New to group

[Yepher]

Hi I am new to the forum and I live in the Far North West Suburbs of
Chicago. Are there any user group meetups happening on a regular
basis?

I am very new to 3D printing and I would love to come to some and
learn more about it.

I have ordered a ToM and it is on the way (hopefully). I have read
through the forum and see that it is not the preferred printer here.

[Yepher]

This is a really interesting post from Christopher Jansen in
Naperville:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6632

This dual head extruder coupled with the water soluble PVA could make
for a perfect solution to support material
http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-pva.html

[smonkey]

Welcome to the group!

or...well...rather then "un-group"

we never have meetups (that I know of)
and mainly just chat once and a while when someone new joins.

I have a makerbot that I don't use enough (tho recently i've had some more
time on my hands and have been doing some stuff, what i really want to do now
is print myself a stepper based extruder but am a bit
behind in the times and am not sure which one works best etc)

Others have a reprap that I know of and maybe another makerbot?

Anyway, good luck and science-speed!

nat

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[Christopher Keller]

Hey Welcome, and good luck with the ToM.  I have a cupcake myself, and as smonkey said, I also haven't used it much.  Honestly the filament feed mechanism, and the hot end of the older cupcakes SUCKS.

I highly recomend upgrading the filament drive mechanism to a stepper drive if possible ASAP. (I am not following Makerbot any more, so if ToM comes with a filament drive mechanism, then forgive my ignorance :)

I, recently built a Prusa mendel and had it up and running within 1 week, compared to months of struggling with the cupcake... but keep in mind that was more than a YEAR ago... so things have changed loads.  STEPPER DRIVEN FILAMENT PUSHER IS CRITICAL (IMO) hehe....

Good luck... 

Regards,
  Christopher

[Yepher]

Christopher,

Thanks for the heads up on the "filament drive mechanism". I just
checked the parts list and description and it appears to come with a
stepper (if I am reading it correctly).

Here is an excerpt from their site (http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-
thing-o-matic.html):

<snip>
Extremely Reliable Extrusion System

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer comes with the MakerBot
StepStruder™ MK6 which will give you thousands of hours of trouble-
free printing. We've invested many hours into designing, testing, and
tweaking the StepStruder™ MK6. The result is an extruder that is
extremely reliable, and very simple to maintain. The hot end on this
extruder is essentially unbreakable and the filament drive system is
one of the strongest on the market. ** We've updated the kit to
include our new high-torque NEMA 17 stepper motor to power the Thing-O-
Matic extruder **. This change substantially improves print quality
and reduces post-processing of your builds. Changing the filament is a
breeze with the filament pressure thumb screw. You can even hot-swap
the filament mid-print!
</snip>

[Yepher]

Nat,

Do you know any other forums that are really good for DIY 3d Printing?

[Christopher]

thats right... and the resistor based hot end too.

makerbot forums are good to follow and youll see what others are leatning, finding, and struggling with.

BED levelling is the next most important thing you have to deal with regularly. getting things to stick on the first layer is the hardest part of any print so bed levelling is key.

PRINT WITH PLA! ABS is so much more heat expandable it becomes IMO much trickier to print reliably with it... especially anything of any substantial size.

follow nopheads blog... he has been an epic contributor to the movement.

good luck!

Regards,
Christopher

sent from iPhone

[Sacha De'Angeli]

If you're looking for some in-person meeting, Pumping Station: One by Belmont and California is starting to build a decent group of general CNC folks, and some folks are planning a mass Prusa build on 6/18 (which I intend to participate in), so the general organizational knowledge base of 3d printing should improve soon.

(full disclosure: I am a co-founder, ex-board member, and ex-president of PS1)