{"id":28571,"date":"2021-09-19T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=28571"},"modified":"2021-09-19T13:57:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T23:57:07","slug":"additive-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=28571","title":{"rendered":"Additive Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For much of the past couple decades I have worked at employers who had machine shops. I was regularly in those shops making parts for work, or on occasion after hours for myself. All of the little parts I need for the many projects that appear here on Darker View<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Building<\/a>
Building an Ender 6 3D printer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My current employer does not have a machine shop leaving me no way to make parts for telescopes, electronics projects, or even little repairs around the house. Neither do I have space for a machine shop in the house. Fortunately another, more recent solution is inexpensive and quite capable, additive manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Traditional machining is subtractive manufacturing, you start with a hunk of metal, plastic, or wood, and cut away the parts you do not need to make the part you want. This is how I have done it for decades. Additive manufacturing is building a part up out of some base material. The most common form of this today is Fused Deposition Modeling, or more commonly called 3D printing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been fiddling with an older used machine for some time, but it proved to have quite a few problems. Needing to get operational, and wanting to make larger parts than the smaller machine could handle, I purchased a new printer, a Creality Ender 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last couple weeks I have been having fun, making parts and learning the finer points of printing plastic. Many lessons have been learned… Good 3D design is an art, slicing is black magic, bed leveling is a PITA<\/a>, bed adhesion can be tricky, Elmer’s glue stick<\/a> is fantastic stuff, PLA<\/a> is fun to print with, TPU<\/a> is even more fun, ABS <\/a>is no fun at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My skills in traditional machining and experience with CAD have proven to be a good basis for using 3D printing. I am climbing the learning curve quite quickly, with very few mis-steps along the way. My first parts have proven to be well designed and quite usable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n