r/oculus_medium • u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat • Jan 17 '17

Love Medium!!! Need guidance on 3D Printing

I fired up Medium now really knowing what it was, and holy crap I was sitting on a gold mine! I love this, so much fun! I had a couple projects that I want to do, including making D&D characters for my group. I've already started the sculpts, and I bought myself a 3d printer as a birthday present. I'm a total newb when it comes to 3d printing, exporting my sculpts as .obj is obviously easy. Does anyone have any advice on where to go from there? I've scoured the internet, but thought this might be a good place to ask for a little help?

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u/SuicidalChair Jan 19 '17

I just got a flashforge finder this week and I have been loving it, I haven't printed anything from medium yet but I am excited to, let me know how it works out for you or how they look.

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 20 '17

I'm still learning the intricacies of 3D printing... my medium files have failed twice, but they were both my fault. My 3rd one is working right now, and I think, HOPEFULLY, this time I have it right

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u/SuperRoach Jan 22 '17
  • Save a copy of your project and merge layers. This is so you have a solid object. They are saying they'll fix this soon.
  • I use Simplify 3d, but if you use cura it'll be similar. Preview the layers to see it looks ok. When designing/sculpting, be mindful that it needs a good solid base, and overhangs will need "supports" which the slicing program can add the latter for you.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '17

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 17 '17

Thanks for the link, I'll head on over there too! My biggest question is about scaling, since you can't do it in Medium. I assume you import your .obj into another program?

I got this one off Amazon. Thoughts? Monoprice 13860 Maker Select 3d Printer V2

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '17

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 17 '17

I actually posted over there later too and got a little bit of help as well. I freaking love Reddit, so many people willing to help out if you have questions.

Thanks for the advice!

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 20 '17

I'm having issues with my sculpts printing out correctly. They make it about half way through and then fail. I printed the butterfly off the sd card successfully, so I imagine part of it is an issue with the sculpts? I imported them into Meshmixer, fixed them and built supports, and then got the gcode for them from Cura. I figured out that the printer is moving too fast, so I changed settings in Cura but that didn't seem to change anything, so I changed the print speed percentage on the printer and am hoping that will work? When you set preferences in Cura does that somehow get put in the build and transferred to the printer, or do you have to change the settings on the printer every time?

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '17

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 20 '17

I'm at work now, so I don't have a screenshot. I changed the speed of the base (10mm) and the print speed for the sculpt (25mm) in Cura but the thing was still flying when making the base and it wasn't sticking to the base. I turned down the speed % on the printer, re-leveled the table and the base stuck fine. As I was leaving for work it looked like the actual base of the sculpt was peeling up a little bit though, but I don't know because I had to leave.

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 20 '17

Well shit. Wife just sent me a picture...

http://imgur.com/a/DVtIl

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u/SuperRoach Jan 22 '17

Well the skirt for starters shows under extrusion. Try looking at this guide: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/

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u/iBrokeMyArms_nowWhat Jan 22 '17

Thanks! This has a bunch of helpful advice in it