I plan on making a purchase on a 3D printer in the ~2k range specifically for ABS plastic enclosures for electronics, meaning a complete box with a removable hood and holes for ports, switches, and such. For example these types of enclosures:
http://www.polycase.com/surface-mount-dc-series
So I need something accurate (to fit cutouts) and threaded holes. If the printer is accurate enough to make plastic screws, that's great, but if I need to get the screws externally that is fine too.
the printer will not print threads. you will need to tap the holes. you are also going to have a big problem with warping printing with abs on box enclosures like that. your going to pull your hair out trying to get that to work consistently. pet plastic would probably be the plastic of choice for that. only other one good for that would be pla BUT it does not tap well and will sag under any warm temp.
So there are NO printers that will make threaded holes? What is pet plastic? A different kind of plastic material?Quote:
Originally Posted by jimc
the only threads you can make on a 3d printer will be big ones. the end of a broom handle for instance. you will never print threads for say an M3 screw. pet is another plastic. same thing as what water bottles are of.
Damn, seems like 3D printer technology isn't far enough along than I thought.Quote:
Originally Posted by jimc
do you realize how micro fine the threads are on an m3 screw? holes with threads that fine arent even done in injection molded parts...usually. its done after the fact. you will never do that. a 3d printer will print the box with the hole in it but it will need to be tapped
Are 3d printers accurate enough to make a hole for a hex nut to manually insert and use a long machine screw on the other side of the box? Something like this:Quote:
Originally Posted by jimc
http://i59.tinypic.com/2w69e0j.png
Where the red part on the bottom is the hex nut, and the blue part is the machine screw, obviously the machine screw goes through a internal hole in the box connecting the machine screw to the hex nut.
absolutely. i make electronic gauges and the enclosure is a box with a captive nut just like that.
Ok cool... maybe I will be investing in a 3d printer soon afterall :)
Ok, so back to my original question... which would be good? One that supports pet plastic? Any other parameters I should look for?
gotta have a heated bed. its pointless these days to get a printer without one unless you plan on never printing anything other than pla. extruder needs to handle 260deg. other than that, do your homework and research printers. the market is flooded with junk and fly by night companies. with that said its best to stay away from those real big names as well.
What does a heated bed do? Also, I've been reading about dual extruder, how does that help?
All valid points by jimc.
Take a look at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:643264, an openSCAD version of the small project boxes you are talking about. Use of the "polyhole" approach by nophead helps control the hole diameters greatly; at least it has for me. Properly sized, I have found machine screws like M2, M3, #3, #4 can readily thread into holes without requiring the hole to be pretapped.
Here's an application where the inside of the box had standoffs added for board mounting http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:643351.
I'm no expert on openSCAD, nor saying that is the perfect answer. Just conveying that there are techniques out there that can accommodate what you want to do.
Would I do it on a professional basis? Probably not, at least not with PLA. The threaded holes do tend to wear and no longer hold the hardware.