3D tools

whats a decent 3D printer cost?

 

Is that going to be a laser engraver? what did that cost you?

 

I haven't played with vcarve, though it sounds nice. I've just gotten pretty fluent with Fusion at this point. Most of my initial designs take less than an hour unless there's some tweaking to be made. I haven't designed anything with a lot of parts like an engine though, which would take substantially more time.

It depends honestly. You could go with something like the Ender 3, which is $190 right now and people are getting good results or the Prusa, which was $800 shipped. You are generally paying for the extra bells and whistles. Then you can go well above that and you get better precision rails, bearings, frame, motors, etc. I'm probably going to build my next one from the ground up personally.

I didn't have it completely dialed in yet, but I attached a photo of one of my first prints. Getting good results though. This is our second Prusa and it does prints nice enough to sell phone mounts on etsy.
My power supply just died on me though. Waiting on a new one.

 

What @StiffyMounts said. My tried and true 3D printer is the Monoprice Select Mini 2. $220 (I got it for $200 on Black Friday). I sold my first one but ended up buying another because they are rock solid.

The Mini is fully assembled so you only have to spend a few minutes adjusting it before you start printing. Most others you have to put together and spend a lot of time dialing it in to get it to work right.

They are limited in printing size 120 x 120 x 120mm and can pretty much only print PLA. I have a two color Prusa knockoff but it's finicky. I'm actually priting more parts on the Mimi 2 for the CNC now.


Also don't forget about all the rolls of PLA or whichever filliment you want $18-$30 for a 2Kilo roll.

 

Firstly it's a 3D milling tool It uses a Dewalt 611 router to cut into wood. The working area is 32 x 32 x 3 inches.

I have a 5500mw blue laser that came with my Chinese CNC. After I 3D print a bracket I can run 12V to power it and and run the TTL from the the circuit board to the TTL on the Shapeoko board then it should laser cut/etch.



I also have a foam cutter that others have made a 3D bracket for that can be used to precisely cut foam.

Lastly one of my bits is a diamond tipped spring loaded bit that can etch on glass, metal, plastics, tiles etc.

 

I knocked this out in Vcarve today. Not the full 3D part, that I downloaded from a 3D clipart site and converted to the CNC format.
I was going to print it tonight but I wanted fine detail and with a 1/16" bit the cleaning pass will take 4 1/2 hours. the rest will take 20 minutes. This is in hard wood.

 

How did you convert the clip art to 3D for the tool routing?

I use vector magic for turning jpgs to a usable file in fusion.

 

It was a STL file I had tried a dozen STL to DXF converters then I found out that Vcarve can import them. I just had to do it a different way thru the menu instead of the import icon.

I can either turn BMP or JPG to vectors in Vcarve or Corel Draw. I just was searching for line art in google.

Vcarve does all the tool management and routing then I can send it all in one batch or seperate gcode for each toolpath.

 

wow this is really interesting...what did the machine cost?

 

Shapeoko 3 XXL - $1800
Dewalt 611 Router - $130
Various bits - $200
Vcarve Desktop - $350

 

so what kind of things are you printing?

what kind of materials are you carving? and what are you making?

 

In addition to what I have posted above here are a few things I have designed.

An adapter to change the Really big Christmas light from a bulb to computer controlled pixel lights.





Dual RSA token holder



Flashlight holder for the side of my rolling toolbox



A cover for the power supply on the pixel lights with plugs for multiple light strings, fuses and a volt meter.



Lots of parts for my larger 3D printer.







Plus there are many more things that I have printed that others have shared.

 

I'm just getting started so this is the first thing I tried tonight.



The diamond engraver is meant for granite, plastic, metal but I thought I would try glass tile (because that's what I saw at Home Depot). It didn't work so great on the glass. I tried the back on the top left of the picture. That worked but I went too deep. I will try it again tomorrow.

 

Damn this reminds me of all the shit I've been wanting to print!

I just set my printer back up a few days ago, time to get to it I suppose!

 

So how do you find the diagrams/specs to the parts you are making?

 

Shapeoko 3 get to work.



5 1/2" wide Alder board. This took 4 1/2 hours for the 1/16" bit to cut with a 50% overcut it was cutting 1/32" at a time.



It's fine enough that it didn't need much of any sanding.. A little stain and it's looking good to me.



I might add a little paint to the text before I varnish it.

 

you got skills man

 

Whos taking on custom jobs?

 

It doesn't always work out. I will build a cabinet around my Shapeoko to deaden the sound and contain the dust. I plan on using 3/4" Melamine with furniture Cam locks and nuts. I spent the weekend designing and printing out a jig to install them and on my first one the friction from the drilling melted the plastic together. I ordered a real jig from Amazon.