Interesting, I will check that one out.

What slicing software do you use for the CR-10 or Ender 3/5?

 

I only use Cura to slice. Never had a problem with it.

 

Nice. That is what I use for my Ultimaker. I checked it and saw that there were profiles for all of the Creality stuff, I was hoping it would work well.

 

There are upgrades that fixes an issue, or make things better, then there's the JCWhitney catalog and club roadster...

 

Not that I have any clue what I'm talking about, but the 3Pro from Amazon was $290... then 2 spools at $23ea... plus a glass bed $18 and upgrade board $39... call it $400 even.

SO! Big news,,, it arrived yesterday. Just the printer. Extra spools and upgrade parts arrive next week. But, discovered all the filament from the big multi-pack we bought last Xmas for my kids 3D Pen are 1.75 PLA... so now we get to make all new Monopoly playing pieces in fancy colors.

The oldest and I put it together yesterday. Instructions are total crap, just pictures that don't capture the fidelity you need put it together. If I'd been by myself, I would have just started bolting **** up, but for the sake of my sanity and hers, we watched a couple YT videos and had it together in about an hour. Manual bed leveling went well and the big X w/dots test print was satisfactory, so we called it a night. I woke up this morning and printed this... guide piece to keep the filament from rubbing on the screwjack. Printed perfect, very happy. Will print a few more of the small "upgrade parts"... until I run out of white filament. Then it's "Baby Yoda" time.

 

Looks good! I couldn't find any that cheap on Amazon. The best I found was straight from Creality. $229 shipped (https://www.creality3d.shop/products...ion-3d-printer)

I think that is what the birthday boy is getting so I will keep the YT video thing in mind. You should do a few prints with the magnetic bed and then a few with the glass bed and tell me what you think. If it is worth the upgrade I will pass along that info. This is going to cause me to end up with another 3D printer, I can just feel it.

 

If he hasn't done any of this stuff before, spoon feed him a little to get him started. Granted, I've printed one thing so far, but...

There is an ENDER 3 Subreddit.

Thingaverse has dozens of upgrade parts (some of them small-size) that people have already created to get started. Don't start on something 6" tall that will use the whole white spool that came with the case and run out halfway through.
https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q...&sort=relevant

Tell him how to download CURA and pull up an ENDER 3 blank slate (whatever you call it), and click&drag a 3D STL file into it, and click the SLICE button to make a GCODE file... put that on the included 8GB Micro-SD card... and print away. It's that easy.

HINTS that I found out watching YT's that were critical to success:
HINT: When you first get the printer assembled and start manually moving the axis's just for giggles, the EXTRUDER will not function unless you've pre-heated it... 30 minutes of my life wasted.
HINT: As soon as you get the thing assembled, before you plug it in, bottom out the board so you don't jam the head into it the first time you HOME it. You've gotta send it home to start bed level'ing anyways, so first step is to get the bed out of the way.
HINT: The screwjack is soaked in oil... don't pull the big plastic condom off it until you're ready to install the carriage.
HINT: When you first put the filament in the extruder, clip it at a very sharp angle to make it pointy or it won't insert.
HINT: The power supply comes factory set at 240v... be sure to flip the switch for USA 'Merica weaksauce voltage.

 

Tough to see, but there are pretty distinct eyes and ears in this Minecraft monopoly piece. Broke out one of my micro-files and touched up a bit of stray filament. Now printing a new extruder ****... in sexy red! Scale is deceptive... this piece is about the size of the tip of your thumb.

 

Awesome tips, thank you! I will pass these along and reference them if I end up helping him set the thing up. He actually knows Solidworks pretty well thanks to his schooling so he should be in a pretty good position to do some 3D printing.

 

Check out the r/functionalprint subreddit for lots of good ideas as well.

 

I can't believe I have never seen this subreddit before, this is awesome.

 

As someone who is also well versed in Solidworks, I will echo what others have said: fusion 360 is free and great, and pretty intuitive to pick up if you already know SW.

 

If you want to put your printer to use helping first responders Here is a thingaverse page for the face shields my BIL helped design to give out in St. Louis. I think he is printing 200-300 a day on his dozen cr-10's and people are loving them.

 

I have been using Inventor my whole life and Solidworks some in college. What is the advantage to using Fusion 360 when you already know Solidworks/Inventor?



That is awesome. My fiance is a nurse but so far her hospital is not short on masks. I should probably just start making some in case the shortage hits, thanks for the link.

Where does he send the masks once he makes them? Any idea where he gets the plastic sheets for the actual shield? Or the elastic band?

 

If you have a solidworks or inventor license you can use at home, or bring your work laptop home to use, there is no advantage. I'm about to graduate college and lose my student SW license, so I picked it up to learn a free program I can use for modeling things to be 3D printed. But yeah, I'd much rather use solidworks.

 

I see, that makes sense. I don't know about Solidworks, but if you have a student email address you can get Inventor for free. https://www.autodesk.com/education/f...r-professional

 

Thanks, I'll check into that. I'm pretty well versed in SW and Creo, but never used Inventor, so if nothing else it would be good to get some familiarity.

 

I think it is very similar to learning a programming language. Once you know one, it becomes much easier to learn a second, third, etc. When I was using Solidworks it was annoying because buttons weren't where I was expecting them and some functions worked a little bit differently, but the framework was the same.

 

Here[/url is a quick thing my wife wrote up about the build and the design info and choices. I believe she talks about where to get the rest of the materials.

I do know he bags up masks and lets then sit for 48 to 72 hours before distributing to verify that they are virus free.

 

If you're going to make face shields for medical personnel it's best to contact them first to see what they need. There's a ton of different designs out there, all with different trade-offs between print speed, coverage, and amount of filament used. The NIH has approved several shield designs which makes it easier to convince a hospital to accept them, so I recommend starting there. The Prusa design is also very popular, although in my opinion is very inefficient from a time and filament perspective. The Verkstan design is probably the most widely accepted quick printing design, although it compromises on coverage and projection.

I'm helping to lead a group of about 35 volunteers printing and distributing face shields in Montgomery Alabama. It's really cool to see makers come together to make a positive difference. It can be maddeningly difficult to get a bunch of volunteers, especially the type that are likely to own 3D printers, working in the same direction though!