RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

There you go, it wasn't that bad was it! lol

Hi Alwyn see at next meeting ,going to have a long chat about 3d printers. Be prepared for loads of questions lol


regards pete

Hi Pete, yes I'll be at the December meet and happy to discuss the beast. I have been doing some printing today and have a growing pile of ABS scrap which is really bugging me. Unfortunately some of my prints are tall and thin (barrel for the Nashorn) and the prints have an unfortunate knack of coming loose from the heated bed. The last piece came loose 45 mins into a 49 minute print so you can guess how happy I was.

So far I've managed to 'successfully' print the muzzle brake (1st attempt!!), the long thin part of the barrel behind the muzzle break (4 attempts and had to design an extra removable base to try and prevent the thing from coming adrift). I successfully printed the middle piece only to find I have left something out of the design, and the reprint came loose from the base very near the end of the print The third print is just running now fingers crossed.

The other problem I have is that I expected the end result to be stronger, and managed to break the barrel very easily whilst handling it, so the barrel will have brass tube running through it for strength.

Overall despite the problems I am pleased with the quality if not the strength of the end result.

UPDATE - I have now realised that if the parts are left for a while to cool they strengthen up considerably - moral of the story is don't handle the parts until they have cooled and set (obvious really if I had sat and thought about it DOH!).

Alwyn

Here's an update after a busy and sometimes frustrating day.


I'm fairly pleased with the days work considering the near vertical learning curve. CURA (the slicing and dicing/printing program) is very sophisticated and once you get to grips with the settings it enables changes to print wall thickness/fill density and loads of other parameters which I am still trying to get to grips with.

It's gratifying to look at the result and see a part of my tank coming together, so all the irritation and frustration is kind of worth it. The important lesson learned today is: GET THE DESIGN RIGHT BEFORE PRINTING!!!!

Cheers folks, now for some red wine.
Alwyn

Hi Alwyn I have noticed on some prints on youtube the tall ones have a mesh around the outside ,suppose its to support the main item stop it falling over or moving,the mesh is easily removed once the print is finished. Might be worth a try.


regards pete

Thanks Pete, I'm not sure how to do that but I'll give it a try.
Alwyn

It should be an option in the splicing software.

And the last section has printed (finally!).

There is an option in CURA to print a 'raft' and print on top of it, so I specified a nice big raft.
Two and a quarter hours later and I am getting very nervous about whether I've exceeded the machines max height.

but not to worry, 15 mins later it successfully ompleted

and here's the complete barrel


And now where's that Jamesons?
Alwyn

That's a hell of a muzzle break! What's the weedy bit on the left?

Very impressive. Can you print onto a shaped base? Just thinking for concave objects like T34 wheels.

Hi Rob, yes the printing leaves the odd whisker attached (I think that's what you mean). You can only print onto the heated base, but if you need to print a concave object then the print software will create a support structure which can be easily cleaned off after printing.
Cheers
Alwyn