FDM PLA 3D printing - with a model making inclination

[Dave Ward]

Having said the above, this morning I primed it & doesn't look too bad, however it does have a warp, or curl to the bows - this is a problem caused by trying to print too sharp an angle on the plate, the filament gets dragged back & doesn't stick.
I;m not going to post the picture of the primed model, I'm going to print out another, with a few tweaks to the settings. I don't have enough filament left on the spool, so a new spool of blue filament will make its debut.
I've been out for most of the day, and I think that the tweaked Bouvet will take at least 6 hours to print, so changing filament & printing can wait until tomorrow - I need a good nights sleep, all that fresh air has left me somewhat fatigued!
Dave

[Dave Ward]

Second attempt at the Bouvet, tweaking settings & new filament, then primed

That has come out better than I thought - it seems that each individual model should be assessed before slicing, and tweaks applied - I've still got a bit of warping at the stern, but not that noticeable, and I know which setting to alter to prevent that. I'm going to give the printer a bit of a rest, I need to finish the Renault UE, before any more 3D experiments
Dave

[Jim R]

Good to take a break when you're on a high note. That looks good and your understanding is getting better all the time.

[Tim Marlow]

Looks good Dave. Layer lines are far less noticeable that I would have expected.

[Dave Ward]

In looking to see which paint schemes the Bouvet carried there seems to a lot of conflicting illustrations. about how high the hull black was carried up - what colour the upperworks were, from ivory to buff. Of course, no colour photos!

Dave

[JR]

Really admire the way you have got to grips with this printing , having the" I can " attitude.

[Dave Ward]

Really admire the way you have got to grips with this printing , having the" I can " attitude.

John,
well, I wouldn't to waste all that money, would I?
Dave

[Dave Ward]

OOOh - it had to happen, sooner or later - set up a print - the first layers seems to have stuck OK, so I went and had a little snooze - 2 hours later I return & find a whole mass of blue filament on the build plate & the part cooling duct on the floor. The models must have fallen off shortly after I left it - the extruder kept on extruding & the axes kept on moving, the mass of filament was dragged back and forwards, until it jammed under the cooling duct & pulled it off. Rather annoying - it printed five parts off OK before the failure - maybe the surface picked up some grease?
I've had prints not stick before, but it was generally in the first few minutes & I caught it - but this is the first 1 hour & 37 minutes of creating knitting.
This blue filament does seem a little less forgiving than my original grey stuff. I cleaned the build plate, then re-levelled it, & now it's printing the part out - this is a holder for a micro sd card reader extension, that arrived from China. One end plugs permanently into the mainboard & the other will fit on the top plate, where it is easily accessible - no more crawling around looking for escapees!
Dave

[Dave Ward]

Have a stinking head cold & not feeling like doing much at all - but hopefully normal service wil be resumed as soon as possible...............
Dave

[adt70hk]

Have a stinking head cold & not feeling like doing much at all - but hopefully normal service wil be resumed as soon as possible...............
Dave

Sorry to hear that Dave....something is doing the rounds.....we all have it in our house and so do several colleagues.

[Dave Ward]

More learning - don't buy unbranded filament! I bought several 20m lengths of filament - and spent a couple of days cursing - brittle, failing to feed properly - wouldn't stick to the build plate. The whole lot went into the bin.
Another lesson - read the description of the models - I managed to print out two parts that I thought were micro sd card holders - I left them to print & they were standard size SD card holders.
and another - don't assume that all free models are correct. I printed one part out & a flange of it broke off, so I printed another & the same thing happened - a weakness in the design!
I've been experimenting by printing out 1/35 wooden crates etc. If you crank up the speed, then you lose all detail, if you print for detail, then that extends the print time to several hours for a 19mm X 9mm crate. - so you have to find a happy medium - enough detail, without stupid print times. There's only one way to do this & that's by trial and error.
Dave

[Dave Ward]

More lessons learned! I've been experimenting with scale, speed/quality, and come to a conclusion that slower is much much better, now I can leave the printer alone, it really doesn't matter how long things take to print.
For example a set of 9 oil drums partly covered with a tarp - on the left scaled to 1/48, and took the best part of 4 hours to print - on the right at 1/35 & taking just over 2 hours to print:

The 1/35 drums will be just about useable in the back of a lorry, with other stuff. Scaling does add to the printing time, but it's useful to be able to produce prints for all scales.
More 1/35 gear, drums, crates & piles of boxes

Drum not so useful there are loads of injection moulded oil drums available. The crates can be scaled up or down to suit space. The piles of boxes - good for truck loads. All of these printed slowly in blue filament & primed.
I printed out a small filament spool - I'm still amazed that the threads engage, without any clean up

These two parts took about 1 1/2 hours to print each.
I had a problem in a way I certainly didn't expect. With the printing at speed, the printer vibrates a lot, especially as the build plate ( Y axis ) goes backwards and forwards. I was printing OK, then the quality started to decline - I checked the bed levelling, changed the filament, but that didn't help. I realised that the vibration had loosened the nuts on the front plate. This had allowed the front plate to move back slightly - this reduced the Y-axis belt drive tension & introduced a load of backlash. This meant that the build plate was never in the correct place, at the correct time, not by much, but enough to ruin print quality. Tighten the nuts up again, belt tension restored - I must get some threadlock!
I can see why tinkering is the 3D printers' time consumer. I'm wondering if you have to do the same thing with the top of the range pre-built machines? A lot of patience, and a lot of common sense is essential.
Dave

[Neil Merryweather]

Great progress Dave.
I never had a loosening problem with my Ultimakers, but we did with the self assembly machines.
Not for the faint hearted or impatient, is it?

[Dave Ward]

Great progress Dave.
I never had a loosening problem with my Ultimakers, but we did with the self assembly machines.
Not for the faint hearted or impatient, is it?

I must admit that I look on ebay at the higher level machines & dream that I can get a similar bargain to my Anet, but it seems that everybody else has the same idea. Of course it's probably unrealistic of me, at the price level I'm prepared to pay! :rolling:. I keep on looking at the spares/for repair lots, mechanical problems I can sort, but anything electronic - not a chance. - to replace the mainboard on my Anet would be £50+, so I imagine other makes are similar prices - hardly a bargain. Still I can but hope!
Dave

[Gary MacKenzie]

I must admit that I look on ebay at the higher level machines & dream that I can get a similar bargain to my Anet, but it seems that everybody else has the same idea. Of course it's probably unrealistic of me, at the price level I'm prepared to pay! :rolling:. I keep on looking at the spares/for repair lots, mechanical problems I can sort, but anything electronic - not a chance. - to replace the mainboard on my Anet would be £50+, so I imagine other makes are similar prices - hardly a bargain. Still I can but hope!
Dave

personal opinion: If looking for a 3d printer for non-commercial usage, look at the Elegoo range.
That is my intention, but savings are about to take a hammering if the dog needs a vet visit.

fdm : elegoo neptune 3 @ https://www.3djake.uk/elegoo/neptune-3-pro ---- not easy to find , new model , older neptune 3 may be avail cheaper
resin : elegoo mars3 pro @ https://www.3djake.uk/elegoo/mars-3-pro or https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELEGOO-Puri.../dp/B0B4JN6KX4 ( I know you don't want a resin printer but others might )