Re printing the Skeleton Uke

So that was 8 hours down the drain. I think I need to redo the supports as some of the print fell over.

Anyway here are some shots of the print and since it is done in quarters this is the bottom right that holds the input jack and the under saddle pickup.

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Its such a shame too, the print was going so well 

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I have it recessed into the body so my ocd is very happy lol

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The plug in pickup goes through the body and out the little hole on the top. The bridge will have a corresponding hole drilled through it after it is glued in place.

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It sits in the slot and the saddle sits on top. I've ordered some other pickups that I think will plug into the output jack that are or seemed to be smaller in profile that might be better but they haven't arrived yet so I'll let you know when they do.

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The pickup will be threaded through a hole drilled later so wont be poking out the side.

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The pickup just plugs into the jack.

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New spool Holder

So my spool holder that came with the printer is ok but every now and then it just resists the pull of the extruder and pulls the spool off the centres I've printed for each and every different brand of filament. They are like tribbles around here and just not the answer to this problem. I'd like the extruder to not have to struggle with extracting filament from a spool. Or avoid that loud thump that makes me run into the other room to find out what blew up, when it falls off the centres.

D'oh!

Here's my new design er prototype experiment.

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I'm going to run the spools on their edges on top of bearings, and am redesigning my helix filament guide to incorporate into the design. Everything is modular for easier iterative design potential.

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I've measured the widths of several brands of filament I have here Aurarum, Blueprinted, Fillies and my new favourite The 3DPrinter. It's width will allow for all of these but I've designed a base that can be reprinted if another sizes come along from any of these, or other brands.

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Here it is without the modeled spool, so you can better see whats going on. The design isn't original and loosely based on one I spotted a while ago that said it worked best when the filament was pulled from the bottom. My current spool holder is a "toilet paper over the top version" and he was wanting to run the "toilet paper under theory" which, as we all know, is wrong lol.

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My spools should sit inside between the bearings a bit deeper giving better stability.....I hope, as I said, this is the first iteration of this design and in Alpha atm

The helix has been designed so you can remove the filament from it by angling it sideways so it comes out without having to withdraw it from the hole. Obviously it can be inserted the same way. You don't have to thread it threw the guide at all if you don't want to.

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The printed bearing holders are finished and just pressed together with the bearings in situ. NB I had to use a vise to close it together despite being designed as a loose press fit. The designs ability to fit together will be different depending on the filament you decide to use and probably the printer settings you use. I'm using The 3DPrinter's petg here but you might find that pla works better.

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Here I'm printing the spreader base that can be scaled/remodeled to suit different roll widths that might come along.

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Here are the early release stl files if you want to print them or laugh at me and my design skills or even made suggestions for improvement etc

It takes standard 8mm skate bearings but check things with verier calipers just in case.



Keep coming back for updates on the design. I'll be making them for the next few days.

This is it running a completely full roll of filament to see if it interferes with it's ability to run smoothly................all good no problems at all. 

30/09/2016

So more changes to the design of the filament guide, mainly because of how it printed. I took it apart in cad and redesigned it so the helix and main body were then able to be printed separately.

They can be glued back together with some Cyanoacrylate or whatever you prefer.

The whole thing can be considered to have pasted the design stage and for the most part thought of as done. There are some things I might change but I'm going to use this for a while before making any more changes.

The next part in my design process is to think about making it look nicer aesthetically but I usually just don't bother if it works as it is. :-)

Edit

I thought that by spreading the wheels apart and letting the spool sit lower into them it would reduce the chance of the roll falling over. This turned out to be true but it makes the extruder jerk the filament too much and isnt smooth at all................So I've redesigned the thing with the wheels closer together and the spool of filament now sits higher on them so hopefully it will turn a lot smoother.

Filament testing - The 3DPrinter filament

Recently Dion from The 3DPrinter was kind enough to send me some filament to check out. This is the store where I also got my copy of Simplify3d possibly the best slicer out there.

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The rolls are vacuum packed as you'd expect and the filament comes on a clear spool. Accompanying the boxes of filament was a resealable plastic bag to keep the opened rolls of filament. A great idea. 

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Obviously The 3DPrinter is has its head around what the consumer really needs and you can colour me impressed.

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I'm not sure how well you can make out my clear box I keep my filament in but just off to the left is the lid and inside is every bag of silica I've ever got lol. As a guitar and ukulele player I've got at least 4 humidity sensors I keep in the cases of my instruments. Ideally a humidity of around 45% is good for acoustics and on average in my place it sits around 50-60%. I'm writing this to remind me to throw one of the humidity sensors in this box. :-)

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I'm putting the rolls through my temp tower test. The first one I'm testing is a roll of petg and the recommended temperature range on the box is 220-250.

Settings and information for these tower tests can be found here:
http://lukethier.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/temperature-testing-filament.html

http://lukethier.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/temperature-testing-filament-results.html

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On my printer the older brother to this one, with a few modifications like Titan extruder and v6 hotend from E3d and pei bed along with a resigned Z Motor mount and its opposite which allows me to tighten the drive belt without the hassle of the original system.

The reason I gave you this information is because while your results could be similar, your circumstances, your knowledge and 3d printer could be wildly different as well.

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The rough looking areas are where the temperatures are very high as they go from 260 down to 215 degrees.

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Using my magnifying light to highlight the print so if it looks a little warped then its just the lens

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Side by side with Blueprinted's petg a filament I really like and the The 3DPrinter comes out just in front its very close though and prints beautifully at the same temperature of 225 degrees on my machine.

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The print range for me and my machine is probably best at between 230 - 215, and at 225 it is bound to bond between layers better and look the nicest. Add to that the fact that I've already got a lot of settings saved for this temperature is purely coincidental lol

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Oooooh Shiny! 

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I have my my extrusion multiplier set to 0.9 my extruder width set to 0.35 and am getting good wall thicknesses at around 0.43/0.42

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So.....to say I'm both impressed and extremely happy with The 3DPrinter would be an understatement, and highly recommend their petg.

I'm still testing the white pla but it's looking really nice so far, so more to come as I get results.

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28/09/2016

Ok the white pla from The 3DPrinter has a print range of 190 to 220 suggested on the box and from my initial tests looks like it doesn't mind this wide range of temps at all.

The white printed quite nicely and while its hard to judge with just this temp tower test, it looks like 205c is its happy place on my system.

The colour difference in these photos is down to one (on the left) being just one extrusion thickness wide so about 0.4 to 0.46 depending on where you measure it. So naturally is allowing light to pass through giving it its bright translucent appearance. Taking the photo on my laptop with the screen as a back light is also playing a big role.

Just like the petg I'm very happy with this filament. It prints well and lays down layers just like the petg. I'll have a better idea of the ideal temperature after I do some real printing on something closer to a normal print run. 

The only problem I'm having at all, is with my printer as its still giving me some z banding and for the life of me I can nail down the culprit. It not a big problem really it's probably just the ocd side of me :-) and white tends to show it more than other colours.