{"id":1468,"date":"2019-11-10T15:22:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T15:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2020-06-02T16:14:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T16:14:18","slug":"gathering-info","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/gathering-info\/","title":{"rendered":"Gathering Info."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"\u00a0Well have to admit the printer is reasonable and will be able to produce the fine line work I need it to do. The CNC engraver cutter will be used for soft metal (Aluminium, Copper, Brass, Bronze) coins and will be able to leave a better finish than the 3D printer. The exercise today had its failures but it did have a success as well. The whole objective is to be able to get fine work out of the printer in a finished format. So as soon as operator error is dealt with I should be getting consistent quality from the machine. All of this is so that I could print the battery case for the guitar pick up (see in the last image) I have not used supports for anything yet but the case will need some for the spring clip on the side. All the thin printing was to test if the PLA would be springy enough at that thickness and it will. But that is getting ahead of the report.<\/span><\/p>

Lets start with the problems and the solutions beginning with extrusion and movement over the bed area. There is a judder in the X Axis carriage and the head speed on turns was making the head plough into the level and it leaves a start and stop marking not on all lines as sometimes it is smooth and leaves no start\/change\/return mark on the extrusion layer. The PLA cartridge was a dead weight on the extruder head from the tension from the roller to the head. This will need a set of loose running casters in a cradle to allow up to four rolls to sit in the same unit and to turn individually in an independent manner. I will design my own carriages for the bed and the X axis, to run on the existing rails that are on the printer. They will work like the large ones on the printer do now but I will not have to clip the rail onto the top of the runner. A set of T nuts would hold it on the top or the side but I want a pair of central top roller inside the top space, with four side rollers for snap fitting. The design of the bed has the centre of the bed supported but there is quite a bit of play on the front and back of the plate. I took the bed off and loosened the nuts on the wheels and the problems come from the bottom of the plate is not connected to the wheel spindles, and the connection from the bed plate to the bed via the levelling screws is an overall bad design. If the wheels had a base plate under the carriage rails aligning the wheels into the groove in the aluminium rails the carriage that would make would be stronger and the rails would lock to the rails better. The bed plate was not levelling well before I adjusted the wheels. Two of the screws were just turning loosely in the countersunk mounting and the bed was to low to go any further. This was fixed when they were aligned and the bed now levels well and all the levelling screws are tight on the hands and I will need to now print out the wider head coverings for them.<\/span><\/p>

Every little problem seems to have a fix and I may end up just making a plate to match the one the existing wheels are on and just changing the nuts for longer ones if needed to get an even running base plate. The Z axis will have to get a new rail and that will be a side mounted one as the cables are on the top and the belt is on the bottom of the existing rail. This just leaves a front and back mounted bracket pair on the existing rail. Then the bed levelling may well become redundant if it is all done well.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"The printing progress is all fits and starts with the bulk of the free filament having been used on the test print. This image is the first of my shapes. This was a hastily thrown together Celtic design from a collection I did a couple of decades a go. This print was the last of the free filament that came with the printer. The height of the layers is .2mm and the with of the extrusion lines are .3mm. This was done in Repetier and it started the case of not sticking on the one side syndrome. You can see the lift on the front of the image it shows up again and again for a little while. The print was made from my old HP laptop and the settings I used are:<\/span><\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

\"\"The second print failed as the extruder printing such a thin layer on an uneven bed was up in the air for the other seven shapes in the design (not on a plinth) and just to test how thin I can get the layer and how narrow I could get the line width. The finish was (on the glass anyway) a bit of a smudge on the surface they were the first layer and the next one did not even get started the head was to far from the bed to lay a line down after the third one. So this was my first failure. It was the new roll of filament and it is only 800g not the kilo that the normal ones are. The problem with the bed was about to get more pronounced as the levelling was not doing the job with two screws just turning in the hole with no spring tension to hold them, I started to pull down on the levelling knob to get purchase, just an instinctive fix as I still didn\u2019t understand the problems and was still pushing to get things done rather than understand the problems.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"This third print is the largest after the test print and was all new and the levelling was still not happening well or in a consistent manner. The loss of adhesion on one lip was more pronounced on the larger shape, and the speed was leaving that ridge of start stops in the tracks after every turn at speed. The extrusion was nursed through the print as I was still pulling the filament from the reel and creating a slack between the reel and the head. No way could it be left to print on its own, I did not know to view the slices to find the top of the platform and the shape starting to change the filament to try two colours. None of the settings had been touched and they were all printed on the HP. This one has the loss of adhesion but the lines were more uniform and there was no infill to start to cause problems with to small an area to print to. The slice went well and the shape did not lose any of its definition in the process. A .3 first layer was in place and it needed to be a straight and even all the same for the size and volume to print small. This is the most successful print so far.<\/span><\/p>

Yesterday I decided to print a couple of test as I was suspicious of the black even before I tried it. I changed the setup from the HP to the Dell and just used the same settings. The first choice was the black and for the first six or seven tries it did not even place a single strand on the glass. So I decided to strip the bed and check the wheels and their alignment. One of the inside (single wheels) was crooked and not aligned right. So after stripping them all off a few turns I held the inside wheel in place and tightened it back, then did the other single inside rail wheel in the same fashion giving a parallel with a tight fix to the rails. Then just tightened up the outside ones and when they were evenly the same gave them all a half turn to firm their grip. The bed once it was put back had now got some traction in the levelling screws as the springs now fitted. Once done I set about restarting the print again and it still did not touch the plate till I noticed the tight filament from the roll to the head and realised the head was being lifted even after levelling. I put the heavy metal cover back on to add weight to the head and the next try missed the plate as well. So I levelled the bed tight to the plate and tried that and it still was pulled high off the bed again. So the roller weight and the tension were lifting the head enough to stop the head getting to the plate enough to lay a strand down. So I was going out but could not leave the printer not printing, and had to stay and nurse it through the process.<\/span><\/p>

\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/p>

As you can see the\u00a0<\/span>colour change was done again using a small piece of filament in the run out mechanism, and pulling it out at the end of the level before the shape starts. It took holding the head down to the bed to get it started and as you can see from the base it did not want to stick. I had reduced the heat and the speed as the failures were all blobbing and were not consistent, more like a run out and it missed bits even off the glass. The problem had to be the PLA as the other two worked well and managed the heat and the speed to still deliver a reasonable finish. So I decided to test the theory by printing another in white and gold.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/p>

The overall outcome with the reduced heat and speed (set for the black) was really starting to show favour. This is where I noticed that the splicer had ruined the shape by breaking up the shape. This had to be the size of the nozzle and the extrusion settings before the slice. The skirt was a bit uneven and that was a sticking problem, and the blobbing was there to, at the start stop point, and was there at the turn point in a line this was all at one end where it was losing cohesion around the entire skirt. The back of the shape shows how uniform the white filament was with the same settings as the black. The finish from the change in settings was starting to help the dial in process.<\/span><\/p>

Today it was all a different story first layer and every layer set to .2mm, the width of the layers all set to .2mm in the slicers (slic3r, Cura and Prusa) all used by Repetier. The first shape was a thicker body and I thought I could just add a machine code to pause the print at the end of the line before the shape starts. Well that did not work as it paused and then started again all on its own and ignored the feed check having its piece of filament pulled and just weighed into the rest of the print, like nothing had happened at all. Several pints of sweat later and it was just a case of ending the print.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"<\/span><\/p>

This one with a thicker base had put automatic infill in from the settings in the slicer and I was not expecting that. It had to be held down to start and the filament had to be kept loose between reel and head. Still cant set a print and just leave it to get on with it. So tried the change over to put some gold on it and it just would not start again, so I abandoned the print and shrunk it by a quarter in the slicer, then set the infill to 100% and decided to watch each layer to see if the lines were getting better, if the jerk was still leaving the stop start (was none on the white based one) cut in each line. Managed to change the settings and set the print up for a second try.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"<\/span><\/p>

As you can see the layers are getting better the shape is a mess as I created the new thicker plinths by using a mesh column object instead of the nurbs ones I used before. This creates a shape that is circular but the edges are made up from straight lines. The nurbs tool uses curves to create a cylinder. Managed to halt the print on this line and the head did not leave and wait for the filament change and go through the extruding waste routine. So a blob of drip was settling on the surface and the gold had not cleaned the nozzle. The first layer after it started is blackish grey, then the gold takes hold on the next layer.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"There are no perfect prints and yet they are all reasonable with just two real failures. The way to get the printer to pause for filament change is governed by the hardware at the moment, by just pulling out a small piece of filament at the end of the last layer for that colour. That forces the printer to stop printing and move the head over to the side of the print bed and the printer screen waits till you change the filament and remember to put the small piece back into the filament run out checker. This will start the purge of the old colour and if it cleans in one go continue, if not then purge again. Once you hit continue it just resumes where it left off. Timing is everything but as an ex programmer I really must find the code to make the printer act as if the filament has run out so it will still do this from code instead of sitting there to pull the filament out. But that will have to be for another time.<\/span><\/p>

Right now the first print project is to recreate the missing battery case for my old acoustic electric guitar. It got lost in the house fire a few years back or due to the decant situation after the fire and the move back in. It was on a twelve string guitar that broke and is sadly missed. The new one can sound terrible and is affected by the temperature. On warm days it sounds fine and tunes well, on cold days it sounds like a cat in agony and it has cost me three strings so far a D and the two G\u2019s. The case for the new electric acoustic twelve string is the prototype for the replacement for the old one.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

The test builds were to check thinness so that I can see if I can build a .8mm casing with a .4 clip on the side to go in the casing of the old pickup. The strength and the flexibility of the PLA is now known and I have a fair idea what I can get away with in a final print.<\/span><\/p>

\"\"As you can see the spring clip in the old one is at the top of the image below, while the new pickup battery case has its clip in the back of the image. The black PLA was bought with this in mind and it will take a little bit more practice and then I will go for it. The first two cad images I made do not hold water and so failed to slice. I will now stop using meshes to build and let the SLT creation convert things to mesh as it sees fit this should address the problem and the next one will be done mainly using bullion cuts and joins to leave a solid frame with no lose joins from edges and surfaces.<\/span><\/p>

I will look at buying a ready built model later once I learn the ways and means on this model including maintenance which is essential for a home run design shop, if it can go wrong it might just choose to when you are at your busiest Mr Murphy. I will need to be able to make and just print the kits and be able to get out or just be on the other computer creating character in iClone, remarkable figurine work can be done and rapid animation with audio lip-sync done in real time on screen. But that is a story for another time.<\/span><\/p>

There is a video review here and its a couple of whisky’s in, so it is. And yes that is Scottish for Scotch.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a0Well have to admit the printer is reasonable and will be able to produce the fine line work I need it to do. The CNC engraver cutter will be used for soft metal (Aluminium, Copper, Brass, Bronze) coins and will be able to leave a better finish than the 3D printer. The exercise today had… Read More »Gathering Info.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3d-p","category-tech-talking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidgaia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}