Starpery.com

My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Got an idea? Need an invention?
Post Reply
User avatar
MannequinFan
Vendor Affiliated
Vendor Affiliated
Posts: 4714
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:58 pm
Location: Central Illinois, U.S.
Contact:

My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by MannequinFan »

For those that are interested in 3d printers and looking at the Afinia, I thought I would post a little unboxing thread on my new printer that arrived today.
Unlike the reprap machines that are made one at a time from hardware store parts and often have months of lead time, these machines are factory produced and available for immediate shipment.
I ordered this machine directly from Afinia on Saturday and it arrived today.

The packaging is superbly done. It comes in a a tightly packed little box with custom molded polyfoam blocks to protect the machine and and keep it from moving during shipping.
The accessory pack fills the void in the box (lower left). On top is a printed manual and software installation CD.
IMG_2139.JPG
IMG_2139.JPG (1 MiB) Viewed 23716 times
IMG_2143.JPG
IMG_2143.JPG (982.85 KiB) Viewed 23716 times
The accessory pack contains a 700 gram (1.5 lb) spool of filament and two other boxes which contain the power supply, USB cable, power cord and assorted tools/accessories including allen wrenches, special socket wrench for nozzle removal, spool holder, 3 perforated FR4 boards with mounting screws and clips, and tools for removing support material: scraper, tweezers, nipper pliers, xacto knife and a pair of work gloves.
accessory pack.JPG
accessory pack.JPG (516.09 KiB) Viewed 23716 times
In doing some spring cleaning I decided to turn one of my closets into a printing center. :)
I can close the bifold doors when printing which will help eliminate drafts and keep the printing area warmer.
It will also help keep the noise to a minimum hopefully.
IMG_2150.JPG
IMG_2150.JPG (474.29 KiB) Viewed 23716 times
Hopefully this weekend I will have time to go through the setup procedure and make some test prints.
Until then real work must take precedence.

The Abby project awaits...
Abby.jpg
Abby.jpg (410.96 KiB) Viewed 23716 times
Image

User avatar
YRUb8
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 222
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:56 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by YRUb8 »

Congratulations MF!
I hope it works well for you. It will be nice to see your little Abby completed some day.

User avatar
Obin
Doll Oracle
Doll Oracle
Posts: 8104
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:00 am
Location: near Atlanta, GA.
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by Obin »

Finally! Someone has one of these scanners and is going to use it, I hope, to make a female figure. Of course your buddies are going to want you to print them high capacity magazines, and parts to modify their firearms.

This looks like fun!

User avatar
jm6o8u
Doll Mentor
Doll Mentor
Posts: 1300
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:00 am
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by jm6o8u »

MannequinFan Congratulations :multi:
I remember when you first introduced these machines to me and you said you would never have enough money . :cry:
I am so glad To see that you have been able to get yourself one :multi: .
Now I cannot wait to see what you come up with . 8O
Have fun with that learning curve and keep us posted . :?
JM

User avatar
Obin
Doll Oracle
Doll Oracle
Posts: 8104
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:00 am
Location: near Atlanta, GA.
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by Obin »

Hopping around on the web, I found something similar and interesting about half way down this page. There are some download links.

http://www.kuroneko-chan.com/echoes/

User avatar
MannequinFan
Vendor Affiliated
Vendor Affiliated
Posts: 4714
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:58 pm
Location: Central Illinois, U.S.
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by MannequinFan »

Thanks everyone for your kind words!

Special thanks to YRUb8 for all the printing he did for me on Abby and giving me the inspiration to get my own printer.
As soon as I opened that box of parts I knew right then and there that I needed to get me one of these!
There's just nothing quite so cool as to be able to hold in your hand something that came from your head!

Here are the parts that YRUb8 printed on his Solidoodle printer...
IMG_2156.JPG
IMG_2156.JPG (652.33 KiB) Viewed 23608 times
1. Arm connectors and flanges. These will be epoxied to the 2" steel shoulder balls.
2. Shoulder cups. These will hold the magnets for the shoulder joints.
3. Flanges for connecting the 4" steel hemispheres to the pelvic unit.
4. Pelvic unit. YRUb8's printer was having some problems with this one, so it will be reprinted on the Afinia (hopefully).
5. Flange for connecting the pelvic unit to the doll body.
6. Leg cups and flanges. These will hold the magnets for the hip joints.
7. Snap in insert cover or as YRUb8 called it - the "pussy plug" lol.

Obin,
This indeed is going to be some fun!
I am a make love not war type of guy so I won't be making any gun parts for anybody.
Secondly, I promise I will not print another Yoda head.
Not one, not ever, lol.

jm6o8u,
I have some work coming in now so I thought this was a good time to pull the trigger and get one.
This printer is supposed to be easy to use right out of the box, so I'm hoping the learning curve won't be so bad.
We shall see how it does on the pelvic unit which should be a challenging print for this little machine.

User avatar
MannequinFan
Vendor Affiliated
Vendor Affiliated
Posts: 4714
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:58 pm
Location: Central Illinois, U.S.
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by MannequinFan »

Update:

Got my printing center set up and the Afinia calibrated and printed my first test piece!
I used the "pussy plug" as my first print to get a feel for it. The print quality is outstanding - layer lines are virtually invisible on the vertical surfaces and just barely noticeable elsewhere.
I just used the default settings (.2mm layer height, normal print speed). The print took about 1hr 45min to complete.
The piece is about 2-3/4" in diameter and about 1-1/8" tall.
IMG_2162.JPG
IMG_2162.JPG (973.08 KiB) Viewed 23532 times
The closet printing center is working well. I can hardly hear the machine running with the door shut.
A couple of 10" x 48" melamine shelves from Home Depot laid on top of the file cabinets made for a great work top.
I also found a neat little battery powered task light at HD which I mounted to the wall and aimed at the printer bed.
The light has a magnetic mount so you can take the light off and use it like a flashlight... :o
IMG_2161.JPG
IMG_2161.JPG (417.39 KiB) Viewed 23532 times
Next I will try some of the more challenging pieces for Abby.

Image

User avatar
skybird100000
Doll Mentor
Doll Mentor
Posts: 1342
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:00 am
Location: Somewhere
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by skybird100000 »

I am sure curious about this new technology. Got few questions :)
I read it takes rather long time to print (create) a piece. What happens if you have a power failure? You need redo it all? Can you re-use material by melting it ot bringing it to some place where they can recycle it?
And where do you get the data to make a print? You make it yourself? What kind of software is needed for that?
What is the biggest item you can make?

And I wish you lotsa fun with your printer :)

User avatar
rubherkitty
Doll Oracle
Doll Oracle
Posts: 8962
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Interstate 44 with 10 long-haired Friends a' Jesus In a chartreuse micra-bus
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by rubherkitty »

Glad the printer is working well. You never know how it's going to do until you start making things. Have fun!
Going downtown. Gonna see my gal. Gonna sing her a song. I'm gonna show her my ding dong! C&C

User avatar
MannequinFan
Vendor Affiliated
Vendor Affiliated
Posts: 4714
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:58 pm
Location: Central Illinois, U.S.
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by MannequinFan »

skybird100000 wrote:I read it takes rather long time to print (create) a piece. What happens if you have a power failure? You need redo it all? Can you re-use material by melting it ot bringing it to some place where they can recycle it?
And where do you get the data to make a print? You make it yourself? What kind of software is needed for that?
What is the biggest item you can make?
Hi Skybird,

Yes these printers are very slow. They have to print the model one layer at a time and there are hundreds of layers to print!
But if you think about it, how long would it take and what would the material costs be to fabricate a part or sculpture by hand? And then how accurate would it be when you were done?
The nice thing about the printer is that you can do other things while the printer is working.

The Afinia's maximum print size is 140mm x 140mm x 135mm (5.5" x 5.5" x 5.3"). Larger pieces can be printed in sections and glued together.
At the high quality settings like the pussy plug print, this pelvis print will take about 9-1/2 hours.
pelvis print time.jpg
pelvis print time.jpg (609.51 KiB) Viewed 23518 times
I could cut that down to about 5-1/2 hours by going to a .25mm layer height, but the layer lines will be more apparent and will require more hand finishing.
If you have frequent power outages you would probably need to address that with a backup generator or something.
The plastic is not that expensive ($35/2lb spool) so if you loose a print it's not going to be the end of the world. Just reset the machine and reprint.

As for the recycling, there are people working on that issue. Here is a machine called Filabot on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roc ... ment-maker
Not sure how good the filament from this machine would be but I'm sure as this technology progresses there will be improvements.

I used several pieces of software in designing Abby most of which are free.
I've been designing on the computer for over 20 years in the architectural field so this stuff kind of comes naturally to me.

Here is a list of the main programs I use:
Reconstructme (free console version) with X-box Kinect sensor for scanning the MS Barbie http://reconstructme.net/
Netfabb Studio basic (free version) for basic cleanup of the Kinect scans and final 3d print file prep http://www.netfabb.com/download.php
Meshlab (free) for combining the multiple Kinect scans into a final watertight mesh http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/
Meshmixer (free) for mesh refinement (smoothing) and free form sculpting/re-sculpting. Fun little program to download and play with. http://www.meshmixer.com/
Rhinocerous + Tsplines
This is my main design tool. Not free but fairly inexpensive compared to programs like 3dMax. Very intuitive and fairly easy to learn. http://www.rhino3d.com/

If you don't want to design things you can go here to find ready made models that you can download: http://www.thingiverse.com/
rubherkitty wrote:Glad the printer is working well. You never know how it's going to do until you start making things. Have fun!
Thanks RK.
It looks like it did pretty well on the first print. The larger ones will be the proof of the pudding though.

User avatar
skybird100000
Doll Mentor
Doll Mentor
Posts: 1342
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:00 am
Location: Somewhere
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by skybird100000 »

Thx answers :)
Yes these printers are very slow. They have to print the model one layer at a time and there are hundreds of layers to print!
But if you think about it, how long would it take and what would the material costs be to fabricate a part or sculpture by hand? And then how accurate would it be when you were done? The nice thing about the printer is that you can do other things while the printer is working.

I asked this for another reason. Imagine you print something and after 1h-2h or whatever time you notice the result is not what you expected.
It all starts with a picture I guess like Abby but that's the easy part I bet :) and reality might not be what you expected?
I've been designing on the computer for over 20 years in the architectural field so this stuff kind of comes naturally to me.
That sure will be a big help, I know I get bored fast just messing with Photoshop :)

I am sure curious about the results :)

PS: It will be nice the day we take a picture with a kind of 3d camera then print a mini copy.

User avatar
dollman2
Doll Advisor
Doll Advisor
Posts: 533
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:22 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by dollman2 »

hi MannequinFan
that is great could you use something like milk shape and get a model from the sims or something like that?
i not sure what file type the have to be in but if its an .obj milk shape could work
it could save a lot of modeling time

User avatar
MannequinFan
Vendor Affiliated
Vendor Affiliated
Posts: 4714
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:58 pm
Location: Central Illinois, U.S.
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by MannequinFan »

Hey look! It's an Abby boobie!
IMG_2166.JPG
IMG_2166.JPG (394.96 KiB) Viewed 23463 times
This was a challenging print. Printed great except for at the bottom.
I think I may try it again with more support material at the base.
Otherwise quite impressive print quality, especially at the top where it comes to a knife edge.
Fits the body perfectly...
IMG_2169.JPG
IMG_2169.JPG (241.87 KiB) Viewed 23463 times
dollman2 wrote:hi MannequinFan
that is great could you use something like milk shape and get a model from the sims or something like that?
i not sure what file type the have to be in but if its an .obj milk shape could work
it could save a lot of modeling time
Hi dollman,
I'm not familiar with milkshape, does it save an .stl file format? If not you could use Meshlab or Meshmixer to convert the .obj to an .stl for printing.
The .stl file format is the standard format for 3d printers.
Usually game figures are very low polygon so you would need to re-mesh them to a much higher resolution before printing.
Meshmixer has a good tool for remeshing.

User avatar
dollman2
Doll Advisor
Doll Advisor
Posts: 533
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:22 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by dollman2 »

no .stl exporter could be fun to try.

cheers for that. :mrgreen:

i checked the mesh in mesh lab and its almost block like :mrgreen:
it looks reasonably smooth in milkshape. i kind of want to scan my face but i would probably break it :D

User avatar
rubherkitty
Doll Oracle
Doll Oracle
Posts: 8962
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Interstate 44 with 10 long-haired Friends a' Jesus In a chartreuse micra-bus
Contact:

Re: My Afinia 3d printer has arrived!

Post by rubherkitty »

Nice boob! Which also fits into a question I have about the 3D printers. What does it take to make a matching RH side boob now as far as computer set up? Do you just push a button to flip the design or does it have to be wrote up as a new item? What about scaling up or down.
Going downtown. Gonna see my gal. Gonna sing her a song. I'm gonna show her my ding dong! C&C

Post Reply

INFORMATIONS