An update on how my automatic print ejection and continuous printing system is working

3D Printing
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An update on how my automatic print ejection and continuous printing system is working out!

Videos below…

Basically as I am selling a lot of these all metal hotends through http://e3d-online.com I need a lot of these little fan ducts printed. Literally thousands… They also need to be ABS and not easy to print and detach PLA.

So i’m using a hairspray (Firm hold from Boots in the UK) that has acrylic co-polymer as one of the ingredients. ABS sticks just well enough to print, but the machine has enough clout to knock the part off without even any cooling cycles.

These machines are now running 24/7 making these parts.


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Hey @Sanjay_Mortimer ! Are using any time of external fan on those machines?

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This is awesome.

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@Jason_Ray Nope, no external fan, i’m actually running the room intentionally really hot at 32C or so which makes printing really reliable.

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Got some white ABS waiting for use with your hotend next week for printing of parts for the @BotBQ .

Is the special ingredient you mentioned in that hairspray common, or did you do some searching for that particular brand?

Sorry… I haven’t done anything or any research on ABS yet, but thx in advance for your input.

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@Jason_Ray I’ve found it in multiple cheap generic own brand sprays in the UK. Beware of the fancier expensive sprays which contain other ingredients, like fragrance and moisturiser, that actually make adhesion worse.

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I’ll head to the ,99€ store and check out their fine selection… Always my first stop when needing something to test out on.

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Nice! I was planning something similar so I could print multiple parts via remote desktop while I was out.

Do how is it done? Just a bit of g-code in your printer control program?

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Very cool, I’m amazed you can do that without first letting the bed cool. It makes the conveyor belt solution look fairly silly.

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@Robert_D_Attile Yep just some GCODE put into the file between prints. You can find the code I am using on the auto-printing thread in the RepRap forums, but it’s slightly machine specific.

@scott_maher Yeah it is a bit of a fine balance to pull it off without the cooling cycle to detach the parts, in most cases probably not worth it, but because I am printing one part only, and always with the same ABS I can tune it just right.

@Christopher_Benjamin There really isn’t that much force involved. In most cases you would let the bed cool so the parts detach entirely, so you can eject with zero detaching force. The Mendel90 is a solid machine, and there’s no way this can damage the steppers.

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Very cool. I’m working on an prusa i3 build and hope its just as solid.

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The only way you can damage the steppers on any modern reprap is if you have the current set too high, which will eventually burn out the coils. With a voltage-based driver it’d send the current sky high if you blocked the axle, but modern current drivers that just isn’t an issue. Damaging the belts or other structural members is something that could happen theoretically.