SilverTriple's printing stuff...

[silvertriple]

My daughter want a phone case (she tends to abuse of them )


It's good time to start a first TPU test, with a 95A shore TPU. It's from Sunlu. It is the typical TPU you would find almost everywhere. I can print it on the X1C from the external spool holder with the Generic TPU profile without any modifications. It's not fully dry so the print is running directly from the dryer, and as matter of fact, the position from entry of the PTFE tube is not practical in this case... I applied glue on the plate to ease the realease (TPU adheres well on beds, and with PEI, removal can damage PEI coating).
The print should take about 2 hours and a quarter, I'll update later.

[silvertriple]

Print was almost flawless... I'm saying almost as the slicer is possibly a little bit optimistic on the bridge length as the volume button opening had some defects... It doesn't generate any supports there, I guess I should have paint them.


That said, the result is good once I cleaned the bridge defect.



And for those asking how I did, the stl is a plain one, I just used infill pattern with 0 bottom and top layers to get this result... And while I think about this, it may be a way to make a nice thin flexible mesh to make very scale windows

[silvertriple]

I really enter now in the TPU testing, really...

Some test with TPU 95A : infill pattern impact (there is a file were someone did exactly this on Makerworld, I decided to use it). At the end I can tell than grid, cubic or anyother relying on parallel lines are not what we want for TPU. Honeycomb infill, on the other side seem to be the perfect candidate for bumpers as it is strong in all direction, while still allowing for some flexibility. Gyroid maybe ok for tires in 95A TPU from what I could see from this test.


Based on this I proceeded in a second test which aims to approach what we would see witha tire printed in TPU 95A. I used 2 top and bottom layers, and gyroid infill 3% - 24% by 3% increment. The result is that it maybe fine without side walls, but with the sine walls, the side walls are too strong so it doesn't behave at all like a tire... So this confirms more or less what I had in mind with all my previous TPU and Foaming TPU tests.

Next in line, I have a roll of Recreus Filaflex 60A. it's not TPU but TPE. The filament is highly flexible and it is difficult to load due to the friction in the PTFE tube (no way to go thru the tube - this confirms the upper mount is absolutely required for this type of filament). At the end I did a cold pull with PETG to remove anything from the hot end before loading it, and then I loaded it from the upper mount (the shorter tube is allowing it to load, with a little bit of persuasion - I suspect that it would not have worked if I did not cold pull before.
Recreus has made a profile for the filament and it is available on makerworld. I downloaded it, and use it with my test model.

One thing I can already say while a long print is in progress is that when there is accumulation of material, this doesn't behave like the TPU : the material bonds together and it seems that it remains flexible. For tires this might be exactly what we are looking for... Anyway, first test print is in progress...

[silvertriple]

The print is over...


The result is really encouraging, and this means we may have another solution than Resin to print tires, because at the end it feels like the rubber of a tire...

[silvertriple]

Prints are helping in many areas unrelated to RC... The winter is the period we do what we call "raclette" with melted cheese... There is a tool for this, and everytime I used it in the past, I complained about the nuts : in the kitchen, you rarely have a wrench at hand, and tighten nut by hand is not practical.
I augmented the tool with nut knobs...


The print is again relying on a pause to insert nuts in th knobs...
https://makerworld.com/en/models/817791

[silvertriple]

I have a few tools used for modelism only, and they maybe very practical on the field. I decided to create a box for that... I include the Arrowmax drill press and some other motor more suitable for rotary sanding, and as well a small vice.


To close the lid and maintained it closed, I opted for a small mecanism relying on a printed in place knob with inserted nuts during a print pause.

The drawing is upside down, and you may note how the hole is bridged in order to avoid requirement for any supports.

And it works perfectly once the knobs are free...

[silvertriple]

I had this idea since a few months...


The Filaflex 60A is very difficult to print for this, and way too flexible for this. So this idea was put in the corner after the first attempt to print a tire halve (unsuccessful cause of some retractation issues, but enough to see that it would not work).

I decided to retry with TPE filament. I got some eSun TPE 83A. I dried it and run it from the dryer. I may have to recalibrate this filament properly and to rework the settings completely for it, but it printed with stringing... But at least it would allow me to validate the concept...



I glued the halves using the jig to center the halves and some ca glue (thin and flex, that I use normally to glue tires on rims).





Result is a tire, which can be still optimized on the printing side. Walls are like an original Hunter tire and too thick for this filement. But it kind of work, even if on the too hard range...
I will need to find a lower shore TPE filament...

[XLR8]

The external fixture seems like a great way to align the halves for glueing.
I was thinking about printing a sleeve that would remain inside the tire but your way is much better.
Excellent work - again.

[silvertriple]

The more it goes, the more I want to open new possibilities... I took benefit of the fablab to recently experience Laser cutting and carving, and CNC machining with a big CNC router, and I cut a few fiber glass parts for RC...


It is not as difficult to set it right and to take benfit of it, and clearly, I want more possibilities... I've already mentioned the Carvera in this thread, and it looks really interesting. They got one in the fablab, I saw what they are doing with it, and it goes clearly in the direction of what I want to do with a CNC Mill. And while the Carvera with its tool changer is a bit too high in price for what I'm ready to go for, the new Carvera Air is quite similar without the tool changer, and it maybe very well what I can consider in terms of tooling. I'm considering pulling the trigger on it, as it would open quite a lot of possibilities, while for bigger requirements, I could still use the CNC router at the Fablab... I may very well have to change the tittle of this thread at some point .

And yes, I have many ideas to use a CNC mill in mind:
- bodyshell mold (aluminium)
- tire mold (aluminium)
- gears (delrin, aluminium)
- shafts (steel)
- chassis parts (fiberglass, carbon fiber)
- ...

A CNC available at home and the tools available at the fablab should allow for quite a nice set of things : there is quite a few tool I can actually have access to at the fablab (vacforming machine, injection press, hydraulic press, laser cutting and laser carving, ...)

[silvertriple]

I ordered a Carvera Air few hours after my last post in this thread, It was still at pre-order price (it is still the case until tomorrow), and I ordered it with a 4th axis, and a laser engraver module. This is quite a bit of money, but it will definitely open quite a lot of possibilities.
As per the FAQ, the leadtime for pre-order is about one to two months plus one month and a half for the shipment (by boat), so I was ready to wait about 4 months.
Today I received a message indicating it will be shipped on March 19th, which means I have now about two months to get the home fablab reorganized.

I also had a second CNC training session at the fablab, and the topic was Makera Cam, the software of the Carvera and Carvera Air (there is a Carvera at the fablab) : I should be able to work by myself once the Carvera Air arrives at home.

The only question which remains in my mind currently is about another 3D printer, which I'd like to be bigger than the X1C, able to work with higher end materials (heated chamber) and able to work with dual materials and less wastes at the same time.
I read some rumors on one of the french forums about the next Bambu Lab H2D flagship
- Print volume 350 x 350 x 420
- Heated chamber
- Double extruder with pivot
- 2x2 filaments system
- availability very soon
Another rumor speaks about a presentation next week during an event in Shanghai...
Time will tell. I'm curious about the price of this printer, as it would mark all my criterias. I may need to prepare my wife to the idea of a second big investment this year (on the side note, I've not bought any RC car kit since a while, so...)

[GoMachV]

wow, that carvera will be fun!

Bambu is off my friends list, this stunt they are pulling/trying to pull is making me have second thoughts about supporting them when their new printer is released.

[silvertriple]

Bambu is off my friends list, this stunt they are pulling/trying to pull is making me have second thoughts about supporting them when their new printer is released.

I can definitely understand, and although I have some questions myself on this, I don't see anyone else out there packing both features, ease of use and ease of mind when lauching prints. And working in IT and being used to see changes in TOS and various security changes, I'm seeing this very differently from most of the people. Also observation of the different actors shows that most are following the same approach than Bambu with Apps and Cloud, and while their TOS are not that restrictive, it may very well change in the future because the situation will require it, to protect both the brand and the cloud infrastructure... Regarding Bambu Lab, I believe there is a lot of communication issues first, and they did not point out what exactly generated this move because they did not want to point finger. But for those who have followed, the introduction of the Panda Touch was accompagnied with a lot of messages on some of the groups pointing some cloud issues (directly linked with frequent polls to Bambu Cloud infrastructure from those devices) : this may have been one of the elements pushing them to do this move, and it's probably not the only one (there is likely other elements, but that one was visible). At the end I'm very mix on this : at this stage, I've not updated the firmware of my X1C to the last release, but on the other side, I do not really use OrcaSlicer. I'm almost sure that the H2D will come out of the box with those security features activated, and that's part of my questions, the price is another one : I believe it will be between the Prusa XL 2 Heads and the Prusa XL 5 heads, and I do not know if it will be reachable in my budget. I'm just toying with the idea.

On the other side, I'm not sure where to turn post Bambu Lab :
- Creality has a long history of short lived machines, and infamous support reputation (have one recent exemple of a friend with a K1 Max with a dead board after a few months (and not even a lot of prints) and 1 month and a half of wait until the replacement part was sent to him, and from what I hear, he may not be alone).
- Qidi : machine are of interest for sure. What about multi materials?
- Anycubic, Elegoo : same as Creality, and my experience with both shows a lot of failed promises on SLA side (which is expected to be less prone to issues)
- Prusa : XL is interesting, but looking in the details, no enclosure, and limitation in the temps supported in case you add an enclosure and heater
- Others : In reachable ranges, not many printers with dual extruders (and I'm not even speaking about independant extruders or multi filament system in addition)

On a side note, the X1C has now 2 years and warranty (Europe) is now out of the picture (or close to be). I may put a heater in the chamber, because for some of the materials I need to print time to times, it would definitely help (pure nylon for example warps on big prints or on the side of the bed - which means the actual size of the prints you can do is actually small for this material)...

[silvertriple]

Following the last training at the Fablab, I explored a bit more Makera CAM.
Currently, the 4th axis can only be used to work in relief in Makera Cam. That's not the most usefull for my targeted applications requiring a 4th axis. The things will certainly evolve (that's what they are promising), and it should be possible to do more within the future. In the meantime, this will mean for me working with jigs to place the parts precisely and to fix them while working with 3 axis paths only.

Somehow, that is quite similar to what I did for the Zerda shafts, at the only exception that I will be able do some aluminium jigs, with precise positionning, and which won't be destroyed when I do work the shaft at the end... Basically, I have now another subroutine working in my brain, and it is all about substractive rather than additive work.

And it should be quite easy to work with in Fusion360:
- take a derive of the part you want to work with
- create the jig you need to work the part out (you create it in volume)
- substract the part (keep the tool) is just a boolean operation
- create the fixation for the part in the jig
- then make sure you have the right holes, pockets and so on in place
- the way to make the jig in Makera Cam is basically creating the tool paths to get the jig without the part to be created in.
- the way to make the part is then creating the paths corresponding to the addition of the jig and the part and checking those path do not collide with the fixation
- repeat and enjoy

This looks like a simple plan in my head, future will tell if I'm right to think it is easy.

But before doing this, I'll probably start by cutting simple parts such as a G10 chassis for another ST-1 pancar, and why not additional parts for the same chassis.

This promise to be fun, and I can't wait to have the machine in hands. In the meantime, I do plan to spend some time on the Carvera of the fablab to simply learn : I noticed that doing some stuff with others kickstart the learning curve because I tend to think more on explaining what and how I want to proceed, and in turn, it helps into finding proper ways to do things : experience of others really helps in this... And I can't wait for the next Maker evening at the fablab...

[silvertriple]

Started to play a bit with Makera CAM...

I decided to prepare the file to cut another pancar 1/12 chassis... This is fairly easy, as I did this already in another CAM software (Galaad) to cut one using the CNC machine at the fablab. Makera CAM is fairly intuitive, and that is easy.


The software is still evolving, and there is still a few issues. One of them is that it is impossible to add tabs while in resolution other than 1080p (found the solution on the discord of Makera, which is quite well organized).


That said, I would like to add chamfer (and for that I need to do a mirror of this chassis first, and then recalculate everythingà. It worked at first, but apperently, when I saved the file, I partly lost some of the information. It seems there might be an issue here, as the 4th path is no longer there when I reopen the file later on... Anyway, not important right now as I'm just preparing and this is not going to be a loss of material as I do not run anything yet...