The 3d printing thread

[ax]

yes the new think3dprint3d version 3 has been much upgraded but i didnt want to spend the other £140 for my first printer.

this is the electronics upgrade taken from their site:

There are substantial upgrades in Release 3: the main improvements include:-

• Duet V0.8.5 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 electronics with ethernet and USB connectivity and micro-SD card socket for configuration and print files.
  
  
• DC42 RepRap Firmware on the Duet - this takes advantage of the 32-bit processing power to provide true segmentation-free delta movement for improved smoothness and accuracy. Unlike most 8-bit firmware like Marlin, RepRap Firmware is precompiled and users should never need to modify or recompile it.

Can understand that, I mean the CTC was £300, but I think I've probably spent that again on parts to make it the CTCForge it is now. There are plans afoot to make it a FrankenCTCForge, I'll be moving it over to an E3D Lite6 and totally stripping it down and replacing the wood frame with Acrylic (which is OK for the Replicator-style printers) when I get a bit of cash in.

The Duet board is solid from what I've heard, I mean, as you have the printer now, you can upgrade and change parts to your heart's content. So in theory down the line, you could add the Duet or Smoothieboard.

 

[bugmania]

do you find it difficuly to do, as in the drawings and getting it to print correct? id love to try at some point but know id balls it up

 

[ax]

do you find it difficuly to do, as in the drawings and getting it to print correct? id love to try at some point but know id balls it up

Takes a little practice, but tbh, once you have the designing down it's pretty easy.

 

[peps1]

do you find it difficuly to do, as in the drawings and getting it to print correct? id love to try at some point but know id balls it up

I guess like most thing in life, you will get as much out as you are willing to put it.

I had done a little CAD before getting into 3D printing, and am a life long tinkerer, so I didn't find it that daunting, but can totally see how it could be for someone new to anything "Maker/Hacking/Tinkering".

It's very rewarding, but you have to have the time to learn, and the patience, as you will fail over and over again, and have to except that as part of the process of learning, and the limitations of the technology.

There are so many good models already out there on sites like https://www.thingiverse.com/ that I think someone could buy a printer and get a lot of use out of it before even having to worry about learning to model there own parts, and this has the advantage of understanding how a printer works, and you then bring that instinctive knowledge to the 3D design work that you then learn.

For example, how a part is orientated on the print bed can make a huge difference in how it print with or without support, how fast it prints, and what parts will be strong and weak. you can get a feel for all these things by just printing other people works, and when it comes time to design your own stuff you have a skill set that is targeted at design for 3D printing and make better models then if you were just leaning a general 3D design software.

I would say do it if you have some time, and some patience.......everything else can be learnt!

 

[bugmania]

The cad doesn't bother me as I did a 3 year course of training with AutoCad it's more getting a reliable print of decent quality, it would be epically handy for the classic cars I restore haha just wondering if a sub £1000 printer would make decent quality parts as we use a company whose machines are £16k plus and still not a perfectly finished print

 

[peps1]

The cad doesn't bother me as I did a 3 year course of training with AutoCad it's more getting a reliable print of decent quality, it would be epically handy for the classic cars I restore haha just wondering if a sub £1000 printer would make decent quality parts as we use a company whose machines are £16k plus and still not a perfectly finished print

Are we talking mechanically reliable, or aesthetic quality?

Fused deposition modeling (FDM & your only real option sub £1000) printers by the way they work, depositing layer after layer of molten plastic will always have ridges on the printed part, though they can be printed at higher resolution to make them appearer smoother, or chemically treated with acetone to smooth some plastic types. However you can create very strong mechanically reliable parts using the right plastics for the job.

 

[bugmania]

If I'm honest I would love both as I wouldn't want to heavily re finish parts

 

[julesvapes]

If I'm honest I would love both as I wouldn't want to heavily re finish parts

Hi if you have a small part you would like printing, I would be happy to do one for you and then you can see what kind of finish you are likely to get

 

[ax]

*cough* *cough* *cough*

 

[ax]

Ok, I'm selling my CTCForge. It just doesn't have the configurability that I've become accustomed to with my Prusas and the Marlin firmware in general. I'll be replacing it with another Migbot Prusa i3 and instantly upgrading it with an E3D Lite6 as I've done with the other printers. If you're interested, give me a yell, I'll give you the full run down.