Hey Everyone, I had some open printing time recently on my HercuLien and I

3D Printing HercuLien and Eustathios
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Hey Everyone, I had some open printing time recently on my HercuLien and I wanted to put it to some good use. There have been some discussions recently about improving Eustathios/Ingentis documentation (and HercuLien could use some TLC in this area also).

This prompted me to think back my first printer which was a corexy I designed from scratch before ever owning a printer. At that time I had a friend who just built a Prusa i3, and without him I could never have built my first design. 3D printers are great, but most of the designs require a printer in the first place. Kind of a Catch-22 issue. So I printed a full HercuLien plastics kit.

I will be giving away the kit to someone on two conditions:

1.) That they actually intend to build the printer (if the person who gets the kit isn’t serious about building that would deprive another maker of the opportunity)

2.) That they pledge to PAY IT FORWARD and print an Ingentis / Eustathios / or HercuLien plastics kit for another user once their printer is operational and they have a comfort level to make parts for someone else.

My hope is two fold. One that this can be a vehicle to promote these type of printers since I personally feel any of our variants are among the best printer designs available, and two that it will motivate and enable a new 3d printer enthusiast who has the desire to learn, but no method by which to begin. Also the more of our printers are out there, the more documentation and eventual design diversity we will have… looking at you IGentUS :slight_smile:

So here is the deal, if you are interested drop a comment below saying something like “I Want A HercuLien”. I will take the names from these comments in 1 week, use an online random selection tool to pick the name, and then ship the winner the parts. I would ask if the winner lives somewhere where shipping costs are just plain ridiculous that they help me out, but if they cannot I will ship it anyway. If you are not interested, but know someone who is let them know about the give away.

Printed Part Details: All major components are ABS, printed on my HercuLien at a speed of 100mm/s or above (just for fun), and I vapor smoothed them because I feel it helps with strength by fusing the surface more uniformly. There are some parts in PLA, I did that for parts that are not exposed to appreciable heat, or are enhanced by the ridgidity of PLA over ABS (like the lower bearing holders).

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BTW for anyone who is new and doesn’t know what the heck HercuLien is, you can see details on my G+ posts, and all my design files live out on github: https://github.com/eclsnowman/HercuLien

Also feel free to share this outside our Ingentis/Eustathios community if you think it might be of interest to others and to promote all the great work our community here is doing.

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@Oliver_Schonrock that would be great for multiplication purposes… I just don’t want to scare people off by mandating too much just to get the parts. But if they want to print more than one set the community would be very greatful for their generosity.

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Very generous offer Eric.

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To celebrate this, I have edited the community name :).

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IGentUS was never meant to have a BOM and build instructions, I wanted to tweak what was out there as I saw fit without much thought that there’d be a Serial No 2.

But the boy wants to build a printer with me, so who’s to say I don’t take better notes this time.

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This is the way Reprap was always intended to work. You get a set of plastics free (or at the cost of plastic), on the condition that you print at least two more full sets and give them away under the same conditions. It never worked in the early days for a couple of reasons:

First, the designs, software, and vitamin quality (extruder components in particular) were frankly horrible by today’s standards, so most of those machines (especially the ones built by people who didn’t care enough to pay a lot for plastics) often never printed well enough to make a full usable set of parts. A machine would either be abandoned or would take many months (often more than a year) to get to usable condition, and then something would break. The low speeds and overly-complicated sets of parts made a full set take more printing time than the machines’ mean time to failure.

Second, printers that actually could print well enough to reproduce were rare enough that those sets of parts were a rare commodity. When I got into 3d printing, a full set of just plastics for a Sells Mendel popped up on ebay a couple of times a month, and sold for more than most complete printers today. Those who had working machines got dollar signs in their eyes, and weren’t about to give away something so valuable.

Third, the community wasn’t strong enough to make it work. There were so many people who wanted a set and so few able to make them, and no way for those who had them to fairly decide who to give them to other than “highest bidder”. The few pay-it-forward printers that did get built went to local friends, creating small pockets of printer owners and not spreading to new geographical areas.

We might be at the point where these issues can be overcome. One thing I would suggest would be to stipulate that the first pay-it-forward set of parts should be shipped to someone in a different state/country, not given to someone local. Subsequent kits can be distributed locally if desired.

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I like the title change. It’s like @Eclsnowman ​ ​just became partner of the law firm

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I want one. I want one. :slight_smile: But it’s ok i have capacity and machines to print my own so I shant deprive someone who is more deserving. I intend to build one of these very soon. Maybe even with some tweaks that I might see as improvements during the build. I wont over promise on any documentation though ;p. I have everything downstairs for it but just need to clear a backlog of others things. I will certainly be making a kit donation once its up and running to make a return on the design effort put in by others :slight_smile:

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To @Eclsnowman a gentleman and true Reprapper :beers:!

I’m feeling motivated. When you find your deserving candidate, let me know, I’ll contribute as well.

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Eric, This is a generous offer. You Rock!

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@Mutley3D I would love to see a HercuLien running flexdrive. Keep us posted.

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@Tim_Rastall thanks. I would have never asked for it. But I truely appreciate the addition of HercuLien to the title. I am proud that my design is good enough to be listed with your and Jason’s great work.

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I Want A HercuLien
Even if I don’t get selected, this is the size and type I would like to build. I already have the E3D v6 on order. I don’t have access to a 3d printer in my small town, so was thinking about trying to mill the plastic parts with my CNC’d HF mini-mill.

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I would love to build one.

I don’t have a printer, but do have extrusion, steppers, tinyg, a Bondtech extruder, 10kg of ABS and PLA, 250 various sprockets and belts, lots of bearings and smooth shafts, a 400w 24V psu, a heated bed and spreader, just missing some screw shafts and nuts, but I’m sure that can be arranged.

It may seem strange to have all that and not have a printer, but here in the third world you need to have every single component needed before you start, as you can’t buy anything locally, everything needs to be shipped in.

A case in point is my latest build -a large cnc router. I have been stalled for about 4 weeks waiting on my last and final component -a 6mm to 8mm flexible coupling… Everything is sitting there ready to go, but I can’t move the z-axis. Doh!

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You do realize that, when you’re waiting on robotdigg or Ali express, that Denver Colorado, USA might as well be a third world country. :wink:

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I want a Hurculien!!!

I would really love to win these parts. I’m new to this community and Google plus. I stumbled on to your profile last night and since then I have gone through all of your posts and I am dumbfounded by the quality you are able to attain from this printer. The only 3d printers I have ever touched were makerbots (at school) and I have never seen a print that looks so good. Makerbots has nothing on your printer. I really hope I win the drawing:) fingers crossed.

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@Mike_Miller but you have alternative (and local, and cheap) sources of supply.

My cnc router cost more than $1200 in shipping charges alone. I don’t know if you can understand what it’s like living where you just can’t buy anything appropriate for mechanical or electronic needs, including wire, screws, washers, etc.

You literally cannot buy machine screws, light gauge wire, LEDs, resistors, capacitors, transistors, plugs, sockets, etc. I can’t think of a single component I have been able to source locally -and it’s not just the cost, it’s the time. Third world postal systems mean that it takes six weeks or more for deliveries to arrive -if they ever do. I am still waiting for items ordered Nov. 12th.

You have a huge range of buying option, but you choose to bypass US businesses in favour of buying cheaper.

I know your comment was meant tongue in cheek, but the reality of having a tech hobby in a country that hasn’t any compatible businesses isn’t much fun.

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@Mike_Miller ​ I just noticed my comment might have been misunderstood. I was saying I like the variation IGentUS provides, not that documentation is lacking. Sorry my wording might have lead to alternate interpretations.

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@Brandon_Satterfield that would be great and generous of you. I really like the products http://www.smw3d.com provides. Nice selection of parts and prices. I am just bummed I bought most of my parts before you opened shop. I could have saved $ and time waiting for slow boat shipping from China.