The Official 3D Printing Discussion Thread

[MeatMan]

On 2/8/2022 at 11:01 AM, my66s55 said:

Here is my tip for the day. I just learned this myself last month. Do not remove the supports from your print after it's done printing. Instead, clean it up and put it into a container of hot water. It should be about 130-140 degree's F. Cover it if you can and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Remove it and the supports will come of easily. Some will even fall off. Some might not come off easily. Clip them as close to the part as possible. I use a straight edge razor blade to cut it off at the surface or some times you can use something to push the stub off. The result is that you eliminate pits. I didn't believe this at first, but I tried it on my last print and it works. Hot water softens the supports and won't damage the print.

Yes, that's how I learned to do mine and it does work quite well.

[MrObsessive]

A couple weeks ago, I signed up to get monthly .stl files from ScaleSpeedGarage.com. In the January pack, they have on the site files to download and print a neat engine dyno stand for which they're running a contest, and the deadline is on March 15.

The first attempt at printing this came out not so good.......the second attempt was 100% better as can be seen below.

The engine on the stand was printed as a test shot by @my66s55and I did a complete thread on it here, as it was my first introduction to anything 3D printed.

I liked this test stand so much, that I did another printing last evening, and here it is just as it came out of the printer.

I didn't include all the parts to the stand as this one will be for WIP engines to have something to sit on. The first one above I printed, I'm going to pretty and paint that one up, enter the online contest, and we'll see how it goes.

On 2/8/2022 at 11:01 AM, my66s55 said:

Here is my tip for the day. I just learned this myself last month. Do not remove the supports from your print after it's done printing. Instead, clean it up and put it into a container of hot water. It should be about 130-140 degree's F. Cover it if you can and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Remove it and the supports will come of easily. Some will even fall off. Some might not come off easily. Clip them as close to the part as possible. I use a straight edge razor blade to cut it off at the surface or some times you can use something to push the stub off. The result is that you eliminate pits. I didn't believe this at first, but I tried it on my last print and it works. Hot water softens the supports and won't damage the print.

Doug, I tried your tip for the second printing of the stand, and it worked like a charm! Hardly a pit or dimple to be seen on the parts, and it saved a lot of stress trying to get the parts off the supports 👍

[MrObsessive]

On 2/4/2022 at 7:42 PM, MeatMan said:

Just did these for a member. It was a nice little project.

Designed in Alibre CAD and printed on an Anycubic Photon Zero.

Still learning to use both.

I like to use Blender for file cleanup and repair. It has so many features it kind of intimidates me though.

Dennis, thanks for suggesting Alibre. I'm checking them out right now, as I have some things in mind that need to be printed, but just aren't out there yet as printable files.

[MeatMan]

5 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

Dennis, thanks for suggesting Alibre. I'm checking them out right now, as I have some things in mind that need to be printed, but just aren't out there yet as printable files.

Also check out Freecad and Solidworks. I chose Alibre because you get to own it but you don't get free updates, though I haven't felt the need for one.

If you get Alibre I'd be glad to help you get at least to where I am.

[my66s55]

Bill, that 318 print is from the 3d resin printer I built i late 2015. The one I sent you from my Phrozen Shuffle 2018 is so much better print quality.

 

[MrObsessive]

1 hour ago, my66s55 said:

Bill, that 318 print is from the 3d resin printer I built i late 2015. The one I sent you from my Phrozen Shuffle 2018 is so much better print quality.

 

Yes, I still have that one. 😁

I showcased the earlier one as I wanted to show on my FB page what got me interested in 3D printed several years ago. It's gotten some nice comments as there's still no kit of this engine ever done. The newer one I got from you, I'd like to put that in some sort of Plymouth. Not necessarily a Fury, but perhaps one of the other derivatives. A neat four-door hardtop comes to mind! 😁

Edited February 10, 2022 by MrObsessive

[MeatMan]

A little tip when checking automatic supports.

Sometimes they look okay but slowly moving the slider in the Prepare or Preview section shows where sometimes supports are not added at the lowest point of an island, which can cause a fail because the printer cures resin in thin air before the support is built. In the example below, Lychee added the support, but I felt it would fail so I added a support at the lowest point.

This print of a BOP axle I created sagged last print so I'm redoing it and adding a heavier support near the end to try to keep it from sagging.

[stinkybritches]

On 2/7/2022 at 8:54 AM, stinkybritches said:

Nice wheel holders Jim.

I'm hoping to print some tires very soon using Resione F69 rubber-like resin. Maybe by this weekend. I will post pictures of my results.

https://www.resione.com/products/f69-black-flexible-rubber-like-3d-printer-resin-1kg

 

I've had no luck thus far with tires and this resin. I had one fail where the tires separated from the supports. I think that was a support and exposure time problem. My fault. Then I had another where nothing adhered to the build plate. For that I think I didn't have my room and resin warm enough. Back to the drawing board. 

[CabDriver]

50 minutes ago, stinkybritches said:

I've had no luck thus far with tires and this resin. I had one fail where the tires separated from the supports. I think that was a support and exposure time problem. My fault. Then I had another where nothing adhered to the build plate. For that I think I didn't have my room and resin warm enough. Back to the drawing board. 

I haven't played with this stuff, but is it a case where you have to change the exposure time settings and whatnot to get it to print correctly?  I'm guessing all these resins have slightly different specs and different working processes.  I've found with the AnyCubic basic gray resin that doubling the exposure time on the first few layers (the rafts, the bottom of the supports etc) has helped a LOT in getting parts to actually stick to the plate nicely and print properly

[peteski]

This video was found in one of the threads in the 3D printing section of the Railwire forum (to which I posted a link really early in this thread).

 

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by peteski

[MrObsessive]

Well, I prettied up and painted my first real 3D printing. A huge thanks once again to @my66s55 for all of his help in getting my printer going, and the gremlins that plagued the first several tries.

I built this pretty much out of the printer as I'm not up on dyno stands, and what gets hooked up to where. It's painted Ford Engine Blue, and I added a fuel line from the gas tank to fuel pump, and also added some gauge decals to the control panel. The .stl files BTW came from ScaleSpeedGarage.com.

Fun little project, and I did print another stand for future use for my WIP engines down the road.

[my66s55]

I'm so proud of you Bill. Ever since I built that first resin 3d printer and posted the results on December 26 2014 and Joseph messaged me that he wanted me to print one of his files out and send to him, I've been hopeful that people will take notice and get into the process. Joseph got samples from other people, but went with mine as he surmised that I new what I was doing over the others. This is something that is known only between me and Joseph. No one else needs to know. When in 2017, I purchased a Wanhoe D7, someone took note and got on board. 

   This has been my goal from the beginning. To inform, gently coax members into the world of 3d printing. 

   Ever time I see Someone post a 3d print, I'm happy.

   If I can pass on my years of knowledge, I'm happy. 

   I don't need recognition, That's not my goal. 

   I just want to see progress.

[iamsuperdan]

Been getting quite a bit of printing done over the past coupler of days, for a couple of projects. Engine, wheels, tires, brakes, plus a couple of figures for a diorama idea I have.

 

Have been playing with print settings too. I lowered the layer height from .05 to .04. Takes a little longer, but layer lines seem to be significantly reduced. Have also been playing with print angles and supports.

I've had some really good results printing at 45 degree angles, with the reduced layer height. Also, I change the supports to a lighter/smaller size. Much easier to remove, and no issues with the prints.

 

Had my first print fail though. I printed some wheels, tires, and brakes. Everything printed, except for one brake disc. The platform printed, but no supports or disc. The other items printed just fine. Very strange.

 

 

[bbowser]

This came to my attention today.  A guy in Spain 3D printing engines and wheels on the side:

https://www.motortrend.com/features/dbs-works-3d-printed-model-engines/?wc_mid=4035:22635&wc_rid=4035:1891539&_wcsid=BCA4DDC269BD48AC8C7644795A745FE8AE6F74720D3C56BF

[iamsuperdan]

If had any sort of skills in CAD design, I'd totally try to make and market my own parts. There's lots of stuff I want, but no one seems to make it. Yet.

 

[iamsuperdan]

Has anyone seen a good .stl file of a stock Ford Coyote V8? I'm looking for one for an idea I have.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Dan how long did it take you to print the last batch of parts?

[iamsuperdan]

3 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

Dan how long did it take you to print the last batch of parts?

When I print a wheel/tire set, or even a complete engine, it's usually around 2 hours. I have my printer layer height set at .04mm. Takes a little longer, but the layer lines are virtually non-existent.

The truck body I printed was still at .05mm layer height. The cab took about 5 hours, and the box was about the same.

 

[Timonator]

Following 

[MrObsessive]

I printed up these wire wheels from a file I got from a follower on FB. At first, the wheels would not cooperate as I kept getting either warped rims, or a number of the spokes wouldn't come out right.

I decided to position them in Chitubox at 90 degrees with light supports all around, except I wanted none touching the spokes. I think that's what the problem was earlier. Chitubox automatically wants to place some supports there, so I went in and deleted them where they were touching.

I went for broke and printed a dozen of them............they're in two different widths for the front and rear. These are the wheels I want to use on the 1/25 IMC kit '64 Ford GT40 which the 1:1 initially ran with wire wheels early on.

Here are some pics.................

A few wheels had a couple of "distressed" spokes..........

While the spoke might appear "curved", once they were cleaned off, dried, and then put in my UV curing box, they did straighten out.

I'm going to adjust the bottom exposure time just a bit more. Right now it's set at 25.000s/mm, but I'm going to drop it down to about 20/22. Too low of a setting, and the parts won't adhere to the build plate, but I hope that alleviates some of the "sticking" and "catching" on the FEP in the initial layers which causes issues early on with printing.

Oh! Almost forgot...............I originally printed a set of wheels with a shallower rim for the GT40. I mocked those up on the IMC model as shown below.

While those weren't bad, Walid Khier  of FB (the designer of the .STL file) had said he can make the file so that it has a larger rim which he did. Those are the wheels I just printed out and will eventually be used on this future WIP.

 

[CabDriver]

This whole 3D printing thing still blows my mind.  I’ve had an idea for a steering wheel design for AGES and never got around to making one…so in a quiet hour at work today I drew it up in CAD:

Then had one printed within an hour of getting home:

…and ready for paint by dinner time:

This stuff is like living in the future to me!  Amazing that we have these tools at our disposal now, and so easily available!

[stinkybritches]

Very nice, Jim.

[CabDriver]

I’ve been playing with Adobe Dimension lately for 3D design - I have it as part the suite of software I (have to) subscribe to and it does a nice job of doing some simple 3D modelling and modifying of existing parts.  Messed with this Jeep design on my lunch break yesterday…

…and then printed one this evening:

Need to tweak the some of the supports under the front fenders there to stop them disconnecting, but it’s definitely a usable first attempt.

I added a few thin sacrificial planes under the back of the body to help support it when printing - just some little 0.5mm thick strips to stop the back sagging that can be easily removed when I take it off the bed…worked out great!  You can see a little of what I’m talking about under the rear of the body here:

Excited to try some more complex bodies (anyone seen a good 30 Ford anywhere?) but I figured I’d start with something simple.  This stuff is a blast! 

[Rusty92]

That’s it. I’m buying a printer this summer. The possibilities are endless. 

[Dave Van]

Today in the mail I got a 1977 Mustang II coupe body. If you have been in the hobby long you may recall the first resin bodies. None I saw or bought were usable and ended up giving away or still in a box. 3D is currently at that stage. My Mustang II body is better than the first Gen resin and may  be better than some current resin. The body will need prep, the print lines are visible so it will need sanding and primer  before it can be built. But at first look I like it....and at $25 not a bad deal for a body not available in 1/25 any other way. I wonder what 3D will be in 5 years???