A New Project: 3D Printing

Which Machine?

Previously I thought about getting a Taz 6 but they come at $2500+ and for what you get, that is a lousy deal: major parts are 3D printed plastic and I would rather have metal where possible. Also the slight size advantage is not important to me for a first machine – if I move to a bigger format machine later I will go a lot bigger than that.

Better is the CR10S Pro which at @ $1000 has much better construction quality.

It may take some mods to bring it up to full standard but that is okay there is plenty of info on how to do that online and the parts are cheap and available.

For ABS you need an enclosure and a ventilation system to outside or the room will stink of plastic. (actually I suspect this will be needed regardless of the filament)

Also ABS is not UV resistant - get ASA instead for that, or Carbon X (need a stronger print head for this but the results: strong parts! That's what I am after. The exact material is less important than the strength and durability of the parts.

Originally I thought of getting a big printer but there are two reasons why that is a bad idea, at least to start out: first, 3D printing takes time. The bigger the print, the longer it takes – and if anything goes wrong, that time is probably wasted.
By instead making a large model from several smaller parts, a failure in any one part only means you need to reprint that part , not the whole thing. Also, big printers are very expensive and I have yet to find good uses for the one I have (but I am sure that these will appear).

I bought the CR0-10S Pro for a total of $907 AU delivered.

It came very quickly (within 3 days). I opened the box and prepared to assemble it by doing up the four M5 screws but there was a slight problem: one of the threads had a burr on it that meant the screw wouldn't thread. I bought a set of taps and dies for a whopping $30 and it si taking a week for them to arrive – funny when the printer was so fast getting here.

I have watched several YouTube vids by other CR10S Pro owners which made me decide on getting some extras:

1. Three quiet cooling fans for the case from Noctua (who else? The Noctua fans in my PC are excellent)

2. A WhamBam build plate - this permits easy removal of finished parts without needing a spatula.

These should arrive soon.

The Cabinet

I like the idea of building a cabinet to put around the whole printer for various reasons:

(a) Temperature control – even inside my house the temperatures can vary a lot winter/summer and printing some materials e.g. ABS works a lot better if the chamber is at least temperature stabilised.

I am not sure how far I would go to set this up but it may be a future development.

(b) Safety – I prefer not to have machinery moving about in my workspace uncovered.

(c) Gases – Some plastics give off gases when printed. I would like to have the chamber exhausted to outside or at least filtered for long term health.

(d) Also, I might add lights and a camera for remote monitoring inside the cabinet.

(e) One final extra is that I could then mount a filament store underneath the cabinet in a sealed box and feed the filament up the back of the whole unit rather than having one roll on top. It seems that keeping filaments dry and warm is important for good results so this would take care of all that in one unit.

This Printer cabinet would need to be about 700 x 700 mm square and there does not seem to be anything that size on sale so the whole thing would need to be custom made. 

This (naturally ) lends itself to be made with 3D printed parts. I am thinking the flat parts might be plastic sheet with insulation on most of the insides while the edges could be aluminum extrusions and then the corner blocks would be 3D printed in something strong e.g. ABS. 

This is, of course, a work in progress.  Not sure how the cabinet idea will work out - it is more a matter of how much I end up using the printer - if it gets a lot of use then the cabinet will be worth the effort.

More coming once I get the printer up and running.