3D printing seems to have gone quiet. Where are we all at?

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

done it again

Edited By Ian S C on 02/04/2014 13:24:40

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Grrr – ok, after getting a good power supply from the Printrbot people (shipped free of charge, thank you Printrbot) and getting the printer actually moving last weekend, last night it seems that one of the driver chips on the board is no longer working.

I was trying to measure how much filament is going in to the extruder, when I heard a little "snick" off in the direction of the printrbot electronics board, and the extruder stopped. moving the plugs around; the extruder stepper works fine, but whatever I plug into the extruder stepper plug on the board does not move.

Good news is that, Printrbot has a $10.00 replacement program, bad news is that it is probably not going to be back here in time for an exhibition in a couple of weeks.

Oh well, I had hoped to print off some little railway wheels as giveaways for the kiddies, but that is not to be!

They're just going to have to watch my little CNC Unimat lathe move around, instead.

Another JohnS

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Things move quickly in the world of 3D printing… first, print yourself a workshop.

 

 

Martin.

Edited By blowlamp on 28/04/2014 13:50:30

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

Well I'm not quite at that stage but I am trying to re organise my bench and have started printing some things to hold various tools. First off was something to hang a hacksaw off (yes I know I could have used a nail). Second is a holder for some files. Perhaps when I've finished I'll print a 30 acre shed complete with everything I'll ever need. Actually that may not be big enough.

Seriously though the idea of printing a new workshop for when the old one is too much of a mess. Well that sounds like a winner to me.

Regards David.

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Someone had to do it….

They look pretty terrible but 10 houses.

**LINK**

Check out the video a bit down the page.

Regards
John

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Now we have hybrid (additive and subtractive) machines. Not in your shed in the foreseeable future but interesting to see where this is going.

**LINK**

Murray

[John BaguleyParticipant @johnbaguley78655]

After looking around for the last few weeks I bit the bullet and ordered one of these:

**LINK**

Looks pretty good to me for the price. All metal construction and looks very sturdy. I would have liked an Ultimaker 2 as they have a very good reputation but it was out of my price range.

The main use will be printing patterns for castings but no doubt I'll find plenty of other uses for it.

It arrives tomorrow so we'll see

John

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by John Baguley on 10/11/2014 15:46:55:

After looking around for the last few weeks I bit the bullet and ordered one of these:

**LINK**

.

That does look promising, John

[can't find a 'Green with Envy' emoticon to insert here]

Please keep us informed !!

MichaelG.

[Peter BondParticipant @peterbond14804]

FWIW, I have a Wanhao 4x, which is a close copy of the Duplicator 2. An interesting beast for some things, but it is not a replacement for subtractive machining despite the many claims of "it's like a Star Trek replicator" (rather more a hot melt glue gun with some degree of precision). It is quite handy for making up (lightweight) jigs, fixtures and space models; I've used it to make a collection of different height stands for my ball vices, for example.

Next month I should be taking delivery of a LittleRP SLA printer – much higher resolution and smaller build volume than the Wanhao, using photosensitive resins to create the models. Some of the resins can be used as-is with lost wax casting (albeit with a more rigorous burnout schedule than wax demands).

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Here is what NASA is up to.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

I was Christmas shopping in Bluewateryesterday and saw this in the ScienceMuseum shop:

http://www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/christmas/gadget_guru_2/printrbot_simple_black_3d_printer.htm

£500 from the highstreet seems like a breakthrough, although US price is $535.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

There was a chap demonstrating Printerbot at the Model Engineer show. He reckoned £400 for the basic version.

Same stand had a Zmorph which has seven heads availble:

• 1.75mm plastic
• 3mm plastic
• Dual head extruder
• Laser cutter
• Ceramics extruder
• Cake and chocolate extruder
• Dremel mount.

Compatible materials: ABS,PLA, Nylon, rubber, woodfill(?), timberfill, ceramics, CAKE, CHOCOLATE, metal engraving.

Apparently it also does object scanning.

Neil

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

I have a Printrbot Simple, although mine is a previous version to the wooden one at the MEX. (Mine has the wooden extruder, the one at the MEX had the newer aluminium extruder)

Works OK – the main controller card fried after about 4 hours, (replaced under warranty) and the main power supply was DOA – again replaced under warranty.

It's PLA only, as it does not have a heated bed.

The metal version has a bigger print surface.

It was fun to put together, but it's main use at a show here in Canada was sunk because of the main board issue.

John.

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

I do note that the "MachineKit" people are using a variation of LinuxCNC for controlling 3D printers, routers, lathes, mills, etc, using BeagleBone cards. http://machinekit.io should get you there. Lots of progress, but still lots of work to do.

This should not to be dismissed off-hand; a real, reliable, real time OS running a 3D printer can only help – whilst the "drip feed" GCODE interpreters that are used by many 3D printer people are ok, industry passed that step in machine control evolution about 40 years ago. (much like they ended paper tape usage; not much difference between the drip feeders and paper tape, when you get down to it)

Just my thoughts – John.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Neil,

"Compatible materials: ABS,PLA, Nylon, rubber, woodfill(?), timberfill, ceramics, CAKE, CHOCOLATE, metal engraving.

Apparently it also does object scanning."

Wonderful! So can it scan a chocolate cake then print one out? That's my sort of printer!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> Wonderful! So can it scan a chocolate cake then print one out? That's my sort of printer!

4 billion years of evolution 500,000 years of Homo sapiens and we have finally perfected the chocolate cake replicator

I guess we can all go home now…

Neil

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

Is there a diy build kit rather than a ready to go 3d printer ? I would like one but i don't want to fork out too much for one.

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

Posted by John Alexander Stewart on 22/12/2014 17:03:03:

 

This should not to be dismissed off-hand; a real, reliable, real time OS running a 3D printer can only help – whilst the "drip feed" GCODE interpreters that are used by many 3D printer people are ok, industry passed that step in machine control evolution about 40 years ago. (much like they ended paper tape usage; not much difference between the drip feeders and paper tape, when you get down to it)

Just my thoughts – John

Laugh if you like, but about 30 years ago, I was part of a team that wired up all the buttons and lamps on Fanuc controller so we could apply "DIrect Numerical Control" – We added a processor that literally emulated button pushes and the tape inputs, this was done for 10 machine tools – mitsui-seiki machining centres that where designed for titanium & hard steel machining. When the machines were powered up the controllers started calling for work across the network. The project also allowed us to upset General Motors – we used Ethernet across the shop floor for distribution of part programmes. GM said Ethernet wasn't upto the job and undermined their MAP 3.0 spec, which used cable tv broadband (not ADSL type BB) for shop floor data distribution. This link is to a video I made around 1987 when we were quite advanced in the work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ar7bszg73mg8jgo/Setting%20The%20Standards.wmv?dl=0

So the principle of client – server architecture is long standing and the idea of  dedicated O/S driving the printer would seem to be perfectly sound to me.   Not sure it needs to be real-time though.

 

Steve

Edited By Steve Withnell on 23/12/2014 21:05:32

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by ronan walsh on 23/12/2014 20:44:52:

Is there a diy build kit rather than a ready to go 3d printer ? I would like one but i don't want to fork out too much for one.

I think you'll find that the vast majority of early 3D printers were DIY builds. Originally they were called "reprap" printers, as they were able to print themselves and thus self replicate.

Nowadays, I suspect the majority are still DIY build and the machines being built now include routers, laser cutters, milling machines and more. Where printers stop and these other machines start is very blurred. Try typing words like "CNC" and "DIY" into a search engine and stand back. The parts are readily available on ebay, AliExpress, various online stores and elsewhere.

Some printers are available as kits or ready assembled, some only as kits. You can design your own from scratch. Depends how much you want to do yourself.

Murray

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Fascinating video, Steve. Did this work continue to evolve into what we have in today's manufacturing environment? Not my field at all but there was clearly some staggeringly complex work going on there. Fault tolerance, standardisation, validation etc – all vital groundwork.

Funny but perhaps not surprising that the Mercans would gravitate towards cable-style comms which was prevalent in their country at the time. Where did the Japanese fit in – did they have another system or follow the US lead?

BTW, the "alternators" shown near the end in the Magnetti Marelli factory are not like any I've ever seen. They look remarkably like throttle bodies to me. Artistic license!

Thanks for sharing.

Murray

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

The work continued on into Fieldbus and other standards. The big difference at the time was that in the UK & the US, the automation drive was "end to end". So raw billet in at one end, inspected component out at the other. The ideology was very much to eliminate the "islands of automation". A strong driver was cost reduction. In Japan, the focus appeared to be very much on process improvement and quality as drivers and were less concerned about the "Islands of Automation". If you hit spec everytime, then cost of failure disappears and you hit cost targets anyway. It's the right way to cut costs. The Japanese were also much faster in being able to turn out new models of car for example, I can't remember the stats, but I think Toyota could turn out new models about 4x the rate that GM could.

Technology wise, they were all over us – every conference and exhibtion. They developed something called FAIS – which largely followed the MAP spec, but introduced fibre into the physical connections. Obviously they were not convinced by Ethernet on the shop floor. One of my colleagues, to prove our design, literally wrapped a couple of turns of ethernet coax around a Mitsui Seiki machine and then measured packet loss over a number of days. No difference from an office environment.

OK on the throttle bodies! I think it's a bit late for a re-edit Its hard to believe now, but the graphics in the video were absolutely the latest thing in Video editing.

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

Anyone seen the HP Sprout? It looks like a laptop /tablet, but has a 3D scanner built in and outputs 3D plot files.

Apparently retailing at 1999USD.

Steve

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Did they bring it out especially for Xmas to print sprouts?

Edited By JasonB on 24/12/2014 12:52:24

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

There's a Kit for Printerbot, which would be my current choice in the price vs. performance stakes (not having actually done too much research into this yet).

Neil

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 24/12/2014 13:03:31:

There's a Kit for Printerbot, which would be my current choice in the price vs. performance stakes (not having actually done too much research into this yet).

Neil – I have this kit; put it together November 2013.

Quite easy to put together. The one I made had fishing line and sanding drums to move the X and Y axes, which actually works quite well. I have parts (STL files from a fellow named John Lawrence on the Printrbot forum) to use toothed drive belts.

Now they all come with an aluminium extruder (at least I think so). Mine came with the wooden kit, which, other than one misplaced hole, went together just fine.

It does PLA only, no ABS, nor chocolate!

Oh, and note that "Printrbot" does not contain an "e"; confusing to say the least, but it makes it easier to find their website.

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