Author: Daz

Emvio Engineering – Chroma PLA – 2.85 – Orange Review

Emvio Engineering – Chroma PLA – 2.85 – Orange Review

Posted by | Jul 12, 2017 | |

First thoughts A new challenger emerges to take the title of best PLA. This time it’s not from China it’s from Emvio Engineering, a Bristol based company sourcing straight out of Europe. The filament itself is packaged in a nicely printed box, with a nice clear spool and a great wind to it. The overall texture of the filament feels very smooth, the particles or colour / pigment are clearly very small and have no texture at all, unlike some other brands which give a granular feel. Testing with the calipers I was getting bang on 2.85mm from multiple...

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What’s been going on?

What’s been going on?

Posted by | Jul 6, 2017 | |

So I had to take a break, not for personal reasons but because my Sigma developed a series of issues. To begin the R16 model I had unfortunately became bent, the gantry holding the x axis stepper bent in. BCN were good about this and actually replaced my entire printer. It took about 6 weeks but they did replace it, and with an R17. I have had issues with the R17, the same issues many are having – grinding. On inspection I can see the issue, extruder design, a single knurled wheel and a flat bearing to feed round...

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The most important tools in 3D printing

Posted by | May 6, 2017 | |

  When you first buy your 3-D printer you’ll undoubtedly be purchasing lots of accessories, consumables and tools. There are a number of very useful tools you will absolutely want to keep in your arsenal, it may be that the filament manufacturer or shop would like to sell these tools to you for an extremely inflated price but actually they can easily be purchased from Amazon or eBay for just a few pounds each. It’s easy to assume that those sold along with filament would be absolutely perfect for use however I found that actually some slight variations far better than those marketed for 3D printing. Razor blade Scraper Okay so my absolute favourite tool is this very simple angled razor blade wielding glass scraper. The razor blade edge so sharp, and so tapered, that all you need to do is get the very thinnest edge of the blade under the edge of your print or brim and then use the angle of the handle to vary gently prize / pop your print from the bed. I’ve tried kinds of paint scrapers and print scrapers however I’ve always found the actual end of the scalpel or tool to just be too fat. These inexpensive glass scrapers cost just over a pound from the link below will last over a year and will work almost every time regardless of how...

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BCN3D Sigma Hotend Family Holder

BCN3D Sigma Hotend Family Holder

Posted by | Apr 11, 2017 | |

Hey, this is a hot end holder I made for the BCN3D Hotend Family. It’s my first design of this type, and design on Thingiverse actually. I wanted something to store my hotend nozzles in that wasn’t so awkward as a cardboard box with a symbol I had to work out each time. Ironically you’ll need to print with a 0.4 to get the numbers to show, my bad. You won’t need any supports. The overhanging letters on the front are 1mm out and the printer can do that quite happily. This holder holds both the hotend and the...

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Adventures with a 0.8mm nozzle on the BCN3D Sigma (and the larger “jumbo” purge collector) 

Adventures with a 0.8mm nozzle on the BCN3D Sigma (and the larger “jumbo” purge collector) 

Posted by | Mar 31, 2017 | |

I had a 0.8 nozzle with my Ultimaker 2+ but for some reason I never really experimented a lot. I think this may have been because I was aware that other settings like flow rate, temperature and retraction would need to be adjusted also and I couldn’t be bothered when everything was nicely dialled in. With the Sigma a large part of the draw to purchase a hot end family was the corresponding profiles generated using their Progen tool. This would give me a plug and play approach to nozzle changes and nozzle size combinations. Changing the entire hot end...

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