Some of the optical components I'm working on...

 

You are the mad scientist, dude. You've got mad chops. Kudos.

 

Ha, thanks! I'm all self taught. Just really like learning new skills and tinkering. I really believe almost anybody can do almost anything they set their mind to. Especially with the internet freeing the access to information.

 

True... When it comes to skills. Talent is a different story though, and you clearly have both!

 

I suppose I should update the printer progress...

Been working toward high(er) temperature printing so I can process the filaments I want for auto/bike projects.

First revision of the enclosure is done and currently printing parts for rev 2. Right now it's single pane 3mm acrylic panels with 3mm gaps around the edges of the panes. It's a common setup within the printer community so I just downloaded the part files and put it together. With no additional heat (beyond the printer itself) it's getting to about 38c. That's more than adequate for most typical plastics but my goal temp in the box is at LEAST 60c. Rev2 will be double pane glass with sealant in all the gaps. Hopefully that will get me to 45c. After that, I'll have to add a heater and controller system and start worrying about overheating the printer parts. Should know more on that front omorrow.





I now have about a dozen filaments on hand

-PLA is cheap, stiff, low-temp, and good for quick prototypes. This is by far the most popular filament available...just not great for my final applications.

-MG94 ABS is a low viscosity ABS for ultra fine detail. It's one of the few polymers I can push thru my .15mm (.006") dia nozzle. I'll probably only use it very occasionally for small detailed parts.

-PETg is a good all-rounder that is stiff and moderately temperature tolerant. It's probably the second most popular filament.

-Taulman T-Glase is a transparent PET-like copolymer designed for near-transparent parts. It's tricky to make it work right but may allow me test some basic optical geometry.

-ASA is similar to ABS but is UV resistant.

-PC/ABS is a blend of polycarbonate and ABS that can take fairly high temperatures, is quite stiff, and has good impact resistance

-CF/PC is polycarbonate reinforced with chopped carbon fiber. This is my target material. Very stiff heat tolerant.

I plan to add a couple more, like PVA (like hardened elmers glue) that functions as a water soluble support structure to aid printing complex shapes. Also, something like TPU (think phone cases) that can flex and/seal.

 

I have a selection of nozzles from .15mm to .8mm. The bigger ones are hardened steel so they can handle the abrasive reinforced filaments.






To accommodate the higher extrusion temperatures of my target filamemts (over 300c), I picked up a selection of heater/extruder parts in titanium and plated copper (instead of stainless and aluminum) Heater and thermocouple not pictured. Common PLA extruder temps are around 190-200c. ABS and PETg are around 250. Basic PC gets up around 300.

These parts are all from E3D (England) and I'm probably going to sell them as I found a better alternative (IMO) from Slice Engineering (USA). Haven't ordered that yet, tho.




Some Boron Nitride thermal paste (thanks NASA!) to assist moving heat from the heating element to the nozzle and heatsink.


And I'm experimenting with peltier, heatsink, and fans to cool the stepper motors while also heating the enclosure. The sink and fan alone keep the motors near ambient (down from 50-ish C). Need to get a bit further along before I mount the peltiers.




With JUST APPLIED bare heatsink (so not yet really dissipating any heat) (28c ambient)


After the sink and motor stabilized (28c ambient)


After stabilized but with a small fan (40mm x 10mm) added (28c ambient)

 

You may have noticed a lot of metric being used. Turns out basically everything in this hobby is metric. I'm actually gaining a decent mental library of metric/imperial comparisons. It's kinda cool. Never used metric this much before.

 

Also have a bunch mechanical parts coming in to improve performance.

High resolution stepper motors (400 steps per rev instead of the usual 200), Misumi and THK precision linear rods and bearings, 20x40 aluminum extrusion for a new frame, and gear reducer parts to increase the extruder resolution by 7x over stock. The printed frame parts will be reproduced in polycarbonate instead of the stock PETg. The PC is much more rigid and heat tolerant.

 

Some of the parts I printed in a transparent PETG for the enclosure. The clarity isn't amazing, but this filament isn't intended for that sort of thing anyway. I plan to use RGB LEDs (controlled by the printer main board) behind them to indicate printer status.

Drill guide, corner supports, power supply bracket, magnetic door catches, etc.

 

Building the multi-material unit. It will allow running up to 5 different filaments within the same part. Fully automated. Just define the material parameters in the model, load the appropriate filaments, and press play. Take a LOT of extra time to print but can open lots of new design options.




Will soon have 8 stepper motors and three microcontrollers on this one printer. Oy.