Working model of a Tower Crane

[Kitecraft]

I just kicked off my first looonnggg print.
18 hours and 7 minutes

Wish me luck!


It's the first of 15!
Each piece is a single vertical truss section for the mast of a Tower Crane
It's gonna be soooo much fun to build.

Overall size will be about 2 meters tall with a 1.5 meter boom (Jib and counter jib)
Videos will be posted soon, but here's a picture to wet your appetites. Note that it's actually being printed upside down.

[bot]

I can't wait! That will be sweet.

18 hours is a piece of cake! My first PLA print was over 30!

[Eaglezsoar]

Kitecraft, did you Cad this tower? If so this is a very good job.

[Kitecraft]

Kitecraft, did you Cad this tower? If so this is a very good job.

Thanks, but I use 123D Design from Autodesk. It's so very easy to use and a great tool for beginners. More powerfull than Sketchup, but significantly less complicated than, say, Blender.

[Khalid Khattak]

wish you best of luck dear..keep updating during the build with lot of pictures ... i have similar plans..

[Eaglezsoar]

Kitecraft, did you Cad this tower? If so this is a very good job.

Thanks, but I use 123D Design from Autodesk. It's so very easy to use and a great tool for beginners. More powerfull than Sketchup, but significantly less complicated than, say, Blender.

Great job in designing the tower!

[Kitecraft]

Well this just isn't going to happen I guess.
Every single print with I do with Red PLA filament fails with the same failure in the cold end.
2 tries to print this both failed after about 6 hours with the same problem. Filament is broken inside the cold end.

[lightninjay]

What are the diameters on your PLA?

[Kitecraft]

Red 1.77
Black which printed just fine - 1.70

[lightninjay]

Possible that the Red is fat in some spots and jamming enough that the motor breaks it off?

[Kitecraft]

I don't know.
What I do know is that all I've done is spend a lot of money on filament that goes straight into the garbage.
I'm getting very annoyed that nothing every prints properly. The return on the investment of this printer is near zero still.
Just tried silver @ 205 degrees and 30mm and it failed so badly.
Huge amount of strings everywhere, then just no more feeding of filament at all.

[Mac The Knife]

Part of the learning process I've found for myself is finding consistent filament. I prefer to print with abs, and have narrowed my purchases down to Seemecnc, who apparently buys from another source and relables, and Ic3d, who only deals with abs. My current printing problems I believe is moisture related. Printing with pla, moisture shouldn't be a problem.

[bot]

It's sad to see you're having trouble. I know how frustrating it can be. Where have you been getting the filament? I had some PLA snap right at the extruder on me once, when the thing wasn't even printing! The temperature in the room got really cold, and the PLA became brittle, and out of nowhere SNAP.

Is your room cold?

On another note, you really shouldn't be expecting a return on "investment" from your (first?) hobbyist 3D printer.

[nitewatchman]

I had a similar problem with PLA when starting. I would print or try to print a part only to have a failure several hours into the print. Try again, same failure similar time. Nozzle would jam and the cold would grind the filament in two. Is your filament actually breaking or parting from being ground on in a stall?

I found that my problem was the filament retract, I was running to much to try to control stringing and the hot end tube was becoming heated and saturated. Looking at the pulled end of the filament the swelled bulb on the end was quite long. Reduced the retraction length and increased the retraction speed and problem has not come back.

Hope this helps. I would be willing to try to print your part if it would help.

[Kitecraft]

Well, just tried to use a 0.35mm nozzle.
That was a serious mistake.

[Khalid Khattak]

Can not suggest you more as a lack of experience.... but i will love to see the failed print... I hope at the end of the day the success will be at your doorstep.