Week 5 - 3D Scanning and Printing¶
Group Assignment:¶
- Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s)
Printers in our lab: * Creality Ender-3 (FDM) * Anycubic i3 Mega (FDM) * Phrozen (SLA)
Materials * PLA filament * TPU filament * SLA resins (not available this week)
Questions to be answered: * How far can we bridge? * What angle can be unsupported? * How thin a wall supports itself? * How close a gap can we make?
Our Machines¶
Creality Ender-3
Anycubic i3 Mega S
Both of them need SD card to load file, so we heavily rely on the only USD/SD adapter in the lab.
Testing Process¶
In order to test the machine, we tried several 3D models, including the All-in-One test model downloaded from Thingiverse.
First we used the Ender-3, but the parameter setting might be wrong, some spaghetti came out…
After cleaning the printer bed thoroughly with alcohol, leveling it, and cleaning the nozzle it worked better, but still better be more careful when separating supports.
Then we try the slope test, it’s almost a success (prove the machine is not bad).
Ender3 can support with more than 110(90+20) degree angle with the surface keep smooth.
And the thickness test.
The conclusion is that for both wall and gap, thickness under 0.4mm is not possible. Perhaps this is because the nozzle head is 0.4 mm.
Surface test
Layers are apparent in both convex and concave shapes, but more apparent in convex ones. This can be helped by making the profiles (layer height) smaller in G-code. (Anycubic with TPU)
The all in one test takes more than 6 hours with Mega-S, the result is also good. Except the pillars did not print upright.
source
Mega-S can support with more than 120 (180-60) degree slope with the surface keep smooth.
Finally, we try different support type, it turns out the ugly one may be easier to get rid.
So it turns out the clearance size allowed is different.
Ender-3: cleanance size bigger than 0.1 mm won’t stick.
Mega S: clearance size bigger than 0.3 mm won’t stick.
(Oops!)
We also spend some time to set up Cura (slicer). The new version looks completely different from the old version showed in the manual. (Also requires translation!)
Design Rules¶
Ender-3 * Max unsupported angle: 20degrees (from ground) * Max bridge length: * Min thickness: 0.4 mm * Min clearance for movement: 0.2 mm
i3 Mega S * Max unsupported angle: 30degrees (from ground) * Max bridge length: * Min thickness: 0.4 mm * Min clearance for movement: 0.4 mm
Acknowledged that both printers have some problems with stringing and will need further troubleshooting and tuning to get cleaner prints.