Project Griever: 02 - Priming and sanding

I've been playing with my 3D printer for a couple of weeks so far, and had the chance to experiment with some of its capabilities and printed some various test objects. I will come back to that for another day, because for now I want to go back to solve one of my biggest concerns of 3D printing: Some may like it, others might care less. I definitely want to get rid of it: The layered surface.

This is Griever

I ended my previous post with a finished print applied with a coating primer. Unfortunately, the primer also revealed how badly the print was. Blobs, strings and flaws mostly all over it. My guess is I missed a mark on the slicer settings or something. However the print itself is a great subject to prove that not all is lost should a print end up with a few flaws here and there. I armed myself with more primer, a dremel tool, filers and 220-400 grit sanding papers.

Sanding and priming the Griever

Lets take a closer look at how severe the layers actually are. This is my print, printed at 0.25mm layer height. Even with a single coat of primer, you can still see it won't help much unless you sand. Printing at smaller layer height will definitely help to reduce the layer visibility, but ultimately to receive a smooth finish, you still have to resort to the good old sanding and priming. Unless you print with ABS and have an acetone bath.

PLA 0.25mm layer height. Single coat of primer. Before sanding.

After sanding.

After a few minutes with some serious sanding, only some primer are left  in some of the most grim crevices. I applied a second layer of coat and sanded it down. This time with the 400 grit sanding paper to make the surface as smooth as possible.

So far so good, it both looks and feels noticeably better at this point. Good enough to ready up for the third coat.

And this is how it looks after third round with sanding and coating. It's almost there, the layers are still visible but a final round with sanding and more priming should seal the deal.

Waiting for the fourth round of primer to dry.

Metallic surface

After a fourth and final layer of primer, I decided to apply a simple black acrylic color to prepare for the metallic finish. In the top left corner is one of my test prints, undergoing the same treatment. It features both straight and angled flat surfaces i contrast with the Griever.

Painted with black acrylic spray. Almost no layers are longer visible at this point.

And here is the final result. Almost zero layers except for some locations where my sanding tools could not reach. The test print could need another round with sanding to eliminate some of the layers, but overall both looks pretty decent and much more interesting with a metallic coating on.

It took me more manual work than I anticipated to reach this stage, but then again the starting point wasn't the best. About 40 minutes in total were spent on sanding and dremeling. The outcome was everything I hoped for. No more visible layers, and the paint sticks very well. I've been eager to perform these tests as it opens up new possibilities for future projects, such as the Corvo Project, without any visible layers.

Lessons learned

• There is no problem manually sanding the surface of an object printed in PLA plastic.
• It picks up priming quite easily, however water based priming might not work as well.
• Using machine tools for sanding is possible as long as you keep it at the slowest setting and don't overheat the surface.
• Careful with not overdoing the primer, otherwise details might get lost and appear bloated.

-WJ

Project Griever: 01 - My first print

During the first weekend with my 3D printer, I managed to find time to print a couple of the Makergear demo bracelet included on the SD card. Most of the time were spent on calibrating the hardware setup, mainly speaking leveling the bed and setting the Z endstop. Two extremely cruicial aspects if you ever want to have a successful print, two amongst many other important steps in fact. Something I just learned the hard way just for about a few hours ago: the slicer settings.

What exactly is a slicer? 

A software which generate printing information based on your input settings and your 3D model. Three popular freeware slicers out there are Slic3r, KISSlicer and Cura. Basicly your workflow from start to finish is like this: 

1. Make/import/scan a 3D model in your software of choice, then export the model in a STL file format.
2. Open the STL file in a slicer software. 
3. Input settings such as your printer properties, and model size, printing speed and start/end code.
4. Slicer generates a new file called GCODE, which is readable by most printers out there.
5. GCODE gets loaded in a printer communication software. You control your printer directly from here
6. All temperatures and settings ready, hit print and watch the printer print.

The demos I received are pre-sliced and immediately ready to print, and they look good as well since they have been sliced with the correct and appropriate settings made for the specific printer. I think different types of printer should have their own unique slicer/gcode settings even though its the same model they are about to print.

Anyhow, I looked up one of my old 3D models made back in 2006, and figuerd out it might be a good printing subject since its small and proves a couple of challenges in comparison with, lets say a simple box. Lets have a look.

A symbol/Pendant called Griever

From studying the 3D model, I can guess there will be a couple of challenges:

• It's an organic shape with both concave and convex ends. 
• It has a relatively high level of details, especially in the cross section and the eye. 
• The surface is not even, and should be very subject to "terraced" surface similar to what you see when reading a height data map.
• Aaaand I've also no idea what I'm doing. Let's hit print and see what happens...

Printing the Griever

I crashed my printer several times before I managed to print something. I learned that I need to do something called "Homing my printer" before loading up the Gcode and hit print. Homing is simply telling the software where the start position for the nozzle is, which in positional terms would be 0,0,0 in the X,Y,Z axis.

A couple of restarts, and a couple of repositioning the Z endstop, I was up and running again. So as soon as the temperatures were right I hitted print again and we were good to go:

Looks cool doesn't it? I find the strange spaghetti like shapes almost mesmerizing and I sat and watched it print from start to finish to ensure everything worked. Being the first print it unfortunately it didn't go without some problems. I used the standard recommended slicer settings for the M2, which apparently did not work well with the high detailed object. The speed settings were kinda high and for every movement the printed did, the whole printer and the table it stood on was wiggling heavily. I scrapped that one and reduced the speed settings and started a second attempt. And look!

...standing proudly where it was printed, only waiting to cool down and let the plastic temper itself so it can be peeled off. Total print time was about 50 minutes at 0.25 mm layer height. It measures roughly 6.4x8.4 cm. Slightly hard to see if it got the details correct due to the translucent propeties of natural PLA. More so getting good pictures of it, but here they are:

I managed to find some leftover primer spray from my earlier project and crossed my fingers the PLA wouldn't be melted or dissolved by it. I gave it one layer of primer and it really enhances the details much better for viewing as well as filling small gaps and cracks. Unfortunately, it also made all the errors much more visible as well. You can easily see the layers of the surface being thrown around and creating a big uneven mess. And there is the 0.25 mm layer height which causes the terrain effect.

Well, the primer should cover up small cracks and crevices, but in this case it also made all the flaws much more visible. It looks much more worse now, however it's safe to say  it looks better than my first try which had more flaws due to relatively high printing speed. As of being my very first own sliced model and everything I still couldn't be more happier to see this tech in action and one of my digital creations take physical form. I still see lots of room for improvement but a step at the time. I will return to this project and see it perfected one day!
I give it a 3 out of 6 stars.

Lessons learned

In the meanwhile here is the initial conclusion and what I've learned.

• For those who likes to take photos of prints straight out the printer. A good picture is very appreciated, and filament which is white or translucent does not work very well. I managed to restore some of the picture quality due to RAW format. I believe the same applies to black and red filament as well because its hard to see contrast in those colors.
• PLA doesn't smell as waffles with corn syrup :( They don't smell anything in fact. Not as what I could detect anyway. Maybe my print is too small?
• The importance of finding the correct slicer settings have a huge impact on prints.
• ALWAYS home your printer before printing. Otherwise you will crash your printer as I did. Might also be my printer.
• Also it might be a good idea to turn off your sleep/hibernate function on your computer while your printer is hooked up to it and printing.

Feel free to join in with tips and solutions to the mistakes so we can haul in this project in someday!
-WJ

Printer has arrived - Time to unbox!

"In a remote cold land far, far away, a young man shed his tear as he placed his pouch of hard earned coins in the hands of a merchant with a promise of a great magic device. It was told with this device, one could conjure the most amazing and spectacular things which were unthinkable for the common men as himself just a few years ago. Believing in this device hidden possibilities he made a leap and accepted the bargain. But the magic device were no where to be seen. Aeons and centuries passed. He was weary of  lingering and whispers of a soon promised date. He was about to give up, but it was in that very moment a treasure chest appeared outside his pigpen. The magic device! "

Unboxing

Yep! It's finally here!

A moment we all have been waiting for! I tried my best to snap as many pictures as possible of the unboxing, but because my lens is only a prime 50mm lens meant for portraits, it was really hard to grab good overview pictures in my tiny workshop. I picked up the ches...err post package the other day and had to pay, as predicted extra import fee, which was steep as I feared. Unfortunately it was also on the same day my Metal Gear Rising video game arrived, so due to unforeseen situation I was forced to wait to the day after with the unboxing. :') Anyways, enough talk, here some pictures!

I checked every corner of the box to ensure there were no sign of damage during transport. A fragile sign covers every side and there is barely any  mark of the box being shipped at all! Great! Let's open up.

Loads of foam things and a few paper sheets welcomes me as I unfold it.

True words

So far so good, even the sea of foam is an exciting sight when unboxing something you have waited for. After taking some more pics, I started digging around the foam and see what else I could find.

Seven neatly sealed plastic bags with various tools and hardware

In one of the plastic bag there was an another letter, and this with a personal greeting from Karen, one of the co-founder of Makergear. Along with a chocolate! Nice touch indeed!

Plastic bag within a plastic bag: Extra hardware, good to have.

Tools such as a tweezers, grease, oil and ice cream sticks?  

A 3D printed spool holder for the plastic filament and a Kapton tape commonly used to ensure your print sticks well to the printer bed. Not necessary but good to have.

Your well known power plug and USB cable for communication with your computer.

A HUGE power supply, would make an Xbox proud any time. And a 1KG of PLA natural filament on a spool.

Printed sample

Like ByteMuse, I also received a Makergear demo bracelet printed with my printer by them. This is the first time I see and hold a PLA print. I'm not sure what layer height it's been printed with, but I was quite surprised about the thickness, or thinness in this case. This a single shell print bracelet and they layers are aligned perfectly on top of each other. It was also quite flexible and springy as expected from PLA. However I couldn't push it without feeling it could break at any time.

There are a few stray strings here and there, but this is usually removed easily with a knife or a plier. The text is also remarkable, as it appears to be beveled out,

It's not super perfect, there are some tiny small oddities here and there, but most of the large surfaces appears to be smooth except for the ribs of the layers of course.

On with the magnifying glass

I bought a 10x macro lens for a half year back for some experimental photography. This proved to be quite useful to have a closer look. Do remember these pictures are extremely close up and the layers much more visible.

Up close of the bracelet with the macro lens. the 20KR is the largest coin in Norway for size comparison.

Natural PLA filament is apparently semi translucent, so you see the layers even more visible due to light refraction.

Next to a standard lens cap.

I like this picture for its almost artistic appearance! A comparison with the printed text. Note that the dot over the  i alone is about 2-3 times larger than a single layer. Wow!

Vertical view of the bracelet. Note on the right side is the bottom and the first layers applied when printed. The blobs are mostly caused by the printer nozzle being slightly too close to the bed by a 0.05mm to 0.1mm. I don't know if its unavoidable. But its definitely treatable with some careful sanding.

The main course

Allright, enough with the tools and that bracelet. Time to unveil the printer! Back to the sea of foam and dig out the big one!

Digging out all the foam.

Hmm what could be inside? My impression was it was slightly smaller than I expected.
Probably because of the large shipping box it was in.

M2 Unveiled! It looks really good!

The Makergear M2

And here it is! In its rightful environment, the magic device I've been waiting on since December! Let's stop with the pictures for now so I don't kill the poor cell phone browsers out there! 

Makergear M2, standing proudly on my workbench.

That's it for the unboxing post! I'm eager to get the printer running and print something! Next up will be a short intro to the workflow and software and setup for the M2 printer! Until then wish me good luck!

-WJ