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Does anyone here have a 3d printer?

I bought a Prusa Mk3 three years ago, the price wasn't quite so eye-watering then, but there was a waiting list even for kits. My reasoning was that an Ender or similar would make 'being a 3d printer' a significant activity, it would require mods and adjustments and upgrades. I knew nothing and just wanted to make some bits and pieces. So Prusa.

And with the launch of the 4 the price looks reasonable again.

I don't know how you're going to print your grille and have it look good, I assume lots of supports followed by hand finishing? It might work better on an SLA type, although I've never used one and I've no idea how stable the results are in a real envifonment.
 
I don't know how you're going to print your grille and have it look good, I assume lots of supports followed by hand finishing? It might work better on an SLA type, although I've never used one and I've no idea how stable the results are in a real envifonment.


I haven't a clue. I just assumed it would turn out ok.
 
I don't know how you're going to print your grille and have it look good, I assume lots of supports followed by hand finishing? It might work better on an SLA type, although I've never used one and I've no idea how stable the results are in a real envifonment.

SLA prints look fantastic, but they are such a PITA to use in my opinion. You’ve got toxic fumes, UV sensitive resin that is toxic until it is cured and really bad for everything if it gets in the water table (via sink drain, landfill). If you let it sit in the reservoir and accidentally expose it to sunlight or other UV it’ll harden and ruin the print reservoir. You have to wear nitrile gloves and use it in a well ventilated environment or your body can become sensitive to the resin and then you get rashes and respiratory problems. You need to wash parts in a big container of alcohol with an agitator (washing station). You need to cure the parts in sunlight or buy a curing station (UV LEDs and a turntable). You need to remember to put drain holes in the model so liquid resin isn’t trapped inside. The print volumes are small compared to FDM.

But the results look fantastic. They seem more useful for modelers/prop makers etc. than for people making functional parts. My brother makes figures with an SLA printer, paints them very intricately, and sells them for $$$ online. I wouldn’t have the patience!
 
^ This. I bought an SLA printer a year ago. Such a pain to use and even the smallest amount of printing left behind a swathe of wasted gloves and paper towels. I cured it all before throwing it out but it seemed too much effort. I went back to FDM with an Ender 3 s1 and have printed more in the last few months than the previous few years. It wasn't all plain sailing. Having to dial in the variable build quality and make a few cable supports is annoying, but it runs on an old Raspberry Pi2 with Klipper firmware and is great fun.
 
I have no experience of SLA. But I have doubts that FatMarley's design will print nicely on a whatever-they-are-called with filament.

If he sends me an STL I'll let it rip and see what happens...

You could print it flat and make a dome with some heat and the back of a spoon?
 
I have no experience of SLA. But I have doubts that FatMarley's design will print nicely on a whatever-they-are-called with filament.

If he sends me an STL I'll let it rip and see what happens...

You could print it flat and make a dome with some heat and the back of a spoon?

I'm more than happy to send you, or anyone, the STL file. I'm curious to know if this can be printed ok myself...
 
I have no experience of SLA. But I have doubts that FatMarley's design will print nicely on a whatever-they-are-called with filament.

If he sends me an STL I'll let it rip and see what happens...

You could print it flat and make a dome with some heat and the back of a spoon?
Do you mean print quality or printability?

SLA will need supports just like FDM, so that's a non-issue. FDM prints (at least on my printer) at high quality settings (0.1mm layer height or less) should look great.

This is meant to protect tweeters in a car, not be a miniature figurine or something. Who's going to be looking at it up close? :)
 
This was 0.2mm layer height, 1h50m print. Took a few minutes to remove the support material with a cocktail skewer and a knife. Would have been faster if I had just dug out the needle nose pliers.

In bright light up close you can see the layers, but from 2 feet away it looks just looks kind of matte. It's pretty strong too. I put 15 lbs on it and it didn't really deflect.

0.05mm layers would look way better but would be like a 4 hour print.

IMG-5473.jpg


 
Looks good.
I bought a set of nozzles from .25 to .8mm but I just print nearly everything with a .4 nozzle and .2mm layers.

SLA is great for precision functional prints too. In a job a couple of years ago I was printing moving parts down to .1mm thickness with formlabs durable resin and they worked well.
 
This was 0.2mm layer height, 1h50m print. Took a few minutes to remove the support material with a cocktail skewer and a knife. Would have been faster if I had just dug out the needle nose pliers.

In bright light up close you can see the layers, but from 2 feet away it looks just looks kind of matte. It's pretty strong too. I put 15 lbs on it and it didn't really deflect.

0.05mm layers would look way better but would be like a 4 hour print.

IMG-5473.jpg




That looks great to me :)

What filament did you use?
 
I can see that a part of the appeal here is doing it "because I can" and because it's an interesting tool, but I'd be buying speaker grilles of the appropriate diameter and adapting then to fit, if this were the job at hand. And the only job.

But carry on, the making is the event here.
 
I can see that a part of the appeal here is doing it "because I can" and because it's an interesting tool, but I'd be buying speaker grilles of the appropriate diameter and adapting then to fit, if this were the job at hand. And the only job.

But carry on, the making is the event here.
I disagree. If you already have a printer and know CAD like I do, it is a lot faster to do something like this then f-around with research, placing an order and waiting for it, messing around with a dremel, etc. And you learn something while doing it. And if it turns out really good, you can share it with other people who can do the same.
 
but I'd be buying speaker grilles of the appropriate diameter and adapting then to fit, if this were the job at hand. And the only job.

But that's boring. I'm quite enjoying learning Fusion 360.

Once I get a 3d printer, I'll print off 2 pairs of these tweeter grills - One set for the car, and one for my main speakers. Then I'll print off a pair for my Ciare HM500 soft dome mids. There are toys I've been thinking of making for the kids, and I'll probably have a go at making some tweeter waveguides.
 
Do you mean print quality or printability?

SLA will need supports just like FDM, so that's a non-issue. FDM prints (at least on my printer) at high quality settings (0.1mm layer height or less) should look great.

This is meant to protect tweeters in a car, not be a miniature figurine or something. Who's going to be looking at it up close? :)
I was concerned about the amount of support, and its removal. Looks like you have it covered... Bet Fatmarley can't wait.

I was under the impression that SLA would get some support from buoyancy when arching the dome, perhaps wishful thinking...
 
If I could propose a hybrid?

I created some new metal speak grills for some linn dot ceiling speakers. So i bough some off the shelf metal speaker grills a bit bigger than I needed then I 3D printed a appropriately sized dome shape and inverse of the shape, then put the grill in-between then I closed it in a vice to create the shape.
 
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If I could propose a hybrid?

I created some new metal speak grills for some linn dot ceiling speakers. So i bough some off the shelf metal speaker grills a bit bigger than I needed then I 3D printed a appropriately sized dome shape and inverse of the shape, to put the grill in-between then I closed it in a vice to create the shape.

Good idea, but I'm excited about printing custom grills. I'm expecting to have some disasters, but I like a challenge...
 


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