3d Handout.indd

Transcript

THE SARIK HOBBIES FISHER DELTA 3D PRINTER The Sarik Hobbies Fisher Delta is an open-source printer, sold as a kit to be built, adapted and customised by the user, and many of the structural components are themselves produced on a 3D printer. The files for printing these parts, and for cutting the acrylic parts on a laser cutter are available to download, so you have the option of making your own spare parts, or indeed going a long way to making another 3D printer yourself. It offers simple assembly, auto calibration and high-speed motion. Once built and commissioned it is easy to use, produces very good quality 3D printed objects in a range of attractive colours, fits neatly onto the corner of a desk or workbench and is quiet and odour-free in operation. Moreover, development of the printer is continuing, and modification kits will be released that can be incorporated into your printer to extend its capabilities and keep it right up to date. The Fisher Delta is designed and built in the UK, and a full range of spare parts and accessories is available. Assembling The Printer The Sarik Hobbies Fisher Delta arrives securely packed in a sturdy cardboard box. All the parts are clearly labelled, with the nuts, bolts, screws and washers in re-sealable polythene bags. One thing you won’t find are any instructions, as these are all published on the Sarik Hobbies website (https://Sarik Hobbies.com). You could print them out, but it’s better to use them online as you build because you can then expand the reference photographs when you need to (which is often). It’s essential to carefully study the complete build instructions before beginning, as they highlight the tools, equipment and materials you’ll need to have available. You’re likely to have most of what you need already, but there are one or two items that you might need to borrow or buy and it’d be frustrating to be held up by not having them to hand. I’ve read of people assembling the printer in a few hours, but I’d say that to avoid rushing and potentially making mistakes you should probably allow a couple of days. Begin by unpacking the box and laying out the parts bags tidily in a designated ‘stores’ area that is located away from the build area. Each section of the build lists exactly which parts (and how many of each) are needed to complete it. Remove the parts required for the current section from their bags and put them in the build area. Then re-seal the bags and return them to the ‘stores’ area. That way you’ll keep things tidy and organised. It’s a good idea to use a craft mat or similar for the build area as it will be both non-slip and protect the work surface. Most of the assembly work is screwing together nuts and bolts, but some of the 3-D printed parts may need a little trimming and tidying with a craft knife or fine sandpaper. The build instructions are comprehensive and are accompanied by detailed photographs and diagrams. It’s very important that these are followed exactly, so read, look and read again to make sure you understand exactly how the parts fit together. If you refer to the photographs and double-check that your assembled parts look exactly the same you won’t go wrong. The black acrylic parts have a protective film on both sides that needs to be removed before assembling them. Take it from me that it’s extremely tedious to have to dismantle a part you’ve just made because you forgot to remove this film! The other 3D Handout.indd 1 thing to mention about the acrylic parts is that whilst they’re perfectly suitable for their job, they can break if mishandled so treat them with care. Don’t worry too much if you do break one though, because replacement parts are available. As you progress from the relatively simple mechanical assembly to installing the electrical and electronic parts it becomes even more important to follow the instructions carefully. Mistakes here can cause serious damage to the printer, so once more you should check and check again to be absolutely sure that everything is as it should be. Correctly connecting the plugs from the various electrical components to the Duet circuit board is a vital step, but should be straightforward with care. 01/06/2016 15:47:00 Commissioning Powering up the printer for the first time is a big moment and once again the instructions will take you through the process of testing to ensure that everything is working correctly. The key thing to check first is that the cooling fan comes on while the heater stays off. If either of those things is different on your printer, disconnect power immediately and check your wiring. Another useful check is to look at the LED’s on the circuit board. Four LED’s should be on, one each for the X, Y and Z axis End Stop micro-switches (each should go off if you close the relevant switch) and one for the printing base (again, this should go off if you press down on the base). To operate the printer you need to connect it to a computer via either the Ethernet or USB ports on the Duet board. The commissioning section of the instructions explains how to do this, and once control is established there are a number of further checks to ensure all the systems are working correctly. By the end of this section you’ll have completed the build and the printer will be ready for use. Printing Objects to be printed are stored on the micro SD card. You’ll find a test object already available called ‘robot’, which is good for your first print. It creates a small robot figure that will print in about 10 minutes. The printer is fairly quiet in operation (roughly similar to an inkjet printer) but of course it operates for a much longer time. No user intervention is required during printing unless you want to change the filament colour. The most important part of printing is the very first layer that is in contact with the print base. It’s essential that this layer is complete with no gaps or parts missing and that it is firmly stuck to the bed. If the printed part comes loose from the bed during printing and starts to move about you’ll have to abort the print and try again. Generally the reason will be that there’s insufficient surface area in contact with the base, and as it has cooled it has contracted slightly and cracked off. To prevent this you can make the area in contact with the base larger, or use the slicer software to add a wide, thin base layer (known as a brim) that helps to secure the object as it is printed. After printing the brim can be trimmed off. Summary There’s no doubt that the first time you watch an object that you’ve designed on your computer taking physical shape during printing is fascinating, but the fact is that once built and functioning correctly the Fisher Delta is no more interesting to operate than any other type of printer. What is interesting is designing the 3D models to be printed, but that’s a whole new subject. There’s lots of information and videos on the web, so jump in and have a go. We are enormously pleased and proud of the Fisher Delta. It is very easy to build provided you follow the instructions carefully, and simple, quiet and effective in operation. You’ll find 3D printed products and accessories for sale on the Sarik Hobbies on-line shop, and these are mainly printed on our own Fisher Delta 3D printers, which have proved themselves very reliable. If the object you want to print is beyond your abilities to 3D model please contact us to discuss using our services to create what you want. And if you decide to buy a printer yourself, you’ll certainly find many uses for it not only in crafting but also as a DIY household tool. Finally, if you’ve got any questions about the Fisher Delta 3D printer please contact us and we’ll do our best to answer them. Product Information Mechanics: Firmware: Printer Specification: Electronics: Software: NAME: Fisher 3-D Printer MANUFACTURER: RepRapPro DISTRIBUTOR: Sarik Vacform WEBSITE: www.sarik-vacform.com BUILD VOLUME: 150 mm diameter, 180 mm height NOZZLE DIAMETER: 0.4 mm 3D Handout.indd 2 • 12.5um resolution in all axes • Removable print surface • Spring loaded kinematic locations, 1um repeatable positioning and bed probing • Direct drive extruder with all-metal stainless steel nozzle • Duet electronics • 32 bit ARM cortex microprocessor • Ethernet and USB interface • On-board microSD storage • Automatic calibration of print surface and delta parameters • Smooth real time motion • Internal webserver for access via ethernet, with DHCP and netBIOS • Machine controlled via web interface • Prints gcode files provided by Slic3r and other open source slicing software 01/06/2016 15:47:23