So with the beautiful weather upon us there is an immediate need to go out and soak up some sun. For me this is getting out and riding my bike to my day job or just to go out for a ride for fun. Although after pulling out my bike and having a closer look, I thought I could easily print some upgrades.
Mud Guards
First of all, we’re going to get some mud guards on the bike. These will prevent water from flying up in my face and up my back.
This is why I love Thingiverse, for a project like this I can search around on there and find some designs I really like. Like these mud guards made by: Reddukem. This design will be a nice addition to my bike.
Then the next print is a the front mud/splash guard. This one is printed in 4 pieces then assembled and zip-tied to the frame, not to fond of the zip-tie but aw well. Then there’s the front fender as well.
E-Bike Conversion – Motor Mount
Motor Mount for my E-bike Conversion
So along with printing some of the basic things, I thought I’d take on a project that’s a little more challenging. Plus it’ll help get around town a lot easier. The conversion I’m taking on is similar to a lot of the cheap kits available on eBay or amazon. The link to the motor is as follows: Amazon
Sprocket Mount
After completing the motor mount I decided to model a sprocket mount(which I didn’t need) for the rear tire. Also, all of these prints(besides a few small things) will be done with carbon fibre nylon and petg. This way I can be a little bit more confident about performance.
So even though I didn’t end up using the entire sprocket mount, I still ended up using one piece(the main hub) which centres the sprocket on the wheel.
Controller Mount
Now you need a place to put the main controller for this project which conveniently comes in a easy to mount aluminum extrusion case, however all the connectors are dangling in the breeze so I wanted to try and button that up. This gentleman did an excellent review of this product.
So far so good! Now I still have some work to do here but I wanted to post this update, so excited with this build. I still have plans to print a case for a small oled and the front and rear light housing. Very promising and super fun project, HAPPY PRINTING!
One of many free print tests available on Thingiverse
The air pump part cooler returns! Well not really, the pump burnt out after about 2 days of continuous printing. This is why rigorous testing is required when trying something new. So after some closer inspection of the winding of the transformer, I noticed that this unit did not have an inline fuse installed in the transformer and the winding wire was very thin.
New winding assembled and reinstalled.Old winding disassembled.New(er) winding.Old Winding.
So I removed the old winding and replaced it with another one I had on hand. This newer winding has a bit of a heavier gauge wire so it shouldn’t burn out so quick. The reason why this happened to begin with was the removal of the triac circuit. This isn’t really a big deal, if I have this happen again I’ll switch back to the triac circuit and use the duet to control the circuit instead of controlling the transformer directly.
Back in place for more testing.
Now another thing I think I could easily improve with this pump is the overall sound level. I have an aluminum extrusion case(for an old grow light) that I could place the pump into for an overall improvement in noise and heat dissipation. Anyway that’s all I got for today, happy printing!
This is where it started, a 30l/min Pond Pump(air, not water)
Stock part cooling for 3D printers has always left me wanting something, more, you know? The fans that come with the printers are not always the best and sometimes(depending on the configuration) they really suck. Then there are printers that don’t include them at all(yes it does happen and kits like this still exist), so loving to experiment with different techniques for additive manufacturing I decided to try and see if I could find a better solution.
This is the new pump I’ve been testing to replace the colossal pond pump.
Now there is a concept that is kind of similar to this and that’s beard air cooling(which is pretty great), but I think this will preform much better(and be more efficient) in terms of affordability and overall performance. So what is it? An air pump of course. The model in question consumes about 3 watts and it’s not running on DC but AC(even better), but before using I plan to make some slight modifications to the output lines and wiring inside the pump.
Original Fan setup
So I started there by taking the pump apart and removing the front ports mounted to the case. Then I cut the silicone tubing on both sides to connect in with a 1/4″ pneumatic fitting. I chose to use a “Tee” fitting and combine the output of both diaphragm pumps to one outlet. This worked well, but I figured the output could be a little bit better.
Remove case.Inspect…Modify…Variac Circuit
So I decided to remove to triac circuit for adjusting the air flow. This circuit was for manual control of the pump via a turn pot on the front of the case. This will increase the overall output by about 5-20%. So now instead of reading 3 watts power consumption, it read more like 3.6-3.7 watts.
Water test, checking to output of the new pump
So with this done I’m about to start testing, overall I expect it to preform quite well. Honestly though, it may now be powerful enough. Aha the pond pump was too much now this one might not be enough. Aw well, I’m going to do some prints, starting with PLA and then PETG. After those I’ll try some abs.
Check back soon for results! Comment and let me know how you think it’ll preform, I’d really like to hear what you guys think. Happy Printing!
The Hotend and extruder motor both have water cooling now.
So after printing for a while and using fans for part cooling and hotend cooling, I really wanted to try something new and see if removing fans from the carrier would actually make a difference in print quality.
New version. Water reservoir with peltier block, pump and some fans.
For this project I had to have a way of treating the water that had been heated up and in general move said water around. So I chose to use a simple hydroponic water pump. This would turn out to do an excellent job at circulating water.
Old version.
So after using a basic tuperware to hold the coolant(water) and using a pump to circulate the water and then I also incorporated a peltier unit I had on hand. This is basically a radiator for the reservoir. Then this all runs through the hot end and extruder motor.
After some testing I decided to add water wetter to the reservoir to further cool the water and keep anything from growing in there.
I will be posting more about the hotend coil and the extruder cooling block in the future and how I went about making them(both of which are made from off the shelf parts).
Now does it improve print quality? So far it seems like its not a huge difference in quality unless you’re going fairly fast. Although I would say that it’ll increase the life of the extruder motor for sure, the temperature of the extruder motor used to run quite hot. Now it’s cool to the touch, same with the heat-break on the hotend. A lot quieter too, overall a very cool upgrade/modification.
Here are a couple of shot of a certain model I printed(about 7-8 hours). Anyway I hope you guys liked this one and there will be more about it in the future!
Check out the Tough Key Carabiner I made this week. Inspired by the steel key carabiner you see all the time. I plan on adding my own stl section to the website but for now you can grab it on cults and thingiverse.
So a few months ago I had an idea I was sure someone had done before, but as it turns out not really. The concept relates to 3d printers part cooling and how it could be improved.
So typically a fan is used for part cooling, specifically a 4014 or 5015 typically mounted to the carrier next to the hotend. Now if you’re printing a stock profile out of the box this doesn’t really matter to you but if you’re printing fast, like 20k acceleration fast, there is a good chance the fan mounted to the carrier is causing some resonance issues.
CPAP fans are employed or a beard air cooling solution is used if they’re printing with PLA. These solutions mount the fan motors away from the carrier so that distance acts as a insulator/barrier against resonance and also provides much more output that your typical 5015.
Although cpap fans are extremely popular right now, especially for high speed this isn’t what I want to use. I’ve been testing a pond pump, repurposed for part cooling of course.
So after some preliminary testing the idea is to have one 5015 fan mounted to the rear of the carrier with the experimental pond pump cooler mounted to the front of the carrier. The 5015 would be routed to the hotend via 3d printed ducting and the air pump output would be via H.A.K(puenumatic tubing) and a copper spout to focus air flow.
The pump itself will be mounted to a shelf on the exterior of the cabinet and controlled via SSR.
So after doing some testing with the SSR and the pump, I’ve had problems controlling the airflow. First I had the SSR wired in backwards and the output for it inverted and it worked fine(I could control the output) but after I switched it over from inverted to not and fixed the wiring, all it would do is switch on/off. This is something I’m going to have to come back to.
So the last couple of weeks have been a handful to say the least. I spent quite a bit of time getting the new setup for the Ender done. The cloned duet board is really nice but I’ve had a few issues getting everything to work properly. The main thing that fooled me with this board was the motor pin-outs. On most other controller boards the pin-out for the motor connectors is somewhat standardized.
Generally the pin-out is as follows, A+, A-, B+, B-. With the big dipper it is A+, A-, B-, B+. So that sent me for a loop, but everything else was pretty straight forward.
I’m currently using three of the four fan outputs, two fans are running directly off the power supply(something I intend to change in the near future). There are four steppers being used, two for X&Y movement, one for the extruder and one for the z-axis. I am using a inductive proximity switch for bed probing and there are two micro-switches and an optical end stop for the x-axis. I have reinstalled boothys corexy carrier to retry some high temperature printing.
So with all that out of the way I can get back into finishing off this printer. I recently spent some time modifying a cloned V6 into a water cooled version. I really want to use this on my current setup, just because I really think I can push this to 400c easily. I would really like to do the same with the hotend I currently have installed(BMO Dragonfly) but I’m a little worried that I might ruin it. The overall goal is to be able to print ultem and peek without issues. I have plans to redo the interior of the enclosure with sheet metal.
With the sheet metal I plan to create a barrier between the printer and the current enclosure. Also with the sheet metal in place I could basically have a chamber inside of another chamber. This could facilitate higher temperatures in the “printing” chamber while keeping the steppers and other components cool.
One other thing I’m thinking about is the part cooling, a month or two ago I talked about using a pond pump to push air to the hotend for part cooling. Seems like an okay idea, but I’d really like to try and re-use this old ps3 blower fan I had laying around. The fan is 12v, 1.38a and it also has a moulding around it to form a scoop that feeds air through a radiator.
Part 2
So I did the unthinkable… I did the same thing that I did with the V6 to the BMO Dragonfly. Everything seems t be working fine. The only real way to tell is to put the printer through its paces.
Looking at the printers positioning in the cabinet compared to the the intake and exhaust I think the air flow through the cabinet will be fine and be able to maintain a stable temperature. Again the idea for the cabinet is to have a hot side and a cold side, but I haven’t fully implemented it yet due to my free time being limited from work.
So moving forward with this build I really want to complete the “firewall” and start thinking about how the cabinet can preform if I put some type of chamber heater in there.
The cabinet as it stands is fairly large and has a lot of extra components, and right now those components aren’t operating in sync with each other to create a controlled environment(which is my goal).
As for the firewall its self it’ll be made from a sheet metal from a chemical cabinet(trying to save a few dollars here) and will be measured, cut then mounted with small sheet metal screws. Also the overall shape of the wall will be in a “L” to cover the back wall with enough space for the printer to slide under(so the mounted steppers on the back of the printer will be behind the firewall).
To the right of the printer will be a solid firewall that will block the exhaust port to the right and house 1-2 rolls of filament for printing. Overall it will be a very tight fit but I think I can make this work to my advantage for heating the camber.
The wiring on this project has also been a challenge because of all the different independent components that had to be integrated into one seem-less machine. There are two SSR’s on the back of the machine with one 24v industrial power supply(meanwell) and one 12v computer power supply. Then there is the Fysetc Big Dipper Duet Clone(amazing board) with a raspberry pi.
Now I also have a 4 channel relay board mounted on there for future use but to be honest I don’t really know if I’ll need it. We’ll see but for now I’m just going to button up the wiring and make it sound and finish the firewall and see where it takes me from here.
So in the last few years 3D printing has become more an more popular and with that rise in demand, production would rise to fill that demand with different style of printers. One of these styles of printers is the resin printer, extremely detailed when it comes to printing small objects or models, some makers use these to create jewelry, dentures and other fancy things.
AnyCubic Photon Mono X
In this post I wanted to talk about how I have recently acquired one of these printers(anycubic photon mono 4k) and how I’ve been using it. I also wanted to talk briefly about some of the plans I have in the future for this printer. In anycase, when I received this printer, I was ex-static with enthusiasm. I literally could not wait, ever since resin printers hit the scene, I’ve wanted one.
Finished Print, Coral for the Shark and Base.
After ordering a few days passed and it was delivered, really big box. It was packaged well, and it came damage free. I also ordered some clear UV resin to test out. So I unpacked everything and set it up. I added some clear UV resin to the vat after the required setup(which was fairly easy).
NOTE: This printer comes from the factory with a screen protector already installed, they tell you to tear it off and replace with a new one(comes with the printer).I would just clean it thoroughly and continue with printing, and save the screen protector for when the factory one wears out.
Partially Failed Print, Shark turned out good, but I forgot to tighten the build plate sooooo yeah.
Cooking up some prints with the UV oven, ahaha.
After my print was done I removed the build plate and tried to chisel the print freefrom the build plate without much luck. Ended up destroying the base off the model. I mean it was on there very well, like the adhesion was way to strong. I noticed that this build plate had a laser etched pattern(checkerboard). So after doing some research and trying some other methods for removing prints from the plate(with no luck), I finally caved and bought a removable build plate(which I wouldn’t go without now) and that ended up working reliably.
So after that little hiccup I continued printing some really detailed models for fun and even bought a subscription to a site that provides high quality table-top game models. So I can really say that resin printing is great for that sort of thing, but can we use it to create something truly useful or even experiment with the resin we print with?
That’s what brought me to this idea, adding material to the resin(and some other YT creators). Here I’ve added carbon to the clear resin. About a gram of carbon to 100ml of resin(turns out you can use a lot less than a gram if you’re just looking to affect color and maybe half that for UV protection).
So the first model I printed with the added carbon turned out great. I only used maybe 50 of the 100ml for the print and after draining the remaining resin into a separate container there was still a significant amount of carbon left in the vat(not good). I had to add a small quantity of acetone to alcohol to remove it.
Next I tried quartz, which failed. The reason it failed was mainly because the quartz I decided to use wasn’t fine enough and each grain size was probably a little too big. Even though this one failed I would like to come back to it because I think you could make prints that retain a certain resonance or oscillate when you pass current through it.
The next one that I recently ordered is the tungsten. It has a very fine grain size(2um-10um) which I think would be perfect for this application. Turns out, it wasn’t perfect for this application.
What ended up happening with the tungsten prints was a little exciting once they were actually successfully printing, but there were some problems. The main one with tungsten, once it settles in the resin, it is very hard to mix it up again. So basically it was printing a solid layer of tungsten for the first layer and then nothing else.
The other print that I did that contained a very small amount of tungsten and carbon, here I didn’t have the same issues with the tungsten settling. Further testing is needed, I was thinking about employing some type of whipper system to redistribute the tungsten after every layer change. Another option is to use some type of vibration device strapped to the vat, this might work but I have the feeling it won’t do the job.
So with all that said I think the possibilities for mixing resin could be endless, and lead to many other applications. Like I said before further testing is needed.
Finished building this a while ago, just wanted to post it. The results were great, considering the webcam module I used was only 5 dollars. Printed a mount for the camera with a small dial I could glue onto the lens, for manual focus of course. Then I looked up a rack and pinion print on thingiverse for a quick mount with some movement and then glued my camera mount to that one. The result like said before was simply awesome, now with a bit of software everything will be complete.
The other little do-dad, you see holding the pcb is a small clamp for holding these boards while doing light soldering work. The screw action works well and holds the boards firmly, there’s also a magnet in the base for rigid work holding.
I’m going to be releasing both of these on thingiverse together in a pack or both in one at the end of the week. Not sure yet…
UV Resin Oven…
I don’t have to many shots of this but I’ll be sure to fix that shortly. This is an old microwave oven I converted to a curing oven for my resin prints. Very simple conversion, I wouldn’t recommend people do it though, there are a million other enclosures that could be repurposed for this. But for me that’s what I had laying around that I could “up-cycle”. Fits underneath my electronics bench perfectly too.
Modifying my Enclosure for the Ender…
Doing a couple operations in one here, taking the ender out of the enclosure and re-installing the hot-end carrier for the MK2 conversion by Boothyboothy over on thingiverse. I’m remaking the aluminum plate named the “Tool Plate’ in Boothys assembly. Which looks like this…
And the one I made before…
So the idea is to give this another go with the Phaetus Dragonfly BMO(groove mount I believe) and see if I can print some PC. Anyway folks, thats all for today. More coming soon.
