FORGEDon’t be tempted by cheap filament Cheap filament
means air pockets, out of round material, inconsistent
diameters, and is nothing but trouble since the printer
has no idea how much filament is actually extruded. Do
yourself a favour and buy from a name brand company.
Using a mirror as your print bed Mirrors make the
best bed platforms on cheaper machines since mirrors
need to be manufactured perfectly flat to reflect
properly. Even on printers that use glass beds, the bed
can sometimes be cast more unevenly than they look.
Level-bedded Before running a print on a new
machine, stand a steel ruler on its edge and run it
back to front along the print bed, looking for light gaps
where the ruler meets the bed. Wherever you find
them, use tape or foil to help even out the bed.
Repeat for x-axis/left-to-right.
Using brass inserts It’s a good idea to use threaded
brass inserts for parts that will be screwed and
unscrewed repeatedly. You can sink these inserts into
your print using a soldering iron to heat and melt them
into the plastic. You can use a regular, suitably sized
soldering tip, but there are also commercial tips
designed for this specific task. You can also use an
old drill press stand and soldering iron to make a
heated press tool for brass inserts if you need to
embed a lot of them.
Using waste filament as filler Waste prints and raft/
support material are useful as filler when welding parts
together with a hot-air gun or soldering iron. You can
also fill/repair prints using 'friction welding'. Chuck a
piece of filament into a rotary (Dremel) tool and let the
spinning material melt into cracks as needed.
Don’t forget extrusion width In a CNC Kitchen
video on YouTube (hsmag.cc/iHJdPr), Stefan looks at
extrusion width, something that most 3D printers tend
to overlook. Extrusion width defines how wide the
lines of extruded material will be. Wider lines require
more pressure to squeeze the molten filament out
of the nozzle and to press the layers together. Stefan
discovered that increasing the width can produce
stronger prints in a shorter amount of time. In the
comments to the video, a viewer named Mikolas Zuza
shared another reason for considering extrusion width:
“There is another reason to adjust the extrusion width.
If you look at the perimeters value in PrusaSlicer,
there’s a tooltip suggesting a perfect wall thickness
for a given number of perimeters. If you match this
value, either by adjusting the extrusion width or
editing your drawing, the perimeters will fit perfectly
without any need for a gap fill. This can help achieve
nearly perfect wall-surface finish, as there is minimal
material overflow.”But the weirdest
of all has got to be maple
syrup. Some printers
swear by it”
”
PRINT 3D TEST PARTS FROM THE
Maker Meredith Scheff-
King discovered a
wonderful feature hidden
within the indispensable
McMaster-Carr online
catalogue (mcmaster.com).
Many parts in the catalogue
have 3D models available
for them. These files can be
downloaded and converted into 3D printable files. Here are the basic steps:- On the catalogue, find the part you’re interested in and look for a 'Product Detail' link.
- On that link, next to a technical drawing of the part, you’ll see a drop-down menu of
3D file types available. Select the format you want (likely STEP) and download it. - From here, you’ll want to convert your file to STL format.
- Once it's in STL , you can open the file in your favourite CAD program to manipulate
and print as desired.
Making use of this feature, you can print an expensive/critical part in plastic first and
test-fit it to make sure that it’s the part you want before you buy a proper version.
Meredith has a piece on Instructables (hsmag.cc/S4WjnM) which shows the steps in a
bit more detail.
MCMASTER-CARR CATALOGUE
Above
Some feet in the
corners of your prints
help keep everything
stuck down
Credit
Andrew Lewis