I used black ABS on the back and sides and cast acrylic on the front.  I ordered it cut to size online from Tap Plastics.  Both materials are 1/8"

I have the silver PLA, looks great but with my endor 3 I have to print at 210 for initial layers, then down to 205 with a bed temp of 70.  Using the supplied bed plate that comes with it I get insanely good part adhesion to the bed.

I had kind of a weird issue with some parts I printed a week or two ago. For some reason they look like the top and bottom layer didn't print completely.  It's not happening now,  but I've made some adjustments to the printer plus I may have reset something I messed up in Cura.

@hoosierhick Your top and bottom solid layers are set to low I usually use 2 or 3 solid top and bottoms layers  they call them perimeters sometimes in different slicers I usually use 3 top 3 bottom and 3 for outside. I go to 5 if I want is really want it to stand up to abuse.

Yup, that only looks like 1, maybe 2, top layers.  I too use 3 top/bottom layer minimum.

Has anybody noticed a change in room temperature changing the appearance of their prints?

I did a long print 19 hrs. the first part of the print looked OK or normal the middle looked fantastic and the last part looked OK to normal.

The only thing I can come up with is we keep the house around 65* at night while we sleep and 70* the rest of the time.

Does that make any sense?

Found a model which is a cigar holder with your initial on it.   I subscribe to the 3d Printing Nerd on Youtube.   He had a video about embedding magnets into print so I fired up Meshmixer and tried my hand at it.   You make a void to fit the size of magnet you have and have the printer stop right before it bridges the top of the void.   Then you can drop the magnet in it and resume printing.   Here is a picture of a print stopped at the point it paused and moved the bed forward.   I adjusted the diameter of the void because it was a little big.   Next to that a finished print with magnet in it.  Notice the magnet sticking to the side of it.

What kind of filament is that? It looks kinda like chrome.

It is part one of the new shiny filaments.   Several people have mentioned the CC3D shiny filament especially the copper.   This shiny silver is from another manufacturer Suntop 3d.


Suntop Shiny Silver

I learned something about my printer yesterday by doing something dumb.  I let it completely run out of filament.  I wasn't thinking about where the filament drive is in relation to the hot end.  Now I'm going to have to start taking the head apart to see if I can get to the end of the filament with a pair of pliers. I tried loading more filament, but it didn't work.

Try using a small Allen wrench to push the filament out of the nozzle. You won’t get it all out but you’ll get enough to load filament without disassembling the hot end.

That's a much better idea than taking things apart.  I'll give it a shot.

Got a Tevo Tarantula, haven't used it in a few months, but after changing the nozzle the extruder won't heat up to the full operating temperature. Its set at 200C but it gets up to about 195C and then bounces between 190 and 195. I did the pid auto adjust and uploaded the settings via Arduino a long time ago and its been working ok since. Printer never gets past the initial warm and shuts down with an error about the extruder temperature. Running E3dv6 heads and heater/thermistor. Is it possible the thermistor isn't ideally where it should be in the block? The hole for the block gives it some room to move around inside there it seems. Maybe my block is getting a lot hotter than the thermistor is reporting because of its loose fit with the block? Anyone have suggestions? I have a new heater/thermistor set I could try if someone thinks that's the issue.

Some of the thermister mountings are loose, and yes, can cause issue. One of the great advantage to the new cartridge style.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Polymer80-So-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it-/5-2075494/?r=-1&page=130&anc=78757303#i78771821

Linking to my post in the Polymer80 thread. If you have one, and want a flared magwell.

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I'm really enjoying my printer more now that I set up a pi with octoprint. It just straight up works, and the bed leveling visualizer with the ezabl is really cool.

On the other hand, I'm finding my micro swiss all metal hotend to be a pain in the ass. I feel like my print quality has decreased and if retraction settings aren't perfect, clogs abound.

Even though it doesn't weigh much more, ghosting seems a lot more pronounced.

I need the metal hot end for nylon and it's still functional, but the stock hot end on the ender 3 was a lot easier to get along with. I got great prints out of the box. Now it seems I can approach that with a lot of fiddling, but it seems more fussy overall.

Also designed an RMR cut cover plate for the Brownells Glock slides.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Polymer80-So-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it-/5-2075494/?r=-1&page=130&anc=78771821#i78773250

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Could you mod in an E3D hot end? They are the gold standard.

MG Chemicals wood filament. The finish on this stuff is ridiculous. Thin pieces feel like paper.

Disregard the zits. They basically rub off... And besides, they kind of remind me of a fresh saw cut.

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That is cool.  I've been wanting to try some wood filament.

I finally got all the parts printed and received the parts we had ordered for a CNC router that uses a Dremel tool for the spindle that my dad and I are going to build.  I'm visiting my parents this weekend and we're finally starting to assemble it.  I realized after I started unpacking everything that I forgot to bring the Dremel with me.  We can at least get the frame assembled for it this weekend.

Got started on a modification to my Ender-3, going from the stock "Melzi" board (Sanquino/ATmega1284P for Arduino purposes) to the Makerbase MKS Gen L board (Mega 2560/ATmega2560).   I previously loaded the Marlin on the machine to enable additon of a BLTouch auto bed level sensor, but code storag was 98% consumed, even after disabling various features & menu items. It works OK, but I wanted more space for more options & I/O to permit a filament out detector to be added to the controller.  I have one that sets off a beeper to warn me, but it would be nice to have the printer automatically park & pause.   The MKS Gen L board has twice the program space as the Melzi (256K vs 128K)  as well as an additional stepper & heater connection, multiple I/O pins, temperature controlled hot end fan (50°C trigger).

I'm doing this a bit at a time.   The hardware came just came in, the MKS Gen L board, a "RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Smart Controller" (aka 12864 LCD) & 5 4988 stepper controllers w/heat sinks.   The display is very similar to the stock LCD, but includes an SD card reader which is needed as the MKS Gen L card does not have one.

I used a youtube video for reference on setting up the firmware settings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNdMYgwez8Y).  I used the Vanilla Marlin Ender-3 configuration with mods for the BLTouch as the starting point & then followed the video description of the changes needed to accomodate going to the MKS Gen L board.  That seemed to be the easiest path.

Having the firmware ready to go made initial testing of the received parts easier.   The USB port supplies all needed power for board & display so no need for an additional power source.   With a successful upload of firmware I could verify function with the display board & SD reader as well as a confirmation the MKS Gen L wasn't DOA.



I already knew that the cable connector shrouds on the display board were backwards with the cut-outs on the wrong side.  I snipped out a relief on the opposite side to allow proper orientation.



The screen was lit but blank until the firmware upload was done.  With that accomplished, I got the splash screens for the Ender and Marlin then the standard menu.







I also got to verify that the SD card reader was functional by pulling up a list of print files from a card.



(I got the camera angle wrong on some of these pics, the display is actually very sharp & clear)

With that done, I plugged in the stepper driver boards, checked & tweeked VREF values and attached the heat sinks.  USB power is sufficient to get a reading (per a couple of on-line sources). Values as delivered ranged from 0.49 to 0.59 volts.  I set them to match what I read were stock values for the Creality boards (0.58v on the 3 axis steppers & 0.9v for the extruder stepper). Those little pots are touchy! Just think about moving while holding the screwdriver, then test to see how far over you went!  I eventually got all within 0.01v of the desired values.



I am in the process of printing a display enclosure, a stand for the display enclosure, a fastner adapter for the board & a new cover for the controller box w/2 fans.   The LCD is getting relocated to the left side so I don't have to buy another set of flat cables.  Nothing gets changed on the printer until all the parts are done printing.

The parts being printed were from this collection:  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2993606
The final product being similar to this pic from that thingiverse listing:



I'll post some more pics when things are ready for the next step.

The parts purchased were the following items via Amazon:
Board ($18.99):  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MW6CFY9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Display ($11.99): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FH8KTZU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Stepper Drivers(set of 5) ($8.99): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FFFYVV8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Awesome. I'm slow rolling on a MPCNC currently. Just need the spindle and conduit. Then build and set up.... Which is probably gonna be the super hard part.

Hey guys, been offline here for a while.  (being overseas with no guns for years will do that)

I got a Monoprice Maker Select Plus a couple of months ago and just took delivery of a Prusa MK3s last week.

But, I've gotta say, you guys are lacking a crucial mod on your printers.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3625909

Got the remaining  parts in & made the change from the stock Ender-3 board to an MKS-Gen-L board populated with A4988 drivers (for now).  Tried doing the swap just working from the top, but finally bit the bullet & removed the machine from the enclosure for better access.   Dropping the electronics housing from the frame makes sorting out wires a lot easier.

The new components in the printed housing made for a neat package.   There isn't much clearance from the new lid to the bed adjustment wheels, but there is enough.   I couldn't get the original screw started in the rear position on the lid so I ended up going to a "T" nut on an M3 socket head screw in the frame slot.  That worked without any more drama.



The full size SD card slot on the LCD module is a definite improvement over an external micro->full size SD adapter on a ribbon cable.  Marlin is set up to recognize card changes so there is no need for an "init SD card" option on the menu.



I ran a USB panel mount extension from the card to a printed support I attached to the back of the LCD module, using a type B connector (like the old USB printer cables).  The flap of blue masking tape is there to cover it when not in use  (may redo the orientation later).

Still tweaking Marlin settings ...  but everything seems to be working properly so far.  Hot end temps are a bit more variable than previously, I did one PID tuning already but may revisit it later.

5/16/2019   ETA

I added a filament runout sensor & made the changes in Marlin to trigger an M600 (filament change) if the sensor trips.  The connection is to the SERVO 3 pin set, using the outer 2 pins.  These are wired to a small box with roller microswitch using the NC lead.  I used dupont connectors both for the wire connection to the board (a 3 pin plug with the outer 2 populated) and for wire -> switchbox (male/female 2 pin plugs).   If the box is not plugged in, the machine still runs normally.  If plugged in & no filament holding the switch open, the machine initiates an M600 filament change operatinon.

More interesting filaments...

Suntop carbon fiber pla. 20% cf strands, allegedly. Printed without clogging. Actually prints freaking beautifully. The finish is satin, and some of the best looking plastic I've pushed yet. Oh, and it definitely has fibers in it. Its surprising tough to pull apart. I've had it warp a little, but not terrible.

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Next up is Proto Pasta steel filled pla. I am having extrusion issues with it. It's coarse, and leaves a rough matte finish. I've also included a photo of a trigger I've sanded flat... It sands well. Still doesn't look totally like metal, but metallish. Best feature is the feel. Parts feel kind of cool and heavy... Definitely feels more like metal than regular pla. Expensive. Tends to warp and doesn't bridge for crap. I've barely produced one part that's totally usable. Everything else either fails or has big gaps. It *might* be due to the fact that I bought a sample and have it loosely wrapped in a spool... Might be causing some problems with the extruder.

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Something that I've printed successfully...the Rocinate from The Expanse.

Does anyone have a filament that can hold up to 320ish degree temps for short periods of time?  I need to print some parts I designed that will be used for kydex molding.  The kydex is around 320 degrees at the hottest point, but cools and dissipates heat relatively quickly.  Also need the parts to be as smooth as possible.  I know I can do an acetone vapor bath though.

That's damn hot for a thermoplastic. You're looking at 160C+ glass transition temp. That's maybe PEEK or PEI/ultem. You're not printing that on a normal printer. You'd need a special printer with an ultra high temp nozzle, heated bed, and heated chamber.

You might be better served printing out a template to cast/mold the structures you need out of a more temperature resistant material.

He's talking about Kydex molding in Ferenheit 320, not Celsius 320.

? 320F = 160C. You need something that retains mechanical strength at a cooking oven temperature.That's PEI or maybe  PEEK. ABS tops out at maybe 105C. PETG might get you 90C or 100C max if the stars align. Nylon might not melt, but will be super flexible at that temp. HT PLA maybe 120C, optimistically.

In all likelihood, substantial components could probably take the heat for the short duration associated with kydex forming/molding of something like holsters even if printed in PETG or PLA+.  A key consideration would be thermal mass, i.e. dense infill. Small items, or small projections from larger items probably would not be able to hold up long enough for the molding process to finish before losing structural integrity.   What kind of items are being molded?

If 3d print was the only model source option, you could also consider resin casting after silicon mold making.

The shade tree mechanic side of me is also wondering if you could get away with water-tight models filled with a circulating coolent

Use 3D printer to make PLA mold.

Use PLA mold and use epoxy to make kydex forming mold.

Profit.

Good points. The upside of htpla/pla+ is it's cheap. Even if it only lasts a few times before replacement, that may be workable. There's also the question of just how precise you need the form to be before it's unusable... There might be a high tolerance for deflection before the resulting part gets out of spec.

I don't know what forces are involved or how long it's gonna get subjected to the heat.

It's worth a shot for sure.

Never thought this thread would go so long, lots of good stuff here, thanks for all the contributions and sharing guys and gals!

I haven't made time to check in here in a long time! Life has been very chaotic lately, full time farming and running a sideline fabrication business on top of the usual family stuff and several home repairs that came up all at once.

I still haven't upgraded printers or messed with improving my Tarantula, it just sits. Not good enough to print what I want and no time to tweak it. When I feel I can dedicate some funds to a new 3D Printer I'm still considering just getting a Prusa Mk3. Whatever I buy I just want it to work without a lot of time input on tuning and upgrades right away. Assembling a kit is fine with me, but ideally I want to start reliably printing useable parts soon after it's put together.

Anything new came out that makes more sense than a Prusa for my case?

ETA: I think there is some potential for a good 3D printer to compliment some of the fabwork I'm getting into, so I will be trying to buy one fairly soon. I've seen 3D printed press brake, bead roller and dimple dies doing things I never would have thought possible for a 3D printed part, I could use that capability sometimes!

I was going to go with SLS Nylon printed by shapeways or 3dhubs, which is what I've used in the past to print parts.  Just wanted to see if there was something more suited to the task.   These are just going to be blocking that I will place on a gun and secure with blue tape.  Ordinarily I use wood for this but I wanted to come up with something a little more special, and one of the things I designed I could never make out of wood.  I don't want to talk about that one in too much detail because I don't want someone to steal my idea.

Most recent project: an ultralight buttstock. This weighs less than 35g without the nut and bolt. Still working on it, but it should be usable in its current form. More details at thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3646077

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Just a heads up if someone goes for a MKS-GEN-L + Reprap discount full graphic display  combination & is using Marlin.

Apparently timing issues can cause problems on some of the LCD boards.   You can find the display distorted like below after the machine is running a while.   Things still work fine, but the display content looks to be shifted within the display memory space.



So far, Marlin developers cannot get a consistent reproduction of the problem on their own machines, so affected users have to apply workarounds.  There are a number of posts talking about changing cable lengths, wrapping the flat cables in foil & grounding the foil, etc.  apparently predicated that electrical noise is the cause.   That is contradicted by those who see the same effect when not in an operating environment, but only have the controller & LCD active.  (It also is refuted by those who have fixed their issue by altering the LCD signal timing.)

After doing some searching I found the following & it worked on bugfix Marlin 1.1.9 (but not usable on Marlin 2.0) :

** Find U8GLIB_ST7920_128X64_RRD u8g(0);
 ** you should find it in tab ultralcd_impl_DOGM.h
 ** make backup (type // in front) and type on new line
 **  U8GLIB_ST7920_128X64_1X u8g(23,17,16);

This worked OK for me, but when I wanted to try Marlin 2.x, I found the files had changed enough that it was a non-starter.   An alternative fix was to make some new defines for the display delay timing.  This was found during the same search that turned up the previous one:

*  add the following defines to Configuration.h
*
*  #define ST7920_DELAY_1 DELAY_NS(50)
*  #define ST7920_DELAY_2 DELAY_NS(188)
*  #define ST7920_DELAY_3 DELAY_NS(50)

These values worked for me under bugfix Marlin 2.x  and the situation has been stable for many hours operation so far.

I bet if you used an epoxy coating over an ABS or SLS part it would stand up to to the heat for a short amount of time.  As a bonus the epoxy will also smooth out any lines in the print.

For those with an Ender 3 or CR10/S/S4/S5 & who use Cura 4.0, you might find this video  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOn-VNqg2ac)  of interest:



It covers a Creality oriented mod to the Cura resources folder that covers most printers in the Creality product line, with specialized printer profiles.  It also changes some behaviors in the profile settings menu.  It does not currently have profiles for the Ender 4 or Ender 5.

The current Creawsome Cura 4.0 mod package can be found here: https://github.com/trouch/CreawsomeMod/releases

Just for fun, I did a backup on my Cura 4 package & installed the mod.  So far I have just tried it with TPU (that is was I was working with at the time) & had good results at several different Quality settings.  The mod's TPU profile was a bit different from my settings, but I ran it as-is to see what would happen & had no troubles.   A notable difference was that the mod had me printing on an unheated bed where previously I had been printing on 55° C.

On a side note, after quite a bit more runtime,  there has still been no repeats of the LCD display shift problem.  The delay timing tweaks for the Reprap discount full graphic display under Marlin 2.0.x , mentioned in my last post, seem to have done the job.

5/27 ETA:   The CreawsomeMod speed settings are pretty conservative.   I've been printing some PLA (0.2mm layer heigt) with the feedrate @ 200% without issues.  The only change being a slight increase in the nozzle temp to help accommodate the additional filament moving through.   I just started a simple job (altoid tin copy, 0.2mm layer height) with the feedrate @ 300%, first 3 layers down look  good so far...

Dental plaster is also excellent for making molds, it's inexpensive and holds details very well.  The only thing I'm not sure about are its thermal properties.

So what can you actually make to make buying a 3d printer worth it?

What do you mean by "worth it"?

Do you plan to run a home manufactory?  Making what?  How durable does it need to be?  Would you be better served by the more common subtractive manufacturing processes (e.g. CNC mills/lathes, etc) rather than additive manufacturing?  Do you already know how to do 3D modeling, or would you have to learn in order to create the parts you want to make?  Are you considering a small scale prototyping business?  Or will your 3D printer be used primarily for your own personal gratification (e.g. AR parts, cube toys, tabletop gaming parts, replacing small broken plastic parts on items that would otherwise be discarded)?

Assuming that 3D printing meets your needs, you then have to decide if you want to do resin printing or the more common thermoplastics.

ETA

I have a business plan that I expect will take no less than 5 years to get truly started on, and when I do get started I have no idea how long until it's profitable.  My spouse and daughter are working on similar plans and I expect that our operations will overlap.

How limited is your own imagination is the real question.

Additive manufacturing is the way of the future.

I bought my Ender 3 as something to play with, being a bit of a gadget freak, no thought towards making/saving money.

Having said that, since Christmas I have made various items for the kids & grandkids that would probably have cost more to buy than the cost of the printer.  In the past week I made gaskets for gas can spouts I couldn't buy (short of buying a new spout) & replacement caps for a couple of gas cans whose caps had split.  I also made a shim to go over the support tube for the pneumatic cylinder on an office chair that would no longer maintain height.  It lets me continue to use that chair at a comfortable height instead of buying a new chair.  I've probably done a dozen or so lithophanes as gifts or favors for folks & those would be $10 - $20 each if they were custom ordered.  etc. etc.

It pretty much has turned out to be another tool around the house, like a power drill, table saw or router ...

You can make other 3d printers with a 3d printer. Maybe sell the parts? You can make cnc machines with fairly large working envelopes. Then you can do wood and aluminum carving. Directly manufacture lots of little one off things, like router jigs, cutting templates, custom things that are designed for specific needs. Make custom cookie cutters. Alignment/squaring tools. Hole/drill/cut guides. Custom soft jaws for vises. All kinds of things.

Not sure how you want to calculate "worth" it, but compared to the cost of a decent entey level 3d ($300), you can easily make enough clamps and little one off things for yourself to recoup the cost.

I think the position that kmaldona60 is actually at is: "what can I make of high value with zero trouble with only pushing 3 buttons so I don't have to buy my stuff at Wal-Mart anymore?"

A lot of folks who are not tinkerers or "makers" ask that very question that he asked, but actually meant ^^.

I think that if you have to ask, you have not done any (simple YouTube search) research, and probably don't have the attitude that is conducive to appreciating a 3D printer.

Everybody that prints knows that the modeling is where its at, and that is the main skill you must master, or at least become competent in to have any success.

I made a thing

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3659791

M101 Davy Crockett dummy projectile.

I did a terminals cover for a cheap 12v 30a power supply the other day.  The power supply comes like this:



so no protection for 120v supply lines or 12v output.

Here's the cover I made with a fused & switched cord connector & 3 anderson powerpole connectors + a voltage readout.



The supply has a voltage adjustment pot, so it got set for 13.8v as I picked it up mainly for use with ham gear.  It is actually pretty quiet for a cheap switching supply,  no RF issues on HF/VHF/UHF that I have noted to date.

I did the model in Tinkercad, just using measurements of the supply & parts I wanted to install.  The openings for the anderson powerpole pairs were made using a virtual "punch" that left a profile on the hole edges that mate with the depressions on the sides of the connectors.   It was found here : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2783449

I may do another for the supply that powers our outside flag illumination, but will need to double check it's mounting holes - I don't trust the QC to be that thorough ...

If you want to do a variation, the Tinkercad source is here: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/ezNIfDOuzyn-power-supply-cover

ETA:  Dropped a copy on Thingiverse:   https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3689123

I want to print this, looks cool. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3191917