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Printer has been upgraded to an all metal E3D hotend, allowing even better prints

Here is a small sample, printed in PLA at medium resolution (0.125mm) and medium speed, untreated:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/713/naaf.jpg

Same object printed at low resolution (0.25mm), medium speed in ABS:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/22/4saa.jpg

I can do any PLA print you want in one of the following colors:
- Black
- Gold (/yellowish)
- Red

And small to medium size ABS prints in
- Glow in the Dark white (glows green in the dark)
- Blue
(I dont have an enclosure yet, and I have a fine nozzle, so large ABS prints tend to warp and split. Working on a solution.)

Just in, but not tested yet:

- Taulman Nylon. Supposedly even stronger than ABS, and very flexible in thin prints. Natural white/translucent but this material can also colored with textile paint. Special color effects are possible too by dying the filament in various colors before printing.  Not tried yet.
- SoftPLA. Rubber like material, broken white.
- SmartABS. Pretty much like ABS but would be easier to print large objects with. Also white.

Pricing:
Currently im offering the service for free. You only pay for the filament (~5 euro per 100gr) and shipping from the EU.
I will not print (or at least not ship) guns, no point in asking.

FAQ
Q Why do you this?
A Because I like playing with my large toy and its idle often enough that I may as well print your designs at cost. Im also curious what kind of demand there is out there for such a service.

Q What size can you print?
I can print up to 20x20x20cm with my current printer. However, large objects in ABS are still problematic due to warping of the material. If your object is large, PLA will work better until Ive upgraded my printer.

Q Can you print any shape?
A Hmmm, not really. My printer only has 1 extruder, so I cant print washable support material. That means that objects with very steep overhangs or large "bridges" where I would have to print "in the air" can not be printed, or only with generated support material (think scaffolding) which to be honest, is a PITA to remove and you will have to do that yourself. When in doubt, just give me a link to the object, I can usually tell on sight if I need support material or not.

Q Can you paint printed objects?
Yes you can. Its recommended you use a (automotive) primer first, then acrylic paints will work fine on both ABS and PLA

Really nice screens

This is a really cool and I would imagine technically challenging project

Just how technical are you? ;)

Nice job

Its not so hard. Its more work than I thought, but all the steps are fairly easy. The manual, well PDF, is almost comically detailed, showing 5 large photographs each time you have to solder 2 wires together. It shows you how to cut, how to strip, how to put heatshrink on, solder, and shrink. Thats like 2 or 3 pages lol. Same for putting on a bolt with some spacers. Thats easily 3 high res photos. As a result,  the manual is almost 800 pages long!

So far I only encountered one challenging step, that was to solder the SMD thermistor on the heated bed. That thing is TINY. I was happy to let my electronics freak brother do that. Other than that, it only takes basic soldering skills (literally soldering wires together). Mechanicaly its just a big mecano toy box.

Mind you, I havent finished yet, it may not work, and I still have to do the fine tuning and calibrations, so I may revise my opinion. But so far, most people should be able to build this if you take your time.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/7560/eo8x.jpg

Not printing yet, but everything works. Its talking to the software, all the motors work, bed and extruder heating and temp sensors work, all the switches work. Didnt quite expect that from the first time :)

All thats left to do is calibrating it and tomorrow I may print the first parts although I still havent received 2 replacement bearings so the print quality is probably going to be lousy. Still, Im happy :)

Looks like a great service. I think you'll get lots of customers here :D
Good luck ;D

It needed some tweaks; I had to add a glass plate on the heated bed, because the stock bed is curved. The glass is only barely getting warm enough now, but with some tape on it, objects stick fairly well and its up and running:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRRpx4qZTJw

Still needs a bit of fine tuning to eliminate occasional "blobs" of plastic, probably caused by too high extruder temperature.

Only tried PLA so far, the heated bed is probably inadequate for ABS, so Im looking in to further modifying that.

Anyway, if you have some PLA work, let me know. I got red and black spools available.

Someone else on here requested a 3D gun be printed for him/her. Will you be willing to offer your services to print such items?

That looks like an awesome mecano type project! Makes me wish I were a bit better with electronics. Been wanting to convert an old Epson printer into a dtg printer but definitely ain't got the skills for that!

Willing to print firearms and/or firearm parts? (USA)

I have no intentions of printing or certainly not shipping guns , sorry.
I dont think a gun would work in PLA anyway, Im guessing that needs ABS.

Understood.

looks like America needs more guns ... lol

I was doing a test print of thin overhangs. This makes the cooling fan kick in and it results in rough, unsmooth edges and web like threads. This is fully expected, and normally you would print an object like I was printing in ABS and then you smooth it with acetone.

However, what was not expected was the effect youtube image stabilization would have. Its frigging hilarious, so I thought Id let you have a laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PM_woiVquM#t=25

These photos look intimidating. I hope the manual is really good  :P

Its laughably detailed, fortunately and for the most part, not hard at all. Still, assembly proved to be not without some challenges.  I had trouble with the thermistor (temperature probe). The supplied heat resistant sleeves proved inadequate and I ended up shorting two thermistors (velleman kindly provided new ones free of charge). Fixed it by using some kaplon tape.

I also didnt tighten the extruder well enough, and as a result it leaks a little bit. If I leave it printing unattended, now and then a blob of molten plastic will ruin the model. For now I just swipe the hot end clean with some ear cleaners every 20 minutes or so. In the long run, I will need to disassemble it, clean it with a blowtorch, and try again.  I cant tighten it now, because there is already plastic between the threads.

Merry Christmas all :)

Ive pretty much solved all trouble with the printer, I tweaked the calibration and software settings,  its no longer leaking, Ive replaced the Z axis rod and printed a motor mount to replace the terrible stock 2 screw alu plate:

http://youupload.org/zdvlsrq.jpg

(yeah, I didnt have the right bolts and washers, so I used an excess amount of nuts and some hot glue for the microswitch :) )

Im quite pleased with how well it prints now. In preparation for new years eve, Ive been printing some (hopefully) flyable rockets, like this "firecracker" rocket which took 5 hours to print:

http://youupload.org/yem9gfw.jpg

http://youupload.org/veokqhc.jpg

Its almost a pity its supposed to blow up :)

updated OP with new info.

This is really cool. Tomorrow, everyone will have this at home.

WOW it looks amazing! To tell ypu the truth i've never seen 3d printer yet.

Your service is free? 

You only pay the material, which for most prints is a trivial sum, and shipping.

How much do you think it would cost to print a RaspberryPI case?

Do you do international shipping?
also, whats the max printing size of your printer?

Almost nothing. Should weigh less than 50 grams, so depending on the material, just a few dollars. Pick a case from thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=raspberry+case&sa=) and a material and Ill work it out, but probably less than $2 in material cost.


Yeah Ill ship internationally, at your expense.
Maximum size is 20x20x20cm. Im a bit hesitant to accept huge prints though, as Im working out some firmware issues that causes the print to stop. Not fun after a 12+ hour print.

How hard/expensive would it be to print a sight press?
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:33587

nice !
thx for sharing.

How strong does it need to be? If I use a pattern infill with ~1mm perimeters (stronger than you would think, but still not unbreakable) its around the same as raspberry case, a few dollars. If I have to print it with solid infill for maximum strength, it will use a fair bit of filament. Guessing $10 worth, but cant slice atm to tell you exactly.

just noticed its a gun sight. Sorry, no guns, or gun parts.

It's not a gun, gun sight, or gun part. It has nothing to do with the operation of a firearm. It's a tool that works the same as C-Clamp
http://www.diseno-art.com/images_4/c-clamp.jpg

Im going to stay as far away from printing/shipping gun or gun related parts as I can. Even if its a cleaner. Thank you for understanding.

Why is it a free service?
You are paying for the electricity to run it
You are using your own free time for other people
Watchs the catch?

Cause Im a nice guy ?

There is no catch although clearly I cant do this for free forever and I cant accept every request. But Ive got a printer, and I spend kilometers of filament experimenting (and learning), I may as well use it to print some stuff people can use or want to have. Its not like I bought the printer because I really needed one, I just wanted one :).

Electricity cost is a non issue btw. The current setup is powered by a 100W PSU and actually draws closer to 50W on average. With the new heatbed it will be more, but nowhere near enough for me to worry about. The spotlight I mounted on it draws more.

RasberryPI cases will not be worth it though.
You can get them for around 2$ from Aliexpress.

Which is true for all things that are made in large volume. With volumes in the 1000s (never mind millions for rasperry cases) injection moulding is infinitely cheaper (and faster) than 3D printing. The thing with 3D printing is that is can print one off pieces while still being affordable. Perfect for crazy experiments, own designs or things you come across on thingiverse.

I mean, can you buy this on Aliexpress?
http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/86/d7/14/5e/d0/MilPi_Front_preview_featured.jpg

Or.. this?

http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/d4/94/35/67/3f/IMG_3726_preview_featured.jpg

:D

Hello, I am interested!

Specifically up for a Raspberry Pi case.

So I just pick one from Thingverse and you'll sort out the rest? I'm based in the UK btw.

Yep, pick one and choose a material/color. Please pick something original :).  Ill slice it and give you a material/shipping cost estimate.
Could be a few days before I get around printing it though, bit of a backlog, especially if you want ABS.

BTW, you can get a timelapse of the print itself. The camera is mounted on the frame, not the moving bed, so unfortunately for most prints the video looks like a blurry mess, but for some types of prints, using one frame per layer it can look awesome. Here is a recent print of some rocket parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIpOr63hTB4

Probably wont look very interesting for a typical raspberry case though :)

Sorry if you mentioned this already, but what do you need to create one of these?  A 3D CAD model, dimensioned drawings, etc?  I have two things in mind that I would be interested in getting. 

One last question, can this material be painted on?  I wanted to make a custom cribbage board and then detail it with paint.

I would need a (faultless) STL file, thats a standard 3D format for these things. A sketchup file might be ok too, but no promises, as sketchup stl export is sometimes a bit dodgy..

If you cant use these programs, but you do have drawings and the model isnt too complex, shoot me a pm, we might be able to work something out; unless the design is really trivial, it wont be for free, but Ill do it for a very reasonable sum.

As for painting; yes you can. Its recommended you use a (automotive) primer first, then  acrylic paints will work fine on both ABS and PLA.

Awesome, It would probably be around 20cm x 20cm x 3-4cm high.  I will work on the CAD file, pretty sure I can export Inventor to STL.  Any idea of shipping cost to US?

Hi, do you think you could print a custom letterpress block?  I have a small hand-operated letterpress machine that I would like to make some business cards on.  The product would look something like these:

http://partsoven.com/products/old-school-meets-new-3d-printing-and-letterpress

I just want one, business card sized (3.5in x 2in, or 8.75cm x 5cm).  I'm not sure how thick it needs to be, maybe 1cm at most?  I would have to do some research on exact dimensions.  Color doesn't matter, apparently it needs to be ABS though (and probably white would be best so that ink can be seen on it).  I can send you a PDF of what I need, as well as some dimensions (how tall the text needs to be raised over the flat part, etc.).  It would be pretty simple, just a couple of lines of text.  Might take me a couple of weeks for me to get everything lined up though, I'm pretty busy at the moment.

Actually, since you would need to put some time into designing the model, you could make a 2nd one for yourself, and I could return ship a batch of 100 custom letterpressed business cards.  Sort of a barter deal.  Your time + materials for mine.  (No guaranteed time frame, it might be months before I get around to setting it all up.)

Very cool. I'll look for a local meet up group so I can more about these.

Shipping will likely be ~$10 if its less than 350gr, $15 otherwise (uninsured, no tracking).
20x20 is pretty huge though. Depending how "massive" it will be (infill required). If it becomes a print that takes >12-24 hours to print, I do reserve the right to refuse it. To give you an idea, just download cura:
http://software.ultimaker.com/

install it with default settings (reprap, 0.4mm nozzle), and import the STL.

I can make it, but whether it will be good enough is something else. For this to be useful you need very high resolution, and an extrusion printer is limited in the way it can print "2D". THink of it as writing with a fairly thick pencil: you can make accurate sketches with a thick pencil, but you cant write tiny letters. Especially not if you are not allowed to put down more than one layer of crayon on any piece of paper. Or another way to think of it, can you write the text nicely with one layer of cooked spaghetti? A blocky font might work, or something with an even line width, but frankly,  for this application you will want a laser sintering printer. Thats unfortunately hardware thats totally out of a hobbyist price range.

I see.  Well, I'll think about it and try to find out what others are using in this application.... and maybe think of something else, or a design that would look decent at low resolution.  Thank you for the explanation.  What is the effective resolution?  Or the size of the smallest 'bit' that you can extrude at once?

This is really nice indeed :)

THere is no resolution equivalent in extrusion printing. I can get an accuracy of maybe a few dozen micron, a layer height of less than 100 micron, but the nozzle is 0.4mm wide. That doesnt mean I cant print thinner lines than that, because you can, if the filament is "pulled" in to thinner threads,  but it gives you an idea. Id guess that anything smaller than 10-12 pt font is not going to look good at all.

If you guys are into CAD modeling check this out: http://www.123dapp.com/catch
All you do is take pictures around what you want to model, and the program creates the 3D model.  Really cool.

Can we choose the color that the item is printed in?

Just from the ones I listed in the OP. I dont have much color atm, but I did receive some new materials I will be experimenting with once the printer rebuild is complete:

- Taulman Nylon. Supposedly even stronger than ABS, and very flexible in thin prints. This can also be colored with textile paint.
- SoftPLA. Rubber like material, broken white.
- SmartABS. Pretty much like ABS but would be easier to print large objects with. Also white.

None of these are tested, and some of them are considerably more expensive, particularly the nylon is somewhat pricey if you need large prints.

Coming soonish:

- Carbon fiber reinforced PLA.

For the record, printer is down for upgrades. Hope to be printing again in a day or two.

Cool! Thanks for the response. I'm considering asking you to print me a raspberry pi case but I've yet to find one online that I like.

I would be interested in some caps for window hardware. The original manufacturer doesn't exist anymore.

What kind of model would you need? Any chance to scan an original part, or so?

This is outstanding. You are a champion among men for offering this service. I hope to join you in 3D printing land someday!

Id need a 3D model in STL format (or sketchup or something that can export STL, which is almost any 3D program).
Scanning, hmm, .. ive not used one yet, but what Ive seen, I wouldnt expect miracles. If its a complex piece, maybe it would help as a starting point, but someone is going to need to get his hands dirty with a 3D app either way.

All that said, Im not entirely sure what you mean by window caps?

I'm looking for the covers for some window fittings.

Like these. but mine are smaller:

http://www.beschlagsfachhandel.de/images/produkte/cache/mi10/1000287-20121201-5779061212.JPG

Ok, so I have to look for some 3d app, that can export STL. Thanks for the info. I'll look around for an app, so I can create a model.

Not every shape can be printed, at least not with my single extruder printer, or not without printing support material which can be a pita to remove. The photo of the object you posted would already be problematic.

These printers work by putting one layer on top of the previous. They can not print "in thin air". You can print overhangs, but not much more than ~45-55 degree. You can also do whats called "bridging", that is printing a short piece in thin air between two supports, but it will sag a bit and the first layers of a bridge usually look rather bad.

That cover you posted, no matter in what orientation I would rotate it, there is always either unsupported overhangs, or some serious bridging, and in places where any sagging probably means it wont fit.

Now the programs we use can generate support material, so that any shape is printable, its a bit like scaffolding, but it will usually take some work with a dremel to clean it up.

That's really nice! Wonderful ;)

Its simply amazing, great

Is this service still available?