A live demonstration on why 3D printing never took off. I did hear the technology is very finicky and even hardcore geeks who are inclined to tinkering and having more patience than most have trouble with these contraceptions. Let us hope you get it to work before the collapse of civilization. By the sound of things it could be a close call...

Quote from: monsta666 on Dec 13, 2024, 11:43 AMA live demonstration on why 3D printing never took off. I did hear the technology is very finicky and even hardcore geeks who are inclined to tinkering and having more patience than most have trouble with these contraceptions. Let us hope you get it to work before the collapse of civilization. By the sound of things it could be a close call...

Yea, Kdog warned me in advance that it was not a turn-key user-friendly technology.  He worked with it some at his old job and was one of the few geeks there who could get it to work at all.  However, to make prototypes of my designs that are good enough for demonstrations, it was either this or a laser cutter to get accurate enough cuts, angles and tolerances.  Here in the Gulag they won't let me have a laser cutter because of the fumes they give off when cutting thru stuff, so I had to risk it.  I got a good deal at $300 for it so it's not a major financial loss if I can't get it to work, but I'm not sure how I'm going to move forward with my bizness if I can't overcome the problems.  I haven't given up yet, but I sure am frustrated.

RE

It took a while to develop the skill to use a piece of paper as a feeler gauge to space the print head above the print table correctly.  I had to feel all four corners and adjust a couple of Allen screws to get the table leveled and the print head spacing right.  Post-it-note paper worked well.  Not the sticky part.  Your machine should have a similar procedure.  There was a menu setting that moved the print head to the corners.

Well, I tried a few more times to print, and each time some problem occurred before the print was complete.  Here's a pic of 3 partially completed parts.



They offered to replace the print head, but I told them this printer blows chunks and I want it replaced with a different model, the Adventurer 4 Pro.

There are problems besides the print head getting clogged so I don't think replacing it will be sufficient.

I have made 3 more attempts to print objects, and not once has the printer completed an object before it detaches itself from the plate after about 20 minutes of printing.  Attached is a pic of 3 partially completed print jobs.  This printer is a piece of junk.

I would like to replace this printer with a different model, the Adventurer 4 Pro.  I will return the A5M in the packaging the A4P comes in.  If the A4P actually works, I will pay the difference in price, which is about $150 I have seen advertized.

I am attaching also the invoice from Amazon.

The A4P has been around longer so hopefully is better tested.  It also has a glass enclosed print bed, and my CAD program works with it directly so I shouldn't have to shuttle between programs importing and exporting .stl files..

We'll see if they go for the exchange.

RE

You should wait until we know what printer made Luigi's gun.  That one worked pretty good.




    Last Updated: 10/20/2024

Glock 19 Frame dd19.2 STL Files
The FMDA dd19.2 3D Printed Glock Pistol Frame


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3D Printed Glock 19 Build Kit


Husky Armory's 3D Printed Glock 19 (FMDA DD19.2) kit includes everything you need to complete your 3D printed Glock frame.

Includes:

- Glock 19 'Iditarod' Slide Kit

- Lower Parts Kit

- Standard Glock 19 Sights

- Aves DD19.2 Rail Kit

- Aves Glock 19 Locking Block







By next Christmas the orange man will have so thoroughly boned America that the right kit will sell faster than a Chinese factory can make them.  There is your 'capitalist' adventure.

Then you can be like this guy.    Once you be rich.

What, no silencer?

RE

A carbon fiber cylinder filled with thick printed washers.  Twenty of them with holes larger than the projectile. Between the printed washers rubber washers made from a bicycle inner tube have an outside diameter that matches the tube.  The inner diameter matches the projectile diameter.  The printed washers have randomly oriented gas channels to absorb the back pressure and sound radiating from the hole the projectile passes through.  Two regular washers seal the ends with holes that match the plastic washer holes diameter.

Roll your own.

Sounds like a good muffler design.  You also need an attachment system to the gun.  I prefer the Bayonet style mounts to the screw mounts.  They're quicker to get on.

RE

We have liftoff!

My first 100% successful 3D print!



The above is a hex connector for my PolyPandora Geodesic Domes.  Mini-domees are one of the things you can build with PolyPandora building sets you cannot do with LEGO or any other building toy on the market.  One of the nuumerous novel aspects of the system that allows the budding architects and engineers to build quality models at home of pretty much any real world structures.  Well, not everything, I haven't figured out everything I need for Suspension Bridges yet.  Those were a favorite of mine when I was teaching. having kids design and build model bridges.

Now the negatives, which are minor.  The thing takes forever just to print one tiny part.  The connector you see in the pic is about 2" in diameter at the very end of the spokes.  It took almost 1.5 hours to print.  A dome takes about 60 of these connectors, so just one demo model would take close to a week if I could keep the machine running 24/7. lol.  These connectors though are just one of numerous parts and pieces.  So you can pretty much forget about doing much bizness with a 3D printer.  Looking at all the parts for the Ghost Glock, one of those has to take a few days to print up for sure.   At least with guns though you have a big profit margin, you can sell it for say $500.
  Most things though you won't be able to sell for nearly that much.

However, while not good for any type of retail biz, it can be used to make custom parts for old stuff that would work if you just had this or that part that is no longer available.  Also good for making the molds to use with a roto or injection molding apparatus.

Best use I think is if you have kids, you can make just about any kind of toy, and they can make stuff for themselves  too, if they are say 10 or so and like to tinker.  I would have been in heaven if I had one as a kid.  Not too bad now either, now that I got it working.

RE

Quote from: RE on Dec 14, 2024, 09:05 PMMy first 100% successful 3D print!

Good deal.

Quote from: RENow the negatives, which are minor.  The thing takes forever just to print one tiny part.

You have big social functions, dance parties and meetings with national political figures it will interfer with? Seems like what you've got is time.

Quote from: REBest use I think is if you have kids, you can make just about any kind of toy, and they can make stuff for themselves  too, if they are say 10 or so and like to tinker.  I would have been in heaven if I had one as a kid.  Not too bad now either, now that I got it working.
RE

How much basic market research have you done to see if these toys bump into some concept already out there that might cause a patent problem? Not the legal patent angle, just similarities. Just for the hell of it I did some googling for like building shapes with toys for kids, and while nothing looked exactly like yours, there are quite a few snap together parts/patterns/objects type things out there that appear similar, although none I could find that were exactly the same.

Quote from: TDoS on Dec 15, 2024, 06:38 AMHow much basic market research have you done to see if these toys bump into some concept already out there that might cause a patent problem? Not the legal patent angle, just similarities. Just for the hell of it I did some googling for like building shapes with toys for kids, and while nothing looked exactly like yours, there are quite a few snap together parts/patterns/objects type things out there that appear similar, although none I could find that were exactly the same.

I used quite a few different building sets while teaching.  The Robotics classes which have developed over the last 20 years or so use them.  Every company that makes parts for Robot toys has some patented parts, as will I.  What is different with PolyPandora is that I am making it developmentally integrated.  It starts with basic shapes and sets that are geared for 3-5 year olds to play with experimenting, then moves up to more complex shapes and connections for 6-9 year olds and completes the developmental process with the age 10+ sets.  The beauty of this system is that the kits you buy for the kid to play with at age 3 still have useful parts you can put into models ypu build for a university level architecture course.  If A parent buys a kid a different kit each year growing up, by the time they get to college they'll have a full array of parts to build almost anything you can imagine.

Nobody else does anything like this.  Companies either make the Preschool level building blocks or the complex Robotics stuff.  Nothing is compatible with anything else, in general.  PolyPandora solves this problem and creates a whole new world for a child to grow in and with.  You can think of the PolyPandora world a little like the wotld of the Transformers films, which are based on the Hasbro Transformer toys.  You could make movies based on PolyPandora World also, if it ever got that popular.

Of course, it takes selling and marketing to get to a point like that, and the toy industry is very nasty for idea theft and big companies squashing small ones.  So there's a huge gulf between what I am currently doing and seeing any financial gain from it.  I'll do what I can to protect it as I go, but my funds are limited and Patents are expensive.  Just have to see how it goes, one step at a timer.

RE

I spoke too soon.    More failures.

After finishing the starter roll of filament with a couple of successful prints, I put in a new roll of PLA filament, and so far after half a dozen attempts have yet to get it to adhere to the build plate at all.  Not even getting a partial print.

Flashforge refused to exchange the printer for the A4P model, so I accepted their offer to send me a new nozzle with a .4mm stream, up from the current .25mm.  It will take a while to get here.  Meanwhile I will experiment with making some manual adjustments and see if there is another stickier adhesive available to try.

Collapse will probably arrive here on the Last Great Frontier before I have my prototypes done.

RE

Quote from: RE on Dec 15, 2024, 07:07 PMCollapse will probably arrive here on the Last Great Frontier before I have my prototypes done.
RE

Said it before, say it again, and it'll be more right than all the claims of doom cycled though the collapse-o-sphere since peak oils and doom were being called in the last century.

Personal doom will happen for all us geriatrics here before it ever shows up to the point where amy of us can finally say "SEE!!!!! TOLD YOU SO!!!!!" as the hoardes of MZBs overrun the locks on doors and ransack the place.

We are now back to Square 1 as the printer has decided to stop communicating with the computer again, so at the moment I can't even run any more tests to get the objects to adhere better to the print plate.     The video is self-explanatory.


It's once again looking like this printer may be a complete write down as a loss.  Very depressing.

RE

Congrats on the new venture. I hope you figure out your printer issues. We purchased a printed part for a set of headphones last year that put it back in service and was unavailable through regular retail markets. A greenhouse owner has a special clip printed by the same person to hold her irrigation hose without screwing into the aluminum arches. I see a great future for this kind of service. Aging semi retired tech gods doing some at home puttering to keep things working. It would be a good energy dump load for extra summer solar production as well. It's downright uplifting. As usual I'm sure the negatives get the press such as ghost guns and sextoys. I don't post much these days; nothing personal I just am busy being out there building stuff.