# TPU 3D Printing Club



## erocker (Apr 15, 2018)

Anyone here have a 3D printer? Share your stuff! 

I'll add to this post and organize it as time goes on.


A couple months ago I picked up a Qidi Tech X-One 2 printer for 400 bucks. It was cheap, but it had really good ratings on Amazon. Other than premature bearing failure (cheap bearings/cheap printer) it's been great. I've replaced the bearings with Drylin bearings which are much quieter/smoother. 

Right now, I'm just learning everything like working with different filaments, printer maintenance, slicer settings, upgrades, fixing 3D models for printing, etc. If anything this printer I have is perfect for learning on and the customer support is awesome to get your first print done right. 

I just got done replacing the bearings.. basically doing a complete tear-down and am printing a "D&D Mini" right now. Things are coming out great! (There's a lot of support structure around the print, thus it looks strange currently). Here's a video of it working: 








So, if anyone else is into this, post up some stuff you made or have or whatever!


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## dorsetknob (Apr 15, 2018)

there is a  Market for a TPU De liding Tooltm  3d Printed of course


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## erocker (Apr 15, 2018)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1630652
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2684510

Not sure how well they work, not too many have been made. Seems PLA will work for it tho! I should probably give it a shot once I use up this roll of ABS.


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## Solaris17 (Apr 15, 2018)

yo thats a pretty sweet setup you got!


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## dorsetknob (Apr 15, 2018)

As i understand things  you can download Pre configured print design/templates
No Idea from where but  seen it mentioned on Stupidtube (those over the air geek gadget show)


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## erocker (Apr 15, 2018)

thingiverse.com seems to have the most stuff. Yeggi.com is a site that searches a lot of other sites for 3d models.


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## Morgoth (Sep 25, 2018)

i dont have a 3d printer i only do 3d modeling and let a third party do the manufacturing for me as in shapeways or weerg


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## sam_86314 (May 5, 2019)

Been a while since the last post on this thread... oh well.

I got my printer up and running again, this time in its own dedicated spot on a table I built in 8th grade with a dedicated computer controlling it (the $20 ThinkCentre).




Hopefully it'll get more use now that it isn't hogging my desk space.


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## TheMadDutchDude (May 5, 2019)

Nice printer!

I got an Ender model for Christmas last year and have used it a fair amount. 

My most recent print was a slim mITX case. $5 in material and it functions perfectly. I’ll grab pics soon... if I remember.


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## sam_86314 (May 5, 2019)

TheMadDutchDude said:


> Nice printer!
> 
> I got an Ender model for Christmas last year and have used it a fair amount.
> 
> My most recent print was a slim mITX case. $5 in material and it functions perfectly. I’ll grab pics soon... if I remember.


I've had this Anet A8 since September of 2018. I highly recommend it as a budget starter printer if you like tinkering with things. It has a low up-front cost, works well out of the box, and it's really easy to upgrade. I'd imagine with a Bowden extruder and head setup, better belts and bearings, and a sturdier frame (all of which aren't too expensive to make/buy), it could rival much higher end units in print quality.

Never really considered trying to print an ITX case; probably just assumed the 200x200mm bed wouldn't be big enough.


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## sam_86314 (May 6, 2019)

Really wish there were more posts on this thread.

Today I printed some CPU cases. I printed them out of PLA, and each one took about 40 minutes to print with the infill set to 20%.








Even though they are designed for 115X chips, 775 chips fit just fine in them. Here they are holding my Pentium E5200 and Core 2 Duo E8600.




I calculate the material cost to be about $0.25 (based on $20 for a 330 meter spool of PLA). Cheaper than buying CPU clamshells on Amazon.

Thingiverse link for STL: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2441017


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## TheMadDutchDude (May 7, 2019)

I like those a lot! That would make it super easy to store CPUs. Oh my! I'd never even thought of printing CPU casings. XD

Fancy sharing the link?


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## sam_86314 (May 7, 2019)

TheMadDutchDude said:


> I like those a lot! That would make it super easy to store CPUs. Oh my! I'd never even thought of printing CPU casings. XD
> 
> Fancy sharing the link?


https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2441017


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## TheMadDutchDude (May 7, 2019)

Thank you! I will have to print a few of those.


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## erocker (May 8, 2019)

My printer has been in pieces all winter, but I got some parts in and am piecing it back together. Last thing I made was an Atari for a Raspberry Pi 3 for a RetroPie system. It's printed out of carbon fiber PLA with a little paint. The wood grain is drawer liner sticky paper and I got the Atari logo from a nice gent on Etsy.





STL's: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2269086


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## sam_86314 (Nov 17, 2019)

Printed stands for my newly acquired Klipsch ProMedia speakers...














Very simple, but they help to aim the speakers at my ears instead of my chest. Each stand took about an hour and a half to print.

My post on Thingiverse

The project file for these stands

In other news, my first spool of PLA filament is about to run out. I've had it for 15 months. I've learned the hard way that PLA filament needs to be kept in sealed bags with desiccant when not in use; otherwise it gets really brittle. I'm planning on getting this spool of OVERTURE brand PLA. Anyone have experience with it?


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## sam_86314 (Dec 1, 2019)

Guess I'm taking this thread over .

My new filament spool arrived a few days ago and I've printed several things since it arrived.






...like this CPU delidding tool. It needs a few more parts in order to work.






I just printed this case for my Raspberry Pi 3B.










As for the filament, it seems to be similar quality to the HATCHBOX stuff despite being $7 cheaper. It included a build surface for my printer.


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 13, 2020)

Hey guys newbie here that just purchased a Anent A8 with no skills


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## P4-630 (Feb 13, 2020)

sam_86314 said:


> Guess I'm taking this thread over .
> 
> My new filament spool arrived a few days ago and I've printed several things since it arrived.
> 
> ...



So how many days of printing for just these 2 things?...


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## sam_86314 (Feb 14, 2020)

P4-630 said:


> So how many days of printing for just these 2 things?...


If I remember, the Pi case probably took 30 min to an hour, and the delidding tool took a couple hours.



Durvelle27 said:


> Hey guys newbie here that just purchased a Anent A8 with no skills


I'd recommend starting with PLA filament. It's cheap, prints at a lower temp, is safe to use without extreme ventilation, and has a sweet smell when it melts.

I use Repetier-Host for controlling mine, but it can read GCODE files off of a microSD card.

A lot of people recommend putting custom firmware on the A8 such as Marlin or Skynet. Some printers (like mine) can't be flashed over USB and you need a programmer for it.

I'd start by printing a better fan duct and some toppers for the leadscrews (assuming you've already assembled it and gotten it working).


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 14, 2020)

Printer just arrived 





Going to spend the night putting it together


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## sam_86314 (Feb 15, 2020)

Durvelle27 said:


> Printer just arrived
> 
> View attachment 144848
> 
> Going to spend the night putting it together


Good luck. It's a tricky one to assemble, but it's extremely easy to upgrade.

I ended up having to lubricate the leadscrews on mine to keep the y-axis from getting stuck.

That top part looks like the support for the bed. I guess that piece isn't made of metal anymore.


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 15, 2020)

sam_86314 said:


> Good luck. It's a tricky one to assemble, but it's extremely easy to upgrade.
> 
> I ended up having to lubricate the leadscrews on mine to keep the y-axis from getting stuck.
> 
> That top part looks like the support for the bed. I guess that piece isn't made of metal anymore.


Man i have been at this for hours and still not finished 

The manual isn't very detailed or straight forward

Also received a Tronxy P802E not a Anent A8


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## sam_86314 (Feb 15, 2020)

Durvelle27 said:


> Man i have been at this for hours and still not finished
> 
> The manual isn't very detailed or straight forward
> 
> ...


It's certainly coming together. Looks very similar to the A8.

Yeah, the lackluster instructions are a common complaint with the A8 and similar printers. It took a few hours for me to assemble my A8 (though I already had experience since my old job trained me on it)


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 15, 2020)

sam_86314 said:


> It's certainly coming together. Looks very similar to the A8.
> 
> Yeah, the lackluster instructions are a common complaint with the A8 and similar printers. It took a few hours for me to assemble my A8 (though I already had experience since my old job trained me on it)


I think its a A8 clone based off what I've found on google. But for $70 no biggie

I stopped off on it as i got tired and had to be yo work in like hours 

Hopefully tonight i can finish it. I've been looking at several videos piecing them together to help assemble this but even than it's not 100%


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 16, 2020)

Man putting this thing together has been a headache. It literally took days. I had to take it down and put it back up countless times as some parts ended up backwards as nothing is labeled. But its finally finished.























Doing a test print and its actually turning out decent so far













40mm Pillar Box





Didn't complete fully ad wife accidentally hit the switch on the surge protector


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## sam_86314 (Feb 16, 2020)

You should print 3DBenchy next. It's a standard test print.

Here's how it turned out on my printer with the OVERTURE PLA filament.


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 16, 2020)

sam_86314 said:


> You should print 3DBenchy next. It's a standard test print.
> 
> Here's how it turned out on my printer with the OVERTURE PLA filament.


I'll try that. Currently printing a logo for a friend of the walking dead.

So here's the walking dead logo i did. It just finished but it turned out pretty nice


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 18, 2020)

Currently printing up roger from american dad


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## sam_86314 (Feb 18, 2020)

Durvelle27 said:


> Currently printing up roger from american dad
> 
> View attachment 145143
> 
> View attachment 145144


Did your filament change color partway through?


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 18, 2020)

sam_86314 said:


> Did your filament change color partway through?


Oh I'm using PLA that changes from blue to white depending on temperature





Also did a shell for my Xbox One controller


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 19, 2020)

Here's a bart figure. Still honing in the settings but still not bad.


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 22, 2020)

Doing a kingdom hearts sora figurine and so far its shaping up nicely


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 24, 2020)

More cool prints using PETG. Prints are coming out much better now after figuring out i had the fans wired backwards.


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## biffzinker (Feb 26, 2020)

Dual extrusion heads for double the fun. 









						$80 Dual Extrusion Kit Might Work With Your 3D Printer
					

[Teaching Tech] sprung about $80 or a kit to add dual extrusion to his 3D printer, plus another $20 for an accessory kit. He did get it to work well, but it wasn’t without problems which he c…




					hackaday.com


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## Durvelle27 (Feb 26, 2020)

biffzinker said:


> Dual extrusion heads for double the fun.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Very interesting


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## Durvelle27 (Mar 2, 2020)

Hey guys i have a question. Is this sound normal. Its almost like a high pitched sound. 

Video Sample


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## biffzinker (Mar 2, 2020)

Durvelle27 said:


> Hey guys i have a question. Is this sound normal. Its almost like a high pitched sound.
> 
> Video Sample


Doesn't sound normal, something is rubbing or in need of lubrication?


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## Durvelle27 (Mar 2, 2020)

biffzinker said:


> Doesn't sound normal, something is rubbing or in need of lubrication?


Sounds seems to b.e coming from the extruder motor


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## Durvelle27 (Mar 7, 2020)

More recent prints

Had alittle stringing but easy fix


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## sam_86314 (Mar 10, 2020)

Printed a new base for my dad's '11 Mac Mini (the one with the dGPU)...















The stock base makes it so the cooling fan can't draw fresh air in from anywhere, because Apple. This base adds vents to help with that.

Since I reset the PC that controls my printer, I need to fine tune the settings again. I'm sure with some adjustments I could improve the print quality.


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## sam_86314 (May 11, 2020)

Got some cloth face masks from a family friend, so I figured these would be fun to print.
















They're straps for surgical masks. Personally, I'm not a fan of face masks and I strongly question their effectiveness.

One was done at 40% infill, and the others were done at 30%. The 40% one took 15 minutes, and the four 30% ones took about an hour to print.

My post on Thingiverse

The original Thingiverse post


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## HwGeek (May 17, 2020)

I have just returned to 3d printing and was working on few mods for my Ender 3, I have managed to design nice Direct drive extruder adapter and I am very happy  








						Creality3D Ender 3/CR-10 Direct Drive Extruder Adapter by HWGeek
					

New version available - GeekDrive:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4463679 Update Jun 8th: I have ordered this BMG extruder clone and I will make newer design to integrate part of this extuder into my direct drive mode like I did here so it won't shrink the X...




					www.thingiverse.com
				



Also I have made small torture test model and now I am sad because it exposed that I need TL smoother or new board to remove the salmon skin affect lol.








						Torture test for your 3D printer, will expose many issues- less then 3 grams! by HWGeek
					

Little model that I have designed to expose many flaws of my printer: Please  make sure to print with single line -wall thickness is 0.5mm(in PrusaSlicer "Detect thin walls"). This model will test/expose: Cooling flow rate Bridge flow/speed tuning Stringing Ringing Overhangs Linear advance...




					www.thingiverse.com


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## sam_86314 (May 18, 2020)

HwGeek said:


> I have just returned to 3d printing and was working on few mods for my Ender 3, I have managed to design nice Direct drive extruder adapter and I am very happy
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Gave it a try on my printer. I haven't done any proper calibration...












Last pic makes it look like I have a spider infestation...


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## A Computer Guy (Jun 25, 2020)

erocker said:


> Anyone here have a 3D printer? Share your stuff!
> ....



Don't have one yet but Creality3D Ender-3 3D Printer caught my eye.
Probably been watching too many youtube videos today on 3d printing today.


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