OT: 3D Printing with Flashforge

Just curious if anyone out there has any experience with 3D printing? I recently acquired a Flashforge 3D printer and, while its a very cool "toy", I'm finding it frustrating given my tolerance expectation. The machine is supposed to be able to print at a resolution of 100 micron and I'm having a hell of a time achieving that.

I realize there are other sites related to this topic, but I have yet to find anyone with a machinist's background who has played with one of these.

Any advise would be appreciated.
gm.

gmoushon said:

Just curious if anyone out there has any experience with 3D printing? I recently acquired a Flashforge 3D printer and, while its a very cool "toy", I'm finding it frustrating given my tolerance expectation. The machine is supposed to be able to print at a resolution of 100 micron and I'm having a hell of a time achieving that.

I realize there are other sites related to this topic, but I have yet to find anyone with a machinist's background who has played with one of these.

Any advise would be appreciated.
gm.

Click to expand...

Just like anything else...

You get what you pay for.

No doubt. Fortunately I didn't buy it....just trying to help a friend.

A micron is .001mm, so 100 micron is .1mm that .004". so the surface is like 80 grit sandpaper? Surely that is under the best conditions, so .012 under not so good conditions. Vertical surfaces seem to be the worst case with 3D, horizontal the best.

Thanks for the response...and that certainly fits what I'm experiencing: vertical surfaces are worse that horizontal.

I guess the biggest frustration is the lack of consistency. For instance...I needed a 0.250 hole. The first attempt produced a hole that was 0.030 under size. No problem...I just modeled the second attempt as a 0.280 diameter and I ended up with a hole that was more like 0.300!.

I realize there is a lot of "art" to this...ranging anywhere from head travel speed to nozzle temp. Was just wondering if there are some general principles to adhere to while I learn.

Thanks

Hang on it prints at 100 micron, thats not going to be finsished part accuracy, just deposition accuracy!

Bit like my converted Bridgeport cnc, might have 1 micron resolution, but sure as hell is never going to make parts at that level of precision (well unless i was a gunsmith :-).

adama said:

Hang on it prints at 100 micron, thats not going to be finsished part accuracy, just deposition accuracy!

Bit like my converted Bridgeport cnc, might have 1 micron resolution, but sure as hell is never going to make parts at that level of precision (well unless i was a gunsmith :-).

Click to expand...

Excellent point. I have not considered that.

From my limited experience with 3D printers, isnt the diameter of the feed material the real part 'resolution'? Thinner material would then take longer to print.

Yes, filament diameter is a factor. For instance, this machine had a defaults diameter of 1.87mm pre-set but the actualdiameter measures 1.77. I am finding all these subtleties make a big difference in print quality.

gmoushon said:

Yes, filament diameter is a factor. For instance, this machine had a defaults diameter of 1.87mm pre-set but the actualdiameter measures 1.77. I am finding all these subtleties make a big difference in print quality.

Click to expand...

Filament comes in nominal diameters or 1.75mm and 3.00mm, 1.75 usually holds pretty close but the 3mm can drop (and usually does) to around 2.75mm. I'm not familar with your printer but I have two of my own, one a delta style "Kossel" and the other is a cartesian "Prusa i3". The Kossel is very fast and can do 8" high prints but has many problems with dimensions and I can not calibrate it because of the complicated nature of delta kinematics and the nature of the printer having most parts printed (done on a uPrint/Dimension commercial printer). The Prusa i3 on the other hand will hold to within +-.005" when calibrated, the last part I did was 3"x4" and measured 2.980"(axis needs calibrated) and 4.000 according to my Mitutoyo caliper. Those are good enough for me, most parts I do are with a .22mm layer height. If I am doing something really critical or if I want high quality I will try to do around .14mm. The nozzle diameter also affects your quality, all my printers use a .35mm nozzle. It is slow but much higher quality than a .5mm nozzle. There are also "prototype" nozzles available with holes as small as .2mm but you will see a bunch of extruder problems trying to use one of those.

You may want to check out the reprap forums or the #reprap channel on irc.freenode.net, if you share more information I may be able to help more. I use Repetier Host on my printers to control them and either Kisslicer or Slic3r to prepare the models.