Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

[clearchris]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

It might be a calibration issue more than anything because it is a perfectly round but just a few millimeters small but the squares come out correctly as far as I know
This happens mostly on inside measurements not outside measurements so I am a little confused about this issue

It looks round, but it's not. And depending on where you measure it, it could be the right size or too small. But when you put something round in the printed hole, it won't fit.

I think your fit issues have much less to do with shrinkage, and more to do with the number of faces on your printed circle. Go here and look at the green cylinders.

https://www.rs-online.com/designspar...ting-using-dsm

Be careful with a laser cutter. People have died running one in their home. Depending on what you are cutting, the fumes could be toxic. If you have a ventilation system, and it fails, you die. Otherwise, I don't know much about them, I'd be more interested in building an MPCNC, it's basically a cnc router, you can do all kinds of stuff with it, and it's far less dangerous than a laser cutter.

https://docs.v1engineering.com/mpcnc/intro/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zefnrPRvc9Q

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

https://docs.v1engineering.com/mpcnc/intro/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zefnrPRvc9Q

I am going to give this real consideration to using a MPCNC setup or maybe not doing everything with a laser
Thanks for sharing this information

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

Well I getting a little further on my Desoldering Gun Battery Operated Station
Finally have the circuit board holder for the circuit boards that need to be mounted

But 3D printer was not behaving itself very well

First thing I found out that the bed is some what warped so l have to level it to the size of the project that I am printing ( this is a pain in the ass )

Second thing is that the clear translucent filament was not feeding through the extruder correctly at 210*C I had to raise it 220*C now it feeds correctly ( the other problem was as it was printing you would hear it clicking when retracting now it is not doing this anymore ) ( this was with a new extruder tip )

Every once in awhile the slicer program seems to have some type of issues where it does not compile correctly

Yesterday when I went to print something it did not raise the extruder correctly it just went over and going through the motions but NOT using any filament this is the first time I have seen this behavior with this printer

I deleted the file and recompile the same exact file again this time it worked correctly

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

There is more soggy to this story
I have been having issues with the object lifting on the conners sometimes more so on one side of the table and sometimes to point that the print has to be aborted because it not useable

Well I have found out that if the object that I want to print has a very large surface area I have to turn on table warmer and set it 50*C then quality of the print is a 100% better and much easier to remove from the table when the print is finished

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

I found some very interesting software to use for this application

But I do not have all the parts to do this modification yet so I have put it on hold for now

I have a laser module but I have to check for it output power
I have to make the laser mounting to where the extruder is
I have to get a buck converter that is rated for more than 3 amps
I have make a enclosure for the power switch and power off LED light for the laser Power OFF
I have to get a welder safety glass shield that is plasma rated for in front of the laser ( this is a maybe )
I have get a red colored laser and a green colored glasses for safety
I have to download the the software to create the g-code and the software for creating the objects

Well I have given up on the idea of modifying a Ender 3 to a laser machine ( but I going to use it to use ABS plastic but I have make an enclosure for it because from I have read so far you have to have it an enclosure for best results ) I do not want to use an extruder for more than one type of plastic color filaments are a different story

However I have had a engraver machine that I had bought a couple of years ago and because I could not find a TTL module to control the laser output and a TTL control the spindle speed as well I did not do anything with it but the other reason I did not do anything with it was because of the table size was to small

The table size is going to be ( X ) 400mm X ( Y ) 400mm X ( Z ) is original in mm not modified

Now I found a newer controller unit that is also off line controller

(The Ender 3 is a OFF LINE controller this why I have decided not use the Ender for this purpose)

and a TTL controller module for the laser and for the spindle and also found the rails for the stepper motors for the table now it time to make this work

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

Well I now finally finished the switch enclosure that I was working with the 3D printer it came out pretty good not perfect but workable

One thing I had to do is trim the terminals on the switches so the enclosure would come together

The switches in the enclosure are a little bit loose but but not terrible I will not need anything to keep them in place

The back cover I tried to do something that did not work correctly
Some how the slicer did not slicer did not compile the top part correctly I stopped the printer before I could not salvage the part

This is for the engraving machine that I am building

[clearchris]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

Yeah, I always use the heated bed. ABS can be tough, an enclosure will help, bed surface also really helps. I'm not a fan of the buildtak surfaces that come with printers these days. Great for PLA, bad for anything else. I have kapton tape on my printers.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

I think your fit issues have much less to do with shrinkage, and more to do with the number of faces on your printed circle. Go here and look at the green cylinders.

https://www.rs-online.com/designspar...ting-using-dsm

The leftmost cylinder has the tightest *functional* inner radius because it's the coarsest print. This is true even though the "as designed" radius is the same. Don't underestimate this effect.

Otherwise, you need to print out a 20mm calibration cube and measure it. Then calibrate your axes.

I haven't done any battery cases, so I don't have any direct experience there. I would take a look up on thingiverse first and see what people have done already. You might find one ready to go, or you might see a few that have good ideas you want to incorporate into your own design.

There has been an update on the Window 3D builder to deal with this issue “ the number of faces on your printed circle. Go here and look at the green cylinders.”

I will have to use this new feature and see if it makes a difference but it will be a while before I can get my 3D printer back on line because I need to do some repairs to because of some issues that I was having and I stopped using it and stopped doing 3D drawing because of not having the right computer ( to old to use for CAD drawing ) to do the drawing properly and just getting frustrated with from freezing issues

[eccerr0r]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

really don't think a high end computer is really necessary unless you have a very intricate object or want to model a very large system...

I teally need to move from PLA to ABS... alas no access to a printer that will do ABS.

Alas the heated bed for ABS would more than double the energy cost of the printer...

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

The issue really was that the computers that
I have and tried to use are just too old for what
I really want to do
I would agree with you that what
I have done might be a little bit over kill but all
I have done in the past did was just surface internet and check the email but never considered doing CAD drawings or anything like this before

The question about doing an “ very intricate object” I do not know how intricate object is going to be until I start doing it

But when I started playing with Windows 3D builder and learned how to do the basics and realizing that I could do it but dealing with a old computer doing this type drawing was not going to cut because I gave up doing any of it partly because of a job change and not wanting to deal with the computer issues it just to much

One note I have learned about electronics it was self taught from my father who was an airplane mechanic which I learned quite about the basics and building electronic kits when I was really young and I have learned a lot from this forum and trial and error so by saying trying to learn something that you do not know anything about other than the very very basics theory of what it takes to do 3D printing and 3D drawing and trying to be self taught and dealing with equipment that is not up to the job is just way too much

Now I have a normal job and I have more time and had some money and decided that this time I was going get a much better computer which hopefully will last me a long time and I would not have buy another anytime soon

From what I understand about doing ABS plastic is that you need a different extruder and have the printer in an enclosure for best results

[eccerr0r]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

I've done some fairly simple straightforward objects in 3d modelling software without any difficulty on my ancient machines. it didn't even need a gpu, all done in emulation. granted there is some delay when doing final render and slicing, but up until that it's not too bad. The cad software tries to simplify render preview which helps a lot.

You can use the same extruder with ABS as PLA but the enclosure is good to keep the plastic warm (and to keep the fumes from spreading). The heatbed is most important as it is one of the main things to keep the plastic from lifting off the bed.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Here is a new twist to using an ATX Power Supply

BTW I use openscad. One of the "fun" things I did was build a couple of parametric models and made it take snapshots of the design after using a for() loop to slightly change the design, and there I ended up with a way to finally make my own looping motion GIFs of the models I created ... and the computer didn't break a sweat trying to generate them, no noticeable delays. Final render and slicing only take a few seconds at most.

I should actually print one of my designs... hacked up a take up reel for my old R2R tape recorders. I found one spool of tape for it but never had a second reel to work the tape so I designed one. For proof of concept and minimize waste I printed a small one, now I need to make a full sized one.

[sam_sam_sam]

Yes I revive this post because I have questions about open cad software I will ask the question later on today

[sam_sam_sam]

First of all do you have write code for the use of this program because I noticed that there script for different functions I not a software programmer so I am not sure that this software is going to work for me