What have you been printing.

I've come to the conclusion that failing 3D printers is a highly contagious illness.

My CTC3D decided that after many, many hours of faultless printing it would royally throw its toys out of the pram and suffer the following:

Fan on RH extruder failed. Most likely wiring problem
Cable relief bracket on extruder carriage failed. Might have caused the above issue.
RH extruder totally gummed up. Stripped down and found large piece of filament stuck in exit channel
LH Extruder found to have blocked teflon tube in hot end. Very charred and carbonised. Not sure what I was printing using that side last, possibly wood. New tube fitted
SD card reader packed up. Went from slightly intermittent to not playing anymore in about 3 minutes...

Might be time to retire the old girl and replace. She's been going 7 or 8 years, including printing over 5000 mask extenders for the NHS, so probably about worn out now!!
 
3 minutes of fame said:
SD card reader packed up. Went from slightly intermittent to not playing anymore in about 3 minutes...

Might be time to retire the old girl and replace. She's been going 7 or 8 years, including printing over 5000 mask extenders for the NHS, so probably about worn out now!!
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You can replace a lot, but you can also look for a better printer tan you have now.
Rebuilt rebuilt rebuilt ect it is a droid, just like a car....just like my thrusted toyota after 9 years it become to expensive....i should have kept her and do a total rebuilt.....

When i started my endeavors for 3d printing i was a whole month at you tube and sites for compartments,,,,
One printer was with head and shoulders above all....2 years ago!...the creality ender 5 plus...
One draw back if it comes and it will come....calibrating.....you are bound to do programming in gcode.....test with the robotic firmware on the printer itself....it just like gw basic in the 80's...simple.
I dont have any regrets buying this printer...
Best
Ps save youre self some money ( up to 200$) and wait 4 weeks for the delivery from ali express.
If my one would fail after 8 years and there would be no better one and fixing would be to costly i would buy this one again, not only based on reviews as a ex newbie in 3d printing...
Probaly the same but BIGGER.....500X500mm or own build---->1000x500mm.
btw what is your old printer?
 
Thinking Ender 3. I really don't need anything bigger than that.

My CTC has had more updates than I can count. Power supply, fans, thermistors, sprung extruder drives, better heated bed, rewiring stepper motors, full enclosure, lighting and plenty of small repairs. Generally it's been pretty good, but I fear it's about time to say goodbye.
 
My Ender 3 pro with a quiet board prints like a monster. The flex bed is outstanding. I bought a boat load of nozzles @ 30¢ each and change at 500 hours. About the only addition I would like would be filament detection. Plus it was on sale for $170.
 
Today’s little print allows me to mount Proxxon sanding pads to the end of an electric toothbrush to help sand those difficult to reach areas of other 3D printed parts :)1B7905B0-ABB8-4499-978B-E4D8E1D2F678.jpeg
 
The good news from this neck of the woods is that the 3d printer lives! 2 fans and 1 cable replaced, SD card port is not working - can't see any obvious reason why, so I've hitched up an old laptop in the meantime to run the prints.

It's currently printing a new strain relief for the extruders, as there's a lot of cable flex there at the moment and the old one is damaged and not doing a great job.

Looking at the hours on it, it's at more than 5000 hours now, so I can't be too hard on it. Hopefully I can squeeze a little more out of it until I can afford to replace it. Track and building materials to construct the garden railway must come first however!
 
Another day down the Pub, that's 2Kgs of PETG used so far in this one :think: I should probably buy some buildings it's going to take forever to print the whole village :rofl::rofl: there's a little bit of playmoil still in it, just not a lot anymore.

pub06.jpg
 
LGB-Sid said:
Another day down the Pub, that's 2Kgs of PETG used so far in this one :think: I should probably buy some buildings it's going to take forever to print the whole village :rofl::rofl: there's a little bit of playmoil still in it, just not a lot anymore.
Click to expand...
Why you just dont buy pvc sheet 2 mm thick and print details on that one?
Or only print details and glue them om a pvc sheet......
Oh yes printing can be a very expensive hobby....but a lot...if not 80% of the costs can be taking away if you think a bit out of the box......
Oke granted you must pay for xt pvc sheet 2mm and you must paint it....or buy foam pvc sheet 2mm in color, both let you glue with pvc glue( read solvent) the fine printed details on them.....
Oke a bit more work, but 80% cost wise?...penny saved pond wise( i know the original saying).....
With best regards Igor
 
DGE-Railroad said:
Today’s little print allows me to mount Proxxon sanding pads to the end of an electric toothbrush to help sand those difficult to reach areas of other 3D printed parts :)
Click to expand...
Clever thinking really clever....hmmmm got one for spare, thanks for the tip......but fine tune your printer will cost more time now, but will save you tremendous amounts of time in the near future, believe me i know what i am talking about.....
 
My latest project. I wasn't happy with the Bachmann Lyn I recently purchased. The scale is wrong (13.8mm/ft) and the outswing is too much on my tight curves so I found a rather nice looking 440T which ran on the Schull & Skibbereen Railway. I've decided to adapt the Lyn chassis to 044T similar to another Schull loco as it had outside frames like Lyn.

The body was drawn in TinkerCAD and I'm about half way through printing out the bits.
3D image3.jpg3D image4.jpg3D image5.jpgIMG_1556.JPG

I'm hoping t test run her later in the week (weather permitting)

Rik
 
Hmmmm................. :think:

Up until now, I had been thinking of trying to restore my ancient Lyn.. :rolleyes::wondering:
 
I would have thought that a 4-4-0 would have a fair bit of swing - more than a 2-4-2 possibly :think::think:
 
Rhinochugger said:
I would have thought that a 4-4-0 would have a fair bit of swing - more than a 2-4-2 possibly :think::think:
Click to expand...
Much less at the front and probably about the same at the back - but my cunning plan is to mount the coupling on the bogie at the rear.

Rik
 
ge_rik said:
My latest project. I wasn't happy with the Bachmann Lyn I recently purchased. The scale is wrong (13.8mm/ft) and the outswing is too much on my tight curves so I found a rather nice looking 440T which ran on the Schull & Skibbereen Railway. I've decided to adapt the Lyn chassis to 044T similar to another Schull loco as it had outside frames like Lyn.

The body was drawn in TinkerCAD and I'm about half way through printing out the bits.
View attachment 280250View attachment 280251View attachment 280252View attachment 280253

I'm hoping t test run her later in the week (weather permitting)

Rik
Click to expand...
What scale you using 15mm to the foot?
 
A new box car for my 7/8ths critter. Needs some finishing work and a brake. but it's a start.
box car1.jpgbox car.jpg
 
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