180 gallon build: Modular control system, 3D printed equipment, open-source
- Thread starter jrhupp
- Start date
BigDave
Premium Member
I'm an Autodesk fan... but that's because I've been using it for almost 20 years now.
If you're a student or teacher you can get a license for their full Inventor suite for free. Just can't sell anything you design with it.
Fusion360 is a toned down version of Inventor from what I can tell. I haven't really played with it.
If you're a student or teacher you can get a license for their full Inventor suite for free. Just can't sell anything you design with it.
Fusion360 is a toned down version of Inventor from what I can tell. I haven't really played with it.
The Fusion 360 user interface is actually quite intuitive. There is still a learning curve, but there are a lot of really good tutorials available.
BigDave. I'm sure Autocad is very good, but Fusion 360 is a LOT of cad for free. I'm not entirely clear on Autodesk's positioning on its various products, but I think that Fusion 360 is aimed at additive manufacturing.
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I like IC3D filaments. These have performed quite well for me. I have tried a few others and those have been hit or miss. Toner plastics or online filament have been the most inconsistent I have used. I have a roll from one of the two that is absolutely un-printable.
For storage, I keep them in an old salt bucket with whatever desiccant they came with. If older filament gives issues printing, I bake it in the over for a few hours at 150f ro so. Then it is generally good to go with.
For storage, I keep them in an old salt bucket with whatever desiccant they came with. If older filament gives issues printing, I bake it in the over for a few hours at 150f ro so. Then it is generally good to go with.
BigDave
Premium Member
I'm not a perfectionist, so I just use Inland. It's cheap and I haven't had any issues with it. The filament size isn't always perfect, so occasionally you get a tad over or under extrusion on part of the print, but you'd be hard pressed to see it with the naked eye.
Your enclosure looks oddly familiar
I did almost the exact same setup. I used plywood to cover the sides and back. I also mounted a temperature controlled fan in the top corner of the enclosure. This allows me to switch between PLA and ABS settings on the fan to keep the inside air temperature closer to where I want it. I still want to get some lights mounted inside it. Right now I point a desk lamp through the front window.
Your enclosure looks oddly familiar
I did almost the exact same setup. I used plywood to cover the sides and back. I also mounted a temperature controlled fan in the top corner of the enclosure. This allows me to switch between PLA and ABS settings on the fan to keep the inside air temperature closer to where I want it. I still want to get some lights mounted inside it. Right now I point a desk lamp through the front window.
BigDave
Premium Member
jrhupp... sorry if we've derailed your thread too much. I'll understand if you want to slap our wrists
There's quite a few heat sources in the stand that get it pretty warm. I honestly haven't printed any ABS since adding the fan, so I'm not sure if it will even come on. I have a print coming up that will be in ABS, so I'll know then.
I have the following heat producing items:
Heat Bed
Hot End
RADDs controller board
And then I have a 360W power supply mounted under the stand with a vent hole that pushes the heat from the exhaust up into the enclosure as well.
Here's a picture of my enclosure before I added the sides and exhaust fan. You can see the vent for the PS in the bottom left. My Raspberry Pi is mounted under the bottom on the bottom right side.
There's quite a few heat sources in the stand that get it pretty warm. I honestly haven't printed any ABS since adding the fan, so I'm not sure if it will even come on. I have a print coming up that will be in ABS, so I'll know then.
I have the following heat producing items:
Heat Bed
Hot End
RADDs controller board
And then I have a 360W power supply mounted under the stand with a vent hole that pushes the heat from the exhaust up into the enclosure as well.
Here's a picture of my enclosure before I added the sides and exhaust fan. You can see the vent for the PS in the bottom left. My Raspberry Pi is mounted under the bottom on the bottom right side.
jrhupp... sorry if we've derailed your thread too much. I'll understand if you want to slap our wrists
No worries! I'd say this is pretty close to on topic.
I don't think any of us enclosing printers are going to be running anywhere hot enough to need to vent the enclosure, at least for sake of the ABS. For those printers that actively heat the build chamber they are brining the temp up to quite near ABS' glass transition. For me, my passively heated build chamber is probably only running around 40'ish C (though I have not measured this to be sure).
Adding a controlled heat source will help with ABS print quality. But for me, I am quite happy with what I get with passive heating.
BigDave
Premium Member
Even at 40*C it's keeping the ABS from cooling too fast. My Fan is configured to turn on at about that temperature. Anything hotter and any PLA inside the chamber may start to get soft. I know of at least one person that had his PLA parts start warping in the middle of an ABS print because his chamber got to hot. He had to reprint all his printer parts in ABS.
I have another friend that has his printer in a closet. If he closes the door while printing ABS, it gets over 40*C. He leaves the door open when printing PLA. He gets really good prints from ABS.
I'll actually be a little surprised if the fan kicks on in ABS mode.
Well its been a bit since I have posted anything. Mostly this is because I have not had much time to work on anything tank related and so there has not been much to post.
I have been tinkering with yet another ATO design; I keep playing with various sensing technology and just hadn't found what I wanted to use. The new design uses differential pressure sensors for water level detection. I have not had much chance to fully test it, but on the bread board it performed quite well. I suppose that is no surprise as lots of folks do things this way.
The amplifiers are set to scale the full output over the full input range of the Arduino, which should give about a meter of depth measurement range and a resolution just under 1 mm. I have not evaluated noise/precision or accuracy off the bread board and with the Arduino. So its yet to be seen if real performance will be as good as what the back of the envelope suggests. But I'm optimistic.
Here is the board:
I did put a little extra effort into documenting the board production process this time. Earlier in the thread I posted some pictures that showed the different stages of board production and a video of tinning. This shows what I do to get the layout out from Eagle, gcode from that, and the printer setup to run it. Play back is speed up and I added some subtitles explaining what is going on.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qTYkhn05kmQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I have been tinkering with yet another ATO design; I keep playing with various sensing technology and just hadn't found what I wanted to use. The new design uses differential pressure sensors for water level detection. I have not had much chance to fully test it, but on the bread board it performed quite well. I suppose that is no surprise as lots of folks do things this way.
The amplifiers are set to scale the full output over the full input range of the Arduino, which should give about a meter of depth measurement range and a resolution just under 1 mm. I have not evaluated noise/precision or accuracy off the bread board and with the Arduino. So its yet to be seen if real performance will be as good as what the back of the envelope suggests. But I'm optimistic.
Here is the board:
I did put a little extra effort into documenting the board production process this time. Earlier in the thread I posted some pictures that showed the different stages of board production and a video of tinning. This shows what I do to get the layout out from Eagle, gcode from that, and the printer setup to run it. Play back is speed up and I added some subtitles explaining what is going on.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qTYkhn05kmQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You need a CNC mill. Then you can let it just cut the traces and drill the holes for you
I recently finished building a MPCNC and it's been working quite well.
I know, and I'm a bit jealous.
I looked at building a mill to go on the x-carraige before doing the scribe. I just couldn't work out a compact enough design that would be easy to swap between printing and milling.
Someday, I want to build a CNC for the wood shop that I can load up with full sheets of plywood. Oh the things I would make then!
BigDave
Premium Member
I envisioned the same thing. After pricing it a couple of times, I decided that building a much smaller one would suffice for now. I built the entire MPCNC for about $300. That made the CNC machine cheaper than my 3d printer.
I've been pretty happy with the MPCNC so far. I've cut a few different things. I've even cut a few items for the wife, which helped sell her on me building it. It has a few limitations... mostly in cut speed.
The guy that designed the MPCNC has a 'lowrider' design that can do full sheet stock. It's a newer design, so he's still finalizing it, but some of the people on his board have already built them.
I've been pretty happy with the MPCNC so far. I've cut a few different things. I've even cut a few items for the wife, which helped sell her on me building it. It has a few limitations... mostly in cut speed.
The guy that designed the MPCNC has a 'lowrider' design that can do full sheet stock. It's a newer design, so he's still finalizing it, but some of the people on his board have already built them.
CVReefer
Member
To jump on the 3d printing subject. I built an enclosure out of some old cabinets that I got from helping my brother remodel his his kitchen. During the winter I run a hair dryer on a temperature control unit (like a finnex heater controller) but during California spring/summer/fall I just heat up the bed for a few minutes before starting abs prints and it bring the ambient temp up. I don't vent the enclosure at all but I vent the garage when the prints finish.
