3D Printing – Learning curve

… or how to spend a few months extruding molten plastic

Why?

After finishing my first 3D printer, I started to feel hungry for more upgrades, changes and playing with 3Dprinting in general. The second build was commenced!

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The 2nd build

Of course, it was based on the well-known RepRap Prusa-Mendel i2 again.

Plastic parts for a second 3D printer were printed on my first machine.
Nearly all parts were made out of yellow ABS filament.
This time, I wanted to have a chance to create larger models, so I had to buy longer threaded and smooth rods. Since longer rods mean more flexible construction (which is not desired effect), I had to print some frame add-ons to make it more rigid.

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I’ve also added quite a few enhancements like a more precise Z-Endstop holder, electronics box, cable chain cover, or details like a dust collector.
Yeah yeah, I know it is nothing new but that was 3 years ago 😉

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Besides all the above minor changes, there was a big one.
I’ve changed an extruder to Yruds and UDS4.5 Hot-end by Unique Design equipped with a 0.4mm brass nozzle. That combo definitely improved speed and precision. I’ve also powered the whole machine via the Ever Sineline UPS after a few failed prints – power surges are not good :>

Here is how it looked just after the first tests.

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Naaah, that one 😉

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Here is a video of it printing just after preliminary calibration but still with an old hot-end

Printer 2.0 from pit on Vimeo.

For a comparison, you can have a look at the video below.
Fully calibrated (which took around a year lol) with all upgrades mounted and with the new UDS4.5 hotend.

StillPrinting from pit on Vimeo.

Printouts

I must admit that to get decent printouts I had to spend a few weeks … OK, OK …. waaaay more, but it’s fun and it’s a part of the learning curve.
I won’t go into details about how to calibrate a RepRap since on the web you can find a lot of publications by people with far superior knowledge to mine.

I’ve printed a shit load of useless stuff but there were goodies too.
A good example is the one below.
Thanks to Jakub Husak (for providing models) I was able to print replacement parts for FDD CA2001 for 8-bit Atari which fail quite often. These parts were given to participants of the Garage Party that I occasionally organize.

Here are photos of failing original parts

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(original photo by [dereatari](http://www.dereatari.republika.pl/serw.htm#Stacje dysków Indus GT, LDW2000, CA2001))

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(original photo by blog.3b2.sk)

and here are replacements being printed.

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Not quite there … yet

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Despite countless hours spent on calibration, tweaking and printing I still wanted more – well, my son wasn’t born yet so I had plenty of time 😀
In the last video below you can see parts for my third 3D Printer being extruded. Stay tuned for PART 3!

3d printer – lost video of my second build from pit on Vimeo.

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