QIDI Plus4 - 3D Printer

[GreenBar0n]

I didn't clean the gear box halves well enough, so there is too large of a gap to make things work for the rear suspension.




Printing some new gear cases now, will get those to fit together precisely, like I should've the first time.

The front is done and works well. The PETG steering setup turns easily and is surprisingly sturdy.

Need to figure a way to install the ballcups and tie rods in a static way.

If the ball were built in to the ballcup with the tie rods all in one piece, could glue the assembly in there. Might try a real ballcup/tie rod to see if that would work.

Like the silver cage better.

[GreenBar0n]

Printed and assembled a new gearbox, made it fit together correctly this time. Got the new rear cage installed too.


Those white PETG pipe joints are for the SRB chassis, but don't fit, or work with the Manx body rear mount. @XLR8 designed this new rear mount that has the pipe joint built in on one side, in order to hold the rear frame together, and provide the shock pivot mount. Printing this now, thanks again!


Looking forward to having this all together, and no longer in a box.

[GreenBar0n]

The new rear mount works great.


I have a couple choices in wheels, these are the 70's mags on there, have the VW 5-lug wheels too.


Can't find 1.7" Tamiya Rough Rider wheels to print, to use with the VW wheel covers. Would have to buy a set of Buggy Champ/Rough Rider wheels.

[GreenBar0n]

Found the Rough Rider/Buggy Champ 3d printable front wheels:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4318066

Looking for the rear wheels now.

[GreenBar0n]

Front wheels finished printing. Still need hubs and inner plates for the rear wheels.

Definitely going with VW 5-lug wheels, not sure about the hub caps yet.

Engine in.


Need to get the side pods on there, and try to scale the 1.5" SRB rear wheel file I have, up to 1.7" to fit.

[XLR8]

Those 5-lugs look great.
I can't get over how much your silver filament parts look like die cast aluminum.
I know you're building this for display, are you planning to paint anything or just leave it natural? Just curious.

[GreenBar0n]

Those 5-lugs look great.
I can't get over how much your silver filament parts look like die cast aluminum.
I know you're building this for display, are you planning to paint anything or just leave it natural? Just curious.

Those 5-lug rims are what got me to buy this printer in the first place, it pushed me over the edge.

QIDI Metallic Silver PLA, and the way the lighting position is engraved in the parts, can make the surface texture appear as metal, it's really interesting how that works.

I already posted this a few pages back, but in case anyone missed what an engraved lighting position means, or looks like, it's when you move the part under the light, and it shows brightly in the orientation as it was printed, and then has a shadowing effect when rotated off axis.

As it was printed, light is brightly reflected:


Rotate outer parts off axis:



Was thinking about leaving this one entirely unpainted, as a demo of what's currently possible with 3D printing. If I were to paint this one, I'd have to sand and skim coat it to get a smooth surface.

Painting the printed parts, without sanding them first, gives the impression of anodized brushed aluminum, in person.


May build a functioning one of these at some point to drive around, and paint it.

Hoping to get the rear wheels scaled today, it's the last part to this project.

[GreenBar0n]

Was able to take the 1.5" SRB rear wheel file, and scale up to 1.7" using QIDI Studio (Orca Slicer). Made the inner plates, and the hubs for the rear 1.7" wheels. Tamiya part on the right, print on the left.


Hubs printed and painted.


M2 hex bolts and nuts.


Still need to get the side pods on, and clean up the body fit.

[GreenBar0n]

Finally figured out the best way to bond with/to PLA, for my purposes.


Used the two-part CA to glue the side pod's on the body. This stuff bonds instantly, have to be really careful. Nicest part is no vapor streaks like you get with Super Glue types.


Used hot glue to set all of the suspension pieces, and to mount the motor. It's rubbery and pliable, and gave me the time I needed to freeze the pieces in the position you see them in.


Used Tamiya bushings for the front hubs, opened them up to fit the front axles, and painted them black to appear like VW brake drums.


Printing the tail lights and license plate rear light/hood now.


Need to figure out what to mount the wheels with. May print the nuts, or use metal ones.

[GreenBar0n]

Got a trial pack of the Amolen Wood PLA, looks like Walnut, Rosewood, Cedar, and Ebony. (4) little 200g rolls for $33.


Since I don't have much of the wood filament, I figured I would try a small free project, with plain black PLA first, in order to find a good model to test all four wood colors with.

My 1:10 crash test dummy could use a rocking chair, scaled this up and gave it a test:
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/home/rocking-chair-model_tank_hub

That has to be one of the hardest designs I've tried to print, lots of support material, and very fragile.






I've tried a couple different rocking chair designs, and they all have the same difficulty with support and breaking when trying to remove the supports. Might be searching for a different file to test with.

[GreenBar0n]

Found the 30 best free wood 3d prints you can make, going to pick one of these for the test.
https://3dprinterly.com/best-wood-3d-prints-that-you-can-make/

[GreenBar0n]

Work has been keeping me from just about everything lately. I did test the Amolen Wood PLA, and nothing has printed correctly so far, about 8 attempts now, with multiple files, and always the exact same problem.

The first layer is perfect every time, but the second layer is consistently being ruined.


Apparently the problem has to do with a retraction setting, where the filament is still hanging out of the nozzle when it crosses over the layer below it, dragging the filament and snagging the layer below it, ruining the entire print.

Wood PLA also requires to slow the print speed down to 60mm, according to what I've read so far.

There is no built-in Filament Profile for Amolen Wood PLA in QIDI Studio (Orca Slicer), so I'm having to really work at this Wood PLA - not like loading up QIDI brand Rapido PLA filament, pressing the print button, and walking away.

Will keep trying to get the profile and speed right, but so far, not liking the Wood PLA, at all. Going to try raising the hotend temp by 10°C to see if I can get the drooping filament to go away, first. Then mess with retraction and print speeds.

This stuff stinks like poison when printing it, the Red Cherry is all I've tried so far.

[XLR8]

I envy your patience.
It's the fiddling with settings to make the darn thing work that kept me away from printing for so long. I just don't have the patience for that sort of thing. I expect everything to work like a toaster.

[GreenBar0n]

I envy your patience.
It's the fiddling with settings to make the darn thing work that kept me away from printing for so long. I just don't have the patience for that sort of thing. I expect everything to work like a toaster.

I wasted another hour or so on that Wood PLA, it only got worse with increasing the temp. I got so tired of the smell and the failed layers, I gave up for now.

Started thinking maybe my printer was having trouble with the bed Z-offset, so I loaded up some QIDI Rapido Matte filament, and ran some more difficult prints.




These prints required no effort to get good results, using the QIDI filament and profile.

QIDI does have two colors of Wood PLA, might try it at some point, to see how much better the results are than with Amolen.

[XLR8]

Well, those prints look great. There's nothing wrong with your printer.

I've ordered some transparent PETG. I hear it can be tricky to print but hopefully I'm able to make some clear lenses.