Good Things to Come

[Joe Jones]

I have one 3D printer up and running, and I am now able to design things using Google SketchUp and print them!

Good things are coming SOON, for the PlasmaCam tables

Joe

[plasmanewbie]

Cool. Will you divulge what your planning on printing Joe?

[Joe Jones]

First, I have an idea to replace the rail surfaces with cold roll steel round bars. I will print plastic clips that will hold the round steel in place of the original 11 Ga. soft steel edges the cam followers currently roll along, that eventually mushroom down from the HARD bearing rolling on the SOFT EDGES of the rails. The rails would need to be cut down to make room for the round bar, but the result would be a round, HARD steel surface that the cam followers will roll along, and plasma dust is less likely to settle onto a round surface. The round bar will not mushroom down, and in fact, if it IS damaged somehow, you only need to rotate the round bar 1/6 turn with a wrench by welding a hex nut onto the end of the round bar for a brand new rolling surface. This will create six new rolling surfaces per round bar that is snapped into the mount clips.

I will play with a pen holder, a router adapter, an engraver mount, and a paint pen holder, among other things. Maybe an air brush holder? A laser holder? Maybe a granular distribution unit? Cover a piece of plywood with adhesive, and use the cnc machine to selectively drop colored sand, or small beads, or glitter onto the surface to make an art piece? There are really no limits.

I just drove to the FLEALAND swap meet in Bowling Green today, and bought 13 1Kg. spools of various colored filaments from the man who sells 3D printers up there. Now I get to experiment a bit!

Joe

13 SPOOLS OF FILAMENT.jpg

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[djreiswig]

Nice, Joe. Glad to hear you're making progress.

[Joe Jones]

Well ... slowly.

Joe

[acourtjester]

So you know 3-D filaments absorb moisture from the air so keep the rolls in an air tight container when not in use. It also becomes brittle if left out on the printer for sometime. I use air tight plastic containers and kitty litter (Silica gel crystals very cheap) make a bag from old "T" shirts for the kitty litter.

[Joe Jones]

So you know 3-D filaments absorb moisture from the air so keep the rolls in an air tight container when not in use. It also becomes brittle if left out on the printer for sometime. I use air tight plastic containers and kitty litter (Silica gel crystals very cheap) make a bag from old "T" shirts for the kitty litter.

Yes, I am learning!

I have two dehumidifiers running in my home 24/7. The air in my home is already fairly dry.

I ordered several 8" diameter cake pans with lids, and I will toss in some of the silca bags into each one. They are the perfect size for these 1Kg spools. I did not like the sloppy plastic bag and hand pump vacuum approach.

FILAMENT CAKE PANS.jpg

I also bought five of these filament dryer/dehydrator units. This will keep ten spools dry, warm, and ready to use.

FILAMENT DRYER.jpg

[adbuch]

So you know 3-D filaments absorb moisture from the air so keep the rolls in an air tight container when not in use. It also becomes brittle if left out on the printer for sometime. I use air tight plastic containers and kitty litter (Silica gel crystals very cheap) make a bag from old "T" shirts for the kitty litter.

Tom - I think it depends on where you live (local temps and humidity). Here it Tucson it is pretty dry - I have many rolls of PLA filaments in different colors and just leave them in the boxes when not in use. The only one that needs dry storage here is the PVA ( used for water soluble supports). But I have had an occasional filament break (brittle) when the filament has been in the printer for a long time without use. For me, it would be a real pain to have to remove the filaments rolls (and reinstall them later) after every use. My shop is heated and air conditioned - so no swamp cooler blowing humid air around.

David

[Joe Jones]

I am now closer to the rail mod I spoke of earlier. Cutting down the PlasmaCam rails to get rid of the STUPID design of allowing a hardened cam follower bearing to roll along the not-so-square edge of a SOFT 11 Gauge sheet metal rail, as it rolls over plasma dust and POUNDS down on the edge over time. Eventually the edge mushrooms like the end of an abused chisel, and the entire rail has to be replaced.

My design is meant to cut down the rail about 3/4", and replace the rolling surface with a 8mm cold roll steel round bar. If the round bar begins to flatten out (unlikely) the rod can be rotated inside of the clips to give you up to SIX new rolling surfaces, using a hex nut at one end to choose a "top" quadrant point, represented by one of six sides of the hex nut. A 1/4" pop rivet holds the clips in place.

Pretty cool, eh!?

Joe

ROUND ROD IN CLIP ON RAIL.jpg

[Joe Jones]

I use air tight plastic containers and kitty litter (Silica gel crystals very cheap)

That is INSPIRED! I will do the same thing! Can you BAKE the moisture out of the Silca beads to use them again, or are they just disposable?

Joe

[adbuch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV8dOm2WH5k

[acourtjester]

I dry mine in a electric smoker outside, as I have a much larger quantity of beads. I use them in my plasma air dryer and for 3-D filament storage.

Plasma cart (4).JPG

[Joe Jones]

I dry mine in a electric smoker outside, as I have a much larger quantity of beads. I use them in my plasma air dryer and for 3-D filament storage.
Plasma cart (4).JPG

Taking notes!

Joe