Thread: Dimensional Quality in prints

Originally Posted by Oldwrench

Well, that is horse of a different color. Parts over a hundred years old may have been made under less than controlled conditions, in which case it may be impossible to offer items to "fit" them. - snip -

It is indeed a horse of a different color. Interesting bit about the part you make, and a good point. The part that sparked this discussion is going to be sold as a "semi-machined" part, requiring final fitting by a machinist. I usually try to stay away from offering products like that, it tends to lead to complaints about it not fitting

Originally Posted by Atlanticd&m

You'll have a hard time coming up with high accuracy parts from fused filament fabrication (FFF) or fused deposition modeling (FDM).
- snip -
I play around with a resin-based one that only costed around $500 which has produced more accurate prints than the Form Labs printer at my work.

A friend of mine that printed out a couple of these parts for me mentioned he had an old printer he wasn't doing anything with. He offered to sell it to me as something to play with. He said the layering was .1mm or some crazy terrible resolution, but I am sure I have spent a few hundred dollars on more worthless endeavors. If nothing else it'll give the kids something to play with.

Originally Posted by Fal Grunt

A friend of mine that printed out a couple of these parts for me mentioned he had an old printer he wasn't doing anything with. He offered to sell it to me as something to play with. He said the layering was .1mm or some crazy terrible resolution, but I am sure I have spent a few hundred dollars on more worthless endeavors. If nothing else it'll give the kids something to play with.

My default is 0.05mm / 0.002", I don't typically go higher than that, but I have done down to 0.02mm / 0.0008". All depends on the resin, settings, and part geometry.

If I understood him correctly, the new printer he bought (I think he is up to 3 or 4) has a Z resolution down to .01mm. I forget the brand now.

I think his point was, if I don't have a clue what I am doing, it is still a steep learning curve to get good quality parts. Regardless of how good of a printer I may purchase. The printer I am buying from him comes with several spools of material to play with so I will have ample opportunity to make mistakes and learn. Then come back with a seasoned perspective in purchasing a new printer that will better fit my application.

Originally Posted by Fal Grunt

If I understood him correctly, the new printer he bought (I think he is up to 3 or 4) has a Z resolution down to .01mm. I forget the brand now.

I think his point was, if I don't have a clue what I am doing, it is still a steep learning curve to get good quality parts. Regardless of how good of a printer I may purchase. The printer I am buying from him comes with several spools of material to play with so I will have ample opportunity to make mistakes and learn. Then come back with a seasoned perspective in purchasing a new printer that will better fit my application.

Ah, if you're talking "spools" then it'll be a FDM/FFF type printer. Yes, those will give you down to 0.2mm layer heights comfortably, with 0.1mm heights after some tuning/testing. SLA/DLP/UVM type printers will give you the sub-0.1mm layer heights with ease. Again, there are trade-offs to both as previously mentioned.

But anyway, your plan sounds reasonable. When I first started in 3D printing in 2013, I bought my first printer, but then quickly found it to be a hunk o' junk (held together with zip ties and bubblegum) and just decided to build my own. But playing around with the first one gave me a lot of insight for later down the road, which I'm sure will be your experience.

Maybe it has been mentioned before, but there are "industrial" style printers... Although for the price I'm thinking just buy a 5 axis machine (Haas UMC750 comes to mind) or a 3 axis with bolt on trunnion!!

Stratasys Fortus 450MC | Used 3D Industrial Printing Machine

We had this brand. I wish I had paid more attention to who/what/how the parts were printed and processed, but it was in another department...

Originally Posted by Atlanticd&m

Ah, if you're talking "spools" then it'll be a FDM/FFF type printer. Yes, those will give you down to 0.2mm layer heights comfortably, with 0.1mm heights after some tuning/testing. SLA/DLP/UVM type printers will give you the sub-0.1mm layer heights with ease. Again, there are trade-offs to both as previously mentioned.

But anyway, your plan sounds reasonable. When I first started in 3D printing in 2013, I bought my first printer, but then quickly found it to be a hunk o' junk (held together with zip ties and bubblegum) and just decided to build my own. But playing around with the first one gave me a lot of insight for later down the road, which I'm sure will be your experience.

Yep, we even talked about building a printer, but my problem is, when I build something, I go to the Nth degree on quality and time. It would be a $15,000 printer when I was done, and probably be on par with any of the big name manufacturers in the $5k range.

Originally Posted by Mike1974

Maybe it has been mentioned before, but there are "industrial" style printers... Although for the price I'm thinking just buy a 5 axis machine (Haas UMC750 comes to mind) or a 3 axis with bolt on trunnion!!

Stratasys Fortus 450MC | Used 3D Industrial Printing Machine

We had this brand. I wish I had paid more attention to who/what/how the parts were printed and processed, but it was in another department...

For that price I would get a 4th for my existing S1000, and a S700 with a 3 + 2 trunnion.

Development/prototyping would be a breeze.... I've got a job im working on trying to land my first contract, it is going to be 5-7 setups. A 3 + 2 would make it a two setup job. Run the first side in a chuck, mount in the 3+2, done.