3D Print a pico

Prozium · Jul 18, 2015

I was able to get a little work done, mounting tabs and screw holes for the the light fixture as well as the splash guard retaining pieces. (black things in second pic, there are 2 of them, the one in the pic and one on the opposite side diagonally from it.)

There is still some modeling to do, mounting spots for the magnets that will hold the door closed, the mounting posts for the sump light, mini magnet cleaner, float switch holder, ATO tank, to name a few off the top of my head. I'm going to look at some of the stuff that can be considered done and then start printing soon. (like the overflow box.)

joshbbert · Jul 19, 2015

Awesome man

Prozium · Jul 25, 2015

Wow, what a month I've had. Family vacation at the end of June to the beginning of July, my birthday (was on the 2nd), fighting my computer, my nephews birthday, 4 RMA'ed computer parts (still waiting to hear back on the video card) and my storage hard drive is now dead. (no warranty left

). I bought myself a new video card (got myself a B-stock EVGA GTX 980 Classified!) and my replacement power supply showed up, so I finally got my computer back up and running!... short of having no space left until I can buy a new storage hard drive, heh.

I got the ATO float switch mout made, I just dont know how I want to add a set screw on it. I think I might just buy a nylon nut and screw and make an opening on the inside of the mount that fits the nut, it's either that or figure out how to model threads and make a screw....

Prozium · Aug 1, 2015

IT HAS BEGUN!!...

...and failed...

warping, delaminating, and.... g-code error. (I think) when I went to check on it (when I stopped it) the print head was all the way to one side moving up and down about 2 or 3 inches above the print and still extruding. well, the good news is the print told me a lot about the model (the main box for the light fixture in this case). I need to make a couple spots a little thicker for sure. It also pointed out that my print settings are not right for this material yet (more specifically the color).

I'm going to check the printer over to make sure nothing mechanically went wrong, make the changes on the model and re-generate the g-code. (g-code is what tells the printer what to do.)

joshbbert · Aug 2, 2015

Bummer trial and error I suppose

KoleTang · Aug 2, 2015

Prozium said:
I got my replacement motherboard in and it fixed one issue, but reviled that my video card is... dead...sort of. I wont get technical here about it, it simply doesn't work once the drivers are installed.

I have an older video card that's in the computer now (GTX 560 ti) it's enough to work on the model while I wait for the RMA on the video card.

Did I mention while testing the motherboard the sensor in my mouse stopped working?? That replacement shows up Monday.(barely in warranty!) I'll get some work done this weekend most likely.

Prozium said:
Well video card number 2 is dead.... I at least figured out why I had so much die on me all at once . My power supply is malfunctioning. I didn't even think about that being the problem, seeing as it's a quality power supply that wasn't being pushed at all. I had my father drive me 40 min one way to get a power supply tester... the video card/PCI-E power port doesn't work. (tried on 3 different power supplies as well as a molex to PCI-E adapter) so I have to go back up and get it replaced. the on-board video might be enough to do the modeling, so I plan to swap the malfunctioning power supply with a spare power supply I have (not enough to run a dedicated video card).

Boy you have been having bad luck. That explains why you've gone through so many MBs. What brand/model PSU is causing the trouble?

Prozium · Aug 3, 2015

joshbbert said:
Bummer trial and error I suppose

For sure, 3D printing IMO is half science and half art; just have to find the right spot in between the two, lol!

KoleTang said:
Boy you have been having bad luck. That explains why you've gone through so many MBs. What brand/model PSU is causing the trouble?

It's a Corsair HX1050. Corsair replaced it quick. Stuff happens, it's electronics...nothing and no brand is perfect, that's why it's important to buy from brands that back their product well, like Corsair did.

Prozium · Aug 7, 2015

Quick update; After looking at my printer I noticed one of the arms popped off (one of the 6) IDK if it was during the print or when the printer went crazy, but it's fixed now. I was about to try printing again when I heard the peek fan rubbing on something, when I squeeze the sides of the fan it frees up and spins normal, so I need to take apart the hot end mount and take the fan shroud off and sand it a bit. I will try printing again this weekend for sure.
The left fan is the layer fan the peek fan is the smaller one on the right.

cope413 · Aug 7, 2015

I can almost guarantee failure with ABS on a part that size with no enclosure. I'd recommend using PETG. Just as strong, inert for the tank, and virtually no warp.

Prozium · Aug 8, 2015

Would the MadeSolid PET+ be good to use? (IDK what the "+" is.) I do have a couple samples of it...

What about sealing the PETG?

Prozium · Aug 30, 2015

Well, just an update to let you guys know that I haven't disappeared on ya.
I spent the last 2 weeks digging through the net doing research on materials, and printing techniques. I have a plan to make an enclosure for my printer and have even bought some supplies to do it.

Disaster hit last night, I opened the project and deleted everything but the part I was going to try and print and then went to save it as a different file. I am about 90% sure I hit "save as" and not just "save".... but guess what one happened, yeah... all but the light fixture box was gone...permanently...

I looked for over an hour trying to see if the program made a back up... nope. I tried to restore windows to an earlier state, but win 10 didn't think I wanted that feature "On" by default for some reason.

Luckily I had a back up of the file on my laptop, so I didn't lose TOO much work.
Moral of the story... don't delete anything before you do the "save as" ( I knew that... I don't know what I was thinking.), and make back ups regularly.

I'm going to build the enclosure and get the model back up to speed over the next few days.

Prozium · Oct 14, 2015

I got the model back up to speed and quite a bit more, but until I can figure out why my 3D printer isn't getting up to temperature I can't print anything.

IDK whats going on with it, I tried re calibrating the P.I.D. settings (controls how fast the hot end heats up and such.) I even tried re-uploading the firmware, as well as a few other things. I'm currently on the manufacturers web site fourm's where there is one other person having the same issue, hopefully I can get it working quickly as my planed projects are getting backed up.

Eckolancer · Oct 23, 2015

Hope to see you get your printer back online and see a finalized fish tank. BTW I may reach out to you on a small 3D printer project I'm thinking about doing. I bought a 3D printer on Kickstarter that should be shipping out around the first of the year. Going to start with a couple easy projects, then maybe work up to something crazy like this.

trahelyk · Oct 23, 2015

I keep saying I'm not old--I'm just really far into the future. This projects backs up my claim. Following along--I gotta see how this turns out.

Prozium · Oct 23, 2015

I think I found the problem with the printer, the heating resisters in the hot end are reporting a higher resistance then they should, suggesting that they are dieing. I ordered a couple of 12v 40w cartridge heaters for it so it should have plenty of heating power, LOL!

upsate on the sump light setup.

I had a few ideas for how to mount it, but all had flaws, such as just haveing screws going from the bottom holding the heatsink in place.... nut once installed it would be very hard to do any maintenance on the light, so that idea was scrapped. I needed to figure out a way that would make it easy enough to service the sump light, and this is what I came up with. it uses a single screw from the back to hold both the light/heatsink and the splash guard/light diffuser.

Prozium · Oct 23, 2015

Eckolancer said:
Hope to see you get your printer back online and see a finalized fish tank. BTW I may reach out to you on a small 3D printer project I'm thinking about doing. I bought a 3D printer on Kickstarter that should be shipping out around the first of the year. Going to start with a couple easy projects, then maybe work up to something crazy like this.

Yeah, feel free to ask, I'll answer as best as I can. BTW what printer did you buy? (there were a couple I saw on kickstarter this year that looked interesting.)

Eckolancer · Oct 24, 2015

Prozium said:
Yeah, feel free to ask, I'll answer as best as I can. BTW what printer did you buy? (there were a couple I saw on kickstarter this year that looked interesting.)

It is the tiko unibody. My main concern is I have very little programming experience. I was wondering if most printers used a basic programming language or do you just draw a design and it prints that out. Again I have even less experience with drawing programs.

Prozium · Oct 24, 2015

Eckolancer said:
It is the tiko unibody. My main concern is I have very little programming experience. I was wondering if most printers used a basic programming language or do you just draw a design and it prints that out. Again I have even less experience with drawing programs.

That was one of the ones I saw that was interesting, the price is certainly right. I use a program called MatterControl (it's the slicer program I use) you just load the model and either tell it to print, or export the g code to an SD card, no programming needed. you can also do some editing of the object in it. (change the size, etc.)

there are some free modeling programs out there, like Blender, and google sketchup, and more I cant think of ATM.

you can also find lots of models free online from places like thingiverse and myminifactory.

Prozium · Jan 1, 2016

I had really wanted to have more...something to show befor the next update, but I have been fixing the model AND the printer...and now the hot end is broken....

At the beginning of November I started to to do the repairs/upgrades to the printer, but one of the cheep skates (the cartridges that moves the arms up and down) didn't hold the belt like it should, so I got in touch with Seemecnc (who makes the 3D printer kit I have... good guys.)and they sent me a new one, that was a Friday.
That Sunday my father, nephew, and I went to Yosemite for a few days for my father's birthday. We had a good time. It was good to see water flowing from Yosemite falls again, and my nephew hadn't seen snow before and it snowed while we were there... staying in a unheated tent cabin. We planed a bit for that so we had enough sleeping bags to keep us warm, and a propane heater to help take the chill out of the air.
I still got sick... like a bad fever, sore all over for a week sick.
After all that I finished fixing the 3D printer, and tried printing the fan ducts again... it was not calibrated well enough. I do not like the new calibration method they put in the new manual. So after finding the older manual and re calibrating the printer it was MUCH better. I started to print the fan ducts again. and my laptop shut down in about 3/4 of the way through the print.

I went in to the power settings and fixed that right away! but noticed that the fan ducts were different thicknesses on 2 of the 4 sides. so I had to fix that. The side the fan goes into had to be completely redone.
So I was ready to start the print again, set it up and away it went. Hours later I went to check it and the hot end (aka the print head) was still moving but no filament (the plastic) had been coming out for some time!

I made sure when I manually feed it, it came out, and it did. So I re-setup the print and let it go again after I confirmed that it had actually started to print... and came back to the same thing.
At this point I think the nozzle is clogged, no big deal I have another. I then come to the realization that the silicone tape I used to wrap the hot end in looks like it had burned away!!!!!!!!!!

If it really got that hot, then my "PEEK insulator / thermal barrier" on the hot end is dead. the tape can handle up to about 260 Celsius(500°F), the insulator is damaged at about 246 Celsius! So if it melted away the tape......
On top of that I can't get the nozzle off the hot end... it just wont move! (it screws on)
So if I can't fix the hot end, I'll just have to buy a new one.