Category Archives: 3D printing

3d printing – resize an object with different factor on axes

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openscadTo tell you the full story, I was working on a 3d object I want to reproduce. The initial model is a 10cm object. I’ve got a 3D scan of this object and now I want to make a mold to reproduce it with a smaller size (3cm). All should be simple as even my printer software have a resize option.

The problem started when once resized the height of the object has became too small and the precision of the printer does not allow to have a good result. For my need it was not really important to preserve proportion on the Z axis. So I was looking for a tool able to resize an object with a different setting factor for each of the axis.

This tool exists and more over it is really useful for any STL manipulation (at least you need to be a coder) : its name is OpenSCAD. This tool is a programming language for 3D object allowing different object transformation and creation.

For my need to scale X & Y with a 0.4 factor and Z with a 0.6 factor, the following code was the solution :

scale([0.4, 0.4, 0.6]) import("Moule.stl", convexity=3);

You then just have to export as STL by clicking on STL icon and you have the result. Sounds nice, isn’t it ?!?

Getting start with XYZ DaVinci 1.0 3D Printer

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DaVinci 1.0 3d printer

DaVinci 1.0 3d printer

After having play for a year with a Tobeca Printer, I decided to acquire a DaVinci printer. When I was looking for the Tobeca I was already interested in the DaVinci because of its really low cost. At this time, this printer was not available in Europe and the price for import was too expensive. The printer is actually distributed by Boulanger in France for a price about 500€ making it a really competitive solution with a good technical specification.

The XYZ business model is based on 2D printer business model : have a low cost printer and sell the cartridge at a higher price. For 800g of PLA you have to pay 50€ compared to 30€ for a Kg of standard PLA. By the way, it seems that you can get discount on Wednesday on XYZ website 😉

This post details my end user experience on getting the first print with this printer.

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Tobeca 3d printing settings for PLA

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After some month of use of the Tobeca printer and a lot of time spent to find the right settings, this post is summarizing my experience. I mostly worked with PLA because I was not really fan of using acetone and abs+ acetone mix on a 80°C heating plate, so I’ll not yet detail how to setup ABS, but why not later. So this post is about PLA, about temperature, about adherence and Repetier settings.

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Getting start with Tobeca 2 – 3d printer

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3d printer is a kit

3d printer is a kit

The Tobeca 2 is a French and Open Source 3dPrinter. THis printer is delivered in a kit (you can also ask to get it built for a higher price) The price of the printer is about 700€ + 100€ for the dual head option I chosen.

So I’ll publish some post in the next days to detail the installation. My time is really short these week, so it could be long before I finish it. By-the-way if you have one to build of you want to buy one, I hope these notes based on my experience will help you.

Finally, I spent about 16 hours to mount the printer and a couple more to get my first print!

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3D printing with a Makerbot Replicator 2

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MakerBot replicator II

MakerBot replicator II

I had the chance to print some stuff on a makerbot replicator 2, unfortunately is was not myne but the one of a friend of a friend… By-the-way it was my first and great experience of 3D printing.

This post is my feedback on this experiment

 

 

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