New toy, Afinia 3D printer

[Robin Hewitt]

Well, it's my birthday next week so I thought I'd get something fun

Arrived yesterday. So far I have printed a couple of impossible gear wheels off thingiverse.com, a mounting bracket that was proving tricky to cut and a plastic case I AutoCADded some years back.

I haven't dared take it to it's top precision yet because it is slow enough as it is. Think I'll resist pressing the "Fine" and "0.15mm layer" buttons until bed time. I'm using Alibre 2012 to draw in 3D, the new version looks a lot friendlier than the one I had.

Overall impression? Freaking amazing so long as the part edges rise steeper than 45 degrees from the horizontal. Shallower than that and I reach for the sandpaper because it gets a bit steppy.

Next a case for my milling machine pendant, the missing parts from my plasma torch height control, suddenly the tube feeders for my pick and place become simple and I can make as many as I want as complicated as I want. Holding those chip tubes was tricky, milling from all sorts of angles, needed lots, PITA. Now I can print a chip tube shaped hole. Bliss.

Have to buy some more ABS so I don't run out over Xmas. Think I will try the 'Octave' filament, it has a slightly lower melting point.