Got a 3D printer now, it's fun!

[Mini]

Is there anyone here living in the South of Sydney/Wollongong who has a 3D printer? I need a prototype made of a small part for a kart and rather than putting it into metal I am thinking that a 3D printer would be easier and quicker especially when it has to be refined as the design develops. I will pay for the time etc as needed.

[Alex.P]

HI Mini.

Send me the .STL for the part. I will have a look at it today and see what I can do. I am sydney based.

There are some pics further up this page of what we can do.

email is alex@brypar.com

Cheers Alex.P

[Billzilla]

Print 2 Bill and run the machine slow, say, 60mm/s. Printing the second one will allow the other to cool between layers, always good with small parts.

Yep I learned that one a long time ago with the UP printer, as you have no way in the software to control the speed, so to give the small parts time to cool down you have to print two (or more) at the same time.
But for that one I used the Flashforge and Simplify3D software and it works all that stuff out for me. Print came out pretty good, only some very minor tweaks needed.

[brypar]

So did a half print of a caliper we will be releasing to the market in the close future. Was a 45hr print with 65 deg celsius enclosure temp. Came up ok. Am doing the full print now. Made a few changes to speed it up so it will take just over 70 hours overall and an enclosure temp of 45deg C.

[GSRman]

pretty cool to see it used for something other than just keep your kid out of your cupboard shit.

[Benonymous]

Nice print brypar, what material is it? If it's ABS you could vapor smooth it too.

[brypar]

Thanks Benonymous. It is ABS.

[brypar]

Just googled the Vapour thing. I will be setting a booth up for that asap! Cheers mate.

[JamesB]

Toyota 22RE model on Thingiverse

[Benonymous]

Just googled the Vapour thing. I will be setting a booth up for that asap! Cheers mate.

Good stuff, before you go and start boiling Acetone, Isaw a method that's a bit more low impact.

Get a polypropylene container (most resealable food containers are polypropylene) it has to be big enough for the print with a reasonable amount of clearance from the sides.

The part to be smoothed should be set on an aluminium foil "raft" on the bottom. Get some paper towel and scrunch it up, then soak it in acetone, not dripping, just soaked through.

Do this with three or four sheets. Straighten the paper towel out and drape it over the edge of the container so it hangs inside like a curtain.

Put the lid on the container so it traps the paper towel and wait 3-5 minutes. The idea is that the evaporating acetone will saturate the interior of the container with fumes.

Check for smoothness after 3-5 mins, leave it longer if it's not smooth enough. When its smooth, lift it out with the foil raft, the surface will be molten.

Leave it to harden. Do not attempt this on a high humidity day, the surface will turn white and chalky.

I always thought boiling acetone was a really dopey idea, this is safer, just don't inhale the fumes!

[piss98]

Oh yeah fair enough, but my concern it that the blades in a jet engine will be pretty crappy if printed. The turbine blades especially as they are incredibly difficult and expensive to make well - they're made from a single crystal of metal grown ..... somehow .... and have internal air cooling that vents in various places around the skin, that lets them operate in an environment 100° hotter than their melting point.
The physical shape (internal cooling passages, etc) wouldn't be too difficult to do nicely with the printer but the blade would suffer a pretty big performance hit from not being a single crystal type.

Google "Battle Factory" - I watched an episode of this over the weekend and they showed the build procedure for the blades in a Rolls Royce engine that powers the 787 Dreamliner. Showed the process you mentioned of "growing" the crystals/metal and then how it's finally shaped, the teeny little ventilation in each blade etc. Was very cool. (includes other cool stuff like the makings of Sniper rifles, bomb suits, lighter than air aircraft for dropping supplies etc like big Zeppelin things etc)

[Billzilla]

Had a quick look, couldn't find it.
Got a link?

[piss98]

Hmm maybe I got the name wrong, will look it up when at home as I taped some.

[GSRman]

thats seriously what it's called (found it in the foxtel guide) but its hard to find anything else on it - http://www.in.com/tv/shows/discovery...ory-75496.html

[GSRman]

Good stuff, before you go and start boiling Acetone, Isaw a method that's a bit more low impact.

Get a polypropylene container (most resealable food containers are polypropylene) it has to be big enough for the print with a reasonable amount of clearance from the sides.

The part to be smoothed should be set on an aluminium foil "raft" on the bottom. Get some paper towel and scrunch it up, then soak it in acetone, not dripping, just soaked through.

Do this with three or four sheets. Straighten the paper towel out and drape it over the edge of the container so it hangs inside like a curtain.

Put the lid on the container so it traps the paper towel and wait 3-5 minutes. The idea is that the evaporating acetone will saturate the interior of the container with fumes.

Check for smoothness after 3-5 mins, leave it longer if it's not smooth enough. When its smooth, lift it out with the foil raft, the surface will be molten.

Leave it to harden. Do not attempt this on a high humidity day, the surface will turn white and chalky.

I always thought boiling acetone was a really dopey idea, this is safer, just don't inhale the fumes!

I just did this - left the container in the sun for 30+ mins - didn't do pretty much anything - however, I put the container in a larger one - and poured some water out of the jug into it - you could see it become a bit cloudy - and the acetone condensed on the lid of the container - and dropped straight onto the part - hot tip for young players - but i put it on an angle - replaced the water, and it sorta stopped working - I'd run out of acetone.


I actually think doing this on the stove might be ok... or cause an acetone BLEVE - one of the two.