'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series  

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Posted by: @jsw

This came in on one of those daily 3d print newsletters that I've subscribed to.  I'm definitely not recommending this, but it's novel and some may be interested in it.

It's kind of a Rube Goldberg-ish device that scrapes a finished print off of the build plate, supposedly allowing 'continuous' production.

The link below explains it and has a very brief video showing the device in action.

https://www.fabbaloo.com/news/new-open-source-mod-for-continuous-3d-printing-on-the-prusa-mk3s

I can see a number of issues, mainly involving the lack of a wipe-off of the build plate between prints, issues with prints requiring an adhesion booster, and recovery from a failed print due to about anything.

I agree.  The lack of a true cleaning mechanism could result in a need for a clean-up on aisle 4.  

RE:

Yeah... I was pondering making a diss post about this and decided against but since you've mentioned it... 🙂 I can't imagine how anyone could think this is a good idea. And it's not the only mod "product" of this type on the market. Abusing the extruder and the drive mechanics to blindly try to forcibly knock the prints off the print bed is just wrong on so many levels to the point of making me angry. Your printer's extruder is not a bloody bulldozer and the delicate parts like print fan mounts were never meant to wrestle prints off the print surface, for crying out loud. I've seen some video reviews of a different but conceptually identical product where the extruder tries to move the print off the bed by crashing into it, struggles to do so, ruins half of the print by breaking into it and then skips and makes loud cracking noises as the mechanics struggle and give up under the load. IMO it's a typical example of a "kickstarter culture" where a bunch of developer kids with no engineering background figure that if they know how to modify some GCODE programatically, it's automatically a good idea. If I were a Prusa employee I'd make a sticky post on the main webpage explicitly discouraging this type of garbage and voiding any and all printer warranties if the user is found to have used one as this seems nothing short of a support nightmare.

Just to be clear, my ranting is not directed to you, jsw in any way and I'm sorry if my post came across this way 😉

RE:

My bad for not noticing the motorised  "knock-off bar" in this particular implementation. Still a terrible idea, though!

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Yeah, the more I think of this, the more I think of it as creating more problems than it solves.

LOL, 'If you think the MMU2S is a pain in the @$$!'  😉

I also see a belt running from the additional stepper motor over to the right side of the frame, and I can't figure out what it's for.

The RepRap style printers are really piecemeal devices, and to try to do 'continuous' prints seems like an exercise in futility.  I can see this device totally breaking down over the first large-footprint print that requires flexing of the build plate to release.

RE:

Posted by: @jsw

Yeah, the more I think of this, the more I think of it as creating more problems than it solves.

LOL, 'If you think the MMU2S is a pain in the @$$!'  😉

I also see a belt running from the additional stepper motor over to the right side of the frame, and I can't figure out what it's for.

The RepRap style printers are really piecemeal devices, and to try to do 'continuous' prints seems like an exercise in futility.  I can see this device totally breaking down over the first large-footprint print that requires flexing of the build plate to release.

Exactly, for one of the myriad problems I can see with this, you don't exclusively use shearing force to remove prints manually, i.e. I haven't seen anyone grabbing their print and pulling it towards them as hard as they can. The creators may be putting countless disclaimers like "but... but... but... I's for small prints only!" but people being people, the first thing many potential buyers would do is to test just how far they could push it (pun intended). I fully agree it won't ever achieve  its intended purpose of being a solution for an unattended semi-volume production method.

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Hey, I am an engineer and I really think that is a bad idea. Just think of all the abuse the build plate will take from such a contraption.

But being an engineer I have a better one. You make the build plate a like a conveyor belt. After the print is done it automatically starts rolling forward and the print just pops right off and you are ready for the next print.  We can all dream, can't we?

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Posted by: @thomas-lynch

Hey, I am an engineer and I really think that is a bad idea. Just think of all the abuse the build plate will take from such a contraption.

But being an engineer I have a better one. You make the build plate a like a conveyor belt. After the print is done it automatically starts rolling forward and the print just pops right off and you are ready for the next print.  We can all dream, can't we?

I have a neighbor who bought one of the Creality printers with the conveyor belt models.  It does not work well.  

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Thanks for the tip. I'll cancel the R&D project 

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

The kind of thing that *may* work for some but almost certainly *won't* work for all prints. Almost every day I see an example of something that needs a bit more than average persuasion to leave its comfy spot on the steel sheet ...

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Another thing I thought of while thinking about the issue of any larger print that needs a flexing to cleanly release.

For almost any ABS print, and for any print of significant size in PETg or PLA, I'll always let the print and the plate cool down to almost room temperature before attempting removal.

Unless the build plate and print are removed from the heatbed, this means letting the whole assembly cool down, taking several minutes.  (I will almost always remove the build plate and set it aside to let it cool.)  With such an automated contraption, this would be very time consuming, requiring a cool-down and a re-heat for each cycle.  (Not even considering the thermal stress on the parts of the machine.)

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Very shortly im buying one of these mofos 😀 -  

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

I've actually seen those in operation, both in the context of commercial units at trade shows and user-built ones at Maker Faires and such.

(I have no clue what I would ever use one of them for, however.)

RE: 'Continuous' printing on the Prusa I3 series

Wow, but for 10K, just buy more printers.  

Posted by: @oriddlero

Very shortly im buying one of these mofos 😀 -