/r/3DPrintTech

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/r/3DPrintTech

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3

Layering epoxy resin over 3D printed resin object

Hi! I'm going to be handling a multi-piece 3D printed resin item that is held together with elastic. It's articulated, so the parts will be rubbing against each other. In my experience, this almost always leads to visible white scratches and dust from the friction. Would it be possible to layer epoxy resin on each piece in order to prevent this from happening? Or would nail varnish be easier and suffice?

I don't know what kind of resin is used in the initial print. Ty!

2 Comments
2024/10/29
12:58 UTC

3

Pellets and 3D prints

Hello, I am in a situation where I would like to buy a 3D printer to make small prototypes and test pieces. I work at a plastic injection company and would be serious about using them there, which is why I have pellets at my disposal. I would like to know if anyone knows of a printer that works with pellets or some other solution. I have a budget of maximum €1k

5 Comments
2024/07/12
12:31 UTC

3

Drilling steppers

I am mounting a stepper in a place where I can't access the front face plate to put the mounting screws in from the front.

I noticed the screws on the back of the stepper go through and thread into the front plate also. Could I get longer screws, drill the threads out of the front plate, and use the long screws from the back to go all the way through the stepper and screw it onto something from the back?

0 Comments
2024/07/11
02:36 UTC

1

The CRTouch Mystery: Can You Solve My CR-10S Conundrum? 🕵️‍♂️🔧

TL;DR

Trying to install a CRTouch on my stock CR-10S with a V2.1 motherboard. Wiring follows the BLTouch diagram, but the CRTouch shows no lights, M280 commands don't work, and the Z-endstop is always triggered (M119). Auto home and bed leveling fail with a BLTouch error. Firmware is updated to Marlin Bugfix 2.1.x with the "Creality V1 - BLTouch" config. Need help!

Background

A few years ago, I bought this stock CR-10S for a school project at university and it worked like a charm. After graduation, I didn't use it much. Recently, my son broke his favorite toy car, and I want to fix it for him by 3D printing a new part. Setting up the printer was fine, but I quickly ran into the same old annoyances with bed tramming. To avoid this, I decided to buy a PEI sheet and a CRTouch, only to find out that installing a CRTouch on a stock CR-10S is quite challenging to say the least. I am not very experienced with electronics and therefore have difficulty troubleshooting this problem. I would greatly appreciate any help!

Setup

CR-Touch

Issue Details

Wiring:

  • Followed the BLTouch wiring diagram (see image).

https://preview.redd.it/yg38so6g59bd1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53d131ac2f4f6434cf757b0d6af3bd67c542ac48

  • Reused the Z-endstop cable, soldering it to the black and white wires of the CRTouch.
  • Blue wire soldered to a brown jumper wire, red wire to a red jumper wire, yellow wire to an orange jumper wire to match the BLTouch diagram.

Re-wiring CR-Touch to motherboard

Wire ends

  • Used solder sleeves and shrink tubes for all connections.
  • Measured and confirmed that the red pin (5V) has current.Observations:
  1. No CRTouch Lights: The CRTouch has no lights at all.

  2. M280 Commands Fail: M280 deploy and stow commands do nothing.

  3. Auto Home/Bed Leveling Errors: Both processes behave identically and fail with the same BLTouch error. (see video)

  4. Z-Endstop Always Triggered: M119 always shows the Z-endstop as triggered, regardless of whether the cable is connected, reversed, or disconnected.

Error Details:

  • During the auto home process, the printer behaves strangely (see video; this community doesn't allow video format unfortunately)

  • Using Pronterface with G28 and M119 commands, I consistently get errors (see photo).Firmware:

  • Flashed the latest Marlin Bugfix 2.1.x firmware.

  • Used the example configuration "Creality V1 - BLTouch."

Additional Notes:

  • When reversing the black and white pins of the Z-endstop, the probe pin position reverses.
  • Both auto home and bed leveling behave exactly the same and result in the same error.
  • The M119 command shows the Z-endstop as always triggered, no matter the state of the cable.

I'm not very experienced with electronics and really need some help troubleshooting this. Any advice or assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

1 Comment
2024/07/08
08:20 UTC

3

Are lead screws hardened?

The common 8mm lead screws used in 3D printers are made of some kind of steel, but is it soft like a bolt, or is it hard like a knife blade?

In other words, can you cut them with hacksaws and drill them with drills, or do you have to grind them? I want to drill into the end. And if they are hardened, any tips on annealing them?

5 Comments
2024/07/04
04:37 UTC

1

MSK Robin Nano V3.1 with stepper drivers - assembly help, please?

I've bought this board for my Neptune 4 whose board "just" burned out after a heat end change complete with heat cartridge install etc.

Now I've ordered this board and it came with a lot of jumpers and the stepper drivers and a wifi module - but all in their own bags! While I feel capable to stick the heat sinks onto the stepper drivers, I need some severe handholding for placing jumpers and drivers and such.

I've googled some assembling videos on youtube, but the one that goes deep into this is in portoguese and sorry, I cannot understand a word. Also there are no subtitles available in english.

Would someone here be willing to guide me either to some installation tutorials or videos in english, so that I understand what I need to do and WHY I am doing it - or even tell me themselves?

Thanks in advance.

0 Comments
2024/06/24
09:14 UTC

2

Is there any problem with signal interfering in umbilical cables?

I noticed many 3D printers use multi-conductor umbilical cables, for example, a toolhead umbilical might have:

  • 4 stepper motor wires, each running a probably hundreds of kHz PWM at up to 24V
  • A hotend heater wire, running 24V PWM probably at some kHz
  • Several 5V logic wires for a bed probe etc.
  • 5V or 3.3V SPI or I^2C for an accelerometer
  • Thermistor wires, which are nominally analog sensor wires. Does anyone know the impedance of thermistor circuits? How much current is run through them is it 1uA or 10mA etc?

This is a lot of things, some of them high current and high frequency, coupled with analog sensors like the thermistor wires. Yet they are commonly bundled together; in the case of my Sidewinder X1 they even run through a common 30-pin ribbon cable. Isn't there a risk of cross-talk or interference from these high-voltage, high-frequency power wires, serial port wires, and analog sensor wires?

5 Comments
2024/06/18
14:52 UTC

1

Lightest direct extruder

I'm looking for a stand alone extruder that's the lightest. There's a lot of light weights out there, but having trouble finding the lightest. I think it used to be the orbiter 2, but that was a couple years ago.

11 Comments
2024/06/02
06:34 UTC

1

Sensorless Z homing

Are there any examples of successful sensorless Z homing (using TMC StallGuard) on a z-axis with lead screws?

I think it would essentially work if you drove the axis into something very solid and used the right driver thresholds. I'm just not sure if the result would be precise enough to use for a Z axis.

8 Comments
2024/05/30
03:33 UTC

1

Are Mineral Oil vapors toxic

Hi. I put an all metal hotend on my CR10V2. I read somewhere that It was a good idea to "season" it with some oil to avoid jams, so I added a filament oiler.

I remember doing it one time without the oil and getting jams, this time it has been working perfect.

Nevertheless, I noticed that I can smell the oil and I wonder how safe is that.

I am getting different takes from around the net about it.

2 Comments
2024/03/17
07:05 UTC

5

Want to get into 3D Printing, just a question

My brother in law has a 3D Printer, I usually send him files that I find only and he'll make it for me. Is it that simple? Find an already made product, download the file and print?

12 Comments
2024/01/18
04:42 UTC

0

Elegoo Neptune 3 Plus or Creality Ender V3 SE/KE

Hi guys,

Can anybody help me, I've been wanting a 3d printer for a while now and have been doing quite a bit of reading up on them and have narrowed my choices down to the ones in the title. Which one should I go for and could you tell me why you would go with that one.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

4 Comments
2024/01/05
12:19 UTC

2

Multimaterial feeder for direct drive

Hi guys! I have a direct drive Flsun v400 Wich print perfectly, but I am wondering if there's a way to have a multi material feeder on it.

Anyone knows or tested any multimaterial feeder for direct drive? Any tips o help?

Thank you bros

1 Comment
2023/12/15
11:01 UTC

3

Best way to join pieces that need to be printed in multiple parts?

I want to print some drawer organizers which need some spaces to hold stuff longer than I can print. Is there some nice OpenSCAD library for creating joints? I suppose I could just butt things together end to end, but some sort of jigsaw join seems stronger. Just curious if there is some generally useful standard way to do this.

9 Comments
2023/11/18
18:26 UTC

1

Air Purifier for use inside enclosure?

I spotted this on amazon and wonder if anyone has used it or something like it inside an enclosure for printing ABS and ASA?

https://www.amazon.com/Pure-Enrichment-PureZone-Portable-Purifier/dp/B09B8SXXM8/

It is a very attractive idea to just pop a small off the shelf product inside the enclosure. (If it works :-)

5 Comments
2023/11/07
17:47 UTC

1

Switching from PETG to PLA, does complete purge really take a long time?

I just (probably for the first time) changed filament in my MK4 from red PETG to white PLA. The white PLA was pink for a lot of the first layer of the first part I printed. Is this normal? I guess PETG has a higher melting point, and might take a while to be completely purged?

3 Comments
2023/11/06
20:32 UTC

2

keep upgrading ender 3v2 or replace? how much do I need to spend to avoid constant tinkering?

Is there a trade-off between cost of a printer and time spent tinkering?

I started at the low end because I wasn't sure how much use I would get out of the printer. Now my kids are involved in school robotics and the ender 3 is not keeping up. They are pretty good at cad and can create some interesting designs but they are hesitant to make use of them because of slow and unreliable prints. The printer has already been upgraded with a new board, the sprite direct drive extruded, magnetic build plate, and levelling probe. Still I feel like it is nearly random if prints come out well, or at all. I've tried different firmware, including switching entirely to klipper for a while. I'm now using "professional firmware" with sometimes acceptable results. The two big issues I have is that I have to print at very slow speeds to have any hope of a good print and secondly, some prints will randomly warp off the build plate during the print. I've tried various manual levelling and auto mesh levelling strategies. I can get it dialed in and run the test pattern prints with good results, but then print the same item five times and get five different results.

I'm tired of tinkering. I'm not sure how much I'm willing to spend and I'm trying to get an idea if there is a clear money vs tinkering time trade-off. No matter what, I can't imagine spending more that $2000 so I guess that is my absolute upper limit. Is there a certain spending band like 500-1000, 1000-1500, 1500-2000 that will get me a printer that is more fire-and-forget?

if the idea of spending more to avoid tinkering is unrealistic for a sub $2000 printer, I might keep going with the ender 3 and replace the bed and add the dual z-axis upgrade. I know lots of people have had plenty of success with this printer, but I feel like there is something fundamentally wrong with mine like some type of initial assembly mistake or some kind of defect in the parts.

5 Comments
2023/10/29
15:15 UTC

9

First printer (ender 3 s1 pro), almost straight out of the box. What could cause this irregularity in layers? PLA, 200c/60c, 0.15mm

4 Comments
2023/06/09
07:01 UTC

1

Upgrading heatbed on anycubic Mega x

I want to expand the temperature range on my heat bed for ABS and ASA. (I have an Any Cubic Mega X) Is that as simple as switching to another one, or does it require further mods (software or otherwise?)

0 Comments
2023/06/08
18:56 UTC

5

Resin printer for functional parts?

I’ve been printing filament for over 5 years now (built my own Hypercube Evolution and modified it) my designs are calling for small parts with more detailed with no layer lines and I’m considering resin for that. Any recommendations for a small printer and resin type that can do that without breaking the bank? Thanks.

11 Comments
2023/06/04
17:35 UTC

0

anycubic vyper or ender 3 s1 plus? help please

help me, Please help me decide, or suggest a better printer in the same price range, I'm open to suggestions, thank you very much

0 Comments
2023/06/04
03:37 UTC

2

What features would you like to see on a 3dprinter comparison site?

Hey, I am thinking of starting a 3dprinter technical comparison site. I am curious what would the community her would like to have on asite like this?

Side by side comparison tables? Spread sheet like filtering printers? Or other ideas?

Any input is gladly appreciated.

10 Comments
2023/06/03
19:07 UTC

1

how can i fix this?

3 Comments
2023/05/29
14:06 UTC

6

I want to print a filter insert

Has anyone ever printed a part and embedded flyscreen material midway through the print? I could design something that holds it all together with bolts, but I think an embedded screen would be much cooler.

Background: I am designing a water fountain and looking for a way to keep petals and leaves out of the pump. Current plan is to have the pump sitting in a moat and covered by a round piece of plastic webbing that snaps into the rest of the fountain but can be easily removed for cleaning.

3 Comments
2023/05/28
16:10 UTC

1

Lettuce Spinner improvement

I have an idea question. I was just in the kitchen spinning my lettuce dry and I said to myself, this would be so much easier to do if it had gears. Why don't lettuce spinners have gears and perhaps a govenor? I am not familiar with gears enough at this point to come up with a model myself, but I think it should be fairly simple for someone who is. If you think of how most blenders have one turning knife rotation thing at the bottom of the jar and Ninja set itself apart by having more than one in the jar, then it's a matter of improving a simple product to the point of it being super efficient. I think the model could be made with polypropelene on a standard printer. What do you think?

12 Comments
2023/05/28
02:18 UTC

5

Suggested ways to mount

Hi everyone we run a small free public ambulance service in the neighborhood and we have a Nihon Koden Defibrillator EMS-1052 that we have in the ambulance that we need to carry along each time we go to a patient's house or something

[Link to the product page](https://ae.nihonkohden.com/en/products/resuscitation/defibrillator-ems-1052.html)

Nihon Koden Defibrillator EMS-1052

Currently it's just hanging on the bar with the strap as the picture below

https://preview.redd.it/5p4t1296ra1b1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94e32abb6db59e7ba7fd50631e13b10deb572028

https://preview.redd.it/s4451396ra1b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=885981a647f316381208864b8484c5f05f45cd48

Which rattles alot and shakes etc.

Wondering if anyone can suggest a better way to mount it that also would be easy and fast to pick it up when we need to.

Here's the dimension below according to the website.

Thanks alot in advance

https://preview.redd.it/df39xl4hra1b1.png?width=799&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcfdc971750c258fe8fa2d77fda9e89bf519624f

6 Comments
2023/05/22
02:53 UTC

3

Thin walls - minimum printed walls?

I need to print a structural part that has a bunch of thin vertical tabs, much like a classic heatsink shape. They will be 2-3mm wide.

How big of a nozzle / line width can I use? I am thinking that having 4 walls would be stronger than 2 wider walls (both ending up solid)? And a single very wide wall being even worse?

4 Comments
2023/05/17
00:46 UTC

7

Made mold of my PVB-printed coaster holder and then put cement in it

I’ve been playing with 3d printing for a while, pretty new to making molds! It really expands the possibilities!

6 Comments
2023/05/11
23:18 UTC

12

Do Not Buy Sovol - Printers Do Not Work & They Ghost You If You Ask For A Refund

16 Comments
2023/05/11
03:34 UTC

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