My 3D printer is just under 2 weeks old and I think most of the upgrades are done. The Anet A8 is a great starting platform and is uber-cheap, but it does require a lot of print-time making pieces to upgrade it. Part of the fun, I guess...? I was looking at the options from 3DLabPrint and the Stearman jumped out at me, so I pulled the trigger and downloaded the files.
There is certainly a learning curve with this stuff, and many thanks to those I've pestered with questions! I did a few small test-pieces with the horizontal stabilizer before I understood what I was doing. Results were good, but left room for improvement. Since then a lot more printing has been done and I feel ready to start printing Stearman parts for real!
Because I already had the filament loaded I'm starting with some cylinder heads and the exhaust ring. I'm printing these with "Aluminum" PLA filament from Hobby King. It calls for a hot-end temp between 190-200*C, but I found it's working much better at 205*. Bed temp of 60* as my usual 55* wasn't sticking securely. Retraction of 1mm at 50mm/s with support structures turned on, 15% infill and .1mm layer height.
In the pics you can see a little stringing between the heads, possibly because I'm running a higher temp than recommended? Either way, it's very light and rubs off easily. There is also stringing between the support structure pieces, so maybe the printer doesn't use any retraction for supports? The cylinder heads themselves (and the spark plugs) came out nice and detailed, needing only minor clean-up. The cooling fins had some very minor stringing, but again it was very easy to clean. Detail is better than expected. While I've got this filament in I'm also printing the exhaust ring that connects to all 7 cylinders. However, I'm printing it upside down so all support structures are on the back instead of the front. It'll take an extra hour to print and waste some filament, but the face of the ring will be cleaner looking. The main body of the engine may be this same aluminum, or I might switch to gray. It's a fairly big piece so the remaining 4 cylinder heads will be printed first to make sure I've got enough filament left in the .5 KG roll.
There is certainly a learning curve with this stuff, and many thanks to those I've pestered with questions! I did a few small test-pieces with the horizontal stabilizer before I understood what I was doing. Results were good, but left room for improvement. Since then a lot more printing has been done and I feel ready to start printing Stearman parts for real!
Because I already had the filament loaded I'm starting with some cylinder heads and the exhaust ring. I'm printing these with "Aluminum" PLA filament from Hobby King. It calls for a hot-end temp between 190-200*C, but I found it's working much better at 205*. Bed temp of 60* as my usual 55* wasn't sticking securely. Retraction of 1mm at 50mm/s with support structures turned on, 15% infill and .1mm layer height.
In the pics you can see a little stringing between the heads, possibly because I'm running a higher temp than recommended? Either way, it's very light and rubs off easily. There is also stringing between the support structure pieces, so maybe the printer doesn't use any retraction for supports? The cylinder heads themselves (and the spark plugs) came out nice and detailed, needing only minor clean-up. The cooling fins had some very minor stringing, but again it was very easy to clean. Detail is better than expected. While I've got this filament in I'm also printing the exhaust ring that connects to all 7 cylinders. However, I'm printing it upside down so all support structures are on the back instead of the front. It'll take an extra hour to print and waste some filament, but the face of the ring will be cleaner looking. The main body of the engine may be this same aluminum, or I might switch to gray. It's a fairly big piece so the remaining 4 cylinder heads will be printed first to make sure I've got enough filament left in the .5 KG roll.
