R/C hobby related 3D prints?

jaredstrees

Well-known member
I haven’t tried to do this yet, but may want to check cura or whatever slicer program you’re using and see if you can copy the item and print multiples in one print session.
 

kdobson83

Well-known member
I just printed two of these Xacto knife holders. A third is printing right now. I cranked the nozzle temp to 220 and the print speed to 125%. Hoping to produce one per hour. I will need nine more. Then I have to make bench top frames to glue them to. I'll make them from wood. Sure wish I knew CAD. I could 3D print them.......

Joe
Lol, tell your daughter youll give her $10 to figure it out. Tinkercad.com. It's SUPER simple. LOTS of how to videos on tinkercad on YouTube. You could figure it out during a couple lunch breaks at work. Watch a few begginer videos and then give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? You waste 45 minutes? It's very fun/rewarding to cad up, and then print your own stuff!
 

kdobson83

Well-known member
I haven’t tried to do this yet, but may want to check cura or whatever slicer program you’re using and see if you can copy the item and print multiples in one print session.
And yes, you can add multiple files to one print in cura. I do it all the time. I've printed 4 different things at once before.
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Quick update. I got some Aussie hairspray in my Walmart grocery pickup order this morning. Also learned how to add multiples to one print in Cura. YAY! Right now there are three sanding sticks printing during the same print. I took the flexible bed board that came with the printer and washed off all the Elmer's glue buildup. Washed it again with 91% alcohol then gave it a good spray with the Aussie hair spray. Adhesion looks excellent so far. PLUS it smells "pretty". :) I made a single print last night and it came out perfect. Because of the awesome adhesion I expect nothing less from this batch. I'll find out in an hour or so.

MEGA props for the suggestions from kdobson83 and jaredstrees that have helped this noob enjoy more success!

Looks like I don't need the new 3 pack of Elmer's glue sticks I just bought. Maybe I'll give them to my 6 year old grandson to see what mayhem he can create. My daughter is gonna KILL me! :eek:

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
I'm having decent luck with the flex board that came with the printer IF I prep it properly. I also have a 12"x12" piece of glass. Obviously it will need to be cut to size and I can't find my bloody glass cutter since my amazing daughter "organized" my entire freaking house! I love her to death but am ready to strangle her every time I go looking for something that isn't in the place that I put it! I STILL haven't found my tap and die set! ARGH! Not sure where all my GOOD balsa is.

OK. I've calmed down now.....Is the glass a so much better option than the flex plate included with my printer that I should buy another glass cutter for only one use or to have the glass cut to size at Home Depot or Lowes? Honest responses please. I'm on a fixed income now and financial waste is simply NOT an option!

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
The three sanding stick prints finished a while ago. I just scraped them off the (plastic?) flex plate. They stuck great during the print and scraped up easily when done. It stills smells "pretty" too. ;) Does the hair spray need to cleaned off or reapplied after each print? If it needs to be cleaned off then what is needed? Will 91% alcohol work?

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
OK. Here's a kinda/sorta related question. Is there anything on eBay worth buying for 3D printers? I see a lot of filament for $12.99. Probably garbage? Not sure. I'll need another roll soon. The Dikale I got from Amazon gets good reviews from me. Will likely buy the same next time unless I hear I can get something as good for less....

Joe
 

kdobson83

Well-known member
OK. Here's a kinda/sorta related question. Is there anything on eBay worth buying for 3D printers? I see a lot of filament for $12.99. Probably garbage? Not sure. I'll need another roll soon. The Dikale I got from Amazon gets good reviews from me. Will likely buy the same next time unless I hear I can get something as good for less....

Joe
Sorry I haven't responded. If you don't quote me it doesn't show up in my feed. And somehow I missed it on the new posts page.
I can't comment on if the glass is better than the flex bed as your printer is a newer version on mine and mine didnt come with the flex bed. I can tell you that the glass works really well, almost too well sometimes. Almost impossible to scrape abs off it, even after it cools off. Guess that's where your flex bed has an advantage. You just pick up the whole bed and flex it. Lol My suggestion, if your getting good prints, don't switch. At least not yet. Get a cheap glass cutter from Walmart or Harbor Freight and give it a try one day tho.
As far as cleaning off the hairspray, I have only cleaned mine twice. I used acetone the first time, turns the hairspray into a sticky glob. Not fun. Lol Did the job but required a decent amount of scrubbing. The second time, my mother inlaw did it for me when she was visiting once because I was complaining about it. She had it clean in 3 minutes. Lol She said she just used hot water and dish soap. Buy normally I just leave it on. But it will build up over time on the oversprayed unused sections of the bed.
And lastly, I would be warry of the $12 rolls of plastic. Look at the weight, it could be a half roll. I've seen a lot of .5 kilogram rolls. But as far as the stuff on Amazon, just read the reviews. I don't buy stuff with less than 4 out of 5 review. Even with the good stuff you run the risk of getting a bad batch. That said, I hear hatchbox is a decent brand. I use solotech brand, haven't had issue yet. I also use AmazonBasic brand, it works great too. I normally just use pla or abs tho. Haven't experimented with much of anything else yet. Although petg seems interesting. PETG is supposed to be strong and heat resistant like abs but it has good layer adhesion and prints as easily as pla.

Anyway, glad your enjoying the printer. Have you done into tinkercad yet? If you have any other questions try quoting me in the post, it'll send me a notification that way.
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
I usually just use windex for cleaning hairspray off my glass. Comes off really easy with just a few wipes. (at least with the pinkish purple can of aqua net extreme hold that I've been using for 3 years and still feels full.)

I've had great luck with hatchbox filament, great price and prints wonderfully. Only issue can be finding the color I want in stock.

As for ebay...on my old printer I'd buy upgrade parts for it off ebay fairly often - things like bearings and fans and stepper drivers. But nothing that's a standard consumable. I looked at some filament deals on ebay and all of them were too sketchy for me to try. Either tiny rolls or no-name mystery filament.

And having had rolls of bad filament I'm sold on paying a little bit more for quality filament. One Amazon order for Hatchbox they sent me an old roll of esun instead. I was going to return it but instead decided to try it since I'd heard good things about esun. But it was miserable. Would not stick to anything. Extruded inconsistently. Clogged my nozzle. And the parts I did get to print with it all failed after a few weeks - even parts that were just sitting on my desk under no stress would suddenly crack. And not just between layers sometimes right down through the layers. I've also had poor experiences with PLA from makergeeks - rolls that were tangled on the spool, filament that will suddenly go brittle partway through a roll or change size. It would clog in my all metal hot end and it required higher temps than ABS for some reason. Their business practices are terrible too - there's a reason the BBB gives them an F.

PETG I love. It can be tricky to get dialed in at first and it loves to string and zit. The stringing is tough to prevent entirely - just the nature of the polymer. The zitting happens because the stuff is so sticky it will get on the nozzle then get left behind on the outside of the print. Thankfully both are fairly easy to deal with post-printing. A quick pass with a lighter will burn off the stringing immediately. And the zits usually can just be scraped off with minimal effort. Though with my new Prusa MK3 and the slic3r presets they ship with I haven't had any zits and very minimal stringing with hatchbox PETG.

I live in the desert and PLA prints don't do well in heat. So I tend to do mostly PETG when I can since the parts handle heat much better. It is softer than PLA though so not great for everything.

I'm also a big fan of Taulman 910 nylon. It's pricey and usually sells in 1lb rolls (so about half the amount of filament you get in a standard 1kg spool) for twice as much as a 1kg roll of PLA/PETG so it's about 4 times more expensive. But it's incredibly tough and it's lighter so very nice for RC parts. Getting it printing well can be a huge pain though. On my old printer I tried 3 different extruder designs before finding one that would work with it. You also need an all metal hot end due to the higher temps it requires. And while it's tough it is also very soft - almost flexible so not great for thinner parts that need to be stiff. It only comes in "natural" and black - I suggest getting the natural and then ordering some pysanky egg dyes which will give nice vibrant colors. You can dye it before or after printing. Here's a new keyfob I did for a co-worker who broke hers this was natural 910 dyed purple:

20190105_183807 (1).jpg


And a test I did on a micro quad frame in pink:
20170430_213407 (1).jpg


For that one I only had the left side sitting in about 1/4" of dye - you can see how it wicked up the rest of the way. Which is one of the other issues to watch for with Nylon. It's hydroscopic and is impossible to print once it absorbs water. So it has to be stored carefully and may need to be actively dehydrated at times ( I use a 5 gallon bucket with a 40w incandescent bulb and holes in the top/bottom to store mine...but I live in a dry area.) Nylon can also be tricky to deal with bed adhesion. I've had no major issues with printing on glass with PVA gluestick or on the PEI bed of my Mk3 with PVA gluestick. I've heard others tell horror stories of it sticking too well to glass and pulling chunks off and others who say the best thing to print it on is G10 so YMMV.
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Have you done into tinkercad yet?

Chronic back problems have had me pretty much bedridden for over a week now but late yesterday I did spend a bit more time (15 minutes) with Tinkercad. Little things are starting to click with me. I still wish I could find a YouTube video without the irritating music and just plain bad audio that make them unwatchable. Once I get the hang of it I can see no end to the things that can be created for R/C. Maybe I'll spend some more time today scouring YouTube for that perfect training video. Should have been doing that while I was laid up......

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Has anyone printed this?

Https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2365532

It is a dremel table saw, drum sander, disc sander sort of a mini shop smith!

I have an original Dremel 580 table saw. I spent many hours going through it getting everything cleaned up, lubed, adjusted and sanded flat to perfection. I never knew the entire saw body was plastic! I thought it was metal! It took quite a while to get it all sanded flat. Now that I have it in perfect shape it is stored away for safe keeping and I use my Harbor Freight Mighty Mite table saw instead. This Thingiverse saw looks like a much better option to either of my saws. Will likely use a roll or three of filament and take a few days to print but I'll bet a much better saw. I may do a print sometime way into the future.

Joe