1 Topic by nyrsimon

  • nyrsimon
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Topic: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

Hi everybody,

Like many folks Santa brought me a DaVinci Jr (well at $224 I had to have it!)

Took some fiddling, but have it printing now.

I have a couple of questions I am hoping somebody more experienced can provide some guidance on

1) Bed Tape - I have been using the ones that come with the printer but they tear pretty easy. I have seen suggestions of using masking tape or blue painters tape - any advice here? Also how do you put it on, simply in strips, or is there something more complicated?

2) Removing objects. So my printed objects are REALLY difficult to get off - to the point I damage them slightly trying to pry them from the bed - I am also worried that putting this much pressure on the bed will move it so it doesn't print correctly. And advice here on how to get the objects off easily?

3) Optimal settings. My printer came with a z-offset of 1.3mm - this seems to be ok and I haven't messed with it (yet!). In the XYZ software I export with a setting of 200 microns which seems to give reasonable results - I can push it to 100 which would give great results but I suspect take a lot of time!!! Any advice on what settings are best or just experiment and see?

4) Software. So I will be looking to design some of my own objects soon and wanted to find out the best software. I am NOT an artist (actually a software engineer by trade). So I think OpenSCAD is my best bet given I am very comfortable writing code to create the objects. Thoughts on that choice?

Any help is very much appreciated

Thanks
Simon

2 Reply by HyruleJedi86 (edited by HyruleJedi86 2015-12-28 20:44:33)

  • HyruleJedi86
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Re: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

Welcome Simon,
I think I can help with most of your questions:

1) The best tape really is painters tape. I use a cheap roll from Harbor Freight that is about 2" wide and place three pieces on the bed with the edges as close as possible without overlapping them. Cheaper and easy to replace.

2) I had the same issue as you but it turns out my Z-offset was too low. Raise the offset about 0.1mm and try your print again and see if this improves. Once I adjusted mine up the parts stick and do not move during printing but are not difficult to get off with the provided scraper. If it is still too tight then move it up at 0.05mm incriments until it prints as desired.

3)See question #2 for Z-offset. As for the print quality. I print at 0.3 for most objects that are going to be functional and looks aren't terribly important. 0.2mm for things I want to look nicer. Personally, 0.1mm never comes out very nice on my printer, the 0.2 always looks better in the test prints I have done.

4) I can't offer too much in software but there are two options I can suggest. Tinkercad is a free program that is web-based and dead simple to use. Excellent for quick modifications to objects before printing.
Autodesk has a free program that I cannot think of the name right now for hobbyists. It requires a paid license for business use though. Someone will probably chime in with the name of it. If not I'll check it out and post once I get home. It is more user friendly but far more advanced than tinkercad.

Hope this helps, good luck and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

3 Reply by nyrsimon

  • nyrsimon
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Re: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

Thank you for the comments.

I'm off to Harbor Fright to pick up one of their cheap rotary tools so I can finish off some of my designs so I'll pick up some tape when I am there!!

Appreciate the help, I'll let you know how it goes

Cheers,
Simon

4 Reply by Sethl

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Re: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

Welcome!

Might want to get some craft glue as well, and apply a thin layer over the tape.  My prints always come unstuck if I don't.

The Autodesk program is 123D Design: http://www.123dapp.com/design I use it with my Jr. and it's a solid program, that's improved a lot in the past couple years.  Not on the level with an full CAD suite, but a good starter, and fairly easy learning curve.  Documentation is a bit wiffy.

There's also Sculptris, which is the free version of Zbrush.

5 Reply by nyrsimon

  • nyrsimon
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Re: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

I'll take a look at the software - thank you! I tried Tinkercad it seems very easy

When you say craft glue, you mean the white Elmers style stuff? The good news is I have 3 kids in grade school so I have bottles of it lying around the house!!!

6 Reply by HyruleJedi86

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Re: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

Usually if glue is necessary the stick glue is best. Nothing liquidy. I would not use glue though unless you found you have the problem with parts coming off. You already have a problem with them sticking too hard. If you use the glue and haven't fixed that issue yet, you won't likely get them off at all.

7 Reply by HyruleJedi86

  • HyruleJedi86
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Re: DaVinci Jr - Some noob questions

The software I was talking about is Autodesk Fusion 360. It's free to hobbyists but costs if you want to use it for a business. It's much more complex than Tinkercad but still can be learned easily enough.