.....I finally got myself a 3-D printer, a CoLiDo DIY 3D Printer, http://www.print-rite.com/product/colido-diy/

It's a start, I'm happy, now I can get busy printing what i miss at times, which are mostly retainers of sort to help building/holding things together while experimenting with finding new laws of the unknown Universe :-D

Not being savvy in 3-D design, which user friendly software would you recommend, prefeably one which "does the whole thing", I.E converts the 3-D design file formats (STL/SKP/whathaveyou) into executeable G-code to feed my printer with?

If there's no such thing then I'm just as good with using separate programs to transform a 3-D design into G-codes, hopefully without the need to use scripts etc to get the job(s) done.

Ahhhhh fancy.

There are a few options. You'll need to almost allways have stl files ready for the slicer software.

Watch this video for your general idea.

https://youtu.be/F7JuMa35IjA

For the drawing I would recommend fusion 360.

Its free for guys like us.

~Russ

Thanks Russ, appreciate it :thumbsup:

Lynx
Your going to have a blast printing and I picked up a Prusa i3 clone with the aluminum frame about 6 months ago. I use FreeCad for designing parts and Repetier Host for the slicing and scaling. It's worked flawless to date, it's free and can handle generating and changing STL files so I see no need to upgrade at this point.

I found the print quality is only as good as the setup and I would go over everything and make sure there is no give or play. Bed levelling, bed and nozzle temperature also determine the final print quality. One mistake I made was reducing the extruder cooling fan speed which then melted the filament up into the teflon sleeve and plugged the extruder nozzle. What a gong show but I got it all sorted out and won't make that mistake again.

Also just looking at it I would run that thing slower. It looks like its not that stable. But should work. ;)   fun times ahead!  ~Russ

Quote from onepower on September 16th, 2017, 04:22 PM

Lynx
Your going to have a blast printing and I picked up a Prusa i3 clone with the aluminum frame about 6 months ago. I use FreeCad for designing parts and Repetier Host for the slicing and scaling. It's worked flawless to date, it's free and can handle generating and changing STL files so I see no need to upgrade at this point.

I found the print quality is only as good as the setup and I would go over everything and make sure there is no give or play. Bed levelling, bed and nozzle temperature also determine the final print quality. One mistake I made was reducing the extruder cooling fan speed which then melted the filament up into the teflon sleeve and plugged the extruder nozzle. What a gong show but I got it all sorted out and won't make that mistake again.

I'm sure I'll make some typical 3-D mistakes, almost looking forward to it :-D
Alll good advice, thanks for the tips :thumbsup:

Another tool in your toolbox Lynx.  I think you'll find it rather useful and quite amazing to have a part you need in your hand in just a few hours.  This still blows my mind and I've put over 150 hours on my printer.

Quote from ~Russ on September 16th, 2017, 09:56 PM

Also just looking at it I would run that thing slower. It looks like its not that stable. But should work. ;)   fun times ahead!  ~Russ

10 4.
I printed a sample code of a cat, took almost 1 hour and the cat was only about 1 1/8 inch tall...........I couldn't help but thinking man, that's slow.
I guess I'll dial down the speeds once i'm looking into getting higher precision, for now it's good enough as is :-)

Quote from Matt Watts on September 17th, 2017, 12:31 AM

Another tool in your toolbox Lynx.  I think you'll find it rather useful and quite amazing to have a part your need in your hand in just a few hours.  This still blows my mind and I've put over 150 hours on my printer.

I'm just getting started :thumbsup2:
Now I can have a go at printing ABHA/bobbins/motivational things/all the other good stuff. :thumbsup:

Hehe.  Just don't try that quasi-crystal because it will prove to you just how good Russ is at 3D printing compared to most of us.

Quasi-crystal, eh?
Gotta check it out :-D

NOOOOoooo.....     Not the cursed quasi-crystal.   That thing is a monster.   My printer makes a gooey blob out of it.

Aha.



I see what you mean.
Well I guess it's the ultimate test to whether or not your printer is up to the more intricate tasks at hand.......

Maybe in the future if i see the need to get myself a printer with higher accuracy, until the I'll take your word for it............wouldn't want to create a mess out of my printer, not just yet anyway :-D

Lynx

Quote

Now I can have a go at printing ABHA/bobbins/motivational things/all the other good stuff.

My initial reason for getting a 3D printer was because it was almost impossible to fabricate the coil former's I wanted. Then you realize any coil former is only a couple drag and drop's plus 20 minutes away. I also found getting back up to speed on FreeCad and designing my own parts was harder than building and setting up the printer. There is a pretty good learning curve to complex CAD structures but it's like most things and it gets easier with time.

I also found it was much easier to build a coil form in two pieces and I design the bottom flange and tube as one piece and the top flange as another to avoid the need for supports. Add a couple drops of super glue to join them and your done. This allows us to build large diameter thin flanges on a smaller tube more like a spool. Sometimes it's just easier and much faster to split up the parts rather than have to deal with overhangs and supports.

Good building

Quote from onepower on September 17th, 2017, 09:39 AM

Lynx
My initial reason for getting a 3D printer was because it was almost impossible to fabricate the coil former's I wanted. Then you realize any coil former is only a couple drag and drop's plus 20 minutes away. I also found getting back up to speed on FreeCad and designing my own parts was harder than building and setting up the printer. There is a pretty good learning curve to complex CAD structures but it's like most things and it gets easier with time.

I also found it was much easier to build a coil form in two pieces and I design the bottom flange and tube as one piece and the top flange as another to avoid the need for supports. Add a couple drops of super glue to join them and your done. This allows us to build large diameter thin flanges on a smaller tube more like a spool. Sometimes it's just easier and much faster to split up the parts rather than have to deal with overhangs and supports.

Good building

Thanks, all good advice :thumbsup: