it).
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Want an example of a blacklisted company? Asus.
They don’t have any technical support unless you are an influencer or some big shot buying frequently truckloads of products. I might be able to get somewhere by being a dick but do I always want to push hard to escalate it?
Just call it a day (aka. scrap those products) and buy Asrock. This was definitely a quality-of-life improvement.
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Btw. Extracting firmware can be difficult. Nordic had a horrific bug in the NRF52, WCH has a bug in the CH552 allowing to out the firmware by software. For ST STM32F it’s complicated. They have a design flaw but exploding it requires decapping the MCU and knowing in which area of the die the readout protection bit is located. Haven’t checked if they fixed it with the newer G, U and MP series.
I’m looking to start keeping hardware for prints that need additional parts to complete them. A Pi case that I printed needed screws that I don’t have on hand and needed to go searching for some....
NEMA23 cover with plug finally paid off: Had to replace the motor. (lemmy.ml)
Years ago when I was building this CNC machine, I decided to design and print a NEMA23 stepper motor cover to wire the machine neatly. Today, I upgraded the stepper to an servo. All I took was a screwdriver....
What do you use to keep the cables out of the way?
I have an Ender 5 Plus with some upgrades (“Old” MicroSwiss Direct Drive, Exoslide XY, custom shroud) and I occasionally have the issue in which the Cables for the Print head as well as the Filament Feeding Tube interfere or get caught on something on the printer....
Resin Printing is killing you. (www.youtube.com)
Please, use adequate ventilation (with a heat exchanger if you need to keep A/C in the room) if you’re going to be resin printing inside. I don’t want to see all of you guys get cancer from this hobby.
SLA resin 3D-printing: Do the orange window stop UV or sunlight? Is it stopping the UV radiation from the printer?
Have you ever wondered if the yellow/orange plastic windows that all resin/SLA 3D printers have are sufficient?...
I'm not sure... (lemmy.world)
but I think it might be!
Best method for dual filament
I’m thinking of building a new printer and would love to be able to make 2 color prints or dissolvable supports. Does anyone have any experience with this. I see 3 paths....
Be honest folks, how bad are y'all's resin build plates? (files.catbox.moe)
It still prints great, but damn is it not that pretty anymore...
Politics blocklist (lemmy.ml)
Just posting my list of filter words on here in case anyone else wants to make their feed politics-free...
Who here is making money 3D printing?
I am a hobbyist, and my job will probably never require me to design and print anything for work....
Help - 3D Printer for food manufacturing
Hi,...
Any life left in old printer?
I have a question, I revently found a old 3d printer in my brothers basement, apparently its a “nophead mendel 90” that he built years ago but then lost interest in....
Tesla owners are expressing buyer’s remorse - if not by selling their Teslas, then at least with an apologetic bumper sticker. (slate.com)
The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility (www.youtube.com)
What is your must have hardware for your finished prints? (Screws, magnets, etc.)
I’m looking to start keeping hardware for prints that need additional parts to complete them. A Pi case that I printed needed screws that I don’t have on hand and needed to go searching for some....