Am I correct in thinking that there’s a limit to the strength of the bond between the model to the printer? If so, does maximum weight for a model vary by resin, etc. ?
And what is the maximum weight known to have been successfully printed?
We have successfully printed an entire build volume full of clear resin (minus a little logo).
1 Like
I can’t claim this to be the heaviest (but it sure is heavy). I have printed this in black and white resin several times. Its approximately a 28hr print at 100 microns and with supports its almost 600 ml of resin.
2 Likes
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s special about that print that couldn’t be performed on a lathe? The obvious answer is “I don’t have a lathe in my basement” but at $90 of resin and a full day of machine time it certainly isn’t an inexpensive print to be making “several” copies of.
Back to OT Ben posted an image of their full build print over here. Obviously I find it quite amusing (as well as impressive).
1 Like
Perhaps that was the wrong angle to post:
Besides the complexities inside here are my other excuses:
-
I’m a Web Developer/Graphic Designer who was thrown the 3D printer as a task…i couldn’t run a lathe to save my life.
-
My boss told me to print it…so I did
2 Likes
@Brandon_A Out of sheer curiosity (because I honestly do not know) Could this piece have more easily been created on a lathe? Or do the other complexities rule that out?
If you didn’t need the ribbing it could be turned. The outside hole / feature would also be a problem on a lathe. You would need to machine some of the features to make the complete model.
1 Like
To go into a little more detail…
I work at a place where the office is 10% of the building…the rest of the building is filled with Lathes, screw machines, at least a dozen CNC machines, Injection molding machines, etc. Just my lack of knowledge of the machines, language barrier between myself and the warehouse staff and constantly being short staffed are all reasons this was printed on the F2.
I suppose if I told my boss the actual real cost of printing a piece such as the one above…maybe he would have gone a different route.
To echo what David said, yes and no.
Depending on the design intent it looks like it could be fairly easily optimized for turning, but even if you take out the problem ribs and exterior features you are required to use a very large stock and remove most of it to create that neck down, which is wasteful for material and time.
As is you would be looking at some redesign work and either finding a shop with very large swiss turning machines or milling as a secondary process.
If you had to make dozens to hundreds of these it might be worth looking into, for “numerous” printing may very well be the most optimized method.
Sometimes I forget I’m not the only one in this community with a work printer and occasional “Just get it done…yesterday” requests. I would have done the same.
1 Like
Newp, we printed 3, maybe 4 iirc. Now they are being produced in the thousands by our Injection molding group.
Cheers
1 Like
I now understand why the piece was printed. I would have done the same thing. Prove out the design, regardless of the resin cost. Then mass produce it once you know the part works.
1 Like
+1
The original snip was just deceiving. Sounds like you guys have your collective heads on straight. =]
1 Like
Haha all good guys, thx.
I would bet the cost of a chunk of decent plastic that big would be just about the cost of the resin. That’s not counting the set-up and machine time.