3d printer stls from GT

[ArtF]

Hi Guys:

   Well, my 3d printer arrived last night at 7:pm.. late after awaiting it all day. Since I
   had a warcraft raid scheduled it left me with a couple hours to play. SO here's how I
   proceeded. Opened Box.. looks well packed and very professional. Have to say it was looking much
   like a new laser printer or something. SO ..place the unit on the desktop, plug in the power and usb..
    Extruder was in a bag.. hmm, clicks in with magnets, no screws..thats impressive. Install software..
 
    no problem. Manuals.. couldnt find one in the box, time is tight..so screw it.. put thing like PCB on
    the platform that is supposed to hold the model as it prints.  
   
    Feed plastic into extruder and pushed "Extrude button.." , thing beeped like it was happy, so I tested
    platform calibration, that took 5 minutes, all looks good.
   
    Loaded up a GT output STL file of a bevel. Hit print..annoying beep then it started to print. I went to watch
    TV as I had started a show before it arrived. The result is in the photo's below. I cannot believe the quality,
    the photos make it look less resolution that they are. These bevels roll around each other excellently. No
    sanding or fixup required. The support material pulled away with a fingernail for the mostr part leaving a bevel
    anyone could be proud of. I LOVE my laser.. and now I have to say I LOVE my printer so far.
   
    These bevels look machined. They look like I spent hours in CNC to make them. They seem strong enough for light jobs,
    because of the most amazing thing about them, they are entirely hollow. No support inside due to selections I had clicked
    that I didnt realise at the ime called for no internal supports. They are very light, hollow and somehow very strong
    for what they are. I couldnt be happier and figured you might like to see the result of good bevels, easily printed.
   
    Now Im psyced for further 3d porinter software, this stuff is very cool...
   
    Art
   

[dale gribble]

very nice, just curious do you know what size nozzle is on the extruder

Dale

[ArtF]

Hi Dale:

  Not sure. Ill see if I can get any spec on it. Its a very small nozzle, and the ABS is higher temp at 260 degrees than soem others...

Art

[Ken_Shea]

Sure wasn't expecting that quality right off the bat, they must have things pretty tweaked.

It will be exciting to see where 3D printing goes in the next few years.

Ken

[ArtF]

Ken:

Im gobsmacked by the quality. The printer itself is built pretty good, but if you compare it to a injet printer for example, its very close. So really, if mas produced they could sell these things for a hundred bucks I  imagine. Personally, I think they'll get common within years.

Art

[Nic Bwts]

Nice!

I'm definitly going to get a 3D printer in the next couple of weeks.

Been looking at the RepRap Mendel.

[John S]

How big are the gears and how long to print each one ?

[ArtF]

Hi John:

  The larger one is 65mm diamter, and about 20mm deep. Being hollow they seem still to have
torque ability thats higher than Id think. As blanks to use in metal casting they probably could be used.
Id imagine ABS woudl boil off pretty quick in molten metal.
  A solid Im printing now is taking 20 minutes at rough level, still looks pretty good. The two in the photo
took an hour each. The mesh is amazingly good. It took about $1.00 worth of plastic on each I think.
  The solid gear is about done, took 20 minutes and looks amazingly good.

  The printer itself is pretty well build, though as youd expect looks pretty fragile, but seems quality.
Its all kinda like the laser, you have to play a bit to get ued to what to expect. (finished the gear while typing this..)The solid gear I just printed on FAST looks pretty much as good as the FINE hollow one. Its heavier and clucks when dropped
and I woudlnt hesitate to use it in a torque aplication by the feel of its heft. It meshes to the hollow ones
perfectly as well. I have to say if one needs a bevel this is the easiest way short of buying one. Having a printer such as this would be a prerequisite I think if your into R/C machines of any sort.

    I think I better start studying my alibre, I can see the only limitation is ones CAD ability.. except maybe for gears..GM takes care of that problem.. :)

Art

[Dan]

Hi Art,

Gears look excellent and you sound happy :)

What's the finest layer thickness it can do? Do you have alink where did you get it from and how much did you pay for it?

Dan

[John S]

Could you pause at some point to insert a metal threaded insert or say a keyed boss then carry on and leave a hole in the top so you have access to the insert ?

Just wondering.

[EDIT]

Stop pissing about playing and get GT out here.................................

[ArtF]

Hi Dan:

Finest layer it does is 200 microns. Id have ot say Im petty happy with it, but thats likley because most
FDM printer samples Ive seen looked pretty coarse and I wasnt expecting too much, so to have it put out this high a resolution was a pleasant surprise. I got the mini sized version of the Up!. Its at http://www.pp3dp.com as a link. They have a US and a Canadian distributer..its about a 3 week wait while they build it. It retails for 999.00

 They dont allow you to set temp because their filiment is set higher so if you use anyone elses ABS, it bets a bit burn smelling so I hear, BUT people have solved that already with an easy mod so it will take any 1.75mm filament. While Id chide them for not allowing the user to select temp in the software, Id congratulate them on allowing people in their forum to post mods to bypass that problem. I imagine it because their ABS is more expensive than most competitors. (Though I see Thinguniverse has a extruder for the home that someone designed that makes filiment at about 5 cents an oz..)

 So far, so good. Im happy enough with the printed results Im doing a push on GT to get to an alpha
release as soon as possible so that any STL concerns with GM will be moot. Once users have the stl capability in hand, then features will be slowly added to the new platform to make it increasingly usefull
to everyone, cnc, printer and laser users alike.

Art

[ArtF]

John:

  Yes, I think most printers have a pause button as does this one so you can temporarily stop it. Youd have to make sure you dont disturn the model while inserting, but as long as the inserted object is level or lower than the last print level all shoudl be fine for doing that. (That solid ABS gear, now that Ive had time to play seems strong enough to drive quite a bit.. much as if its a moulded plastic gear. ).

Art

(Im almost ready to release an alpha, Im just firming up a few options on the GUI, this release will be primarily to give the STL output option, and to see how most peoples systems respond to the new GUI.
Ive never liked the internals of GM's GUI, so Im spending alot of time making this one better and more configurable.).

[John S]

Art,
What do you think about the UP! Plus ?

The Mini is $999 plus shipping and the Plus is $1499 plus the same shipping but larger area. If I'm going to get raped for import duty and taxes I only want it to be once.

"Be gentle with me"  is a term Customs and Excise have not heard of.

[ArtF]

John:

  The Up! Plus almost got my vote. It was only the enclosure that made me take the mini, because size wasnt that important to me. It DOES look to be a very nice unit. Thre are a few more coming on the
market that look professional as well, ( which was one of my aims.), but none of them seem to be delivering yet. Pricing seems fine too on the Plus. ( You have to be tolerant of the fact all these printers cost 8 times more than their really worth in terms of what they are. ). :)

  I do see where the temperature mod will be required on the Up! line, their abs is about 70$ a roll, about twice the going rate, so the temp will have to be lowered to the normal ABS rolls. ( All it takes is a resistor addition though..)..

Art


Art

[ArtF]

Couple more photo's.. This is the guy you see on your screen in GT..
Again, Hollow with no support inside, 2 supports held it up while printing..
About 2.5 hours to print this one in the finest resolution..

Art