FUD vs Photon

[narrowminded]

A link to a linked post where Mark W had made some suggestions from his experience.  It might help.
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=45736.345

[Chris333]

So after getting this file straightened out and the printer working again I tried a slightly modified ore car in grey resin. This time and the last time in clear orange I'm now getting lines that don't cover up with primer.



After these popped out the oven. I took the Photon apart to check the Z axis. The bearings were tight so I didn't adjust at all. I wonder if a new FEP will fix this? Have a print running now that will be the first after tearing it apart so we'll see what happens.

[Chris333]

Well the next part I printed after taking it apart came out flawless. So I got another set of ore cars on the cooker.

[tom mann]

Well the next part I printed after taking it apart came out flawless. So I got another set of ore cars on the cooker.

Tonight's Star Trek episode: "The Trouble with Ore Cars". Ore cars multiply rapidly and threaten the ship's food supply. Spock estimates that it will take 17.9 years to remove the cars.

[DKS]

Tonight's Star Trek episode: "The Trouble with Ore Cars". Ore cars multiply rapidly and threaten the ship's food supply. Spock estimates that it will take 17.9 years to remove the cars.

LMFAO!

[peteski]

Tonight's Star Trek episode: "The Trouble with Ore Cars". Ore cars multiply rapidly and threaten the ship's food supply. Spock estimates that it will take 17.9 years to remove the cars.

Do all these ore cars make funny chirping noises?  Either way, I'm sure they are darn cute!

[Chris333]

I woke up and the print was done. Opened the door and the build plate was sitting in the vat, but the screw was all the way at the top. Wonder if I just sat it on the peg without tightening and hit play without checking. 

[AlwaysSolutions]

I think we've probably all done that (or will) at some point.  It's habit now every time I start a print just before I shut the lid I check that knob!     I love the fact that failed prints on these don't result in miles of stringy mess and wasted material but just a shadow of resin on the FEP.

[Chris333]

OK so those build lines... I think it was the file causing that. I printed a pair in clear orange that had the build lines. Switched to grey resin and printed something else that came out fine. Printed a pair of ore cars in grey and they got lines (photos above). Tore apart the printer and checked everything. Printed something else that came out fine. Tried the ore cars again and got lines, grrrr.  Printed something else that was perfect.

So now I re-fixed the file (you know triangles) and re-supported it in the slicer. Now a pair of ore cars printed perfectly in grey. Perhaps I did something in Netfabb to reduce the resolution of the file     You can see those build lines are like ~.020-.025" wide, but the layers are set to .008". It was something in the file.

The bummer is that it takes 6 hours to print. 1 car, 2 cars, 3 it takes the same time. The good news is that I can print them now 


Side note:  I slightly changed these cars from the original. Mostly I just moved the couplers inward so they didn't stick out so far. On the 3D model this was just adding and removing small bits here and there. So the total volume was very close. I uploaded the revised models to Shapeways to order. Instead of $40 (before shipping) there were closer to $48. Shapways was having a 15% cyber monday sale and that knocked the price down to about $39. So they raised the cost to me about 15% and the sale knocked it down to the old price. This pissed me off and I didn't order  (not to mention that it would take almost till Christmas to get them in the mail)    And that is why I kept trying to get these to print at home.

Sure I will still need Shapeways for certain things, but overall ***** them.

Oh yeah the last 5 prints the machine hasn't shut off/reset at all.   

[tom mann]

Hopefully the success of the Anycubit brings about price and quality changes with Shapeways.

[AlwaysSolutions]

Hopefully the success of the Anycubit brings about price and quality changes with Shapeways.

In some ways it "sort of" has in the short term - but longer term I'm not sure.  There was a thread over on the Shapeways forums where us designers were expressing our... bad feelings about Shapeways pricing changes.  I bit my tongue for awhile before chiming in, but I had to bring up the fact to them that there were folks out there with a 500 dollar printer in their garage that can produce better quality for cheaper, and that we don't need Shapeways.  That post struck a chord with a lot of folks, and as Shapeways continued to ignore us, more and more designers were echoing that sentiment (most, by the way, fellow model railroader designers!)  A week or so later Shapeways relented on the FUD pricing change and backed it off where my stuff was again reasonably priced.  I'm still not satisfied that I have no idea why my designs are priced as such but at least I have a reference point on what they should cost.  I'm fine with the occasional price hike - that happens.  But keeping the pricing algorithm a secret is still not okay by me.  For all I know my prices could have been rolled back because I'm a "special" designer they wanted to shut up.  Never the less, the revolution is here!!  This thread and the Photon thread are exactly what Shapeways should have considered before taking the path they chose.  I'm excited to see what everyone is doing with the Photons...

[Chris333]

I also noticed the build times at Shapeways list things like "small FUD" and "large FUD" with the large taking an extra week. Never noticed that before.

Only Shapeways knows if they are hurting or doing better. Maybe model builders are using it less and other keep on using. Who knows.

[Chris333]

Well I've got 6 of these ready for paint     One in the back you can see I practiced painting.

[wvgca]

how many of the ore cars do you intend to add to your layout??

[Chris333]

Just these 6, the rest were practice