Looking into 3D printing.....

[Mark Janzen]

I can not longer deal with the long development/prototyping/printing cycle with my son who lives 6 states away and uses a Purse MK3. He can't use ASA/ABS because he can not exhaust printer appropriately. I'm very much a novice and am looking for feedback on my current plan.

I'm looking to purchasing a Prusa MK4 kit with a multi-color printing (MMU3) option and enclosure. I plan to use ASA or ASB filaments and an enclosure with exhausting fan in garage. I intend to use the printed objects for train/building/etc parts. These objects will be outside in the sun on my G Scale layout. Since my painting ability is not so good, I intend to use different colors instead of painting. I current use TinkerCAD and am looking into using Fusion 360.
Thanks for your advice......
Mark

 

[Paul M]

Mark, you will get lots of advice about 3D printing and printers on here! But can I just say that practice makes perfect, so if you think your painting isn't up to par, all you need to do is practice. And of course, if it goes pear shaped, you can always do a repaint. After a fairly short while outside the weather will hide any errors anyway!

 

[Gerard]

Mark,
I am using a simple extrusion printer.
By doing I learned 5 basic rules:
1 Always clean the base plate using a bit of alcohol on a small piece of cloth
2 Prior to each print job quickly rubb a very little amount of Printafix on a small piece of cloth over the base plate. Don't spay it cause that will result in too much spray.
3 When you have a relative high structure in reference of the extension of the base shape on the base plate than in order to improve the fixation to the base plate you can choose to print an extra starting layer around the base of your construction.
4 Depending on your design you have to choose which direction of your construction has to be strong and choose that direction as horizontal print causing continuous printmaterial in that direction.
So when printing a long slender construction never print it vertically on your base plate, the very small layers of filament will not bind together well and will break off sooner or later!
5 Try to prevent as much as possible the building up of printing support structures. These structures are needed when your design has a lack of support (to say it otherwise:: printing in the air is impossible)
This means that you must prevent too steep (about >30 degrees off vertical) overhanging parts.
I hope this will help you!
Below an example of a light tower I scaled up from HO to LGB scale and than devide the design in 4 sides flat printed later to be glued together.
HO print:

Gscale print:


Foto HO tower:

 

[Mark Janzen]

Thx very much for the insights!!!!

 

[GAP]

If you have to use supports, mine are set at 45 degrees, the default in my slicer Cura, I recommend using the "Trees" option that is in the slicer, they save a lot of filament, reduce print time noticeably and are easily removed with very little residue marks on the model.
For bed adhesion I used cheap hairspray for the first time a week ago and it improved my adhesion markedly; it is basically the same as Printafix, which is only sold in Europe and is not available in Australia (found from my searches for it on the net).
I use tinkercad but I find most of my models using either "Yeggi or "STL Finder".

 

[Trent]

A great place to start is Thingaverse - lots of existing proven designs that you can simply print to dial in your process.

 

[Gerard]

If you have to use supports, mine are set at 45 degrees, the default in my slicer Cura, I recommend using the "Trees" option that is in the slicer, they save a lot of filament, reduce print time noticeably and are easily removed with very little residue marks on the model.
For bed adhesion I used cheap hairspray for the first time a week ago and it improved my adhesion markedly; it is basically the same as Printafix, which is only sold in Europe and is not available in Australia (found from my searches for it on the net).
I use tinkercad but I find most of my models using either "Yeggi or "STL Finder".

Can you help me by being a bit more specific in how to set this TREES option correctly so it uses as less as possible material?
There are so many optional choices, which options do i have to choose?

 

[GAP]

Can you help me by being a bit more specific in how to set this TREES option correctly so it uses as less as possible material?
There are so many optional choices, which options do i have to choose?

In Cura; Printer Settings, select Support, there is a drop down next to Support Structure that gives a choice of either Normal or Tree, select Tree.


These are the support settings I use.



These are the Cura settings I use as a guide.

Cura Settings Ultimate Guide - Settings Explained & How to Use

Cura has plenty of settings that contribute to creating some great 3D prints with filament 3D printers, but a lot of them can be confusing. There are pretty good explanations on Cura, but I thought I’d put together this article to explain how you can use these settings. So, let’s look at some of...

3dprinterly.com

 

[Gerard]

Thanks! Great article.