It's fair to say that 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone. I almost didn't write this blog post, but I wanted to finish off 2020, looking forward to a better 2021.
With the global virus pandemic causing troubles and uncertainty we all have less time to do the things we enjoy. This year has certainly been a strong reminder to us all, to try and enjoy as much of life as possible.
I have kept 3D Printing during all of 2020, but have not managed to share as much as I would have liked.
I started off 2020 firmly intending to do a lot more 3D Printing development, life and the global virus somewhat got in the way of many plans. We had a lot of 3D printing events cancelled and social meet-ups have been impossible.
Here is a little summary of a few things I have designed and printed and a some general thoughts on the 3D Printing market, open source projects and interesting things that have happened in 2020. And finally a look to 2021.
Retro inspired concept computer -
Some of you will know that along with a strong passion for 3D printing, I have a love of retro computers and 'old' game systems, it's an ongoing interest that pre-dates 3D printing and something that I still enjoy and do to this day. One of my early 2020 projects was a reimagining of a 3D Printed classic computer, loosely based on the Amiga and C64 range of the 80's and 90's.
The 'C=Next' concept computer (using a real Amiga A500+ Keyboard) Yes, it is 24 Inches wide!
This was a large multi-part print, three large sections for the main keyboard and some end caps for the I/O on each side of the computer.
I had an old A500+ computer that died a death from an internal leaking battery (I know, it's tragic this was not better stored or should have had the Varta battery removed long ago) - But it did allow a donor keyboard for the new machine.
Yes, the logo is colour changing :)
This has further evolved over the year, it probably deserves a blog post of it's own, if you want to see more on this project and the evolution of the internal electronics inside, let me know.
3D printed electronics and enclosures -
Ok, so it's not '3d printed electronics' but I have printed out around 15 different PCB models to help verify they can mechanically fit, and assist with the design of many electronics enclosures this year.
Even basic enclosures can be simple to 3D print and give a 'finished' look to a prototype.
I can highly recommend using brass threaded inserts when designing any sort of enclosure you intend to open up or fit together accurately. A temperature controlled soldering iron can assist with inserting into a pre-printed post as shown above.
3D printed test and programming fixtures are now a common design for any new prototype electronics or product developments. They are simple to print and build and can easily save you thousands in the cost of getting something 'professionally' made. I have made up a lot of different 3D printed rigs and jigs this year.
Brackets, mounts and almost anything that needs a place to accurately fir into a system or development - I loose count of all the mounting plates, adapters and holders I have printed this year. pre-production runs of 3D printed parts is now a common aspect of product design and development.
3D printed pond filter system -
During the UK summer lockdown I decided to upgrade the pond filter system. I could not get out to any shops and I didn't want to order a system online, so I decided to try and make a pond filter system from a plastic box, some unused pond filter sponges and some 3D printed parts.
I decided to add a little shelf so the clean filtered pond water could exit the box as a waterfall.
I already had a good working pond pump, so this entry (above) was the dirty water inlet.
Some sponge filters I had from an old pond filter that died many years back.
Filters cut to size and inserted into the enclosure along with some gravel for added weight.
The pond filter has been working really well all of the year.
Lots of practical 3D printing this year -
I could probably bore you all to death with all the practical 3D printing I have done this year. It's been sometimes a necessity because other options didn't exist, or an opportunity to use 3D printing to solve a problem quickly.
Replaced some fence posts and I didn't like any of the fence post toppers, so I designed and printed my own.
This shelf had no end caps or iron-on strips, so a quick bit of 3D cad and a few hours of printing later - with wonderfully colour-matched recycled grey PLA, it was finished off nicely.
Even a simple end-cap for an unused plastic plumbing waste pipe - this was quicker to design and 3D print than a trip to the hardware store.
I had a wall mounted TV that needed to be desk mounted again, but the original feet were missing.
A quick (and solid) design and 3D print later, we had two new desk mounting clamps for the TV.
Mounted and fixed to the desk, it's going nowhere.
I could go on with more practical 3D prints this year, but you get the idea - a lot of things were fixed, repaired and produced with 3D printing this year. I doubt more than a day went past when I was not 3D printing something for someone or for myself.
The end of 2020...
The 3D printed Advent calendar's come out every year, they still are a great talking point both for 3D printing and the vast selection of different materials used.
Many of my past projects and experiments are still active in one way or another today, people continue to innovate and evolve ideas. Even as we enter 2021, 3D printing is still in it's 'early stages' of being useful to the 'average person'. When you start using 3D printing to solve every day problems, and turn design ideas into practical printing solutions it's a wonderful tool.
We have seen some really great OpenSource and OpenInnovation 3D printing projects this year. I plan to cover these in 2021 and also get further involved with as many as possible.
Things I would like to see more of and help with in 2021 - Please reach out to me if you are doing or planning any of these, I will try to help if I can. (Most of the links below are to my past blog posts doing similar things).
The continued increase and use of sustainable (multi-use) filament spools / Cardboard and MasterSpool filament coils.
More recycled plastic content in 3D Printing - both as recycled filament materials and as re-used print waste. Recycling filament plastic (2015)
More tool-changing systems - additive and subtractive - manufacturing systems, continuous printing (belt-printers) and automatic build platform change systems.
I would still like to see many more light weight extruder+hot-end systems, ideally around 200g total weight. I see a lot of bowden based extruder systems that could/should benefit from a good quality, light and strong direct-drive-geared extruder and hot-end combination. Especially on machine using IDEX, they could be greatly improved with a move away from bowden to a light weight direct extrusion system, maybe 2021 will bring more to market.
I'm always looking for interesting 3D Printing filament materials, especially engineering grade or ones that that are matched to classic computer colours. A few have popped up during 2020 Printed Solid over on Twitter has a range of Retro computer filament colours
I'm still incredibly interested in paste extrusion, coupled with a tool-change system and some FDM printing it could offer a lot of good options for manufacturing and making.
See you next time, and if you have a new and interesting 3D printing project, development or material you want me to take a look at, do get in contact.
I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season, and Happy New Year for 2021
Rich.
P.S - If you haven't yet found the joys of Podcast's, do consider giving them a go. I can strongly say that without Podcasts in my life, 2020 would have been 10x harder to 'experience'.
Please join me on Twitter @RichRap3Dif you want to discuss more about 3D printing (or retro computing).
My Youtube channel is here, all 3D Printing and Hi-Def video content, I do hope to get back to publishing new video content in 2021.
The TCT Show was back at the Birmingham NEC Arena. This is one of the very best 3D Printing exhibitions anywhere in the world, if you get a chance to visit, make sure you register for next year and give yourself plenty of time. There are lots of suppliers, manufacturers and interesting people to meet and talk too.
I was at the show again this year for both days, here is a brief rundown of some highlights from the show, it's by no means all. This was one of those shows that I wished I had taken more photo's. I did manage to speak to many different people and visited almost all the exhibitors this time around.
My video update for Autumn is below, and contains both information from the TCT show along with materials, machines and an update on current and future projects.
You may also want to check out the new 3DHubs 2017 3D Printer guide - https://www.3dhubs.com/best-3d-printer-guide I mention a few machines that won awards in the video including the BCN3D Sigma, LulzBot TAZ6 and the Prusa MK2 i3
First up a big thank you to everyone at E3D for providing me and Thomas Sanladerer with an operational base and generally looking after everyone in the desktop printing sector. The E3D stand's were buzzing all day, all the time, it was a great place to talk and meet people. Even the after-show party managed to congregate all around the E3D stand for most of the evening until around forty of us all packed into a local pub for a cracking roast dinner :)
So let's start with E3D and all the great things they had on show (and a few more that are/maybe coming soon) -
Firstly E3D had doubled the size of their stand this time, one half showing off their range of Spoolworks filament materials, and the other dedicated to hot-ends, nozzles, the Titan extruder and many other goodies.
E3D Copper Nozzles...
For anyone with a keen eye, you may have spotted that E3D had some copper nozzles on show. This may sound like an odd choice of material for a nozzle, but they will be appearing on 3D printers soon, so keep a lookout for more news.
Talking of nozzles, the E3D team have been working on some very special 'tiny' nozzles for super small and detailed 3D models.
These were printed with a 0.15mm nozzle in ABS. You really have to see them to fully appreciate the level of perfect detail and stunning quality being achieved with these nozzles.
The detail in this chess set is astonishing for any 3D printing method, let alone FFF (FDM). A spool of filament would last for many, many models at this tiny scale.
These were also printed on a standard Mendel90 fitted with an E3D V6 hot-end, nothing special - but with a dedicated high-resolution machine we could see even more capabilities for these tiny sized nozzles.
E3D has invested heavily in expansion of their business in the past 18 months, taking on more people in development and research, we should be seeing many more great things coming from E3D so do keep an eye out.
Emvio Engineering had a really nice BCN3D Sigma setup with custom mounted Bondtech extruders.
They also kindly sent me a set for fitting and feedback in my BCN3D Sigma 3D Printer.
I'm doing a separate video and blog post on the entire process of fitting, setup and using the Bondtech extruders in a Sigma 3D Printer.
I'm really impressed with the upgrade and initial printing results. I'll post more as soon as I have completed more comparison prints and tested as many different materials.
LulzBot (Taz 6) -
LulzBot was at their first international show for the TCT event. It was a total pleasure to talk to them and discuss all aspects of the LulzBot company, machines and amazing way they go about Open-Source 3D printing.
LulzBot also sent me a TAZ 6 in November, so look out for more video's, blog posts and discussion about my experience of using the TAZ 6 3D Printer soon.
Simple to setup right out of the box.
After a few minor issues, I was up and running - with a quick Benchy3D print in Colorfabb nGen.
The TAZ6 is very busy printing all sorts of models in different materials (lots of Christmas) so look out for an update soon on setting up and using the LulzBot TAZ 6.
Hawk3DProto was another great base for me to use during the TCTShow. A big thank you to Ben and also all the team from BCN3D.
Ben was also very kind to give me some Proto-Pasta Matt Fibre HTPLA Filament for testing - https://www.proto-pasta.com/collections/matte-fiber-htpla
I hope to be doing some hands-on 3D Printing training with Ben on-site at Hawk3DProto in the new year. If you are in any way interested in taking part of getting involved too, do get in contact with me on Twitter about this @RichRap3D
Treat bowl (Design by Tony Short - Files over on Thingiverse ) Printed in Polyalchemy Elixir Green and Orange using the colorprint software by Prusa research - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1074374
We printed a lot more to add to the ever growing Halloween collection - Above includes many more objects that have been printed for Halloween over the last few years.
Lots and lots of Christmas printing at the moment, testing out lots of materials, devices and even a very cool Laser engraver upgrade (for 3D printers) - more on these projects soon.
It was really great to talk to so many people and companies at the TCTshow. If I missed you out in this post I'm sorry it was just such an amazing event this year, I spent almost all my time talking to people and not enough time taking pictures or video to share.
I'll try to get in a few more posts and video's before Christmas, I still have lots and lots more to share, many more projects and adventures with all manner of 3D printing devices.
