3D print a 3D printer

If you follow my blog you will know that I use a Solidoodle 3 printer in my office. You will also know that I have fallowed 3D printers for a long time and have wanted one for my home. This brings me to the idea of using my Solidoodle to print a 3D printer. RepRap is an open source 3D printer that is meant to be build and printed on another printer. if you would like to know more check out their main site http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap. This is meant to be more of a long term project and i can only print a few pieces at a time. I will also need to buy all the parts that can't be printed like motors and belts, mother boards etc. The system I am going for can be found on at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34630 and is based on a RepRap design the best part is the zip come with full detailed institutions and all printable parts. This will be an on going project so be sure to check back but here is the first 3 parts i have printed they took about 8hrs to print together and i have to print one more set.

 

basic maintenance

like any system 3D printer require maintenance to keep them running smooth. In the last few days i have had to replace the Kapton type on the print board and also grease the system. Some parts stick to the print bed a little to well and when removing them you can damage the Kapton type, however you can buy small rolls to replace the damage, you can also buy large rolls and i was able to find 8" by 36 yard roll of Kapton because i had let the damage go on for so long that it was much better to replace the whole sheet. If you are looking to buy large rolls of Kapton check out this site http://www.kaptonsource.com/. when it come to grease it can be picked up at any hard ware store White Lithium Grease works great it what i was told to use buy members of the solidoodle IRC. amazon also carries it http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-80345-White-Lithium-Grease/dp/B000HBNV58 but Home depot is just down the street from my offce and we already have a home depot card.

vapor acetone hot plates and hit and runs

so today was a busy day at the office. We have been working hard to take are 3d printed parts and put them out into the filed for testing but we want them to look high quality. a few weeks back we found a video on youtube that showed someone using heated acetone vapors to give a nice gloss finish. So we bought a hot plate some acetone and a glass jar. so we put everything outside to start testing and just a few mins later someone ran over the hot plate. It was a hit and run on a hotplate that was sitting next to a cement wall and a dumpster so they had to have been aiming for it and just missed wrecking their car. Which means we had to buy a new hot plate thankfully they are only about 30$ each. Next we had to get the vapor treating temp and time just right 5min with it acetone preheated to 200F turned out the best.  we have also been working on the best way to seal the top and bottom of the casing together. so you will see pictures of us testing with a heat gun. The last project of the day was to create supports for some of the smaller details of the 3d parts those are printing right now.  

here is the video we fallowed.

this is the parts holder we made

one of our test pieces

testing if we can uses a heat gun to melt the top and bottom of the casing together

on the left is the smashed hot plate you can see the cement wall and the dumpster and the new hot plate with the glass Jar 

Vapor sealing a part 

it had a very sort life only got to be use once

they hit it dead center i hope it messed up their tire

the vapor needs time to cure

 

building your own 3d printer

If you want to build your own 3d printer, a project i plan on starting next year after my wedding don't tell my GF she might kill me i already talk none stop about them. anyway check out this story on HackaDay to help control the heading nozzle accurate-temperature-control-of-your-3d-printer-extruder/

print all the materials

Always love Hackday and here is a great story all about printing nylon, wood, stone and all kinds of different materials check it out 3d-printering-alternative-filaments

Glass, Mirrors, & Blue sheets

a few weeks ago i read about how if you print on a glass board you get better prints and don't have to worry about ripping the Kapton tape, it use a blue sheet (know at Pet) that can be easily replaced by using water and a credit card like putting on window tent, also read that a cheap mirror can be used in-place of a costly glass bed. got all the supplies in and got the mirror ready it takes over night for the blue sheet to set in place so will see how it turns out tomorrow

to find out more about PET sheets check this link 

http://airwolf3d.com/store/products/3d-printer-pet-tape-8-x-12/

short fall up: glass is very difficult to get to work just right when you printer is not built for it so this project has been put on hold until i have more time to play around with it. More to come 

the next boom in 3d printers

Came a cross a great read on Hack a Day about the next group of 3d printers patents that will expire next year leading to what many are calling the next big boom in 3d printers well it may not be what you think but i hold out the fact that everything gets cheaper and easier over time and its always great to have more open source projects anyway check out the story and make up your own mind
http://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/3d-printering-key-patents/