Update time. 26 July. I thought I'd load up the clear before I do the grey. So I did some effects tests. I figure I'd put up the effect early so that I don't forget about publishing it like I did for Max's main gun. I tried 0% infill and 'spiralize' prints [vase mode]. 6+ hrs for 0% infill, 1.5 hrs for spiralize. To be honest, while the piece feels extraordinarily light, I prefer the print quality of spiralize, which shows no visible banding. Anything with infill 0> & <100% shows the most banding. Yeah, I went smaller than Max's too. But anything too large is just unwieldy and looks pretty awkward in one hand. I tried three colours to see how they'd work. A mauvey red, similar to the Hasbro Decepticon effects, a purple and the standard yellow/orange mix. I also prepared what I'll refer to as a LED bomb. A small package of AG3/LR41 batteries, a LED, foil, tape, aluminium and a small printed frame. This was then trialed on each of the parts in different lighting conditions. The LED bomb was made to fit into the effect piece, but difficulties retrieving it led me to place within the gun barrel after the first trial. As expected the illumination worked better with the mauve and yellow. The purple was not only darker and more opaque, but also non spiralised (thicker). The yellow also looked nicer in full light. I also sorted out the welding torch flare on the repair arm. (I'm also reconfiguring the pins currently)
What are you printing this in? It looks so much smoother than most other 3D printed stuff I've seen outside of resin.
I can get a little obsessive at times , but I very much appreciate the compliment, cheers. Just the standard PLA (FDM) and I’ve not yet used anything other than eSun brand, so I’m not sure how filament quality varies from brand to brand. For this kind of work I’d be a bit nervous with resin, but I may indulge in one down the track. I think the quality I get is a factor of a few things; The printer itself has a good performance lineage and is exceptionally stable (Ender 5); I’m prepared to wait for quality (0.12mm layer height) and am fussy enough to spend the time to experiment with different profiles; I also try to design for ideal prints. Occasionally I see photos of prints ruined by supports and inappropriate orientations or other questionable design decisions. I’m way too impatient to sand my work, so I try to get it right the first time. I'll generally change things in order to make them printable without supports and you can think of printed layers like the grain in timber. Just like timber it helps to design according with the grain and choose the right planes with consideration. Low poly modelling (without subdivision), which is pretty common for beginners due to the difficulty curve, can also leave lots of stark, flat surfaces which often emphasize printing pattern artifacts too. Don't get me wrong, this isn't to say that it's all design related, I think the grey filament I used prints a little rougher than the orange, so there is definitely material variability, but each of these things can all contribute to poor print quality beyond just having a bad machine or materials. Update: 26 July (PM local time) Just a photo of the gun armour plating with grey filament.
Wait...FILAMENT?! What kind of filament printer do you have that can do detail like that and not leave ugly lines on everything? I'd love to print plastic, but I bought a resin printer just stop seeing those awful lines!
I'm planning on a file... files release. As much as I'd like to print out kits for people, sending items around the world is fraught with risk and will take a lot of time. But I did send a package to the US by air yesterday, so I might wait and see how that goes before ruling it out, It would have to be very limited considering the printing time involved. How is your resin printer going? Did you get that print failure issue sorted? Please see above. I don't want to exclude anybody, this is a hobby we should all enjoy, but I live in Australia which makes logistics a bit harder. I was given an estimate of 3 weeks shipping yesterday (covid delays), but I'm not sure how much delivery charges would cost for something this volume. Yep, same as last year but different colour, but just so that I don't convince people I can pull off miracles, keep reading... I never thought I'd be intentionally making my stuff look ugly, but goes. This is the brightest Cree LED torch I have and an extreme closeup, this is all to make it look as bad as possible. When you shine a light at the right angle you can still see print texture, so it's not completely smooth. Normally though, its very matte under standard lighting. Using the same light you can make out print lines here too from further away. This is the worst part, but didn't show up well with the natural lighting in the previous post. This is the G1 gun under the same lighting (It seems so tiny to me now). So, yeah. I think the print quality is really good, but I don't want to convince anyone that it's perfect, so I've given it the worst lighting I can. Here's something better to look at. I think I'll release the repair bay parts separately due to the amount of parts that are accumulating.
My resin printer was working again, but I am setting up a little workshop somewhere else in the house and will have to re-balance everything.
Sorry everyone. Work got a bit intense this week, so it's been a bit demanding. I should be freed up to do more work by about Wednesday. That looks like an awesome setup, it puts mine to shame. Is the printer tall? It just looks like the surface is low to the ground, but otherwise that's impressive. Thanks sauce... does this mean I'm through, finished? That's a good question and I think it needs a considered answer. As 2+ days printing and postage will push up the cost, I'd really have to offer something exclusive to direct purchasers to make it seem worthwhile. I have a bigger alternate barrel, (A bigger gun still isn’t big enough), but I'll have to have a clear think about it as well as properly cost production for a limited run of prints.
Thank you!! My wife and kids got thevtable for me for Father's Day. Printer isn't even in the picture yet. It's just a Photon. About 8"x8"x16". It'll be on the far right of the table. I also put a full toolbench on the right and a locker on the left - part of the gift. I had so much crap in that utility room that I have to finish sorting it before I can fully finish the setup and get back to screwing up every other print