CNC / Plotter / 3D Printing

No thread for these kind of machines? Gotta fix that! This place is for sharing knowledge about 3D Printing techniques, useful mechanical ideas, helpful tools, software/hardware and of course DIY guides! What's stopping you from building your own DVD Plotter for cheap?

>>4023 >What's stopping you from building your own DVD Plotter for cheap? depression

>>4024 OK I did not see that one coming. Valid argument. I hope you get better tho

>>4024 >depression making excuses to not engage the world. how depressing.

>>4024 I feel you. Hope you manage to journey through it and come out the other side intact and with some newfound power. It can get better, although it never seems like it from inside that headspace. I know that well. Make small steps one day at a time and have faith in yourself even if it feels insane to do so. And try to get help if you can; you don't necessarily have to do it all yourself. Aight sorry, I get on that tangent when I find someone out there whose life is like kicking dead whales down the beach like mine did for a very long time. On topic: I basically just 3d-printed a drag knife/sharpie holder attachment for the end effector of that same 3d printer. So it can draw vectors and cut vinyl. It works alright as long as it's not too thick; the frame is pretty heavily stiffened so I can get away with some shenanigans. Would like to get a medium-power laser engraver to bolt on it as well. Just one of those diode units housed inside a huge heat sink (or even water-cooled) that gets about as mighty as a diode laser can, which isn't much but it's enough to do cool stuff on paper, maybe a little bit of wood or acrylic engraving but not cutting. May just get me one of those cheapo CO2 laser cutters though instead. Why half-ass it, eh. Also would have a proper enclosure to prevent stray beams from blinding people, plus vapor extraction could be set up with some dryer hose and a server fan, so that's always nice. Those lasers make some fumes which are so, so much worse than FFF printer fumes.

>>4032 The laser idea sounds really good! Might aswell upgrade my DVD plotter into a laser engraver... You can get good burning lasers for 20-30$(or take the diode from a DVD drive and build a Constant current source), but the most expensive part will be your eye safety, because you could either get good goggles or a huge piece of coated glass, but don't try to save money here! I've never heard of CO2 lasers as a household CNC add-on , because it needs huge ventilation tubes to deal with the fumes, but maybe that's worth researching. A 3x3 working plate is really bad for a plotter, but it's nice for making small stickers and signing papers. But by now the laser engraver is there to sign pens and make personal birthday presents.

>>4023 Seems like an interesting project, might do one. Only wondering, how hard could it be to use something a bit more useful than a pencil for just drawing stuff.

>>4034 > the most expensive part will be your eye safety, because you could either get good goggles or a huge piece of coated glass, > the most expensive part will be your eye safety < b Russian < cover by cardboard box 0.00₽ < walk into other room while device run 0.00₽ <cost totals 0.00₽ is works 100%

Won't the plate moving in horizontal axis produce different effect than moving pen fixture? It might be a good starting project before moving to more complex plotters. I'm just discouraged apathetically from such things because they are not novel: lots of people done this before me with better quality that I would do, and when there exist better ways of building a more versatile machine that doesn't involve hot-gluing together pieces of technology in good condition, albeit morally obsolete by today's standards. Please spoonfeed us with detailed instructions and not humblebrag pictures. Would CD drives suffice? What is the working area? What part of the drive actuates vertical pen position, an of-the-shelf servo motor?

>>4038 CD drives or combo drives will work, it's just the sensor rails + stepper motor you need. You don't need to use good condition drives, I don't think this part is that prone to dying in those. X and Y axis of this machine is using those rails for movement, Z axis of the pen is controlled using a cheap servo.

>>4037 OP here, I had the same idea, but I have done so many engineering mistakes in the past and I've blown up 2 liPo cells accidently, so I might stick with Goggles. Or I'll take the cardboard box and put aluminum foil inside, so fires would have a hard time to expand and a cheap smoke detector inside would do the job. >tfw your Russian dad had the same idea

>>4038 OK, where do I start :... One of them was a laserdisk reader and the other one had very old connectors, so I couldn't connect it to my pc anyway. I got 4 for 5€ on ebay and the two working ones are replacement drives for my pc or my plotter. Here is the instruction I used but I can tell you, that there are better ones out there: https://electricdiylab.com/how-to-make-arduino-mini-cnc-plotter-machine/ I used hot glue because I was too lazy to get my power tools ready, and honestly, it just werks. I can print on 2x2cm and it's enough to sign papers, engrave a logo/name into a pen, or just have fun with it. I may print some stickers for my laptop without wasting printer Ink. I used one of those cheap 9g servo motors from ebay and it cost me around 1.50€. If you are lucky you can check out your local RC car /toy plane / drone store and ask for a cheap servo. You'll also need an arduino and any motor driver board. I plan on upgrading to a Laser instead of a pen, but that's a whole new story. Also it shouldn't matter if you fixate your y axis to the x axis or make it separate. Don't worry about other having done it already! The whole process in itself is pretty cool and learning new things is always good. Also, why wouldn't you recycle stuff that would move into the trash anyway? The Z axis can be controlled by either another Stepper Motor or a servo, but since my MotorShield limits me, I have to use a servo.

>>4041 >One of them was a laserdisk reader You didn't destroy a laserdisc player just to get some online cred by making a cartoon frog-drawing machine, did you?

>>4042 I didn't, it's for creating pcb layouts and I don't even have laser disks around. That thing was making very weird clicking noises when I connected it, so it was broken anyway.

Now that I think about it, why not try and use old flatbed scanners for building one? This could give a lot more workspace. Maybe weight could be a problem.

I'm hoping to get into this. When I have the money I want whatever is the cheapest open source printer I can print guns with. I really wanna build a G17. Then I can print gifts and toys when I'm done.

>>4044 This is actually a really awesome idea! I disassembled one once and I think the problem here might be, that it uses a DC Motor together with a light barrier, to detect the "steps" it makes. This means that you need to somehow make an encoder for this barrier disk and calibrate everything to the smallest bit. With a bit of engineering knowledge you can get a stepper motor driver to control your flatbed scanner. >>4045 What do you mean with open source printer? You can "ok" ones for 100$ like the Anet A8 and make models in CAD or Blender. Then print them from your SD card. You may want to use Yacy or DuckDuckGo to find your 3D models online...

>>4046 Tried to look for used flatbeds here, but people want unreasonable prices for old stuff. Damn it.

>>4056 You are right, broken electronics often really costs too much. If the seller knows what's broken he can comfortably sell it for about 35% of its price. But otherwise I would never pay more than 15 dollar for anything broken on the internet and I bet that you will find old printers and scanners for the price of a medium McMenu.

>>4037 This is basically my usual tactic. Just put it in a closet and close the door. The bottom of the door has one of those rubber sweeps so there's no gaps. I control it over the local network. There's a webcam in there to verify the mechanism is really off before I open it again. Also have a solenoid board on the controller's GPIO to cut mains power just in case. >>4034 Oh lol I don't think I'd go as far as to make a CO2 laser as an add-on for a more mundane CNC; I meant maybe I'll just buy a cheapo K40 somewhere.

>>4032 That would have been a smart option for me. I own a Creator Pro and I bought a Cricut for that purpose... I like ordering custom models off fiverr and printing them. My thingiverse profile is thingiverse.centralgoiania.com.br if you're interested. This is Ronaldo Caiado from Goiás.

[rant] Best printer under $200? Creality Ender 3 Pro is always shi.l.led. (wrd fil.t.e.rs!) Don't be fooled by the large build volume, it is unlikely a noob would use it because it would (highly likely) take several days for your print to complete if you were printing a complex model that large. By the time such a large build volume is significant to you would probably have moved onto your second more capable printer. In short the Ender 3 is shil.l.ed by those who already own printers while forgetting what it is like for those who have never had a printer. If you are starting out and want to: -burn time tweaking knobs and settings. -burn time on forums finding out why your print didn't come out as expected -be in awe of the great potential of your printer but always be at least one tweak away from realizing it get an Ender 3 Pro (or get the cheaper Ender 3 and buy a few upgrade parts like build plate - because it's cheaper overall). If you want to spend time on designing and printing reliably while learning about the other aspects of 3D printing as you go, get something else - even if it does have a smaller build volume. [/rant]

>>4387 Have an Ender 3 as my first printer, it's pretty great. Easy to set up and print whatever I want, I personally haven't had the experience of having to tweak settings for weeks to get my prints to come out right - that might be due to quality control and me getting lucky. And yeah it takes time to print something big but, don't they all?

>>4387 ~$200 Anycubic i3 Mega - cheaper, older, reliable, proven printing workhorse, and has touch screen display unlike Ender3. Only 8 screws + plug in 4 cables to setup. As plug and play as it gets. If you want to print right first time and *never* be concerned about bed adhesion it is pretty hard to beat at its price point. Plus it's a better quality build generally. There's a cheaper Mega Zero (~$160) but I don't know about the performance.

>>4425 >older The benefit of it being older is there are well known fixes for the very few issues it *might* have compared to other printers. The reliability of it printing perfectly right first time every time without having to tweak anything is what I love. You can spend time on designing the model, not wasting it on troubleshooting.

>>4426 Got the Sapphire Pro from Two Trees a few days ago as my first printer, and that's what frustrates me the most. Having to debug this soykaf. Mechanically it's ok, its just tweaking print settings because I dont trust the software they shipped it with.

>>4490 What's the point in point in buying anything Sapphire then? They're infamous for a reason after all. About to pull the trigger on a Sapphire plus and can't wait to tinker the hell out of it. If that's not for you, I'd really advise looking for another printer instead, most notably the ender series for now.

>>4490 >Sapphire Pro Technically that should be better than an i3. However, I looked at what is the cheapest printer commonly found in print farms = reliable, cost effective, and prints right first time every time. Not disappointed with i3 Mega. I wouldn't use Fusion360 to design parts with either. A lot of people are going to get rekt in the future when their licensing gets revoked.

Lainons, We know 3Dprinting is the future and posting on 4chan isn't for everyone (VPN range bans, CAPTCHA minefield, etc) so let's turn this thread into a useful alt-chan home of 3D printing. Advertise this /board/thread/ other chans this is the tech home for 3D printing now, and remember to check the mega for an overview of all threads on all boards ( https://www.lainchan.org/mega/catalog.html ) ------------------Thread copypasta shamelessly lifted from 4chan's /3DPG/ on the /diy/ board and more info added------------- All the info you need about 3D-printing: https://pastebin.com/43ZPzsET (embed) >What printer should I buy? [Last updated 24-7-2020] Under 250 USD: Creality Ender 3 Pro -The 'Android phone' of printers, popular, highly adaptable. -Usually requires assembly and tweaking ~1-2 hours from box to printing. -Best value for money for the features it has, but more prone to endless tweaking to reach that sweet spot. Anycubic i3 Mega -The 'iPhone' of printers, it just works, reliable, with a colour touch screen interface. -Complete assembly is 8 screws a few plugs, from delivery box to printing in under 30 minutes easily. -Truly magical build-plate where model adhesion is never an issue. -An older printer model but well established as a solid performer. Under 500 USD: Creality CR-10, Anycubic Chiron, or Qidi X-One2/X-Smart/X-Maker Under 1000 USD: Prusa i3 Over 1000 USD: lulzbot is (mostly) dead SLA: Anycubic Photon, Prusa SL1, Formlabs Form 3, Elegoo Mars Are you full on autismo? Instead of buying a new printer, you could consider building your own: https://reprap.org/wiki/ >Where can I get free things to print? https://www.thingiverse.com/ https://grabcad.com/ https://google.com/ >What CAD software should I use? Solidworks, Inventor, AutoCAD etc. all work, but Blender and Fusion 360 are free for most users, that doesn't include (you). Variants of Solidworks, Inventor and AutoCAD may be free depending on your profession, level of piracy and definition of ''free''. http://www.autodesk.com/ http://www.solidworks.com/ http://www.openscad.org http://www.freecadweb.org http://www.blender.org/ https://www.tinkercad.com/ Software: Solidworks, Autodesk-Inventor, Autodesk-AutoCAD Pro: Mature commercial professional software used in industry. Does everything you'll ever need. Con: Very expensive license-ware (you never own it). Steep learning curve. Openscad Pro: Programmer friendly. Designs are coded like a program. Con: Not designer friendly. No visually interactive design compared to other offerings. Fusion360 Pro: Mature professional software from Autodesk (the makers of AutoCAD and Inventor). Free license for hobbyists, and small startups (read the small print), hence its popularity. Con: It is botnet, i.e. at minimum it requires a periodic internet connection, and your access could be withdrawn at any time. For Windows operating systems only. FreeCAD (version 0.18) Pro: Open source so you keep control of your files. Free to download and use. Your designs won't be uploaded to a cloud behind your back by spyware. Runs on Linux or Windows operating systems. Has extensive features with even more available as plugins. Con: Open source software in need of development love. Lacks some click-and-drag-to-change design features seen in other commercial software. Blender Pro: Open source. Endless abilities to not only design but render and animate models. Great for model design with the ability to sculpt virtual clay. Con: Steep learning curve. Not best suited for parametric models where components may need to be modified later, or if there are mechanical parts. TinkerCAD Pro: Free to use. Designed for children, so much easier to learn compared to the others. Highly visual point-click-drag design style. Con: Runs in browser, so limited model size and requires internet connection. Requires account and sign in. Basic features compared to others. Software Recommendations: Use FreeCAD for functional designs (e.g. toy drone), or use Blender for artistic models (e.g. flower vase). Resins and their curing time. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1crvzMnt_8NJXAsABinoIhcOjE8l3h7s0L82Zlh1vkL8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0

>>4793 4chan's 3D printing general thread /3dpg/ on the /diy/ board has now updated their thread copypasta to include the Anycubic i3 Mega, as was recommended in this thread copypasta already. Source: OP post before: https://boards.4channel.org/diy/thread/1867941#p1867941 OP post after: https://boards.4channel.org/diy/thread/1873583#p1873583

>>4793 I have started with FreeCAD and the PartDesign and Sketch workbench are okay. You need lots of external addons for gears and fasteners. The learning curve is quite high and there are some really questionable design decisions in some tools that you have to learn to work around. It is very prone to crashing if you use the Assembly workbench or do basically anything with fillets and chamfers. Doing curved parts is more difficult than it needs to be but there are addons for it if you really want to get your hands dirty. Overall it's pretty good once you memorize the keyboard shortcuts. For PCB design I tried out KiCad and that software was just plain bad. Horizon EDA is a better alternative but it's not as feature rich and although it is more productive the workflow to create a new part involves something like 5 intermediary steps that are not described well in the documentation. Again this is something you have to memorize and then it'll get easier. Meanwhile nothing can save KiCad.

>>4854 I found Autodesk 123 Design. Autodesk used to put it out for free before Fusion 360 came out. It is pretty usable on Windows for simple designs. It is not parametric and doesn't have a tree hierarchy of parts. So the only way to modify an earlier step in the design is Undo-ing all the steps that came after it. It is good because you can use it while offline. Fusion360 doesn't even start if you lose internet connection. FreeCAD is powerful, but needs more development. It will be as good as Blender in a few years. >>4854 >For PCB design Fritzing is old but has a lot of parts and is easy to get to grips with.

I'm getting the Sidewinder Genius and learning Solvespace. Genius is the smaller version of X1, medium size, since I don't need big parts and could glue them. Solvespace runs on a Raspi3 and seems to have some interesting ideas build in.

>>4902 >Sidewinder Genius Reviews say enjoy your Z tweaking >>4854 >FreeCAD Version 0.19 (development build) is to 0.18 what 0.18 was to 0.17 - a big improvement. The well kept secret Realthunder fork of FreeCAD is still closer to a Fusion360 experience since it rewrites much of the annoyances in the core code of the mainline build.

>>4906 Oh, this was exactly what I wanted to ask. Z tweaking is difficult? And there's a plastic spring or something.

>>4912 Okay, you had you chance. Enough with the FUD, I'll get the Genius.

>>4906 >The well kept secret Realthunder fork of FreeCAD is still closer to a Fusion360 experience Ummm really? I tried it and it crashed on a simple boolean cut operation. I thought I was doing something wrong, but when I tried the same cut with FreeCAD stable release it worked perfectly. The interface icons do look more polished, but if it has trouble with the basics I'll stick with the stable release for now. FreeCAD is extremely powerful but needs more holistic design and is currently an grouping of poorly documented and seemingly unrelated parts. It's odd to me that someone would develop something without (or with limited) documentation, even if it was merely for themselves. >>4924 Good luck. Let us know how it turns out and your experience with it. It is better to have a 3Dprinter than not. I don't know anything about z tweaking or bed adhesion issues. I've never experienced them. I'm not trying to sound smug & ignorant, I specifically looked for a printer (i3 Anycubic) that was 'print-and-forget' because I really really don't like having to tweak settings. I'm more interested in the design process and always print with a small skirt to ensure the nozzle is clean at the start of the print. I think there will be a lot of second hand printers coming on the market near the end of the year as some people only bought them because they were at home bored and wanted to print COVID masks for virtue signalling. I've already seen a few appearing now. New printers will likely be harder to get (more expensive) by then because of all the issues with supply lines.

>FreeCAD I started to learn Solvespace and thinking of getting into OpenSCAD later. Any ideas about those? >I think there will be a lot of second hand printers coming on the market near the end of the year as some people only bought them because they were at home bored and wanted to print COVID masks for virtue signalling. I've already seen a few appearing now. New printers will likely be harder to get (more expensive) by then because of all the issues with supply lines. Interesting, maybe I'll get my second printer that way. Though, I live on a island somewhere and don't think there are so many people here who got printers because they were at home. Shipping to where I live is cheap for companies, but not for individuals, so I probably won't buy cheap used ones from other places. Also, if I would pick my second one, it would probably rather be big volume 40*40 with a Supervolcano hotend or a small SLA for small and precise parts. My Genius is for getting started, standard and flexible parts (direct drive, baby).