New 3D Printer (BlackSmith 3D)

Hi everyone,

We are BlackSmith 3D, and we hope you'll take the time to check out the 3D Printer we have to offer you.
With a volume capacity of 6650 cubic centimetres, it is significantly larger than other 3D printers out there, yet it remains compact in size.
Also, our 3D printer uses a rotary platform which allows the user to scan and duplicate whatever they want, instead of having to create whatever they want to print slowly and painstakingly.
For more information, you can visit our FaceBook page at https://www.facebook.com/blacksmith3D?fref=ts or you can subscribe to us at http://www.blacksmith-group.com/pre-launch for more updates nearer to the release date, or if you'd just like to have a closer look at our printer in general.
Thank you very much!

Sincerely,
the BlackSmith 3D team

Any relation to the Blacksmith polar 3D printer from about a year ago on the RepRap forums? If so it looks like you guys have cleaned it up beautifully!

I suppose you've had some luck with fixing the speed problems associated with printing near the center of the plate? Most of the RepRap community seems to have given up on Polar printers, but I've always thought it was a pretty trivial problem.

Hi Feign,
The engineers behind the BlackSmith 3D have spent the best part of a year working on and improving the product which you mentioned, thanks for the encouragement!
Regarding the issue of speed, we'd like to think we've hit the golden area between speed and precision. In fact, a video of our product demonstration should be coming up soon! The link will be posted here, or you can follow us at the above mentioned websites for more details on our progress.

Thanks!
The BlackSmith 3D team

I have moved this to the Hardware folder. Please try to keep all discussion here for Blacksmith. Thanks :)

SO many 3D printer supplier plopping up, but this is just good for consumers, the more the merrier right?!

Here is the latest video from Blacksmith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_P2pOWFEOw

Okay, the remote monitoring and built-in scanner definitely look good here. As usual though, I'll wait for the price point and their projected delivery date before I become optimistic.

Boy, they really make it look user friendly.

LOL, ya. I want a duck.

I don't remember seein a rotating printing table like that before, I wonder what would be the pros and cons compared with a linear table? Of the top of my head I can see it would reduce the footprint of the printer considerably.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

I don't remember seein a rotating printing table like that before, I wonder what would be the pros and cons compared with a linear table? Of the top of my head I can see it would reduce the footprint of the printer considerably.

---

Polar printers all follow the same rules, giving them all the same pros and cons:
Pros:
Well suited for a scanner, which they take advantage of.
Large print volume for very small x-axis travel.
Smooth printing of circular objects.
Cons:
Non-constant speed and resolution between the middle of the plate and the edge.
More complex math for the firmware to run to convert the Cartesian-based g-code to polar coordinates. (or a custom slicer that generates polar-based g-code)
Lines passing very near the center require very fast movement of the plate to make a smooth, constant line. (lines actually going through the center cannot keep a constant speed and must pause while the table turns.)

First polar printer I've seen outside of the repraps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oklok

SO many 3D printer supplier plopping up, but this is just good for consumers, the more the merrier right?!

---

Not only is there more variety, but the BlackSmith Genesis is also different in that it not only uses a rotary platform, but it has a scanning ability as well. Essentially, it's a 3D scanner, printer and copier!

Hey guys, the Indiegogo campaign for Blacksmith is now live. Check it out: http://igg.me/at/blacksmith3d

It's a polar printer, but it still prints from the top and not on the side, correct?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3DPBuser

It's a polar printer, but it still prints from the top and not on the side, correct?

---

Yep, still printing from the top. There are not really a whole lot of reasons an FFF printer would print from the side or from the bottom, and a few disadvantages from a heat-transfer perspective.

Well it would reduce the overhang problem.

Well, it would if gravity were what causes overhang failures... But it isn't.

What gravity does do is it takes the unstuck extrusion from an overhang failure (or any other failure) away from the hot end, rather than allowing it to build up on the tip and insulate it until something catches fire.

Blacksmith seems to be doing well in their Indiegogo campaign, with their early bird specials @$1200 sold out.
It comes with a camera for remote monitoring? Interesting if you can hook it up to a remote controlled wall socket and switch it off remotely when it's done. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Brian_Krassenstein

Hey guys, the Indiegogo campaign for Blacksmith is now live. Check it out: http://igg.me/at/blacksmith3d

---

Yes, they spammed links for it 4 times in 4 separate threads yesterday.. I think we ALL know about it now :) It does look interesting, but I will never trust something that is on a repeated 5 second Gif animation, show me a good print session from start to at least the first 20-30 layers.

I noted your concerns about the rotary movement and investigated as I am very interested in Blacksmith Genesis Product. I found that the tangential speed, which is proportional to the radius of the disk, will be increased as the radius increases by lowering the rotational speed thus the disk will rotate slower when the printhead is at the edges of the circle, and increasingly faster as it moves towards the center. This seems to be adequate solution to coping with 3d printing and I am going to go ahead and get one via Indiegogo kickstart perk. Just hope they make iot to the goal so I cna get my 3d printer.

Oh By the way, I am not at all related or a friend of any of the Blacksmith Team.

That join date, that first post... Yes, we believe you implicitly, Jubie. :D

The variable speed thing is not really that much of a problem, the problem is when you need to print a line right through the center. That tangential speed has keep going up the closer you get to the center to maintain a smooth printing path, obviously you're never going to need to print so close to need an infinite rotation speed, but you can get close enough to make the speed unreasonable. It was enough for the Reprap community to effectively give up on it, but of course, the whole problem is solved by not having continuous lines go through a region in the middle, and just adding that restriction into the slicer, which they may as well write specifically for this machine to incorporate spiral fill and other neat things a polar printer can do to vastly increase printing speed that a Cartesian printer can't.

Here are some videos of the machine printing:
http://youtu.be/AHNaSBrkZFA
http://youtu.be/akFXGKFFTN0

Wow, at first I thought these videos were sped up, but looking at them closer, I think the printer might actually be going that fast. What kind of extruder do they have that can print that fast?

They have stated today that production has begun because of the funding they have raised to date.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Feign

That join date, that first post... Yes, we believe you implicitly, Jubie. :D

The variable speed thing is not really that much of a problem, the problem is when you need to print a line right through the center. That tangential speed has keep going up the closer you get to the center to maintain a smooth printing path, obviously you're never going to need to print so close to need an infinite rotation speed, but you can get close enough to make the speed unreasonable. It was enough for the Reprap community to effectively give up on it, but of course, the whole problem is solved by not having continuous lines go through a region in the middle, and just adding that restriction into the slicer, which they may as well write specifically for this machine to incorporate spiral fill and other neat things a polar printer can do to vastly increase printing speed that a Cartesian printer can't.

---

I notice that the print in the video studiously avoids the central area...

it does look pretty awesome, i hope someone strips it down and puts up a youtube video on how to make one :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Feign

Wow, at first I thought these videos were sped up, but looking at them closer, I think the printer might actually be going that fast. What kind of extruder do they have that can print that fast?

---

They are sped up, you can easily see it on the reflections at the base of the printer in the last video, there's someone moving around, unless he is The Flash, the video seems to be at least three or four times faster than normal speed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LambdaFF

I notice that the print in the video studiously avoids the central area...

---

Yeah, I would expect that, you can't break the rules of basic geometry after all. That said, even avoiding the center, there is a plethora of good print area there that you can use on this printer. (I always thought the hole was a silly reason for the RepRap community to shun polar anyway.) Note that it is possible to print in the middle , just not lines through the middle. In theory, the printer can print a fill in the middle in a spiral pattern without breaking a sweat. (I don't know if their slicer can make that happen yet, but in theory it's the simplest fill you can do on a Polar printer.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

They are sped up, you can easily see it on the reflections at the base of the printer in the last video, there's someone moving around, unless he is The Flash, the video seems to be at least three or four times faster than normal speed.

---

I see that now that I watch the video looking for it. They really should have noted the video speed to be honest. Still, at a quarter of the speed, that's a respectable pace (just not astounding).

did this thing ever get into production ?

I got an email this morning saying they are supposed to start shipping out the first batch at the end of the month.

I was the first backer and am expected to be one of the first people to recieve this printer. I paid additional money for expedited shipping.

I will let you know when i recieve it as well as my first impressions of it after using it. I currently have the micro 3d printer.