SilverTriple's printing stuff...

[silvertriple]

Your getting fantastic results Mark Pity really as I was really looking forward to your moulded tire project you do now have an imperfect printed tire that you could experiment on surface treatment now though . This is looking very promising , keep it up .

I still intend to try to do molding... i doubt I can pull a Big Bear tire with my SLA printer : It maybe too big for my resin printer...

[Dadio]

Your getting fantastic results Mark Pity really as I was really looking forward to your moulded tire project you do now have an imperfect printed tire that you could experiment on surface treatment now though . This is looking very promising , keep it up .

I still intend to try to do molding... i doubt I can pull a Big Bear tire with my SLA printer : It maybe too big for my resin printer...

I wonder if you could do a Big Bear tire in two parts ? make a jig to align the two parts and use resin to bond them together ? UV resin has no real layer weakness and once you start understanding it you think of lots more things you can do , like the holes you are making to stop the vacuum effect can be closed later with a drop of resin .

[silvertriple]

I wonder if you could do a Big Bear tire in two parts ? make a jig to align the two parts and use resin to bond them together ? UV resin has no real layer weakness and once you start understanding it you think of lots more things you can do , like the holes you are making to stop the vacuum effect can be closed later with a drop of resin .

I'm still a newbie in resin printing
I need to compute all this information
And honestly, I'm still surprised to have done successful prints right out of the box...

[silvertriple]

Last night, I launched a long print (ok, ot so long, it would have taken much more time on the E5+)...



The Big Bear / Super Wheelie 3 part chassis for dimensional test... Next will be in the Super Wheelie and Big Bear thread (later this afternoon, I won't have any time this morning)...

[silvertriple]

I've identified and ordered some different flexible resins with lower shore than the one I already used. One of them is even translucent and can be colored. I should be able to do more testing soon on tires topic

Beside this, while searching for those, I identified other resins with interesting properties for other applications. The resin finish (with proper post processing) is better than any FDM print (and even than Nylon PA12 MJF prints), and that gives some interesting case for the future. I still have some doubts about HDT and how this results in real usage, but that could make it for nice and strong technical parts... Further tests to come in the future

[silvertriple]

One of the issues I have to sort it with the tires is during the curing process : it is difficult to have the inside of the tire exposed properly... One of my friend suggested a UV led ribbon. It can be cut to fit a certain length, and is powered by USB...


I just need to build a structure to position it easily in the tire center, bring the usb cable in and this without disturbing the nomal curing process. I decided to bring the usb cable from the top and I still need to find a way to power / unpower it easily...

[silvertriple]

Currently printing...

[silvertriple]

While the printer works, I built a tool

a 2020 extrusion, few angles, few t-nuts and screws...


That should be practical to empty the VAT with a filter on top of the bottle...

[silvertriple]

The last print was finished yesterday...


I did a mistake when doing the slicing, and the result is that my red marking is not really visible, because behind a white layer (I should have done slightly differently - I'll know for next time) : I had to use a red permanent marker to make the marking visible... I will review the injector based on the hardware I find and due to the tolerances : this printer prints are much more accurate, so I can decrease the tolerances for the clearance... This will be a bit of work, but It's on the good path... The target is to use Vitaflex bicomponent resin with black colorant and a shore of 50A

I also need to prepare some prints for the second candidate resin. The one I printed the tires for the Samurai and Ninja is fine for those usage, but the tires of the Hunter, Galaxy and Super Wheelies are acturally softer... So this makes the case to print Hunter tires... They will be my next test... The rear tire won't present any difficulties based on the acquired experience on the Samurai and Ninja...


But it is another story for the fronts...
My first positionning of the Hunter tires would not work : the lines are not supported and it is also the case for the internal ring...

I changed the angle to 45° and included supports everywhere...

This is better but there will be work to get it cleaned after...

As part of the test cases I want to tackle next in 3D prints :
- Hunter and Galaxy (the difference is the side markings - shore 55A
- Super Wheelie - Shore 55A
- Zerda tires - Shore 55A (I have enough 44B tires, so I won't take care of them right now)
- a set of On-road tires for the Coors with Shore around 45A. It won't be as per original design, and I'll try to tackle foam later on...

[silvertriple]

Spent almost the day reorganizing space, and did not move on any of my RC projects...

This morning, I moved the Ender 5 Plus to the enclosure, and it allowed me to free some space under my desk to store car boxes...


I'm pretty happy, as there is now additional room to move around in my home desk...

In the printing space, I got a PAX cabinet from IKEA yesterday, and get organized today...

On one side, the Ender 5 plus enclosure, the resin printer and the wash and cure station, and the Silhouette Cameo 4 which did not have specific room until now...


And in the PAX cabinet, the Bambu Lab X1C and plenty of storage for filament, resin and other hobby stuff...


I still need to install the filtration in the cabinet, but some elements were not yet delivered, they should arrive within the course of next week... All of this should ease my life, and my wife is no longer worried about the piles of filament boxes in the room

[silvertriple]

I launched a print of Hunter rear tire this morning, with a target shore of 55A. The resin is a different one that the one I used for the Samurai and Ninja tires... First it has less odor, and it seems more fluid... We'll see if it prints correctly in a few hours, finger cross...

In the meantime, I've modeled the Hunter/Galaxy rims to be able to print some to go with the printed tires... Simple enough to model, definitely...


And with the tires...


I've also modeled the internal ring with the target to print it in TPU...

[silvertriple]

And the first print of tire with the second resin candidate is done...


Need to post process it next... Still a lot of work to do, and 3 other tires to print for the Hunter...

[silvertriple]

Post processing was done. First a bath of IPA Alcoohol (not a fresh one), then remove the supports, then another bath with clean IPA; the two baths with agitation. Nex was drying with air compressor outside, inside, outside again...
Then I let it dry alone for 30 minutes again... I only had an issue while drying with the air compressor : the tire escaped my hands and ran on the dirty ground of the garage : I made all I can to remove the traces, but there was still a bit of dirt at the end of the drying (the tire was still sticky when the problem appeared).

For UV cure, it's precised on the the manufacturer website that once the tire is dry, it is better to put it in a jar of water (unless you can do this in notrogen) for the first few minutes of UV exposition. I put the tire in water and exposed for 5 minutes, then dry it again and 25 minutes UV without water... I also exposed the inside later on with a Led ribbon powered on USB...


Here is the tire... You may see the traces resulting of the dirt escape of the tire...


I can tell you the softness is really close to the one from the original tire... Aspect of the thread is really nice... I don't show the supported side, it's definitely not as good...


And rims are ready... It may not do it for a shelf. But I'm looking forward to see how close/far they are from the original used on different grounds, specially considering it looks very very very close from the original tires in terms of shore...

[silvertriple]

Second and third print attempts with the same file failed... I may have been very lucky with the first one, as both failed in the same area...


I used a 50s exposure to quickly removed the polymerized resin from the VAT and be able to launch a new print right away...

Not sure why the first print worked and not the following... Talking with friends more used to resin printing than myself, this happens sometimes when you have slicing too challenging... I will change the orientation to give more angle and will reslice to retry differently...

[Dadio]

That's bad luck Mark , the first one looks great and for running not shelving it's perfect , some of the cheap tires I ran in the 80s had no better finish , you could use one of the failures to try painting a light coat of resin on the outside and curing it to remove blemishes .