3D printing Widgets

Thanks Jon.
Magpie asked the question what printers do we have?
Simon has an Anet A8 that he's had from the beginning
Jon started with a Prusa Mini and has upgraded to a Prusa 4S
I started with an Anet A6 which I modified but got disenchanted with it and followed in Jons footsteps and bought a Prusa 4 which I have subsequently upgraded to 4S. I am so happy with the Prusa, words can't begin to describe it.
 

Rather than foil there was a recent print that used an alternative. Perhaps Tony in SA noticed this as well - that printed  'paper airplane' motor mount we were discussing a few weeks ago used a printed TPU shield with the same shape of the motor mount. I took it as a heat deflector for the motor mount.  

That might be genius or not. interesting that the designers considered that combination.  TPU might be pliable but it certainly is resistant to abuse/tearing/impact. The TPU motor mount shield was only about 0.5mm thick and I suspect it might also act as a bit of a shock absorber for motor vibrations. 

Yes I did start with that Prusa Mini - great learning tool in many ways - it was a limited self-build as opposed to the Prusa 4S which arrived as boxes of hundreds of parts and some seriously pedantic instructions that were so good that when it came to powering the beastie up it needed few tweeks.

While the Mini had a 180 x 180 x 180 volume the 4S is more like 230 x 250 x 230 so capable of bigger parts.  The bigger jump was that the firmware driving the 4S was capable of greater speed at the same time as a better finish on the parts.  My Mini has generally been gathering dust while I use the 4S (good to have a backup).  I did update the Mini firmware and it probably would work better if not to the level of the 4S.

I believe that there should be alternatives to products from China and although something designed and mfg'd in Europe comes at a price that I was willing to pay. Both the Mini and 4S are solid stable beasties.

The printer MagPi is getting does have a rather small print volume ~100 x 100 x 100 which will pose it's own challenges. Monoprice is unknown to me as a vendor of 3D printers although my memory is that they have had notable success being a disruptor in other areas. It is a cantilever design which the Mini uses so that is not necessarily an issue.

Only when unpacked will it become clear how much user attention is needed and how well the controls work, Honestly all these beasties crave attention. It will probably be fine for PLA. Its ability to work with higher temperature plastics is 'unproven'. And there are ways to explore that.

Just as Tony and Simon and I found there is a whole new world of stuff to discover. 

I've looked up TPU. it says it softens when its heated. Would that not be a problem?
The Mini I bought only has a working volume of 110x110X120. It obviously would be inadequate for others who make large parts but I'll be only making bells & whistles like motor mounts & noses.

And here's my latest nose. Its the whole nose as a solid piece. I'll next go back to the sketch & cut it into the parts that make up the nose, spinners, cowls, plates etc.
 
 
 

TPU is an elastic product, you can use it to make rubber bands, oil seals, vibration dampers etc. I believe Varioshore is better, it has more stretch, but I haven't tried it.
It sticks like Baby poo so do not use heat in the bed when printing.
As regards printing speed, the high extrusion speed available with the Prusa 4S was initially attractive, but I now don't use it. I find slower gives me much better surface finishes and better adhesion to the previous layer. I use 60mm/s for general PLA work and 40 for LW-PA. Since the expansion of LW-PLA is dependent on length of time in the extruder I find I can use the manufacturers exact temperature recommendations. Yes, I've had some prints that took 23hrs, you can do that with the Prusa, it's just switch on, send the Gcode over the WiFi and walk away. Never had any problems like I used to with the Anet.

I have had another go this afternoon, I got Nose4 done in FreeCad & it looks OK but when I export an STL & open it in Cura It doesn't show the pocket. What am I doing wrong?
The first image is a PDF export from FreeCad, the second is a screen shot of Cura.
I can rotate the part in Cura & get it to sit down on the correct face but that makes no difference, nor does slicing it.
 
 
 

In order to better see what is happening in FreeCAD we need to see the 'tree view' on the left of the entities.  

The 'pocket' in freeCAD modifies some other body. It is the combination of the two that you want to export. I think what got exported was just the 'other body'.

A suggestion.  Create a new CAD file and put in it several simple rectangular shapes that partly overlap.  Give each a different name.  Then try different boolean operations on the solids and see what the result is.  And then try exporting various combinations of entities in the tree view and preview them in Cura.  Eventually you will discover the pattern that it is applying.

After a bit of trial & error it turns out that it was at the "Export STL file" that the problem was.
I had been doing "Select All", the correct way was just to select "Body" & export that.
Maybe different versions of FreeCad work differently.
So simple but it cost me hours of my life.
 

Despite my best intentions of getting on with something else I couldn't resist improving it so now I've got the motor backplate & shroud.
Its got a deep pocket in the front for the motor & all the holes & pockets on the back for M5 nuts, which isn't recommended.
I'll attach a PDF of the FreeCAD display & the STL file.

Things have just escalated, the printer has just been delivered so I'll have to clear some space & unpack it.

Magpie said "So simple but it cost me hours of my life."
Been there, done that, worn out the "T" shirt. 

And since it arrived, and if you have not already found it here is a link to a YouTube about setting the monoprice printer up.



 

And before powering up a monoprice printer might be good to look at this review of someone who used one for 6 months.

Mostly a comparison of V1 and V2.  But noted issues with power supply being inadequate for the machine (draws 13A but
supplies only ~10A).  And cooling fan being rather weak.

Wow, how things have moved on, nice starter kit though. The power issues are a worry, luckily after market supplies are easy to find The Anet wasn't any different, I had to update the supply Mosfets.

Are you using M5 bolts?
The breaking strain of a standard steel M5 bolt is just over 800kg and you are using fou! A bit over kill for a plane that will weigh under 1 kg. 
Or have I got the wrong end of the bolt?  

Nose weight?