 |
| A bit flimsy, but overall good spools. |
This post is rather long, so I'll try a jump-cut...
I have a fever, and the only cure is more RepRap.
Viser innlegg med etiketten PLA. Vis alle innlegg
Viser innlegg med etiketten PLA. Vis alle innlegg
mandag 26. desember 2011
PLA Review - Supply3DPLA Autumn 2011 batch
This post is rather long, so I'll try a jump-cut...
søndag 10. juli 2011
New Prusa snap fit x-ends not fit for PLA?
I just printed the new snap fit Prusa x ends, and ran into a few problems.
The red highlights are where the part cracked under stress. First from inserting the smooth rods, then along the holes for the zip tie, when I pushed in the top lm8uu bearing.
Print settings
This is printed in white PLA from Ultimachine @200 deg C. Nozzle is 0.5mm, layer height is 0.35mm, it has 2 extra shells (thus 3 in total) and infill of 30%. I believe the problem is the flexible part of the push fit design, which doesn't flex at all. I don't know whether it's because of the brittle PLA, or if it can be avoided by using either fewer or more outer shells. Heating the part before inserting the smooth rod will probably help, but
If this is a problem with PLA, I hope there will be an option to switch out the push fit with m3 nut and bolt. Looking forward to having a look at the OpenSCAD files!
Blame the user
The crack along the lm8uu holders is most probably my own fault, it was a tight fit, and I did manhandle the bearing quite a bit. There are some small lips to hold the bearing in place (in the z direction) and the bridge did sag a tad so the bearings didn't fit very well under the top ones. You can sort of see it in the second picture. Using 100% infill might solve this, as moving the holes up would just move the weak spot.
Edit 2011.07.11 :
I just printed the x-end idler, and the bearing holder snapped when I pushed in the bearing (had to use a wood clamp, it was that tight). This trouble might be my printer drawing outside of the lines, instead of on the inside. I'll be back with more info.
Difference in PLA?
This is the first object I have printed in this white PLA, and it might need a little skeinforge tweaking to get perfect. It seems to flow more, and thus pushes out more plastic than with the other Ultimachine PLA I have. (Silver, transulent blue, natural and black).
For this print I tried to drop the speed from 60 to 55mm/s, and on the x ends, it didn't loose enough y-steps to ruin the results. I have a theory it might be the weight of the plastic spool keeping the maching from rattling, anyone else experienced this? I still can't print gregs lm8uu x-carriage properly though.
New hot end review on the way
While I'm blogging, I might as well drop in a picture of a nice little puzzle I got in the mail:
It's an Arcol 0.35mm hot end, which I'm looking forward to try out. One thing I'm a sceptical about is the hot end relying on threaded PEEK to hold the pressure. People have a lot of good of things to say about this design, but to me a push-fit version just seems a the "safe" way to go. Also, it's a bit large to fit on gregs lm8uu x-carriage, so I have to figure out which printer to put it on, as it won't fit on Adesina now.
fredag 27. mai 2011
PLA Review - supply3dpla.com
More filament suppliers is always a good thing, even more so when they are shipping from a location near you. After seeing a small advertisement on the RepRap forums, I chose to try out the PLA from supply3dpla.com who are located in Sweden.
First, the postal service managed to ship my package to Denmark, but Bo was very forthcoming, and shipped the package again. Total shipping time to Norway was 6 days, including a 4 days (unnecessary I might add) delay at customs. If you live in Norway (and outside the EU?), you can ask for the VAT to be removed, shaving a few € off the total price.
I ordered 400g of both the red and the blue, and got some samples of the transparent and black color as well. These are the only colors they supply at the moment, but Bo told me they plan to supply both green and yellow, and perhaps ABS.
How is the quality?
All the filament is "soft/smooth" to the touch, and feels quite bendable and "fresh". The diameter was a pretty consistent 2.88mm-3mm, and a bit oval. I forgot to compensate for this in Skeinforge 41 - dimensions, but the prints are looking very good, though it spit out a tad too much plastic now and then.
The PLA extrudes very easily at 185deg c, not needing a lot of tension on the extruder. All colors behave the same, as far as my small testing goes. It also stick very, very well to the heated build plate with glass @40 deg. So well in fact, that I pretty much have to clean with acetone after each build to get the stuff off.
What does it look like?
The colors are difficult to describe, as they are not a "pure" color, but rather a mix between several. I'll try my best with photos in different light conditions.
The "red"
In filament form it's very transparent, and looks delicious. When extruding it's almost completely transparent, and you need a couple of layers to really see the color. The final color is a kind of mix between red, orange and pink. I was hesitant at first, but the color is growing on me.
The "blue"
Just like the red, it's very transparent, and the same behaviour apply. The color is kind of "off" for me personally. It's like a strange mixture between light blue and cyan, and doesn't "pop" like the red one does. I might change my mind, but I doubt it. No UV-reactive goodness either.
The natural
In filament form it's almost 100% transparent, when extruded it's still pretty much transparent. In natural light it gets a bit of a yellow tint, but when you shine a led torch on it, it's quite nice and clear.
Most suppliers sell natural filament cheaper than coloured, but not here. It might be for you if you are incorporating lights in a model, but otherwise I'd go for something more funky.
The Black
This one is nice. It's a very deep, shiny completely opaque black filament. I thought the filament I have from ultimachine was black, but there is a slight difference when comparing side to side. It's difficult to catch it on camera though. Note: The filament I have from ultimachine has been laying around for more than a year, so I don't know how it compares to what they supply now.
Bottom line
The filament they supply is excellent! I'm definitely getting more of both the red and the black filament from supply3dpla. I don't know how easy it is to handle the big 5kg rolls of filament they ship, which might be a downside.
A nice little bunch with 6.8kg of filament from ultimachine just went through customs, so expect a review and comparison of that later on.
First, the postal service managed to ship my package to Denmark, but Bo was very forthcoming, and shipped the package again. Total shipping time to Norway was 6 days, including a 4 days (unnecessary I might add) delay at customs. If you live in Norway (and outside the EU?), you can ask for the VAT to be removed, shaving a few € off the total price.
I ordered 400g of both the red and the blue, and got some samples of the transparent and black color as well. These are the only colors they supply at the moment, but Bo told me they plan to supply both green and yellow, and perhaps ABS.
How is the quality?
All the filament is "soft/smooth" to the touch, and feels quite bendable and "fresh". The diameter was a pretty consistent 2.88mm-3mm, and a bit oval. I forgot to compensate for this in Skeinforge 41 - dimensions, but the prints are looking very good, though it spit out a tad too much plastic now and then.
The PLA extrudes very easily at 185deg c, not needing a lot of tension on the extruder. All colors behave the same, as far as my small testing goes. It also stick very, very well to the heated build plate with glass @40 deg. So well in fact, that I pretty much have to clean with acetone after each build to get the stuff off.
What does it look like?
The colors are difficult to describe, as they are not a "pure" color, but rather a mix between several. I'll try my best with photos in different light conditions.
The "red"
In filament form it's very transparent, and looks delicious. When extruding it's almost completely transparent, and you need a couple of layers to really see the color. The final color is a kind of mix between red, orange and pink. I was hesitant at first, but the color is growing on me.
The "blue"
Just like the red, it's very transparent, and the same behaviour apply. The color is kind of "off" for me personally. It's like a strange mixture between light blue and cyan, and doesn't "pop" like the red one does. I might change my mind, but I doubt it. No UV-reactive goodness either.
The natural
In filament form it's almost 100% transparent, when extruded it's still pretty much transparent. In natural light it gets a bit of a yellow tint, but when you shine a led torch on it, it's quite nice and clear.
Most suppliers sell natural filament cheaper than coloured, but not here. It might be for you if you are incorporating lights in a model, but otherwise I'd go for something more funky.
The Black
This one is nice. It's a very deep, shiny completely opaque black filament. I thought the filament I have from ultimachine was black, but there is a slight difference when comparing side to side. It's difficult to catch it on camera though. Note: The filament I have from ultimachine has been laying around for more than a year, so I don't know how it compares to what they supply now.
Bottom line
The filament they supply is excellent! I'm definitely getting more of both the red and the black filament from supply3dpla. I don't know how easy it is to handle the big 5kg rolls of filament they ship, which might be a downside.
A nice little bunch with 6.8kg of filament from ultimachine just went through customs, so expect a review and comparison of that later on.
-Nudel
fredag 20. mai 2011
Tips & Tricks - Tape & Layer thickness
Introducing RepRap Tips & Tricks, short blogposts where I share some of the small things you learn when you have a RepRap.
- Don't tape your PLA filament together! When you're battling with a noncooperative spool of tangled filament, it might seem like a good idea at the time. When you have to degrease the tape residue off 2kg of PLA filament to avoid clogging the extruder, not so much.
- If you have problems printing at high speed because the layer won't stick to the previous, try lowering the layer thickness under carve in Skeinforge (41). I went from 0.4mm to 0.35mm, and have done near-perfect gears at more than 50% speed increase from before. (Went from 20mm/sec to 33mm/sec).
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