Yet another 3D printing tips thread

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andrea.taras
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Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by andrea.taras »

Hello people! I hope all is well :) It's been a while...
Alright, so a little less than a month ago I got myself a 3D Printer, an Anycubic Prusa i3 clone. I'm having fun calibrating it and learning by trial and error, and it's good to finally be able to print things. I also built a nice enclosure for it, hoping to, one day, be able to print ABS as well :P
Of course this sparked the robot bulding urge in me and here I am asking for help and tips from those of you who have already mastered 3D robot printing!

First of all, from lurking around the site I've seen that PLA won't be enough to make it in a battle, so my first question is: is ABS printed with 100% infill still the best bet? Bear in mind that my printer won't be able to print Polycarbonate or Nylon (hotend won't get hot enough for that - the highest temperature it can reach is 260°). Has anyone tried ASA or HIPS? I've been told that ASA is pretty much an easier-to-use ABS. Some people have gone as far as telling me to forget about ABS, because of it causing too much hassle, which quite frankly scared me a little. Are there any other materials I should look into? I know the strenght of a chassis depends mainly on the project itself, I'm just looking for something somewhat resistant that won't cause much hassle, although I realize I may be asking too much... :P

Second question involves holes. If you are planning to make a hole for a screw, do you print the part WITH the hole? Or do you drill the hole in the part, after you print it? (I hope it makes sense!) Also, if you print it, how smaller should the hole be, compared to the screw, to make sure I can, well, screw it in?

Thank you in advance to all of those who will be kind enough to chime in :)
Andrea
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Shakey
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Re: Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by Shakey »

I can't comment too much on PLA as I haven't use dit in years, I found it too brittle for combat but using it in VERY thick chunks was alright.

ABS gets a bad rep but it's honestly built out to be this scary annoying filament that it just isn't. I'm always told to always have enclosures, dried filament etc.... I have 2 printers neither are enclosed and I barely dry filament unless it's been lost down the back of the sofa at least 4 times in the spools life. Both my printers do a great job with it and have no issue for one simple thing: bed adhesion. With ABS bed adhesion is god. Glass print bed? throw it. Painters tape? Rip it off.

PEI sheet on an ali backed hotbed (Mk3b hot bed) = incredible. I switched to this after years of acetone slurry and never looked back. By far the lowest effort hot bed I've had, change it every few months despite daily use. Every now and then maybe rub it with fine sandpaper and some isopropyl.

And finally, corner supports on your print. Anywhere a vertical corner meets the print bed is bad. Use tabs and 'feet' to never let a vertical corner (like the corner of a building) touch the hotbed.

Image

Here's an image of some manual supporting I did in one print with the support marked green. Bottom 2 show what I mean by removing those corners.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

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AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
andrea.taras
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Re: Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by andrea.taras »

Hey! Thanks for the quick reply :)
So as long as I have good bed adhesion, ABS shouldn't be too bad to deal with, huh?
I have the heated Anycubic Ultrabase print bed that the printer came with and so far prints stick like wonder, although I've never tried with ABS, so it might be anoher story...
What's this thing with vertical corners? Is this because of warping that might ensue?
Andrea
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Shakey
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Re: Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by Shakey »

andrea.taras wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 12:32 am What's this thing with vertical corners? Is this because of warping that might ensue?
PLA sticks to beds a lot easier and doesn't warp anywhere near as much so needs to stay. All this bed adhesion and about vertical corners for ABS is to simply stop it warping. ABS prints fail when they warp as if they start lifting off the bed they often just keep warping.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
andrea.taras
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Re: Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by andrea.taras »

How thick is the PEI sheet you put on the hotbed? Does the adhesive it comes with leave residues once you take it off? I wouldn't want to ruin the ultrabase :)
Would you recommend printing at a slower speed too, maybe for the first few layers, just to improve adhesion?

BTW If anyone has any feedback on other materials like ASA or HIPS, please do chime in
Andrea
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MarkR
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Re: Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by MarkR »

Hi,
andrea.taras wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:00 pm First of all, from lurking around the site I've seen that PLA won't be enough to make it in a battle, so my first question is: is ABS printed with 100% infill still the best bet?
I've just had a go with some Innofil Pro1, which is a form of PLA which is, in most respects, stronger than ABS, but prints as easily as normal PLA (actually, more easily in my experience).

https://www.innofil3d.com/product-categ ... opro/pro1/

It is of course a lot more expensive.
Bear in mind that my printer won't be able to print Polycarbonate or Nylon (hotend won't get hot enough for that - the highest temperature it can reach is 260°).
The strongest material I've seen is the PA-CF (Nylon + Carbon Fibre) filament - I've not tried printing any of that yet but the samples that I've seen are absolutely rock-solid and still lightweight. Needs 260C though.
Second question involves holes. If you are planning to make a hole for a screw, do you print the part WITH the hole?
Yes I always put the hole in the model. You can make it slightly smaller and drill it out, or just print it anyway.

Also sometimes a "solid layer" or "membrane layer" can be useful, still leaving the hole there.

A 3d printed hole will guide your drill bit to approximately the right place, or you might be able to wittle it out with a needle file.

Also drilling and machining PLA is really, really not nice, it starts to melt as soon as you put moderate effort in, and then welds itself to the drill bit.

If you print it, the hole should probably be over-size slightly. I usually use 2.25 mm holes for M2 bolts.

Mark
Robots: Betsie - RaspberryPi controlled flipper bot with gyro stablisation - too clever for her own good?
Stacie - tidy flipper; 4wd driven by hair bands
andrea.taras
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Re: Yet another 3D printing tips thread

Post by andrea.taras »

MarkR wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 11:19 am Hi,
I've just had a go with some Innofil Pro1, which is a form of PLA which is, in most respects, stronger than ABS, but prints as easily as normal PLA (actually, more easily in my experience).
https://www.innofil3d.com/product-categ ... opro/pro1/
It is of course a lot more expensive.
The strongest material I've seen is the PA-CF (Nylon + Carbon Fibre) filament - I've not tried printing any of that yet but the samples that I've seen are absolutely rock-solid and still lightweight. Needs 260C though.
Hey Mark! Thanks for your reply and the tips on the holes. I apologize for the late response but life has been hectic lately.
I shall look into this Pro1 also, I wouldn't mind trying to find a small sample before I actually spend that much on a 750 grams roll, however there are absolutely no shops around where I live.
After doing some more research on youtube I also discovered that apparently PETG has similar qualities to ABS... lol there's just too many to choose from! :roll:
Maybe I should just pick one and move on from there
Andrea
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