Life, 3-D Printing and Everything

[gburch]

As I said when I briefly stopped by a few months ago, I had some disruption in my personal life at the first part of the year. Not long after that, I got posted to work in Hong Kong, where I was until very recently. That assignment is going to have a good deal of follow-up, which will require me to travel back to China quite a bit over the next year or two. This has basically brought my Mad Scientist work to a complete and long-term halt. (And it has also meant that my wonderful Horten continues to fly as a collection of white resin parts held together with painters tape.)

Meanwhile, the 3D printer world has continued to advance. For instance, in the last few weeks, Makerbot has released a new version of the Replicator:

http://store.makerbot.com/replicator2.html

This is the second iteration of the machine AFTER the one I've been using for the last few years, and promises something close to an order of magnitude improvement in resolution over the technology I've been fiddling with. The Replicator 2 can print layers as thin as 100 microns (0.1 mm), which is basically the thickness of a sheet of printer paper. This machine also uses PLA plastic (Polylactic Acid, not People's Liberation Army) instead of ABS, which I've been using since the beginning of my work with 3D printers. PLA has a lower melt temperature and lower thermal mass, which means that one of the twitchier elements of the technology I've been using -- the heated build platform -- is no longer necessary, and there SHOULD be much less warping due to differential cooling of large parts. And speaking of large parts, the build volume on the Replicator2 is significantly larger than the one in the Thing-O-Matic I've been using.

All of which means that the printer tech I've more or less mastered is now receding into the history books. There are still plenty of people out there working with ABS printed at 1.0 - 0.5 mm or more, but the future of this tech for the modeling hobby lies with machines like the Replicator2. I've budgeted to get one sometime in the first quarter of next year. RIGHT NOW, my hope is to be able to devote what "free" time I have during 2013 to exploring the new, finer-resolution machine. Fortunately, the CAD work I've done for years is easily transferable to a time in the medium future when I might hope to get back to working toward creating actual products.

If I'm right about what 100 micron resolution means, a HUGE part of the techniques I developed working on the V-2 prototype I created on the Thing-O-Matic will no longer be necessary, AND much more fine detail will be possible. What this COULD mean is that the striations in printed parts will be resolvable with a single coat of filler primer and a single sanding -- a savings of many, many hours of work for a modeler. Beyond this, fine detail at the level of rivets and panel lines may well be directly printable and much more realistic in 1/18 scale. Ultimately, this means that far more of what shows up on the finished model will be work to be done just once in the CAD process, rather than manual work to be done by the modeler. The larger build volume and decrease in thermal warping during printing should also mean fewer, larger parts that will have better fit.

One major unknown at this point is print time. I can only assume that print time at 100 micron resolution will be longer. On the other hand, with fewer, larger parts, the ability to print multiple smaller parts in a single run on the much larger build platform, and a meaningful increase in print-head speed, the net impact of finer resolution might not be a deal breaker in terms of the ultimate goal of printing kits. But only time -- and much experimentation -- will tell.

At any rate, I'm sort-of back. I received my Coral Sea Dauntless right before I moved to Hong Kong, and it's still in the box in my office. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to get it home and hung before I have to go back. But before that, I'm having to devote many hours to a complete re-organization and thorough cleaning of my Mad Scientist Lab/Man Cave. A couple of years of feverish activity, months of absence and a few unauthorized visits by some of the critters in the house have ended up in a fairly major disaster zone in a space where no other humans are allowed without haz-mat suits.

One of these days, things will be back to "normal" ... When that happens, I'm going to box up the 3 or 4 complete V-2 kits I printed on the Thing-O-Matic late last year and early this year. I'll offer them for shipping cost only to anyone who's interested.

So, I wonder what I've missed in the last four or five months. I see there was a Midway Dauntless. Are those all gone? Any other nibbles at new product out there?

[grunt1]

Welcome back!

The new replicator is interesting. Here are some hi res pictures of printed objects. Improved over the prior version but the quality is not where SLS or SLA are at the moment.

http://www.makerbot.com/wp-content/them ... high19.jpg

http://www.makerbot.com/wp-content/them ... high23.jpg

While you've been busy, a lot of new printers have come out. The two projects I'm watching the most closely are the UP! and the Form1.

The UP! use the same melted plastic technology as the Replicator, but appears to be slightly cheaper with a higher quality. Here is the same Pixar lamp from the UP!
http://pp3dp.com/modle/pic/40/2.jpg

The Form1 is going to the the first(?) desktop SLA printer. SLA and SLS are the technologies that the large commercial printing houses use due to the quality, so it will be interesting to see how close the Form1 gets in quality and price to a "big boy" SLA machine.
Print samples: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/ ... 1347988506

I'm hoping someone makes a desktop SLS machine. That is my preferred material (and what Shapeways uses) today.

[big_mike]

I've had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong its an amazing place. I'm sure it loses some of it's allure/luster if you're working there but still I'd imagine it's fascinating.

Welcome sorta back to the forum. There are Midways Dauntlesses still out there but they are getting a little scarce. Only new 1/18 to speak of is Merit Huey which has a thread going. Two 1/32 entries on my radar BBI Black Knights F-4 end of year and Corgi Mosquito 1st quarter next year. As far as customs Pickel has a thread about the impending production of a 1/18 King Tiger. You probably knew all this but better safe than sorry.

Good luck reclaiming your man cave. One of these days I hope to reclaim my own but I need to evict my friend to do that. For the record I would be really interested in one of those aforementioned V-2 kits if and when you get around to them.

[pickelhaube]

Thanks for the update.

Believe me I know about life's interruptions .

I have enjoyed your posts and the V-2 project. The new 3-D bot sounds exciting.

I would also like to sign up for one of the V-2s , when you make your decision.

[gburch]

Welcome back!

The new replicator is interesting. Here are some hi res pictures of printed objects. Improved over the prior version but the quality is not where SLS or SLA are at the moment. [snip]

While you've been busy, a lot of new printers have come out. The two projects I'm watching the most closely are the UP! and the Form1.

The UP! use the same melted plastic technology as the Replicator, but appears to be slightly cheaper with a higher quality. Here is the same Pixar lamp from the UP!
http://pp3dp.com/modle/pic/40/2.jpg

It's hard to compare quality without knowing if those prints were done at the same size. The UP! says they're printing at 0.2 mm -- twice the layer thickness Makerbot is claiming for the Replicator2. Im being patient and withholding judgment until the Rep2 gets out in the world and people start using it. But the UP! has a one major thing going for it -- price! On the other hand, it's still using ABS, which has the thermal issues requiring a heated build platform, and with all the warping that comes from differential cooling.

The Form1 is going to the the first(?) desktop SLA printer. SLA and SLS are the technologies that the large commercial printing houses use due to the quality, so it will be interesting to see how close the Form1 gets in quality and price to a "big boy" SLA machine.
Print samples: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/ ... 1347988506

I'm hoping someone makes a desktop SLS machine. That is my preferred material (and what Shapeways uses) today.

Thanks for the tip about the Form1! I'd been hoping someone would try to do with SLS technology what RepRap, MB and others have done with depositional printing over the last four or five years. It looks like the Form1 will be even a little more expensive than the Rep2. Reading their site closely, it also appears that the resin will be more expensive. Their build volume is also pretty small, compared to where the deposition printers are headed. More importantly, the print time will be longer -- perhaps much longer. (They quote a two hour print time for the chess rook. If it's the size I think it is, my current machine could print that in 20 minutes or less -- depending on how solid it is, and I'm thinking the Rep2 would be able to print it in well under an hour, even at its finest resolution.) On the other hand, there's no question it will have the best resolution of any printer that's even close to being available to something other than well-funded businesses and schools.

*IF* you were looking to make masters from which to make molds, the SLS technology would definitely be the way to go, once that gets down to real "hobbyist desktop" prices.

I've had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong its an amazing place. I'm sure it loses some of it's allure/luster if you're working there but still I'd imagine it's fascinating.

I've been a "China hand" for over 35 years -- my first trip to China was in 1979 as a Chinese language student. You can't do something for that long without loving it, but being away from home for months at a time gets to be a pain in the a$$ after a while.

Hong Kong is an amazing place, though. In a strange way, it's one of the most free places in the world -- an on-going experiment in Wild Wild East capitalism. I wish I'd had the opportunity to be there back in the Golden Age of 1/18. I did make a few expeditions to the model and toy stores in Kowloon to see what was available. No 1/18 at all, I'm afraid . . . none. I did get the 1/48 Apollo 11 CSM and LM, ironically, the day before Neil Armstrong died. But the prices aren't much better than what you'd see in the States. Shipping and logistics are so efficient now that buying retail in Asia just isn't what it used to be.

Welcome sorta back to the forum. There are Midways Dauntlesses still out there but they are getting a little scarce. Only new 1/18 to speak of is Merit Huey which has a thread going. Two 1/32 entries on my radar BBI Black Knights F-4 end of year and Corgi Mosquito 1st quarter next year. As far as customs Pickel has a thread about the impending production of a 1/18 King Tiger. You probably knew all this but better safe than sorry.

Thanks. I'm getting close to running out of space, but I may have to get one of the Hueys -- I finally managed to pick up one OOB on eBay a couple of years ago, but I don't know if I could pass up another.

Good luck reclaiming your man cave. One of these days I hope to reclaim my own but I need to evict my friend to do that. For the record I would be really interested in one of those aforementioned V-2 kits if and when you get around to them.

This thread will serve as a reminder to me when I finally get around to boxing them up. You get first dibs.

Thanks for the update.

Believe me I know about life's interruptions .

I have enjoyed your posts and the V-2 project. The new 3-D bot sounds exciting.

I would also like to sign up for one of the V-2s , when you make your decision.

You're on!