More on 3D Printing for a complete beginner

[philipy]

Following on from James thread:
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11199

I decided to bite the bullet and follow suit.
As I said before, its something I've been thinking about for several years, on and off, but wasn't quite sure if I could master the techniques well enough to justify the cost of the machine. Seeing what James had produced, coupled with the fact that costs have been falling and the coincidence that I unexpectedly came into some cash recently, I gave in to myself!

I've spent the last couple of weeks playing at drawing things up, to be reasonably comfortable that I would be able to print my own stuff not just library drawings. James uses the Microsoft 3D Builder app but personally I find SketchUp easier, but each to his own.

Friday teatime I ordered a QidiTech printer from Amazon. It arrived just before lunch on Saturday. Took me most of the afternoon to get it up and running, due to a problem which turned out to be a clogged filament feeder, due to a small piece of filament presumably left from the factory test run. Saturday evening did a couple of test prints of small solid blocks, as recommended by the manufacturers. Then this morning decided to go for it! One of the drawings I did was for a station platform seat, no particular prototype, just a fairly typical cast iron support, wooden slat bench. The easiest way to print is flat on the print bed, but I wanted the typical raised edge ribs on the cast iron, on both sides, so I designed it as a kit consisting of two pairs of mirror images for the legs and two sets of slats. I only had to draw it once and then duplicated and mirror imaged, thus ensuring that both faces of both legs should be identical.

This is the drawing:

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Using the reel of PLA filament that came with the machine ( No, I did NOT ask for Fluorescent Orange!!) and the basic settings which were suggested, I set it to run this morning. Took about 1.5 hours to produce this, just finished and still on the print bed:

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There were a couple of problems with the print, the RH end of the RH slats lifted and deformed slightly and the filament got caught by the nozzle for some reason on the LH set, but overall I was pretty pleased with the way my drawing actually printed, for a first effort.

It took a few minutes to clean everything up and then could glue the kit together. I wasn't sure what to use but I soon discovered that PLA works nicely with Plasticweld, so that problem is solved. Once cleaned up it was only a few minutes work to assemble the kit:

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To be honest, I should have taken a few minutes more to fill some small gaps between the two halves of the legs, but I was impatient to see how it looked when not bright orange! So out with the grey primer followed an hour later by a blast of the Company standard green, and Hey Presto....

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So, I'm well pleased with the investment so far and to anyone else who may be thinking about it, I'd say have a go. I'm fairly confident that with some more practice and adjustment of the printing parameters the sky is pretty much the limit - as long as it fits in the printer of course!

My thanks to James from Devon, for the benefit of his advice.

[Peter Butler]

Very impressive, especially for a first attempt.... I'm sure there will be many more great creations to follow and I am anxious to see!

[jim@NAL]

very clever looks very good .I wouldn't have the first clue how use a 3d printer

[LNR]

I can only imagine you'd be grinning like a Cheshire cat, and deservedly so. I Like the final result, and am a little green as to your choice of subject (been trying to work out how to make something similar).
Grant.

[markoteal]

Each day I get a bit more tempted! Love it - will perhaps have a play on the design side like you did to see what I could do - before making an investment in the future

[philipy]

Thanks chaps.

Grant - Yep, I think that just about describes my expression at the time!

Mark - if you want to play with design, I'd suggest downloading SketchUp. You get a 30 day free trial of the professional version which then reverts to a limited feature permanently free version. Still good enough for what we want though. Just be warned that the 2017 version currently has a lagging issue due to a MS Security update a couple of months ago which affects some on-board Intel graphics cards. I'm using the 2016 version which isn't affected and still works fine.

Next ( current ) project is a stone platform face, which I'm printing in 30mm x 200mm sections (print bed length is 230mm). Have done 10 so far!! They take about 1hr 40mins each and I think I need another half a dozen, but I think I've just found a way to speed up slightly and save on material. Pics to follow in due course.

[markoteal]

Thanks chaps.

Grant - Yep, I think that just about describes my expression at the time!

Mark - if you want to play with design, I'd suggest downloading SketchUp. You get a 30 day free trial of the professional version which then reverts to a limited feature permanently free version. Still good enough for what we want though. Just be warned that the 2017 version currently has a lagging issue due to a MS Security update a couple of months ago which affects some on-board Intel graphics cards. I'm using the 2016 version which isn't affected and still works fine.

Next ( current ) project is a stone platform face, which I'm printing in 30mm x 200mm sections (print bed length is 230mm). Have done 10 so far!! They take about 1hr 40mins each and I think I need another half a dozen, but I think I've just found a way to speed up slightly and save on material. Pics to follow in due course.

Great - thanks - I'll have a look at that this week - rain forecast so back to the workshop after some great outdoor sessions

[philipy]

OK, as threatened, progress so far on a station platform.
Basically there are 4 components, one of which is a sheet of 3mm white Foamex which I just happened to have from years ago.
Then there are three 3D Printed items: Stone platform face, Front edge slabs and Rear edge blocks.

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The front face is 200mm x 30mm, with 5 courses of stone and the ends match so that adjacent sections can be either way round to reduce the 'pattern repeat' effect. To further help this I actually created two different versions, by simply copying the original drawing and changing the shape of a few blocks, the net result is that it should be 4 sections ( 800mm) before the same orientation is repeated, although in fact I just used them as they came.

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The front and back edge slabs were simply glued to the top of the stone faces using Plasticweld which goes off instantly and then,, with the Foamex cut to shape, the L shaped faces were Gorilla glued to it. Finally some strips of Foamex were glued underneath to avoid any future warping.
The PLA filament dissolves easily in Plasticweld, as I said, so I made up a glop of bits dissolved in it and used it as filler/strengthener across the joins on the back of the face sections.

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I discovered one benefit of 3D printing that I hadn't thought of previously. We've all had the issue of running out of something just before finishing a project, I'm sure. Well, I discovered that I was short of about half a length of a back edge block strip, so, nip out the garage, select right drawing on the SD card, press print, and 40 minutes later I had what I needed!

Painting is the next step, followed by planting in situ, station building, etc. So I'll update as and when.

[James from Devon]

Looks great!

Also looks like you got a bright orange free reel of filament as well.... did you for the same printer as me in the end?



Jim

[James from Devon]

Looks great!

Also looks like you got a bright orange free reel of filament as well.... did you for the same printer as me in the end?



Jim

Sorry Phil, I only just saw the posts above which answer my question.

Really impressive first prints and I am glad you are enjoying your new machine

[philipy]

Hope this isn't getting too boring.

Latest off the printer are the platform fence units. Pic shows one 200mm unit front and back. Based on M&SLR drawing available on t'web. Just shortened the palings a little because they looked overpowering on my narrow platform, and adjusted the panel length to fit without an odd bit.

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[JMORG]

If anyone is interested, the Cel Robox is a simple and robust printer to use. Automaker is also a very easy software (just import your model and go).
The Robox is also quite well priced at £1000 approx. The only other printers available at that price are very much "man in a shed" engineering...

[philipy]

The Robox is also quite well priced at £1000 approx. The only other printers available at that price are very much "man in a shed" engineering...

You may well be right, but I struggled to justify to myself 'only' spending less than £600 and I think others may feel the same. Most info available assumes that the reader has a familiarity with with what is involved which is why I've been documenting my progress. Either way, £1000 is well beyond what is possible for me.

[philipy]

Speaking of costs, I've just done a very approximate printing cost ( ignoring the capital cost of the machine).
My first 1Kg reel of dayglo orange PLA filament that was included with the printer, ran out this morning. The cost of that reel on Amazon is £24. From that I have produced:
4.2 metres of platform facing.
4.2 metres of platform coping stones/slabs.
1.5 metres of platform fence.
1 platform seat.
1 4-panelled door

plus various experimental and test pieces and some waste.

I didn't note the amount of filament used for each item, so I can't break it down more precisely, but just looking at prices for the nearest similar items from various suppliers, I reckon this comes out very competitively ( ignoring the machine cost and drawing time ) plus, of course, it is what I want, not the nearest I can get.

[LNR]

Those picket fence modules are superb Philip, and totally weather proof as apposed to making up from timber too. 10/10 Mate!
Grant.

[markoteal]

Phillip - thanks for sharing your journey in 3D printing - I'm really enjoying it - I've downloaded Sketch Up for my Mac - are there any good tutorials own youtube you'd recommend with the model maker (rather than architect) in mind??

Love the fences and as you said, aside from the costs, the key advantage is getting something that you exactly need

[philipy]

Mark,

To be honest I can't really answer that question. There certainly are Youtube video's aimed at specific topics like "How do I mirror an object", etc, but I've never looked for modeller aimed ones specifically. All I didf was to go through the 4 basic introductory videos on the Sketchup site and then look for info on a particular topic if I get stuck - sometimes thats on the SU help site and sometimes Youtube.

BTW, the biggest problem that I've found is in making a 3D drawing "solid", just because it looks solid doesn't mean it is! There is a plugin for SU called Solid Inspector 2 which helps to some extent and sometimes can automatically fix things, although sometimes it does that by just deleting the offending bits - don't despair, just go to Edit and undelete the change, but you are still left with trying to identify the problem and correct it manually. I've got into the habit of running the Inspector fairly frequently, that way you can pick up problems before they get too embedded to be easily correctable.

[markoteal]

Cheers Phil for the feedback - I'll have a scout around

[philipy]

Whilst waiting for some paint to dry ( literally) I thought I'd have a go at a subject that always bugs me when making a building - Rainwater Goods. It's such a basic item on a building and yet the trade offerings are pretty much non-existent as far as I know, apart from some undersized stuff from one of the German plastic kit manufacturers.

I'm fairly pleased with my first attempt, although it does need more work on the drawings to get the bits to mate more neatly, and obviously need to draw up the downpipe, swan necks and brackets.

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[Peter Butler]

When you have perfected those put my name on your list of potential customers..... as you say, difficult to source and fiddly to make.