Tag: Workshop assets

Posted on

Qidi I-Fast arrives and I am impressed

Decision made on the new 3D printer but it’s big

As per the previous post I have been debating long and hard about which new 3D printer to buy. Strangely enough my wife gave me a hard time about my indecision and told me to just to get on with it.

Qidi sell into the UK market via Amazon and having placed an order, a very large box arrived very quickly onto the doorstep. Very large. But also very well packaged with very good unpacking instructions. It did take the two of us to lift it into position on the bench. Which was the second problem – where to put it. The temporary position is on the side of my desk but this might change.

qidi i-fast printer squeezed onto my desk

The I-Fast has a dual extruder and you get both a high and a low temperature extruder head which are easily swapped out depending on the filament being used. Print size is huge being close to a 300mm (1 foot) cubic space. Two filament dry boxes are provided to keep moisture out of the filament (although I haven’t used these yet). Qidi provide a print slicer which looks a lot like Cura and so far seems fine to use. There was no problem in linking the export from Fusion 360 directly to the I-Fast.

I’ve run some test prints and find it fast and very quiet compared with my old Sindoh DP200 (which is currently sat sulking in the corner). More to follow as I get used to it.

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

November update

Mainly jobs in France and 3D printer choice plus thin wall printing

Sorry it has been quiet on my blog. We took a few weeks off in France. This should have been relaxing but things got in the way. Our elderly French neighbours seem to store up their ‘can you just have a look at’ jobs for when we arrive. This ranged from leaking coffee percolator, dead washing machine, DVD player not working etc. I don’t mind this because in return they keep on eye on the house for us. The only frustration is that I am not as well kitted out with repairing resources as I am here in the UK.

From our point of view the spa was coming up with two error messages – no flow and UV lamp needing changing. The flow problem was traced to the flow sensor. This I think might be a Hall Effect sensor that is tripped by a magnet on a thin metal strip that is bent towards the HED with the water flow. It could equally and more likely be as simple as a reed relay that is tripped by the magnet. I managed to source a replacement from a French source.

The UV lamp was not so straightforward to replace but I did question the validity of the message on the display. The UV bulb has a recommended life of 2 years. The software in the spa has a clock which we reset to current time and date when we turn the spar on for each visit. The UV bulb life is based on the clock count down. I am not sure whether it is recording the period from clock time to clock time or the actual running hours given our intermittent short period visits. I carefully checked that the bulb was still glowing brightly and then reset the countdown timer. I’ll take out a new bulb next visit.

There were various other distractions but the weather was amazing for October with one or two days reaching 30 degrees.

Arriving home I have landed a project that requires 3D printing items that need a Z height of over 200mm. The project also needs thin wall printing. My trusty but now dated Sindoh DP200 falls short on this. The Sindoh has been a loyal and reliable device giving me few problems and repeatable quality print results. The main frustration has been having to be single sourced on Sindoh PLA or ABS as their filament has to have the associated custom Sindoh personality chip. Later versions of the Sindoh range (1X and 2X) purport to allow third party filaments to be used.

This has led to some soul searching. I am now comfortable with the concepts involved with 3D printing and have felt for some time that an upgrade of printer was on the cards. My wish list clearly needed to include allowing 3rd party filaments and not just PLA and ABS. (Carbon fibre being very attractive). The list also included an increased build volume and possibly a dual nozzle.

Clough42 has had some recent videos focussed on the Qidi products, namely the I Fast and the X-CF. Qidi also have the X Max. All three of these printers have Z heights of 300mm. Pricing is not low but these are all enclosed printers. There are many other Qidi review videos on YouTube. Qidi seem to be hot on support which is good news. So I have a debate raging on whether to jump and which way. Here is my basic spreadsheet comparison chart which includes the Sindoh 2X as a possible contender. Sindoh might be moving away from their own models and working with more higher end products under their brand Fabweaver. There are some interesting technology articles on the Fabweaver blog.

I investigated the thin wall printing issue and came across a very interesting post by Wayne from SoarKraft. Wayne uses thin wall printing on his slope soaring glider models and he details how Cura and Prusa slicers (free downloads) have only relatively recently caught up on this whereas Simplify 3D (subscription) has had it as a facility for sometime. Wayne’s video is worth a watch. The Qidi printers like many other manufacturers use a variant of Cura. There is a very good support article on the Simplify 3D site that relates to thin wall printing.

My printer upgrade debate continues but the I Fast looks the most attractive. The only problem is it has a large physical envelope and I don’t have a plan where am I going to put it in the office/workshop……

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

Noga Tool Christmas Present

Every workshop should have one

There was a recent thread on the MEW forum about Noga tools. It led me to download the Noga catalogue as a PDF. I am amazed at the technology that Noga produce to just remove burrs.

They are lovely tools and well worth the investment. I particularly like the external Rotodrive EX18 countersink. This is very handy for cleaning up the end of a newly threaded rod so the new thread will ‘take’. So quick and easy.

What really took my fancy in the catalogue on page 51 was this combination tool. That’s certainly one for my Christmas list.

No affiliation to Noga. I just like their technology.

“Better to have it and not need need it than to need it and not have it” – Jimmy Diresta.

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

Edge Technology Lathe Tool Setter

A useful tool for setting lathe tools on centre

There are many ways to set a tool centre line on a lathe. The most basic is just to trap a 6″ rule between the workpiece and the tool edge and adjust so the rule is vertical.

One gizmo I picked up at a trade show from the Machine DRO booth is this very useful tool by Edge Technology.

Edge Technology Lathe Tool Alignment jig

It is simple but clever. You mount the rod in the lathe chuck and then rest the bubble anvil on the tool edge. Edge Technology also do a more refined version with a calibrated scale.

It is not something that you use every day but every now and then I have a session with it and go through all my QCTP tooling and tweak them.

(If it has been one of those ‘not settling to anything’ days you can at least switch the workshop lights off with a warm glow that you did something useful …)

In the UK they are marketed by Machine DRO

(I have no affiliation to Machine DRO or any other manufacturer or supplier I might mention in my write ups but I will mention any nice pieces of kit I come across or use).

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

3D Printed Four Facet Sharpener

A Hybrid Version of John Moran’s Elegant Design

While investigating four facet drill sharpening, I came across John Moran’s website which detailed his design for a four facet drill sharpener.   Four facet sharpening is popular for providing more accurate starting of a hole, less drilling pressure, more accurate hole size and better retention of drill point sharpness. John’s design is intended for sharpening 2mm to 12mm drill bits.

I have a Quorn grinder but it is not something that I can quickly pull out from under the bench to sharpen the odd drill.   John’s design looked easy to set up and use and certainly easier to carry. I have been working with him to produce this hybrid version. I recommend that you read John’s write up before embarking on either his original design or my 3D printed hybrid version. He also presents a YouTube video on how to use the sharpener.

https://gadgetbuilder.com/DrillSharp.html#Facet4

Here is a picture of John’s finished design. Very nicely finished and presented.

Here is a picture (not quite so pretty …) of my 3D printed hybrid version. A new baseplate might be in order to smarten it up.

The concept of combining 3D printed components with essential metal parts works very well and the resulting sharpener appears to be stable and repeatable in its results. There is a huge advantage in combining technologies in this manner. All the ‘boring’ or ‘dreading to make / leave until tomorrow’ parts are easily produced on a 3D printer and the remaining metal parts are straightforward to produce with conventional resources and skills.

Rather than go into details as a blog post, below is a link to a ZIP file that contains my full write up, 2D PDF drawings of the metal parts, STEP files of the 3D printed files and the raw Fusion files for those wanting to tweak.

If you can’t work with STEP files then let me know and I will run STL versions. STEP files are more accurate than STLs and also have the advantage of being more easily editable than STLs.

3D Version of John Moran’s Four Facet Drill SharpenerDownload

I think you will be impressed with the end result of John’s design.

If this write up or my general waffle is of interest then please subscribe to receive notices of new posts. If you build the sharpener and it works let me know. If it doesn’t work and it’s my fault for not providing enough information than email me so I can correct things.

As an alternative to a 3D printed version you can watch Mark Presling on YouTube who has recently construct the same sharpener in metal.

UPDATE

I have already had some feedback on the 3D printed design so some of you are quick off the mark.

This feedback related to the friction of the collet holder shank in the block and also the print roughness against the depth setting screw.   Both of these will relate to the print quality from your printer.

As an experiment I ran a new version of the block with a larger bore and then lined it with an aluminium sleeve that was a smooth fit on the shank.   I also turned a flange on the end of this sleeve so that the adjuster nut had a smooth metal surface to ride against.

The addition of the sleeve looks promising in solving these two issues.  I admit it is going against the concept of a 3D printed set of parts but the sleeve is easy to turn up on the lathe and the new block in PLA is still much easier to produce that trying to make the block totally in metal.

You can download the edited write up, new collet chuch holder block STEP and the sleeve drawing in this add on ZIP file.

sleeve update 2Download

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Proudly powered by WordPress
Verified by ExactMetrics