Hi folks. I’m a 3d modeller and retired mechanical engineer about to buy my first 3d printer but I have a specific object I need to print.
It’s a wedge 15mm thick one end, 10mm thick the other and 175x155mm in plan and I want to print it solid for maximum strength. It is to be used outside and will take vertical force, securely bolted between two surfaces. This is purely a construction piece so surface finish is a minor consideration.
My research says the the Ender 3 V3 KE will be able to print this and other smaller items. I’ve read about settings for warping etc. but none mention solid material.
I think minor warping would not be a problem because of the being bolted between two surfaces.
Could anyone tell me if the V3 KE is suitable and if there are any inherent problems in printing solid petg?
Also I read that layer height can be increased for strength?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jeff
Hi Bonfireman. Cheers for the answer. Just spent best part of an hour with Steve from 123 3D on the phone givng me brilliant advice. Printer ordered. I’ll post back how it goes.
Hi tjan. Your suggestion was my first thought but there were multiple problems with that route and some distinct advantages with the 3d printed route, I’m a great believer in you don’t know if you don’t try and a long conversation with a man in the know suggests that even an infilled version will be way stronger than I need. One way to find out…
Thanks for the reply!
Hi Jimandyen. First couple of test prints in PLA went very well. Can’t use the PETG yet - dryer arriving today. I’m starting the prototyping today using PLA and the minimum infill I can get away with. Then I’ll do a structural test before making the PETG version. In case anyone’s wondering the target item is part of a mast support for my boat. It’s under vertical stress only, no shear, needs sub fractional mm flexibility and UV resistance. Static load of the mast is ~50Kg. According to the PETG tensile strength I’ll be inside the load constraints by a factor of 100-1000 given the CSA. The part will be visible from the sides in use. I’ll be inspecting it closely in use!
I’ve been a Blenderer for several years now using it for mainly mechanical design so that’s working well. I’m using Orca slicer because it was available as an appimage for Linux as I my daily driver is Mint XCFE. Orca supports the V3 KE out of the box and seems quite intuitive even to a 3D printing noob.
Thanks Bonfireman. I’m prototyping with PLA and will do the initial load test with it but will print PETG with 50% infill for the final part. The UV resistance and material characteristics seem an ideal fit. I’ll post a pic if that’s possible
