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Welcome to The Phlatforum PhlatPrinter III

Newbie questions..

Discussion in 'General Phlatprinter 3 Chat' started by ddurant, Sep 2, 2011.

  1. ddurant

    ddurant New Member

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    Howdy. Newbie here, with some questions..

    MakerFaire NYC: any chance Phlatboyz is going? I'd love to see one of these machines in person..

    Acrylic/plexiglass: I registered here expecting to find a bazillion questions about this since it seems like some people are doing it and a Phlatprinter is waaaay cheaper/bigger-format than, say, a laser. The comments are a bit conflicting on this - from "stupid people" to "amazing!" Is there a general consensus on cutting/etching these kinds of material?

    Electronics: have people looked at using things like RAMPS, which has gotten quite popular with the home 3D printer crowd? I have an Ultimaker with RAMPS and it's quite nice. Are there obvious reasons why something like this wouldn't work well on a Phlatprinter-type machine?

    Noise: is there anything to be done for the high-rpm cutters or is the whine just an unavoidable fact of life?

    Thanks!!
     
    ddurant, Sep 2, 2011
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  2. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Hello ddurant and welcome to the Phlatforum! :D

    We would love to go to Makerfair in NYC but, unfortunately, we're not going to be able to make it this year, to do the show at least. It would be awesome to go and check everything out though.

    As far as acrylic/plexiglass goes, the Phlatprinter was specially designed for cutting sheets of foam for R/C aircraft. However, people have modified and experimented with many other materials. I am sure with perhaps the write roller cover material, maybe a thin rubber, you could run plexi glass. You would probably have to upgrade the X stepper as well as plexi glass is heavier that foam. So, that's probably why you see so many vague answers on this subject. It's really a matter of personal preference in modification to get the machine to go above and beyond it's intention.

    We have been looking into shields like the RAMPS and the Arduino for our own version of a 3D printer. We really like the look of the Ultimaker and the speed. However, we were hoping to incorporate a little more strength and an open front end to allow for interchangeable tools for this machine. So, as for the electronics end of it, we haven't experimented much with the Arduino but it looks promising. I think it would work fine on the Phlatprinter. We just haven't experimented enough with it to find out.

    As for the noise, it's really just par for the course. The noise really isn't that bad. It may sound bad in the video. If you have a Dremel laying around, you can turn that on to get an idea. Some of quiter than others. Right now, we have 4 different cutting tool attachment options, Dremel, Rotozip, Bosch Colt Router, and the stock flex shaft.

    Once again, welcome to the Phlatformer. We hope we have answered your questions. Maybe someone else has something to add as well.

    Have a great weekend!
     
    kram242, Sep 3, 2011
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  3. ddurant

    ddurant New Member

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    Thanks for the reply!

    Bummer about MF NYC - hopefully, you'll get to go just to check it out. It's pretty fun if you haven't been before. Lots of cool (and some fairly insane) stuff.

    Thanks for the info on plexiglass. If anybody else wants to chime in on what the upgrades involve, I'd be pretty interested in reading about it. Not having even seen a Phlatprinter before, it's hard to know if these are easy mods or something only the brave (or rich) should attempt. Or if PhlatBoyz made an official upgrade kit, I'd have a hard time resisting. :)

    The comment about RAMPS mostly comes from the recent efforts in the printer world to get acceleration working well - turns out you can get a lot more net speed out of the machine without losing quality (within sane limits) if you don't assume that it goes from full-stop to full-speed (or the other way around) instantaneously. There's been a lot of interesting progress here lately with RAMPS firmwares and it seems like you guys might also benefit from it. Then again, you may have had that all sorted ages ago. Dunno.

    Looking forward to hearing about the Phlat3D (ha) printer! There should be at least couple/few Ultimakers at MakerFaire and I think Rick Pollack (MakerGear) is going, too - there will be a whole bunch of home 3D printers there but these guys, IMO, are really the ones to chat up if you're looking for more ideas and can make it to the faire.

    Thanks again!
    -Dave
     
    ddurant, Sep 6, 2011
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  4. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Dave thank you for the tips on the Mfair, It would be awesome to go and see everything and we still may be able to :)
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Sep 7, 2011
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