Free D Printer.

I was gifted a 3D printer by a buddy who upgraded his. This weekend I finally got around to trying it out.

Robo E3 printer. Free to not so good home. *Please ignore the luffa drying behind the printer.

First project, chosen by my son – a tensegrity table, also known as an impossible table. It looks like the legs of the table are monofilament, while in reality, the table top hangs from the bottom. The corner lines are just stabilizers.

Tensigrity table – It’s magic. Also, one corner line is too long.

It took eight hours to print this table after spending three or four getting the printer up and running.

I’ve never used a 3D printer before so I was (still am) a bit dumbfounded by the process.

You need a 3D model, which you can download or create. Then you need software to slice the model into layers. The print head puts down one layer of material at a time.

I have zero experience building 3D models, so I opted to download other folks creations from Thingverse.

I’m using Roboprint for the slicing bit, as that is what the printer manufacturer recommends.

Now to get the computer talking to the printer. And here’s where things got really frustrating interesting.

First I tried to get the printer on my network. But the touchscreen is terrible and I kept getting double and triple presses on the keypad while trying to enter the password.

My buddy had said he wasn’t able to connect to it to his WiFi and now I know why.

Second option- print from USB stick. I tried two different thumb drives but neither of them worked. I even went so far as to reformat one of them and rename it to match the menu of the printer. Possibly the USB port on the printer is broken. Possibly operator error.

Finally I decided to attach the computer to the printer’s built in hotspot.

This worked, but it meant that while I was printing, the computer couldn’t be used for anything that required connectivity.

The print process itself is pretty painless.

Here you can see the beginnings of the item being printed.

Slow and hypnotic, but painless.

As I was printing I scrolled Thingverse on my phone and found some cool things to print. I decided my next print would be a screwdriver holder that I could screw to the back of my workbench.

And now I know why my buddy upgraded. This printer is limited to a 150mm print volume. A cube six inches on a side for those of us who think in yank units. The screwdriver holder is too big (or the printer is too small). Looks like I’m going to have to download & learn the modeling software after all.

I did download a modular socket holder. This might come in handy as I’m trying to organize my tools. You print one piece per socket and they link together in a chain. I printed two links. It takes 25 minutes to print each one. Each one is larger than the socket it’s supposed to hold. One of them broke while I was snapping them together.

Found a smaller screwdriver holder which just barely fits inside the volume limit of my printer. It’s a four hour print. The videos are all from this print.

Step 1. Print a raft. This attaches the print to the bed. It gets peeled off when the job is done.
Screwdriver holder
Also holds nut drivers & awls. Note the cereal boxes which are handy for analog 3D design work.

I like the concept of a 3D printer. I’m not sure the technology is quite ready for prime time though. The print process is complicated and slow. I feel like this technology is at the pre-DOS era of computing. I imagine that when my kids buy a house 3D printers will be as commonplace as microwave ovens are today.

*Spoke to my buddy about the USB port. He says the printer will only recognize disks formatted as FAT32. I formatted my drive as FAT16. I’ll try again later.

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Author: rexplex

With a bachelors degree in history, I turn wrenches for a living. I’m most at peace when I hear the wind in the trees or the gurgle of a brook. I’m a believer in the Renaissance Man, as epitomized by DaVinci engineer, artist, soldier, statesman. As Heinlein said, “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

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