Additive build (3d printing) vs subtractive (CNC mill) and were to start...

[Netpackrat]

The current hang up is 1.0mm nozzle setup. It will make sense when you we the pics/vid of what I’m doing. I’m likely to stick with cheap Enders for “production” on this project but voron is definitely in my future. Mostly because I’m a nerd.

Yeah, running a 1mm nozzle on an Ender is going to be sub-optimal since the hot end and overall printer speed are going to have trouble keeping up. At 1.0mm you are well into the territory of needing a high flow hot end. I know a lot of beginning print farmers have started out with Enders, but you will be creating a maintenance nightmare for yourself. There's a reason why people running farms tend to gravitate to Prusa machines, and it's not because Enders make lower quality prints. Pretty much the reliability is the main reason.

The cleaning thing was an early lesson. As was constant level and mesh calibration. I have the normal “chess a$$ ender!” 0.25mm warp in the plate. Every time I pull the spring plate the shape changes just enough.

The bed is the main reason why I would have recommended something other than an Ender had I seen this thread when you started it. Even one of the "Poverty Prusas" like a Sovol would have been a huge step up. Bed leveling screws are not a thing I have ever had to mess with at all. One of my "Prusa" machines is actually a scratch build with a 310mm Z axis, and while I used mostly genuine parts, the one clone part I ended up with was the heated bed. I know it is pretty warped compared to the other machine with its genuine Prusa heat bed, but in practice that's not been a problem. The mesh leveling routine built into the firmware just takes care of it. There's mods I could do to try to straighten it out, but I haven't had a lot of reason to try to make it better because the system just works as-is.

Which brings me to more nerd stuff… 4days and I was into octoprint. I don’t think I’ve used the as card/print from internal after the fist week. I like issuing command at the terminal and controlling what it’s doing more discreetly.

I have been running Octoprint on both Prusa machines since a few months after I started. The main reason was to set up a pi camera on each for remote monitoring, but not having to use the SD cards to load files has been nice. You can actually run Octoprint as the interface for Klipper if you want to... It's more resource intensive than the interfaces normally used (Mainsail, Fluidd), but it does give Klipper useers access to the huge library of plugins that are available for Octoprint.

I’ve thought about moving to klipper but… it works well enough for my needs “today”.

I am mostly running Klipper on the Voron because I used the LDO Motors kit, and their default setup is for Klipper. I am not really knowledgeable enough to set it up without having step by step instructions to follow. Klipper is nice because you can make changes to the configuration of the printer without needing to recompile and flash new firmware like on the Prusas and other Marlin based firmwares. I went through that process when I first built the modified Prusa with the 100mm taller Z in order to get it to work, and it was a real pain in the ass for somebody like me. The most logical upgrade path for that machine will be to convert it over to Klipper at some point because I don't want to go through the process of editing and recompiling new firmware as Prusa comes out with new versions. I am something like 3 major revisions behind at this point although since the machine works fine, I have little reason to mess with it.

[Netpackrat]

Here are some photos of what I’m making…

If you want to see the tube with a Bonita in it, we put one in a bucket, sent off shore, and gave it a try…. https://facebook.com/that.guy.reels.and.stuff

I looked at the pictures and the videos, and I still don't understand what that actually does. One thing I would say, is you may have "fun" printing that out of ABS especially if your plan for production is to do it on Enders. It might be OK because it is round which will mitigate the effects of warping somewhat. Even with the Voron I have had trouble printing a few large pieces out of ABS... Some of the bigger parts have actually cracked due to warping. That's one of the reasons I am looking forward to getting the Trident built. Since the bed starts out at the top of the chamber instead of being fixed at the bottom of the printer like on the 2.4, they can often achieve higher temps where the printing actually takes place. It's also a smaller print volume (250mm cube vs the 300mm 2.4 I built), so it should be better at reaching and maintaining a higher chamber temp. At least, that's the theory.

As a comparison for printing ABS on a bedslinger like your Ender in an add-on enclosure, vs doing so in a machine intended for that purpose... I printed the parts for the Voron 2.4 on one of the Prusas in an add-on enclosure (Wham Bam Hot Box) out of ASA. ASA is similar to ABS except it has better UV resistance and it is somewhat less prone to warping. It was still a struggle at first, to come up with print settings that would allow me to print the Voron parts and have them come out looking acceptably well. I ended up re-doing most of them at least once, and they were still not perfect. Printing the parts for the Trident on the 2.4 was a huge contrast... They all printed beautifully the first try, out of straight ABS and not ASA, and much faster due to running input shaping on the 2.4. Almost everything I print these days is ABS on the Voron; I only occasionally fire up one of the Prusas if I need to print something out of PLA or PETG, which I have never bothered setting up the Voron to print. Once I get the Trident built, it's going to take the place of the taller Prusa on my bench, and I plan to give that machine a rebuild and send it to my brother to learn on.

[Netpackrat]

And now, for something completely different:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SXs6Ky2LZHQ

Technically, it's printing a boat.

[Netpackrat]

Jaysen, here is a site with some CAD tricks that you may find useful in your design endeavors:

https://github.com/gregsaun/maker_cheat ... hniques.md

[Jaysen]

These are "tuna tubes" that are used for live baits that need more water than live wells can provide. Most of the guys here need them for smaller fish than the big manufactures build the stock systems to support. See a need, fill a need. That bonita was way bigger than the tube was intended to support but it went from nearly unusable to bait quality in the time they had it in the tube. Which is the goal. Now I need to print 6 fresh one, cut a new deck lid, plumb, wire, and get it mounted for the big tournament. I'm a sponsor of the SC Wahoo Series (Ono) and this is one of my product showcases.

Are you filming bottom up on the Voron?

I'm 99.5% on going staight to Vorons with modified scale. Nothing there scares me other than the cost. A 2.4 for my prototyping/everyday stuff and a stack of tridents to do production work. (I may take you up on the offer to print the base parts for one unit, I appreciate that.) I just need to get enough orders to justify the farm. The ender v prussa v voron debate was big here. I landed on the ender because my thought was "if I'm going to spend the money, don't cheap out anywhere". Since I wasn't willing to spend the $$ for the voron I had to go with "what is the cheapest way I can make something work and make enough to get a voron?"

The Ender has issues, but I'm learning a crap ton and ... I've already paid for it in custom jobs so the wife isn't angry about it (I'm not as dumb as I look... sometimes).

Right now I'm still trying to dial in the 1.0 snoz on this thing. The 0.6 shot boogers all over the prints even with wipe and reduction. I need to turn up the flow rate a bit for this one. Luckily I've still got headroom on the extruder. Not sure it will be the same once I move to PETG, but... Gelcoat over PLA should be pretty indestructible... That's my fallback.

[Netpackrat]

Just be aware that PETG doesn't like to be printed fast. In the standard Voron print profiles in PrusaSlicer I found that PETG was set to a lower max volumetric flow than the hot end I am using will normally support, so I tried bumping it up, and I had problems. So there was a reason they had it set so low. In the end I went back to just printing PETG on the Prusa machines.

I assume by filming bottom up, you mean am I doing timelapses? The answer is no; I am just using the cameras the be able to keep an eye on the printers when I am elsewhere in the house while they are running. Usually they are very reliable, but my most recent project has had me printing a lot of tall, narrow parts out of ABS, and being able to check the camera has allowed me to detect several detached prints before any damage was done to the machine.



This is my setup for Octoprint on a Prusa. Pi case mounted to the frame, USB cable from the pi to the mainboard. The pi camera ribbon cable runs in a drag chain to an adjustable articulated arm on the X motor mount, so the camera raises and lowers with the Z axis. The parts for this are all on Printables including a couple parts I designed to make the drag chain work. My setup for the Voron is a lot simpler... I just used a USB webcam mounted on the outside of the machine using the same printable arm. It doesn't move with the machine but I only need to be able to see well enough to detect print failures.

[Netpackrat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_53XQrlxOo

This is the way.

Still in beta, but looking forward to when they get the kinks worked out of it.