The care & nurture of a 3d printer...

Started by Wulf, 10 March 2019, 03:46:12 AM

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Wulf

Lately I've has a few requests to print stuff for people. And I've been quite happy to do so, it's led me to subjects I'd not have considered. So far I've done so at no cost - the most expensive thing about this process is, after all the stamp to post them with... However, stamps aren't as cheap as they were, and really I also need a box to put the models in, and... well, I don't want this to escalate.

From now on, however, I want to get a bit better control over this, just in case. I'm not saying there's been a deluge of requests, just a few, but of them a couple are taking many hours to print, so, from now on, these rules apply...

1) I will not print anything produced by Pendraken. Doing so would be a gross abuse of the privilege offered by these forums. Unfortunately I don't know PD's entire product catalogue by heart, so I'll have to take requests on trust... So far I don't think anyone has requested anything that breaks this rule.

2) I will refuse any request that'll take too long or too much effort to print. Now, the requester won't know that, but anything that my slicer says will take over, maybe, 6 hours, or that looks a right bugger to clean up, will be refused, unless it looks really interesting...

3) There will be a nominal payment required, maybe £10 for a 6 hour print, to cover time, postage & packing. I don't want to make a profit out of this, I just want my printer to be printing my prints...

Right... now I feel both egotistical and selfish... :(

To cheer me up, here's a pic of the latest request I've actually finished printing. In the absence of any  more suitable figures, some unpainted Normans give a sense of scale. I think they're PD.



paulr

 :-bd =D> :-bd

Seems a very sensible and reasonable set of guidelines
Lord Lensman of Wellington
2018 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2022 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
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sunjester


Orcs

That's both very reasonable and generous.

I totally agree about not replicating Pendraken .
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Techno

I've got a few little odds and sods that I might contact you about, Wulf. :-\

There are certain things that are a pain in the posterior for me to keep replicating, when I'm making a range of soldiers......Certain shapes/sizes of shields, for example.
I might well ask you to do some of those.....Then I can send those to Leon..... get him to RTV them.....Then I can have some metal copies made. :)

Wouldn't half save me some time !!

Cheers - Phil

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Orcs

Quote from: Techno on 26 April 2019, 08:15:36 AM
Wouldn't half save me some time !!

Cheers - Phil

You would only get bored. Mrs T would be thinking you could look after more horses/dogs/sheep, or start expecting breakfast in bed. Although I am not sure she would let you loose with the Toaster - Very hot, exposed electrical elements etc
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Westmarcher

Once again, to augment Wulf's fine work, there's now a second Youtube 3D printing video tutorial on Little Wars TV with the promise of a third one providing links to various places where you can get 3D printable files specifically for historical wargaming.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Wulf

Quote from: Techno on 26 April 2019, 08:15:36 AM
I've got a few little odds and sods that I might contact you about, Wulf. :-

There are certain things that are a pain in the posterior for me to keep replicating, when I'm making a range of soldiers......Certain shapes/sizes of shields, for example.
I might well ask you to do some of those.....Then I can send those to Leon..... get him to RTV them.....Then I can have some metal copies made. :)

Wouldn't half save me some time !!

Cheers - Phil
That would also be a nice proof of concept for mastering. Remember, though, I need files in STL, OBJ, x3d or 3mf format...

Wulf

Wulf

Quote from: Westmarcher on 26 April 2019, 09:31:41 AM
Once again, to augment Wulf's fine work, there's now a second Youtube 3D printing video tutorial on Little Wars TV with the promise of a third one providing links to various places where you can get 3D printable files specifically for historical wargaming.
I've watched the two so far now. One thing to note is that he has an Ender 3 - not the newer Ender 3 Pro I have (at the same price, more or less) which solves some issues. Maybe the Prusa would be better if you have an extra few hundred quid to spend - I certainly do not!

I'll be more interested in the next episode though, good historical wargaming terrain is still the hardest subject to find.

Dr Dave

Those look terrific - especially the Blitzs. I sure BPM have been getting better, but some of their tanks the gun barrels are very "liney" and often too thin.

I've had to replace several with plastic rod of the right diameter and use thinned tubing for fume extractors etc.

BUT - your models look better. Keep up the good work.  ;)

Wulf

Quote from: Dr Dave on 26 April 2019, 03:35:12 PM
Those look terrific - especially the Blitzs. I sure BPM have been getting better, but some of their tanks the gun barrels are very "liney" and often too thin.
I can only judge the examples I have bought (maybe a dozen or so), all of which are in their 12mm scale range. They do hundreds of different vehicles, and in a wide variety of scales. Buyer beware, the pictures they show are always of the 20mm scale versions, which is noted on the pages. Wile I won't criticise them too much, I will say that buying them convinced me that FDM printing was almost acceptable, but not quite, and I bought my printer on the basis that I'd make do with the tanks given how cheap they would be, but terrain would be my real target.

Now I'm printing tanks, and I'm almost, but not entirely, happy with them.

GrumpyOldMan

Hello Wulf,

I've been looking at the interweb (they should really have me controlled around it) and I was wondering if you had looked at the resin 3d printers? I was looking at the Sparkmaker and Anycube Photon.

Cheers, back to unsupervised roaming of the Interweb.

GrumpyOldMan


GrumpyOldMan

Quote from: Techno on 26 April 2019, 08:15:36 AM
I've got a few little odds and sods that I might contact you about, Wulf. :-

There are certain things that are a pain in the posterior for me to keep replicating, when I'm making a range of soldiers......Certain shapes/sizes of shields, for example.
I might well ask you to do some of those.....Then I can send those to Leon..... get him to RTV them.....Then I can have some metal copies made. :)

Wouldn't half save me some time !!

Cheers - Phil

Hello Phil

There are places that have free shields available but you'd have to play with them to get the thicknesses right and while some look ok in render the actual 3d model is horrible.

https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-model/free/shield
https://free3d.com/3d-models/shield
https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=shield&dwh=915cc383670864c

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

Wulf

Quote from: GrumpyOldMan on 26 April 2019, 11:10:38 PM
Hello Wulf,
Greetings comrade... erm... sorry, just been watching a couple of Russian tanker films, T-34 and Invincible...
QuoteI've been looking at the interweb (they should really have me controlled around it) and I was wondering if you had looked at the resin 3d printers? I was looking at the Sparkmaker and Anycube Photon.
I looked at them, I looked at the price, I looked at the toxic materials they use, I looked away...

If I wanted to do this really seriously, and produce results to rival the best, I'd look to resin. But all I want are some little toy tanks with minimal cost and minimal hassle. Resin is for the dedicated with cash and facilities (a room of kit's own with ventilation and storage at least).

Wulf