[Genie]

Genie on April 26, 2015 at 7:46 am · in reply to: Filament Diameter #1924

Hello Sylvester

Yes, smaller diameter filaments can be used in printers which support higher diameter filaments and not vice versa. This value is not to be confused with extruder diameter which is considerably smaller than the filament diameter.

The amount of filament pushed into the extruder is calculated according to the filament diameter value given to the printer software. The supplied filament is then heated and extruded. The amount of plastic that flows out of the extruder is thus governed by the software that is supplying the filament to the extruder.

Secondly, the diameter value is important because, the heat has to reach the center of the filament for it melt effectively. In the case of thinner filaments, it is obvious that there would be no problem at all. Hence, usage of specified filament is not a problem, but any filament thicker than that would lead to clogging issues.

[Genie]

Genie on April 26, 2015 at 6:59 am · in reply to: Preffered materials #1923

Hello Matilda

The answer to your questions come straight from the properties of the preferred material. Each material or plastic has its own set of thermal properties. All the thermal elements along with thermal sensors used in the printers would have operating ranges in which they are designed to operate.

As you have mentioned, ABS and PLA have different thermal characteristics. In case of higher or lower temperatures, extruders as well as the entire plastic extrusion chain tend to clog and develop snags leading to lot of issues.

You could use filament other than the preferred filament, provided you take care of the temperature settings as specified in the specification sheet which comes along with the filament.

[Genie]

Genie on April 26, 2015 at 5:46 am · in reply to: Expanding Build Area #1922

Hello Bryan

For a start, there definitely exists a possibility for increasing the build area of your printer. Before we go into the steps to do so, it would be prudent to mention that, larger prints can be made by fusing smaller parts together and it is not essential to increase the build area for this sole reason. I am sure, you would want to do this out of curiosity. The steps we would be mentioning here, are generic in nature, you would have to extrapolate them to your printer.

(a) Decide on how large do you want the print area to be. Because this would translate into acquiring equally large build plate.

(b) Next step would be to increase the dimensions of your X, Y and Z axes of your printer depending on your chosen build area and the chosen height. This would entail, looking out for belts, rails and support framework to hold everything in place so that the printer would not wobble or have excessive vibrations.

(c) Once you have successfully put together the physical components required to move the extruder in a defined 3D space next step would be to let the electronics in the 3D printer know that you have expanded the build area, starting from finding the compatibility of your board for such expansion along with compatibility of on board drives. The firmware has to be tweaked according to the customizations you have adopted.

(d) Theoretically assuming that you have completed all these steps, next big thing that needs to be done would be to calibrate your printer for accuracy and precision which would be another post in itself.

Each one of these steps have to be attempted individually and according to the make of your printer.

Good luck!

[Genie]

Genie on April 16, 2015 at 3:05 pm · in reply to: Best Bushings for 3D printers #1917

Hi Rjaedel

Igus bushings are plastic bushings manufactured by a company called Igus. Metal bearings have lubricant inside them. This lubricant is drawn out when the bearings start to rotate, forming a thin film over the ball bearings. The greater the speed, higher the lubrication. Hence at slower speeds the lubrication is not effective. In the case of plastic bushings, they are manufactured using thermoplastics, which have a solid lubricant embedded inside them. When the movement starts, the lubricant is released, thereby lowering the friction. Since the material utilized is plastic, the bushings are resistant to corrosion and are resistant to higher forces exerted on them. With regards to best bushings, plastic bushings are definitely more silent than the metal ones.

[Genie]

Genie on April 15, 2015 at 4:33 pm · in reply to: Machine Origin #1916

Hello Elven

Before we understand 3D printer’s machine origin, let us understand how 3D printers work. 3D printers deposit or extrude plastic at predetermined points in space. These points in space are identified using a Cartesian 3 Co-ordinate system of (x,y,z), with each value representing the position on respective axis. These values are relative to what is called an origin and is represented as (0,0,0).

Printer’s machine origin is its reference point from where all the 3 co-ordinates would be calculated. The G-code, G28, takes the values of the machine’s 3 axes back to origin. On receiving this command, all the three axes immediately move to origin with as much speed as then can, till such time they almost reach the zero end stops. Near around the zero end stops , they slow down and slowly reach the zero activation points. This process is called homing. Hence in order to reset the origin, your Repman needs to be homed.

[Genie]

Genie on April 6, 2015 at 5:48 pm · in reply to: Problem with Extrusion Head #1911

Hi Enrik

Prima facie, the problem seems to be either with the extruder or the filament. It might be that the extruder is getting clogged due to various elements such as dirt or contaminants in the filament itself. This can be solved by clearing the obstructions from time to time. Another reason could be excessive nozzle temperature. With higher than prescribed temperature for the filament, if the filament stays for a longer time in the extruder, the filament tends to burn causing obstruction in the nozzle. A combination of using good quality filament, setting the right nozzle temperature along with frequent cleaning of the nozzle should help you in printing smoothly.

If none of these solutions help, then you might contemplate changing the extruder head which is highly unlikely.

[Genie]

Genie on April 6, 2015 at 4:37 pm · in reply to: Printer and Scanner #1910

Hi Elven

The printer you are searching for, is called an All in one 3D printer. The good news is that today, one has choice compared to an year ago when XYZ printer Da Vinci 1.0 AIO was the only one. You can read a complete review about this product here. Then there is one more model from Zeus and one from Indiegogo called the Blacksmith Genesis which is about to be released. All in one 3D printers are a reality today. The 3D printers are slowly graduating towards 3D copiers where one needs to place a model in the scanner to be replicated without any process or manual intervention in between.

With regards to recommendation of a model for purchase, please follow our review section where all the features are analyzed to make an informed choice.

[Genie]

Genie on April 6, 2015 at 4:05 pm · in reply to: Strength of the model #1909

Hi Elven

Apart from the wall thickness and fill density there are two other properties which play an important role in determining the strength of the models such as Leonardo’s Vitruvian man. One reason could be the vulnerable points of load, in this case the area near the shoulders and the elbows, both of which are susceptible to breakage. You can slightly tweak the shoulders to include fillets at the shoulders and thicken the elbow so that the model gains physical strength at vulnerable points. Secondly, the strength also depends on the orientation of layers of the print. The layers should not be perpendicular to the direction of force. The layers are strongest in the direction of X and Y axes. The strength in the Z-axis largely depends on number of layers, thickness and material properties.

I am hoping that tweaking both these aspects should help you solve the problem.

[Genie]

Genie on April 6, 2015 at 3:12 pm · in reply to: 3D printer parts #1908

Hi Angela

Parts for most of the printers are available for download from the manufacturer’s site themselves. For both Makerbot and RepRap printers, one can download STL files for most of the parts. Check out the notes section in Thingiverse for recommended infill. However, for maximum strength and durability you can increase your infill up to 100 %. With respect to choice of material, you can always choose ABS over PLA as it is more stronger than the latter.

Check out the 3D printer parts on Thingiverse here

Check out the 3D printer parts for RepRap printer here

[Genie]

Genie on April 3, 2015 at 4:14 am · in reply to: Problems in 3D scan #1906

Hi Megatron

With any general 3D scan, it is very normal to see certain errors creeping into the scan. There are indeed few suggestions for your problem.

(a) Interpolation: Most of the 3D software interpolate data to fill the missing parts. But, interpolated data would never be as good as the original. So, we can help the software to interpolate data nearer to the original model by increasing the sample rate. This can be done by supplying it data from more number of perspectives.

(b) Lighting conditions. Since 3D scanning involves lasers and rendering of images, it very important to ensure that lighting conditions are appropriately maintained. Please refer to your user manual for the conditions best suited for your scanner

[Genie]

Genie on March 21, 2015 at 5:26 pm · in reply to: Ambient Temperature #1897

Hi Angela

Some of the most common problems encountered during 3D printing are curling and warping. Both these problems occur due to the difference in cooling down of layers, where the lower layers cool down faster than the upper ones. Ambient temperature, if unregulated, compounds these problems. Therefore ambient temperature is an important factor for overall build quality.

Solutions for problems due to ambient temperature include enclosing the build plate in a housing, so that the ambient temperature does not vary rapidly, placing the 3D printer away from the windows or air conditioning to avoid drafts of wind upsetting the ambient temperature and lastly, maintaining ambient temperature as specified by the manufacturer of the plastic filament used for your print.

[Genie]

Genie on March 21, 2015 at 3:02 pm · in reply to: Convert image of structures to 3D files #1894

Hi Michael

I understand that you want to create 3D models of structures or monuments. One way to do this is to use laser scanning equipment such as Faro Focus 3D to scan rooms or structures of limited height. When it comes to monuments such as Eiffel tower such solutions are not feasible.

Second method is to convert the 2D images into 3D models. Applications such as Autodesk123D can be used to convert 2D images to 3D models for the purposes of printing them. Alternatively 3D models for most of the monuments have already been created and can be downloaded by searching on Google’s 3D Warehouse

[Genie]

Genie on March 18, 2015 at 5:37 pm · in reply to: Firmware #1889

Hi Megatron

3D printers need software for handling the G-code they receive from the computers. This software, which handles the G-code input along with other peripherals is called the firmware.

Most of the printers these days use Arduino boards. Additional hardware like drives etc are to be attached to this board. These boards have to be then programmed to interact within and with the peripherals for functioning in a proper fashion.

With regards to firmware, most of the firmware including the three firmware that you have mentioned are open source firmware and are available for download for free. At the same time, few of the developers of firmware also provide 3D printer host software too. Theoretically if host software and the firmware come from the same developers, their interaction might be stable and less problematic.

Conclusion

There is no one best firmware. The best firmware would be the one that adapts well to your hardware.

[Genie]

Genie on March 18, 2015 at 2:22 pm · in reply to: conversion of 3d warehouse files #1888

Hello Michael

STL files are indeed required for 3D printing. SKP files are Sketchup files. You can use the following method to achieve the necessary conversion.

(a) Install Sketchup.
(b) Install the extension from the following link
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/sketchup-stl
(c) Once this extension is installed, Under the file menu you would notice the options of Import STL and Export STL.
(d) Both import and export options can be used to convert the files between SKP and STL formats

There are no special settings required for conversion

[Genie]

Genie on March 7, 2015 at 2:03 pm · in reply to: X-Y resonance and Z-resonance #1884

Hello Spencer

Let us first define resonance. Resonance is a physical phenomena where it is observed that an object vibrates at higher amplitudes at certain frequencies . The amplitude of the vibrations at the resonant frequency is higher than that of the rest of the frequencies. This frequency is generally equal to the natural frequency of the object.

In the case of a 3D printer, when the printer is printing at speeds which are nearer to the resonant frequency, the printer would vibrate, which in turn can introduce ripples in the print. To test the printer for its behavior in such conditions, we use X-Y resonance and Z-resonance tests.

Resonance cannot be quantified and hence is always defined in binary, in terms of pass or fail values.