3D-Printing Replacement Parts

[bsenn]

This thread is going several directions, all of them good.

 

I used Solidworks heavily for 15 years, until 2016.  I am currently searching for a free or very low cost 3d modeling solution.

 

I find Freecad non-intuitive (to me) and frustrating in many ways (general process things, individual commands, and the Topological Naming Problem). I do appreciate that it is 100% free for any use.

 

I have started playing with Fusion 360. The tutorial videos from Autodesk are good.  I find it close enough to Solidworks from a process standpoint that I think I will use it instead of Freecad when possible. As a note, it doesn't affect me, but the hobbyist version of Fusion 360 does have limitations on using it for commercial purposes.

 

After using a 3d printer at work until 2016, I am amazed at the amount of control the current 3d printer user has over print settings. The professional machines I used were good, but had very few user settings for a print.

 

I recently purchased a Bambu Lab P1P, hence playing with the modeling software.

 

Brian 

[WestLothian]

15 hours ago, bsenn said:

This thread is going several directions, all of them good.

 

I used Solidworks heavily for 15 years, until 2016.  I am currently searching for a free or very low cost 3d modeling solution.

 

I find Freecad non-intuitive (to me) and frustrating in many ways (general process things, individual commands, and the Topological Naming Problem). I do appreciate that it is 100% free for any use.

 

I have started playing with Fusion 360. The tutorial videos from Autodesk are good.  I find it close enough to Solidworks from a process standpoint that I think I will use it instead of Freecad when possible. As a note, it doesn't affect me, but the hobbyist version of Fusion 360 does have limitations on using it for commercial purposes.

 

After using a 3d printer at work until 2016, I am amazed at the amount of control the current 3d printer user has over print settings. The professional machines I used were good, but had very few user settings for a print.

 

I recently purchased a Bambu Lab P1P, hence playing with the modeling software.

 

Brian 

Hi Brian,

 

The cost of CAE tools for domestic use is quite unrealistic. The FreeCAD constraint management and advanced features that fail with unhelpful random "messages" in the report window are frustrating and non-intuitive I completely agree. PTC tools such as ProE were market-leaders when my 3D modelling journey began around 1990. The software and workstation cost about the same as a small house here in Scotland. Fortunately the costs were covered by the investment by a forward-looking company and also included all the available training and certification for design, analysis, assembly and data-management. There should be a loyalty licence for CAE veterans perhaps?

 

For the slicer software the market is much more open-sourced and generous for domestic use. The Cura and PrusaSlicer tools are excellent and include advanced and expert modes without frustrating "pay-to-win" limitations and barriers. Making the best choice of the slicer and the print settings for each job requires some benchmark testing as your motto advises.

 

I used this 1" high chess pawn example recently to check the surface finishes, customized support, and z-seam placement tools in both Cura and PrusaSlicer. The best and seamless surface finish was printed by Cura in a hollow vase mode using a continuous, spiraling coil (3rd on left), PrusaSlicer produced the densest (2nd on left) without any supports, and I think the best allround with a very neat "painted" seam and supports (1st left). The Cura fine (4th left) is standing next to the wooden original that had lost one of his mates from this 1950 children's set. 

 

 

The pieces are similar size and technical problems to pen parts and can be modelled with a revolved sketch with challenging overhangs and conics.

 

Kind regards,

 

Alistair

 

 

[bsenn]

Alistair - I like your "loyalty license" idea. I remember the crazy prices for Pro-E and the Silicon Graphics workstations it required. I worked at a company with frugal owners (good thing overall, the company is over 125 years old), so we went with Autodesk Mechanical Desktop, followed by Solidworks.

 

At this moment I am using the slicer software from the company which made the printer I have. Their slicer is based on the Prusa slicer. There is a lot to work with in that software, and I am nowhere near proficient. Luckily their standard settings have worked well enough for the things I have printed.

 

I like your chess piece test. Once I reach the point that I'm printing things that matter I'll run similar tests.

Brian

[Lamy4life]

Ahhh very cool! I have heard good things about Bambu, I am weary of bambu as all the parts are proprietary and they aren't open source. 

I don't know much about the history of CAD softwares or industral side of 3d printing. 

I printed this torture test on my machine, no support. Took 2 tries tho.

https://www.printables.com/model/391224-heart-strings-a-3d-printer-stress-test

[Lamy4life]

On 2/20/2023 at 7:37 PM, Glenn Atkins said:

 

Always had a fascination generally and would be an interesting skill to learn, modeling and printing.

 

Glenn Atkins

Ah, thats where I started too! I got gifted a 3d printer as a birthday gift. I started out watching tons of videos on 3d printing on youtube. Make anything, 3d Printing Nerd, Makers Muse and Thomas Sanladerer might are the ones I recommend. Are there any questions you have? 

[WestLothian]

Today's print project has yet to be fully proven in service. This is a 5-part injection kit for making ink sacs. The cap with the outer dome profile fits a standard syringe and has a 20 mm thread to connect to the barrel. Two inner sliding pieces control the outside diameter and a core with the base stand controls the inside profile. This initial size suits an Esterbrook and it has been tested to draw in and securely hold water. Filling the voids only takes about 1.0 ml of liquid silicone and 0.05 ml of curing agent. Testing to get thinner wall sections etc. will only require reprinting new sliding pieces or cores.

 

[Switala]

Congrats on the job! This opens the door to a multitude of ideas. Thank you for sharing so much and such detailed information. I start to seriously study the possibility of buying a 3D printer to explore the possibilities.
Best Regards.

[WestLothian]

32 minutes ago, Switala said:

Congrats on the job! This opens the door to a multitude of ideas. Thank you for sharing so much and such detailed information. I start to seriously study the possibility of buying a 3D printer to explore the possibilities.
Best Regards.

Thank you Switala, 

 

I have so many new things to try now. I made the tools for a Sheaffer plunger seal and other small O-rings but the accuracy may need more fine-tuning or hand-finishing to get the optimum. The opportunities for self-sufficiency or long-term preservation of our vintage pen components are very exciting, at least for me. It is also nice to use my small homemade beechwood block plane to trim the edges of the printed parts.

 

Kind regards,

Alistair

 

 

 

[Lamy4life]

Ah very cool! I have thought about 3d printing ink sacks but with my printer it was hard to get things water tight while still being flexible enough for the lever. I was using a TPU 95A. It would be alot easier with a softer TPU but those can get expensive. Have you played around with TPU yet? 

At the moment I think the best solution would be to get a resin printer with some flexible resin. 

Its quite empowering to see 3d prints for pens being done, great work! 

[WestLothian]

3 hours ago, Lamy4life said:

Ah very cool! I have thought about 3d printing ink sacks but with my printer it was hard to get things water tight while still being flexible enough for the lever. I was using a TPU 95A. It would be alot easier with a softer TPU but those can get expensive. Have you played around with TPU yet? 

At the moment I think the best solution would be to get a resin printer with some flexible resin. 

Its quite empowering to see 3d prints for pens being done, great work! 

The thin walls and the need to survive a high number of cycles of squeezes and recovery convinced me to print the mould tooling rather than to attempt to print the rubber posts directly. I think that I will get some TPU to experiment.

I got some jewellers black resin for use in moulding too. I was thinking about using a vase print inner and outer form and then pouring the resin into the void. The vase prints uncoil very easily to let you extract it from the finished part as a single filament.

[Lamy4life]

Ah that makes sense.  I am sure its possible to print ink sacks but it would depend alot on the type of flexible fillament. 

Now I am really looking more at SLA machines haha. 

[eevvee]

I know this is an older thread, but as someone who is working on some repairs of a couple similar pens – would you be willing to share the .stl or similar file so that it could be used as a starting point for some parts? It would be a huge help.