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The RepRap Community Hub is back at the TCT show 
September 30th & October 1st.



This year the Open-Source and maker Community Hub, centered around RepRap 3D Printing has a great line-up of companies and individuals you would be very foolish to miss.

First if you have not already registered for the show, you can get a free badge and entry into the show by signing up here, it's well worth pre-registering as it avoids the queue at the NEC.

The show is on for two days starting September 30th at 9:30AM - to 17:00PM

The Main Open-Source RepRap Community Hub all of Stand J42 


If you want to meet up with me or anyone else please come to the show and visit J42 and the surrounding stands, it always great to see people from the maker community, talk about projects, ideas and generally discuss 3D printing in all it's glory and spectacular failures.

Full exhibitor list can be found here.

TCT Show Floor-plan is here.

On the Community Hub this year you will find - 



RepRapPro Ltd. - Adrian Bowyer and the team are back with the new Fisher Delta printer, and many new RepRap updates.

Think3DPrint3D - New Duet Electronics revisions, Kossel mini Kits and a lot of 3D Printing knowledge 


Semi-Utilitronic Industries is on the Hub with a rather nice version of my 3DR Delta printer design and lots more RepRap pares and advice.


ANDORNOT - will be back on the Hub with the finished Spatial One Delta printer - Andrew had the prototype on demo at the show last year, this time it's all ready for sale - Open-Source and very well built.



Shouting out a few companies close and around the community hub, sorry if I missed you off this post, (Just too many awesome companies to mention everyone) I do plan to visit every single exhibitor at the show to see what's new and interesting.


E3D (BigBox and LittleBox) - will be on stand J41 with what they tell me is the all new and improved BigBox 3D Printer design - looking forward to seeing the changes and print quality. Obviously all the great E3D hot-ends and materials will be on display and to buy during the show.

RepRapWorld is opposite the Community Hub, On stand J39 - Designers of the Megatronics electronics, and many other very cool things for RepRap 3D Printers - do give them a visit.
BCN3D Technologies is next on Stand J37 - you really do not want to miss the fantastic Sigma dual 3D Printer, it's just about the most impressive dual carriage printing FDM machine for the price you will see at the show.



Recreus and the Amazing FilaFlex materials are on H47 - I have been using a lot of FilaFlex recently, it's really great TPU material for 3D Printing. Steve wood of Gyrobot will also be demonstrating a rather fantastic program for auto-generation of custom Filaflex insoles. That's well worth a visit.



MatterHackers are at H42
InnoFil3D - H40
Rigid Ink - H38
We Do 3D Printing J35
Floreon J34
BQ - G42

Kuehling & Kuehling H32 - Probably one of the most business-ready capable FDM based 3D printers in recent years.

Mass Portal G30 - I was blown away in Berlin by this little Delta printer - it manages some of the finest looking prints I have ever seen.

Filament Print - H41
Cinter - G40
3D Print UK - G36
STRUCTUR 3D Printing - H36


Look out for many others scattered around the show -


The 3D Printing Association - G51

3DFilaprint - C39 - Selling all manner of materials for 3D printers.

BuildTak - B22 - build platform sheets that really work well.

ColorFabb B36 - Some of the finest 3D printing filaments available.

German RepRap - E35

Hawk 3D Proto - H14

Markforged -G39

Mcor Technologies D14

Ultimaker J24

And so many more....


I am looking forward to see the Formlabs FORM 2 3D Printer - recently launched. Still quite a lot of money, but they are setting the bar for Desktop SLA based Resin printing in my opinion.
Formlabs are on D44

Another interesting development in the SLA market will be Photocentricgroup, launching a new LCD based SLA printer (low cost) and offering both daylight and UV based resin formulations.

I'm imagining their LCD based printed just uses daylight resins, but I will find out more and update on this and anything else I discover.




Hope you can visit us at the Community Hub, looking forward to another two days of highly interesting discussions with all of you.



I'll have more updates (and Intro video) on the new OpenSLA project too. Please join and contribute to the Google+ Community over here.


Thanks for reading, until next time.

Rich.
It's been longer than I wanted for an update, I will try to get more frequently posting.

Roger Eueda - BCN3D Technologies at the Madrid 3D Printshow
2015 has been a busy start to the 3D Printing year. More shows, machines and materials releases dominate almost every single week of the calendar.

I recently visited the Madrid and Berlin 3D Printshows. These shows are now attracting a lot of different exhibitors and also a very wide variety of user interested in learning more about 3D printing and it's uses.

The questions from people or all ages and backgrounds are fascinating, we are definitely moving forwards with understanding of 3D print technology and it's current capabilities. The biggest observation I can make is that the low-end desktop market is being left behind and the gap between professional machines and services is getting ever wider.

When you look at the ever increasing applications of 3D printing that are being exploited many are beyond the capabilities of desktop machines. 3D Selfi's and mini-me prints are being produced in full colour sandstone or with Mcor based Iris paper printers. People expect this, not a single colour plastic model with low detail.

Mass customisation is quickly being taken seriously by big businesses, and the use of 3D printing is a channel to unique gifts and value added services beyond the mass market one-size fits all.

I do think we are reaching a saturation point with desktop 3D printers. And while new technologies like Carbon3D offer slightly different directions and speed enhancements, the lack of full colour and materials other than thermoplastic's is going to continue to hold us back.

Extremely low cost machines keep on appearing, and disappearing... time will tell if these constant attempts to 'break the mass market' do more harm than good. I'm not so sure, the eco-system is still not quite ready I fear.

Development Update - 

(Sorry for the total lack of images below - I'm just trying to get this long overdue update published before April 1st so you don't think it's a Joke!) - It's not!

My own 3D printing developments over the last 3 months have been interesting, I have plenty to share with you. I'll post more about these projects as soon as I can - 

Paste Extruder V4 - Large capacity and both heated and cold paste material printing. Exciting stuff.

The resurrection of a filament manufacturing machine (filament extruder) - An unhappy (almost dead) and under-powered Extruderbot was very kindly donated by the Fantastic 3D Filaprint team, it was fun to re-engineer and re-build and allows me now to experiment with composite materials, blends and some more unusual ideas.

An exploration in Resin 3D printing - I have made a number of experiments and designs for a RepRap Resin printer called 3DRip - lots more on this, it's still in development so I plan to post all the success and failures too of getting it running. Lots of new directions to take this too, faster and higher quality printing.

Experiments with Wax printing - Just started this one. I'm looking for anyone that's interested in wax as a 3D printing material. It's amazing stuff and I think we can do a lot more with it - let me know if you want to collaborate.

Lots of materials - New materials continue to pour onto the market. I'm testing as many as I can.

Part 2 of 3D Printing bed materials - I have some new materials to try out and I finally bought a sheet of BuildTak material at the Berlin show. I have heard good things to looking forward to testing it out.

I also finally met with other members of the 3D printing community who I have wanted to meet for such a long time. (Lots more people I didn't get a picture with, I will be more organised next time).


Florian Horsch (HypeCask) and Kay Parthy (of Lay filaments ) 
Nils Hitze (All3DP) and  Sabastian Karpp (Yeggi 3D)

Richard Curtis - Adobe - Presenting the 3D Printing capabilities of Photoshop CC - It's mighty impressive too.

Finally met with the BQ Team in Madrid - Juan Gonzalez and Alberto Valero
The shows were very good, and definitely the best way to meet people and discuss ideas.

I will post more about the shows, machines and people I met, but for now this gives you a taste of what's to come this year. Hopefully I'll meet more of the community and get to discuss 3D printing development over a beer or two. 

I'm also planning to be back in Barcelona real soon to meet many more of you :) - More on that shortly.

Berlin - And all ready to go Rachel Park, Kerry Hogarth & me - Photo by Claire Russell-Jones
It's not all just fun :) Lots of background work goes into making these events packed with high quality installations, talks and products on show.

Thomas Sanladerer caught up with me at the Berlin 3D Printshow for a discussion on current technology and what's new. That question actually totally stumped me, and I was surprised how hard it was to point out actual new innovation or development going on in the desktop market.

So much that it made me really ponder where we would be in the next 5 years. More on that in a future post.




Here is Tom's video - and before you ask - I was thinking 'Ultimaker' & 'Printrbot' and it came out as Makerbot ! I'm sorry... Catch Tom's Youtube channel here for lots more 3DPrinting videos.

Meanwhile in the USA - 

The Midwest RepRap Festival (MRRF 2015) was going on over in the US (Goshen, IN) organised by SeeMeCNC, and sponsored by many great other companies and communities. I'm really disappointed to have missed out on going over, but the timing and time off work just was not on my side this year.

This video from E3D is a great intro to the amazing and complex task of making a production extruder hot-end (that actually work well). The guys at E3D are world leaders in this area and actually do research, testing and devote both their awake time and dreams to making the worlds best hot-ends.

John Olafson has shared a lot more of the great video's over on his Youtube channel here

Disruptive Magazine - 

I'm also writing articles for the newly launched Disruptive magazine, you can download and read the very first issue here. - Let me me know what you think, good and bad. The main aim is to cut out the hype and talk about both 3D printing and it's uses in a calm and sensible way.
Read Issue 1 PDF here

So you won't find any "Worlds first/smallest/fastest 3D Printed (insert anything)" headlines in the magazine or on the disruptive website - we all have enough of that already. 

And a quick shout out to one rather fantastic new 3D printing company was at the Berlin 3D Printshow. Showing what can only be described as a 1960's 'Hotrod Fridge' with a 3D Printer inside.


This was Aye Aye labs - From Poland. A new startup with design flair and inspiration from classic Hotrods and American diners of the 50's and 60's.

I'm sure Aye Aye labs are going to find their market and do very well in the coming months.

I'll be at the London 3D Printshow if you want to say hello or discuss 3D Printing, look out for the Disruptive Knowledge bar and Makerspaces.

Another update soon.

Rich.


Pellets - Let's shake things up!

A few months back I asked the question on G+, Would anyone like to discuss Pellet / Granular extruders? I ask because I have been working on various designs for quite some time with success and also plenty of failures , it's not easy, it needs collaboration and I would like to see it stay open-source and accessible to all at a very low (no) cost. 



Directly using pellets or granules of many different types will be another very big game-changer in 3D printing.

Using all sorts of different materials for 3D printing is good news, it helps people find more uses for the technology and further's the progress of design, manufacturing and innovation.

Since designing various Universal Paste Extruders, it's been a real pleasure to see so many people use, re-design and further extend paste and food printing in so many different ways.

Using pellets and other granular materials for 3D printing are a next evolutionary step in both simplicity and flexibility.

It has plenty of challenges...


I have been working on and off for a while to design and test other types of extruders for granular materials for 3D printing, my focus was initially using Sugar with great success but this year I have also moved onto plastic pellets (resin's) that are normally used for injection molding or to make the 'standard' filament's we already use in home 3D printers.


This whole area needs more development and a focus from the open-source RepRap community, makers and developers to refine a system to use all sorts of different granules and materials for 3D printing.

This Blog post is an introduction / development update of where I'm at, and at least a way to form some prior art statements about ideas and directions for this sort of extruder development in 3D printing.


The point of this blog post it launch this as an open-source community project. The files have been uploaded to Youmagine here, if enough people take an interest and can assist with further development it could be a good idea to have a section on the RepRap Forum or Google+ Group for Pellet extrusion development.

I started out with a focus on sugar - the main idea being to use it as a support material as it can be washed away. PLA sticks really well to sugar (and sugar like materials)

Isomalt is a really nice sugar often used for sugar-craft and as a sugar substitute, it has a nice advantage of being less likely to burn or go brown than normal cane sugar.

It worked surprisingly well when you get a good temperature (around ~155 Degrees C) you can get a flow of Isomalt sugar from the nozzle.

- First, lets get back to building one for yourself. - 

Lots of info below, or if you like, you can watch my video about the project here first - 


It's also in HD over on YouTube.

If you have been with me for a while, you know I like to use as many off-the-shelf parts as possible, so it's as easy for people all around the world to build and enjoy 3D printing. Without the need for custom machining, or expensive equipment.

That does not mean you should not make refined custom / machined versions of my work, I know may people do exactly that, and make a successful business out of them. That's great ! - just remember me when you become rich and famous :) and please do try to contribute back into Open-Source developments and Open-Innovation in whatever way you can. * end of philosophical rant  *


Because I decided to use a 'standard' J-Head Hot-end for experiments with this project, I had to base the dimensions around the 6.35mm hole normally used for a PTFE liner


J-heads now come from a LOT of different sources, for reference all the ones here are from the original designer (Reifsnyder Precision Works) over on hotends.com

I tried a number of different 200mm long x 6mm wood Auger bits from DeWalt and Black & Decker, most were almost identical and operated the same.

A 6mm wood Auger bit fitted perfectly and with only a slight modification I had the basic outline of a granular extruder without using any custom parts other than being 3D printed.


A little bit of cutting and polish and you have a granular feed system.


I found it better to cut off the end of the drill, but position in the J-head does need to be quite specific, you will need to experiment for the best melt and flow.

I drilled out the end nozzle to be 0.65mm. No other modifications to the J-head are required.

J-head MK3 - with Aluminium tape to help with cooling.

Different J-head's can work, I experimented with both MK4 and MK3 - The MK3 worked better.


While experimenting with different materials and plastic pellets I designed two different Motor drive systems - One (Above) using a normal NEMA17 motor and Herringbone gear system - just like a 'normal' extruder.


The second design used a NEMA17 with a Planetary gear box fitted. This can generate a lot more force but requires a very large number of motor steps (20,000/mm) so bear that in mind.

Rotational speed and torque are both important, so I would recommend starting and experimenting with the Non-Planetary version first.

3D Print the parts - I printed all of them in ABS. (and also experimented with metal coatings - more on that later)


Most of the fittings are M4, they should be easy to understand from the models and images here, but you need to assemble in the correct sequence for everything to be tightly clamped together.


Bearings are standard 606 style for the Gear and Drill bit.


M3 fixings for the motor and gears.


The mounting method uses my standard universal quick-fit carriage mount.

Quick-Fit carriage - Many versions available for different machines - allows the use of many different extruder types - all my designs use this method.


Auger should be fixed firmly and be straight down the middle of the j-head - make sure your bearings are fitted tightly - they should be a tight fit and may require some pressure and slight heating of the plastic to get a firm fit.


You will need to experiment with the placement of the Auger depending on the style / type of your J-head.

Make sure to secure the J-head well and remember you will need to cool the J-head body with a fan just in the same way you would when using PLA filament.

Important bit - The design of this pellet/granular trap (shown above) is really important for good operation. I experimented with many different versions / designs and I'm sure it can still be greatly improved.

You should end up with something like the above that you can experiment with. Note all the different colour parts, I had quite a few versions of the design before this one.


Then you need some pellets or granular materials to melt. is a typical selection above and below. Some are round, some sharp shards and most are in cut round pellet form.


I finally managed to source a lot of different materials, but at the start I cut up normal filament into small pellets - crazy I know, but at least it allowed some testing as I could not find many places last year that would sell me small batches of different plastic pellets.

Top shows Woodfill pellets and right shows PET

A friend kindly send me a large selection of recycled material for testing, but as can be seen above (left) they are quite large and irregular sized shards, so as much as I want to use recycled plastic, for this extruder it's not going to be possible because of the screw size. I will be using them for other interesting things - more on that soon :)


By far the easiest way is to now buy pellets from ColorFabb here. I purchased a selection.


And if you look closely at the above image you will see 1.75mm and 2.85mm pellets, so I'm reasonably sure these are actually from filament cut up - maybe a good way to recycle any out of tolerance spools, but regardless it's good to know they are small pellets - ideal for this type of extruder.


The ColorFabb PLA pellets are not the same, they are 'pearls', and unfortunately don't quite work in this size of extruder. I bought a lot of these not knowing the size, so check before buying pellets from wherever you manage to source them. - I will find use for them :)



You can even get Woodfill - but, have not tested it yet.


Fill hopper, make sure you have a fan on constantly cooling the thermal break on the J-head and lower half of the extruder body. Experiment with temperature and speed of stepper motor drive.

You can use the standard extruder retraction to stop or limit the flow ! but you may need to slow it down to under 15mm/sec.

Experiment and play, and please let me know how you get on.

One really important thing - Make sure you run the Auger motor in reverse! - that's anti-clockwise as you want to push down the pellets into the hot-end and not drill them out.


I ran out of time with this project in the summer (2014) due to other projects and shows, so the files being released still need work and refinement to get to a working solution that can process many different types of material in pellet form. I have still yet to try the Colorfabb Woodfill pellets as I didn't want to block the second extruder after already blocking the first one with 'A-PET' material.

This is a very exciting project, do let me know what you think about it, all and any feedback is good. And if you decide to make one or want to evolve the design, please feel free and spread the word.

Thanks for reading, have fun, experiment and play. Also please do let me know how you get on.

Until next time, and have a Happy Christmas / New-Year Holiday / Seasons greetings.

Rich.




- A little notice - 
My 3D Printing work (and video's) are released under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License.

But - All my images, photographs and words published anywhere are covered under International Copyright law, so please do ask me for permission and remember to state where they came from - me, Richard Horne. - (AKA RichRap)

Sorry to have to put this up, but I see a lot of my images and words being used without my permission for commercial activity, by people who want to make money, that's fine but do ask my permission first and be open about what you want to do with them. I'm cool about most things.