3D Printing 205 Parts

[klarky 2]

I'm very much in the market for a budget 3D printer, I'm not too interested in precision at the moment, but more for rapid prototyping and fast turn-around, rather than using shapeways and such. I've been looking at the Solidoodle and Da Vinci printer, both very budget. Any opinions on either of those?

 

 

 

 

The problem when things are solid they warp, as the cooling of the parts isn't very uniform, and also the added cost and time of printing it solid. If you wanted a solid print either use these guys http://www.3dprint-uk.co.uk/ as they price based on the overall dimensions of the object, or print as a hollow object, and fill with what ever you want!

 

Dean

I'm told the solidoodles are decent printers, but it depends on the type of models you want to print. Kit printers are cheap but will need regular calibration. The solidoodle 4 seems similar to the ultimaker 2. What sort of build envelope do you need? If it isn't very big look at the up! Printers, I have both the up! Mini and up! Plus 2 at work and they are the most reliable machines I've run. they have a heated table and perfboard print table which gives a really good bond.

 

Heated beds or chambers will help lessen material warpage so if you do big or solid models it's a must have in my eyes.

 

I've not seen a davinci in person but the price seems good. I'm not a fan of cartridge materials on these 3d printers, machines using open reels means you can source your own materials and experiment and it can be cheaper. The cartridges are just something else to fail and cause issues.

Edited April 9, 2014 by klarky

[DC2T 47]

Just finished up on the large side of the pedal block. Looking at an 8 hour print :S

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

The spotlight frame has been posted today 1st class,hopefully its good enough.Thanks

[muddatrucker 125]

Just finished up on the large side of the pedal block. Looking at an 8 hour print :S

Crikey, this reminds me of the agony of copying a CD in the late 90s!

[DC2T 47]

Should be spot on cheers damo.

 

i know mate, like waiting for a c64 to load a game lol

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

or a zx spectrum

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

spectrum was a lot faster than a c64

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

I wouldn't know. I only had the spectrum and that was bad enough. My one crashed nearly every time just as R-type was about to load. Infuriating.

 

'Back on topic'

[DC2T 47]

the printer sounds similar tbh lol

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Also sounds pretty similar to my laptop,except the c64 and spectrum are quicker to load and probably crash less

[DC2T 47]

Well i picked up some plastic primer and some paint to get the badges ready and ive came to the conclusion that i am not a painter lol. It seems to work ok but i just end up with far too much paint on it and its ruining them. So this leads me to a few conclusions about what to do about the badges

 

1. Man up and learn to paint, paint the badges and supply them painted with 3M adhesive backing

2. Just paint the raised lettering and forget about the machine marks (im not keen on this)

3. Supply them unpainted, this option would be the cheapest for obvious reasons then people can paint and finish them how they see fit

 

If unpainted i can supply them pretty much straight away, if im to paint them its gonna take longer as Ive a lot of other things on at the moment as well as a full time job that takes up a third of my day lol. Unpainted will be looking at about £15 posted for the part?, custom ones would be the same price Id just have to draw them. I also need confirmation on the size of the standard "GTI" badge (just a width and height) so they fit in the same spot exactly. If its the same size as the Mi 16 (91.35 x 23.75) I have then were ready to go straight away.

 

Let me know what you guys think,

 

Ive also done some tinkering with the pedal block and its still gonna be a stupidly long print time which isn't gonna express itself well for cost really, unless i make it hollow to lower print time, but then you lose rigidity etc. I may try and engineer a replacement that does the job that can be done quicker. Even if i charged say 5 quid per hour on the machine that would make it like 50 quid which seems stupidly expensive.

 

The other blocks seemed to come out okay too, the print times were a little long, around 2hours per part i think so around 4 hours all in. Testing will have to be done before i sell any though as i wouldn't want one to fail a few miles down the road.

 

Damo's sent me a fog lamp surround so ill draw that up and get it printed as soon as it arrives

 

Any other parts anyone wants me to try let me know

Edited April 14, 2014 by DC2T

[DC2T 47]

I went out to the garage before i came to work and noticed that i actually have the pedal block still in the shell, one of the only things lol. Good news is that the little 10mm wing part that sticks out is only for holding down the carpet. This is gonna make is much easier to print if i remove it, ill redraw tomorrow and see where were at with it

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

I can measure the standard badge for you tomorrow. As I've said I'll have a GTi16 badge and one of those custom 'i16V' badges want to keep my options open

[DC2T 47]

Thatd be great mate

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

Well i picked up some plastic primer and some paint to get the badges ready and ive came to the conclusion that i am not a painter lol. It seems to work ok but i just end up with far too much paint on it and its ruining them. So this leads me to a few conclusions about what to do about the badges

 

1. Man up and learn to paint, paint the badges and supply them painted with 3M adhesive backing

2. Just paint the raised lettering and forget about the machine marks (im not keen on this)

3. Supply them unpainted, this option would be the cheapest for obvious reasons then people can paint and finish them how they see fit

 

If unpainted i can supply them pretty much straight away, if im to paint them its gonna take longer as Ive a lot of other things on at the moment as well as a full time job that takes up a third of my day lol. Unpainted will be looking at about £15 posted for the part?, custom ones would be the same price Id just have to draw them. I also need confirmation on the size of the standard "GTI" badge (just a width and height) so they fit in the same spot exactly. If its the same size as the Mi 16 (91.35 x 23.75) I have then were ready to go straight away.

 

Let me know what you guys think,

 

Ive also done some tinkering with the pedal block and its still gonna be a stupidly long print time which isn't gonna express itself well for cost really, unless i make it hollow to lower print time, but then you lose rigidity etc. I may try and engineer a replacement that does the job that can be done quicker. Even if i charged say 5 quid per hour on the machine that would make it like 50 quid which seems stupidly expensive.

 

The other blocks seemed to come out okay too, the print times were a little long, around 2hours per part i think so around 4 hours all in. Testing will have to be done before i sell any though as i wouldn't want one to fail a few miles down the road.

 

Damo's sent me a fog lamp surround so ill draw that up and get it printed as soon as it arrives

 

Any other parts anyone wants me to try let me know

how about making a paintig template that fits tight around the letters and spray them?

[jackherer 543]

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=158381

 

Unless I'm missing something (and as long as your dimensions are spot on) that should be perfect for this? Spray the whole thing black then apply the vinyl.

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=158381

 

Unless I'm missing something (and as long as your dimensions are spot on) that should be perfect for this? Spray the whole thing black then apply the vinyl.

 

Trouble is at that point it becomes more expensive that the Psooc repro ones that come painted with the sticky pad on the back.

[jackherer 543]

Not if the OP goes to their local vinyl printers...

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Good thinking

[DC2T 47]

how about making a paintig template that fits tight around the letters and spray them?

i had thought of that yeh alex, basically a negative to fit over and leave the tops to spray. The problem then comes from things like an a,o,6 et that have an internal profile aswell as the external. Wouldnt be a major problem as id just make pegs to fit in. The biggest problem is im not happy about the finish of the plastic so wanted to spray them will filler primer then with black.

 

im off for 5 days over easter so im gonna put a few shifts into getting these badges sorted out along with the pedal block/gear linkage block

[DC2T 47]

And yeh i saw those the other day jack, i could give my sizes and have them cut so theyd fit my badges perfectly. Certainly an avenue to look at.

[DC2T 47]

Well, its been a while

 

Ive redrawn a few badges to the correct sizes i was given from Rjuhar and reprinted a GTI one, its added time obviously as its nearly 50% longer but its not insane, about 2 hours i think it was. Ill do the full selection when i can and see how they turn out. I also tried making the negative template for painting and it worked pretty nicely tbh, maybe if i make it a bit thicker itll be spot on but for trial purposes it worked fine. Shame about my painting, as it was nearly as thick as the badge itself. Also Can someone tell me what badge it is ive mmodelled previously? mudflaps? its dimensions are 91.35 x 23.75

 

 

Anyway, in other news... pugdamo sent me a spotlight frame to copy. Now modelling it isnt a major issue, but modelling it for printing was. Because of the nature of the printer, things like overhangs are a nono, and you have to consider orientation and a flat bottom to print from etc, so i chose the face as the build surface and I thickened the front up as theres an indent on the original, this gives a 3.3mm thick from which i thought looks nice, but when i put it in the printer program it turned into a 6-7 hour print which is ridiculous for something id imagine would cost about 15 - 20 quid for the pair

 

 

So, as with the other items that took ages i thought to myself that printing anything more than a 1-2 cycle time wouldnt really be cost effective to make from a sale point of view. So i got in touch with companies and got some quotes to have the pieces made and they were very reasonable. Plus "This will be printed in Nylon which is very accurate, super strong and the finish is pretty similar to an extra strong mint!" And as as added bonus theyll be printed on an SLS or SLA printer which means theyre suspended in powder from each layer so theres no need to model them differently. Which means an exact peugeot copy can be printed

 

For

 

1614.11 (Pedal Block) Large Side - £15.13

1614.11 (Pedal Block) Small Side - £5.47

2430.18 (Gear Linakge Block) x1 - £4.74

Fog Light Surround - £29.71

 

The prices above are for "Economy Manufacture" basically half the prices of the "Express Manufacture"

 

Express is 1-2 days for manufacture + postage. Minimum order on this is £30 + VAT. This is a guarantee for your model to be put on the first available print and the 1-2 day time frame is an estimate. It can take longer in some cases but most of the time it will be in your hand in 3 working days.

 

Economy is 8-10 days manufacture + postage. But is half the price of Express!

 

So, what ill do is model the parts and print them for trial fit etc myself and if they turn out to be fit for purpose then ill commission them to be made. Seems the most logical way really, and frees up my printers time for badges and the like

 

James

Edited April 26, 2014 by DC2T

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Was that £30 for a single frame or a pair?The frame looks good though.

 

Cheers

[DC2T 47]

Thats just for one model, what you can do though is fit as many as you can into one build area so it may well become cheaper. id have to look into that really. 60 quid for plastic covers is a bit steep id say.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Just had a good read of this and it all looks highly detailed

 

 

Have you considered producing GTi6 or GTi 16 boot badges within your range?