March 2016 | re:3D | Life-Sized Affordable 3D Printing

February Puzzler Solution Revealed!

Below is the solution to the Monthly Puzzler Chief Hacker presented in our February Newsletter. Want to play? You can sign up to receive our monthly publication by submitting your email address in the sign up at the bottom of re:3D.org. Proposed answers are presented on our forum at: https://re3d.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/205859796-February-Puzzler

THE SOLUTION

Here are the two reasons you will see a visible mark between processes.

Answer #1. If the SECOND process settings (upper part of the print) has “First layer height” that does not match the layer height for the FIRST process there will be an odd layer thickness visible on your print. Make sure the first layer height and first layer speed for the SECOND process are set to 100%

Answer #2. When setting the “Stop Printing at Height” make sure the dimension is an even multiple of your layer height. Don’t forget to account for any changes in layer height if you enter a value other than 100% for the FIRST process “First Layer Height”!

Since Darrel had one of the two correct answers we will be sending you half a spool of filament 🙂 Just kidding Darrel! Thanks for playing and keep an eye out for next month’s puzzler.

Happy Printing!

Matthew Fiedler

Blog Post Author

@chief_hacker

Made in America- Artist Micah Ganske

Over the past three years we’ve had the honor to connect with Micah Ganske, a New York based artist whose work challenges the frontiers of creativity & 3D printing. We first met Micah when he helped bring Gigabot to life in our 2013 Kickstarter campaign and we delivered the first Gigabot in North America to him live from the NYC World Makerfaire that fall.

Over the next several months, Micah blew our minds as he shared his vision for a large-scale art series titled “The Future is Always Tomorrow”, which was displayed during a solo exhibition at 101/Exhibit gallery in Los Angeles.

Two and a half years later, Micah continues to stun us with his human-scale gallery pieces. Last May, Morgan had the pleasure of witnessing his Augmented Virtual Reality work firsthand in San Francisco, which she described in this blog and is depicted in the video below:

A few months later, Tammie, Mike, and the rest of the team also had the privilege to meet up with Micah in Seattle where we printed his acclaimed wormhole design live at the Seattle Art Faire. Micah was a huge hit and Mike captured some of the highlights in his blog on the event.

We’re not the only fans of Micah’s talent. Recently he was featured in this video by Alex Amoling describing his creative process:

He’s also been highlighted by influencers including Adafruit and in multiple publications such as this feature in Nylon:

https://www.instagram.com/p/-tfWcPJ3Lx/?utm_source=ig_embed

In addition to producing gallery pieces, Micah’s found time to have fun with his Gigabot. This Halloween he spooked our team with the most realistic 3D printed sculpture we’ve witnessed to date, albeit an incredibly creepy siamese head.

https://www.instagram.com/p/9Wfwarp3Ij/?taken-by=micahganske

As for the future, you will have to ask Micah what he has in store.

Last spring he backed our Open Gigabot Campaign which will provide him a second large-scale 3D printer. Whatever he makes next is sure to impress!

https://www.instagram.com/p/9ePMbhJ3J3/?taken-by=micahganske

Want more? You can view Micah’s work and contact him through his website at: http://www.micahganske.com/

Happy Printing!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing america art customers Events gigabot micahganske

Filament Testing – 3D Fuel Advanced PLA

Material Tested: 3D FUEL/APLA

Manufacturer: 3D Fuel

Filament Diameter: – 2.85mm

Color Tested: Bright green

Date Tested: 2/29/2016

OBSERVATIONS

Ease of use: Extremely printable with excellent adhesion.

Appearance: The green filament was vibrant with a smooth texture. Prints yielded a slightly “shiny” surface.

Size consistency: Average, within .1mm within roll.

Color consistency: Great, consistent throughout roll.

SETTINGS

Print temperature: 210 C (nozzle) / 55C (bed)

Printer Used: Gigabot

Speed: 45 mm/s

Layer Height: 0.3mm

Infill: 30%

Type(s) of print surface used: PRINTnZ

List of test files printed: re:3D’s test files 1, 2, and 3 (logo, vase, airplane gear piece)

You can watch a video summarizing our testing:

FINDINGS

Odor: None

Bed adhesion (1: terrible – 5: fabulous!)

5 (only the settings listed above were tested, but the manufacturer’s recommendations seemed to be accurate)

Stringing (1: lots -5: none!)

5 – None!

Shrinkage (1:lots-5: none!)

5-None!

Interlayer adhesion (1:terrible-5:fabulous!)

5- Perfect!

NOTES:

The promise of a more heat resistant PLA is super enticing to the 3D printing community.
- After testing, the landing gear was exposed to high temperature heat via a hair dryer and showed little warping.
  - Further controlled testing would need to be implemented to investigate this claim, but it does initially appear to be stronger and more heat resistant than traditional PLA.
NOTE: this filament was tested 4 months after receipt, however, for many users a 4 month shelf life is necessary.
- Testing fresh filament is expected to yield similar or even better results.
Filament size consistency was about on par with most filament.
No delamination or curling was observed.
All testing was conducted at the midpoint of the temperature and speed range that the manufacture provided. It’s likely that the outcome would have been even better had the ranges had been explored in more detail.
The unboxing experience was well done and the recommendation sheet was highly professional.
We appreciated the Made in America reference, and date stamp of quality control on the box & insert.
Manufacturer recommended settings were easily referenced on the enclosed documentation.

RECCOMENDATIONS:

This filament is extremely impressive and more than exceeded it’s claims.
Upon review, we would highly recommend that this filament be submitted to ASTM testing by evaluating coupons at multiple temperature and infill settings.

Want to chat? Join our forum where we have initiated a thread about our experience!

https://re3d.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/205198503-TESTING3D-FUEL-APLA

~Happy Printing!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing Austin engineering filament gigabot Open Source process R&D re: Tech techpaper

Filament Testing: Printing with Algae!