RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Finally found the time and the space to unpack and install my 3D printer.

First thing I did was to print a LCM
Maybe I have to upscale it a bit and play with some settings as it is a bit rough at some points, but in general very happy

Good choice and nice, clean first print.

It's working, that's a good print.

3D printing rapidly becomes an obsession, but to get the most out of one the real work begins when you learn how to use a CAD program and design your own parts.

It took me a long while to figure it all out, but now I print parts that I use in the house, car, modelling etc that I can't buy in the shops.

My current prints, not my designs, are huge dinosaurs that make great ornaments. Hundreds of hours of printing though!

wibblywobbly wrote:It's working, that's a good print.

3D printing rapidly becomes an obsession, but to get the most out of one the real work begins when you learn how to use a CAD program and design your own parts.

It took me a long while to figure it all out, but now I print parts that I use in the house, car, modelling etc that I can't buy in the shops.

My current prints, not my designs, are huge dinosaurs that make great ornaments. Hundreds of hours of printing though!

well, found some horizontal lines and it seems I have to change the Z a little bit.
So I am now slowly calibrating and getting to learn the machine.

printing is nice, not only tanks but also other stuff, you are right

and I started slowly to learn CAD, but for me it is mostly to learn to think completely differently, the big question si how can you splite the whole thing in small parts that are easy to design

Hi, glad you are enjoying your new printer. One piece of advice that I wish someone had imparted when I got my first machine is to check the tension on all the belts and adjust where necessary, also don't put the blue decorative strips into your printer frame as they can catch on the working parts. When you look at the various cad design programs, I can recommend openscad for ease of use and there are lots of tutorials for it.

Alwyn

Oh and check that all the parts are correctly tightened like the z axis screw link to the stepper motor, that one caught me out!

Its part of the learning curve.

Design parts as a whole to start off with, small parts so that they don't take ages to print.
Then break down a large model into parts.
Then think about how they will fit together.
Then think about how those parts will print with minimal support and infill.

If you use Cura and download things to print, you can install an add on called Mesh Fix that allows you to split a multi part file into separate parts. I use that quite a bit as single parts print more cleanly than multiple ones at the same time.

@AlwynTurner and @WibblyWobbly,

Thanks for the tips, already fixed some bolts and nuts, so that is a work in progress.

Already have a whole fleet of Benchies at the moment

For CAD I found Freecad, seems reasonable ok for me. I want a program that is locally installed on my computer as our internet is not always as reliable as I want..........

and don't worry, if I can't find the fix my self, I will put it here for the guru's to tell me how to fix it

Just ask, some problems look they are caused by one thing, but are actually caused by something else entirely. Only those who have trodden that path know where to look,

wibblywobbly wrote:Just ask, some problems look they are caused by one thing, but are actually caused by something else entirely. Only those who have trodden that path know where to look,

ok, so here we go

I found your nebelwerfer, and thought that is a nice project, not too big, not too many parts.....

But when I try to print the frontjack, it starts ok, but when both legs come closer together, it knocks them over and messes up the print.
I sliced it just the way it opens, so standing up.
I tried to slow down printing but that didnt help.
Also tried with and without support, no difference, still a mess

So, any suggestions what I do wrong?
Maybe to lay it down will help?

Any help is very appreciated!

OK, well there are several things that may be contributing to this.

Print temperature of your hot end may be to blame as if the layers don't bond together then you can get the problem you described - if possible post some pics of the failure but try increasing the print head temperature by 5 degrees at a time, too hot and you will get stringing.

Another thing to check is the retraction settings in CURA, you must enable retraction plus set z hop when retracted, that might stop the head from bumping into bits already printed.

Check that there is no wobble on your platter, by adjusting the runners under your print bed, the print surface should run smoothly with no wobble

Have another go and post if you are still getting problems with pics

Best regards
Alwyn