Commercial 3D printer businesses?

[Dr Stan]

Is there a community college or university with an engineering department close by? They may have a 3D printer and offer 3D printing services.

[Highpower]

(02-27-2022, 11:05 PM)EdK Wrote: Can you post the STL file and I can take a look at it.

Ed

Quote:EDIT: there has been a update to the drip tray (tormek_drip_tray_XL_v2.stl), to make it a bit more solid, and more easy to print, I have also added a little testfile (test.stl), so you can test your bridge settings before you print the whole drip tray.

The main file is too large to upload here Ed but here is the link to both files. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4791736/files

[Highpower]

(02-28-2022, 12:45 AM)Dr Stan Wrote: Is there a community college or university with an engineering department close by?

Frayed knot Stan. Medical / Business / Arts yes. The engineering school is far down South-West of me.

[EdK]

(02-28-2022, 01:13 AM)Highpower Wrote: The main file is too large to upload here Ed but here is the link to both files. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4791736/files

I bumped up the file size for STL files to 2MB, it was 1MB. I downloaded the files and will take a look at them later today.

Ed

[MikeWi]

FDM is all you need for that. PLA would work too unless you expect it to see some abuse (a little brittle) ABS would be "durable" If they can't work from an STL file, they're in trouble.
correction: Actually STL files lack information like scale, so they may be trying to make it simpler by getting the CAD file which will have that. If your stl was done in imperial, then it will show up too large in a slicer that will assume metric. .3MF files remove that problem, but are not too common yet.

[Highpower]

(02-28-2022, 12:17 PM)MikeWi Wrote: FDM is all you need for that. PLA would work too unless you expect it to see some abuse (a little brittle) ABS would be "durable" If they can't work from an STL file, they're in trouble.
correction: Actually STL files lack information like scale, so they may be trying to make it simpler by getting the CAD file which will have that. If your stl was done in imperial, then it will show up too large in a slicer that will assume metric. .3MF files remove that problem, but are not too common yet.

When I uploaded the .stl file to Xometry it automatically popped up with the dimensions (191.57 x 178.00 x 124.95) and I had to select metric or imperial for those figures. Obviously it's not a 16 foot long part so...

Most all tooling and modifications for these machines are given in metric dimensions seeing as how they are made in Sweden.

The only real problem is I don't know Jack about 3D printing or CAD. Pencils, a drafting table and drafting machine is all I ever learned on.

[rleete]

Standard print quality (.2mm layer height) yields a 22.5 hour print, using 170g (about 57 meters) of filament. That's roughly 5 bucks in material.

[EdK]

(02-28-2022, 03:51 PM)rleete Wrote: Standard print quality (.2mm layer height) yields a 22.5 hour print, using 170g (about 57 meters) of filament.  That's roughly 5 bucks in material.

That's close to what I got out of PrusaSlicer. 21 hours, 11 minutes and 165.5g of filament. I used an infill of 25% where the guy from Thingaverse used 20% He also  didn't use any supports but I added supports to those arms that stick up on the back. No way would my printer be able to handle it without supports. I had to learn how to selectively add supports so at least I learned something.  

Ed

[rleete]

I usually use only 10% infill, and no supports unless I really have to. But I almost always use 4 walls for strength, which is why my slice is heavier and takes longer.

[Highpower]

(02-28-2022, 03:51 PM)rleete Wrote: Standard print quality (.2mm layer height) yields a 22.5 hour print, using 170g (about 57 meters) of filament.  That's roughly 5 bucks in material.

That's great if you already own your own printer but...

It's like when I bought my first quick change tool post for my lathe which was before I had a milling machine. I had to take the base plate to a local machine shop to have two end cuts done to turn it into a T-nut for the tool post. It took them all of 15 minutes to make the two cuts and I think it cost me something like $80 for the job. Got to pay for those machines and man hours somehow.