i suspect either it's just a difference in dye lots and maybe the different volumes of bulking materials used,
the reddish tinge on the top one is rather interesting as is the 2nd one from the bottom.
Friday, 14 February 2014
-=( variance )=-
One of the things I've been aware of the dramatic variance in filament behaviour between batches, getting proof is another matter entirely, so I've collected some samples from my last 40 spools and printed from them one on top of the other, and this was the result:
Sunday, 9 February 2014
-=( 3d printing multicolor and text )=-
Something i have always wanted to do was be able to 3d print signs and i've spent a little bit of time doing playing around with different methods of doing so,
having been finally successful i thought i would tell how i did it
- Step #1. create a dxf file and make 2 layers
- Step #2. create your text on one layer and a square on another like so:
highlight the whole lot and in the menu system select "explode" in qcad/librecad it's :( modify>>explode selected[click]) then save the file in it's own directory eg "ishootraw.dxf"
-Step #3. start openscad , put this line in the code section
"linear_extrude(file = "ishootraw.dxf",layer = 0, height=4);"
and save the file to the same location as the dxf file
-Step #4. hit f6 then export the resulting stl
-Step #5. change the layer parameter to match the next layer (the text) and hit f6 and export the resulting stl
-Step #6. import the base layer in slic3r using your normal settings only for the end gode part put in:
G0 Y-50
and slice your stl
*make sure to remove any code that issues a G92 as the position will be compromised , as wel;l as any code that shuts down hotends, if you are feeling adventurous you can have it eject the filament out of the extruder as well
-Step #7. slicing the text is where things get tricky, you need to turn off perimeters and brims and skirts
and in the beginning of the gcode file insert:
G0 Y0
-Step #8. print the base first , then swap filament taking care not to move the extruder in either the X or Y direction then print the text layer right on top
your first attempt may or may not be successful (took me 5 goes to get the above) however the results are well worth it,
having been finally successful i thought i would tell how i did it
- Step #1. create a dxf file and make 2 layers
- Step #2. create your text on one layer and a square on another like so:
highlight the whole lot and in the menu system select "explode" in qcad/librecad it's :( modify>>explode selected[click]) then save the file in it's own directory eg "ishootraw.dxf"
-Step #3. start openscad , put this line in the code section
"linear_extrude(file = "ishootraw.dxf",layer = 0, height=4);"
and save the file to the same location as the dxf file
-Step #4. hit f6 then export the resulting stl
-Step #5. change the layer parameter to match the next layer (the text) and hit f6 and export the resulting stl
-Step #6. import the base layer in slic3r using your normal settings only for the end gode part put in:
G0 Y-50
and slice your stl
*make sure to remove any code that issues a G92 as the position will be compromised , as wel;l as any code that shuts down hotends, if you are feeling adventurous you can have it eject the filament out of the extruder as well
-Step #7. slicing the text is where things get tricky, you need to turn off perimeters and brims and skirts
and in the beginning of the gcode file insert:
G0 Y0
-Step #8. print the base first , then swap filament taking care not to move the extruder in either the X or Y direction then print the text layer right on top
your first attempt may or may not be successful (took me 5 goes to get the above) however the results are well worth it,
Friday, 31 January 2014
-=( Hotends , Hobbies , New Years Resolutions )=-
-=( Hotends )=-
I have been building and prototyping hotends for a while now, and have built and tested a fairly large number of them in many many different combinations, some have worked great in some respects and some have been complete flops, early in the peace i did an all metal hotend which functioned well with pla and abs and was capable of producing some reasonable quality prints in abs and slightly less reasonable quality prints in pla.
in the quest for better print quality i added a ptfe liner in the more recent versions and changed the thermal barrier to a much simpler to produce M6 threaded rod with a 4mm bore, which leaves a 0.6mm wall thickness so far this configuration has worked and worked well i've upgraded the heatsink in V5 with thinner fins to make it better at removing heat from the thermal barrier
the result after 5 versions now is a hotend that has extruded every single brand and color of pla both high quality stuff and the worst i can get my hands on, not jam regardless of the speed i run it at , and has done print runs lasting more than 3 days in some cases.
to date in testing the v4 and now the v5 i haven't had a single jam without having to make one by turning the cooling fans off and even then it's kept going for a while
not bad for a $38 hotend if i do say so myself
towards the future i will probably stop producing the 3mm version and concentrate on the 1.75mm version
-=( Hobbies )=-
Since my hobby has become my buisness ( mostly due to a lack of local work and the desire not to be a low paid slave ) i have a new hobby thanks to my father in law ... Photography or more specifically HDR Photography HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and allows you to show up details in a photograph you otherwise just wouldn't get due to underexposing and overexposing in different parts of the image,
depending on how far you take HDR (and a lot of people have gone too far) you can create quite a nice picture out of something that would otherwise look dead and boring if it were taken on a Iphone for example
goto flickr and search for HDR for many many examples.
-=( New Years Resolutions )=-
Normally i don't bother and treat it as a total waste of time, and this year at least 1 has already been broken
one of them is to put more content up here, for two reasons 1, a lot of other 3d printing related blogs have slowed down and people don't seem to be putting as much up, 2, for some reason even with a relatively small amount of content here this blog actually gets more visits than my web-store does i'm going to aim for at least 1 post per week possibly more, depending on how interesting the week has been.
I've got the update the for sale section as well which i might do later today. the Theme might change too kind of getting tired of the old one a bit
I have been building and prototyping hotends for a while now, and have built and tested a fairly large number of them in many many different combinations, some have worked great in some respects and some have been complete flops, early in the peace i did an all metal hotend which functioned well with pla and abs and was capable of producing some reasonable quality prints in abs and slightly less reasonable quality prints in pla.
in the quest for better print quality i added a ptfe liner in the more recent versions and changed the thermal barrier to a much simpler to produce M6 threaded rod with a 4mm bore, which leaves a 0.6mm wall thickness so far this configuration has worked and worked well i've upgraded the heatsink in V5 with thinner fins to make it better at removing heat from the thermal barrier
the result after 5 versions now is a hotend that has extruded every single brand and color of pla both high quality stuff and the worst i can get my hands on, not jam regardless of the speed i run it at , and has done print runs lasting more than 3 days in some cases.
to date in testing the v4 and now the v5 i haven't had a single jam without having to make one by turning the cooling fans off and even then it's kept going for a while
not bad for a $38 hotend if i do say so myself
towards the future i will probably stop producing the 3mm version and concentrate on the 1.75mm version
-=( Hobbies )=-
Since my hobby has become my buisness ( mostly due to a lack of local work and the desire not to be a low paid slave ) i have a new hobby thanks to my father in law ... Photography or more specifically HDR Photography HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and allows you to show up details in a photograph you otherwise just wouldn't get due to underexposing and overexposing in different parts of the image,
depending on how far you take HDR (and a lot of people have gone too far) you can create quite a nice picture out of something that would otherwise look dead and boring if it were taken on a Iphone for example
goto flickr and search for HDR for many many examples.
-=( New Years Resolutions )=-
Normally i don't bother and treat it as a total waste of time, and this year at least 1 has already been broken
one of them is to put more content up here, for two reasons 1, a lot of other 3d printing related blogs have slowed down and people don't seem to be putting as much up, 2, for some reason even with a relatively small amount of content here this blog actually gets more visits than my web-store does i'm going to aim for at least 1 post per week possibly more, depending on how interesting the week has been.
I've got the update the for sale section as well which i might do later today. the Theme might change too kind of getting tired of the old one a bit
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