Anyone into 3D printing?

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
My printer has been acting up, prints have lost consistency and have weak spots in them. Tried printing the spool I modeled for Unstuck and it looks like this before it stopped printing... Listening to the printer it sounds like the filament is stuck like a clogged nozzle, I switched out the nozzle and it doesn't seem to help.

In this print the bottom is honeycombed then in the middle it acts solid before it goes back to honeycomb and spongy before it stopped printing. The printer is over 5 years old (ender 3). Hot end issue? Filament issue? Power supply issue? What would you do at this point?
 

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Cody

Random Quote Generator
Supporting Member
Location
Gastown
My printer has been acting up, prints have lost consistency and have weak spots in them. Tried printing the spool I modeled for Unstuck and it looks like this before it stopped printing... Listening to the printer it sounds like the filament is stuck like a clogged nozzle, I switched out the nozzle and it doesn't seem to help.

In this print the bottom is honeycombed then in the middle it acts solid before it goes back to honeycomb and spongy before it stopped printing. The printer is over 5 years old (ender 3). Hot end issue? Filament issue? Power supply issue? What would you do at this point?

Crunchy prints for us on the ender 3 were 90% of the time bowden tube. 10% fan issue.

I probably went through a metric mile of bowden tube on those printers over the last 4-5 years. I'd always just swap the nozzle at the same time, so probably 500 nozzles. When we switched to the ender v3 direct drive (think ke is the current one), problems vanished. Those printers almost never had an issue. 2 years on the same nozzle and fans, and no bowden tubes. They are 100x more reliable.
 
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Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
Crunchy prints for us on the ender 3 were 90% of the time bowden tube. 10% fan issue.

I probably went through a metric mile of bowden tube on those printers over the last 4-5 years. I'd always just swap the nozzle at the same time, so probably 500 nozzles. When we switched to the ender v3 direct drive (think ke is the current one), problems vanished. Those printers almost never had an issue. 2 years on the same nozzle and fans, and no bowden tubes. They are 100x more reliable.
something like this?

 

Cody

Random Quote Generator
Supporting Member
Location
Gastown
Ya, probably. Or just $10 worth of capricorn bowden tube. If you haven't replaced it, it's easy. Make sure the end that goes into the extruder is cut very square. Heat the hot end up, pull out the old tube and take out the nozzle. Push the new tube through to clear out any gunk..repeat until gunk free. Put in nozzle until snug, then back off 1/4 turn. Push in bowden tube until it hits the nozzle, then tighten the nozzle down so it really seats against the bowden tube.

I've heard the retrofitted direct drive hot ends need to run slower due to the weight of the assembly being greater than the machine was engineered for.

My experience is different since I was spending 10 hours per week working on printers, but the newer units, for us, were so much more reliable that I wouldn't put any time or money into the old ones. $30 and an hour of time to upgrade an old machine, or $169.99 for a brand new machine with direct drive and a lot of other built in upgrades. There was no fun in working on machines for me, so the choice would be easy.

Honestly, I have a couple of these newer direct drive units mothballed here if you wanted to borrow one to see how she feels.
 
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Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
3d printer for the win again. Made over a dozen of these body panel nuts for my son’s Cherokee. He got in a fender bender and had to replace the front end panel which also destroyed most of these nylon looking plastic nuts that I don’t even know how to google and find 😂

IMG_8816.jpeg

They worked great. Printed with TPU for the flexibility. I apologize for using non-freedom units of measurement. Frankly, I’m embarrassed about it.
 
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Tonkaman

Well-Known Member
Location
West Jordan
3d printer for the win again. Made over a dozen of these body panel nuts for my son’s Cherokee. He got in a fender bender and had to replace the front end panel which also destroyed most of these nylon looking plastic nuts that I don’t even know how to google and find 😂

View attachment 178082

They worked great. Printed with TPU for the flexibility. I apologize for using non-freedom units of measurement. Frankly, I’m embarrassed about it.
This is brilliant! Some of those clips are crazy expensive
 

glockman

I hate Jeep trucks
Location
Pleasant Grove
3d printer for the win again. Made over a dozen of these body panel nuts for my son’s Cherokee. He got in a fender bender and had to replace the front end panel which also destroyed most of these nylon looking plastic nuts that I don’t even know how to google and find 😂

View attachment 178082

They worked great. Printed with TPU for the flexibility. I apologize for using non-freedom units of measurement. Frankly, I’m embarrassed about it.
This is why I will always have a printer. I have found so many small uses for functional prints like this. Things that you can buy but are cheaper or easier to make at home or just need a little tweak.
 

1969honda

Well-Known Member
Location
Cache
Came across this while searching thingiverse. XJ to GM fuel pump ring adapter, pretty cool idea. The designer shares a few instructions and many more pictures in the thingiverse description.

52fe44fad6e2bf4141c0d9f1925dcc31_display_large.jpg
 

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member

The_Lobbster

Well-Known Member
Is anybody able to replicate this grill, printed smaller, around 12" wide or so, to be adapted onto a Jeep powerwheels? I could provide the Jeep grill for measurements. I'm assuming would probably need to be printed in two pieces for size reasons. Will pay cash, beer, or whiskey to anybody that could do it. Just thought a Suzuki power wheels would be cool.

121159322_1736459839863059_2638832748932011546_n.jpg
 
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