3D Printing Newbe Needs Help

[bigseb]

Would be my first choice. ABS is great for this as you can cold-weld it. First things first though... the printer needs an enclosure that is heated in some way.

 

[ajayre]

I suggest you spend a few evenings reading the RepRap forum. There is years worth of information on there and will give you many ideas of things to try.

 

[RocketNut]

Sorry for delay was called away from desk.

I used the wrong words in question in last post. What I meant to ask is How to use Kapton tape.
1: Do I need to cover the entire built plate (glass)?
2: Do I need to replace the tape after each print? If no then how do I clean the tape ( possibly using acetone as bigseb suggested)?
3: What is the recommended build table adhesive (if needed)?

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Unfortunately there is only so much you can do with a vanilla $300 printer.

Your extremely correct bigseb. I am expecting to push the limits of this printer. So far it has worked well even with models with small fine complex details even with a .4mm nozzle, I might change to a small nozzle once I get the bugs/kinks worked out. The only problem is keeping the part glued to the build plate and keeping the part from warping, as mention in my past posts.

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Design smaller parts that snap or bolt together.

I am all ready do that ajayre . The enclosure in my first post is just the bottom part, there 3 other parts to complete the entire enclosure. I plan to glue all 4 pieces together to form a single unit .

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Would be my first choice. ABS is great for this as you can cold-weld it. First things first though... the printer needs an enclosure that is heated in some way.

I also like ABS because its not bio-degrading. I can see my units turning to dust over time if I made them out of PLA. As for the other filaments (nylon,carbon fiber) I need for there high strength , with is need for flight units (as mentioned). I am also looking for a high temp filament to form shrouds. These shrouds/hoods are exposed to super sonic air streams. Plastic melts due to aerodynamic heating at these speeds. Does any one have any suggestion on what filament might work?

As for the printer enclosure, I am designing as we speak ( can any one guess what I'm using to design it with :lol: ).

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I suggest you spend a few evenings reading the RepRap forum. There is years worth of information on there and will give you many ideas of things to try.

As you suggested ajayre, I have asked my questions in both Cura and RepRap forums.

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I have order a roll of 2" wide Kapton tape.
As for the printer enclosure I plan to build it use plexiglass. As for the heating part I am going to use a heater and fan under computer control to control the temp inside the enclosure.
I wish printer support would respond on how to tighten up the build table. :roll:

Thank you all for the great suggestions

 

[bigseb]

I used the wrong words in question in last post. What I meant to ask is How to use Kapton tape.
1: Do I need to cover the entire built plate (glass)?
2: Do I need to replace the tape after each print? If no then how do I clean the tape ( possibly using acetone as bigseb suggested)?
3: What is the recommended build table adhesive (if needed)?

1) No. Only as large as the print area.
2) No. Its pretty hardy stuff. You can wipe it with some acetone to get rid of oily fingerprints.
3) For ABS? Slurry. I explained how to make this in an earlier post. Far easier than Kapton tape.

 

[bigseb]

our extremely correct bigseb. I am expecting to push the limits of this printer. So far it has worked well even with models with small fine complex details even with a .4mm nozzle, I might change to a small nozzle once I get the bugs/kinks worked out. The only problem is keeping the part glued to the build plate and keeping the part from warping, as mention in my past posts.

Don't sell your printer short. You would be amazed how much you can do with a cheap open source printer.

But:

Be prepared to tinker. A lot! It took me several months of constant fine-tuning and modifying to get great quality prints. As to the warping, you will have to spend some cash and make a decent enclosure to keep the build area warm. No way around that. This is all part of the maker culture. The more time, effort and cash you invest the better the results.

 

[bigseb]

I am all ready do that ajayre . The enclosure in my first post is just the bottom part, there 3 other parts to complete the entire enclosure. I plan to glue all 4 pieces together to form a single unit .

Cold-weld.

Brush a bit of acetone on the faces you want to join and then press together. Acetone is an ABS solvent so the two face will literally melt together and become one.

 

[bigseb]

I wish printer support would respond on how to tighten up the build table. :roll:

Again, welcome to the maker culture. You will repair your printer and learn everything about it over time.

 

[ajayre]

PLA won't "turn to dust". I have a PLA bracket bolted to a metal pole. It's been outside in all types of weather for four years. Still works. AFAIK PLA only degrades in darkness and under pressure, i.e. a landfill. It does start going soft at around 50C however.

Superglue works great on PLA for gluing parts together.

I don't use an enclosure for PLA. In fact I blow cold air in with a fan to cool the plastic quickly so overhangs come out better.

For the Kapton tape, I last changed it about two years ago. Took me 10 minutes. That averages out at 5 minutes of effort per year so far.

 

[RocketNut]

3: What is the recommended build table adhesive (if needed)?

I meant do I need adhesive along with Kapton tape, if so what type? I have order the tape and just waiting for it to arrive. I plan to use it on all my prints.

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our extremely correct bigseb. I am expecting to push the limits of this printer. So far it has worked well even with models with small fine complex details even with a .4mm nozzle, I might change to a small nozzle once I get the bugs/kinks worked out. The only problem is keeping the part glued to the build plate and keeping the part from warping, as mention in my past posts.

Don't sell your printer short. You would be amazed how much you can do with a cheap open source printer.

But:

Be prepared to tinker. A lot! It took me several months of constant fine-tuning and modifying to get great quality prints. As to the warping, you will have to spend some cash and make a decent enclosure to keep the build area warm. No way around that. This is all part of the maker culture. The more time, effort and cash you invest the better the results.

I have been tinkering a lot. One thing I found so far is the nozzle temp. It seems to work better about 5deg below the lowest recommend filament nozzle temp. The only place I am scared of tho is in the Start and EndG-Code. I copied the code from a supplied sample print supplied with the printer. It seems to be working fine, maybe it can be tweeted a little to make it better.

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Cold-weld.

Brush a bit of acetone on the faces you want to join and then press together. Acetone is an ABS solvent so the two face will literally melt together and become one.

Thanks for tip
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ajayre
Thanks for the info.
Maybe I could send the code to you an you can tell me what each line is doing. From there I can tweak it .

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Do you all think the booster made with PLA can handle flight. This is not a High Power Rocket boost but a model rocket (what I call a school yard bird), meaning it will never go super sonic ( max speed about 350-500MPH) or experience the high Gs of high power rockets would.

 

[bigseb]

I meant do I need adhesive along with Kapton tape, if so what type? I have order the tape and just waiting for it to arrive. I plan to use it on all my prints.

Kapton tape is the adhesive.

It like this: Printers have one of two types of build plate; either heated or not. The unheated ones (like the old Makerbots) were plastic and the user would simply put on some blue painters tape. This is fine for PLA. With heated ones you have more options. Firstly the build plates were now made of aluminium and at first users would apply the blue painters tape or Kapton tape directly to the build plate. However users realised that by placing a thin sheet of glass on top of the aluminium bed they could eliminated the warping of the bed caused by the heating of the build plate. The glass is usually 3-4mm thick and regular window glass will do. Then people started experimenting with different adhesives. The glass plate has another advantage in that it can be easily removed. This allows the user quickly switch out plates to continue printing and not have to wait for the everything to cool down before removing the print. It also prevents the table form being jolted when trying to remove a stubborn print. I already mentioned the types of adhesives for different materials in an earlier post.

 

[RocketNut]

I broke down an bought a camera. The video AVI file is to big to upload here, you can view the video at https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxd8obw2kcklvur/LooseBuildTabel.AVI?dl=0. As you can see there is a lot of wobble in the build table. Thus again the question is this normal?

 

[bigseb]

The build platforms are spring-loaded. Mine does that too although my springs are much, much stiffer than that. If its an issue then simply replace the springs with stiffer ones. Other than that it seems fine.

 

[RocketNut]

Yes the build table has springs, there are used to level the table. It's the rail rollers. There are not tight against the guide rail. I can turn some of the rollers and the table does not move, there not touching the rail.

 

[bigseb]

In the video it just looked like you were pressing down in the table. Maybe make another video giving more perspective of the issue. Ultimately though you will haveto do some DIY to fix it. Welcome to the maker world.

 

[RocketNut]

Build table is now nice an tight. I posted the loose table bug on face book in the Creality CV-10 group, got the following response:

Tighten the eccentric spacers on the plate carriage. It is shipped loose on purpose so that nothing is damaged by binding during shipping.

The eccentric spacers are hex spacers on one side and the other side is round spacers. So it was design to be adjusted just as the face book response mentioned.

Doing as suggested my table now is nice and tight with no wobble at all.

 

[bigseb]

Awesome. Glad you got it sorted