Part strength and up mini

Hi

I’ve got an old Prusa i3 and have printed pla parts high infill in the past (parts for another prusa) and they are pretty strong.

Today I got an up mini (brand new old stock) so tried to print same parts in up fila abs that came with machine, printed beautifully but as soon as I inserted a steel rod into the part it split right along a layer line.

I’m using the old up software as up studio doesn’t seem to recognise my up mini (says communication error?). I use cura on my i3 and that let’s me set infill and wall thickness to create strong parts. Can’t see any option really on the up software? Not sure if this is an abs thing or just the slicer not generating strong parts? I must say though they are printed really well little warping dimensionally accurate I am impressed if I can get them stronger I’ll be happy.

Thanks in advance

Matt

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ABS parts should be stronger than PLA (for a part with the same print parameters). Unfortunately the TT software is pretty limited in print strategies.

I’m tempted to try the minifab open source controller cpu on it to be honest, guess I can always put back the main cpu if print quality suffers. It’s not WiFi as it stands which is a bit annoying anyway.

Has anyone fleshed out a good cura or s3d profile for up mini with the up fila abs?

I tried for a while with UPBOX and UPBOX+ with S3D but TT’s implementation of GCODE was ht and miss so gave up. With an open source CPU on the other hand…

It’s tempting for 50 gbp, smoothies got a good rep and I’ll get WiFi for free… The official tiertime upgrade to WiFi and the latest controller is twice the price. Decisions decisions.

Can you share the function and geometry you are trying to achieve? We have quitte a lot of success with using parts from Ups in load(tensile/shear/torque) carrying situations, often it just needs a slight mod to the CAD file, no promises though!

Regards

Hi

Thanks it’s the x carriage parts here

Matt

Which was the part that split? Which way did you print the item?

Regards

Hi it was
X-axis-part_2_v1_1.stl to be honest I just dropped it into the up software and hit print, didn’t do any orientation maybe that’s what I did wrong? As soon as the two horizontal rods were pushed in the layers split around the top rod hole… Almost as if the hole was under sized, but I’ve tried with the pla part and been quite rough with the rod insertion and that takes it no problem, the layers must be bonded together better.

Thanks in advance

Matt

I am away from my cad system at present, but will try and get to it over the weekend, if not Monday. You mentioned the PLA part worked, was that also printed on the Mini? I was also wondering , as you, if the mini was printing under sized. We have our systems set so that holes are normally about +0 -0.05. This normally means that by the time the ridges have been burred over the hole is close to size, if there is a problem on a specific hole we will run a reamer through and/or a simple fine paper ‘hone’.
Also the hole seems quite faceted in the stl, on 0.15mm layer and normal or fine speed you may start to see effects from this at this diameter.

Best Wishes

Hi

Thank you much appreciated. No the Pla part was done on a Prusa i3 style machine (p3steel). I’m used to just loading models into cura and hitting slice and out pops a functional model… Other than cranking up the infill not really done any other settings on Prusa.

I’ll try and print the part again and will measure it this time with calipers to check, ive noticed (unscientific I know) that the nut traps on the prusa need the nuts heating up to get them to fit, whereas the same parts on the up just fit almost like an interference fit… The bolt pulls the nut into the trap perfectly and there it stays even when bolt removed. However this would be the opposite effect, holes in the Pla prusa part too small and the UP Mini too big!

Ive ordered the open source minifab controller today just incase, not having the WiFi and having it tethered to the PC is a real turn off… Never thought I’d grow to like WiFi so much!