This weekend I decided to test the printer capability on printing very complex object that would need complex support structure. The "brain gear" was the select object...
There was a need for big number of support as you can see in the picture on the left.
One big mistake was the support thickness choice, I have used 1mm trickiness support, which was too much because in some places the support merged with the object and I damage a little bit removing it as you can see in the last picture.
This is the detail of building... huge number of supports....
Looks very nice... I will post short video on youtube soon...
The quality is amazing, I got very smooth surface without any finishing...BTW, special thanks to my friend Daniel Alenquer who join me these weekend for tests and brought his brand new super macro lens. Also thanks to Tiagao e Gustavao, who came here to see the printer... I hope having you guys back here soon and some other friends visiting us as well.
This is the final object, it is around 6cm tall. As you can see I damaged the bottom part of the object while removing the support...
Additionaly, while cleaning the printed object, I damaged the bottom part using isopropyl alcoho ... still looking for perfect post printing solvent.... I got some suggestions from Malu... let's try!!!
I will print this object again soon, and improve the quality with the lessons learned so far... but I think is pretty good for second object.
So does the brain-gear work? like are you able to turn one gear and all the others work too?
ReplyDeleteI think you would need soluable support material for that. The brain gear is a standard Dimension uPrint sample model.
ReplyDeleteThis is just amazing! Congratulations! Have you tried to render the edges of every layer in gray? I wonder if that is possible and if it will remove the little stepping that is left.
ReplyDeleteOh, and two more questions, if I may: did you use the new teflon glass yet? And two: what does the tilt mechanism do that you mention pretty early on? Wouldn't pulling the object up and lowering it again do just the same?
ReplyDeleteHow do you remove the support structure?
ReplyDeleteWould it be possible to, instead of printing in discrete layers, print with the Z-axis constantly moving? Or, since that would probably be too fast, make each "layer" the minimum step for the Z-axis.
ReplyDeleteBasically, instead of making each layer .1mm and 8 second cure, make each layer .01mm and .8 second cure. Or even smaller.
Also, do you output the image to your DLP projector in B&W? Or do you use greyscale? What about "dithering"? Since the projector can easily output 60 frames per second, you could turn a pixel on and off during the cure cycle do "partially cure" that spot.
Do you rinse off the model before the final cure in the sun?
Finally, why are you using the high viscosity resin instead of the low viscosity resin? I would think the low viscosity resin would flow better under the model when you raise the model up. And what is the purpose of the tilting mechanism? (Did I miss that somewhere?)
This idea is very intriguing and exciting to me. I happen to have an old DLP projector that I'm not using, and I have a need for small, high-precision parts that my Cupcake just can't make.
Great results! Very promising. Maybe you could illuminate the support structure with a lower light intensity than rest of the object. Maybe that would make it easier to remove.
ReplyDelete