3D Printing thread

BillH · Oct 7, 2019

Howzit everyone. A friend of mine asked me to make him a skimmer stand to help match up his equipment. Yes, he's one of those whose under tank looks as good as the main display, but hey...it does look nice.
Anyway, im wondering has anyone searched out specific colors for matching specific pieces of equipment. Right now im looking for a red in petg that is as close as possible as reef octopus red. Ive bought hatchbox, matterhackers and priline and while they are red without a doubt, not even close to the shade of red octopus utilizes. I know the different process on how its made will affect final part colors, but just trying to get as close as possible.
Thanks

TheHarold · Oct 7, 2019

Mmmmmmm infill

Reef AquaCult · Oct 7, 2019

Thats going to take a while...

TheHarold · Oct 7, 2019

Reef AquaCult said:
Thats going to take a while...

nah already finished. Was a custom skimmer stand for someone

MaccaPopEye · Oct 7, 2019

laverda said:
Mine are definatly not as strong as injection molded plastic. Especially items with right angles like my probe holder which just broke when I removed it. I did not design it and think it should have had more infill in the corners after looking at the broken part. The directionparts are printed seams to make a big difference as well.

I also would say that 99% of my prints are not as strong as injection moulded parts of the same dimensions. However, most of my prints are pretty close and are more than strong enough.

If you want to increase strength you need to do 2 things.

1) fine tune the temp you are printing at and the amount you cool the print to ensure that the plastic going down and the plastic from the layer before are both soft enough to bond strongly while still being cooled quickly enough to maintain good quality.

2) Increasing infill does not increase print strength. This is a massive thing that I see a lot of people recommend. Infill over 25% if useless for strength IMO and really over 15% is not needed. If you want to increase strength increase the wall thickness. Increase the top and bottom layer thickness. As long as you are getting good layer adhesion then THIS is what will really increase your overall print strength.

MaccaPopEye · Oct 7, 2019

Silver14SS said:
Great thread!

I’m considering a 3D printer, don’t think I need anything too sophisticated. Brackets, test kit holders, whatever widgets kids come up with - I’m not sure what else I’d make with it.

What’s a good budget to start with for a beginner and recommendations on brands/models? Reviews online are kind of all over the place...

If you are on a budget and don't mind a bit of DIY then the Creality Ender 3 is a good but affordable entry level printer - some assembly is required (like a lego kit) and it may take a little bit of practice and reading to get it tuned in and printing really well. It's not hard but can be a little time consuming as you just need to "print, adjust and repeat".

But watch some youtube videos and spend some time learning what all the different slicer settings do and you will be able to pick it up in no time. And the knowledge you gain while doing so will be invaluable for when small things go wrong that most people who buy pre-built machines won't understand.

But if you don't want to spend any time or effort learning how printers work and how to dial the settings in and fix them then you need to spend money instead and get a Prusa. They usually work very well more or less straight out of the box, they are generally very reliable and they also have customer service if you can't get it going, but you will pay a lot more for it.

Ranjib · Oct 8, 2019

Designed this bracket for kasa smart powerstrip (hs300). https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3898028
Its pretty basic, holds the powerstrip against wall, theres two holes for each bracket to screw in. The initial version was mostly composed of square/rectangular shaped combined with various boolean operators (in blender). I have iterated over the design to add bevels in edges where it makes sense.
Printed in ender 3, with 0.8mm nozzle at 60mm speed. Print time was little less than two hours if i recall correctly. Theres noticeable under extrusion. But its still functional and good enough for my garage tank

with the powerstrip

These are pretty handy powerstrip, with surge protection, on board switches for each outlet, wifi controllable and current monitoring on each outlet. Each outlet can also be assigned digital timers :-) .

I went through bed level and calibration chores after the print. I'll see how it changes the print quality. Speed is actually turning out my biggest factor for print quality. Anything printed at 20mm is pretty good quality. Things starts looking bad after 60-65.

laverda · Oct 9, 2019

MaccaPopEye said:
I also would say that 99% of my prints are not as strong as injection moulded parts of the same dimensions. However, most of my prints are pretty close and are more than strong enough.

If you want to increase strength you need to do 2 things.

1) fine tune the temp you are printing at and the amount you cool the print to ensure that the plastic going down and the plastic from the layer before are both soft enough to bond strongly while still being cooled quickly enough to maintain good quality.

2) Increasing infill does not increase print strength. This is a massive thing that I see a lot of people recommend. Infill over 25% if useless for strength IMO and really over 15% is not needed. If you want to increase strength increase the wall thickness. Increase the top and bottom layer thickness. As long as you are getting good layer adhesion then THIS is what will really increase your overall print strength.

Thanks that is helpful. I will have to see if I can increase the wall thickness at the 2 corners.

MaccaPopEye · Oct 9, 2019

laverda said:
Thanks that is helpful. I will have to see if I can increase the wall thickness at the 2 corners.

No worries, I would just increase the wall thickness overall though (I don't think you can do it in certain sports anyway but that might just be my slicer).

I use 6-8 walls + 20% infill for structural parts that will be under a dynamic load (such as parts for a new 3D printer) and 4-6 walls + 20% infill for static parts that I still want to be decently strong (such as a float switch holder or a feeding ring) and 1-3 walls + 15% infill for draft/test prints or parts that really don't need to be that strong.

As long as your prints aren't breaking at the layer lines that should help the strength a lot. If your parts are breaking at the layer lines then it is an adhesion (temp and/or cooling) issue.

GrizFyrFyter · Nov 12, 2019

Been out for a while but figured you guys would appreciate something else printing has enabled.

Took a common skull model, cut out a spot for a frag plug and printed it. Made a silicone mold from the print then used that to make cement skulls (emarco-400). Glued down some GSP and forgot about it for a few months.

ludnix · Nov 12, 2019

Hilarious!

Silver14SS · Nov 12, 2019

GrizFyrFyter said:
Been out for a while but figured you guys would appreciate something else printing has enabled.

Took a common skull model, cut out a spot for a frag plug and printed it. Made a silicone mold from the print then used that to make cement skulls (emarco-400). Glued down some GSP and forgot about it for a few months.