# 3D printing



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

I had casually been looking into 3D printers for the last year or two, but not with much intension of buying one until recently when seeing all the various Model 3 things popping up... so finally jumped in and ordered a Creality3D Ender 3. 
It went together pretty easily (about an hour one night after work this week) and had it spit out its first print this morning!









after seeing posts/videos of initial prints being all sorts of a mess, I expected to see that out of it. But, while not perfect, it is way better than I was expecting.

I had shopped around looking at various sub $200 printers and went with the Creality since based on reviews appeared to be the most ready to use without needing to swap out parts. it comes with a proper power supply (switched and grounded), has a bowden extruder that I would prefer and doesn't 'need' to have much done to it to perform decently well. Only issue I've noticed with it is one of the wheels (or it's bearing) feels like it has a flat spot that when manually sliding the build plate you can feel a kink, but it does not seem like it has impacted its operation. I will get some replacement wheels though. I also ordered motor dampers with the printer based on some reviews suggestions, but haven't yet installed them. It is pretty quiet as is, so not sure I will bother putting them on, at least for now.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> I had casually been looking into 3D printers for the last year or two, but not with much intension of buying one until recently when seeing all the various Model 3 things popping up... so finally jumped in and ordered a Creality3D Ender 3.
> It went together pretty easily (about an hour one night after work this week) and had it spit out its first print this morning!
> View attachment 10906
> 
> ...


Out of curiosity how long did that piece take?


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Out of curiosity how long did that piece take?


it was about 25 or 30 minutes. 
the little alpaca I did after was about 2hrs (for 6.8grams). 
I was changing some of the speed/temp/flow settings on him to see what difference it would make, so he got pretty rough by the time it got to his head and his ears didn't make it


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## TrevP (Oct 20, 2015)

I have a passing interest in 3D printing. I'd like to try my hand at it but I can't seem to bring myself to spend $ on something I don't think I'll use that much. A friend of mine is currently printing me a scale model Falcon 9 though


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## KarenRei (Jul 27, 2017)

TrevP said:


> I have a passing interest in 3D printing. I'd like to try my hand at it but I can't seem to bring myself to spend $ on something I don't think I'll use that much. A friend of mine is currently printing me a scale model Falcon 9 though


Don't buy your own. Use an online 3d printing service. They have high-end printers that yield much higher quality products, from wide ranges of materials, and also offer various finishing options. I personally use iMaterialise, but there's lots of great services out there.


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## GregRF (Sep 25, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> I had casually been looking into 3D printers for the last year or two, but not with much intension of buying one until recently when seeing all the various Model 3 things popping up... so finally jumped in and ordered a Creality3D Ender 3.


I've been curiously watching 3D printers for near a decade, but haven't been able to justify the cost and time to play with one (do have a cnc router that gets occasional love).

But man that Ender 3 looks a bit too enticing for price and quality out of the gate. Where did you order it from? You may have convinced me...


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

GregRF said:


> I've been curiously watching 3D printers for near a decade, but haven't been able to justify the cost and time to play with one (do have a cnc router that gets occasional love).
> 
> But man that Ender 3 looks a bit too enticing for price and quality out of the gate. Where did you order it from? You may have convinced me...


I went with Amazon. It was more expensive ($230) than ordering from one of the Chinese sites (just under $200), but had it in 2ish days instead of a couple weeks.


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## GregRF (Sep 25, 2017)

@MelindaV , this is all your fault.















Built the printer on Friday with my 4 year old daughter. Fun to see her excited about engineering projects. The only time she put her new puppy down was to pick up the bunny we printed.


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## GregRF (Sep 25, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> Only issue I've noticed with it is one of the wheels (or it's bearing) feels like it has a flat spot that when manually sliding the build plate you can feel a kink, but it does not seem like it has impacted its operation.


I have the same issue. Seems the pre-built Y-axis was overly tightened and over time/temp swings all 4 of the plastic V bearings developed flat spots. I tried loosening the eccentric nuts a bit and also offset all 4 flatspots, but now I just have 4x as many dead spots, just less severe. I have requested a new set under warranty, so lets hope that extra $30 spent for the quick amazon version has other bonuses (went with comgrow).


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

GregRF said:


> @MelindaV , this is all your fault.
> View attachment 11638
> View attachment 11639
> 
> Built the printer on Friday with my 4 year old daughter. Fun to see her excited about engineering projects. The only time she put her new puppy down was to pick up the bunny we printed.


might I suggest a Squishy Turtle for her?


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## KarenRei (Jul 27, 2017)

I'm curious - has anyone here seen any tests on "3d printed foam", whether you can print out of plastic a cellular structure that's insulative? It got me curious, for "easy" foam inserts to fit a custom space. iMaterialise's finest plastic resolution is 0,2-0,3mm wall thickness. I looked up typical open cell foam bubble sizes, and they're usually 1-4mm. So... I'd *think* it possible to print out a "perfect" open cell foam, maybe even better than the original (e.g. dendritic structures, structural support channels, etc). Do you know if anyone has ever tried this? 

Could also do closed cell, at least for print processes that don't need to drain / remove non-printed powder... or even a hybrid open/closed foam, with macroscopic closed cells filled with and microscopic open cells.


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## GregRF (Sep 25, 2017)

KarenRei said:


> I'm curious - has anyone here seen any tests on "3d printed foam", whether you can print out of plastic a cellular structure that's insulative? It got me curious, for "easy" foam inserts to fit a custom space. iMaterialise's finest plastic resolution is 0,2-0,3mm wall thickness. I looked up typical open cell foam bubble sizes, and they're usually 1-4mm. So... I'd *think* it possible to print out a "perfect" open cell foam, maybe even better than the original (e.g. dendritic structures, structural support channels, etc). Do you know if anyone has ever tried this?
> 
> Could also do closed cell, at least for print processes that don't need to drain / remove non-printed powder... or even a hybrid open/closed foam, with macroscopic closed cells filled with and microscopic open cells.


I don't know about foam, but there are ceramics that can be printed. That combined with different infill shapes/sizes could provide a very good insulator.


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## GregRF (Sep 25, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> might I suggest a Squishy Turtle for her?


That is awesome! Will be printing that out this weekend. Just got her some magenta colored PLA that would be perfect for the shell.

So far one of my favorites is the sharkz.


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## KarenRei (Jul 27, 2017)

GregRF said:


> I don't know about foam, but there are ceramics that can be printed. That combined with different infill shapes/sizes could provide a very good insulator.


Unfortunately ceramics tend to have very thick wall size requirements. Cells would have to be very large, and thus few, with lots of internal convection.

On the other hand, one could do metal foams  Pricey, like all metal printing, but...


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## GregRF (Sep 25, 2017)

There are lots of cool infill types that you can vary the size of.

__
https://www.reddit.com/r/path%3D%252Fr%252F3Dprinting%252Fcomments%252F8wnt7o%252F



http://imgur.com/xSBV2Au


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

GregRF said:


> That is awesome! Will be printing that out this weekend. Just got her some magenta colored PLA that would be perfect for the shell.
> 
> So far one of my favorites is the sharkz.


ha - one of the first things I printed was a t-rex that appears to be similar, but doesn't hold very well. I have some white and grey filament coming, so may have to try the sharkz


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

I designed a cup holder insert with flexible fins to be able to accommodate a variety of cups/bottles while keeping the opening between the two cupholders available for cup handles.

let me know if you'd be interested in printing and testing it out (assuming it is a good fit, will post on thingiverse for all - so maybe a pix I could use would be great ).

it uses TPU (or otherwise a flexible filament) and prints flat and needs roughly a 220 wide bed (shown here on end and curved)


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## batzman (May 31, 2018)

I'd be interested in the thingverse post. Let me know when you upload it, or post a link on this thread.



MelindaV said:


> I designed a cup holder insert with flexible fins to be able to accommodate a variety of cups/bottles while keeping the opening between the two cupholders available for cup handles.
> 
> let me know if you'd be interested in printing and testing it out (assuming it is a good fit, will post on thingiverse for all - so maybe a pix I could use would be great ).
> 
> ...


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

batzman said:


> I'd be interested in the thingverse post. Let me know when you upload it, or post a link on this thread.


i published it, with the big work-in-progress banner. so let me know how it works for you


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

had a chance to test this cup holder out this weekend...
here's comparison pix using a .5L SodaStream bottle, a 20oz Pepsi bottle and a 1L Smartwater bottle (also tried a 20oz coffee to-go cup, but tossed it before taking pix.
For all the bottles/cups, they fit snuggly, but you could still easily pull them out without the insert coming out


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## MadMax (Sep 28, 2017)

Any recent design updates to the cupholder insert? I am thinking about getting one printed since I don't have a printer myself.


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