Ark Royal

Always willing to help a fellow modeller Another great thing bout Fusion 360. You can share projects whilst remaining in full control of the original file. That make collaboration a piece of cake Mark

I use Fusion 360, have done for over 8 years. It's incredibly versatile and does most we need in the Modelling Fraternity. I recently done this design in Fusion 360 of a Westinghouse L Style Lever Frame and converted from that program into a drawing program to produce a brass etch Which i then had etched to produce the finish article. Although not the finish article the process was very straight forward usisng the sheet metal part of Fusion to make the folded parts and then flatten them to a pattern part. It takes a bit to learn especially if like me you come from another CAD program I'd recommend You Tube - Fusion 360 - Lars Christensen. I continually update my knowledge as and when i get stuck with a certain feature or how to achieve a certain result. Also remember there's always more than one way to achieve the same result within the program. If you need any help Steve just message me Mark

Ooops Forgot This Small Coping Stones

Continuing the Coping Stone Saga Having played around with the support setting and going as low as those shown in the video i posted i am glad to say that the large coping stones are now printed to my satisfaction. Up Bay Coping Stone This was printed twice one with the support settings from Chitubox and the adusted support settings discussed earlier. The adusted support settings was the one i fittedd to the model. Print Time: 1hr 42min Cost: £0.11 Electric Cost: £0.13 Down Bay Rear Wall Coping Stone Print Time: 1hr 50min Cost: £0.09 Electric Cost: £0.13 This came out 1st print. Small Coping Stones These were printed again flat on the bed with no supports, I extended the leg that sits on the bed to 1mm figuring i could file it down to fit the recess i had. I also increased the mortar gap to 0.45mm to get more stone definition. They came out good the 1st print. Print Time: 26min 35 sec Cost: £0.11 Electric Cost: £0.04 All told including failures the entire Station Bridge Coping Set Including Electricity came in at £1.85 which is a a far cry from the £21.49 (excluding tax and shipping) that it would have cost me from Shapeways. The results of the 3d printed models from the Elegoo are on par with those from shapeways, the beauty of owning a printer is that you have the ability to change a feature and reprint it and have it there in you're hands within hours. Its been a bit of a learning curve but i am satisfied with the results. I had already made the Girder from brass and was totally satisfied with it , but the paint kept chipping off when i dismantled the bridge to wotk on the build. This prompted me to have a go at printed it. Built on the build plate with no supports and 1st attempt turned out fantastic Print Time: 40min 05 sec Cost: £0.06 Electric Cost: £0.05 OVERHANGS - NO SUPPORTS Well to prove this point i added a 3D model of an Eastern Region Diesel Maintenance Facility Setvicing Platform End Support. I felt this would prove this point with a sloping step and overhangs. Here it is on the build plate And Here Cleaned Up Print Time: 1hr 56 min Cost: £0.08 Electric Cost: £0.13 Lesson Proved. No need for supports. This little machine continues to Amaze me , I thought i'd set myself with an epic failure but 1st attempt and this speaks volumes. Drain Cover 6.3mm DIameter Mark

Nice One Steve Pounced on one

Hi Monkeysarefun and 55020 Thanks for all the advice thus far. Its nice to know that there's help out there. I know that you have advised me to drop the supports but at present i am having success with them and with time limited on the current build project i need to progress. Hopefully i will have time at the weekend to investgate this further. My concern with the coping stones and the overhang being suspended in mid air prevented me from putting them directly onto the build plate initially, figuring that the layer was that fine that it would be distorted as the build plate lifted on the 1st few layers of the overhang. I have tried this method with the longer strip coping stone and as you both have stated an overhang will print if parallel to the build plate and not too large. I will post the results when more time allows, Just a big thank-you to both of you until then Mark

Hi Monkeysarefun and 55020 Thanks for your advice. That would mean that to prevent any islands i would either need to print the above parallel to the build plate or 43.50 degrees so that the overhang and the peg started printing the first layer simultaneously ? The later would obviously reduce the cross section on the FEP. Does that look right ?

3rd Print Up to now both previous test prints have built directly to the build plate, on my next print this could not be the case due to the overhang. These are wall coping stones for my build Here (Bottom of the post) I duly loaded the .stl file into Chitubox and did not alter any print setting. Layer Height: 0.050mm Bottom Layer Exposure: 60 sec Bottom Layer Count: 5 Exposure Time: 8 sec (all other layers) This is how it was set up in Chitubox with added supports. You'll note that the parts are still parallel to the build plate. I pressed the support button (top right, next to settings). There is quite a lot going on in this page which i will not get into for a good reason which i will get to later. At the time i fumbled my way through using Auto generated supports using the following settings. Lift Height: 5.00mm Supports: Medium +All That generated the supports as shown above. Unfortunately i never photographed the model when it was completed but it looked good, probably would have shown a lot if i had of but it was getting late in the evening and i wanted to see the outcome so forged ahead and using a scapel removed the supports. My 1st Failed Print Not a total disaster. The next 2 photographs show the 3 large coping stones as they were orientated in the build process. I have removed the smaller long coping stones for clarity. The smaller Long coping stones (x4) also sufferred from the same fate with the ends thinned from the underside whilst the tops appear to be fine. Print Time: 57min 57sec Cost: £0.57 Electric Cost: £0.07 So What Went Wrong ? Now this is when you are really on your own, but that doesn't bother me, of course you could post and wait for someone whom has experienced the same to post an answer but i sat and looked at the results, annoyed i'd already cut the supports off which destroyed them in the process. Build Plate Not Level ? The middle coping stone printed as modelled, the outer one did for at least 50% of their length. This suggest to me that build plate level could not have caused this. Model Orientation ? Up to now all my prints have been done parralel to the build platform with success. There was nothing to suggest that this would be any different. The only difference was the need to raise it up off the bed to support the overhangs. Often you see models angled and there is a good reason for that , which again i will get to later. The fact of the matter still remained that the Centre coping stone was a success , so why would model orientation be the cause. Supports ? Well again i used auto supports so there should be no reason to suspect this, but maybe i should have used Heavy instead of Medium ? When the supports were generated they were originally done in Heavy but overhung the sides of the models impacting the vertical face, that's when i removed them all and selected Medium which removed this overhang issue. The model seems well supported from the picture above but on closer inspection within the program you can see that at the extremities of the outer prints the auto-supports have not been placed towards the outer edges. Print Settings ? Again no reason to suspect the print settings as 95% of all the prints turned out as expected. I plumped for investigating Chitubox support settings in hope to find the answer. I'd advise those whom are considering a resin printer of any make to watch the videos on You Tube From This Guy. Whilst his models are not necessarily in the field we study the rules will be the same to a lesser or greater degree. He seems very credible and his explanations stand to up to reasoning. Pay particular attention to the sizes he uses for print supports. The entire Playlist is worth viewing and gives a better insight into Chitubox than i could ever achieve. Armed with that Information i set about printing just one of the 2 failed prints in the photographs above. I decided to print 1 parallel to the bed with the original supports as per auto supports with added ones where they were missing and another print of the same model at a 10 degree incline with my own supports. I did not make the supports as fine as he did but they were positioned after determining how it would print. It now makes sense to incline the model if only to relieve the suction on the FEP sheet. It also relieves the strain on the supports which effectively means that the supports can be smaller, or at least that's my interpretation. Success Is A Failure Turned Inside Out Both appear to have printed ok. Now waiting for them to cure. Print Time: 1hr 14min Cost: £0.29 Electric Cost: £0.10 Tonight i intend to print the other failed coping stone. However this time i am going to take the diameter of the support down to those used in the videos to see what the outcome is. I may even print more at varying orientations to see the results of that. What i will say now is the process of putting the supports in manually takes some time, i'm sure with experience this will improve. The notion that it's a simple case of do a 3D model, slice it and print has now gone out the window, if failures are to be kept to a minimum. Mark

Hi Phil How about PHD Designs ? The man is a master at producing etches Mark

Hi monkeysarefun Thanks for clearing that up, i thought it a bit strange but now it's clearer, either way you prompted me to get some spare FEP sheets - fore warned is fore armed. I will also get a spare LCD screen aswell. Mark

OMG Just exquisite. impressive Work

55020 "Nimbus" Thanks for the info on the free FEP pack and the LCD Screen which is bound to go wrong when you least expect it. Mark

Thanks to all for your comments Keep your eyes peeled Dave, more to come

Totally agree Mike. Plenty of food for thought .... Thank You Mark

Mike, Very nice, looks like it may also be interlocking if you had 2 for fits and clearances ? Mark

Resin Test Piece Results. I'm honestly blown away by this little machine. I half expected this to be at best a partial failure, mainly down to the minimum 0.4mm material thickness. The file took a lot less than the 12 mins it said to print, during the print the characteristic pop as the build plate peels the cured layer off the FEP could not be heard and i'd resigned myself to it being stuck to the FEP. How wrong i was ! Length: 40mm Width: 20mm Min Thickness: 0.4mm Max Thickness 1.5 mm Cost: £0.03 Electricity £0.02 (no cups of coffee). I can't really discuss the test results as the item has not fully cured. Certainly it looks helpful for determining seperation between detail, widths and depths of detail. I measured the actual length and width as shrinkage is reported at 7% . Uncured it is on the money in both measurements. Mark PS I've included the .OBJ file should anyone wish to use it Resin Test Piece v6.obj

Embossed Strip Detail Engraved Detail Phew think that covers it ! 1st Model Slicing The file was sliced at the same 0.05mm layer height. I created a folder on the USB stick prior to exporting this file and then once exported i uploaded it into the Machine It failed to recognise it. I removed the entire folder , done the process again without adding a folder. The software added a folder and the machine accepted the code. The printer is whirring once more

2nd Test Print For my 2nd test print i wanted to determine some design guidelines for the resin i am using rather than jump straight in and have a failed print with no idea why it failed. This is kind of hard to know what to do so what parameters do i need to know Material Thickness Embossed Text Detail Embossed Rivet Detail Embossed Cylinder Detail

Whilst setting up my next test print , i have been looking at the features of Chitubox the slicer software. One cool feature is the ability to set the price of your resin and then the software calculates the price of the model for you. Then when you open a .stl file into Chitubox for slicing In my case i wanted to open the 1st print file so i opened the .cbddlp file and it converted it for imaging to stl then i hit slice. et voila, £1.03 which as per my original costing post was 1p out. Nice feature anyway. Mark

Hi monkeysarefun Thanks for the tip. Now that is interesting, i hadn't really thought about replacement of the FEP sheet other than if it got damaged and certainly not over several weeks ! So i guess another lesson learnt " Be prepared to change the FEP sheet." As the Elegoo Mars kit i purchased did not come with replacement FEP sheets that's certainly one to order now. It then occurred to me that if the FEP sheet failed during print when the vat was full, resin would seep underneath the vat as it is retained by a lip around the screen and you would effectively be curing resin directly onto the screen. Then what do you do ? Is there a chemical that would soften the cured resin without damaging the screen ? Has this happened to anyone on this forum ? Better to have the answers before the event. Hi njee Both of you purchased a second machine at roughly the same time so the moons must have been aligned.... or a big sale event. Either way you must enoy or make a lot of 3d prints to warrant another machine. Having said that it strikes me as one part of the hobby where it could quite easily become addictive if you are having success after success. Anyway its great to have others on this forum that are using the same machine. I want to highlight that the user manual states fill the vat 1/3rd full of resin. On my 1st print i felt this a little conservative and went closer to the 1/2 full point. Whilst printing i noticed that the level had risen due to the displacement caused by the print plate. Nothing surprising there but sometimes you overlook the simplest of things when new to the hobby. Given the statement about damaged FEP sheets above and the possible consequences, stick to the manufacturers guidelines !!!! You can pause a print and always add more resin , allow the bubbles to settle and then continue your print.

Kris There in lies a tale. Bear in mind these are provided with the machine on a USB stick. There are 2 files , 1 is the .cbddlb file which is the ChituBox file that provides the slicing and build gcode information this was loaded into the machine to print. The other is an OBJ file which i imported into my CAD package. Strangely the 2 files show quite different dimensions. The actual printed dimensions are: Base Diameter 30 mm Top Diameter 24 mm Height 50 mm I'm not sure why they are different. I am tinkering with the slicing software as we speak for the next print. Not much in the way of documentation so i may be a while. What i can say is that the file i have imported into the slicing software is coming up with an initial message of "The model is too small, do you want to scale to the fit size ?" (botom corner). Its is apparent that you can scale items within this software and so that would equate to the reason for the differences in size. I can only assume that this was done for the test model sent with the printer as i did not touch any setting before i printed the file. Why do you ask ? Mark

Game of chess then sir ? Good luck for the next try, feel free to share Mark

LOL Kris i know the feeling Stick with me - i'll break your will power ! So as part of this venture i have decided to keep a track of the consumables usage with a view to putting a price on the cost of each print. If my maths are correct then the test print used 23.6666 cm3 of resin and cost £1.04 for both items. Hard to put a cost on electrics as the print took 3hrs 30mins even though the Elegoo Mars told me 4hrs 19 mins My smart meter was at 24p and ended at 37p but i consumed too many cups of coffee during the print time and the smart meter rockets when you put a kettle on. A search of the internet gives a power consumption of between 50 to 60 watts per hour with the fan on constant and the LED screen intermittently on. So an average 60w light bulb consumes £0.007 per hour so rounded up £0.03 for the electricity. Materials were minimal with careful handling meant 1 pair of disposable gloves, 8 kitchen towels and a beaker of IPA which is stored ready to be a 1st rinse on the next items. Resin wastage was kept to a minimum so given that i'd call that acceptable wastage. Total cost around £1.07 for both models Concerns on Resin Smell One of my concerns was the vapours that were given off during printing. These have been documented on the web as being nauseous. Its worth pointing out that the unit should be used in a well ventillated area and face masks are provided. I kept the outside door open during the print, the fan runs constantly while printing and this spreads the fumes around the room but i didn't have any concerns over the smell. However when i was emptying the tank of left over resin the door was closed and although the machine was turned off, and thus the fan not running the smell was quite pungent.

Hi Ian, IPA will evapourate in air over a period of time. Any resin left on the rags will be cured by the uv exposure of daylight overtime and essentially be the same as most plastic waste. Similar with water based polymer resins but obviously the time taken will be longer. For my part, and as i have just started using a 3d printer, i have set a builders plaster bucket up in the greenhouse. I hope the heat will evapourate the water and then the rags will be coated in what is left of the cured polymer. I then intend on incinerating the rags in a garden burner over time. I have used a small rag with IPA to clean the printed items post curing and this will recieve the same attention. As i envisage due to the time it takes to print object only doing 5 prints a week max i think this will be achievable. A great tip when removing gloves from a youtube video i watch was here. It would however be great to hear how others deal with the waste . Mark

Test Print Results Picture Speak Louder Than Words Impressed !