A 3d printed six string....

[Stub Mandrel]

Saw this on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10228351445764478&set=gm.3235462746747599&idorvanity=1700252256935330

 

 

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Saw this on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10228351445764478&set=gm.3235462746747599&idorvanity=1700252256935330

 

 

Hi

 

Thanks for this, looked at the link, it wanted me to join a group about Creality to get any further and even using Facebook in an isolated Facebook container on Firefox with Apples email hider, makes me feel dirty and so I baled out.

 

Was the link interesting?

 

Rob

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

Hi

 

Thanks for this, looked at the link, it wanted me to join a group about Creality to get any further and even using Facebook in an isolated Facebook container on Firefox with Apples email hider, makes me feel dirty and so I baled out.

 

Was the link interesting?

 

Rob

 

Fairly. Several examples of 3D printed bodies in the discussion, with and without timber reinforcement.

 

[rwillett]

Wow, that looks great. It also looks like it's on a significantly larger printer than I have.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

Wow, that looks great. It also looks like it's on a significantly larger printer than I have.

 

Bigger than my KX1 Max.

[rwillett]

It could be this one

 

https://www.amazon.com/Creality-Printers-Largest-Auto-Leveling-Quasi-Industrial/dp/B07BB1JSMF

 

Thats 500mm x 500mm x 500mm.

 

The whole of my guitar fits on it

 

I just reconfigured PrusaSlicer to be 500x500x500

 

 

and it only takes a few days to print, so I think I've got something wrong here.

 

 

If I set myself up printing these things a for a business, then buying a big Foxtrot Oscar printer would be one of the first thing I'd do. Its a hell of a size though Also I'd worry about levelling that monster.

 

It no longer seems to be manufactured but this one appears to be available at a bargain price of circa £8K

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Precision-Extruder-Printing-Auto-leveling-Pre-Installed/dp/B0C9JLQJKF/ref=sr_1_34?keywords=large+3d+printer&qid=1699982089&refinements=p_36%3A118669031&rnid=118657031&s=industrial&sr=1-34

 

Rob

[tauzero]

12 minutes ago, rwillett said:

 

If I set myself up printing these things a for a business, then buying a big Foxtrot Oscar printer would be one of the first thing I'd do. Its a hell of a size though Also I'd worry about levelling that monster.

 

It's got autolevelling which helps quite a bit. And there's a few of those huge ones on FB Marketplace for rather less than £8k: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/109126125773465/search/?query=creality CR 10 S5

[rwillett]

2 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

It's got autolevelling which helps quite a bit. And there's a few of those huge ones on FB Marketplace for rather less than £8k: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/109126125773465/search/?query=creality CR 10 S5

 

That bed is so big I can see it having micro-climates in each corner

 

I'm sure there are lots of cheaper ones out there.

 

Rob

[Stub Mandrel]

16 hours ago, rwillett said:

It could be this one

 

https://www.amazon.com/Creality-Printers-Largest-Auto-Leveling-Quasi-Industrial/dp/B07BB1JSMF

 

Thats 500mm x 500mm x 500mm.

 

The whole of my guitar fits on it

 

I just reconfigured PrusaSlicer to be 500x500x500

 

 

and it only takes a few days to print, so I think I've got something wrong here.

 

 

If I set myself up printing these things a for a business, then buying a big Foxtrot Oscar printer would be one of the first thing I'd do. Its a hell of a size though Also I'd worry about levelling that monster.

 

It no longer seems to be manufactured but this one appears to be available at a bargain price of circa £8K

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Precision-Extruder-Printing-Auto-leveling-Pre-Installed/dp/B0C9JLQJKF/ref=sr_1_34?keywords=large+3d+printer&qid=1699982089&refinements=p_36%3A118669031&rnid=118657031&s=industrial&sr=1-34

 

Rob

 

The guy says it's a CR-M4.

 

 

[rwillett]

Thanks for that. Thats this one

 

https://www.crealityofficial.co.uk/products/creality-cr-m4-3d-printer-creality-uk-3d-printer-store

 

Not cheap at circa £1,000 but just checked and I can print the whole guitar within a 450mm x 450mm print bed. Wonder if I can find a cheap second hand one? Whilst I like the Prusa's, the biggest they do is 360mm x 360mm.

 

Tempted to get one but its a hell of size.

 

 

 

[tauzero]

2 hours ago, rwillett said:

Thanks for that. Thats this one

 

https://www.crealityofficial.co.uk/products/creality-cr-m4-3d-printer-creality-uk-3d-printer-store

 

Not cheap at circa £1,000 but just checked and I can print the whole guitar within a 450mm x 450mm print bed. Wonder if I can find a cheap second hand one? Whilst I like the Prusa's, the biggest they do is 360mm x 360mm.

 

 

Ebay - one on for £675 OBO.

[rwillett]

3 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

Ebay - one on for £675 OBO.

Yep, seen that one. I wonder if £200 is close to his OBO though

 

Bigger issue is that I simply do not have enough space in my office for a printer of that size.

 

Rob

[Daz39]

4 minutes ago, rwillett said:

Yep, seen that one. I wonder if £200 is close to his OBO though

 

Bigger issue is that I simply do not have enough space in my office for a printer of that size.

 

Rob

So now you have Printer GAS and new house with adjoining workshop GAS? Simples...

[rwillett]

I do keep looking at new printers but the Prusa Mk4 hasn't really grabbed my attention even though I couldjust about  justify it through the business. The Bambu printers look good but the closed nature of their code stops me dead in my tracks. Creality printers are OK but the Prusa was, until I managed to break both of them, dead reliable and relatively pain free.

 

I live in a reasonably large house and the agreement with the CFO is my office is my office and I have the garage, everything else is off limits for hobbies and work. The garage isn't draught proof and is cold and slighly damp, can't put a printer in there, so it has to fit in my office. Two Prusas, a decent colour laser printer, three monitors, laptops and desktops plus all my other stuff, guitars and telescopes do limit the desk space available to me.

 

Now if I was making £100K a year from printing, then the CFO and I would have a different conversation, but I'm not, so we aren't

 

Rob

[Pea Turgh]

Well you need the printer to make £100k a year from it, so…

[rwillett]

I've got two already and I'm still not making £100K a year from both of them....

[TheGreek]

CFO = 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[rwillett]

Both printers are now back on line. Two new E3D extruders from Amazon and some quick changes and some recalibration back for 0.4mm nozzles and we're printing. 

 

As the next lot of prints are circa 9 hours each and need constant attention, I'll start tomorrow. 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 15/11/2023 at 13:53, rwillett said:

I do keep looking at new printers but the Prusa Mk4 hasn't really grabbed my attention even though I couldjust about  justify it through the business. The Bambu printers look good but the closed nature of their code stops me dead in my tracks. Creality printers are OK but the Prusa was, until I managed to break both of them, dead reliable and relatively pain free.

 

I live in a reasonably large house and the agreement with the CFO is my office is my office and I have the garage, everything else is off limits for hobbies and work. The garage isn't draught proof and is cold and slighly damp, can't put a printer in there, so it has to fit in my office. Two Prusas, a decent colour laser printer, three monitors, laptops and desktops plus all my other stuff, guitars and telescopes do limit the desk space available to me.

 

Now if I was making £100K a year from printing, then the CFO and I would have a different conversation, but I'm not, so we aren't

 

Rob

 

So dry line your garage!

[Owen]

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

As the next lot of prints are circa 9 hours each and need constant attention, I'll start tomorrow. 

 

 

They sound like small children.

[Owen]

On 14/11/2023 at 13:09, rwillett said:

Hi

 

Thanks for this, looked at the link, it wanted me to join a group about Creality to get any further and even using Facebook in an isolated Facebook container on Firefox with Apples email hider, makes me feel dirty and so I baled out.

 

Was the link interesting?

 

Rob

As an IT professional, you do not dig Facebook?

[rwillett]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

So dry line your garage!

 

If I had any idea what you are talking about I might do it. You may be confusing me with somebody who is competent in these things....

[Richard R]

I'm really enjoying this thread. Fabulous stuff.

But I must be honest -  even though I would love to have a go at this sort of thing, if/when I come to build a bass it will be quicker for me to learn to sharpen my chisels properly. 

[rwillett]

@Richard R

 

The aim of this was to test a few ideas and see if they were feasible. This is a proof of concept, not even a prototype. It was to prove and test a number of things.

 

1. Could I use a decent (thin) neck off a guitar as the basis for PoC.

At the moment, this is still to be determined. My thinking was that I could buy a decent neck and have the rest of the guitar setup just how I wanted. I know I can now mount the neck tightly, I had wondered if 3d printing wasn't robust enough. I also now have a repeatable method or process of going from the holes in the existing neck to getting the right holes in the 3d model, its normally a lot easier going from the model to then drilling holes in the neck. That wasn't an option.
 

2. As I don't have a printer that can print the whole body in one chunk, whats the method for securing bits together? Do I need M3, M4, M5 screws and how many per part?

 

I think, but have not proven yet, that M3 screws are strong enough. That should be middle of next week when most of the parts are done. I don;t think I need M4 or M5 screws to hold things together. I hate glue, so that was always out. I think I have over engineered the number of screw/bolt fittings and so will not need as many, but we'll find out later.

 

3. Will the module that holds the bridge be strong enough?

 

Don't know yet, but will find out next week.

 

4. Does the idea of a 15mm plywood backbone reduce the amount of printing by 2-3 days (thats 72 hours of solid printing).

Yes it does. The modules I have bolted on are very robust. Also The plywood backbone means the infill doesn't have to be 60% or more.

 

5. This was intended to be modular so I could easily reconfigure it, perhaps a different bridge, or three pickups, or one pickup, or some weird combination. Does that work?

 

Not sure yet. The neck module is easily changable, so that looks good. I still have to work out the pickups. I have a set of telecaster pickups and control panel, I also have a set of humbuckers off a Yamaha guitar that I neeed to look at. Thats past next week

 

Is it 'easily reconfigurable'? Depends on your definition of 'easily'. So far I'd so 'no' as I need to basically dismantle the guitar to change the bridge or neck. Thats about (best guess) an hour to two hours to dismantle and reassemble. As the parts use embedded nuts, there's no worry about doing this many times as the plastic is not used for threads.

 

6. Is the design right?

 

No, the overall design isn't quite right yet, it's too fiddly to print quickly, thats due to the quantity of the nuts to build it, also I didn't pay enough attention to the nut positioning and specifically the height of the nuts. This means that there is too much manual intervention when printing. As this is a PoC, this is acceptable, but the next version will be simpler. The only way to learn this is to do it, I have no background in 3d design or manufacturing, I work in IT, so the only way to learn this is to try it and do it.

 

7. Would these ides move over to printing a bass?

 

I'm reasonably certain it will. The area that I'm worried about and that will need a PoC is the depth of the plywood backbone, the heel for the neck and the bridge. My thinking was (and still is), its easier to do a six string first and learn, and I have learnt a lot, mostly what not to do, than to jump straight in.

 

Hope this helps.

Rob

 

[rwillett]

I did two big print runs today, basically both Prusa's flat out whilst I actually did real work. Every so often the printers would beep for attention.

 

Managed to get to this stage. I think there's something missing but I can't quite put my finger on it. Any ideas?

 

 

I screwed it together but with only half the screws as I would need to take the plywood backbone off to screw all the bits together. I played it as an air guitar and it felt pretty good. The body is quite light and very rigid.

 

It's missing the top middle, thats nine hours of printing, but I don't actually think thats needed for the next bit of testing.

 

 

The next bits to do are:

 

1. Fit the nut. I have one and it's supposed to be theright one but it's a bit wide and I've no idea what to do with it.

 

2. Design a small pickguard to hold the neck pickup.  I've designed it but not worked out the dimensions of the neck pickup.

 

3. Find a wiring diagram for this control panel and pickups and output.

 

4. Put strings on.

 

5. Connect it up.

 

6. Learn to play

 

7. Play

 

Lessons learnt from two big print runs today.

 

1. Even after a Prusa MK3S+ has gone into Thermal Shutdown because I couldn't get to it after a @pause to insert nuts, you can recover it but manually setting the correct nozzle and bed tmperature. Thermal Shutdown is when the nozzle temperature is too high and you aren't printing. You may need to be running Octoprint for the recovery to work. I had to go and pick daughter up whilst printing but there was a major acident on theA65 and a 15min pickup turned into an hour. The printer paused and then shutdown for safety reasons. I was 7.5 hours into a 9 hour print and was a little annoyed to say the least. Set the temperatures in octoprint, waited til they got the right ones and simply hit resume. DSave 7/5 hours of printing. That was the highlight.

 

2. I forgot to measure the output jack inside hole measurements. I measure the plate holes and they look, but forgot to put the correct diameter in. It should be 20mm and I left it at 10mm. This means even though I save the print, it was still wrong and would need to be done again.

 

3. The access holes below are too difficult to use. I did test this but trying to screw it together this evening has taken 20 mins+ per hole. Solution, longer 30mm bolts from eBay.

 

 

4. The Telecaster control panel attachment holes were out by 1.2mm. Bad measurement from me.

 

5. The bolts that tighten the bits together work really well. The structure is very rigid. I thought there might be too many, but I'm not so sure now. I do like the rigidity.

 

6. The frame needs to be printed top down for the best quality. Mind you printing at 0.3mm is pretty good. I can of course take my time and print as I need over a few weeks.

 

7. Add parameters in so that any nuts printed are all at the same level. At the moment, nuts vary in height by a mm or so and this means the printers need constant attention.

 

Probably lots more to think about and learn from.

 

Rob