3d printers for making stuff for the RV

[StirCrazy]

I have fallen down the worm hole of 3d printing since Christmas, and was wondering if anyone else on here is playing with them.

If so, how you use them when it comes to RV's. I can see them being usefull for brackets, holders, even light bases , speaker adapters and so on, but what have people actualy done.

Steve

[LittleBill]

2112 wrote:
Design Time?
How long did it take you to design the grill in as opposed to leaving it out and add some channels along the ledge to let the water out? You quadrupled your print time and used up a lot of material.

If it's a one-off so be it. But what if you need to print 200 units?

surprisingly that grill went together pretty fast, it was the edge angle that took a couple minutes. But again, I didn't think of doing it that way, no I don't plan to sell them, they take too long and cost too much compared to what is on the market already.

[2112]

Design Time?
How long did it take you to design the grill in as opposed to leaving it out and add some channels along the ledge to let the water out? You quadrupled your print time and used up a lot of material.

If it's a one-off so be it. But what if you need to print 200 units?

[LittleBill]

2112 wrote:
WOW, that's impressive.

I despise supports as much as you despise glue and hairspray. I try to design with the intent of avoiding supports. But like you said, sometimes you just have to suck it up.

lol sometimes its not worth the design time. i spent 2 hours trying to avoid supports on one design. ran it through the slicer, it was 20 minutes and 3 cents of support, just not worth it. I am looking at a dual extruder model in the future, maybe pva supports IDK.

[2112]

WOW, that's impressive.

I despise supports as much as you despise glue and hairspray. I try to design with the intent of avoiding supports. But like you said, sometimes you just have to suck it up.

[LittleBill]

some different angles of the tree supports.

[LittleBill]

2112 wrote:
Dang weird looking support. What slicer do you use? I'm guessing Cura.

Nice job *thumbs up*

Could you have created a ledge with some weep channels to support the auto transformer and left the center open? I guess to ask it differently, is the grill necessary?

that is upside down tree supports. I will provide a better photo.

the autoformer weighs 21 pounds. i think the edges are only 6mm thick. that said that grid is a drain pad for water, and drains to a canal then exits via the holes on the side.

after placing the unit on the stand, 99% of the grid is covered, not sure if it was necessary, but it was a edge plane, which was a new technique to learn, so I am happy with that.

Honestly i just ripped off hughes design, after thinking about your comment. i guess opening up the bottom would have been doable, and reduced the time and material. there are about 6 changes I would do, but this worked better then expected.

I do use Cura. "Combing" almost destroyed that grid. first time I have ever seen a design do that. I either need to turn combing off or go to z hop for this part. thats why the top looks so rough. it easily made 400 + combing passes.

[2112]

Dang weird looking support. What slicer do you use? I'm guessing Cura.

Nice job *thumbs up*

Could you have created a ledge with some weep channels to support the auto transformer and left the center open? I guess to ask it differently, is the grill necessary?

[LittleBill]

some photo's, I like this as its much smaller then the one autoformer sells, although its still pretty large.

largest support structure I have ever printed, which still failed a bit for me( need to make some adjustments here)

[2112]

StirCrazy wrote:
ya people keep saying that. I see a huge problem with glass going around but it seams to be with the newer ender beds

There is counterfeit borosilicate glass out there.

mine worked great for about 10 to 15 prints then all of a sudden when I switched to PETG nothing would stick, thought it was the switch but found PLA wouldnt stick either

That's a classic trait of tempered glass

glue stick didnt work for me, maybe i used the wrong kind

It has to be Elmer's Diappearing Purple School Glue. You can get it at any dollar store for, you guessed it, one dollar

[2112]

LittleBill wrote:
its interesting you don't use any bed heating for abs, seems to go against popular belief.

Not if it's a small print with little mass. It takes longer to heat it up than it does to print. I'm sure the enclosure helps.

That 20X20 is about as far as I would go cold, that's why I drew it that size. That was my comfortable limit this morning.

When I started I thought everything had to be hot, done by the numbers, don't deviate from internet folklore. I have another spool of ABS I haven't tried yet. I may have to work that material differently.

My intent was to demonstrate how well glue on glass works with a tuned in machine. I thought I could get by without the glue but it was too tall. A little twist and it popped right off. No hammer and chisel required.

Although you may not smell it, apparently ABS is the worst in terms of voc and particle emissions. Not sure if you watched the video at all.

You're exposed to more VOC walking into a furniture store or anywhere around town. Stay out of parking garages.

my print is done, .... I learned a couple things ....

and that's what it's all about. It got you off the couch, didn't it?

[LittleBill]

its interesting you don't use any bed heating for abs, seems to go against popular belief.

Although you may not smell it, apparently ABS is the worst in terms of voc and particle emissions. Not sure if you watched the video at all.

my print is done, I will post photo's in a bit, overall it was a success, but I learned a couple things on a print this big, with a layer height much larger.

[StirCrazy]

2112 wrote:

Most anything small other than nylon will hold on cold, clean glass.

ya people keep saying that :B I see a huge problem with glass going around but it seams to be with the newer ender beds. mine worked great for about 10 to 15 prints then all of a sudden when I switched to PETG nothing would stick, thought it was the switch but found PLA wouldnt stick either. been some questions going around weather it is some special coating or type of glass that when the coating gets dammaged it doesnt work??? glue stick didnt work for me, maybe i used the wrong kind, hair spray worked pretty good but I am excited to try my PEI sheets. been installing hardwood floors all my days off so the printers are neglected.

[2112]

While I'm talking about the enclosure, here's a hardware design tip someone might find useful.
I embedded 6-32 nuts in knobs by creating a clearance hex slot in the knob and press the nuts into place. I use these as retainer nuts to secure the plexiglass as well as handles on the plexiglass to make it easy to remove and handle.



I shouldn't of recessed the plexiglass panels as I did. I gave up internal real estate doing this.

[2112]

I printed a 20X20 test cube this morning using ABS to closely observe the odor and to see how well it would bond to a cold, untreated glass build plate.

It started corner lifting at 4mm on the first attempt and 9mm on the second. Failed

Then I gave it a glue stick wipe and all went well.



However, I did notice after about 1.5 hrs of operation the bed temp went from 25C to 37C just from nozzle heat exposure so that puts the validity in question

My primary objective was to observe odor. I generally don't pay attention to it. With the enclosure closed I couldn't smell anything, even standing above it. When I open the enclosure to get my hands in it I certainly notice the chemical smell but it's not overwhelming. It does have a burning plastic smell. I even went outside for 5 minutes to clear my senses and came in and walked straight to the printer and couldn't smell it until I opened the enclosure.

BTW, my enclosure is 3 $10 Walmart end tables stacked and $40 of Home Depot plexiglass. I printed all the mounting brackets and knobs in ABS (under the cardboard box) 🙂

[2112]

I vent it if it gets too hot inside. Some ABS has a stronger chemical smell than others. It's never been bad enough for concern but it does have a smell. I'm using Shaxon now. It's not bad at all.