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The latest in desk top 3d printing-new carb prints, new camera


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 Over the past couple of years the 3d printing community has been active in perfecting a different type of s.l.a. d.l.p. printer. The conventional style, as was the one I built and used, cured u.v. resin with the light source from a d.l.p. movie projector or laser beam. The new type uses the light produced by an l.e.d. diode that passes through an l.c.d. light panel such as is done on a computer screen.  This difference in the light source did two things. The best resolution from a d.l.p, projector is 1920 x 1080.  This creates a pixel count of 12 per square millimeter. The l.c.d. panel used in the new printers have a resolution of 2640 x 1440 that produce 27 pixels per square millimeter. Over twice the resolution. Secondly, a d.l.p. projection costs $600.00 plus. An l.e.d diode and l.c.d screen costs less than a quarter of that. End result, lower cost and higher quality printing. One year ago, two Chinese companies introduced a version of he l.e.d. printer. One of them being Wanhoa. Improvements were made through the year and the result is two well made printers. Wanhoa, who is a large, well know producer of desk top 3d printers, is the least expensive. They still weren't plug and play until this last October when Wanhoa introduced the D7 Box. There is a Wanhoa Duplicator Facebook page with 5061 members and tons of help. I purchased mine on November 2 and it was shipped DHL from mainland China. It was received November 7. Full tracking was provided. My cost was $495.00 for the printer and $125.00 for the box. Shipping was free. The box runs the printer and eliminates the need for a computer. It's basically plug and play although, there is still a learning curve. Here's what it looks like.

20171107_161407.jpg.644b40890654b32d96825d54cc58245d.jpg20171107_163643.jpg.ec9c38850edf3f26c46804f3400e6811.jpg20171107_164600.jpg.3dcf9e7ffc37631a240497d182765d6a.jpg  

Next, I'll show some print results

Edited by my66s55
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The print height is 180 mm. A little over 7". I printed the body and rear fenders of my 37 F & F Delehaye at 100 micron layers in a little under 6hrs. It's 73 mm. I'll post photos later. The resin is $76.00 a liter. It goes a long way and there is very little shrinkage with the one I use.

Edited by my66s55
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  A new printer needs to have print specks established before any real printing can be done. In this case, it's the lowest light exposure per layer that will give you the best quality print. So you use a calibration file and start testing with differing numbers. Each layer thickness calibration used will have different numbers. The one on the top was 35 microns layers and the one on the bottom was 20 microns layers.20171206_093622.jpg.31b6af8bc5ac8049d5b5b6cff7a80838.jpg20171206_121739.jpg.46ba2a64bab3e3d0a98d9abef5536cd1.jpg

 

If you look just to the left of the letters 5,6,7, you can can make out the letters that are very small and spell breaking. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I created this thread as an education piece to keep those who are interested in desktop 3d printing abreast with current products. In doing so, I use terminology that may be foreign to some. The size of 1 micron is 1/1000 of a millimeter. There are 25.4 millimeters in 1 inch. A piece of copy paper for your printer is 9 microns thick. A 3d printed layer of 100 microns is about 11 sheets of compressed copy paper. A 20 micron 3d printer layer is just over 2 pages of copy paper.  The photo below gives you an example of the difference of 4 difference 3d printed layers. Starting with the top one at 100 microns thick, the second 50 microns, the third 35 microns and the bottom is 20 microns. You can see the difference if you count the layer lines on the right hand section of the oil pan. These "steps" are what causes the non smooth surface of a 3d print. The lower the level, the smoother the angles surface. 20171208_104226.jpg.b2d749f6e7c2d809ed537cfe38ae200b.jpgWhen you print at 20 micron layer height, you can't run your finger nail over the surface and and feel any ridges.    

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Resolution, more than anything, is the challenge and the measure of progress in the 3D printing field, much as it was in 2D. Of course 3D modeling, per se, literally adds an order of magnitude of complexity to creating source files but that's not the focus of this thread. I'm hoping you'll be able to keep us abreast of the evolving, and progressing, state of the art, particularly in the low-cost field. The benefits to our hobby are potentially enormous, and there's every reason to be optimistic that they will come to fruition in due course. Thanks for starting this thread and sharing your knowledge with us. The posts so far are quite illuminating.

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  • 3 months later...

That looks good Doug!

Any chance you could get a really, really clear photo? Maybe more light, setting the camera up on a stable surface and using the timer feature to eliminate shake...I think it's a testament to the detail of this print that it's too small to see anything to criticize! 

 

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  • 11 months later...

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