I started by loading the entire lathe assembly file (from here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12472) in SketchUp and identified the pieces I had already printed. I am not using the 4-Jaw chuck shown in the assembly file below, but I went ahead and deleted those anyway since my 3-Jaw chuck was complete.
Then I drew a rectangle representing the maximum build area of my machine, and offset it in by 5mm for the offset of the skirt that Slic3r prints around the part.
I like leaving the gray face to give me something to position the components on when I'm building up the plate. It's easy to delete at the end.
Once this area is defined, it's just a matter of arranging the components just as you would like them to print out. One thing to note is that you want to change the individual parts to components (triple-click on a part to highlight all its edges and faces, right click --> Make Component). This makes it very easy to move them around, and if you happen to position to components so that they interfere with each other, SketchUp does not try to combine the intersecting geometry.
Once I fill up the build area, I save the file as something like [descriptive file name]_Plate1.skp. I then save it as the next plate [descriptive file name]_Plate2.skp, and go back and delete all of the parts that do not get printed in the first plate file. What I'm left with is something like this--which is the first plate of 5 that I need to print to complete the lathe.
Then in the next plate file I start by deleting all of the parts that were printed in the first, move a new batch of components onto the build area, save it as the next plate, go back and delete the unneeded parts, and then repeat. The five plates I ended up with for the lathe print are shown below.
One thing that I think is so cool every time I do this is that I can fill up the build area with extra copies of parts that I think might not print well or that might wear out or break over time and need to be replaced. Since each plate takes around 7 or 8 hours to print, adding another gear or three and 1/2 an hour to the print time is hardly noticeable. It's like getting spare parts for free . . .
I started the first plate last night around 1am, so it was still going when I got down here this morning. Here is what the print looks like so far:
The print in the lower right corner of the image above with a cylinder and two rectangular pieces with two holes in each has one small issue. The corners of the rectangular section closest to the front edge of the HBP have lifted off of the glass surface.
None of the other parts have lifted, and I think I know why it happened to this particular part--this is directly in front of a fan that I have blowing on the build area. I positioned the fan here because I knew there were two taller parts at this location (see the image of Plate 1 above), and I wanted to make sure each layer was cooling sufficiently when the total print area on each layer started to get small. If the lift and warp on this particular part turns out to be a problem, I can always make another . . .
Hope to start the second plate printing just as soon as this first one finishes, so that I can get another two plates printed in the next 24 hours. IF everything goes well, I can complete the print of the lathe parts before I leave for work on Monday.
One thing that has to happen before that is a switch to a new color of PLA. I'm almost through my first 1 kg spool of 3 mm filament . . . feels like some kind of a milestone. I decided on blue for my next color. Hopefully I can dial in the correct printing temperature for the new color quickly (from what I read the optimal extrusion temperature varies even from color to color) and keep right on printing . . .
D
No comments:
Post a Comment