Just putting 3dhubs.com out there. If push comes to shove, you can probably use them to get your prints. I haven’t personally used them, but they appear to be airbnb for 3d printers.
Renting a 229 machine is $350 a month, no extra filament costs on top of buying the spool, and not having to babysit the machine. At $0.30 a gram for ninjaflex at the space + time paid to wait on the print I’d say you would be about the same out of pocket.
We also offer print services if you would like us to print it for you. You don’t pay for failed prints, just the one that works. $5/print hour +$5 per bed.
Just offering options since you said time was an issue.
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To Axeonos - I didn’t go to your training Sunday night, but Max gave me a brief orientation on Friday. I apologize if this caused any inconvenience, but I did not want to make another trip if the Sunday training covered the same protocols that Max had covered. Based on the conversations in this thread, I assume that the advanced training that would qualify me to use Ninjaflex filament would have to be separate anyway.
For future reference and to clarify my position, I am a research assistant and MS student at a UTD neuroscience lab that implants chronic electrodes in rats for use in intracranial EEG recordings. In addition to my regular duties I’ve been tasked with improving the design of the electrode pinout and outer housing. The previous design was unwieldy and prone to breakage, hence my insistence on using a flexible filament. As detailed in earlier posts, my budget is practically nonexistent - no significant funds will be allocated to the production of my design until I have a working prototype. The university’s only printer that is available for all departmental use cannot use a flexible filament. It wouldn’t be cost effective to order prints from a company when I may have to make iterative revisions to the prototype. Hence using the DMS facilities seems to be my best option, both in terms of proximity to the university and price. If there is any way to expedite the training process while adhering to DMS policy and without causing undue burden to any members, it would be greatly appreciated. I would like to note that the scale of my prints will be quite small, on the order of a square inch or less. I would hope that this would minimize printing time and thus the inconvenience to other members.
We are all volunteers here, so its based on their schedule… you probably should have made the trip and talked with the chair of 3d fab about the situation since shes the one that would have been able to get you going with the flexible stuff.
again just sayin, a 1x1 inch print could have easily been done this weekend if you wanted to send the file off and get it printed by us for like $10 probably even 2 or 3 without increasing the cost.
You’re right, that’s what I should’ve done from the start. Can I just sent the .stl files or gcode?
For specific prints in a timeline, 3Dhubs.com or makexyz.com are a good place to start. I do commissions but I’m not as timely as some people about it. If you still want to go over ninjaflex training I can do it. It’s the same as the resin, it’s different settings and material so we want to make sure people aren’t wasting expensive material for failed prints.
You could actually try printing a mold in ABS then casting the part with a silicon resin.
I will work on making official classes and advanced classes but we are all volunteers with full time jobs so it’s difficult, I’m glad Max could get you going.
Any additional training would be most welcome. I thought about doing a cast, but there’s some “ductwork” in the design that require supports (at least with filament printing) that I’m not sure would carry over well in a mold. Maybe it’s possible; at this point I’m open to most options, including ordering prints from a company. Once the design is down pat, then it would be acceptable to order prints in large quantities from a 3rd party supplier. Being a bit of a control freak, I’d prefer to be involved in the entire prototyping process and cancel any print jobs if they start to turn foul. This is perhaps the wrong attitude given the situation, but I’m reluctant to gamble on waiting for a prototype to ship from a company, only to receive a part that is unusable or otherwise defective.
A Ninjaflex class has been submitted for June 28. Look for it to show up on the calendar mid-day on Wednesday.
Thank you muchly. That helps a lot.
Is anyone available to do the advanced training before the 28th, if possible?
You can email the files to me, just add @gmail.com to my talk handle or you can send them to support (at) polyprinter.com.
if you send them to me I can get them printing when I get into our workshop tonight. Be sure to send info like what infill % you want, how flexible they need to be overall, and how many copies you need.
Can you budge Microcenter and Fry’s to stock more than 25% of their filament inventory in ABS? Currently, retailers (Fry’s included) are stocking approx. 60-70% in PLA and about 25-30% in ABS.
I do not know if this is tied to industry trends, but local retailers such seem to love stocking PLA over ABS.
If I get filament from Microcenter, I always just browse Microcenter’s stock online (http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntt=abs+1.75+filament ; make sure to set the store location) and then add it to my cart and choose pickup and pay at store. Usually ready in about hour or so and a lot less hassle than trying to browse their current shelf stock (which I agree, is a lot more geared towards PLA, partially due to just having more PLA and partially due to not organizing their shelves very well so that PLA and ABS get mixed and there doesn’t appear to be an ABS section).
-the purring dork
You clearly overestimate my powers. I am chairperson of 3d fab, not the owner of inland.
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Dang it…
Thanks, great recommendation! I will definitely do this from now on.
I’d also like to join in the fun. Count me in, please.
You responded to a week old post, I’m not sure there is anything going this Sunday.
Thanks. I’m new, also. Monday class is full already, and I’m just trying to get up and running on FormLabs. Are you trained on it?
Nope, one of these days I will…