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FreeCAD is parametric and improving all the time. I have designed a retro keyboard enclosure using it. It is rough round the edges but I think it is going places. It is free and libre.
If one were to use it, two tips. Realthunder's Link fork to limit cryptic errors and things fallling apart, and Joko's comprehensive PartDesign tutorial. Trying to learn FreeCAD by poke is a HORRIBLE idea, you need fundamental knowledge of what it expects you to do and not to do. In contrast in Fusion 360, you can just be productive intuitively. If you know how sketches/constraints work it's better than if you don't, but that's a 5 minute intro. It is to be said though, feature wise thanks to installable workbenches, FreeCAD won't leave you wanting. On the flip side, it's not a software that was designed, it's a DIY construction kit for CAD with badly fitting pieces. It doesn't even have official UX design guidelines, like different workbenches will even implement such basic things as selection differently.
Funny to admit, that I'm using Blender for modelling parts. It's probably not the best tool for that, but this is what I know from my career as games developer, so I continue to use it for various things. Blender has also 3D printing plugin to check the models. So, if s.o. is confident in Blender, then it is possible to use it for 3D print design as well.
A few ideas if you want to get smooth surfaces on filament prints - the easiest step is to use a slicer that has an “ironing” setting. This makes an extra pass with the print head on top surfaces with a very low filament flow, normally 10% of the normal feed rate and fills in the gaps while partially remelting the top layer. I find this makes a huge improvement with flat surfaces, though it can add an hour or so to a the time required for a fairly large print. I use the CURA slicer that I thoroughly recommend with an heavily modified Ender 3 printer and it’s well supported. The other thing you can do is switch to ABS filament (a bit harder to print) and then use an acetone vapor chamber after printing. The acetone softens the outer layer of the print and smooths out the surface. For things like replacement keys, it should work pretty well. The prints you got from PCB Way were probably made with an industrial SLM (selective laser melting) printer that creates the part by using a laser to melt powder layer by layer. The printers are far more expensive than home filament printers, but much faster and as you noticed, produce results that look as good as injection molding.
FreeCAD might be worth a look as your F360 alternative. It’s FOSS, with all the usual pros/cons that brings. The learning curve can be brutal, but online tutorials help a lot and you can develop some fairly efficient spreadsheet-based parametric workflows and models.
Ooh and FreeCAD is the way to go it’s fast it has a parameter based workflow. It has a learning curve if you’ve never did use sketch based modeling before.
What an amazing video! I've been thinking of 3D printing for a while and this gave me a good overview. Resin printing looks so cool though! And I can totally understand how much it takes to make these videos. Researching, experimenting and organising all your video and keep track of the progress over months, WHILE making other videos. Kudos!
The ZX80 case from PCBWay was most likely printed on a SLS printer. Traditionally SLS printers pint with powdered nylon, though it wouldn't surprise me if they have ones now that can print in powdered PLA.
Nice overview Noel, I find that the printer can be a real life saver at times. I really like some of the colors of Jessie PLA from Printed Solid. They seem to have a lot of Commodore matching colors (within reason, I think every C64 I own is a different shade)🤨
printed solid has commodore tan. I've never seen it, but I've heard it's a pretty good match to a C64. However that monitor looks more beige to me. Anyway their filament is pretty good. They have free shipping on $50+ orders and it's made here in the USA.
I've been 3d printing since 2017. I have 2 printers now and I don't think I can imagine myself not having access to one nowadays. I use for my hobby, for fixing things around the house, creating personalized gifts, etc.
You were lucky to get a 3D printer with bed auto-levelling. This is really a game changer . I've worked with the cheaper ender models, and while the results are very good you have to spend a good amount of time trying to get the bed levelled. And when you succeed, you better leave the printer at that same spot, moving it usually ruins it.
I’ve printed so, so many brackets, cases, and replacement parts. For me, finding and/or designing or modifying parts is one of my favourite parts (boom tish) of this hobby. My Ender 3 has so many “miles” on it from all kinds of projects. I’ll eventually get a resin printer to small, more detailed bits like key caps. If you want really, really high quality prints with an FDM printer, be prepared to also learn about sanding, filling, and painting.
You might want to try prusa silcer instead of that one (I think that's cura). I'm watching you use it and I'm like.......damn that's a pain in the ass. Prusa slicer has a feature where you can select a surface and it automatically puts that surface flat on the bed. I'm currently using 2.6 alpha 5 (alpha 6 is now available) as it now supports organic (tree supports). They require less material and are generally easier to remove.
Nice video. Yes I agree 3d printing is an excellent companion to restoring retro computers. I haven't really ventured into making things that don't already have an STL file, but I'm signed up to take classes on 3d printing at a maker center, so I hope to learn more about making my own designs.
for the grey keycaps - fine grey wet rub sandpaper, then buff / polish with a good compound! - in High School in the 80's we had a plastics classroom - used this to clean up acrylic plastics to get back to a gloss finish
Couple of 3D printing tips. For FDM use PLA+ as it is stronger and slightly more flexible (I made a 6ft sound bar with it). For resin, use water soluble so you do not need any chemicals to clean it. I have made over 400 keycaps with walls only 0.6mm on my 13" Resin printer.
For that monitor door, I would try to find filament that matches that border around screen - it would still match color scheme (not like factory one, but it's still match), but since colors are not in direct contact, slight difference wouldn't be as noticeable.
Some FDM tips: - Dump Creality slicer and upgrade to the latest Cura (which Creality abused an old version of) or PrusaSlicer. - Get a PEI flex-plate to get things to better stick (but probably don't risk using it when printing PETG) - The monitor door might have been designed to be printed with ABS, which shrinks a bit and hence requires parts to be slightly oversized. If you then print that part with PLA, it would be too big. I can't say for sure from the video whether that was your problem, but you definitely do not want to print such a door in PLA, but probably want to use PETG (much better layer adhesion) if you don't want it to break even faster than the original. Some SLA tips: - There are also spring steel sheets as buildplate for SLA printers that should make it much easier to get the prints off. I have not bought one myself yet though. - There is water-washable resin which makes things somewhat easier by not needing IPA for washing. I love the colored transparent ones from Elegoo as the transparency also make it possible to fully cure thicker walls as the UV light can penetrate. If you use an opaque resin, the exposure will only partially cure the inside of thicker parts and the light from the curing station just cannot reach it. So, you'll end up having that toxic half-cured resin still there behind a thin wall of fully cured resin. So, even if you don't want transparency, using a transparent resin has benefits and you can get the right color by painting it. And for Fusion 360 being slow ... I guess that will be caused by your Apple's ARM. It flies on my Ryzen cpu.
I'd describe Fusion as a little slow. When i was last using it on i5-3570. FreeCAD was less sluggish. Now i have R5-5500 which is TONS faster but i haven't had to use Fusion recently. Both machines have been equipped with GTX970, which is nice for OpenGL performance.
For small things like keycaps where they feel and fit are critical, why are people 3D printing at all? It's cheaper, faster and FAR more accurate to make a silicone mold to cast it in resin.
@@NoelsRetroLab Sure. Sometimes things have to be 3D printed because you literally have nothing else. But if you're printing one or two keys, I bet you've got between 10 and 100 other keys just like it that you could make a mold of!
Cool examples of merging the two hobbies. Thanks for taking the time to put this together! It's perfect for figuring out a way to take new parts and make them work in place of 40yr old parts that are no longer made. Ex. contrast pot is no longer made for the Radio Shack Model 100. I created a 'shim' to use a modern one as a drop in replacement for the original. Add creating a custom PCB to the mix and you get a good replacement that should last another 40 years and a computer that isn't destined to e-waste, or have to harvest a replacement from a 'parts' computer.
Actually FDM can do a much better resolution if you use a 0.15mm nozzle instead of a 0.4mm one. Also, if you want a very smoth surface, use ASA. It can be smoothed with acetone. First do some wetsanding. Than hang the keycap over a cup with acetone for a few minutes. The big advantage of FDM with 0.15mm nozzle: You can use a multimaterial unit (f.e. ERCF if you add klipper to your printer) and embed the labeling. Like the good old "double shot". Resin printing is good if the keycaps are in a light colour - you can use dysub transfer to label them. The downside of FDM with 0.15mm nozzle: It takes a lot of time... You should use a Voron 0 for such usecase.
Phenomenal video! So many things I’ve been thinking about have been clarified. This might actually convince me to unbox the 3D printer I’ve had sitting here for a year and really try it out. Let us know more about the filament storage issue, as I’m wondering if my filament needs to be stored in ziplocks.
I have all my extra filament stored in ziplocks just in case. It'll also depend on how humid it is where you live. I also got a food dehydrator and will use it if a filament has been out for a while or gives me inconsistent results. So far so good.
For CAD I use SolidEdge (and I have been using it for about 20 years at this stage so...), it's commercial but there is a "community" edition (limitation is basically that you can't open files produced in the community edition in the commercial versions), you can do the parametric thing with it, including creating whole "families" of parts e.g. same physical structure (more or less, you can also suppress features based on parameters if needs be) with different dimensions. Another option to look at, though it's a completely different paradigm is OpenSCAD, it's basically CAD by scripting so about as "parametric" as CAD can be ;)
I've wanted to try Solid Edge, but for one, Linux compatibility... and for other, i'm always afraid they'll pull a rug from underneath you. So i rather end up torturing myself in FreeCAD. Which is powerful, i can do anything i can think of, but it isn't nice.
Great video. One more advantage to note with the resin prints - you can actually just buy white or clear resin, and then add dye to it. With a bit of effort and practice, you can actually colour match pretty close. You can also get some pretty nice effects by adding stuff like mica powder to the resin, and it also prints fine.
Hi Noel. I'm not sure what processes PCBWay used for your prints. However, it's very likely that no matter which method used, they are employing equipment to post process the print. This equipment can be of few different types: vibratory abrasion, fluid abrasion, or jet, as well as a few others depending on the print method. SLS printing is another common industrial 3D printing technology, which is a fused powder. I've worked with many of these post process machines, and the results can be truly incredible. They can also remove desired details. However, most higher end post processing machines can have a variety of customized profiles created to balance the good and the bad to get the most desirable result for an automated (timed) cycle. Generally some manual work is still required, before using the automated process. Some of the parts, especially on flat surfaces look as though they were painted in a matte finish, and are super smooth. Part dimensions can also change due to material removal. This 'may' explain why your parts were so smooth, and felt thinner.
Great video! And I can relate to it a lot. I've bought an Ender S1 (without Pro) in January and have similar experiences. It works almost every time without tweaking and fiddeling. And my results look a lot like your's. But I don't have issues with parts not sticking to the bed. I had it once when trying to print a keycap for a Dragon 32, But rubbing the bed thoroughly with IPA before each new print solved that completely. For example I print keycaps without any rim, just standing on the bottom edge.
Cool special effects. I think I have the same Ender 3D printer I got for school sitting in my office. I will be playing with it this summer. Something else I've been wanting to look at is mold making. COVID sort of slowed that down but maybe this summer.
I find Fusion 360 performs much better in Windows compared to MacOS. It’s still my preferred CAD program but I’ve also used Onshape (cloud based) which is pretty good as well. For really simple designs, TinkerCAD can also be useful. I have a Prusa printer that has served me well these past few years.
Had an FDM printer since my Anet A8, but got a resin printer in 2022 - they are very different beasts. I too have mine set up in a spare bathroom for ventilation, but struggle with maintaining a room temperature about 20°C. I finally achieved good prints, but now have sizing issues. Arrggg 😋
A couple of years ago Geetech sent me one of their multicolour printers to review, this one can have two different rolls of filament installed at once and swap between them or even mix the two together, so you can actually do colour mixing ! I use my printers mostly for making replacement parts for old electronic test equipment I repair for my videos. For finer details I run my Ender3 V2 with a 0.2mm nozzle, it takes a LOT longer to print but it results in much better quality, I am yet to find a 0.2mm nozzle for the geetech.
@@TheDefpom Right they HAVE changed the nozzle, the new nozzle uses M7 thread. MK10 nozzle uses M7 thread as well, but it's bored for the PTFE to go ALL the way inside it, 4mm ID. So i don't know whether it'll work with Geeetech's modern assembly. It might be worth switching to those and create yourself a slug similar to those CHT clones, or maybe that one is suitable. You have seen CNC Kitchen's videos? Honestly if i had that, given Geeetech doesn't appear to make other nozzles than 0.4mm, i'd be tempted to rebuild it to a different hotend that uses M6/MK8 nozzle :( I notice that there are generic mixtruder hotends built like that, cheap but not sure whether they're any good.
Recently I found an E-HT PLA filament, and it is really great. Prints have great layer adhesion and literally no warp, so they stick to bed perfectly, even on sharp corners. Of course, it still is just PLA, but it gives just perfect prints every time.
@@NoelsRetroLab It is a type of modified PLA. I'm not sure if YT allows links, but the brand behind it is Print-Me. It is an EU (or to be more precise Polish) company, but I believe its products are available worldwide.
Blender which is frfree as in freedom has parametric modeling... It's not a CAD software though, so it doesn't have like sketching and constraint-based designing.
Get some buffing/sanding blocks.... And some elbow grease... PLA can and will shine like glass with some effort... Also, keep any grease (fingers) away from the printbed surface... Scrub with acetone/iso if you touch it... PLA won't stick if any grease is present. Avoid silicone oils like hell, one touch and will never get it to stick. Larger models can be split and glued together with proper glues (acetone based for ABS, ethyl based for PLA - do some experiments first!)
Noel - Great video - I have the same exact printer as you but with a magnetic spring steel PEI bed surface. Not sure if it is available in EU but old 70's Aquanet brand heavy duty hair spray gives me much better and cleaner bed results than glue stick, and more precise than blue tape which requires bed re-adjustment for height. I have found on my printer, the "auto- leveling" does not work consistently all that well at the very 10-11" diagonal extreme edges and I have had the same experience as you with diagonal full bed prints edge lifting (usually in the opposite back corner for me). I actually use the old school "nozzle paper gap" thin paper adjustment method, and once dialed in by manually testing the corners (rather than auto-leveling), I comment out the auto-leveling G29 line gcode that automatically gets put in by Prusa slicer to prevent constant and sometimes inconsistent auto-leveling (Cure doesn't do that but I prefer Prusa for quick prints even though for complex stuff I also use Cure once in a while) HTH
While 3D printing is cool and all. I just hate how long it takes to print stuff. I probably would have gone to a yard sale and bought some old aratri cartridges and cleaned up the case remove the label and iriginsl pcb. Then j7st used that case.
I almost forgot you can get a smoother top layer by enabling ironing. I get pretty smooth top layers on my prusa, but ironing makes it feel like glass. I'm guessing it won't be quite that smooth on an ender, but it should hlep.
Something important to remember about filament is that you do have to sand and prime/paint them, same with resin. You can also get clear/base colour resin that you can adjust the colour to suit your project. Resin is best for overall quality and polish as well as for highly detailed prints, though resin printing is still really good. Also, while yes, resin can be dangerous, and gloves and masks SHOULD be used, it isn't gonna immediately kill you. Precaution and safety is always the best, though the way it was handled seemed like a bit overkill. IDK just seemed like you were almost scared of it. Still very very good video. I wish I could own a 3d printer of my own. I used to have a neighbor with one that let me send files and a bit of money for filament to print what I want. Don't have money for my own printer, but thankfully there are services online for the parts I rarely need.
I couldn't get into Fusion 360 at all; I spent a couple of hours on it and couldn't make anything of note 😞 I use Tinkercad as it does what I need something to do; have made quite a few things with it, including an Amiga PSU cover that screwed into a wooden base.
One way I have found good for smoothing out keys is to apply a thin layer of clear epoxy resin. It fills the tiny gaps and if you apply paint first can protect it and stop it rubbing off. I just use kits made for jewellery making.
around $50 is really cheap even assuming the time used is half of what it would take on the domestig machine. I worked in a cnc machining shop and the machines cost about $65 per hour sin tax which I thought was way too low. Try freecad for your models. I prefer solidworks but that is far from free.
One more thing about 3D printer is that it's not just the printing where you have to learn, but the post-process too! Some pieces will need glueing, some will need to be primed and sanded, etc... some pieces are very involved...
blender doesn't have parameters, but it's free. It loads instantly. I use it all the time. It's not exactly ideal for engineering components though. It's more for artistic models. But I'm making a car part for my dad and it's worked great for that.
@@6581punk First time I saw it, I said it looked like someone vomited buttons all over the screen. Well, it's not like that anymore. 2.9 was a huge update that makes it as user friendly as maya and 3d studio max. But these types of programs do have a big learning curve. Fortunately there is blenderguru on youtube that has really good tutorials.
When you need a plastic part, or one printed of wood fiber or sintered metal, 3D printing can get it done. Additive Manufacturing is a revolutionary and disruptive technology.
As far as I know you can mix resins. So you could in theory figure out the Pantone code for the original key's plastic and mix multiple resins to get the right color?
It takes a lot of handling but I prefer resin printing over filament. I easily can print the little cogs for the Macintosh floppy eject mechanism in high detail. But filament is great for testing, design, ...
5:22 really shows the downside of using a non glass bed, it's already warping with that much surface area on the build plate.... You printed that slow only to mess up the print still lol.
I have three pet peeves with SCAD. One is lack of fillets and chamfers, you have to place connecting geometry explicitly if you want professional looking and strong prints, and it takes a ton of extra time, and isn't always sensibly possible. Though you can just import SCAD CSG intermediate as Part into FreeCAD and it might chamfer and fillet if it doesn't get too confused. The other is the lack of consistent anchoring of primitives, aligning them on extents and middles. Like why isn't there a builtin way for a box to be aligned at the middle of the bottom face? And third is just how insanely slow it is at export level CSG. It's inexcusably sluggish. I used to use SCAD a lot but now i'm finding that i'd rather use FreeCAD for everything. I am going to explore other code based modelling software for sure though.
@@SianaGearz my use cases are probably a lot simpler than yours 😊 but I've got a more complex project coming up that might mean I have to reevaluate. I've downloaded freecad and will take a look, thanks for the info!
@@sweetlilmre Give Joko Engineeringelp's comprehensive guide to PartDesign a go if you're going to learn FreeCAD. FreeCAD is not the sort of software i'd recommend because new user experience is horrible; but it also isn't excessively slow and does what i need it to including well into the future. I've used Fusion before and really liked it from the UX perspective but was afraid of the leash.
@@SianaGearz thanks for the info! I hated fusion and share the lock in concerns. I reckon if I can find my way around eagle then freecad can't be too bad 😂
Just use a gluestick and cover the whole bed with one layer then print, its sticks like mad and will need to pry it off but at least it sticks, after do wash it with mild soap and water
Thanks for the detailed and honest video, Noel. TBH this has put me off buying a 3D printer as it seems like too much hassle and expense for my particular use cases. I'd probably only need maybe 5 3D printed parts a year, so I'm more than happy to pay others to do the 3D printing for me.
I totally get it. And that was also the goal of the video: To let people know what they were getting into. For some people this is easier than they were expecting, and for some people they realized it was too much. It's only going to get better, so maybe in a few years it'll be worth it for you. Another alternative is to make sure a friend of yours gets into 3D printing 🤣
It is quite an involved process but resin printing is currently the best way to print small smooth and or detailed objects, very good at action figures heh. Filament printing has it's own advantages in cost and safety but I'd definitely be a person sanding, using filler, and painting to try and smooth them further. Well when you consider everything that was really cheap to print one custom shell for $80 Ie. "Well it is a jetpack, but it's kind of expensive, and I wanted it in red.".😆
I was expecting at one point for you to say “well now another tool that would be great for this is a CNC machine. Oh look someone sent me one for free.” 🙄
Was resin printing worth it? I agree with your last comment. You didn’t really talk about the total actual cost of the key including the pollution that it created. Honestly, I feel resin printing is still a 1/2 baked technology. Too many issues. But since you got everything for free, I guess it make sense to advertise it a bit.
It is if you need that kind of detail. I didn't get into it, but there are some pieces of cassette mechanisms that only work well with resin. Also, if you want to print miniatures, it's resin all the way. But if I didn't have an easy ventilation solution, then I agree it's a lot of money and trouble. So hard to say.
versuch doch einfach eine Aceton Bedampfung deiner mit PLA gedruckten Teile, sie werden glatt wie ein Babypopo. p.s. mit ABS wird die Oberfläche nach dem bedampfen noch glatter.
Quality content as usual, with extensive insights and amazing production value. More than a decade ago I worked on the software stack Fusion 360 is built upon. The cost of deterministic behavior across multiple platforms and versions leads to largely bloated codebases, which often have to dispense with platform-specific optimizations. It would not surprise me if this software required a very strict variant of Rosetta to be able to reproduce with exacting numerical precision the results in the x86 reference.
@@NoelsRetroLab there can be limitations even for Windows x86 builds, for instance the RCPSS and RSQRTSS SSE instructions have different results on AMD and Intel.
14:40 this may be not a problem with the model but rather with 3D printer calibration. Try printing a calibration cube 100x100x100 mm and measure it with calipers. You will find out that it's not exactly 100x100x100 mm but something like 99.8x100x100.2 mm. Use this data to scale the model accordingly. This is typically needed only for large models. Regarding the color match note that nothing prevents you from painting the model. An open alternative for Fusion 360 would be either OpenSCAD or FreeCAD, personally I prefer the first one. There is a great video "Prototype Enclosures with FreeCAD & OpenSCAD" on OpenTechLab channel that compares them.
I did calibrate with a unit cube and it was spot on. That was quite a while ago (before the nozzle change), so maybe I should have done it again? Although that's more of a motor calibration than nozzle, so that should have been fine unless they drift over time. Maybe I'll try again. Thanks!
@@NoelsRetroLab the rubber belts may stretch over time and the corresponding structural elements of the 3D-printer may move slightly due to vibration. So it may be worth rechecking from time time. Personally I don't do this however because in my projects +/- 0.5 mm don't matter much.
@@R2AUK Rubber belts also come slightly undersize and you're supposed to stretch them to correct pitch by tensioning. But reaching full pitch is perilous as well, you might start binding the stepper bearing or imprinting the belt pattern into the print, as the contact patch on the idler changes. It's better to tune by feel to where the mechanics feels right and just ignore that the moves are 0.2% undersize :D
Nice video. A few remarks though: - PETG is not necessarily stronger than PLA. Modern PLA filaments are complex blends, and are often stronger than PETG. However, PLA is usually a bit more stiff than PETG, and that can be detrimental for specific applications. - If you really want to print really fine stuff with filaments (FDM printers) instead of resin, there are some things you can still do, like using a smaller nozzle with extra-small layer heights, and ironing the top layers (through the slicer). The difference between 0.4mm and 0.2mm nozzles can be astonishing. Also, printing extra-slow often helps with the quality.
I have had my PLA prints craze and fail when loaded after about 2-4 years. I no longer trust PLA. If i want something to hold, i use PETG and HIPS for this reason. Straight out of the printer, PLA is remarkably strong, i just can't trust it to stay that way.
@@SianaGearz Fair enough. I haven't really had that problem myself, but mostly I use PLA+. Some of my functional prints have held up great for the last five years. I suppose it depends on plenty of factors, like how much daily pressure the prints have to endure, how humid the environment is, etc.
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'quality over quantity', my reason for liking Noel's videos.
Thank you so much! 😃
FreeCAD is parametric and improving all the time. I have designed a retro keyboard enclosure using it. It is rough round the edges but I think it is going places. It is free and libre.
If one were to use it, two tips. Realthunder's Link fork to limit cryptic errors and things fallling apart, and Joko's comprehensive PartDesign tutorial. Trying to learn FreeCAD by poke is a HORRIBLE idea, you need fundamental knowledge of what it expects you to do and not to do.
In contrast in Fusion 360, you can just be productive intuitively. If you know how sketches/constraints work it's better than if you don't, but that's a 5 minute intro.
It is to be said though, feature wise thanks to installable workbenches, FreeCAD won't leave you wanting. On the flip side, it's not a software that was designed, it's a DIY construction kit for CAD with badly fitting pieces. It doesn't even have official UX design guidelines, like different workbenches will even implement such basic things as selection differently.
OpenSCAD software might be worth looking at for producing models.
Instead of a resin printer you also could use a ABS/ASA Printer (FDM with Enclosure) and smooth with Acetone.
Funny to admit, that I'm using Blender for modelling parts. It's probably not the best tool for that, but this is what I know from my career as games developer, so I continue to use it for various things. Blender has also 3D printing plugin to check the models. So, if s.o. is confident in Blender, then it is possible to use it for 3D print design as well.
A few ideas if you want to get smooth surfaces on filament prints - the easiest step is to use a slicer that has an “ironing” setting. This makes an extra pass with the print head on top surfaces with a very low filament flow, normally 10% of the normal feed rate and fills in the gaps while partially remelting the top layer. I find this makes a huge improvement with flat surfaces, though it can add an hour or so to a the time required for a fairly large print. I use the CURA slicer that I thoroughly recommend with an heavily modified Ender 3 printer and it’s well supported. The other thing you can do is switch to ABS filament (a bit harder to print) and then use an acetone vapor chamber after printing. The acetone softens the outer layer of the print and smooths out the surface. For things like replacement keys, it should work pretty well.
The prints you got from PCB Way were probably made with an industrial SLM (selective laser melting) printer that creates the part by using a laser to melt powder layer by layer. The printers are far more expensive than home filament printers, but much faster and as you noticed, produce results that look as good as injection molding.
Great tips, thanks! I think that's going to push me over to finally try the Cura slicer 😃
As a F360 alternative, you should give Onshape a try. Nice video; thanks.
FreeCAD might be worth a look as your F360 alternative. It’s FOSS, with all the usual pros/cons that brings. The learning curve can be brutal, but online tutorials help a lot and you can develop some fairly efficient spreadsheet-based parametric workflows and models.
Ooh and FreeCAD is the way to go it’s fast it has a parameter based workflow. It has a learning curve if you’ve never did use sketch based modeling before.
What an amazing video! I've been thinking of 3D printing for a while and this gave me a good overview. Resin printing looks so cool though! And I can totally understand how much it takes to make these videos. Researching, experimenting and organising all your video and keep track of the progress over months, WHILE making other videos. Kudos!
Glad it was helpful! Cheers!
The ZX80 case from PCBWay was most likely printed on a SLS printer. Traditionally SLS printers pint with powdered nylon, though it wouldn't surprise me if they have ones now that can print in powdered PLA.
yeah, looks like an SLS print to me.
I am going to be releasing a video of PCBWAY 3D Printing soon, and the hell related to it.
Nice overview Noel, I find that the printer can be a real life saver at times. I really like some of the colors of Jessie PLA from Printed Solid. They seem to have a lot of Commodore matching colors (within reason, I think every C64 I own is a different shade)🤨
Thanks! Yes, someone pointed me to those C64 and A500 colors and they look great. I've already placed an order 😃
printed solid has commodore tan. I've never seen it, but I've heard it's a pretty good match to a C64. However that monitor looks more beige to me. Anyway their filament is pretty good. They have free shipping on $50+ orders and it's made here in the USA.
I've been 3d printing since 2017. I have 2 printers now and I don't think I can imagine myself not having access to one nowadays. I use for my hobby, for fixing things around the house, creating personalized gifts, etc.
Totally. It feels like an essential tool by now!
Fusion wastes time in dumb online verifications
I mainly use PETG. Mainly because someone gave me a lot of it for Christmas. I had a lot of trouble with bed adhesion until I bought a PEI bed.
Its a different animal but i use openscad.
You were lucky to get a 3D printer with bed auto-levelling. This is really a game changer . I've worked with the cheaper ender models, and while the results are very good you have to spend a good amount of time trying to get the bed levelled. And when you succeed, you better leave the printer at that same spot, moving it usually ruins it.
I’ve printed so, so many brackets, cases, and replacement parts. For me, finding and/or designing or modifying parts is one of my favourite parts (boom tish) of this hobby. My Ender 3 has so many “miles” on it from all kinds of projects.
I’ll eventually get a resin printer to small, more detailed bits like key caps.
If you want really, really high quality prints with an FDM printer, be prepared to also learn about sanding, filling, and painting.
Right? It's become kind of an essential tool by now!
You might want to try prusa silcer instead of that one (I think that's cura). I'm watching you use it and I'm like.......damn that's a pain in the ass. Prusa slicer has a feature where you can select a surface and it automatically puts that surface flat on the bed. I'm currently using 2.6 alpha 5 (alpha 6 is now available) as it now supports organic (tree supports). They require less material and are generally easier to remove.
Nice video. Yes I agree 3d printing is an excellent companion to restoring retro computers. I haven't really ventured into making things that don't already have an STL file, but I'm signed up to take classes on 3d printing at a maker center, so I hope to learn more about making my own designs.
It's surprisingly easy once you learn how to do the absolute basics. Good luck!
for the grey keycaps - fine grey wet rub sandpaper, then buff / polish with a good compound! - in High School in the 80's we had a plastics classroom - used this to clean up acrylic plastics to get back to a gloss finish
Couple of 3D printing tips. For FDM use PLA+ as it is stronger and slightly more flexible (I made a 6ft sound bar with it). For resin, use water soluble so you do not need any chemicals to clean it. I have made over 400 keycaps with walls only 0.6mm on my 13" Resin printer.
Water washable resin is even more brittle, lower cohesion, than the alcohol wash kind. And that's already not all too strong.
For that monitor door, I would try to find filament that matches that border around screen - it would still match color scheme (not like factory one, but it's still match), but since colors are not in direct contact, slight difference wouldn't be as noticeable.
Some FDM tips:
- Dump Creality slicer and upgrade to the latest Cura (which Creality abused an old version of) or PrusaSlicer.
- Get a PEI flex-plate to get things to better stick (but probably don't risk using it when printing PETG)
- The monitor door might have been designed to be printed with ABS, which shrinks a bit and hence requires parts to be slightly oversized. If you then print that part with PLA, it would be too big. I can't say for sure from the video whether that was your problem, but you definitely do not want to print such a door in PLA, but probably want to use PETG (much better layer adhesion) if you don't want it to break even faster than the original.
Some SLA tips:
- There are also spring steel sheets as buildplate for SLA printers that should make it much easier to get the prints off. I have not bought one myself yet though.
- There is water-washable resin which makes things somewhat easier by not needing IPA for washing. I love the colored transparent ones from Elegoo as the transparency also make it possible to fully cure thicker walls as the UV light can penetrate. If you use an opaque resin, the exposure will only partially cure the inside of thicker parts and the light from the curing station just cannot reach it. So, you'll end up having that toxic half-cured resin still there behind a thin wall of fully cured resin. So, even if you don't want transparency, using a transparent resin has benefits and you can get the right color by painting it.
And for Fusion 360 being slow ... I guess that will be caused by your Apple's ARM. It flies on my Ryzen cpu.
Fusion works really well on my i9 as well.
I'd describe Fusion as a little slow. When i was last using it on i5-3570. FreeCAD was less sluggish. Now i have R5-5500 which is TONS faster but i haven't had to use Fusion recently. Both machines have been equipped with GTX970, which is nice for OpenGL performance.
For small things like keycaps where they feel and fit are critical, why are people 3D printing at all? It's cheaper, faster and FAR more accurate to make a silicone mold to cast it in resin.
Yeah, that's interesting. I looked into that a long time ago but never actually did that. I should try it sometime. Thanks for the reminder.
@@NoelsRetroLab Sure. Sometimes things have to be 3D printed because you literally have nothing else. But if you're printing one or two keys, I bet you've got between 10 and 100 other keys just like it that you could make a mold of!
Cool examples of merging the two hobbies. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!
It's perfect for figuring out a way to take new parts and make them work in place of 40yr old parts that are no longer made. Ex. contrast pot is no longer made for the Radio Shack Model 100. I created a 'shim' to use a modern one as a drop in replacement for the original. Add creating a custom PCB to the mix and you get a good replacement that should last another 40 years and a computer that isn't destined to e-waste, or have to harvest a replacement from a 'parts' computer.
Actually FDM can do a much better resolution if you use a 0.15mm nozzle instead of a 0.4mm one. Also, if you want a very smoth surface, use ASA. It can be smoothed with acetone. First do some wetsanding. Than hang the keycap over a cup with acetone for a few minutes.
The big advantage of FDM with 0.15mm nozzle: You can use a multimaterial unit (f.e. ERCF if you add klipper to your printer) and embed the labeling. Like the good old "double shot".
Resin printing is good if the keycaps are in a light colour - you can use dysub transfer to label them. The downside of FDM with 0.15mm nozzle: It takes a lot of time... You should use a Voron 0 for such usecase.
ZX80 case might be vacuum formed - just like the original.
Phenomenal video! So many things I’ve been thinking about have been clarified. This might actually convince me to unbox the 3D printer I’ve had sitting here for a year and really try it out. Let us know more about the filament storage issue, as I’m wondering if my filament needs to be stored in ziplocks.
I have all my extra filament stored in ziplocks just in case. It'll also depend on how humid it is where you live. I also got a food dehydrator and will use it if a filament has been out for a while or gives me inconsistent results. So far so good.
For CAD I use SolidEdge (and I have been using it for about 20 years at this stage so...), it's commercial but there is a "community" edition (limitation is basically that you can't open files produced in the community edition in the commercial versions), you can do the parametric thing with it, including creating whole "families" of parts e.g. same physical structure (more or less, you can also suppress features based on parameters if needs be) with different dimensions.
Another option to look at, though it's a completely different paradigm is OpenSCAD, it's basically CAD by scripting so about as "parametric" as CAD can be ;)
I've wanted to try Solid Edge, but for one, Linux compatibility... and for other, i'm always afraid they'll pull a rug from underneath you. So i rather end up torturing myself in FreeCAD. Which is powerful, i can do anything i can think of, but it isn't nice.
Great video. One more advantage to note with the resin prints - you can actually just buy white or clear resin, and then add dye to it. With a bit of effort and practice, you can actually colour match pretty close. You can also get some pretty nice effects by adding stuff like mica powder to the resin, and it also prints fine.
Solidworks now has a version for a subscription of a few dollars a month now.
one day we will have printers capable of printing the whole case of cpc 6128 . . .
That's the hope! I give it less than 5 years.
Hi Noel. I'm not sure what processes PCBWay used for your prints. However, it's very likely that no matter which method used, they are employing equipment to post process the print. This equipment can be of few different types: vibratory abrasion, fluid abrasion, or jet, as well as a few others depending on the print method. SLS printing is another common industrial 3D printing technology, which is a fused powder. I've worked with many of these post process machines, and the results can be truly incredible. They can also remove desired details. However, most higher end post processing machines can have a variety of customized profiles created to balance the good and the bad to get the most desirable result for an automated (timed) cycle. Generally some manual work is still required, before using the automated process. Some of the parts, especially on flat surfaces look as though they were painted in a matte finish, and are super smooth. Part dimensions can also change due to material removal. This 'may' explain why your parts were so smooth, and felt thinner.
Yes, I think you're right. I looked at the print really closely and even has some things that look to be hand processed.
Great video! And I can relate to it a lot. I've bought an Ender S1 (without Pro) in January and have similar experiences. It works almost every time without tweaking and fiddeling. And my results look a lot like your's. But I don't have issues with parts not sticking to the bed. I had it once when trying to print a keycap for a Dragon 32, But rubbing the bed thoroughly with IPA before each new print solved that completely. For example I print keycaps without any rim, just standing on the bottom edge.
Cool special effects. I think I have the same Ender 3D printer I got for school sitting in my office. I will be playing with it this summer. Something else I've been wanting to look at is mold making. COVID sort of slowed that down but maybe this summer.
Definitely play with it. Very worth it! Hit me up with any questions.
Cool vid, thankyou
I find Fusion 360 performs much better in Windows compared to MacOS. It’s still my preferred CAD program but I’ve also used Onshape (cloud based) which is pretty good as well. For really simple designs, TinkerCAD can also be useful. I have a Prusa printer that has served me well these past few years.
Had an FDM printer since my Anet A8, but got a resin printer in 2022 - they are very different beasts. I too have mine set up in a spare bathroom for ventilation, but struggle with maintaining a room temperature about 20°C. I finally achieved good prints, but now have sizing issues. Arrggg 😋
There is nothing like having money :)
A couple of years ago Geetech sent me one of their multicolour printers to review, this one can have two different rolls of filament installed at once and swap between them or even mix the two together, so you can actually do colour mixing ! I use my printers mostly for making replacement parts for old electronic test equipment I repair for my videos. For finer details I run my Ender3 V2 with a 0.2mm nozzle, it takes a LOT longer to print but it results in much better quality, I am yet to find a 0.2mm nozzle for the geetech.
Have they changed nozzle type at Geeetech? They used to use standard M6 mount nozzle.
@@SianaGearz I honestly don’t know, I’ve just been trying to find ones that specify that machine, or look the same as the originals at least.
@@TheDefpom Right they HAVE changed the nozzle, the new nozzle uses M7 thread.
MK10 nozzle uses M7 thread as well, but it's bored for the PTFE to go ALL the way inside it, 4mm ID. So i don't know whether it'll work with Geeetech's modern assembly. It might be worth switching to those and create yourself a slug similar to those CHT clones, or maybe that one is suitable. You have seen CNC Kitchen's videos?
Honestly if i had that, given Geeetech doesn't appear to make other nozzles than 0.4mm, i'd be tempted to rebuild it to a different hotend that uses M6/MK8 nozzle :( I notice that there are generic mixtruder hotends built like that, cheap but not sure whether they're any good.
Recently I found an E-HT PLA filament, and it is really great. Prints have great layer adhesion and literally no warp, so they stick to bed perfectly, even on sharp corners. Of course, it still is just PLA, but it gives just perfect prints every time.
Oh interesting! I'll have to check that one out. Is that the brand or is that a type of PLA? Do you have a link to them? Thanks.
@@NoelsRetroLab It is a type of modified PLA. I'm not sure if YT allows links, but the brand behind it is Print-Me. It is an EU (or to be more precise Polish) company, but I believe its products are available worldwide.
The monitor model probably just warped. Applying heat to bend it back would be a hassle, I'd just try to add some supports and sand it afterwards.
Blender which is frfree as in freedom has parametric modeling... It's not a CAD software though, so it doesn't have like sketching and constraint-based designing.
Fusion 360 runs just fine on 2015 Intel PC. It's just not compiled for arm64. That's why it's so slow on Macs...
Get some buffing/sanding blocks.... And some elbow grease... PLA can and will shine like glass with some effort... Also, keep any grease (fingers) away from the printbed surface... Scrub with acetone/iso if you touch it... PLA won't stick if any grease is present. Avoid silicone oils like hell, one touch and will never get it to stick. Larger models can be split and glued together with proper glues (acetone based for ABS, ethyl based for PLA - do some experiments first!)
Noel - Great video - I have the same exact printer as you but with a magnetic spring steel PEI bed surface. Not sure if it is available in EU but old 70's Aquanet brand heavy duty hair spray gives me much better and cleaner bed results than glue stick, and more precise than blue tape which requires bed re-adjustment for height. I have found on my printer, the "auto- leveling" does not work consistently all that well at the very 10-11" diagonal extreme edges and I have had the same experience as you with diagonal full bed prints edge lifting (usually in the opposite back corner for me). I actually use the old school "nozzle paper gap" thin paper adjustment method, and once dialed in by manually testing the corners (rather than auto-leveling), I comment out the auto-leveling G29 line gcode that automatically gets put in by Prusa slicer to prevent constant and sometimes inconsistent auto-leveling (Cure doesn't do that but I prefer Prusa for quick prints even though for complex stuff I also use Cure once in a while) HTH
While 3D printing is cool and all. I just hate how long it takes to print stuff. I probably would have gone to a yard sale and bought some old aratri cartridges and cleaned up the case remove the label and iriginsl pcb. Then j7st used that case.
Try printing a cartridge case in resin. Preferably a transparent resin. I did my KungFu Cart case in transparent blue. It looks amazing.
I almost forgot you can get a smoother top layer by enabling ironing. I get pretty smooth top layers on my prusa, but ironing makes it feel like glass. I'm guessing it won't be quite that smooth on an ender, but it should hlep.
If you had an old IBM PS2 with CADKEY plus it's associated Dongle that plugs into the LPT set up as EPP in BIOS then you should be good to go.
Something important to remember about filament is that you do have to sand and prime/paint them, same with resin. You can also get clear/base colour resin that you can adjust the colour to suit your project. Resin is best for overall quality and polish as well as for highly detailed prints, though resin printing is still really good. Also, while yes, resin can be dangerous, and gloves and masks SHOULD be used, it isn't gonna immediately kill you. Precaution and safety is always the best, though the way it was handled seemed like a bit overkill. IDK just seemed like you were almost scared of it. Still very very good video. I wish I could own a 3d printer of my own. I used to have a neighbor with one that let me send files and a bit of money for filament to print what I want. Don't have money for my own printer, but thankfully there are services online for the parts I rarely need.
Using a RAW unfinished print is never a 1st choice.sand,fill (with body filler to smooth out hose imperfections)and paint to match the use....
Great video, very informative. I've been thinking of 3d printing also. If you have a spare Amiga 500 I'll take it for free, no strings attached ;)
I couldn't get into Fusion 360 at all; I spent a couple of hours on it and couldn't make anything of note 😞
I use Tinkercad as it does what I need something to do; have made quite a few things with it, including an Amiga PSU cover that screwed into a wooden base.
One way I have found good for smoothing out keys is to apply a thin layer of clear epoxy resin. It fills the tiny gaps and if you apply paint first can protect it and stop it rubbing off. I just use kits made for jewellery making.
around $50 is really cheap even assuming the time used is half of what it would take on the domestig machine. I worked in a cnc machining shop and the machines cost about $65 per hour sin tax which I thought was way too low. Try freecad for your models. I prefer solidworks but that is far from free.
i found that just sanding PLA pieces down and after take a old cloth with some wd40 to rub it down...looks amazing.
large companies tend to use plastic powder laser sintering which produces vert smooth prints, akin to resin.
One more thing about 3D printer is that it's not just the printing where you have to learn, but the post-process too! Some pieces will need glueing, some will need to be primed and sanded, etc... some pieces are very involved...
Excelente video. Mucha información interesante para empezar a explorar el tema. Muchas gracias.
ABS plastic can be smoothed in hot vapor of Aceton; PLA - in Di-Chlor-Ethan.
blender doesn't have parameters, but it's free. It loads instantly. I use it all the time. It's not exactly ideal for engineering components though. It's more for artistic models. But I'm making a car part for my dad and it's worked great for that.
I've done a few things in it but it's not very intuitive to say the least.
@@6581punk First time I saw it, I said it looked like someone vomited buttons all over the screen. Well, it's not like that anymore. 2.9 was a huge update that makes it as user friendly as maya and 3d studio max. But these types of programs do have a big learning curve. Fortunately there is blenderguru on youtube that has really good tutorials.
When you need a plastic part, or one printed of wood fiber or sintered metal, 3D printing can get it done. Additive Manufacturing is a revolutionary and disruptive technology.
As far as I know you can mix resins. So you could in theory figure out the Pantone code for the original key's plastic and mix multiple resins to get the right color?
It takes a lot of handling but I prefer resin printing over filament. I easily can print the little cogs for the Macintosh floppy eject mechanism in high detail. But filament is great for testing, design, ...
SD Card? It sounds like it was the 90s... Why not network support or USB?
FreeCad
If you're having problems with the print popping off too soon, you need to use Elmer's glue stick
From the video title, I thought you would show a way that vintage computers could be used to control 3d printers and got excited... sadly not the case
5:22 really shows the downside of using a non glass bed, it's already warping with that much surface area on the build plate.... You printed that slow only to mess up the print still lol.
Great recommendations. Filament printing really is good enough for most, if not all, functional things.
I use OpenSCAD for pretty much everything. Super intuitive for me compared to fusion etc. and very easy to learn.
I have three pet peeves with SCAD. One is lack of fillets and chamfers, you have to place connecting geometry explicitly if you want professional looking and strong prints, and it takes a ton of extra time, and isn't always sensibly possible. Though you can just import SCAD CSG intermediate as Part into FreeCAD and it might chamfer and fillet if it doesn't get too confused. The other is the lack of consistent anchoring of primitives, aligning them on extents and middles. Like why isn't there a builtin way for a box to be aligned at the middle of the bottom face? And third is just how insanely slow it is at export level CSG. It's inexcusably sluggish. I used to use SCAD a lot but now i'm finding that i'd rather use FreeCAD for everything.
I am going to explore other code based modelling software for sure though.
@@SianaGearz my use cases are probably a lot simpler than yours 😊 but I've got a more complex project coming up that might mean I have to reevaluate. I've downloaded freecad and will take a look, thanks for the info!
@@sweetlilmre Give Joko Engineeringelp's comprehensive guide to PartDesign a go if you're going to learn FreeCAD.
FreeCAD is not the sort of software i'd recommend because new user experience is horrible; but it also isn't excessively slow and does what i need it to including well into the future. I've used Fusion before and really liked it from the UX perspective but was afraid of the leash.
@@SianaGearz thanks for the info! I hated fusion and share the lock in concerns. I reckon if I can find my way around eagle then freecad can't be too bad 😂
havnt seen using painters tape. You might want to try PCB boards.
freeCAD has parametric modeling too. And it's open source.
print with a thick wall - sand and paint and some clear coat and it feels like 'real' injected molding
Just use a gluestick and cover the whole bed with one layer then print, its sticks like mad and will need to pry it off but at least it sticks, after do wash it with mild soap and water
Acetone vapor can smooth PLA surfaces. Just make sure not to ignite it.
Fusion is a web app I think. In the background it runs in a web container on our machines. So, it took time to running up
I wonder if by heating the printed monitor door with a heat gun you can make some adjustments to its shape?
i have to try this, when i get round to it i have a original zx80 motherboard that came in a joblot with no case
Thanks for the detailed and honest video, Noel. TBH this has put me off buying a 3D printer as it seems like too much hassle and expense for my particular use cases. I'd probably only need maybe 5 3D printed parts a year, so I'm more than happy to pay others to do the 3D printing for me.
I totally get it. And that was also the goal of the video: To let people know what they were getting into. For some people this is easier than they were expecting, and for some people they realized it was too much. It's only going to get better, so maybe in a few years it'll be worth it for you.
Another alternative is to make sure a friend of yours gets into 3D printing 🤣
Super cool! Makes me want to get a 3D printer even more.
Great video Noel!!! Best wishes, Michael...
@27:20 that looks like it has been vacuum formed.
It is quite an involved process but resin printing is currently the best way to print small smooth and or detailed objects, very good at action figures heh. Filament printing has it's own advantages in cost and safety but I'd definitely be a person sanding, using filler, and painting to try and smooth them further.
Well when you consider everything that was really cheap to print one custom shell for $80 Ie. "Well it is a jetpack, but it's kind of expensive, and I wanted it in red.".😆
Yeah, I agree on all counts 😃
I was expecting at one point for you to say “well now another tool that would be great for this is a CNC machine. Oh look someone sent me one for free.” 🙄
I've had some offers, but I can't honestly say it's something I'd be using a lot (or that most of the viewers would have) 😃
Tweak Espresso at home?, are you member of r/espresso? ;-)
Was resin printing worth it? I agree with your last comment. You didn’t really talk about the total actual cost of the key including the pollution that it created. Honestly, I feel resin printing is still a 1/2 baked technology. Too many issues. But since you got everything for free, I guess it make sense to advertise it a bit.
It is if you need that kind of detail. I didn't get into it, but there are some pieces of cassette mechanisms that only work well with resin. Also, if you want to print miniatures, it's resin all the way. But if I didn't have an easy ventilation solution, then I agree it's a lot of money and trouble. So hard to say.
versuch doch einfach eine Aceton Bedampfung deiner mit PLA gedruckten Teile, sie werden glatt wie ein Babypopo. p.s. mit ABS wird die Oberfläche nach dem bedampfen noch glatter.
Have you tried submerging in acetone to smooth PLA filament prints?
Seems to do a pretty good job if you dial in the duration properly
I didn't try that! Maybe next time.
Noel, Thank you for your excellent work.
Quality content as usual, with extensive insights and amazing production value.
More than a decade ago I worked on the software stack Fusion 360 is built upon. The cost of deterministic behavior across multiple platforms and versions leads to largely bloated codebases, which often have to dispense with platform-specific optimizations. It would not surprise me if this software required a very strict variant of Rosetta to be able to reproduce with exacting numerical precision the results in the x86 reference.
Thanks! Yes, I didn't think about it, but someone else mentioned that it runs much faster on Windows, so it's probably something related to that.
@@NoelsRetroLab there can be limitations even for Windows x86 builds, for instance the RCPSS and RSQRTSS SSE instructions have different results on AMD and Intel.
the best intro to 3D printing I've seen - kudos
14:40 this may be not a problem with the model but rather with 3D printer calibration. Try printing a calibration cube 100x100x100 mm and measure it with calipers. You will find out that it's not exactly 100x100x100 mm but something like 99.8x100x100.2 mm. Use this data to scale the model accordingly. This is typically needed only for large models. Regarding the color match note that nothing prevents you from painting the model. An open alternative for Fusion 360 would be either OpenSCAD or FreeCAD, personally I prefer the first one. There is a great video "Prototype Enclosures with FreeCAD & OpenSCAD" on OpenTechLab channel that compares them.
I did calibrate with a unit cube and it was spot on. That was quite a while ago (before the nozzle change), so maybe I should have done it again? Although that's more of a motor calibration than nozzle, so that should have been fine unless they drift over time. Maybe I'll try again. Thanks!
@@NoelsRetroLab the rubber belts may stretch over time and the corresponding structural elements of the 3D-printer may move slightly due to vibration. So it may be worth rechecking from time time. Personally I don't do this however because in my projects +/- 0.5 mm don't matter much.
@@R2AUK Rubber belts also come slightly undersize and you're supposed to stretch them to correct pitch by tensioning. But reaching full pitch is perilous as well, you might start binding the stepper bearing or imprinting the belt pattern into the print, as the contact patch on the idler changes. It's better to tune by feel to where the mechanics feels right and just ignore that the moves are 0.2% undersize :D
Nice video. A few remarks though:
- PETG is not necessarily stronger than PLA. Modern PLA filaments are complex blends, and are often stronger than PETG. However, PLA is usually a bit more stiff than PETG, and that can be detrimental for specific applications.
- If you really want to print really fine stuff with filaments (FDM printers) instead of resin, there are some things you can still do, like using a smaller nozzle with extra-small layer heights, and ironing the top layers (through the slicer). The difference between 0.4mm and 0.2mm nozzles can be astonishing. Also, printing extra-slow often helps with the quality.
I have had my PLA prints craze and fail when loaded after about 2-4 years. I no longer trust PLA. If i want something to hold, i use PETG and HIPS for this reason. Straight out of the printer, PLA is remarkably strong, i just can't trust it to stay that way.
@@SianaGearz Fair enough. I haven't really had that problem myself, but mostly I use PLA+. Some of my functional prints have held up great for the last five years.
I suppose it depends on plenty of factors, like how much daily pressure the prints have to endure, how humid the environment is, etc.
i'm very surprised by your experience with fusion 360, my relatively low end windows pc boots fusion in about 15-20 seconds