Filament based-3D printing is a great technology - not only for prototypes but also for real functional parts. Though, one of the great weaknesses of these prints is that due to the layer-by-layer manufacturing approach, the individual extrusions usually don’t perfectly adhere to each other, which is making parts significantly weaker in this direction. There are ways to increase layer adhesion like higher extrusion temperatures, slower printing speeds, less cooling, enclosures, or just selecting a material that performs better in this regard. But still, the holy grail of filament-based 3D printing is creating parts that are equally strong regardless of the printing orientation.

Read More

A Volcano hotend is a variation of the regular V6 hotends where the meltzone is 8.5 mm longer to give 3D printing filament more time to melt for higher flow capabilities. I recently got Pheatus Rapido which is already a high flow hotend. The thing is that they also sell the Rapido in an Ultra High Flow variant, and from the pictures, I found online, I wasn’t really sure how both versions differ. The approach is clever and allows you to switch between High Flow and Ultra High Flow without any hassle. The high-flow Rapido uses standard V6-style nozzles. For the Ultra High Flow, they don’t actually make the heater longer but simply use a Volcano length nozzle and a special nut made from nickel-plated copper to help conduct the heat down the nozzle. This isn’t totally new, and I’ve seen a similar approach used on Slice Engineerings Mosquito Magnum hotend where they increase the length of the meltzone by simply modifying the heatbreak and adding a slab of copper above the hotend.

Read More

I’m currently moving into a new and actually my first real studio, for which I had to build a bunch of benches and things like a filament rack. Wood has always been the material of choice for me because it’s easy to machine and is still very strong if you use it properly. This is why my first CNC router was made from wood, and even many of my test machines still are. Unfortunately, wood prices and availability are a bit insane at the moment, so you usually take what you can get and afford. But can you for example replace expensive multiplex plywood with particle board? I’ve been asking myself for ages how the strength of different types of wood, particle, and fiberboards compare and how these materials would also stack up against common 3D printing materials. That’s why I tested a ton of samples to find out how the bending strength and, of course, the “hook strength” compare to each other.

Read More

Extruder tension is something almost everyone who has been dealing with 3D printing was already confronted with, but almost nobody really knows how to handle it properly. Even if we look at manuals, they often just say to adjust it to the middle mark or a specific distance from the extruder body and then adjust it to your liking. I honestly didn’t bother in the past to tune or calibrate the tension simply because I always felt that it didn’t have a huge impact on my parts. But there is actually more to it, and I, therefore, tested the effect of extruder tension on a wide variety of extruders so that you will know after this video what you need to look out for! Since I can’t test any extruder and material combination, I’d be super happy if you shared your experience on that topic in the comments so that others can learn. Do you ever touch this setting, and if you do, how and why do you adjust it?

Read More

The company WhamBam from Florida isn’t new to the market and you’ve probably seen their flex plates for filament and resin 3D printing in the past or their HotBox printer enclosures. What many might not be aware of is that more than a year back they also brought one of the first tool swapping systems onto the market with their MUTANT. Unfortunately, they quickly stopped the production of the first version due to manufacturing quality issues and decided to upgrade the design. In June last year, they sent over the MUTANT V2 at which we’ll be taking a look at today! Full disclosure, WhamBam sent the MUTANT free of charge but all thoughts in this video are my own!

Read More

Fast printing profiles seem to be the new hip thing right now, and Chuck from CHEP’s Filament Friday made some really nice tutorials on how to use CURAs new Extra Fast printing profile on your Ender-3, that Ultimaker introduced in their latest release, to print significantly faster.

Read More

RapidChange Revo is E3D’s new hotend eco system. As the name RapidChange already suggests – one of the main advertised features of Revo is the ease and convenience of nozzle changes because no tools are needed, and it can and should be done, while the hotend is cold. But E3D did more than this because they also integrated components to make the system more compact, capable, reliable and safe. Their heater cores for example combine the heater block, a heating element, and the thermistor. The new dual material nozzle breaks combine a brass nozzle with a thin, stainless steel tube as heatbreak, eliminating the need for hot tightening and preventing material leaks. I’ve been thoroughly testing Revo for several hundreds of hours with excellent prints, failed hardware and very interesting discoveries during my performance and in-depth thermal tests!

Read More

The Mekanika EVO is not my first CNC router. One of the reasons why this channel exists is actually a wooden CNC router I built more than 8 years back. I later upgraded to an aluminum framed machine, and now Mekanika sent me their latest CNC router for this review. As a disclaimer – Mekanika sent me the machine free of charge, but they didn’t influence the review process in any way. Mekanika is not new to the CNC Market, and they have been selling their Mekanika Pro routers since 2019, as well as a screen printing device. The EVO, which we’ll be taking a look at today, was financed right around a year ago in a, in my opinion, very legitimate Kickstarter campaign and has shipped all of the machines from the campaign until the end of last year. The EVO builds on the design of their Pro machines and primarily is a more affordable option with simpler motion components. It comes in three different sizes from the S that has a working area of 600x600mm and costs 2700€ excluding tax to the L that can machine parts with the size of one meter by one meter and costs 4000€. The missing tax in their shop already shows that this machine is aimed more towards businesses. It’s definitely not cheap but still in a similar price range as comparable machines on the market and with that target group. I – heavy-hearted – chose the smallest version of the three simply because I didn’t have the space for a bigger one. The name EVO by the way, comes from the possibility to upgrade the machine to a Pro version with an upgrade kit. Mekanika said that this would be available at the end of last year, but I haven’t seen anything in their store yet.

Read More

Let me quickly tell you the story of how I came up with my non-planar 3D printing idea. Some of you might know that I’ve got an adorable 1.5-year-old daughter and as a caring dad with a 3D printer, I, of course, wanted to print something for her. The idea was to make her a ball run that I could easily attach to a window. The tube sections I wanted to make are pretty tall parts and I’m usually impatient and want quick results. Printing high parts conventionally often takes quite a long time, so I use the spiral vase mode when I usually print vases or stuff like that. Here, the printhead moves in a very shallow but continuous spiral around the outside of a model. This is great because it’s quick, but it also usually leaves you with pretty tough parts. Designing parts for vase mode is an art, and I’m always super impressed if RC airplane designers like 3DLabPrint manage to create whole airplanes that can be printed as a single, closed contour with barely any travel moves to minimize oozing so you can print them with Light Weight, Foaming PLA.

Read More

Vielen Dank, dass Du unseren Originalen Volcano Adapter gekauft hast. Mit diesem kleinen aber vielseitigen Teil kannst Du nicht nur viel Geld sparen, sondern auch deutlich mehr aus Deinem Volcano Hotend holen!

Read More