Year: 2022

3D Printing a 15-Foot Dragon – Part 3 Printing





Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video. Today is the third instalment of this miniseries, where I undertake the challenge of 3D printing a 15-foot dragon. In the last video, we took the concept art and turned this into a 3d printable model, from which could start the printing process.

At the time of starting this project, I had just gotten the CR30 which I had pre-ordered during the Kickstarter project, so after doing some initial tests I believed I was ready to begin printing. I therefore took my STL files and loaded these up into the slicer to begin testing my prints. From the beginning there were changes to be made to the models since there were certain areas which were printing incorrectly. After thickening up the wall and double-checking them in Cura to get rid of any artifacts, as I was able to proceed to the next stage.

Now by the time I had received this machine we had reached the warmest period of the year and with multiple machines running at the time I had to contend with fairly high temperatures along with much higher humidity level. The average temperature in my apartment was around 5 to 8 degrees warmer than outside, and that was with a poorly functioning air conditioner running at mid-power. The print bed adhesion was severely compromised as a result, not to mention that the filament I had purchased came in two different batches. Despite ordering the exact same filament, both batches required completely different temperatures. So with the sweltering heat I did my best to get the prints going for this machine, however things would prove far difficult than expected.

After a couple of successful prints, I began to notice 2 things. The first is that the prints weren’t sticking to the bed, and the second was that the prints were getting worse the more I printed with the machine. After several failed prints dislodged themselves from the print bed, I eventually figured out that I needed to wipe down the surface of the machine in isopropyl alcohol. The second batch of filament required a minimal hot end temperature of 210 along with a slightly higher build plate temperature. Although I had finally gotten the prints to stick down, they were still getting worse. After having tried changing the retractions, ooze amounts, printing heights, and temperature just to mention a few, nothing seemed to work, so I tried re-loading a previous file that had successfully printed. When that print also failed to complete I knew that the issue was mechanical in nature and after a month and a half of troubleshooting the answer finally came during an awful print failure. The extruder pressure was clearly too tight, since it had pushed it through the Bowden tube itself. I must admit, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this happen. After replacing the Bowden tube, it was here that I discovered what was causing the lack of material to extrude. The tip of the Bowden tube has burned and deformed due to heat creep. I ordered myself some Capricorn tubing and replaced it with this higher quality option. With this completed, I was finally able to extrude material once again and there was a remarkable improvement on the print quality. This meant that the higher temperatures of the new filament had caused excessive amounts of heat to creep up the hot end. With the 3d prints finally completing, I began printing the rest of the plates for the dragon.

Prior to beginning the full sized print of the head, I began fine-tuning my measurements in Blender with small scale resin prints of these parts. This allowed me to go through many alliterations at a quick pace prior to committing to the full print. This saved me several weeks of work, since I clearly had to make changes to my tolerances before proceeding to the full size. With these changes completed, I was now ready to start printing the final piece.

Throughout the printing process, I ran into constant issues with the time-lapse footage, but this was nothing in comparison to when it came to printing the full sized head. You see this portion was a 5-day print which included the jaw, top portion of the skull and the connector. I’m sure you guys can guess which part had an issue. If you guessed the top of the skull, then you would be correct, since the cable to the hot end got caught along the frame and caused the machine to start releasing random strings of filament. After this, I zip tied the cable to prevent this from happening a second time and attempted to restart the print where it left off. This is where I discovered the that machine itself seems to have a procedure in place to move the Z axis prior to starting any print, which in this case was what I wanted to avoid. In the end, I solved this issue by starting the print where it left off and manually aligning the print onto the bed while it started extruding filament. I believe this only worked because the head was already so heavy that it had enough weight to stay in place during the print. Although I did end up with a significant offset, the end result would still work once it was filled in.

With all the portions printed, it was now time to begin finishing and assembling the pieces prior to the painting process. But that will be a story for another day. I hope you guys enjoyed the journey so far, and I hope to see you guys soon. Thank you and take care.

CR10 Smart – Extruder Upgrade



Instructions

In today’s article, we’ll be covering how to replace the Feeder Extruder with the MK-8 on the CR10 Smart.  I purchased this upgrade kit with my own money for this upgrade, and as always do this mod at your own risk.

Now this feeder has a couple of good features which will make both this machine easier to maintain and more durable in the long run.  The stock feeder, has for many users of both the CR-6 SE and CR-10 Smart, caused quite a few issues due to its lack of durability and design.  Although the stock extruder has a convenient release mechanism for the filament, all the parts are currently made from a plastic which is prone to wearing over time, not to mention that the closed design makes it difficult for maintenance overall.  The MK-8 on the other hand, is an open design which is much simpler to assemble.  The model that you see here is also made from all metal parts, making it a longer lasting product.

So before we begin, I’d recommend laying out all the parts so that it’s easier to see everything as well as ensuring that we have all the required components.  For this kit in particular, there are 4 different screws, some of which are very similar in design.  If you have any filament that’s currently loaded, you’ll need to remove this prior to installing the components.

With the machine turned off, we’ll remove the old feeder from the machine by loosening the screws on the top cover.  We can then take the second set of screws out while holding the motor in place to prevent from damaging the build plate.

The first part we’ll put together is the adjustment arm, since this is easier to address while the part isn’t currently installed. For this we’ll need the washer, U-bearing and the M4 Screw that we’ll assemble into this portion of the arm.  You want to make sure that the screw is tight enough to hold the U-bearing in place, but not tight enough to prevent any movement.  We’ll then add one of the next set of screws (There should be 3 of them, but we’ll only be using one for now), which will help hold the spring into place later on.  For the baseplate, we can pre-install the Bowden tube connector.  In this case we don’t need to adjust the extrusion gear since it should already be set to the correct height, however you can check this by inserting some filament when this is fully assembled.

Using the Flat top screw, you’ll attach the motor to the baseplate and use these remaining 2 screws to fully secure it into place. The arm has a small metal piece which is designed to allow the adjustment arm to rotate freely, and we’ll put this in now before we add the tensioning spring.  This small component (looks like a screw but isn’t) is what allows us to adjust the tension on the spring, and goes together.  It’s easier to insert the spring first followed by the attachment screw and this should be pretty easy so long as you push these two portions together as you do so.  Make sure to tighten the attachment screw all the way to ensure a tight fit.  With this complete, we simply need to attach the Bowden tube and secure with the claw clamp.  


Compared to some machines, this model does have the ability to adjust the tension on the filament, but in most cases you simply need to tighten this slightly since too much can cause the filament to puncture the Bowden tube.  In general, it should be just tight enough to push the filament through, but be able to skip if there’s an extrusion issue.  So long as you’ve installed a Capricorn Tubing, you shouldn’t have any issues with heat creep in the extruder.

Personal Notes

  • MK-8 All metal Extruder
  • Lay parts out Prior to assembling
  • Keep the Extrusion Gear in place
  • Tension should be just enough to push filament through

CR10 Smart (Regular) Mods

CR10 Smart Review – How Good Is It?



Transcript



Hello everybody and welcome to another video. In today’s review, we’ll be taking a closer look at the CR10 Smart by Creality and see what these machines have to offer. Full disclaimer, I purchased this machine with my own money in order to do this review, so everything you see here is based on my own opinion.

While I originally intended to release this review several months ago, I was surprised to discover quite a few hurdles in getting this machine ready for testing, as you’ll see shortly. So to start things off, I opened up the box to double-check all the components and put this machine together. The main change in the design is the incorporation of the electronics within the base of the machine. When I opened up the box, the spool holder was already broken where the ball bearings were located. This area should have been designed with a metal insert, however it simply had a screw which was supported by a thin plastic. In my case, I was able to substitute this, a similar attachment that I had left over from my Ender 3 V2. One great feature on this machine is that all the tools required to maintain it are located in a convenient shelf. This make it much easier when performing maintenance since everything is located and organized nearby.

After putting together the machine, I opened up the bottom panel to begin testing all the safety features. In order to properly test the thermal runaway, I had to actually create connection adapters. The company has created custom pin connections for all the components in the hot end assembly. This means that those portions are not so easily swapped out via the motherboard connection and instead have to be done via the connection hub that’s on the X gantry. After testing everything out, I was happy to discover that there was indeed proper thermal runaway protection enabled in both the stock version of the firmware and the updated version. Now this machine comes with a low quality Bowden tube and is one of the first recommendations I have for an upgrade since it can make a huge difference in prevent issues down the road. I have unfortunately found that on most of Creality’s machines, the stock hot end is prone to heat creep and therefore this is a good preventative measure.

Updating the firmware is not intuitive at all and has specific requirements in order to be successful. I personally believed I had bricked my machine until I discovered the usual requirements that it had. In order to do a proper update, you need to fulfill 3 main factors. You have to use the proper sized SD cards which has been formatted correctly, you must hold the power button on during the full update and the .bin file must use a different name every time an update is done. These were just some requirements, and once again I had to pause the review in order to make a video showing the proper procedure so that others would have an easier time doing this for themselves.

But why did I need to update the firmware, you ask? Well, everything time I attempted to print in vase mode, I ended up with something like this. As you can see, it didn’t quite print correctly and ended up taking 10x times the amount of time it was supposed to. To be clear, the company doesn’t recommend that you use anything but their skinned version of the Cura slicer, and I was using the most up-to-date version of Cura at the time, but this is the first machine that’s ever given me this results. While printing, I noticed that the machine was pausing continuously, which was leading to longer print times and this bubbled look. After quite a bit of troubleshooting which did include disabling the Creality Wifi Box that’s been integrated into the machine, I was finally able to solve the issue by updating the firmware. If you are using Cura I will include two Start Gcode options that I’ve tested and can confirm work correctly. The first will be the one provided by David Hart and the second one will the one that I’m currently using. Both of these will be in the download package on my website along with my custom Cura Profile.

One great feature of this machine is its ability to shut down vial the screen or after a 3d print has completed. This is a great feature to have and is something that I would like to see other companies implement in the future, however it does come with some tradeoffs that would need to be addressed in future versions. I suspect that the implementation of this feature is what makes updating the firmware less intuitive, since it requires that the user keep pressing the power button in order for it to fully complete.

This machine does indeed have tinned connections, and I would recommend replacing those for ferrule one’s. Once again, I have already created a specific video for this machine which can refer to. While opening up the machine to check for tinned wires, I also came across the device which was supposed to enable wifi connectivity. If any of you have seen my video on the Creality smart kit, you’ll be aware of my experiences regarding that device, and it’s implementation. Since that device has already been featured in another video, I will not be revisiting that portion in this review. I will say however that during my troubleshooting steps, I did have to disable the wifi box and re-enable the USB connection to the motherboard. I’ll include a link to that in the description below if you also want to do the same.

The build plate auto levelling is poorly implemented and has caused several issues for both me and others online. I personally had to add manual bed levelling in order to properly test the machine’s capabilities. As it turns out, I can say that there’s a small amount of levelling, however it is very inaccurate. I did follow Creality’s bed levelling guidelines prior to running my tests, with mixed results. It is very important to note that the print bed and hot end must be stable and not wobble in order to work correctly. There are tensioner nuts for ensuring this, and if you have any issues with your machine this should be the first thing that you check. In this case it’s far less critical that the pulley wheels have even tension, instead the stability is far more essential. After adding tensioner knobs to my printer, I was able to test whether bed levelling was fully functional, and unfortunately it seems like the machine has issues with accuracy. Even after using the start Gcode by David Hart there were still issues with bed levelling which made it unpredictable. Upon doing further research, I did come across an article by Sebastiaan Dammann which suggests that it could be electrical interference that’s causing the issue and that it could be fixed with a firmware update. Unfortunately the screen that comes with the CR10 Smart makes creating a community firmware difficult and since Creality has not yet released the source code for the machine this is likely to continue being an issue. I have already released the video for adding manual bed levelling to your printer, so if nothing else has worked, and you’ve already updated the firmware, you could try that as well.

The extruder on this machine is quite unique in itself in that I have a locking mechanism for the filament, which does indeed make it easier to feed the filament through. Now, although the machine does come with a transparent plastic that can fit into the gap that’s between the sensor and extruder, I would not recommend using it at all. If there’s a jam, you’ll find it difficult to remove the broken filament if you have this installed. The easiest way to tell if the extruder is in it’s locked state is to give the filament a simple tug and see if it moves back and forth. I personally drew a little padlock so that I would have more visual reference, so that may be something you wish to do as well.

This machine does come with quite a few quality life improvements such as belt tensioners, filament run out, silent stepper motors, dual Z axis motors, built in mosfets and thermal runaway. However, with all these elements, there’s still the glaring issues which a user will most likely have to address. This is unfortunate to say the least, since I really do like this machine now that those issues have been fixed. The out-of-the-box experience is quite bad and isn’t something I can not recommend to a new user at all. For someone who’s a tinkerer and is willing to put in the hours that’s needed to get a functional machine, I give it a 4/10 since the likelihood of the machine working correctly out of the box is very low. This machine is specifically marketed towards new users, and therefore I’m rating it as such. I’ve found this machine to be a missed opportunity and with the potential release of the CR10 Smart Pro I have serious concerns about that machine as well. If a company isn’t able to release a regular version which is fully functional, I have reservations regarding the pro version. It suggests to me that the company was using its user base as beta testers, which in today’s age is unacceptable. Perhaps once the company has release the source code or started providing upgrade kits which fix the current issues, this rating could potentially be revisited.

3D Printing a 15 Foot Dragon – Part 2 Modeling



Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video. Today is the second instalment of this miniseries, where I undertake the challenge of 3D printing a 15-foot dragon. In the previous video, we explored how the creation of the concept art helped to establish some basic design elements. Today we’ll be taking that information and translating it to a 3d printable model, from which we can then begin doing some test prints. (use different footage than the previous video) Mascot looks up at the concept art yelps and runs away.

Although I did purchase a licence of Maya many years ago, I have since switched over to Blender and have been using it for the past 5 years with great satisfaction. By using both this software and Cura I’ve found a fairly efficient workflow when creating my 3D models. I use Blender to create the models and use Cura to both print them and find issues within the mesh. Cura is very good at highlighting broken areas in the mesh and makes it easier for me to find issues which could prevent the 3d prints from succeeding. It’s for this reason that before I’ll even print, I’ll often simply open up the file to double-check that everything is in order. As witnessed by my Grey hair counter, on some occasions I do regretfully get lazy and skip this process t, and that always turns out great

So to start things off, I’ll typically look at my notes on the project and have those either printed out or on a separate screen while I work. By looking at the initial designs, I will essentially break down the shapes in my head to ones which are easier to model. Essentially I’ll look at the vertebrae design and see that the closest primitive shape is that of a cylinder and use this as my base for which I’ll create a model. This process is very similar to how professional artists will break down a subject prior to drawing the person or object. In this case, I took the cylinder and removed the bottom half so that I was left with the remainder of the mesh. From this point on, I started working on the general shape to make sure that these were as close to the design as possible. Now I did try sculpting the shape right away but quickly ran into issues using this method as you can see from the abomination that’s on your screen. The thin walls simply caused too many issues, so I continued using traditional 3d modelling techniques instead. Even though I had already drawn out a design, it’s important to still make improvements if the project allows for it, therefore I played around with the design further to see which elements could be modified to make the overall shape more interesting. When I’m happy with those portions, I can then begin adding additional details.

I’ll often use non-destructive modifier’s whenever possible, since these allow me to return to a more simplified shape. One such modifier is the mirror modifier, which allows the 3d modeller to only have to work on half of the design while the other is mirrored with software. While this workflow is very useful, it can sometimes cause problems in the geometry if not implemented properly, so it’s always a good idea to double-check the mesh as you work. Another great modifier is the solidify modifier which, although it can work great, it can …. Oh, do something like this, which is definitely not the intended result. So depending on what you’re doing, you’ll want to choose the right modifier for the job.

Once I had the main vertebrae done, I could then begin working on creating the full length of the dragon. To get the proper size requirements, I create a large cube which showed me the overall target dimensions. This was created with the 3d printer’s maximum height taken into account and the desired length. For this project, I had decided to use the CR30 since I could set up multiple prints to print all at once. I duplicated all the vertebrae and… Wow, ok little guy By using a lattice I deformed them into the shape that I wanted to achieve.

For the mechanical portions such as the jaw, I found that doing a quick sketch to get a couple of ideas out on paper was the fastest method to testing the pros and cons of each. For instance. I could have simply used some string and made some holes for the jaw to connect, but I wanted to limit the movement to just up and down as much as possible. Having a hinge would allow for this, however it would also make future repairs more difficult. I ended up choosing the hinge since I wanted to 3d print as much of the dragon as possible, and this allowed me to do so. In the end, however, a prototype always needs to be made to test out the mechanic and see what needs to be changed from the design, but that will be a story for another day. I hope you guys enjoyed the journey so far. If you want to support this channel, please feel free to check out the merch on my main website. Thank you for watching, and I hope to you again soon. Thank you and take care.

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