Here’s a sword I designed.
I’m wondering if it could be printed with a Vertex printer, still doubting to buy one. It is a lot of money.
Here’s the link to the stl file.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vk3oyvb79tdgz0b/MuddyTWSwordMTestSeppe%20%28repaired%29.stl?dl=0
It takes an hour to print. Ill start the print immediately. (Looks awesome)
Woooow Awesome!
Do you know a good way to clean it up and make it look smoother than ever before. Cause the only thing I ever saw this in was the Shapeways WSF Red Polished material and it’s like meh, cool enough but also expensive. How much would this cost in materials?
A way to clean up is using sandpaper or acetone if using ABS. But if you use dual extruder you can get beter results. With some chemicals
Top side
[quote=“brecht”]Here’s the result
Its untouched and the support is still there[/quote]
Nice support, could you share your settings ?
to be clear i’m an engineer at Velleman but using my personal account.
I’m using an experimental config. the only thing i changed was the support pattern. I changed it to Lines instead of Grid.
Overhang angle 5degrees
Fill amount 20
Distance XY 0.8
Distance Z 0.1
Best Regards,
Brecht
[quote=“brecht”]to be clear i’m an engineer at Velleman but using my personal account.
I’m using an experimental config. the only thing i changed was the support pattern. I changed it to Lines instead of Grid.
Overhang angle 5degrees
Fill amount 20
Distance XY 0.8
Distance Z 0.1
Best Regards,
Brecht[/quote]
Thanks
[quote=“brecht”]A way to clean up is using sandpaper or acetone if using ABS. But if you use dual extruder you can get beter results. With some chemicals
Top side
Cool cool, and how much would this cost for materials (filament) ?
Woops totally forgot to answer the question.
Maybe 10cents or so. Its 25euro for a kilo of PLA. and it weighs 5 grams.
So you can do the math.
Can you please elaborate on how the use of a dual extruder can improve the results?
When using the same material as support you have to remove\break the support structure, that leaves marks on the print
When using other material like ABS or HIPS, you get rid of the support structure by chemical reactions. And thus leaving “cleaner” prints.
To be honest i didn’t test this. Just my train of thoughts =p
Not quite sold yet, but it’s all awesomeness to me.
Another quick question, is the vertex already been tested with flexible material?
Cause I would love to make a decent case for my One.
Since Vertex uses Bowden extruders it is not really suited for flexible filament.
Not tested myself yet but some have achieved good prints with flexible filament.
You have to adapt a few parameters to get this working :
[ul]
[li]Lowest print speed[/li]
[li]Skirt = 4[/li]
[li]No retract[/li]
[li]Less (or no) infill[/li][/ul]
I took a shot at this, continuing my exploration of “letting the Z resolution do all the work”. Meaning as I understand it: the X and Y resolutions may have smaller motor steps, but the detail will never surpass the .35mm of the extruder nozzle output. The Z resolution, however, will squish the filament in that dimension to achieve more resolution, theoretically down to .05mm. So, I try to orient my small prints to take advantage of the Z axis where the most detail is needed. That usually means a 45-degree rotation in one axis so the layer striations remain parallel or perpendicular to the final print orientation. Angles less than 45 degrees tend to retain some of the defects of flat printing, and angles higher than 45 degrees introduce overhang issues.
I also noticed two things about filament printers which seem universal: 1. They can’t do flat surfaces smoothly, it’s always a criss-cross basketweave texture. 2. They can’t properly finish domes, pyramids, cones, or anything with a point at the top because the print head remelts the penultimate layers into a random glob. These are items which 45-degree printing also hopes to address.
I’ve had enough success with this method to feel the theory is sound. It just seems there are other quirks of the printer that throw wrenches into the works. But a photo is worth 387 words (adjusted for inflation), so here they are:
At this time my experiments are designed to extract maximum resolution from this printer. That means the printing is much slower than normal and clearly in need of monitoring and adjusting. This sword has a shape that would allow me to print it in two halves and glue together, eliminating the backside support damage but further doubling printer time.
Much of my printer troubles appear endemic to any filament printer. So the realistic viewpoint should be: I can be busting my butt to get these results on a 600 Euro K8400, or the same results on a 4000 Euro Ultimaker II. And when you get into those prices you can also start thinking about liquid resin printers, which will solve your resolution problems for sure but introduce new issues of their own.
I think you will arrive at the same conclusion I did: the K8400 is the best price/performance product for anyone who BOTH wants to get started 3D printing, AND is a consummate tinkerer of hobby level or better.
Thanks for showing of the print.
I think if you use some sandpaper you can get the surface really flat.
On 3Dhub I saw someone had a 3d printer a Vertex in the neighbourhood of my school.
So I bought or asked him to print the sword. And I have to say, I don’t know what his settings were but god dang it it was beautiful.
So I made up my mind, I’m buying a vertex 
Here’s a picture:
from left to right we have a first attempt of a K8200 (it wasn’t calibrated, my friend who’s printer this is, used my model to calibrate the printer) then the second attempt of the K8200 (looking way better), then we have the Vertex print (painted red by myself) and then a Shapeways sword.
(I’m sick and tired of buying everything through shapeways )
I haven’t sanded the sword, only the handle cause it was still designed for shapeways material which compresses a bit. So it needed to be a bit smaller (5mm instead of 5.2mm diameter) and the handle was really flat, and I mean reaaaaaallly flat, so using some sandpaper can help a lot.
But for my prototypes it’s really a good printer, in the end it will save me a lot and maybe when the settings are perfect I could even sell some stuff.
So my mind is set on the Vertex, now I only need to order it and put it together
I’ll probably need to do some tweaks for ABS and Flex but I think with the support on this forum I can do it
A heated bed and I’m probably getting the second extruder as well.
Thanks for everything!
[quote=“JNicholaas”]So my mind is set on the Vertex, now I only need to order it and put it together 
I’ll probably need to do some tweaks for ABS and Flex but I think with the support on this forum I can do it :p[/quote]
Certainly and you can also have a look at the Wiki
Raby, your links to the Wiki does not work for me (DNS failure). Is this the right url? http://www.k8xxx-3dprinters.crimed.be/w/index.php?title=Main_Page.
It works for me.
