Cygnus back on track

With the recent decommissioning of the Form1 and its replacement with a far more reliable and cheaper Chinese LCD printer, the CYGNUS level 2 extension project is back on track...

How to Print with G+ resin in a Formlabs Form1+

THE LONG STORY

Disclaimer: use the following instructions at your own risk. I take no responsibility for damage to your equipment or damage to or loss of property. It's working for me, your mileage may vary.

I 've been having all sorts of trouble printing reliably with the Formlabs resins and the Makerjuice SF resins for Form1/1+. For the most part , the Makerjuice SF has been OK, but I got a bad batch recently that wouldn't cure worth beans.

So I thought I'd try an experiment and try some G+ resin in the Form1+. Hey, its only $55USD per liter, so if I could make it work it would be cheaper than printing with anything else. So I ordered a half liter for fun.

For my first experiment, I poured it into an already beat up resin tray that was either getting thrown out or reconditioned. There were still some bits around the periphery that were pretty clear so I figured it would be a fair test with some small parts. The parts printed well, although a bit brittle. The process, however, was fairly hard on the resin vat, causing distinct clouding. As expected, the laser was a bit much for G+. Too bad there wasn't a way in software to adjust the laser intensity. (I played around with the profile files found in the Materials directory, but they seem to be encrypted)

Hmmmm, what to do? My first thought was to add some sort of physical filter to the bottom of the resin vat. Like the ones you would use on a stage light. Like one of these:
http://www.rosco.com/filters/roscolux.cfm#colors

I figured on getting a series of the blue filters, since they would have the most subtle effect on the UV to 440nm range of light. The filters are meant to be used with very HOT stage lights so they shouldn't have any trouble withstanding a little laser light.

So I looked up my local ROSCO rep and dropped by the shop. Salesman was out. Leave your name and number and he'll get back to you. Didn't hear boo. Went again. Salesman was out. Was told to send him an email with the items I wanted. I got prices back but he didn't seem all that interested in taking an order cuz I wasn't one of his $10000 customers. On my third trip, I finally got satisfaction, but not because anyone was there to sell me the gels that I wanted. I snagged one of these sample books for free:

My intention was still to put a big 6x6 swatch on the bottom of the resin vat, but figured I could experiment with these to figure out exactly what filter(s) would be the most appropriate.

Then it dawned on me. It doesn't have to go on the bottom of the tank...

It can go in front of the small stationary mirror...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Ya! Just take the book apart and tape a filter to the window between the small and large stationary mirrors. A little scotch tape across the bottom is enough to hold it in place. The best combination I've found so far is using a #3204 Half Blue filter and the Formlabs Grey V1 resin setting.

So far the process has been far more reliable than using the recommended resins, not to mention CHEAPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now my Form1 friends, go play!

THE SHORT STORY

Disclaimer: use the following instructions at your own risk. I take no responsibility for damage to your equipment or damage to or loss of property. It's working for me, your mileage may vary.

So you want to use Makerjuice G+ resin in your Form1/1+ without frying your resin vat. Here's how:

1. Go to your ROSCO lighting dealer and get a sample book of ROSCOLUX filters. Its a book of sample swatches of colored plastic about 1" x 3" each. Pretend that you're doing lighting for a high school musical or an indy film if you like. They should be glad to give you one.

2. cut the sucker apart and locate the #3204 Half Blue filter.

3. place it over the window between the small and large stationary mirrors in your Form1/1+. Secure it with a little scotch tape or packing tape across the bottom edge.

4. Fill your vat with $55USD/litre Makerjuice G+ Resin

5. Set your resin type to Grey V1 in the software and print away.

Cygnus Update

Here is test #3 of the improved crows nest and base...

Cygnus Update

For those that are waiting for Cygnus upgrade parts, apologies for my absence. What have I been up to?

1) Bathroom renos

2) Checking out alternative resins. I've been making non-destructive tweaks to the Form1 to see if I can modify it to use DLP resins such as Makerjuice G+. Stay tuned, I should be sharing my secret in near future.

3) Pushing ahead with detailing strips, crowsnests and antennae bases for the Cygnus. Also tweaking the antenna for the Palomino.

4) Most importantly, this...

Cygnus Landing Bay v1.0 Test Fit

After a bit of chopping, sanding and a really half-assed paintjob, here we are...

It turned out a couple of mm short and I don't like how thick the side walls are. Will be redesigning the wall parts today.

Cygnus Landing Bay

I've worked out most of the bugs with printing the landing bay detail set. Here is a picture of the latest parts...

Only one fly in the ointment -- due to printing and design tolerances, etc etc, my bay is about 1.5 mm too narrow. I'm going to do a test build with the parts shown anyways to get an idea of how they fit together and paint up. Then I'll do some cutting on the Cygnus and figure out just how much I need to tweak the size.

Cygnus Level 1 Update

This week I updated the body extension section (removed piping standoff) and printed two piping standoffs for the original section. These and the side panel extensions are shown here:

I also printed a pair of lattice pieces for the nose, but they were too thin and flimsy, will redo those today.

Regarding the necessary extension to the piping rails, I WAS just going to say "screw it, make your own", but there's no sprue in this kit that matches. So I'll also include a piece for that. Also working on that today.

On A Roll

So far I've got parts printed for my 1/100 Fenris, Ryoken and Deimos... put that with my Vulture that I printed a couple of summers ago and I've almost got a Clan Star!

Tentative Plans for 2015

So what do I have planned for 2015 we'll pretend you asked?

I've got 3 more 1:100th scale mechs that I want to print before moving on to other things. I've got STL files that I downloaded for the Deimos and the Atlas (MWO version) that I want to print for myself to help bulk out the 1:100th scale collection. Also want to get around to designing and printing a Gargoyle/Man-o-War.

THEN I want to seriously look at converting all of my 1:100th scale patterns to 1:60th scale to print out for others (1:100th will continue to be my preferred gaming scale but I've starting to collect a small pile of 1:60th scale stuff despite myself... I'm hoping that with the Form1 and cheaper 3rd party resins, that I can come in at similar prices to cast mechs.

To summarize, I currently have 3D models and STL files for the following (based for the most part on artwork found in the original release of TRO3050)

Urbanmech, Flea, Vulcan, Whitworth, Sentinel, Scorpion, Rakshasa, Hatamoto Chi, Ryoken, Fenris (Gargoyle coming soon)

I also have STL files for a few others, but because I just downloaded them and printed them, I won't be offering those. My intent would be to upscale the parts, add a little more detail and re-hollow them to make them more suitable to print at the larger scale. At a guess, I think I can hit $70 with the 45 tonners with assault mechs pushing closer to $200 -- but I'll have to see how much plastic I can hollow out of the larger scale mechs.

Anyone that is interested in pursuing this can contact me via the blog or at
bverde84 atsine hotmail dawt com

Let me know which mechs you would like me to upscale first. Worth noting, I probably won't be starting the 1/60th scale projects til June or so.

Work in Progress

Thought I'd post a few pics of 1/100th scale mechs that I have in progress:

This is my second printout of the 1:100 scale Fenris. The first one seemed a little big and so I gave it another go...

This is the latest printout. A 1:100 scale Ryoken under the curing light. For once the bayonet mount for the waist printed out perfectly. I'm going to try and make the weapons bays for this somewhat modular with pullout missle packs and changeable arms.

This is our version of the Sentinel. One of the student placements at Price did this model for me so if I sell any she gets a cut! Hi Danielle! The main feature of our 1/100th scale version is that he is SMALLER THAN A DAISHI!!!!!I never did like the lead mini for this reason.

All of the mechs shown here were printed with the Formlabs Form1 3D printer using Makerjuice gray resin.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Space Wheel

At long last, we will be auctioning a 3D printed space wheel on EBAY starting sometime around 19:00 EST this evening. Here are some pictures of what's coming, including a comparison with the old resin cast space wheel...

2014 Christmas Auctions

The Fourth Axis 2014 Christmas Auctions will be starting up again this evening 8:00EST Nov 9 2014. The first week will include old standbys with rarer items appearing in following weeks. For those that have been wondering, we will have at least one NSEA Protector ornament this year and there will be at least one Space Wheel up for auction. In addition to Christmas ornaments, we will also be auctioning EVA POD fridge magnets, a KLF Dalek kit and a test print of a Battletech Fenris (approximately 1:90th scale - so whoever bought the FLEA and the VULCAN test shots, this should match pretty well in scale to those).

So visit ebay and get your bids on!
http://www.ebay.ca/sch/bgreen42/m.html

Space Wheel

Finally have a successful printout of the girder half of the space wheel. With a little luck, the space wheel ornament should be available again for auctions this Christmas!

A New Post Just to Stay in Practice...

So the Form1 kinda pooped out after Christmas. Formlabs support, for the record, was wayyyyyyyyy more helpful than 3D Systems has ever been. So while it is away getting exchanged, I'm getting caught up on some mech painting. Base coats and dry brushing started on the Rakshasa and Vulture:

Revelation of the KLF DALEKS

I just did a quick cleanup on the new parts and set them together. Any fan of Colin Baker will recognize this one from Revelation of the KLF DALEKS!

FORM 1 - Second try

I submitted a pickup print job last night to see if I could get those 6 Dalek parts to work. The web site sez to just clean everything up and try again -- real helpful. But I figure that the auto-orient button is in the software for a reason and I give it a try.

Things worked much better this time.

I'm impressed with how clear the parts are. They get kind of clouded and scuffed during the cleaning process though. I suspect that a little Clearcote or Future would bring it back to a pretty clear finish though.

Gonna have to leave it there though. The timing of the FORM1's arrival has not been optimal and I won't have time to really put it through its paces for a few weeks yet. Should be some new stuff for Christmas auctions though -- including new mechs!

FORM1 Maiden Voyage

For my first 3D print on the new FORM1, I've chosen to do a KLF style dalek.

(see: Doctorin the Tardis on Youtube )

 Yes, it's a piece of junk, but I'd wager than there aren't many Doctor Who fans that have this one on their shelf! (Also, if I have trouble getting good parts, they'll still be somewhat authentic!)

So I thought I'd ignore the auto-orient button and layout the print job manually. Maybe a bad idea since only the two largest parts actually survived to tell the tale.

The remaining six ended up as shapeless pieces of goo in the bottom of the resin reservoir. :-(