3D printing
 

I have just treated myself to a Tevo Tarantula 3d printer kit which should be arriving in the next 10 days.

I am planning on printing a couple of badges for my car and similar stuff. Not really sure what but for £155 it seemed worth trying.

If any of you clever artistic types want to know out some designs for stuff I will probably print them as test pieces and post back to you for cost. This offer is only open until I work out what I am doing and comes with no guarantees.

It can print ABS and PLA. I have no more idea of any more details than you beyond this. If you have any technical questions then please ask Google. If you want me to print something then PM me and we can discuss.

I am not doing this as a business and I am not trying to make money out of it. Do not expect batches of hundreds, it is just an opportunity for me to learn to print and possibly provide something useful.

How large an item can you print? And how smooth will the final product be?

20cm cubed but big stuff takes ages apparently.

The finished stuff appears fairly good, sand off the points where there were any support rods, primer and paint apparently

I will post as detailed as picture as possible when I get it.

Plenty on youtube with this particular printer. The results look good from what I can see. A lot will depend on your programming skills I would think !

I have a cheaper desktop printer (makerbot) bought 5 or 6 years ago and it has really taken me a long time to get all kinks worked out. You will have problems with the print head clogging, layers separating, the part lifting off of the build plate etc. It's just the way it is unless you spend $20000+ on a machine.

I will give you a few tips that really helped me

-make sure your build plate is perfectly leveled and distanced to the print head.

-wrap calphon tape on the build plate and Pre "paint" your build plate with a solution of abs scraps dissolved in acetone. You can put it on a paper cloth and wipe it on really thin. This will ensure your part does not lift during printing

-build intricate parts in sections so that helps you avoid "support material" or having a big part 75% done and then the top layers mess up! Your finished part can be glued together in sections with the abs solution you already made up.

-Use "fast" print speeds and make the build plate hotter than suggested (if it can be heated) and also set the print head temp 10 or 20 degrees over what online "getting started" articles suggest. If you can update your firmware to allow accelerated printing, do that.

- I use solidworks for solid modeling. You don't have to get a legitimate copy (hopefully I'm not breaking the rules here) :eusa_whistle: It is way more user friendly than the free programs like sketchup. It's the best when you want correctly dimensioned parts and engineering drawings. There are some great solidworks tutorials on youtube that will walk you through the main tools for taking a sketch to a part.

Do you think these are possible?

https://thumb.ibb.co/mGpnja/s_l225.jpg

275NART - It has a heated plate and can print PLA, ABS and other so will experiment. I plan to have a tempered glass sheet over the heat bed. I have many different suggestions for coating it - anything from 3M tape to hairspray. I have watched much YouTube about the problems and am expecting some or all of them.

Mazderazmataz - All things are possible. You send me the file to print. Remember it will come out as blue plastic so you will need to spray it.

It might be worth using my cheap plastic printouts to test your design and then send it to a proper printer to get them printed in real metal/ceramic/your choice

If you want to practice there is a section on ThePirateBay in the physibles section.
Not much choice at the moment but you can choose between a Nerf gun, butt plug or a 3D dildo.:jaw:

I get my butt plugs made from licquorice personally ...

Wouldn't mind two tribute badges to go on the front wings.

Zag - If I do get a decent Tribute badge sorted out (CHRIS is good at design) I might let a few prototypes out the back door but as i said. It can only print plastic so I will let Chris OWN and PERFECT the badges on my cheap printer before deciding IF he wants to get some printed properly.

The prototypes and stuff 'might' be available.

If you, instead of Chris want to design one, the same deal goes.

I am planning to try to do a NART 250 badge for my short nose and a WCA Prototipo Barchetta for the long nose. Different fonts and NART will have the stars and stripes but all part of the motivation to buy the printer

If a tribute badge isn't available then a barcardi bat would nice :-).

I would suggest you might want to get some nice shiny stainless steel ones laser cut in a small batch. I did a set for JaguarTVR a while back, will be better than anything in plastic.

Lucky is absolutely right about any flat cut badges. Use the right tool for the job.

3D printing is useful where you want 3D features. Imagine a badge like this with the different colours And sections picked out in relief
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ferrari-412P-...xXwTnE&vxp=mtr

That is where printing wins

And very nice they were:thumb:

I just worked out what NART stands for;

Nubodi Automotive Racing Tribute

I assumed it was Nick's A Right Tw@t

Try pinshape.com there's free files to download and some you have to pay for, used these at work when setting printers up or as previously mentioned solidworks is a good cad software to design your own parts.

I have a 3D printed Tribute badge on the front of my MX. I've painted it black at the chrome spray was a bit crap. You can have 3D prints metal coated which gives the same weather resistance as metal but much lighter (many of the pieces you see on F1 cars are printed and then metal coated).

I had mine made made by some former work colleagues who have a very expensive SLA printer and I think they look pretty good. The skill is creating the 3D file to send to the printer.

Boot badge in polished stainless steel (thanks lucky)
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4320/...1dfebc43_k.jpgIMG_2434 copy by jaguartvr, on FlickrI also had "Spider" made up but probably won't use it.
I did have a few made up if anyone wants one let me know.
For the decerning owner who doesn't want it covered in Ferrari badges!

Looks good , are you going to fit the Spider badges too ?

No, I'm just sticking with the California badge. Not going to put the wing vent covers and grills on either.
Saw a couple of cars with chrome or silver painted wiper arms, to me it just drew your eyes to them and I think they are better left as they are so your eye is not drawn to them. Older stainless/chrome wipers seem to be simpler with less parts so your eye is not so drawn to them.
I feel the shape is so perfect that it really doesn't need any other embellishments
I have a lovely old chrome GB plate that I had been saving for the car but again will not now be fitted.
I also have the alloy strips that were intended for the door tops and I was going to fit them to the top of the sills, not sure on this at the moment as I can't find the bloody things, or the n/s window weather strip that I put so carefully to one side.

Have a look at Fusion 360 from autodesk, free for private use and although it may look complex to start it really is not too hard. Just follow the video tutorials.

for a smooth surface print in ABS and then use acetone vapor to smooth the surface. (put some acetone in a jar, hang the print from the lid, close it and heat to 55-60C...)

I've been building and ironing the kinks out of my 3d printer for the last 18mths....long story, too much to do. Mines a Reprap Kossel clone, delta geometry thing.

Found the following...

1.There are few good integrated workflow apps that go from drawing to sliced gcode and machine control but I find SketchUp and pronterface seem to do an ok job.
2.Setting up and calibration can be a pain
3. Extrude settings ditto particularly as it changes per material
4. ABS results are appalling to non existent without a heated bed.

Good luck!

I have used sketchup to design my cabin/sauna/hot tub so might look at the newer versions of that. Fusion360 seems popular too.

Calibration, settings, temperature seem to cause most issues on the forums.

Mine has a heated bed and came with a reel of abs as well as pla so will try both. Might even build an enclosure for abs work.

First thing is to finish building it. The instructions are not that clear and finish before the printer is built.

I've been migrating my machine to Repetier Firmware and Host tonight. Very neat integrated solution plus allows for nearly complete remote control. Few firmware nuances to iron out...

Also, assessed my blocked extruder. I've managed to properly block the hot end by running the fan too much - normally only the terminal end goes but I've filled up further back. Oops.

any online tutorials for sketchup? i like the idea of it but dont know where to begin

Fusion360 is possibly better than sketchup and you get sent tutorial details