Could someone help me with some 3d printing on Monday night?

[Paul Hurley]

Hi All,

I would like to print some new spools for my polar printer-o-matic.  So far, I've designed the spools in FreeCad and they look about right to me.  I've read the wiki pages on the 3d printers, and various wikis, forums, blogs.  I've also got Pronterface and Skeinforge running on my Kubuntu laptop, and can slice my file  successfully, but obviously with default settings.  I think I've gone about as far as I can without actually having a printer.

Will anyone be at the space on Monday evening who could help me go a bit further? (or another night, sadly Thursday's aren't great for me, but I could do it in a pinch...)

Paul.

[StevenQ-NE-UK]

Hi Paul,

I'll be at the space tomorrow evening (Tuesday).  I'd be happy to look over your CAD with respect to 3D printing and settings etc etc.

Steve 

[Ed Bisdee]

I can help too!

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[Paul Hurley]

Thanks Steve, I can't make it on Tuesday, maybe another week?

Thanks for the offer.

[StevenQ-NE-UK]

No worries,  I an usually hanging around the space on a Tuesday.  I am also there 3D Thursdays and alternate Wednesdays.

[Paul Hurley]

Hopefully I'll make it in tomorrow. Will anyone have some time to help with this?

[StevenQ-NE-UK]

Hi Paul,

I have a monster 3d hubs order to do. If it all prints OK tonight I'll be at the space tomorrow night from 6.30

[Paul Hurley]

Sorry, change of plans, can't make it tonight and am on hols next week. I'll try to set something up after the 10th.

Paul.

[Iain Yarnall]

Paul - Do you still want Laser training as well?

Give me a shout when you get back and we can arrange it.

Cheers,

Iain.

[StevenQ-NE-UK]

Hi Paul,

If you want to email me the STL files and let me know what material you plan on using I can take a look from this end

Steve

steven_quinn_uk at hotmail dot com

On Sunday, 19 July 2015 20:04:09 UTC+1, Paul Hurley wrote:

[Paul Hurley]

I've attached the jscad file and the resulting stl file for a spool to fit a NEMA 17 stepper motor in github.  I have no idea about material, whatever is easiest probably.

https://github.com/paulhurleyuk/3D_Models/blob/master/RoundSpool/rounded_spool.jscad
https://github.com/paulhurleyuk/3D_Models/blob/master/RoundSpool/rounded_spool.stl

I'll need two spools, I'm not sure of the downside of printing two at once vs twice the time to print them seperatley ?

Paul.

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[StevenQ-NE-UK]

Hi Paul,

I've had a quick look and have a couple of things for you to think about.

Filament 3D printers have problems building at angles less than 45 degrees, so the lower half of the spool will turn out great, the upper half will require either support material or a slight redesign to minimise the "overhang".  You can, of course half the spools and eliminate the overhang totally, but then you'd have to join the two halves.

I assume the rectangular slots are for capturing a nut.  You'll need to be aware of shrinkage during the printing process, this may result in the printed slot being too small for the nut.  The same goes for the through hole.  A quick fix for this is to print the whole part at 101% scale, but this is not always possible.

As for printing one at a time vs both at once, I'd print both at once.  This gives the layers time to cool before the next layer is printed.  You can run into problems with the part melting if you try printing single small parts, the quick fix is to simply print 2, 4 or 6 at once.

I've sliced the spool at 100% scale and used support material.  They are on my BQ Prusa i3 right now.  I'll add some pics of the printed parts then more pics with the support material removed so you can see what it looks like.  I'll drop them at the space next time I am in and you can see how the fit is and adjust your CAD if necessary.

Steve

On Sunday, 19 July 2015 20:04:09 UTC+1, Paul Hurley wrote:

[Paul Hurley]

OMG, that's awesome.  I was hoping for some pointers, which you've totally given, I never thought my design would be printing !

Thanks for the info about the overhang, I'll take that into consideration and maybe turn the overhang into a straight 45degree slope.  The rectangular hole is to capture a nut, and I get what you mean about shrinkage, and I can make the thickness thicker.  The sides that are meant to capture the nut can be expanded a little, I can see that being a trial and error between big enough and too big that the nut spins.

Let me know what I owe you in materials/costs, and I owe you a beer when I see you....

Paul.

[Glen]

Two comments on this.

If you choose to print two halves to get a perfect spool you can weld them together with acetone (which we have lots of)

Alternatively both Iain and Jon (woody) have successfuly  printed pulleys/spools in one go for the polar pong,  polar duck and Christmas window projects and can maybe share their experiences/designs with you

Glen

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[Jon Davies]

Yarp :) One point to make, is if your spools/pulleys are large, it might be easier/faster to laser-cut.  My large ones took nearly 7 hours each - they printed to the limits of the bed.  The smaller ones were more like 2.5 - 3 hours.  Depends on how you configure the slicing settings too, that can affect the print time.

[StevenQ-NE-UK]

and by the magic of 3D printing your spools are now real :D

The first layer is a little smooshed so the 'D' hole may need a little attention and the edge where the support material was attached may not be perfectly round now that the support is removed but all things said and done they look ok.

Steve

On Sunday, 19 July 2015 20:04:09 UTC+1, Paul Hurley wrote:

[Paul Hurley]

That's Awesome, thank you so much.  It is like magic....

I'm on vacation next week so I'll probably be back in the space the 11th or 12th.  I owe you a pint.

The support material looks like it peels away well, is it printed differently (weaker?) than the body ?

Thanks again.

Paul
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[Jon Davies]

>and by the magic of 3D printing your spools are now real :D

or you could say they are now reel? nyak nyak nyak! %)

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[StevenQ-NE-UK]

Hi Paul,

i'll be at the Space Tuesday and Wednesday this week (and maybe Thursday too)

If I don't see you around I'll drop the parts into your box, if you have a box that is

Steve

On Sunday, 19 July 2015 20:04:09 UTC+1, Paul Hurley wrote:

[Paul Hurley]

Thanks Steve,

I'm hoping to make it on Monday and Wednesday, so I'll see you Wed. I do have a box, not sure how well I labelled it, its right hand side, next to the wall at shoulder height (or it was two weeks ago....)

Paul.