If it gets much bigger, that could be enough inertial mass to cause problems. Making a two part shell might be a good idea. The two halves could be glued and press-fit together after printing and filling.
You may be able to turn the part cooling fan off just after re-loading your filament in the printer's Tune menu. Then turn it back on once one or two layers have covered it over. But, yeah... Like others have mentioned, just from spilling while filling you will have sand in places of your printer that you don't want.
I just learned of another cool trick. Print a hollow part and drill small hole and inject with plaster of Paris. Adds a ton of weight and reaches all parts of the model.
You can use lead shot from some place with reloading supplies. Maybe incorporate a cavity on the inside of your prints and pour in a little bit of epoxy over it to keep it from rattling. Elmers glue might even work. Leads almost twice a dense as steel so you wouldn't need to use as much.
Great idea.. way easier than other ways (like drilling and filling with plaster of paris after the print is finished. Might try using one of those flexible plastic refrigerator magnets (fairly weak) to pull the top few bb's off the top of the print..
For the larger ones you speak of, I assume you have to slow down your print? 4-5 pounds is a helluva lot of mass and inertia for your print bed to drag along for the ride.
You can use glue gun.. or any type of epoxy... super glue.. really anything... the best would be to use a resin or even like bondo.. u can even use play dough..
Thank you for another fascinating video. BBs look like they are better as ballast than sand. I was thinking of using coins, but maybe glass marbles would work well too.
I think coins would be a good idea, just create a void in the print of the correct size. Might be a really good idea for adding weight to something thin you are printing. Also it might be cheaper? Does $10 worth of pennies weigh more than $10 worth of BBs?
iqless Thank you for your follow up. I’d be looking at a Japanese coin which is worth about 10 cents and the size of a quarter. The 1 Yen coin in Japan is made out of aluminum and PLA is probably denser. I love the beauty of BBs being able to use standard infill patterns, but they are not readily available in stores here. Have you been using Prusa Control exclusively as your slicer or are you only using it in circumstances like this where it offers a feature like easy Gcode insertion?
I am using the Prusa Control for its simplicity. Part of my mission is to convince home-schoolers to get 3D Printers. As such I want to help new folks out so I try and use the basic user friendly tools. I think that other slicers are getting easier to use and more visually appealing I may switch over to another someday. At some point either PrusaControl will get more advanced features, while keeping its ease of use, or more advanced slicers will become more user friendly, without loosing their advanced powers :)
@@iqless Unfortunately, I think I heard that Prusa is dropping Prusa Control support. I know that they are focusing on the features of Slic3r PE. I've been using the betas. They've added experience modes so if you leave it on beginner you only see some of the parameters. More parameters are available in Advanced mode, and all of them (even the ones you don't want to touch) are available in Expert mode. The "insert filament change" feature is there now in Slic3r PE (been there for a couple betas) and looks similar to how you did it in Prusa Control.
One issue is adding the weight to the bed and such. Safer way is to print without the bottom layer, then fill with BBs after the print is done and put epoxy fill in there after wards. 3lbs on a heated bed spells warping nightmares and pushing the bed away from the nozzle. Also, let’s you use sand, molten led, or anything without risking damage and mess to your printer.
I am not too worried about the weight, 5lb or more I think I would run it slower to make sure the motors are OK. But maybe I am wrong. I do like the idea of finding a way to add weight after the fact and sealing it. Maybe make a hole to a cavity with a thread in it then print out a bolt to seal it... Also molten lead? Am I missing something wouldn't that just melt all the PLA...
Yeah, that could be interesting to use lead LOL With the motors slinging the weight of the BBs, the more I think about it outside of the added heat and wear on the motors from slinging that much mass, but the potential for missed steps and messing with micro steps would be pretty high I would think. I’ve done the skipping of first three layers and then epoxy and BBs, works great and can be sanded. I’m usually putting some rubber feet or dipping the bottom of the print in FlexSeal so it’s all hidden.
@@rolling_marbles Yeah, trying to pour molten lead into a FDM print would be impressive, and probably not the desired result. Melted gallium would work, but BBs are way less expensive. ;-)
Nice idea again. Really. Maybe you can turn of the part cooling fan for 1 layer when using the sand. And for removing the balls sticking out of the top... use some sticky tape that will only pick up the balls it will touch. An other way to add mass without the rattle: take some heavy objects and design a cavity inside your 3D object of exact the right dimensions.
Yes. Turn off the fan with M107 at the same spot where you paused your print. Look what was the last M106 S... line before that point. Re-apply the same M106 S... line when you have moved 1 layer up. More info see marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M106.html, and marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M107.html.
I had to look that up ruclips.net/video/AVL3cUaArUE/видео.html. That might work well ... I would assume the BBs would just slide down to the bottom. Neat idea
If it gets much bigger, that could be enough inertial mass to cause problems. Making a two part shell might be a good idea. The two halves could be glued and press-fit together after printing and filling.
Triangle infill might be easier. You can also add gcode to shift the tray forward to give you better access to the part.
You may be able to turn the part cooling fan off just after re-loading your filament in the printer's Tune menu. Then turn it back on once one or two layers have covered it over. But, yeah... Like others have mentioned, just from spilling while filling you will have sand in places of your printer that you don't want.
I just learned of another cool trick. Print a hollow part and drill small hole and inject with plaster of Paris. Adds a ton of weight and reaches all parts of the model.
Not a bad idea
You can use lead shot from some place with reloading supplies. Maybe incorporate a cavity on the inside of your prints and pour in a little bit of epoxy over it to keep it from rattling. Elmers glue might even work. Leads almost twice a dense as steel so you wouldn't need to use as much.
That is a pretty good idea
Great ideas and thank you for sharing! I like your idea of using clay avoid rattling of the beads. I will try it.
What the hell you doing putting sand anywhere near a 3d printer ?? wow i have seen it all..
Great idea.. way easier than other ways (like drilling and filling with plaster of paris after the print is finished. Might try using one of those flexible plastic refrigerator magnets (fairly weak) to pull the top few bb's off the top of the print..
well, I like your style. Look forward to seeing more of your work :) I hope to share mine someday.
For the larger ones you speak of, I assume you have to slow down your print? 4-5 pounds is a helluva lot of mass and inertia for your print bed to drag along for the ride.
Use wide tape to press down on top the bb’s to get them off the top
ohh goof idea
Melted lead works well.
You can use glue gun.. or any type of epoxy... super glue.. really anything... the best would be to use a resin or even like bondo.. u can even use play dough..
Is Plato dough really usable to fill it in ? Will it expand or contract once it’s in there and sealed ?
Awesome idea. Can you use bbs for a lot of prints? Well I'm sure the print has to be a certain size lol
Yeah you need a nice void to put it in.
I have used BBs and Clay in a print I wanted more weight in and it worked pretty well.
Thank you for another fascinating video. BBs look like they are better as ballast than sand. I was thinking of using coins, but maybe glass marbles would work well too.
I think coins would be a good idea, just create a void in the print of the correct size. Might be a really good idea for adding weight to something thin you are printing. Also it might be cheaper? Does $10 worth of pennies weigh more than $10 worth of BBs?
iqless Thank you for your follow up. I’d be looking at a Japanese coin which is worth about 10 cents and the size of a quarter. The 1 Yen coin in Japan is made out of aluminum and PLA is probably denser. I love the beauty of BBs being able to use standard infill patterns, but they are not readily available in stores here. Have you been using Prusa Control exclusively as your slicer or are you only using it in circumstances like this where it offers a feature like easy Gcode insertion?
I am using the Prusa Control for its simplicity. Part of my mission is to convince home-schoolers to get 3D Printers. As such I want to help new folks out so I try and use the basic user friendly tools.
I think that other slicers are getting easier to use and more visually appealing I may switch over to another someday.
At some point either PrusaControl will get more advanced features, while keeping its ease of use, or more advanced slicers will become more user friendly, without loosing their advanced powers :)
@@iqless I applaud you for your reasoning, persistence and the results of your incredible efforts!
@@iqless Unfortunately, I think I heard that Prusa is dropping Prusa Control support. I know that they are focusing on the features of Slic3r PE. I've been using the betas. They've added experience modes so if you leave it on beginner you only see some of the parameters. More parameters are available in Advanced mode, and all of them (even the ones you don't want to touch) are available in Expert mode. The "insert filament change" feature is there now in Slic3r PE (been there for a couple betas) and looks similar to how you did it in Prusa Control.
One issue is adding the weight to the bed and such. Safer way is to print without the bottom layer, then fill with BBs after the print is done and put epoxy fill in there after wards. 3lbs on a heated bed spells warping nightmares and pushing the bed away from the nozzle. Also, let’s you use sand, molten led, or anything without risking damage and mess to your printer.
I am not too worried about the weight, 5lb or more I think I would run it slower to make sure the motors are OK.
But maybe I am wrong. I do like the idea of finding a way to add weight after the fact and sealing it.
Maybe make a hole to a cavity with a thread in it then print out a bolt to seal it...
Also molten lead? Am I missing something wouldn't that just melt all the PLA...
Yeah, that could be interesting to use lead LOL
With the motors slinging the weight of the BBs, the more I think about it outside of the added heat and wear on the motors from slinging that much mass, but the potential for missed steps and messing with micro steps would be pretty high I would think.
I’ve done the skipping of first three layers and then epoxy and BBs, works great and can be sanded. I’m usually putting some rubber feet or dipping the bottom of the print in FlexSeal so it’s all hidden.
@@rolling_marbles Yeah, trying to pour molten lead into a FDM print would be impressive, and probably not the desired result. Melted gallium would work, but BBs are way less expensive. ;-)
If you was to do this again. You could do a layer of pva glue on top of the sand.
Nice idea again. Really. Maybe you can turn of the part cooling fan for 1 layer when using the sand. And for removing the balls sticking out of the top... use some sticky tape that will only pick up the balls it will touch. An other way to add mass without the rattle: take some heavy objects and design a cavity inside your 3D object of exact the right dimensions.
All good ideas. I have not started fiddling with GCode yet but I bet there is a way to turn the fan off like you suggest ... just for one layer.
Yes. Turn off the fan with M107 at the same spot where you paused your print. Look what was the last M106 S... line before that point. Re-apply the same M106 S... line when you have moved 1 layer up. More info see marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M106.html, and marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M107.html.
Brilliant idea with the sticky tape. I wonder if lint rollers are sticky enough.
Noticed the Colorado logo behind you. Are you a fellow Coloradan? I am from Colorado Springs.
check out my terrain flag design on thingigverse. Colorado terrain map turned into a Colorado flag.
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3393043
Yep live in the Denver Metro area :)
I like it a lot. It looks good and you found a nice way to do it without a multi-colored printer :)
@@iqless thanks, I'm really pleased with how it came out.
that container is 4.575 lbs of BBs for $11.38. 905 pennies weigh 5 lbs and they don't go everywhere and make a mess.
Yes! These days Pennies are my go to for weighing things down and technically cost $0 if you can get them back out
I like your ideas
Except the sand one :/ . But maybe someone has an idea to fix that like hairspray or something will keep it down
better to print a two part shell and fill it with cement.
nice
Try giroid infill and fill it with balls ;)
I had to look that up ruclips.net/video/AVL3cUaArUE/видео.html. That might work well ... I would assume the BBs would just slide down to the bottom. Neat idea
@@iqless If you got the infill percentage right with hexagonal the bbs wiuld just fit and maybe not rattle as much.