(tr)uSDX Forum

Hi Adam,

Hope your list 2 is not complete yet, as I would to enroll for one kit with enclosure.

TIA!

Sergej DF6MU

I'm starting the first test print for the enclosures. Boy, PET-G is a challenge compared to PLA - I knew this already and it's not the first time I've printed PET-G. The settings are much more on the limit to get it to print OK. The printer I'm working on this morning says 8.5h to print (the other one is, in theory, more like 5.5h). I'm printing everything at once, so the knob and speaker ring also come out in orange, at least for now. I might print those in black (I have a spool of black PETG) - no promises. For now I just want to get one enclosure done as a test before making more commitments to 'open a printing factory' in my house.

Fingers crossed for some photos of a printed set of enclosure parts around lunchtime.

73

Marcus EA5HQ

Hello,
I would also apply if possible for Group 2.
I am interested in 1 kit with enclosure.
Name: Michael
Call: DL9LBD

73 de Michael

Salut

I'd like to apply too, if still possible, for Group 2
I am interested in 2 kits with 2 enclosures.

Name: Philipp
Call: HB9FVV
Country: Switzerland (*I've got a german postal address)

73 de Philipp

EA5HQ wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 06:18 ...
I'm printing everything at once, so the knob and speaker ring also come out in orange, at least for now. I might print those in black (I have a spool of black PETG) - no promises. For now I just want to get one enclosure done as a test before making more commitments to 'open a printing factory' in my house.
...

Just an opinion ... I have no experience in 3D printing.
Couldn't the covers be grouped by thickness to increase print speed? Possibly, because the buttons are higher, to be printed separately?

yo8rcd wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 11:16 Just an opinion ... I have no experience in 3D printing.
Couldn't the covers be grouped by thickness to increase print speed? Possibly, because the buttons are higher, to be printed separately?

In 3D printing height doesn‘t matter. Volume is the time consuming factor. One can speed up printing by thicker layers (= not so beautiful) or less infill (=not so stable)

73 de Florian, OE3FSA

OE3FSA wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 12:33 ...
In 3D printing height doesn‘t matter. Volume is the time consuming factor. One can speed up printing by thicker layers (= not so beautiful) or less infill (=not so stable)

73 de Florian, OE3FSA

I understand! That means it will take ...
We look forward to printing.
Health and well at work!

Dzień dobry Adamie!

Dzięki za koordynację zakupu! Widzę,że zamówieie zamknięte. Jeżeli możesz jeszcze mnie dopisać, to chętnie zakupie 2 zestawy. Wszystkiego Najlepszego w Nowym 2022 Roku!

Robert SQ8JMZ

PET-G isn't going well so far today. No amount of playing with print speeds (between 25 and 50 mm/s tried) and temperatures (my hot end at this end has a cheaper PTFE tube close to the hot stuff, so 240C is my limit today).

I'm still getting a AWFUL finish (like, kind of 'shaggy' on what should be a smooth surface). I have put the whole, new, opened today, bought this week, reel in the filament dryer as a last hope. I'll leave it to dry for a few hours.

The same printer was making beautiful, accurate prints in PLA earlier this week.

Did you try with the Amazon basics filament? I heard some complaints about its quality lately. I never printed petg, I'll do a test with a SUNLU filament this weekend.

EA5HQ wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 14:59
I'm still getting a AWFUL finish (like, kind of 'shaggy' on what should be a smooth surface). I have put the whole, new, opened today, bought this week, reel in the filament dryer as a last hope. I'll leave it to dry for a few hours.

PETG is very moisture sensitive. The results should be better after drying. Did you print a temperature tower to test if the given temperature is correct?

Shouldn't PLA be sufficient? Or is the temperature inside the case to high? If the case is not exposed to the sun, then PLA should work to?

Kind regards
Joerg DO1JOE

Joerg DO1JOE wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 19:35 Shouldn't PLA be sufficient? Or is the temperature inside the case to high? If the case is not exposed to the sun, then PLA should work to?

Kind regards
Joerg DO1JOE

One problem I see with PLA is the case will soften if left in a car under the sun. Might be fine for the ones who never operates /P.

latewarning wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 20:38

Joerg DO1JOE wrote: ↑06 Jan 2022, 19:35 Shouldn't PLA be sufficient? Or is the temperature inside the case to high? If the case is not exposed to the sun, then PLA should work to?

Kind regards
Joerg DO1JOE

One problem I see with PLA is the case will soften if left in a car under the sun. Might be fine for the ones who never operates /P.

You are absolutely right, I don't think that PLA is suitable for this, most people will be using this /P and hot cars definitely make PLA prints droop like a Dalí pocket watch - I've tried it! PLA+ maybe OK. I'm still drying my spool of orange Amazon Basics PET-G. If the problem was indeed down to wet filament, then this stuff must have been very, very wet.

For your enjoyment (and if there are any 3D printing gurus out there, your helpful suggestions), I attach a photo of my last attempt at printing one of the parts yesterday at 240C, 30mm/s, 0.4mm nozzle. (The edges are straight, that's just barrel distortion from the phone camera lens.)

The same piece in PLA, just to check I'm not going crazy. I'm currently printing the same piece with some old, white PET-G from ?? (Shenzen, probably) which is already looking better than the new, orange PET-G from Amazon. I'm going to dry that orange Amazon PET-G for a looong time.

I think the filament is sticking to the nozzle. PETG requires less "squish" than PLA. Have you tried increasing your nozzle/bed distance by 0.1 mm?

EDIT: this is my result with Amazon Basics PETG, after increasing the distance by exactly 0.1mm. Not the cleanest print, I had to clean some residue from the top surface with the spatula.

latewarning wrote: ↑07 Jan 2022, 14:10 I think the filament is sticking to the nozzle. PETG requires less "squish" than PLA. Have you tried increasing your nozzle/bed distance by 0.1 mm?

EDIT: this is my result with Amazon Basics PETG, after increasing the distance by exactly 0.1mm. Not the cleanest print, I had to clean some residue from the top surface with the spatula.

Nice tip, I'll try that. Hopefully I can find that in the long list of Cura settings. Incidentally, your print is a million times better than my orange PET-G, but still has some hints of the same defect that I was getting (irregular / over extrusion / over-squish?).

EA5HQ wrote: ↑07 Jan 2022, 16:18 Incidentally, your print is a million times better than my orange PET-G, but still has some hints of the same defect that I was getting (irregular / over extrusion / over-squish?).

Yes, I tuned my printer on the go during the print (not in cura). The first layers were dramatically over-squished. Now I'm printing the walls with the printer already set and the result seems a lot better.
Btw I'm using a very basic Ender 3 with BLTouch.

latewarning wrote: ↑07 Jan 2022, 16:23
Yes, I tuned my printer on the go during the print (not in cura). The first layers were dramatically over-squished. Now I'm printing the walls with the printer already set and the result seems a lot better.
Btw I'm using a very basic Ender 3 with BLTouch.

OK, I think the combination of your tip - a very, very big factor, plus drying the filament spool for about 10 hours has finally got me printing something acceptable. I'll see if I can up the print speed from the current 40 mm/s to something more like 60 mm/s - I have a lot of parts to print. Photo coming soon of the first part with the latest improvements. Then I'll go on to print all the rest of the parts for the first kit.

Success!

I have to go to another QTH for the rest of the day, so I'll try and reproduce the conditions there for the rest of the parts, I'll take the spool of filament with me in a zip lock bag.

0.2mm layer height
0.4mm nozzle
70º bed
240º nozzle
40 mm/s
Do not squish too much - the nozzle needs to be j-u-u-st so from the bed!

EA5HQ wrote: ↑08 Jan 2022, 10:48 Success!

I have to go to another QTH for the rest of the day, so I'll try and reproduce the conditions there for the rest of the parts, I'll take the spool of filament with me in a zip lock bag.

0.2mm layer height
0.4mm nozzle
70º bed
240º nozzle
40 mm/s
Do not squish too much - the nozzle needs to be j-u-u-st so from the bed!

Great result!

I'm having a bit of stringing problem that affects the visual result of the top surface. If I manage go obtain a decent result I could contribute to the printing, albeit in smaller quantity (maybe 10 units) since I only own one printer.

latewarning wrote: ↑08 Jan 2022, 15:23

Great result!

I'm having a bit of stringing problem that affects the visual result of the top surface. If I manage go obtain a decent result I could contribute to the printing, albeit in smaller quantity (maybe 10 units) since I only own one printer.

I only have one printer at the moment that can produce this result and I'm not confident on how easy this will be to reproduce reliably in a 'production mode'. So I'm really not confident that I can commit to print 50 kits, nor even 25 kits within a reasonable period of time. I'm working on trying to get at least one more printer capable of making the results that we expect (the DL2MAN PET-G prints look fantastic and will, no doubt, be setting everybody's expectations of how their enclosures will look).

I'm coming around to the idea that perhaps we should decouple the 3D printing part from the rest of the kits. I imagine that posting a kit of 3D printed parts for enclosures should be inexpensive - perhaps €5 within Europe. Of course, that's not as good as a central distribution with the electronics parts, but on the other hand, I expect colleagues don't want to wait until ~ Easter while I struggle to print all the enclosures that everybody wants.

More notes (to myself?) for the 'goldilocks' print settings for the Amazon Basics (MCPP Netherlands (a division of Mitsubishi - https://mcpp-3dp.com/)) PET-G on a brand new, stock Ender 5 Pro (really should be the same as any Ender 3, same bed, extruder, hotend).

0.2mm layer height (including initial layer)
0.4mm nozzle
70º bed
240º nozzle
40 mm/s print speed
45 mm/s retraction speed
150 mm/s travel speed
50% fan

Sliced with Cura 4.13.0-beta

If I had a PDF whit the original size of the box I could make to me on wood or maybe a old ham I now could make it in copper or brass sheet he is an old artisan and a SOTA enthusiast.
Is it possible that you can provide sutch PDF whit the sizes?

CT7ARQ wrote: ↑09 Jan 2022, 10:44 If I had a PDF whit the original size of the box I could make to me on wood or maybe a old ham I now could make it in copper or brass sheet he is an old artisan and a SOTA enthusiast.
Is it possible that you can provide sutch PDF whit the sizes?

Yeah sound great.. Walnut sides.. The top and bottom can be made out of PCB..


//Mats - SM0FPR

Top and bottom could also be brass or copper sheet.
Is somethink for personal homebrew build.

sm0fpr wrote: ↑09 Jan 2022, 11:29

CT7ARQ wrote: ↑09 Jan 2022, 10:44 If I had a PDF whit the original size of the box I could make to me on wood or maybe a old ham I now could make it in copper or brass sheet he is an old artisan and a SOTA enthusiast.
Is it possible that you can provide sutch PDF whit the sizes?

Yeah sound great.. Walnut sides.. The top and bottom can be made out of PCB..


//Mats - SM0FPR