TCTShow 2013 RepRap 3D printing - Community Hub and Show review

Hi Everyone,

We are back from the biggest Additive Manufacturing show in the UK and I must say it was absolutely fantastic!

The TCTShow has been running here in the UK for 18 years, and I have attended the last 8, this year however was the very best so far, the show organizers had not only opened up the show to much more of the 3D printing, maker and designer communities, but they really stepped up with a  massive presentation stage seating 400, recording of all the fantastic industry speakers during the two days and a great collection of 3D printed designer objects on display at the front of the show.

The whole event was bigger, better and had a real buzz. Indications even before the doors opened pointed to this being a really busy show, by 4:30PM on the first day it was still packed with visitors. Normally after the 3:00PM parking validation you see a mass exodus from these sort of 'industry' trade shows. This year it was quite different with a wide mix of individuals and companies representing all avenues and niche's of the Additive Manufacturing industry.

And if anyone out there is interested to hear more about any of the things I mentioned in my presentation, do let me know. One rather stunning project I talked about was nothing to do with 3D printing but is another amazing example of what makers and inventors get up to in their spare time, that was the Fusioneer project by Dr. Jonathan Howard - this is basically a self made fusion reactor! If you have time, do take a look at the 20min Documentary on his 3 year project here.

This post is just a taster of the event, you will find a full review of the TCTShow in the next issue (3) of the RepRap Magazine. We will also have the results of the Issue 2 Print for Life Competition and lots of other great stuff too.

After a busy set-up day we were all set for the show opening.

Within half an hour of the show being open we had a steady flow of people to the stand, by mid-day we were totally swamped with people, this continued all day and for the entire second day! We had quite a large stand compared to many others, but even this was no where near enough space as we were often 6 or more people deep and at times, we could not really get on or off of the stand, but that's great!. We were also lucky that an exhibitor opposite us had pulled out, so we ended up with some standing room for people waiting or just a way to get past! We would have blocked the corridors solid otherwise.

On the RepRap Community Hub stand we had -

The Team! - RepRap totally dominated the back section of the show - Photo by - Hamish Mead

RepRap Barcelona - The RepRapBCN team were fantastic, we all had a real blast from the moment they arrived carrying two stunning and solid new 3D printers to the end of the show, I can't wait to see them all again soon.

RepRap Barcelona have already made a great review video showing various aspects of the show, take a look below -

TCTShow review 2013 - Video by RepRap Barcelona

Faberdashery - Clare, Andrew and the team added magic, colour and style to our community stand, their unmistakable and rich coloured PLA was being used throughout the event, with stunning objects on display and fantastic advice for anyone who asked. I had my 3DR printer next to Faberdashery, and I just want to thank Clare and Andrew again for answering hundreds of questions about my machine while I was off the stand for one reason or another.

Think3DPrint3D - Tony and Roland had two of their very new Mendel90 Laser-Cut machines running. These machines have an optional enclosure that can really assist with big ABS prints. It was inspiring to hear how Tony and Roland have built up their business and they certainly have some very exciting things coming out soon.

NopBotShop - I was so delighted that both Chris and Mary from the NopBotShop could make the show, and also bring along the stunning black Di-bond Mendel90 that Chris (Nophead) designed and developed from scratch. Reading Chris's Hydraraptor Blog was one of the main reasons I became interested in doing RepRap development, so after all these years it was so nice to finally meet Chris and Mary.

Slic3r! - Another amazing person to meet was Alessandro, it was a true honor to meet up with Slic3r's creator, so many new and cool things are coming soon, it's going to be another great year for this fantastic piece of essential RepRap software.

RepRapPro Ltd. - The whole team were at the NEC this year! They also had so much to show that RepRapPro decided to take another stand right next door to us. This proved a very wise move due to the massive attention both our stands were drawing from the show's visitors. RepRapPro built up a Huxley from a kit on the community hub stand and demonstrated the entire range of machines and options on their stand.
Again, RepRapPro have some great developments in the pipeline, keep an eye out!

Active3D - Justin and the team from Active came fully tooled up with machines and a collection of more 3D printed things than I have seen in a long time. Justin described the event - "As good as a family Christmas! Thank you, Amazing" - I totally agree.

Hamish Mead - Hamish is the inventor of the world's first open source time machine... OK, it's a watch, but a really, really stunning one, everything is fully designed from scratch, including all the electronics, hand-built and featuring a 3D printed case.

Photo and Tinka watch by Hamish Mead

RepRap Magazine - I had the total pleasure of meeting Paulo, our magazine editor for the first time, and Gary Hodgson (the creator of thing tracker, Githubiverse and loads of other great projects)

Richard Horne - (That's me!) - well, you know who I am, I had my 3DR and recent Prusa i3 build on display.

3DR was in full flow printing some simple pots using my ultra easy dual mixer hot-end. I didn't get time to print all that much else unfortunately.

It was really interesting, seeing so many big names under one roof and we also had a wide range of presentations and speakers to see during the two days.

It was truly great to meet Todd Grimm and Joris Peels, who both helped me relax a little and provided great advice before I went on stage to present in front of around 400 people. Both Todd and Joris have a wealth of experience in additive manufacturing and offered huge insight during the show and in their own presentations to a packed out crowd.

One presentation I wish I could say I will never forget was from Jeremy Pullin (@jezpullin), Jeremy is the Rapid manufacturing manager for Renishaw. I was not quite expecting such a spectacular display. It was very much like seeing a really good comedian on stage, but upon waking up the next day you remember that you had a great time but have forgotten all the jokes. I felt this way after Jeremy's presentation, and I'm still trying to recall now what was said. Maybe it was the shock, I was clearly not prepared. just to give you a taster - Jeremy started off by Glassing himself on the forehead live on stage, then attempted to kill someone on the front row with a scented candle! - after that, it was a bit of a blur, but a lot of extremely good points were raised. I'm sure the entire home 3D printing and maker community was directly insulted at one point with a reference to masturbating over the new Dr Who assistant...  It was all very good stuff and if it ever makes it onto the internet you may even be able to check out what you missed. As Duncan Wood quite rightly said - that will go down in legend!

Jeremy lives only a short distance from me, so I do hope one day to meet up with him over a pint and talk about some of the things we don't know about Additive Manufacturing, after all, we only make simple self-replicating machines here at RepRap ;)

Ultimaker! - We spent some time with the awesome Ultimaker crew, they were showing the new sparkling Ultimaker2 - all white and innocent :) - there was a rumor going around the show floor that their machine was fighting the (black and red) 'dark side' by using the good 'rebel force' (white and blue) of the new Ultimaker2 - I think it worked :)

The Ultimaker 2 Easter egg ! - play a spot of breakout while waiting for a print :)

Loads of other things to see and do at the show, but I'll save them for the next RepRap Magazine issue.

Lets just finish off by saying we had a lot of fun!

If you want to read more about the show, take a look at the TCTMagazine and Personalize.

You may have noticed a lack of comments about the bigger companies and 'professional' products, that's basically because very little has changed, both in the technology offering and the attitude towards licensing.

I was quite disappointed to see designs and models being used without any sort of attribution, but unfortunately not surprised. Many of the bigger players in this industry are still playing by different rules, and until that changes it's going to be hard to see how the communities, makers and designers can really collaborate with them. I'm still hopeful that things can change for the better, but regardless we are setting our own path.

Rachel Park covered wider aspects of the show in her recent article for 3DPI here - Well worth a read.

The RepRap and maker community already plan to be back bigger and better next year, the TCT Show is moving to a 3 day event, they have also signed up to be the 3D printing voice of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas and London next year! - that's massive news.

If you want to take part in the TCTShow 2014, we are already making plans, with your help and support it could be really big, really, really big! - If you want to know more as soon as we do or wish to take part in next year's event, please e-mail me at tctshow@reprapmagazine.com and I will keep you updated.

Finally a really massive thank you to all the show organisers, Personalize, TCT Magazine and everyone who helped make this show a total success. Also not forgetting all the many people who visited us, shared ideas, failures and successes. It was great meeting each and every one of you.

The TCT and Personalize team at thought of everything, and I was rather pleased to receive this gift of appreciation for presenting at the show. From Hackerspace to Aerospace - you guys totally rock! - can't wait for next year.

RepRap really is a special project to be involved with and would not be the same without all it's fantastic and enthusiastic members!

Until next time, thank you.

Rich.    

And yes, I have not forgotten about 3DR part 3 - it'll be up soon :) Promise

3DR RepRap Delta Printer - Part 2 - Assembly preparation and build

Hello all,

This is Part 2 of the 3DR RepRap Delta printer, in this post we will look at the preparation of parts, how the printer is assembled and string our Spectra Line drives.

In Part 1 I introduced the 3DR Delta printer, the 3D printed elements and a list of the parts you would need to source, to build one yourself.

The response to this printer release has been tremendous, a big thank you to everyone who has contacted me, and the many people who have already printed a set of parts and even made modifications. I feel this is exactly how adding something new to an open project like RepRap can and should bloom out into the world, thanks so much for all your enthusiasm and support.

One aspect of the design I did think ling and hard about was the use of t-slot Aluminium extrusions, they are now quite common and can be sourced from a number of manufacturers around the world, but it was not my first choice and only drove me down that route when my local DIY store could only offer me much more expensive 20mm Steel box. It's clear from the response that some people will find it hard to source these extrusions in various places in the world so it's really great that Nicolas Arias posted the start of a 3DR build shortly after I released the files with a simple modification to allow the use of standard 20mm box.

Photo credit - Nicolas Arias - 3DR modifications to use standard 20mm box Steel or Aluminium sections.

Nicolas is making great progress along with many others that have contacted me and sent images of 3DR parts, I'm really pleased to see people are printing these big parts without warping, I did spend quite some time making sure they should print well.

And thank you to the now various people around the world who are converting the original Sketchup 3DR models into Solidworks, OpenSCAD and other formats to make it even easier to use and evolve.

Just a few questions! - 

I had a zillion questions and messages after the last post, so many, I have not yet caught up! - let me start with answers to a few common questions that popped up again and again -

"Is a Delta or 3DR, better than a traditional machine?" - They both have good and bad points, Delta's need to be very carefully setup, they can move very fast and the carriage / head can catch on things if it's not all perfectly measured and calibrated in firmware, but once it is, they are fantastic!

"Would you recommend a Delta or 3DR for a first 3D printer / for a beginner / for my first build?" - See above, and generally I always recommend building a first machine from a kit with an established build-base of users, so I will generally point people towards a Mendel90, Prusa i3 or a threaded rod based Mendel variants to get started, then you can print out a 3DR or whatever else you need.

"3DR does not have a heated bed, so can I still print X???? with it?" - Probably, yes. I didn't want a heated bed. The tiny detailed and super fast prints I achieved with my Tantillus really made me think about all the problems a heated bed causes, It's actually quite easier and quicker to print many things without a heated bed. Works well for PLA, don't even try to print ABS on a non-heated bed machine.
No doubt a good upgrade would be a heated bed, and you you can always switch it off ;)

"Do you have / can I have an exact BOM?" - The list in Part 1 is as good as I have at the moment, a more exact BOM would just state things like "Take three of these,  I had in a box in my Garage" - I'm doing my best to find sources for things you could use, feel free to innovate or post good suppliers or modifications etc.

"Can I print the Hot-end adapter in PLA?" - I always fan-cool my thermal-breaks on my hot-ends, it's just a good idea, so they can be PLA. If you don't plan to cool, then do think about using ABS for the hot-end mount and the main carriage.

"Can I use 3mm filament? or why did you use 1.75mm filament?" - I just prefer 1.75mm for Bowden setups, but 3mm should work, just be careful how you mount the extruder so the PTFE tube has enough room to move and not pull the carriage over.

"How the? what the? does the filament idler work?" - Yea sorry about that, it's quite simple and clever really and I should have mentioned it in the first post, see below and it should become clear, it's just two bearings that you can also slide up and down to tension the line.

"Can I use X instead of the 3mm carbon rods" - Anything stiff and light weight really, I was going to use 2mm rods but found them hard to acquire, I had some hollow 4mm fiberglass kite rods but decided on solid 3mm carbon for the first machines, they work very well.

"What's the distance between eye-to-eye on the rods" - Good question, it's 150mm from pivot universal joint to joint, they could be anywhere between 145mm to 155mm, it's just essential they are all the same length, the exact size can be tuned in the firmware.

"Can I use other electronics and do you have any other mounts for X" - yes whatever you like, I just wanted to have a 3 Extruder set of electronics with a separate LCD and SD card. I would have also designed it around Megatronics but the SD card is mounted on the main-board and not on a 'display'.
Rumba just fitted nicely and had all the features I required. - I don't have any other adapter plates ready yet.

"It's hard to print the rod adapter mounts vertically" -  It's not essential to use the adapter, I just wanted an easy way to fit the universal joint and rods together, you could drill out the 2mm hole in the joint to 3mm and push the rods straight in. I have already had a horizontal version of the rod adapter sent to me by Luke Turner, so if this is a problem for you let me know and maybe we can see if Luke can upload & share.

*Edit* - Luke's file is now uploaded to Github Here *Edit*

When you finally have a 3DR completed, it's easy and very quick to print the rod adapters vertically :)

"Is 3DR scale-able?" Yes, easy to go taller, just needs some thought about rod length. To go wider you will need to consider rod sizes. I always intended to be able to insert another printed part (spacer) and a new bigger middle triangle to get an overall bigger build area with the same parts. I actually wondered about keeping the size smaller to start with and doing extensions that could be printed out in order for it to be able to self reproduce, but that was getting messy.

And to the person who asked me if it's possible to make a Delta printer 3 Meters tall - YES!, Oh yes!, you can and if you build one (or want me to make you one) - please let me know :)


Part 2 - 3DR - Preparation of parts - 

Aluminium extrusion preparation - (this is Bosch 20mm)

Drilling out the holes for the motor cable management inside the extrusion.

I don't actually like this bit of the design, what I should have done was to make the motor mounts taller or not have the Aluminium extrusion go all the way down so drilling holes in the extrusion for cable management is not required. You can do this if you like or make changes so you don't need to. It's nice to have the motor cables hidden, but a Definite area for refinement.

Congratulations if you printed the carriages well, it's one of the more tricky parts. You need to clear the hole and insert a magnet for the hall-effect sensors -

Really important bit! - Please make sure you get the magnets the correct way around before you glue them in place. the hall-effect sensors will only work with the magnet one way around! You may need to test to get the correct orientation.

Another challenging print, you need good Z alignment and use of fine layers will make the filament spools print well. also check you actually have a filament hole going through the spool, if yours are a little filled, drill out with a 1.5 drill.

Use 6mm M3 screws, ideally domed for the filament spool to attach to the motor shaft. M3 nuts go inside and should be tightened equally. The spool should be fitted so it's almost touching the motor body so it just fits when fitted on the motor mount.

Before fitting your motor's with the spool fitted to the motor mounts you will need to wind the Spectra-line.

Use about 2M of line, guide it through the middle hole and out each end to the spool centre, then wind in this direction 7 turns each side.

Hold the wound spectra line in your fingers and push the remaining ends through the motor mount hole.

Keep them tight on the other side as you position the motor.

Use some tape to keep the spectra-line tightly wound and tidy.

Then use 4 x 10mm M3 bolts and washers to fix each motor. Check the filament spool is clear of the plastic, it should fit nicely into the small round recess in the plastic frame of the motor mount.

Slot 6 x M4 nuts into the bottom and top centre boss sections along with an M8 nut in the top boss.

You don't need to fit the M8 nut into the lower motor mount, but fit one if you like. This was from a thought process about having a rotating bed ( polar bot) option, the only reason I didn't remove it was if I needed to raise the middle of the platform, you could push it up with an M8 rod or set screw, I didn't need it.

You should have a set of three motor mounts assembled with spectra line on the spools.

Insert an Aluminium tube from the bottom of the motor mount, you may need to clean up the first layer if it has made a small lip on your print.

Insert a t-nut before pulling back down the Alu extrusion

Fix the Aluminium to the frame with M5 bolts into a t-slot nut or M5 square nut.

Slide 6 LM6UU linear bearings or bushings on at this point before you forget.

This is also a good time to add at least two extra T-nuts to the outside of each frame, you can mount extruders, fans and other things easily after it's built.

They should end up flush to the bottom of the plastic mount (unless you have decided not to cut the slots out of the Alu).

Do that three times :)

If you have short cables on your motor's extend them and remember to use a cable that can fit in the middle section of the Aluminium extrusions.

Cable tie the motor wires to the motor body giving you some slack, and feed through the motor mount hole.

It's a good idea to tidy up each of the motor cables and feed them through the Aluminium.

Bolt the three Motor mounts together like this -

Along with the center boss, like this -

You should end up with this

If you are confident with your wiring and you want to make it neat and tidy, cut some sticky backed cork or rubber / neoprene.

And stick to feet, and optionally the centre boss - cuts down on vibration, not that 3DR has much anyway.

For the top sections, you can screw your hall effect sensors down at this point using M3 x 12mm self-tapping screws or you should also be able to use standard M3 bolts with a little more force.

And bolt together the top section

Fit M4 nuts into the smooth rod clamps

You can now slide the Aluminium and smooth rods onto the top section.

The tops of the Aluminium extrusions need to be around 20mm above the plastic surface so you can adjust the spectra line tension, you can make it smaller, just get them all the same distance and check the cover cap  fits. - The cover cap fitting will get tighter after we install the idler bearing.

Make up three sets of Idler bearings for the Spectra line, try to use the same type of domed bolt, washer each side (not in between the bearings) an M4 nut and M4 penny or M5 washer - if you do that it will also grip the printed cover cap nicely. - The bearings are 2 x 624ZZ types (13mm outside and a 4mm hole) you can use whatever size fits, but I doubt 608's will work and won't fit under the printed cover cap.

This allows the line to be tensioned very easily. If you are not using T-slot Aluminium you may need to cut a slot so you can still use this method to tension the line, it's well worth while doing as you want nice and tight lines for printing, and trying to adjust them on the carriages is not easy.

When first fitting the Idler, make sure it's down as low as possible, but so you can still use the Alan key later on to tighten the line.

Ignore the spectra-line at the moment - we will look at doing that a bit further down the post.

You can then route the motor cable down into the underside of the top section.

Next step is to make the carriages and then get them stringed up. Time for a tea break and a biscuit.

Fix the push-rods we made in the first part onto your main carriage

 The poor continuity of a carriage change from black to Orange... I would never make a film director.

You can add anti-backlash springs if you like, they are not essential and depending on the quality of your joints may not be required at all.

I'm interested to see how the all joints wear down with one 3DR machine fitted with springs and another without. We will see.

You can not fix your carriages to the LM6UU's

Probably didn't need to show you how to cut a tie wrap ;)

Great! - That's most of the mechanical assembly, now a little tricky part - threading the spectra line.

All your line should still be nice and tidy and stuck down to the platform, don;t remove any tape just yet.

Step 1 - Take the spectra line end closest to the Aluminium extrusion and shown on the left hand side above. Leave the other end of the line stuck down.

Move a carriage so it's about 100mm away from the top, it does not have to be exact, just about this distance. It's not important if the carriages are placed at slightly different heights, all we are doing it making sure the spectra line can wind and unwind well enough.

Step 2 - Pass the line through the carriage left hand side (looking down as in the image above)

Step 4 - Go around the idler bearings and back down to the carriage.

Step 5 - And secure the line tightly to the carriage making sure the line runs up the other side as shown above.

Step 6 - Then you can take the other end of the spectra line and secure to the bottom of the carriage, trim lines to size.

And we are done with the Spectra line - almost

It's very hard to get the spectra line really tight and we want to save out top idler adjustment and tightening for after we have moved the motors a little as they will slacken off after about 10 cycles up and down. The above use of a tie-wrap is a little trick for shortening the spectra line easily, just spiral the tie-wrap and straighten then do it up and trim.

Now your lines should be quite tight, we can make them really twangier later with some idler adjustment.

The 3DR extruder is almost identical to the design I did for my Rostock, it has the herringbone gears and Pneumatic push-fittings - Always try to use a 1.7A or 2.5A motor for your extruder.

It attaches to the Aluminium frame at the top back, I'll explain more in Part 3

And just because I know I'll be asked loads of questions about how the electronics fit, in the next week - here is a quick shot of the RUMBA electronics and how they mount, More on the electronics, wiring and hot-end options in Part 3.

I hope this post answered a few more questions, that's just about it for Part 2, Part 3 is coming really soon, I won't make you wait too much longer.

Keep up the 3DR builds everyone!

In other news -

I'm really behind on my posts, so a few coming really soon are -

Taulman t-glase - 

I have been doing a lot of printing with the new Taulman t-glase material for the last few months (it's a special PETT plastic-fantastic), I'll do a full blog post on it soon.

For the first 20 mins I had the roll, I just photographed the raw filament, wonderful stuff!

Taulman T-glase - 1.75mm and 3mm PETT Plastic

Colorfabb_XT - 

I also had a chance to test out another very similar material from Colorfabb - this time Colorfabb_XT

Colorfabb_XT - material in 3mm

And some samples of Colorfabb PLA/PHA material also in 3mm - nice and bright colours.

Prusa Nozzle V2 - 

Size compare - Prusa V2 nozzle, E3D V4.1 and J-head V5Alu

This was a first print with the Prusa V2 nozzle and Colorfabb_XT material - Stainless nozzles do seem to like PET materials, keeps them very shiny and clear.

 PrintToPeer 3D - 

I made some Links for the PrintToPeer 3D Sculpture/Canvas/Mosaic, these were done by mixing ABS, not something I had tried before, they worked very well.

They are Lithophanes so need to be held up to the light to see all the detail, but in this one you can see many of the layers picked out by the mixed plastic. This one above was my most complex colour mixing print ever, it has 52 layers and every single layer has 8 different colour mixes! that's 416 different transitions... I'm only doing one of them!

And finally the first set of RepRap Community Hub stand graphics were printed and delivered today - looking nice! - come and see lots of RepRap People at the TCTShow Birmingham NEC in September if you can.

Thanks for reading, please comment and feedback below or catch me on Twitter @richrap3d

Cheers,

Rich.