Printing a 3D Tourbillion clock... JohnnyE's 3D Printing Fiasco Thread

[JohnnyE]

So.... 3D printing. Can't be that hard can it? Buy a printer, plug it in, print stuff!

I thought I'd share my plans here. I want to print my own 3D Tourbillion wall clock. Why? Just because. I work in IT, software side of things... but I'm never happier than when pulling old cars and bikes apart. Surely a curious sort like me could pick up 3D printing easily enough?

Well... I've taken photos from the arrival of my Chinese 3D printer and will post my findings here in case anyone, like me, has gone a bit daft during lockdown!! If the thread gathers no interest... I'll let it slip away into oblivion, but here we go:

Is it costly?
After MANY hours of Youtube videos on the subject, I soon picked up that a brand of printer called a Creality Ender 3 exists. Under £200 delivered - part assembled - looks to be a nicely made bit of kit actually. Comes with loads of tools, some white "filament" to start you off and a LOT of users out there on the internet. I actually spotted that Carl over on GasGasBones tinkers with 3D prints on his Instagram page. Dropped Carl a message - turns out his printer is an Ender. OK.. SOLD! Paypal deal was on and I got the new "V2" printer to my door for £168.



This "V2" comes with a glass heated print bed which I'm told is a good thing! Helps the print job to stick. So.... time to bolt this all up. The manual is ok but WAY too small. I can barely read it. Youtube to the rescue. I setup my 10" tablet and followed a build video. It took me about an hour but was in iteself rather rewarding to see it rise from my table top:



What does it use to print with?
There's varous print medias you can use but the most popular for hobby use is stuff called PLA. It comes in 1kg reels and is 1.75mm in diameter. Once heated to over 200 degrees at the nozzle, it's squeezed through a 0.4mm brass nozzle.

PLA plastic or polylactic acid is a vegetable-based plastic material, which commonly uses cornstarch as a raw material. ... PLA is a fully biodegradable thermoplastic polymer consisting of renewable raw materials. Among all 3D printing materials, PLA is part of the most popular materials used for additive manufacturing.

Right.... that's me started. I'll post the next bits if there's interest in learning at my pace with me! This is just lagging a week or so behind real time, so i have NO CLUE at this stage if I'll be able to hit my end goal of a wall clock!

Speaking of which, this is my inspiration:

[Mr Curta]

Brilliant stuff, John. I'm very much looking forward to your future updates.

[Mr Tetley]

Looking forward to seeing the progress John. You could have a few orders by the end of this. Put my name on the list for the JohnnyE Series 1 Tourbillon 😀.

[ralphy]

Following with interest!

R

[JohnnyE]

Ah good stuff!! Of course I should have known that watch lovers like mechanical stuff and silly stuff.. so I'll come back to this tomorrow with my first lesson learned!

Tomorrow's lesson... level your bed (and I'm not talking about THAT bed!)

[crazyp]

Excellent John, I look forward to your progress. If no major hiccups, I'll give it a go too next year!

[Olly]

Ah good stuff!! Of course I should have known that watch lovers like mechanical stuff and silly stuff.. so I'll come back to this tomorrow with my first lesson learned!

Tomorrow's lesson... level your bed (and I'm not talking about THAT bed!)

You’re a monster. Now need to add 3D printer to the expanding list of things this forum has encouraged me to research that will likely result in divorce. In addition to watches the current list includes Hiut Selvedge denim (3 years no washes), Panama Jack boots, sous vide cooker alongside the current ‘need to have’ BGE...

Will follow this with interest!

[Kingstepper]

Agree, keep posting!

[SydR]

I have the original Ender 3 (not the V2) and have made numerous changes to it

1. Turned it into a direct drive printer.
2. As direct drive adds weight to the X axis I gave it a dual Z leadscrew upgrade.
3. Fitted a full metal hotend.
4 Fitted a BL touch
5 Upgraded to a 32 bit motherboard with silent stepper drivers.
6 The additional memory on the new motherboard allows for a full set of features on Marlin 2.0 firmware.

It’s turned a good printer into a great one.

Since those changes I’ve added a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 4” touchscreen running OctoPi to it along with a Pi camera. Currently playing with time-lapse videos.

[JohnnyE]

I have the original Ender 3 (not the V2) and have made numerous changes to it

1. Turned it into a direct drive printer.
2. As direct drive adds weight to the X axis I gave it a dual Z leadscrew upgrade.
3. Fitted a full metal hotend.
4 Fitted a BL touch
5 Upgraded to a 32 bit motherboard with silent stepper drivers.
6 The additional memory on the new motherboard allows for a full set of features on Marlin 2.0 firmware.

It’s turned a good printer into a great one.

Since those changes I’ve added a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 4” touchscreen running OctoPi to it along with a Pi camera. Currently playing with time-lapse videos.

That's some serious upgrades! Post up a pic - I'd love to see that. One thing I want to do to mine is relocate the filament spindle. Its in a bad position up there and really needs some kind of bearing assisted setup for smoother spinning.

[JohnnyE]

I've been filing and edge cleaning. This came up really well. I can see a few bits in these 2 pics that need a touch but I'll continue cleaning it up here and there.





Clock #2's backplate comes off the printer in a couple of hours time.

Next will be to print a trial escapement. Here's how that part looks in isolation:



They recommend printing the mainspring using a different material OR by buying in stainless steel. I'm going to go to the steel - it gives a much better power reserve.

50 pack of nozzles on order today, from 0.2mm upwards. Next week should see the next stage and if I crack that nut, it'll be time to buy the full file set and print the rest. I'll have pins to fabricate, so there's a few tools to be bought.

For anyone interested, full build PDF manual is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18l7...i3QYIsUMQ/view

[PreacherCain]

Amazing stuff, Johnny - really impressive finish for that first plate.

[JohnnyE]

Amazing stuff, Johnny - really impressive finish for that first plate.

When you consider that the base printer is around £200, its brilliant really. That's done with a 0.4mm head. Once I switch to 0.2mm for the escapement parts, it'll be interesting to see how the parts look with half the layer height.

[SydR]

That's some serious upgrades! Post up a pic - I'd love to see that. One thing I want to do to mine is relocate the filament spindle. Its in a bad position up there and really needs some kind of bearing assisted setup for smoother spinning.

It’s not sitting in the most photogenic place at present . Got it beside the hot water tank to keep ambient temperature up as trying out ABS.

[RustyBin5]

Are these machines silent or noisy. Never seen one in the flesh and curious enough to consider exploring this rabbit hole but don’t want to upset her indoors

[JohnnyE]

Are these machines silent or noisy. Never seen one in the flesh and curious enough to consider exploring this rabbit hole but don’t want to upset her indoors

The fans are noisy - mine's in the study upstairs and runs without being heard elsewhere in the house though. There is also a slight whiff of molten plastic whilst printing but only in the room itself. Its not strong enough to spread. My V2 has silent stepper controllers. I gather the older Enders came with more noisy steppers.

[RustyBin5]

The fans are noisy - mine's in the study upstairs and runs without being heard elsewhere in the house though. There is also a slight whiff of molten plastic whilst printing but only in the room itself. Its not strong enough to spread. My V2 has silent stepper controllers. I gather the older Enders came with more noisy steppers.

Ok thank you, food for thought then

[JohnnyE]

Ok thank you, food for thought then

Post #25 above - I have a video of it running. Stick headphones in and that gives you a fairly accurate idea of the noise. 2 x PC sized fans are inside the print head and I can hear 1 or 2 large fans running under the bed, probably for the power supply cooling. Its those that cause the racket - the actual moving parts are almost silent.

One thing to note, you can upgrade all these parts and I've seen that some people add better quality (ie quieter) fans. Might do that myself over time.

[JohnnyE]

... and then there were three!