Currently Formlabs has a referral program that provides you, if you are a new customer, a $500 discount on their machines. Yes, this code does provide me with credit for materials and supplies, but you get the $500 credit directly on your order. It is valid only for orders from North America. And, I don’t know how long this will last, so you might want to act quickly. As I understand it, there are no limits on how many times it can be used, but only one $500 discount, once per customer.

Some folks are selling their discount codes on ebay, but I would rather help you get a great laser-based SLA unit (Form 3 or Form 3L) to make incredibly precise parts. And better yet are all of the material options that Formlabs has calibrated to their equipment.

So here is the code – really – no purchase necessary from me for the coupon!

FORM3-KWWS8Q

You can contact Formlabs through their sales department at 617 702 8476 or at formlabs.com

And thanks for helping me continue this blog!

Talk about being totally distracted! This past year professionally and personally was filled with all sorts of new things. To catch up with everything will be difficult, but from the last post, yes, I did get the new Prusa SL1 last fall (but still under construction, however). Our new college Makerspace is fully up and running, and I’m the faculty-in-residence this year to assist with all sorts of things maker. Because my teaching schedule is now reduced, there is much more time for adding to this blog – hopefully things of value that somebody will tap my “Donate” button! 😉 Feeding me caffeinated drinks is the best way to ensure more technical content here!

As is obvious from date of this post and the last one I was not doing much blogging here – and for a good reason.  I was still very immersed in additive manufacturing problems and solutions, but my own personal life was so overloaded with family needs that blogging just didn’t happen.

Well, I hope to fix this several ways.  I have some neat project information to share involving additive manufacturing in the restoration of several antique automobiles.  This will definitely be the year of the liquid SLA printer – just take a look at Josef Prusa’s first UV/LCD unit the SL1:

Expected to be shipped end of January 2019, and yes I do have one on order.  I will also be posting a review of the Anycubic Photon too – it is a very nice unit that works well for me.  And I picked up a used Formlabs Form 1 – main issue dirty mirrors (that seems to be a common issue) and Formlabs nicely sent me a replacement set even though I was able to restore the ones in the unit.   Plus an upgrade to the SparkMaker’s system to increase resolution through a parts kit and a test run of T3D’s phone / tablet unit.  Maybe OLO / ONO (the much late phone based 3D printer) could appear!

I also expect to see some new breakthroughs in scanning.  I’ll be posting a review of Qlone (tablet / phone app) that recently got upgraded to 4K.

And as my college has opened a new Makerspace, I’ll devote one post to showing you how our design team of faculty and students created a unique facililty.

Happy New Year! 😉

As always, a new round of technology is on display at the Winter CES show in Las Vegas. Given that temperatures are in the teens where I live, warm and sunny Las Vegas sounds rather enticing… However, from my research on the 3D printing space there it is clear that the economic downturn and “cooling” of the market is showing in the types of new offerings. XYZPrinting is there in force with some new selections, but other than the new Markforged desktop metal printer, there isn’t much to be excited about. For one thing, that machine will not be a consumer-priced offering (and as of this writing no price has been announced).

I do have some reviews that have been neglected: the Pixelio scanner table is here, a Mod-T 3D printer, and hopefully by early February a Uniz3D Slash LCD-SLA unit. The Tiko mini delta printer also came just last week, and I’ve managed to get some prints out of it, but nothing great so far. At least I got one! It also looks promising to get the PolyMaker Polysher unit by early February too. I’ve tested a sample of their PVB filament used in that process and had great results – even rough polishing it with IPA in a perfume atomizer. I’ve worked with some Monoprice IIIP units including the MakerSelect and the prints have been fantastic. I’m going to tackle these one by one with some video included too.

And now on to my predictions for 2017 and 3D printing: the consumer space will further consolidate – and educational (read more expensive) offerings will be the norm. I’d like to see a reliable resin printer for under $1000 with decent software (it is possible). And I’d like to see some better 3D scanners. 2017 looks to be the year of IoT, Virtual Reality, and maybe drones… so I rather think that the additive manufacturing space will see less development for now. However, I would not mind being pleasantly surprised!

In case you follow this blog and thought that I’d been abducted by aliens or worse — no I’m still much in the game and there are so many things to catch up on. Such as:

We’ll look at the new MakerBot SmartExtruder+, Tough PLA SmartExtruder, and MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen Plus. That alone is a lot. I have tested the new tough PLA in the heat of battle – 3lb battlebots to be exact – and the three parts made this way held up exceptionally well. More on that to come!

A review of the Mod-t printer is also in the works. And my experiences printing TPU (thermoplastic urethane) have been really fun. Again, some parts made for a recent 3lb battlebot competition held up so well they came out without a scratch.

Liquid resin printers are getting into the mainstream – check out this awesome new offering on Kickstarter: The Morpheus Morpheus 3D This machine is using the concept of an LCD screen and appropriate lighting, such as the ONO unit coming out later (we hope) this month. The ONO 3D printer uses “daylight” curing resin (probably deep blue actually) from the LCD / LED screen of your phone. The promise is of smooth layers and even clear prints if desired.

Scanning is also an area seeing new options. Smartphones have such incredible cameras these days it doesn’t make sense to use some other imaging part. The long-awaited Bevel from Matter and Form seems to be still long awaited… But I did get my Pixelio scan table and can say it works nicely. More on that later too. Check it out here: Pixelio

So stay tuned – by US Thanksgiving holiday I should have at least a few new personal reviews out there.

CO2 laser cutters have been around for a while, but they are either very expensive or just (like low-end imports) not well designed.  A new offering that is probably the most consumer friendly device I’ve seen in this area is called the “Glowforge.”  The basic unit comes with a 40W CO2 laser, continuous autofocus, a 12″ x 20″ bed and internal object recognition cameras that work to identify the materials and alignment.

Check it out here:  glowforge laser

And if you would like a $100 coupon off the purchase check here:  $100 Coupon

This will cover the $99 shipping charge (if you are in the US) so think of it as free shipping!

Early orders go out in December 2015 but I’d guess that later orders will not be fulfilled until mid-2016 (just guessing).

UPDATE: Shipments have been delayed for at least 6 months due to an issue with the power supply – claimed to be a custom component – and that only now (4/16) have the first samples of properly spec’d parts arrived. Refunds are available if you do not want to wait…

First – a shameless promotion… MakerBot is running a coupon special.  If you tap on this link $25 MakerBot Coupon you’ll get a coupon for $25 off your order on a MakerBot machine and supplies.  The details will appear in a new window… Yes, I’ll get a small commission if you use this custom coupon, but any receipts go back into paying for this blog and purchasing machines and materials to test and review.

So while I’ve been quiet for a bit, here are some upcoming reviews that you might find useful:

DaVinci Nobel 1.0 SLA

iBox Nano SLA

Little RP SLA w/tilt option

SeeMeCNC Droplit SLA

And maybe by the end of October, a Peachy Printer…

Despite the fact that it is astronomical spring here in the northeast US, still a pile of accumulated snow remains in my front yard.  Hopefully it will not last much longer!

Since early February I’ve been focused at work on a number of extra projects and at my home shop, working on updates to current machines.  So here is a brief summary as to where things are at this stage:

1. MakerBot Mini – working really well, new firmware released recently has made it quieter and the mandatory rafts are now much easier to remove.

2. Cube 3d Generation – with both client and firmware updates and along with some tweaks in the cartridge design have now made this machine very reliable (for me anyway) and builds are working in one or two color mode.

3. Solidoodle Press – soon up for sale.  I’ll be putting it on ebay for $349 plus shipping, maybe less… contact me if you’re interested.

4. Zeepro Zim – the user interface has improved by leaps and bounds.  The machine itself is solidly built and is probably the most quiet hardware out there.  Now that cloud printing and remote control is available, it is one worth considering.  To sweeten the deal, they were having a limited sale at their site http://www.zeepro.com recently.

A new addition to my software resources is Simplify3D.  I’ll be doing a separate review soon, but wanted to mention that it does run a DaVinci 3D 1.0a machine just fine and the results are far better than the free client supplied from xyzprinting with the machine.  In fact, their client software is probably the worst one out there — you’d think a large corporation could manage to create an exemplary user interface to their equipment.  Their new Junior unit is now listed on Amazon for pre-order.

I managed to print a 20mm calibration cube using some ABS filament other than what was sent with the machine.  The part came out with some interesting defects (the side walls showed definite herringbone patterns, suggesting insufficient drive to the extruder motor) however the X and Y accuracy was pretty good. But as I unloaded the filament at the end of the job, it was obvious that I too now had the “loose screw” in the drive wheel problem.

Fixing that is not difficult – take the plastic cover off and the left side of the extruder body using the two thumbscrews.  Then take the fan on the right side off and it will uncover some slits where you can easily insert a 1.5mm allen wrench.  Of course you’ll have to get the drive wheel in the correct place on the stepper motor shaft, as well as the proper front spacing.

Pictures coming soon.  Note also Solidoodle released an update (1.1.1 now) to the client software on 2/12 or so) – it fixes some issues reported so far.

UPDATE:  while I get my video properly edited, here are the things you can do to improve your head cable:

1. Remove (and discard!) the factory supplied black cable loom piece – if it is like mine, it is too stiff, too large, and too big in diameter.  It just gets in the way.

2. Use a tywrap to fix the cable bundle at the head to the top side of the extruder motor.  I also used some hot melt glue as an enhancement.  The wires should come off of the left side of the head, low and with enough give for the Z probe to move.

3. Use some tywraps to make the cable bundle secure along its length back to where the wires enter the chassis.

3. Fix an elastic string (I got some at a fabric shop) to the cable bundle about midway, and hot melt glue it there and to the front left corner of the chassis.  There will be some need for experimentation for the best “preload.”  What this does is keep the cable assembly tensioned so that it remains relatively suspended no matter where the head is positioned.

4. Finally, use 1/4″ plastic spiral wrap (I tried 1/8″ and it is too tight) to cover the entire length of the cable.

If I can only get my regular day job of late done, I’ll be able to get to this fun stuff! 😉  And a new post with video will be there soon.  This works fairly well so far but I remain convinced it is just an interim solution — something better is needed for the long term.

Well today the Mini finally arrived.  Ordered back in late February, but given the problems of the 5th Generation Replicator, I was in no hurry.  I know I got a better engineered Smart Extruder module – one way to tell is if the module has a lot of thin fins in the cooling window (just compare to the pics on the marketing pages for the old style).

So I installed MakerBot Desktop 3.1.1 which supposedly has camera and WiFi support, along with the latest firmware for the Mini. Short answer – it doesn’t work.  Neither camera nor WiFi works for me and there is no clear explanation.  I use WPA2 personal on my router – the WiFi setup procedure seems to work (it sees several WiFi routers in the vicinity), I enter the correct password (no error message after that) but it never shows up on my client list.  And as for the camera, nothing there as well.

Auto levelling seems to work – but there appears to be a low spot on the right front of the build plate, as even the PLA raft doesn’t stick to it but warps (gosh, it takes a lot to get warped PLA on blue painters’ tape).  Something to investigate or maybe send in a support ticket.

So my first impression?  This is still a work in progress as far as the software goes, and perhaps some details of the hardware too. Sorry to say my XYZ Printing DaVinci 1.0 works better at this point and at 40% of the cost.

UPDATE:  After two firmware updates and one MakerBot Desktop update, I now have a fully functional Mini.  And WiFi and remote monitoring now work too.  Still, while I like the package, I think the overall price/performance is not great.  Why?

Rafts:  love them, hate them, you can’t turn them off.  Or at least not without hacking into the software.  Thing is, some parts just don’t need a raft – and PLA sticks well to blue painters tape.  Which, in my case, has to be two layers thick or my prints (raft included) warp off of the front of the build plate.

Layer height:  200 microns and higher (if you like), but no less.  Gosh, this makes small parts.  Smaller layer resolution would be nice.

Noise:  if you are in the same floor as the Mini in my house you know it is working.  And the second floor…

BTW the camera is practically worthless – it is more like a slow security cam feed – once every 8 seconds or so it refreshes.

I have made some quite acceptable parts despite these shortcomings.  However, the competition is at MakerBot’s heels and if they are going to survive they need to ramp up the QC (no more unwitting customer beta testing) and features/price point to make me stay with them.