Wanhao i3 3D Printer

Taffycat

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I've just been reading (and watching the interesting vid) about this (apparently) freehand, mid-air 3D printing gadget:

Nanosilver Ink Written in Midair for 3-D Printing

The technique is able to accomplish this feat by combining patterning and annealing in a single step.

It is also this localized annealing that makes it possible to print on heat-sensitive, low-cost plastic substrates instead of relatively expensive conductive substrates....

In operation, an infrared laser is focused on a 100-micrometer spot next to the opening of a glass nozzle from which a concentrated silver nanoparticle ink comes out. Once the ink leaves the nozzle, the laser quickly heats the patterned material so that it forms into a mechanically strong conductive wire....
Source: spectrum.ieee.org
 

Ian

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I'm sorry for the delay in getting this review online, been so busy this month, so it has fallen by the wayside! I'm still thoroughly enjoying it though :D. Thingiverse.com has been amazing for finding designs.
 

V_R

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Teenage boy killed in 3D printer explosion during school art project, inquest hears

A 17-year-old boy died in an explosion after flash paper from his family's online magic business ignited when he used hairspray on a 3D printer for a school art project.

Sixth Form pupil Tom Taylor used three canisters of hairspray to stick the piece of work to the hot plate of the printer after watching the technique online, an inquest heard.

An electric spark from either a nearby socket or the hot plate caused the hairspray gases, which had built up over several hours, to combust and ignite highly flammable flash papers that his family stored underneath the desk.

Tom tried to walk out of the back office, which his family called the "smoke room", but he inhaled fumes and collapsed, a coroner was told. He died from smoke inhalation.

Hairspray? Really? Ian, don't do this. :eek:
 

Becky

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Eek! To be fair, there were so many mistakes there; notable storing highly flammable materials next to something electrical with a heat element, and using so much hairspray in an enclosed area. Poor kid though :(
 

V_R

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Yeah I was being a little sarcastic when I said that, so many silly mistakes.
 

Ian

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Was reading that very same article last night - poor lad!

I've got some similar spray for the base, but it doesn't go anywhere near anything like that thankfully!
 

crazylegs

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I'm genuinely surprised by how good this 3D printer is - the test print came out looking great and that was with minimal calibration or tweaking... about 30 mins of setup time and about 1:30 hours to print:

View attachment 10000 View attachment 10001

The photos don't really do it justice, as I took them with my phone. However, I'm printing a 2nd test object and I'll be playing with it a lot more in the coming weeks. I'll have a review online once I've put it through it's paces and I'm fully familiar with it.

The level of detail on the hand is way better than I thought a sub £300 3D printer could achieve - especially considering the tiny size of the print. The only downside I've found so far is that it is SLOW to print, but I guess that is going to be a problem with many consumer level printers.
I tell ya what Ian if you don't up that underwear allowance soon, you'll be using that hand for something else :lol:

Seriously though that is impressive, who'd have thought ten years ago the average bod would be printing 3D objects at home..
 

Ian

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Just wondering how are you getting on with the 3d Printer @EvanDavis? :). Printed anything interesting recently?

I used mine for the first time in a month to print a few parts for mounting the PSVR camera on a tripod, but found that the PLA filament was a little brittle. I was warned to store the filament in something airtight, but I think the box I used wasn't good enough - so I bought some cheap vacuum bags from Amazon which have done the job.

I'm thrilled with using Octoprint on the RPi, it has made printing so much easier now that I can skip uploading to an SD card and means I can monitor things from an Android app.
 

EvanDavis

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I haven't done much myself either. Just made a couple of GoPro mounts and been learning Fusion 360. It was fun at first printing other peoples designs, but I soon got bored and really want to design and print my own stuff.
 

EvanDavis

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Thanks @Ian

Two questions to ask. How do you clean the print bed on your printer and have you used the glass plate yet ? If so how did you attach it ?
 

Ian

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I've now sold the Wanhao i3 and build a homebrew printer - but I used thermal tape/pads to attach the glass bed. It worked well :).

I've not used the normal bed for long - I moved straight to the glass bed and just used cheap glass cleaner spray for it.
 

EvanDavis

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but I used thermal tape/pads to attach the glass

So use thermal tape/pads and set the bed up as normal ?

As for home brew. I have been looking at some home brew 5 axis CNC machines, sadly it looks like I would have to mortgage the house, send the Mrs back to work and the dog to the circus.
 

Ian

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I've been looking at those 5-axis machines too - they look really nice :D.

Yep, I just bought a sheet of thermal adhesive stuff and then stuck the pads to the bare aluminium carriage and placed the glass on top. I arrange them in a chess board pattern of squares, it covered around 1/3 the area in maybe 20 pieces I'd guess. I don't think I've got any photos of it though, which is a shame.

send the Mrs back to work and the dog to the circus.

:lol::lol::lol:
 

Abarbarian

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Eyecam is a creepy webcam shaped like a human eye

The device looks like an incredibly realistic eyeball, complete with surrounding flesh, eyelids, and an eyebrow. Inside is a series of six servo motors that allow it to gaze around the room and emote, under the control of an Arduino Nano. The Eyecam also includes a tiny HD camera, which is fed into a Raspberry Pi Zero to be recognized by a computer as a plug-and-play webcam.

topscreen-1024x615.jpg


If you still have your 3D printer and are looking for a neat project. :lol:

https://marcteys.github.io/eyecam/
 

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