3D Printer yet?

[mnementh]

Annoyance: Stupid Diggro Alpha3 FW turns the bed & hotend off whenever you start the 5-point leveling sequence. 

mnem
"That's right, dumbass... hotend and heated bed are HOT!!!"
"They're SUPPOSED TO BE, dumber than dumb-ass!"

[mnementh]

   

Hmmm... Some stringing in the first layers I didn't have before. Dunno if that's the new hotend or because I decided to angle the layer fan for clearance instead of lowering the printhead.

I'll let it finish a few more bridges before I stop it; but think I wanna get that blower nozzle so it's not blowing so much right at the bed.

mnem
"Lazy dwagon... BAD!!! Bad lazy dwagon!!!"

[exe]

Have you tried using Blender?

Yes, and I wasn't happy. I design purely engineering things (enclosures, etc) and I need features like precise sizing, shaping, aligning, library of components, etc. It felt that blender is just a wrong tool for it. It's not a CAD.

I also didn't get far with it, I think I got confused a few times and gave up on it. I asked around what people use, fusion 360 is very common, but I wasn't able to run it on my system. Also, I wanted to try designspark, didn't run either. So, probably, I'll end up with a windows vm.

[beanflying]

Have you tried using Blender?

Yes, and I wasn't happy. I design purely engineering things (enclosures, etc) and I need features like precise sizing, shaping, aligning, library of components, etc. It felt that blender is just a wrong tool for it. It's not a CAD.

I also didn't get far with it, I think I got confused a few times and gave up on it. I asked around what people use, fusion 360 is very common, but I wasn't able to run it on my system. Also, I wanted to try designspark, didn't run either. So, probably, I'll end up with a windows vm.

Have you  given this a try on your Linux Box and Fusion 360? https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/3d-printer-yet/msg2982186/#msg2982186

[mnementh]

...I'll let it finish a few more bridges before I stop it; but think I wanna get that blower nozzle so it's not blowing so much right at the bed.

mnem
"Lazy dwagon... BAD!!! Bad lazy dwagon!!!"

         

Welp, that'll learn me. I stopped the print at ~45%; figured I'd realign the layer fan nozzle. I was gonna just sand half a mm off the bottom edge, but couldn't find anything coarser than 580 grit.

"It's less than a mm. Just fire up the soldering iron and "reform" the nozzle a bit." I said to myself; famous last words...

Made MUCH more difference than I intended; a good 3mm too shallow. Now it blows right on the heatblock, and very little on the print.

After another 30 minutes fettling, I restored it to MOSTLY correct profile... and was able to drop it all a couple mm so most of the nozzle is below the heatblock.

THEN I looked at the test print I took off early...       Why did I even bother effing with it...? Not perfect, but definitely not bad either.

mnem
I don't know what to do with myself when something just works.

[beanflying]

   

Hmmm... Some stringing in the first layers I didn't have before. Dunno if that's the new hotend or because I decided to angle the layer fan for clearance instead of lowering the printhead.

I'll let it finish a few more bridges before I stop it; but think I wanna get that blower nozzle so it's not blowing so much right at the bed.

mnem
"Lazy dwagon... BAD!!! Bad lazy dwagon!!!"

The other thing to do would be add some Capricorn https://www.captubes.com/ It helped my reduce the retraction needed on my CR10 and Enders.

[mnementh]

Just made it worse. 

mnem
*toddles off to get a toddy for my body*

[Brumby]

Seems our dwagon is doing an Edison...

[mnementh]

Sure feels that way.    Think I'm going to bend that shit back the way it was, and if it prints bridges as well as the first one I'll set it to work on the 'fang. Not a lot of point in effing around with this setup any longer.

mnem
moo...?

[exe]

Have you  given this a try on your Linux Box and Fusion 360? https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/3d-printer-yet/msg2982186/#msg2982186

Not yet, but will do. Unfortunately, my current laptop doesn't have much resources, but I give it a try... Thanks for the link.

Am I the only one who prefers to do parts and mechanisms in OpenSCAD?

For openscad lovers, I wonder what you think of SolveSpace. Looks like an interesting tool: it's a visual design tool, but it work very interestingly: size of shapes are constrained/parametrized by dimensions. So, this way it's sort of best of two worlds: it's parametric (sort of), and visual. Before jumping into it a youtube tutorial is highly recommend. I'm playing with it right now, looks interesting, but I'm a bit lost in UI.

[mnementh]

      Hmmm... Some stringing in the first layers I didn't have before. Dunno if that's the new hotend or because I decided to angle the layer fan for clearance instead of lowering the printhead.I'll let it finish a few more bridges before I stop it; but think I wanna get that blower nozzle so it's not blowing so much right at the bed.

mnem
"Lazy dwagon... BAD!!! Bad lazy dwagon!!!"

The other thing to do would be add some Capricorn https://www.captubes.com/ It helped my reduce the retraction needed on my CR10 and Enders.

         

Looking much better. Much less stringing on the bottom, though a little thin at (I think but not sure) the end points of the initial strings, so extrusion "coasting" needs a little tweak...? I need to get video of it "throwing the first line" to be sure where it's happening.  Thinking I maybe need to increase nozzle temp a little to get better layer adhesion in the first few layers; tho from what I've seen, mine is a pretty tame example of "spaghetti layers" during bridging.

Hmmm... I actually haven't done the extrusion cal yet; Good point.  Aside from minor tweaks in Cura, bone-stock.

I was considering Cap tube for my Tornado before the move, but really didn't think it would make a lot of difference with the short-short length of the tube in the E3/clones. Is it really worth the $22-27/kit in your mind...? Are the fittings they include in the kit actually part of the Cap "magic sauce"...?

mnem
 

[beanflying]

As the fittings supplied with the earlier Enders were fairly much crap yes. Tighter tolerance on the Tube and knowing the Tube is ok with higher Temperatures over unknown cheap tube is worth it. I was able to reduce the retraction after fitting it on all of mine.

[mnementh]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3915647

Stumbled across this while looking for instructions on the Fang; for some reason, I immediately thought of you, bean. 

mnem
*tinker-tinker-putter*

[pipe2null]

For openscad lovers, I wonder what you think of SolveSpace. Looks like an interesting tool: it's a visual design tool, but it work very interestingly: size of shapes are constrained/parametrized by dimensions. So, this way it's sort of best of two worlds: it's parametric (sort of), and visual. Before jumping into it a youtube tutorial is highly recommend. I'm playing with it right now, looks interesting, but I'm a bit lost in UI.

I've been playing with SolveSpace for the past few hours after reading your post...  For me, my "mental workflow" for doing designs is grossly influenced by openscad, so I'm used to assigning all known constants (like measured/spec'ed PCB dimensions) to variable names, then only using variable names when defining objects (like "cube([pcb_x,pcb_y,pcb_z]);"), so it keeps all constant values, or SolveSpace's "D or N keyboard shortcut" constraints at the beginning of my scad file (or in a separate imported file containing all global constants) and easy to edit when I realize for the millionth time that I screwed something up.  And then I have a section where I assign all my own constants to variable names (like "box_z=pcb_z+my_innerdepth;").  So, I don't really like the steps you have to do to enter constant values in SolveSpace, and I haven't found a way in SolveSpace to use variables, but I guess the assumption is you shouldn't care since the constraint solver kinda takes care of that kinda stuff behind the scenes...  So, after messing around with it for a few hours, the ui and entering constant values is a little awkward to me.

BUT I really like the functionality of SolveSpace's constraint system.  It's freakin cool (for free linux-friendly software).  I don't know, I might do a couple projects with it to see how the end-to-printed-object work flow works out.

[mnementh]

   

Oooooh... shiny...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000530032943.html

mnem
 

[mnementh]

   

Looks sweet with the fan on there... too bad that's the back of the piece.

   

Had some blobbing issues with the first few layers... either I had it leveled too high or maybe I'm completely out to lunch on layer fan speed. Extruder kept "pinging" back pretty explosively on retracts (I think); whenever that happened came a blob. This is more advanced-level print quality diag; I'm afraid I'm just too noob to know for sure...  But I'm thinking this may be the clear proof of what bean was saying about the Cap tube... very timely if so.

Worse yet, this is the wrong part. I printed the nozzle for E3 with V6 hotend; turns out I needed the one for stock E3 with MicroSwiss hotend, which is essentially what I made when I built my "hybrid" V6 hotend. 

I'm making the correct base now; we'll see if i can mod this duct to fit it. Also looking at some Cap tube to go with my dual-gear extruder and do it all in one shot.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

There is no listing of Capricorn tube on Amazon.ca that isn't on their "You don't need this; you have to wait a month even tho its in stock because COVID" list.

I can buy the new CNC extruder from CReality Store & the 50mm fan I need for what I'm printing and get them here tomorrow for US$19 tho.  But if I add even the most expensive Cap tube kit (incidentally, ALSO from them) BAM! split order with the tube set aside for April 26 delivery. 

mnem
 

[xrunner]

I backslid in Fusion 360 for a couple of days. I realized I didn't understand all the constraint rules and I wasn't using them right. So I had to turn off the TV and get busy. But after the appropriate videos I got back on track I think - so moving on ahead full steam ... 

[mnementh]

Had some blobbing issues with the first few layers... either I had it leveled too high or maybe I'm completely out to lunch on layer fan speed. Extruder kept "pinging" back pretty explosively on retracts (I think); whenever that happened came a blob. This is more advanced-level print quality diag; I'm afraid I'm just too noob to know for sure...  But I'm thinking this may be the clear proof of what bean was saying about the Cap tube... very timely if so.

Worse yet, this is the wrong part. I printed the nozzle for E3 with V6 hotend; turns out I needed the one for stock E3 with MicroSwiss hotend, which is essentially what I made when I built my "hybrid" V6 hotend. 

I'm making the correct base now; we'll see if i can mod this duct to fit it. Also looking at some Cap tube to go with my dual-gear extruder and do it all in one shot.

mnem
 

Welp... It turns out I CAN mod the E3 base to fit my Diggro... but it's a lot of hot-knife & Dremel butchery, and even then the whole thing is like 1-2mm off-center. Just enough that I don't like it, but I'm STILL probably going to try it. 

Trying to talk myself out of hacking up the duct to fit too; but I have my printer tore apart with pieces scattered from hell to breakfast, and I don't think I can make myself put it back together to print the correct duct, then tear it all apart again to install it.

However, the teardown did reveal one thing... I believe I did not quite have my Bowden tube sealed tight in the bottom of the throat, or maybe the coupler skipped a little on account of being taken apart/together a few times. I found a blob in the bottom of the throat, and it was definitely larger than the ID of the tube. I think I was experiencing my first ever "intermittent clog".

I'm going to try cutting a few mm off the tube & see if I can get it so it bites on fresh material when I reassemble. Though this does still indicate the melt point is higher than it should be in the throat...

mnem
 

[beanflying]

I backslid in Fusion 360 for a couple of days. I realized I didn't understand all the constraint rules and I wasn't using them right. So I had to turn off the TV and get busy. But after the appropriate videos I got back on track I think - so moving on ahead full steam ... 

Constraints are great when you get them sorted in particular the symmetry one. The only things I tend to leave not fully constrained (black lines) are complex curves which can be fully constrained but it means fully dimensioning the nodes in space as well as the direction and weight of the handles at those nodes. Sometimes it has to be done to avoid breakage later but most times you can fudge it 

[xrunner]

Constraints are great when you get them sorted in particular the symmetry one. The only things I tend to leave not fully constrained (black lines) are complex curves which can be fully constrained but it means fully dimensioning the nodes in space as well as the direction and weight of the handles at those nodes. Sometimes it has to be done to avoid breakage later but most times you can fudge it 

Let me ask you this then - does it really matter for a "hobby" project if the sketch is fully and properly constrained? I can do it now, but is it really all that necessary?

Thanks.

[beanflying]

As an example a very simple enclosure where the dimensions of the rebate are correct and in the right position but not fully constrained. It would work and or print just fine. But if you slip or something you do later caused the rebate to move ERROR..... 

The Lid is still one part but by bumping the rebate (grossly) your project would fail. If you then for example added some holes through the lid based on non constrained geometry you would likely get very broken including failed extrude cuts etc.

I was sent an early Cover from someone who was having constrainment related issues causing his model to break but I wouldn't name that fire breather A 'fix' he tried to apply later was causing issues. Tidied up the early sketches and properly constrained them and problem solved.

So good practice to do it but you can get away with it.

[mnementh]

Yup. And I still haven't got them figured out, so I muddle through as best I can.

   

Figured out most of my major malfunction with the Fang print... the effed-up stock fan. That I effed up.   

While I had it all apart, I decided to go back to basics; I cleaned the throat & re-installed the Bowden tube, making sure to clamp it down a good 2-3 turns after bottoming out. Could feel it stiff in the coupler too.  Next I tried running the filament by hand; cold, I could feel it move smoothly down the entire tube and bottom out solidly and cleanly without drag. But hot... it would extrude, barely; tiny little eyelash hairs of filament and it felt like pushing a bus.

Cranked the heat up to 200, then 210° and finally I got proper extrusion. I had been running at the default 190° with good results; but that was before the V6 & silicone sock. I'm pretty sure once I have the Fang on there so the layer cooling is blowing under the hotend instead of half on it, things will go back to normal. Right now I've started on the correct duct at 210° & 60° bed; got some good first layer going there. 

So, now I'm getting started on the power for the fans... since I intend to add some LED lighting too, I'm thinking about using one of these Matek PDB modules to simplify 5V as well as 12V sources.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

grr. clog. furry print fail. going back to bed.

mnem
also, grr.

[mnementh]

                 

Very annoyed with Amazon, Creality Store and bean, just on GP.  But mostly with myself, for not being able to resist fucking with a working printer...

Ordered from Creality Store the single-drive CNC Extruder kit; the purchase let me get one of my fans next day. What arrived, however... was the same stupid cheap POS I could've gotten elsewhere for ~$7 less. I have the REAL Creality extruder on my Tornado; there simply is no comparison in the quality, especially the screws and couplers. And this POS doesn't even have the spring tension adjuster. My fault tho... I was tired, annoyed with my printer, and I should've looked at the pic closer; I picked the red one because it was supposed to be genuine CReality and the grey one like I have on my Tornado was "Prime, in stock, but you'll get it in a month" BS. 

Found a local supplier offering genuine Creality hotend kit with oodles of extra bits for only $US22; got that and a meter of Capricorn XS and some cogged idlers for US$46 W/Tax. The Creality kit will give me a known good hotend complete I can just drop in and finish printing the Fang, then have another as a spare and for fucking around with my weird hotend fetish. I REALLY hate the heat-block they use in the Mk8; it's the absolute cheapest grub-screw retention POS you can get from literally the stone-age of 3DP. I get rid of it and replace with slot & clamp type block with extreme prejudice ever since I had one in a hotend smoke me out of the room on my Tarantula; I could literally see the cartridge glowing red on the side held away from the block by the grub-screw.

Thing I can't understand is why this one is giving me so much shit; I did exactly this hybrid setup on both my Tarantula and my Tornado and never had any clogging problems.

Anyways, tomorrow I go & pick up my order; they have the storefront closed but online sales and local pickup are still encouraged.  We'll see what comes of that. I'm right now seriously vacillating over whether to send this CNC extruder back and order the right one, Amazon Prime wait times be damned.     But the hotend kit will have decent couplers for the Cap XS tube, and I'm sure I can fab SOMETHING up to make a tension adjuster... maybe a printed cup to go inside the spring. 

mnem
Oh... and they have the MicroSwiss heat-block right there... for US$13... *wibble*