What about a 3D printer?

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soldevilla
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What about a 3D printer?

Post by soldevilla »

Not strictly for macro, although I am using this to adapt lenses to my Canon. It fit perfectly, the camera will go attached to my telescope and I have'nt any afraid about the future life of my camera. This is a Canon bayonet adapter, to M42x1. printed on a 3D printer with PLA, which costs little more than a few adapters. Every day I find new uses ...
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Captura de pantalla de 2021-03-16 19-13-20.png

Scarodactyl
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Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Scarodactyl »

3d printers rule. That said PLA wouldn't be my filament of choice for this since it can deform over time if weight is on it. You can easily pay for the printer in savings on specialized adapters if you do a lot of this stuff.

MarkSturtevant
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Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Very nice!
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

Vish_007
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Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:31 am
Location: Birmingham, Alabama - USA

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Vish_007 »

Planning to purchase 3d printer, need some recommendation on 3d printer brand and software. Will be using to print adapters for my macro rig, I have no experience in operating 3D printers/software. Appreciate any suggestions...

Thanking in advance
Vishnu

soldevilla
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Location: Barcelona, more or less

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by soldevilla »

At this moment my printer is an Anycubic. I was not too much confident because the motor is moving in the Y axis, and this (I think...) can generate vibrations, but no. I am very happy with Any \:D/

Scarodactyl
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Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Scarodactyl »

We got a Creality ender 5 plus. It took about an hour to set up and has been very good, aside from a slight issue with a couple bolts loosening themselves on the hot end which loctite has fixed.
For modeling tinkercad is a good startijg point with its intuitive interface and fusion360 is available in a free form and is more fully featured.

Vish_007
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Location: Birmingham, Alabama - USA

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Vish_007 »

Thank you, Scrodactyl & Soldvilla: appreciate your suggestions - will go will go with Creality model and tinkercard
Vishnu

mawyatt
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Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by mawyatt »

New to 3D printing and got an Artillery Genius about a month ago per recommendation from another that has 7! The plan is to use the 3D printer to print housings, cases and fixtures for electronics, mainly to house custom PCBs we've designed. First item was a case designed in Fusion 360 for use with a DIY interface circuit that allows a digital oscilloscope to operate as a logic analyzer. The new Genius printers use the baseline Trinamic stepper motor controllers and they are quiet which was a requirement. The print quality is good using the proper settings in the slicer program (using Cura), but the printing is slow and why we now have another Genius 3D printer.

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

bralex
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Location: New Mexico, USA

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by bralex »

I'm intrigued by the threads. Could you guys expand a bit there? Are you able to print reasonable quality threads? What kind of layer thickness are you using? I'd been thinking about a 3d printer, but assumed I'd have to do the threading on a lathe!

Scarodactyl
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Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Scarodactyl »

Layers can be down to about 0.1mm thick on mine, and printing threads down to a 0.5mm pitch has worked fine (though inner diameters print a little tight so you need to add 0.2-0.3mm to them).

Vish_007
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Location: Birmingham, Alabama - USA

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Vish_007 »

HI Sacrodactyl, for cam adapter 3d printing which filament you prefer ? PLA or ABS or other

Thanks,
Vishnu

Scarodactyl
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Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Scarodactyl »

I use petg for most everything. Pla is easy to print but can sag under loads over time.

Chris S.
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Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by Chris S. »

You fellows are a bad influence. I've been concentrating on improving skills at subtractive fabrication of metal (milling and lathe work)--and there is a lot to learn in these regimes. But one can make nice adapters with them.

Now you sing the virtues of additive fabrication, specifically 3D printing. Oh no--is it another long, winding rabbit hole?

But likely, both subtractive and additive methods have their place in a shop. And the friend who pushed me down the first fabrication rabbit hole (by leaving a metal mill in my workroom and suggesting that I "get some use out of it") recently left a never-unboxed 3D printer in my basement, with the same admonition.

So unbox it I shall. But I hope its propensities are different from those of a metal mill; with a mill, every time you turn around, you need more tooling, which quickly adds up to more than the cost of the mill. Here's hoping that 3D printers aren't as greedy.

--Chris S.

bralex
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Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by bralex »

Chris S. wrote:
Sat May 01, 2021 2:11 am
with a mill, every time you turn around, you need more tooling, which quickly adds up to more than the cost of the mill. Here's hoping that 3D printers aren't as greedy.

--Chris S.
Amen to that. I've probably got 3-4x the money in tooling than I have in my actual machine tools!

mawyatt
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Location: Clearwater, Florida

Re: What about a 3D printer?

Post by mawyatt »

Chris S. wrote:
Sat May 01, 2021 2:11 am
You fellows are a bad influence. I've been concentrating on improving skills at subtractive fabrication of metal (milling and lathe work)--and there is a lot to learn in these regimes. But one can make nice adapters with them.

Now you sing the virtues of additive fabrication, specifically 3D printing. Oh no--is it another long, winding rabbit hole?

But likely, both subtractive and additive methods have their place in a shop. And the friend who pushed me down the first fabrication rabbit hole (by leaving a metal mill in my workroom and suggesting that I "get some use out of it") recently left a never-unboxed 3D printer in my basement, with the same admonition.

So unbox it I shall. But I hope its propensities are different from those of a metal mill; with a mill, every time you turn around, you need more tooling, which quickly adds up to more than the cost of the mill. Here's hoping that 3D printers aren't as greedy.

--Chris S.
Chris,

It just happened to us as well, needed to fabricate some custom enclosures for electronics we had developed. Initially was going to use Al extrusions and get custom end plates machined, ordered the extrusions and starting to sketch out the end plates. This is when we realized you could use a 3D printer to print the end plate, then realized you can print the entire enclosure, so thrown in the briar patch and down the rabbit hole!!

Now we have two Genius 3D Printers and a stock of filament of all colors. After some experimenting with different printer parameters and slicer software, the print quality is good, but the 3D prints are slow, thus the "extra" printer.

I wouldn't consider using 3D printed adapters for areas where precision and long term stability is required, this is the area for CNC machined metal components. Recall others were having "mixed" results with plastic 3D printed adapters.

Edit: Here's our first components with the new 3D printer. This is a ~300MHz 16 channel Logic Analyzer PCB adapter for a Siglent SDS2104X Plus Digital Scope upgraded (enabled) to 500MHz. Note we printed a PCB equivalent to check the fit while we were waiting on the PBC arrival.

I'm sure you'll be "hooked" soon, and having loads of fun with your 3D printer :D

Best,
Attachments
Lower Performance LA Setup with Probe cables
Lower Performance LA Setup with Probe cables
Lower Performance LA Setup with Probe cables and clips
Lower Performance LA Setup with Probe cables and clips
Lower Performance LA base with plug in for scope
Lower Performance LA base with plug in for scope
Lower Performance LA using ribbon cable
Lower Performance LA using ribbon cable
Lower Performance LA POD, note 3D Printed case
Lower Performance LA POD, note 3D Printed case
Logic Analyzer with 3D printed cases, will use high frequency twisted pair cables
Logic Analyzer with 3D printed cases, will use high frequency twisted pair cables
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

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