It's a process...
- Thread starter Andy
- Start date
Hey now that's what I call thinking ahead! Iterative design works best the shorter the production cycles are between testing and engineering so cutting down the print time is a crucial step. For my 3d printed aquarium light shades I do the same thing where I just print enough to test the dimensions and tolerances between my print and the light fixtures.
I really don't need a 4th caliper set but that one is soooo cool it's very tempting to buy and print it too!
I really don't need a 4th caliper set but that one is soooo cool it's very tempting to buy and print it too!
Haha I am having a lot of fun with it. On one hand, I wouldn't use it for much that I need super accurate measurements for, but on the other, it's cool knowing that I can just replace a part of it if I break it (or if I get tired of looking at the parts I messed up last time).
And yeah, all 3d printers have done for me is made me more impatient--this part takes 30 minutes from SD card to physical product, and I'm over here like "COME OOOOOONN!"
And yeah, all 3d printers have done for me is made me more impatient--this part takes 30 minutes from SD card to physical product, and I'm over here like "COME OOOOOONN!"
I am so used to my light shades clocking in at 12-36 hours that now when I have been printing tiny Dune Buggy RC parts that only take like 50 minutes, I am outraged. I have to come back in 50 minutes to start the next one?!
Those plastic calipers have a lot of benefit also though in that they are not going to scratch stuff up like the hardened steel ones. I had even bought a plastic caliper set for that non-marring purpose since I am usually measuring glossy plastic parts for aquariums that I don't want to ruin. If I had known about that set you found I would have done those instead. The plastic calipers are non-digital just a slide ruler and even then it's off by 1mm though.
Those plastic calipers have a lot of benefit also though in that they are not going to scratch stuff up like the hardened steel ones. I had even bought a plastic caliper set for that non-marring purpose since I am usually measuring glossy plastic parts for aquariums that I don't want to ruin. If I had known about that set you found I would have done those instead. The plastic calipers are non-digital just a slide ruler and even then it's off by 1mm though.
Update: I think I'm getting pretty close to done. I'm at least willing to wait a couple of hours between tests. I have another few changes coming through the printer now, and then I think I'm ready to print it for real.
I promise I wasn't trying to be artistic with the B&W photo; I just apparently left my monitor's bias lighting on party mode, so it was this or purple
I promise I wasn't trying to be artistic with the B&W photo; I just apparently left my monitor's bias lighting on party mode, so it was this or purple
Yup, I'm pretty happy with it. Adding the outside "foot" also stopped it from breaking on the outside wall. Making the part thicker didn't fix the delamination issue, but I had to pull pretty hard to break it--I suspect that it'll be pretty tough once I print the final part (which will be some 40mm wide, compared to the ~10mm it is now). This is at 50% infill, which I think I'm going to use for the final print. I might make the perimeters thicker (it's the cura default now... 4 lines? 2? I checked it once and haven't looked at it since 
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Yeah more perimeters is better than more infill in terms of surface strength and print speed. You can get away with like 10-15% infill and part that feels totally solid by increasing the perimeters to 4-6 lines. I pretty much only do figurines or stuff that is intrinsically delicate at 2 perimeters since it is very easy to puncture through on accident.
Well, it's been about a week and dude's still holding up. I think I'm going to call this done. I still need to print one more of them, so that it holds in two places, but I'm pretty happy with how it's holding together. I'm especially happy that this one has been holding, given that the filament ran out at about the 90% mark so it didn't get a whole side printed.