Found at the local junk shop

[Torby]

Well. Still don't have any PLA. Too much bills at end of paycheck.

I played with settings in Makerware and got pretty handy at printing 3cm tall tardises in red ABS. So I tried the power supply box again. Got one almost perfect. Can even make out the writing on the sides.

AlmostPerfect01.jpg

AlmostPerfect02.jpg

AlmostPerfect03.jpg

[Roxy]

Torby, you can fix that wrap by putting some slits in your box. The wrap is caused by the plastic shrinking as it cools and eventually, with enough layers, it pulls up off the bed. One answer is don't let the stress get that high. Put some slits in the box to allow cooling.

Pump_Jack_all_pieces.stl

Take a look at the bottom of the main Pump Jack piece in this .STL file. You will see tiny slits that relieve the stress as the filament cools. This piece is much larger than your box. And it can be printed in ABS plastic because the slits relieve the stress. And also, the big circles in the I-Beams help make the design look 'real' but they are part of the stress relief.

[Torby]

Interesting.

Having trouble seeing them in makerware. You put them through the wall parallel to the layers?

Round holes would look good in the box.

Googling for more information gets me an article about heated enclosures and this thread, along with many suggestions to relieve stress in my life.

[noiseboy72]

It's funny what you say about ABS. I print with it 90% of the time on a CTC clone very similar to this machine and have virtually no problems at all. I have enclosed the printer and print onto Buildtak and have very few problems with warping or lack of bed adhesion.

Once you get the printer dialled in with the bed height correct and a nice high adhesion substrate to print onto, you will never look back!

[Torby]

With vertical slits, better labels and decorative holes:

WithSlits.jpg

There's a tiny crack along the left corner, but no laminations separated. The lettering on the front is a little lost in the waviness. Perhaps I'll just say it's "wibbley wobbley."

WithSlitsB.jpg

The writing on the OUT end came out very clear, but there's a typo! Both output terminals are marked "-". Duh....

[curious aardvark]

It's funny what you say about ABS. I print with it 90% of the time on a CTC clone very similar to this machine and have virtually no problems at all. I have enclosed the printer

Abs works on enclosed printers, mainly because the whole model cools and shrinks at the same rate. In an unenclosed machine each layer shrinks and cools at it's own rate, so even when the model prints, it's weak and the layer binding is poor.

To be honest even if I had an enclosed machine I wouldn't use abs (it would be great for polycarbonate and nylon). It smells horrible and you end up using a lot of acetone. I just find pla and pet-g to be better all round. Plus there are so many new and amazing materials around that There is no actual necessity to use abs.

Torby - do you have a print area cooling fan ?
That would help with print appearance a lot.

Plus I've lost track - is your print area enclosed or not ? :-)

[Torby]

Not yet enclosed and I don't yet have the extra duct and fan.

It seems you have to get the duct in two steps: Print the old one, then use the old one to print the one.

Might not have any money for spending (or eating) for a while. The phone bill is atrocious and I expect the electric will be astronomical 'cause my apartment has only electric heat.

[Torby]

I think I've played with this box plenty. Perhaps time to do something else.

I widened my slits to 1mm and it put a support in each one. They're really hard to get out.

PSBox01.jpg

The little 2mm holes look great.

PSBox02.jpg

PSBox03.jpg

Now where's my minus sign? Don't tell me...

Nope, it's there. Must have got lost in the slop.

translate([29,0,-6])
rotate([90,0,90])
linear_extrude(height=3)
text("- OUT +", size=6, halign="center", valign="center");

You know, maybe instead of slots, I could put an array of holes. (sorry, OCD kicking in)

[Torby]

I put holes instead of slots. Seems there is always a disruption where the bottom is, so I made the bottom thinner and moved the end labels up. Unfortunately, I moved the footprint logo to the bottom. I left my name off the front.

WithHoles.jpg

I have a whole bunch of these, all of them perfectly adequate to the task, so it's time to think of something else to make.

[Torby]

I now have the "Low Detail" fan shroud printed. Hmm. Might have to wait to get a 40mm fan.

LowDetailDuct.jpg

fp.png