Ranger Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Post has just been and my Alpha in ABS is here! As you would expect with any robot from John, it's just brilliant....thanks again John! Yes, I can confirm, the ABS really does whiff but I can live with that and it will probably diminish over time. You just have to love those cogs, they are really amazing. John is a true engineer for sure to build this whole robot!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalRobotHead Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Ranger, that is amazing, you are one lucky b****r Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robot polishing his rocket Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 WOW! a whole load of detail on the cogs that really looks the part. congrats ranger, and nice one john. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 I recently got the White PLA "no smell" and its a brighter white. The ABS white is kind of a antique white. So bright white robots that do not whiff will be made. The multi color robot project is still waiting on the last two colors of plastic to arrive but then you will see all the colors together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marco Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 What happend to those black wheels !! ?? Looks like your printer does have some extrusion problems John. Even with ABS the "melting" should be much better than that... Maybe a good cleanup of the nozzle with some nylon could do miracles. I can not see the rest of the white parts quite well but i noticed on other pics where you printed the Rama Robot in PLA that your printer has some extrusion problems. you really should take a look at that John, it can be in the feeder as well. Mostly its a combination of a dirty nozzle and problems with the feeder that does prevent the printer to give a smooth flow of material. This problem occurs pretty quickly by the way, even with a new printer. I think your printer also has a sort of teflon coupler.. check that one as well, needs to be replaced from time to time. You will get MUCH better results than with your printer You'll know where to find me if you need any help. Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonydroid Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Hi Ranger, it´s awesome in ABS white, congrats ;-D, you got 3 already woww... you are a lucky guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 Thanks guys, johns robots are amazing in action and amazing value for money. Those cogs are a fantastic feature, they look just fine and work great, job done. When you consider John has 1 used printer that he repaired himself he has done a wonderful job of producing these robots for us. Remember that this one was also just a trial using ABS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 The look of the gears are no mistake. I spent several days getting the artistic look for them. The side of the gear you see on the robot when assembled is the side that is facing down on the 3d printer build plate. The first thing a 3d printer does when it start's a part is trace a outline of the part then a simple fill. I found that I could dial down the extruder temp and keep the first two layers of plastic from flowing 100% and that way I could keep the traced out line artwork as it looks very cool. The rest of the part is printed at full temp and the plastic is very strong. The gears have suport fill that has to be removed so that also helps give the texture of a cast metal part of years gone by. I did the same thing for the Botstock 13 text plates. I wanted them to look like cast iron, something off a old battle ship, very steam punk. You will notice on things like the arms you can hardly even see that the part was 3d printed. I am sure there is a way to add texture to them but I do not know how yet so they stay nice and clean looking for now. I have control of my cheep printer. It does what I say or else. Good news Ranger the last two new color of plastic arrived today so I am finishing up the multi color bot. Then the fun of trying out a new program, I think walking in a circle might be cool for starters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marco Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Very cool to hear you have good control over your printer John. I just noticed the imperfection so thats why I offered you my help and shared my experience in the underextrusion problems. Two always know more than one don`t you think :-) I know the process of 3D printing is complex and I still learn about it every day. Its simply more than just turning it ON. load the filament and watch it go. The fact that your printer was cheap, has not much to do with the final result. I think your printer is capable of doing great prints as well, watched some reviews about it and its a good machine and basicly build to print in ABS because it has a closed chamber. I did some tests in ABS in the beginning but besides the terrible smell, I get just better results in PLA. Printing in ABS does not have that much advances towards PLA. The higher temp for ABS only causes more damage to the PTFE coupler which results in under extrusion. I think its good to be critical on this new path we both took, we both can learn from eachother dont you think ? Like I said, TWO knows more than ONE ! I can handle it because i can only learn from it And if we can share our problems in the process and the solutions... it will only bring better results. Of course that is how I see things personally :-) Keep up the good work ! Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 John, good news indeed re the multi coloured version, I am looking forward to seeing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maloo Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 A nice looking robot Ranger and great patterned drive gears. It reminds me of the crawler cranes I used to work on back in the eighties Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 Thanks Maloo. Yes, those gears look great standing still but when the robot is switched on they work superbly. The whole robot is excellent but when I saw those gears for the very first time meshing and controlling the robot as they do I was amazed. Maybe there is one but I can't think of any robot with such a mechanism esp at the back of the feet/legs. It was a great bit of design work and very well done. It seems simple now that we have it but some of the best designs are just that. John has that mechanical engineers brain, and it shows! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I agree Marco, the more information the better. I decided to try and use the printer as artistic tool, give one guy a hammer and they drive nails give it to a artist and they sculp, I was trying to see what I might be able to sculpt but still have strong useable parts. I may have gone to far with the idea but that is how we learn. I would love to have you add lots of 3d printing help ideas to the 3d printer alphadrome thread any time you find a few moments of spair time as it might help others that want to get a printer for space toy design and your work is so good that it could only help. Yes even the best 3d printer is not perfect, resin casting from a perfect master part is still better from a finished part look but this is different a different tool and you should expect a different end result. So yes I will keep playing around until I brake something, then I will fix it and learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marco Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Hey John, well its very good to hear we share the same interest and ideas and I will be gladly there to share the information. When i bought my scanners and printer i had a clear goal for what to use them and that is to make awesome rare creations that would not be possible without this 3D technique. Still its a steep learning curve with many problems to solve. you can dive so damned deep into the settings of those printers to make the results better and better... speed, temp, layers, support etc... still have a lot to learn here as well. Yes even the best 3D printer runs into the same problems as the cheap ones. I think its the time you invest to find all the correct settings, material etc is the key for succes here. Casting will still give better results, sharper and more secure but not all parts can be casted, taken apart or can be found. The cool thing is when you have a file in 3D, it can be adjusted... make it 2 mm bigger or smaller to get the right fit and.... no loss of details after making 100 copies.. the result will always be the same. I will share my ideas, info and helpful tips in the 3D printer thread, lets make it a cool source for the rest of us... Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roboto Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 What a great looking Rama!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.