OK Pete, I found that IF I Offset a Surface I can tell it to make a solid and spec the thickness.

So shrunk it down to around a foot long and then I offset all surfaces 1/16" / ,0625

I ONLY did a Half Shell to reduce confusion and I exported a 3ds and an stl

I downloaded the Makerware but have not installed or fooled with it yet.

L8r

Bob

Originally Posted by birdofplay

OK Pete, I found that IF I Offset a Surface I can tell it to make a solid and spec the thickness.

So shrunk it down to around a foot long and then I offset all surfaces 1/16" / ,0625

I ONLY did a Half Shell to reduce confusion and I exported a 3ds and an stl

I downloaded the Makerware but have not installed or fooled with it yet.

L8r

Bob

Thanks. I will run it at half that size and the wall thickness should be about 1/8th in six inches. On my printer I would not go less than 1/8th thick in any size. The slice software will honeycomb the volume between the inner and outer wall of the shell anyway.

BTW, You may have a later version of the software than me!

Pete

Probably later but it ought to give me the Jist !

Read in and unzipped the file without trouble. Looked at the half fuse in Strata and then loaded the STL version into M'Bot. I couldn't find it. Finally spotted it as a speck on the build plate. I tried to scale it up but I couldn't select it. I'm going to try again and if I fail I'll try bringing it in from Strata myself.

This is a funny learning curve. I think it's shaped like a corkscrew.

Pete

Got it via STL on the second try. Scaled it 10X then rescaled it to 150 mm long, on build platform and I'm going to tell it to calculate slices.

Pete

The 150 mm one printed but not well. The flat fuse sides were full of gaps.

I am now printing a 200 mm version but I clicked on Raft and Supports and it printed a little mat to support the fuse. I think the fuse sides will still collapse.

If you like I can post a side as it lays on the build surface that you can load into the M'Bot software and see how I'm setting it up to print.

Pete

One hour and forty-one minutes later I have a half fuse that's not very pretty. The raft is a bunch of edge on strips that the fuse is built on. The bad part is they have to be trimmed off both the inside and the outside!

Just ahead of the wing cutout there's a hole in the flat side of the fuse where the filament was unable to bridge the gap.

I'm already printing another one to see if it comes out better. A lot depends on how well it starts and this one didn't start all that well.

BTW, Despite how bad it looks it still manages to evoke the feel of the HP-8.

Edit: This looks like it has a better start. I'll know in about a hundred minutes!

Pete

Wheew !

I hope I have not caused you a bunch of useless work and wasted materials.

I looks good at my end and I'll bet if I ran a Toolpath generator over it
I could carve it in 3d on my 3 axis SHopbot.

Not sure what I should or can do next.

Bob

This is beyond the capability of this printer. It could do a mock up of the fuse in two halves but it can't deal with the unsupported flat fuse side.

I've got enough filament to last a year or two. Materials are inexpensive. It looks expensive but so little material is used that experimenting doesn't cost enough to worry about.

I'm sure that Shapeways could print this fine.

Here's a link to a guy who is working on an interesting project. He's very good with his software but misses little details like CG and fin area.

He's smart enough to learn from his mistakes so I'm sure he'll get the bugs worked out.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1757258

It's worth a look. His ship was printed by Shapeways. I have no idea what it cost, but it's certainly head and shoulders beyond what my printer can do.

Google Thingieverse and do a search on airplane. A few guys have made things that fly on printers like mine, but none are scale models of sailplanes.

Everytime I try to print something I learn more. Getting a file from you and wrestling it onto the work surface is a learning as is getting a print, successful or not.

This one stopped at one hour and forty-two minutes and is slightly better than the previous one, but nothing to brag about.

Time for a little break in this. If I can get a decent photo or two I'll post them tomorrow.

Pete

Here's last night's attempts.

The grid is the "raft" I asked the slice algorithm to generate. It helped BUT! It protrudes from the fuse also.

Where the fuse is parallel to the work surface the filament can't bridge the gap. You can see the holes ahead of the wing and tail feathers. A partial answer would be to make the inside round. That has a better cance of closing the gap.

Where the fuse tapers behind the wing you can see steps. This slicer does 0.1 mm steps and at this scale the steps are noticeable. A larger print, like Shapeways at a higher res would probably look a lot better

I'm printing a pair of pliers I downloaded from Thingieverse. I enlarged them. I already have them in the original size. The halves snap together if you are very careful, or break if you are not.

The printer sometimes sounds like music. I think that it generates harmonic like sounds as the stepper motors take different sized steps. Nice background for my morning coffee.

I'll try to take a photo of the best fuse that shows the modeling of the surface. I don't have good lighting here having burned out my articulated desk lamp. Not the halogen lamp, but its transformer!

Pete

Very interesting.

When Setting up my CNC and when I am repositioning without the Router ON
it too has that Stepper motor SONG !

Some guys got a little whacky about it and actually figured out how to make the steppers
PLAY Music. Hey ... different strokes :-)

I guess I am surprised that the RP machine does not just print WHAT IS on that slice,
as opposed to doing "raster" scanning.

I get the need for some supporting structure during cooling to prevent deformation.
BUT, I seriously expected a smoother Exterior surface.

When I do a 3D carving, depending on how large my step over is, I still have to
do a bit of sanding to get the smooth surface.
I havent tried anything with sharp curves so I've always used a 1/4" ball end bit.
And my step over set to .1" or less than half the bit width to eliminate as much "ridge"
as possible. It takes SOOO much time to process that I usually skip the Y and just do X.
I've dont both with the result being a "screen" pattern all over the surface.
And little less material to sand down.

In this shot you can clearly see the failure in the flat areas that the filament couldn't bridge. The 0.1 mm steps are visible and the modeling of the curves.

Also showing is where the raft protrudes from the surface. I think if the inside could be modeled round with about 1/8thin inch thickness at the thinnest point per foot of length the printer might be able to handle it.

I have no doubt that Shapeways could print without flaw.

Pete

Here are links to the Canopy and tdeck development on a Horten VII

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...0&postcount=68

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=73

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...8&postcount=78

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=81

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=95
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...0&postcount=98
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=44

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=26

http://static.rcgroups.net/forums/at...7-DSCF0043.jpg

What kind of charges can one expect form Shapeways ?

The Stereo lithography machines used to be SERIOUSLY expensive, Like $250K+
I have a sample Chess Rook around her someplace.

[QUOTE=birdofplay;23759280]
[snip]
Some guys got a little whacky about it and actually figured out how to make the steppers
PLAY Music. Hey ... different strokes :-)
[snip]
/QUOTE]
When I started working for Honeywell Information Systems we had a card deck that could play Christmas Carols on our line printers. While doing PM's we'd play the deck and people would gather round and ask if the printer was making that sound.

Pete