Thank you very much everyone for the comments, yes I had to do a bed leveling and calibration again to fix my issues. You can find the second video of the series here - ua-cam.com/video/y034g-KxwPM/v-deo.html
I recomend to you to create your own pieces because there isn't a lot of pieces in thingiverse. Frirstly, do nesting tests and secondly fit them into your parts. Print these pieces with the higher quality possible. Good luck
@@NLGeebee I tried to download and print a few files from that site but the models are rather low-poly versions so the results are not compatible with other LEGO pieces
I 3d print rods for my lego train models on my ender 3. A method I used for tolerances was to print out several slightly different sized holes and studs. Once I found the ones that worked, I copied them into my actual parts and they still work consistently. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to share files of some of my custom parts to test out!
If you use cura as your slicer you can fix it using the expansion function, specifically the hole expansion function. Also calibrating your printer's esteps might help
As others have said calibration and tweaking settings can get you much better prints. Most FDM printers should be able to hit the 10micron tolerance. However, for better precision and surface finish a 4k SLA printer would probably be best.
I’ve been 3D printing since 2017. 1. I’ve never used a raft and don’t plan on using one unless it’s for a specific purpose. 2. I’ve never used a flash forge but there should be a setting called z-offset. Find it. 3. After you’ve leveled the bed, move the z axis to zero and then adjust the z-offset until the distance between the nozzle and the bed is about the thickness of a piece of paper. The perfect z-offset is critical for getting the initial layer to adhere correctly. To close and you’ll be scratching the bed; to far and your print will look like 7:52 The UA-cam channel Teaching Tech is very helpful for all things 3D printing!
Resin printers are the way to go if you want to print Lego parts, but you'll have to experiment with mixing resins of differing properties to get the best mix of strength and just enough flexibility to not snap the first time you try to take it apart.
Best practices? - Do not forget that plastic will cool down and SHRINK few % of the original size, so make a part that will have 1cm, print it and measure You will probably get something like ~97%, so do the math and edit your design (enlarge by ~1.04%) so next time when it shrinks, it will have exact dimensions (numbers are not real, you need to find out for your material and printer) That's why you had problems to put it together with LEGO parts - This shrinking is different for different plastic/brand/color, so unless you are making whole rainbow of pieces from different brands, it is not much work to do - If you are making something with holes, best orientation for part is that up/down printer axis is along the axis of holes. Bridging (laying plastic above air gap) could make holes non-spherical - If you are making parts that will be loaded, for example leaf springs, make the spring lay on its side, loading all layers equally when used
When I see a person new to 3D Printing having problems, diagnosing those problems incorrectly, going off of incorrect information, and trying to fix what they have done in the most ineffective way, it puts a smile on my face. 3D printers are finnicky ill tempered machines that have to be tamed. Your knowledge and skills in running/fixing/modding the machine, CAD, and slicer, will develop over time. When someone asks if I can print them something and it comes out perfect the first time and relatively fast, they always think it must be easy to do. Makes me feel good for the 1000's of hours spent honing my craft. Great video of the beginning struggles. Thanks for showing them.
I think the lego community need new custom 1:8 scale supercar rims for cool mocs,new bigger gears,and some parts were broken easily in some cases unfortunately and a lego dont produce them so this will be a really promising possibilty to replace older sets and don't give collectors headaches with missing or color-changing items. Best regards your respectable work!
I've had decent success with 3D printing Technic frames on my Ender 3 pro. It reaaaalllly takes a lot of trial and error to find the right settings, but I've found that the print speed and elephant's foot compensation are the 2 largest problems I had to overcome to get proper stud/technic pin engagement. I would love to see you try to print some of the roller coaster track parts! I've had terrible luck with those.
@RacingBrick the problem you're having at 7:50 is caused by your first layer being very far from the build plate. When you start printing, the nozzle should be almost touching the build plate, but from your video it seems to be a few millimeters to about a centimeter away. Here's a great video on how to set your first layer height and level your bed: ua-cam.com/video/Ze36SX1xzOE/v-deo.html Hope this helps!
I learned to 3D print mostly on my own and did succesfully print LEGO-compatible parts such as wheels for Spano GTA, Ferrari Daytona and many other prototypes such as housing for BuWizz 3.0. As you said, you have to tinker a lot to get the proper tolerances and fitting, but once you get the proper dimensions figured out, the parts are quite reliable and repeatable to print. If you need any help for specific projetcs, please let me know!
Hello! I have a couple suggestions, 1. Make sure to level the print bed almost every print 2. if want higher print quality there should be a setting in your slicer 3. I prefer using a skirt rather than a raft 4. You can slow down the print for higher quality 5. maybe turn on 'retraction' it should be in your slicer Hope that helps!
Bed leveling at every print sounds quite exhausting, I hope that's not the standard :) Thanks for the other advises, will check the settings in details!
I’ve been 3D printing since 2017. 1. I don’t think it necessary to level the bed before each and every print. 2. I’ve never used a raft and don’t plan on using one unless it’s for a specific purpose. 3. I’ve never used a flash forge but there should be a setting called z-offset. Find it. 4. After you’ve leveled the bed, move the z axis to zero and then adjust the z-offset until the distance between the nozzle and the bed is about the thickness of a piece of paper. The perfect z-offset is critical for getting the initial layer to adhere correctly. To close and you’ll be scratching the bed; to far and your print will look like 7:44 The UA-cam channel Teaching Tech is very helpful for all things 3D printing!
for 800$ it should have auto bed leveling only thing u need to do is to set the z offset and for pla u dont need raft. that old prusa u have probably would do a better job than flashforge, in the next episode u could do a little comparison
Very cool topic RacingBrick, I am looking forward to see what will this serie bring to us, Technic MOC builders. If I would suggest one thing to try out, it would be custom differentials with different gear ratios, maybe real torsen differential that could fit in 5x7 technic frame? :D Take care and best of luck in your researches!
Regarding precision of small pieces and detail SLA printers might be an interesting option. I have to try out printing some bricks on my Elegoo Saturn 2. The big problem there is that most resins are fairly brittle. There are however engineering resins which are at least somewhat robust (but usually still fail violently when they fail) but they might be robust enough for some lego purposes. FDM printers really struggle to have the level of detail and precision necessary for reliably clamping power.
I have to correct a statement in the video. PLA is actually a stiffer (and also more brittle) material than ABS. If it is printed thin enough however, it will also flex fairly easily, but less so than an equal ABS part. By far and large at least. There are differences between different filaments even from the same base polymer. The reason why PLA is absolutely unsuitable for Lego is that it does creep quite a lot. That means under long term forces it deforms. In other words, clamped together bricks would get loose over time, much more so at least than with ABS which shows much less creeping tendencies.
It's interesting, thanks for the comment! I am definitely trying to print ABS, but based on my previous experiences it was way more difficult to print properly, had tons of warping with my previous printer.
@@RacingBrick Yes, ABS is more difficult and not the best material to start 3d printing with. If you have however a printer with an enclosure which reaches 40 or better 50°C during printing (because of heat from the bed and nozzle), that can mitigate the warping problem almost entirely, certainly for smaller prints. If you don't reach that, try out some ABS+ formulations. My recommendation is "TitanX" filament. It is not pure ABS but shows most of its features while warping possibly even less than PLA. The key for successful ABS prints is to cool as little as possible as that reduces layer adhesion (however, also here, the hotter the enclosure the less this is a problem). I print regular ABS with my Voron 0.1 where I have ~50°C enclosure temperature and it works like a charm. PETG (or its brother PCTG) is in many cases which do not involve extreme heat, a very good alternative to ABS, slightly more flexible but fairly easy to print. It is not the most beautiful material though, because it is very shiny and highlights layer lines and imperfections.
@@RacingBrick i'm assuming u printed unenclosed base abs now u can get abs+/super/smart is way easier to print(esun have good abs) and now i have enclosed printer so warping shouldn't be an issue just turn on bed heater for 10min before printing to het up the chamber
I printed Lego parts several years ago, they work ok, but if you print with PLA the plastic is soft on several connections or sometimes damage original lego parta so they will have weak connection, also František Hajdekr printed a lot of parts designed by himself.
I created an adapter piece for Technic to Gravitrax and I also included a test cube for pin tolerances. But to change the tolerances you need to change the settings in the scad files and render it. You can find the project(Thingiverse) and videos(UA-cam) under "Technitrax".
I'm currently taking a course at university about 3D-printing. One part of the course is to write a small essay about 3D-printing. My group is looking into the possibility of 3D-printing spare parts for classic cars, but anther group is looking into 3D-printing Lego-bricks. I believe they will among other things will look into which printing method is the most feasible. I'm curious to see what they come up with
i have some experience printing lego bricks on a FDM and SLA machines, allow me to share some tips: general tip, use a proper slicer, not that flashforge "garbage", i use cura but superslicer (version of prusaslicer but no ads and bs) is also very good for FDM printing bricks: (i have cheap V1 ender 3) -print technic beams with the holes vertically, the technic beam is then ~7.8mm tall, print with layer height: 0.2mm (7.8/39layers) or 0.12mm (7.8/65layers) for the best quality -retracting could be used -for better quality i prefer not to print with a raft, try printing directly on the bed, i have first layer speed of 10mm/sec, very hot and slow, also first layer is 0.28mm high, i have spend a lot and time and plastic on a good first layer, it is no fun but very rewarding... -in general try to only print vertical holes -do calibration prints to see if your printer prints parts within dimensions and to test overhangs/bridges, first layer, temperatures, etc, etc, i know it isnt fun and it takes a long time but once you have your printer dialed in (even the expensive ones take a good time) you'll have proper and consistent results.... -printing lego gears is possible but you REALLY need a good dialed in printer to do so! for SLA printing bricks: (i have elegoo mars pro) -have the brick tilted 45° on one side -A LOT of supports, i would say every 1 or 2 mm, definitely have supports in the corners!!!! SLA printers suck with overhangs, max overhang of 45° is best, dont bother with bridging over 2 points... -proper parts rely heavily on dimensionnaly accurate resin, sadly these resins are very expensive -cleaning is very important...i use the sun for curing... in general: -FDM: good with a good dialed in printer, useful for custom parts -SLA: not recommended but rewarding when properly done but quite hard and wasteful, expensive and dirty i think that is about it... :-) happy printing!
I have 1st generation Bionicle Lego sets which included all 6 the Toas and all 6 the Turagas. One of them, turaga Nokama's trident got lost. I'd love to use the 3D printer to make a replacement.
Great video. A couple of bits of 3d printing advice. You may want to use a smaller nozzle. The standard 0.4mm nozzle is likely too big for lego pieces and you may benefit from 0.2mm nozzle. Also, the calibration of you printer and filament appear off. Each filament extrudes at a set volume and shrinks at a variable rate. If these parameters are not perfect the prints will not be dimensionally accurate such as what was happening with your printed bricks. There are many calibration objects that can help with this adjustment such as the Voron cube
I haven’t 3D printed anything yet, but I have been working on 3D modeling of Lego pieces (custom and no longer made parts). The designs out there can very, and stray from the dimensions that the Lego company uses. Lego has very precise demands on the dimensions, down to the 0.01 micrometer at rare times and a 0.1 micrometers at most times. The brick designs call for a 0.2 mm space between them for example (a one stud width is 7.8 mm, and a two stud is 15.8 mm). It’s not surprising that you can have issues with the compatibility.
toxic fumes are the main problem. It definitely is annoying to deal with the byproducts of resin, and can be dangerous too. Just get a higher end printer, they offer similar tolerances, especially with a tiny nozzle
I've got some designs on my thingiverse, but I guess I can't post a link here... More interesting ones are custom wheel rims with perfect pivot steering arms and 2-piece 2-stud-wide differential frame.
@RacingBrick you need to do Z calibration before printing. That why the first layer is messy. After Z calibration also do heat bed leveling. This should solve most of you current problems with first layer. And also try to use 0.2mm nozzle with lower layer heights ( Example 0.08mm works well with 0.2mm nozzle ).
i have the smaller adventurer 3 and i can tell that it needs be calibrated. the stock bed calibration is really loose in my opinion also increase the walls on the slicer to fill the gaps on the print
Hi, I was going to use my 3d printer to mainly print custom lego rims, so I wanted to ask you: could you try to print the rim from set 42056 or in any case a lego compatible rim? I've already tried to print it, but i encountered some problems and in the end the result wasn't the best. If you decide to print it i would be very happy because you could also find some settings to change that I didn't do to further improve printing. Thanks in advance.
I print on a ender 3 and i have actually printed a lego brick with text on it, the file is on thingaverse it is one of the first results when you search up lego on the site.
I print planetary gear sets and they work well. Main issues I have found printing Lego: 1. you need to dial in the design well 2. different printing filament materials have different shrinkage rates so you need to adjust for each different type 3. printer settings have to be very good. It works for what I am doing
I've got a bit of experience printing LEGO parts on a 4(?) year old ender 3 pro. When the UCS AT-AT was revealed with its new small quarter ring gears, I wanted to use them to make a planetary gearbox, but no one had those parts for sale for a price I wanted to pay at the time. I ended up designing the piece with the help of 3D models of similar existing pieces and your review video. It took a good few attempts of modifying my model to get it to mesh well with gears and the pin & axle holes to have good fitment, but eventually got it good enough to use. (I still haven't bought the actual gears yet) I've also successfully designed printed 1:8 scale rims and some spokes / wheel covers for the medium sized rims.
@@RacingBrick No, but I'd be glad to share them with you. I planned to put them on thingyverse when I'd consider them finished products, but never felt like they were perfect enough.
It seems to me that your nozzle isn't close enough to the buildplate, and its not putting enough pressure on the plastic. A bit of bed leveling and calibration should fix this issue.
I used an ender 3 to print my gearbox parts. I'm not a 3D printing expert but my approach seemed to work to get good tolerances. I measured the dimensions of Lego parts to within 0.01mm (I could see the difference between a tight fitting cross axle hole and a loose fitting cross axle hole, such as with the sliding red 8 tooth gear) and modelled my parts based off those exact dimensions. Of course the first prints didn't fit exactly right but I didn't change the dimensions. I changed the printer settings until the parts came out right. Mostly I changed the flow percentage/ratio to be about 94% in my case. I also never used any raft as the glass bed gave a nice, flat, smooth finish. I also orientated the parts to get the best result and sometimes, when no single orientation would give good results I would print the element in multiple parts and glue them together to get the final part. Each of the drive rings of my gearbox had to be printed in three separate parts and glued together to get the tolerances and smooth inner surfaces I wanted. They work great but I'm sure they would be much better if they were injection moulded.
Oh, and here's an idea to print, the new differential gears, they are big and don't require to be as accurate as normal ones. I can print some too and we can compare the results!
Resin SLA printer and adjusting the 3D models dimensions manually is the way to go with LEGO compatible pieces. Plastic will shrink and warp and depending on the length and material it will impact the dimensions of the final part differently, so you can't just take the nominal dimensions of LEGO bricks and expect it to work. At least use ABS filament and experiment with that more.
You should use a creality printer, the quality and the precision will be so much better but they won't connect to wifi and they haven't gotten any camera, but you could of course add these things yourself. I made a non exciting lego gear for my rc lego bugatti chiron and it works great and it looks almost like it's a real lego part.
I've been 3D printing myself Technic parts at home (On a dirt-cheap $190 Ender 3), and I'd be inclined to be more optimistic than this video makes it sound like, if one is willing to do more work. I had to do initial calibration to figure out what sizes worked best for pinholes and axle holes(I haven't printed much studded; that would also be required.), and it turns out that my printer is happiest with 4.8mm pinholes, for example. Because of the fine tolerances, I don't think you're going to have success with generic stuff from Thingiverse, though I'm sure your printer is more precise than mine. However, when models are homemade, with dimensions well-suited to the individual printer, I have had good results! I've printed lots of custom gears that work fine, alternating-pinhole liftarms that are just a bit weak, and even a fullly functional custom-modeled swashplate for the new Airbus helicopter, so I'd say good results are possible at home, if you're willing for it to look a bit worse. One tip you might want to try: Look into the ironing option in certain slicers. (I know Cura has it). It can be used on relatively flat objects like the bricks you printed in this video to make the upper surface look a lot smoother and less 3D printed. Thanks for a start to an interesting video series!
Thanks for sharing your experience! I definitely didn't want this to sound pessimistic, tried to be realistic with the simple "just 3d print it at home" approach most people say. I will try to design my own stuff for sure, and also look at other possible resources than Thingiverse.
Even though 3D printing is difficult, it is very interesting to play around. One question: Are the 3D printed technic parts durable? Can they withstand big loads or are they brittle and fragile? I am interested in printing some custom suspersion and steering elements which need to withstand big loads and a potential crash (maybe it's too much to ask for because the car can go 20km/h) but I don't have my own 3D printer so I want to know whether it's worth trying or not
First and foremost, you need a proper buildplate calibration (Z offset and levelling) From the video, I can clearly see that the nozzle start way too far from the surface. Then, disable raft (switch to skirt). Quality will dramatically increase.
I agree with snowcat3116: you need to find the z-offset and adjust it to about the thickness of a piece of paper. 7:44 the nozzle was way too far off the bed indeed
@@SpacedHawk thanks! I did calibrate the printer initially, but I did it again and now I clearly see the difference so at some point my settings were apparently lost. Now I'm printing a perfect test cube without raft :)
I wonder if resin printing would do better in this situation, as resin printing is pretty good at very small detail, I may test later this week and leave my results in this comment!
There's this website which has pretty much all Lego sets as 3D models as well as all parts as downloadable files. If you want i can see if I can find it for you.
@@RacingBrick i just checked and it unfortunately doesn't seem to exist anymore. You could try converting stud.io files with blender or meshmixer but that's kind of a mess you don't want to get into when it's your first time trying 3D-printing
I use my Creality Ender 3 to 3D print custom technic beams, and despite the occasional stringing and rough edges, the finished parts are usually of decent quality:)
I've been using my 3d printer to make technic-compatible things for projects. where possible, if i need one 3d printed element to be removable from another, or if i need to have it a certain distance away, i'll use technic axle holes or pin holes, then use the technic beams/axles for the long parts, so i don't have to print them. :D
Lego CAD software export a 3DS to sel then edit in Cura or WiiBuilder then save as gcode then print g code.just need the correct print settings so that the density matches the quality and sizing of the pieces
Important tip! Your bed is not leveled correctly. The first layer of the skirt and raft is making a spiral on your bed because the nozzle is way too high. You're basically starting your print mid air. It should never be like that. I'm sure your printer has an Auto Bed Leveling function, look up how to run it. After that, you should get nice first layers and perhaps you'll don't even have to use a raft. (You can check your bed level by homing your Z axis and then you should be able to move a sticky note sheet between the nozzle and the bed. The nozzle should scrath the paper just enough that you can still move the paper easily by hand)
Köszönöm, azóta már sokat javult a helyzet, rajta vagyunk a kérdésen :) Az alap szintezés megtörtént az elején de valamilyen okból elmászott a beállítás, ez okozta a problémát.
What a super awesome video! I hadn't thought of ever printing LEGO pieces and having a Adventure 4 myself, it is cool to see the potential! Thanks for the video and have a great one!
First get rid of the flashforge and get a ender3s1 or a sermoon d1, and to not use raft apply some glustick evenly on the bed to make it stick and calibrate the x and y esteps with printing a calibration cube and taking measurements
3D printing is one of my favorite hobbies. I also have a Prusa, but mine is a bit more modern. I'm a bit confused since this brand new flashforge seems to have fairly low print quality by default, but my 2018 Prusa would print these perfectly. I'd be curious to see how well you can get this tuned. EDIT: This video may be of good use ua-cam.com/video/XwPLn7XWOw4/v-deo.html , it's by Prusa Research and it explain so of the setting you may want to use to print good parts.
@@RacingBrickI got an a1 and a1 mini bambu printer man and I have plenty of amaz8ng Legos and 1 scale minifgires all from the 1 click banbu handy app no messing at all with settings LOL so easily and I've replaced all my lego bricks even SMOOTH surfaces with ironing and insanely good 0.4mm nozzle text with hilbert cueve!
The quality of the appearance definitely. A well tuned in SLA printer will also have good precision. The challenge is mainly that most resins are fairly brittle. You would definitely have to use more expensive engineering resins for Lego parts, which do not snap immediately. I wonder how resistant to creep theses resins are, ie how fast parts would become loose when clamped together.
I print super high precision parts with my stock ender 3s. I could make a set of legos that will snap together all day. You need to learn to dial in your machine and also you need some experience to make tolerance fit parts.
Thank you for the video. I wanted to buy an entry level 3D printer to create some LEGO heads of characters that are not currently produced. Now I don't think I will anymore.😅
Legos are made out of ABS, which is a material you CAN print with but its quite a difficult material to print without it warping if you don't have an enclosure for your printer. PLA works just as well and is more forgiving. As for the printer itself. The Adventurer 4 is significantly overpriced for the build size. Its a 220x220x220 build volume, the same as an Ender 3 or its clones, all of which are sub $200 printers. I used to have a Monoprice Voxel, which is an Adventurer 3 clone and it was a good printer and great for a beginner printer. However the two Neptune 2's I now have, both were cheaper, together, then the price of that Voxel AND are bigger. That is just for the printers, I do have enclosures for both of them as well, which were about 80 bucks each for a $170 printer. So even individually they were cheaper. What you get with the Adventurer 4, an enclosed printer with wifi and a camera, you can do cheaper. That is, printer itself, say about $200, enclosure about $100, and a Raspberry Pi about another $100 (for running Octopi) and then 20 bucks for a web cam. So for less then half of the cost of the Adv 4, you could do the same thing it does. Not saying its a bad printer, just saying its an overpriced printer, and lets not get started on the astronomical price for replacement nozzles for it.......
All options you list by adding Raspberry Pi and so on requires experience and knowledge to assemble, this thing requires a power cord to be plugged in. There are certainly cheaper options, there might be better options for your money, the aim here was to test what can be done with a "plug and play" printer like this and practically zero experience. I know that you can print ABS, I tried it with my Prusa printer and it was quite a challenge to get a proper result. I will certainly test it with this printer as well, but as I said this is the first episode of a series.
As an experienced 3d printer owner, this was painful to watch. There are a few things to change right off the bat. First of all, please dont use rafts, and if you have bed adhesion issues, use a brim instead. Also level your bed and set z height correctly. Secondly I would not recommend using flashforge printers, use your prusa instead! It has settings dialed in perfectly, also use prusaslicer. I know its a sponsored video, but this makes 3d printing seem really bad, and even a cheap ass ender 3 can produce way nicer prints. And again, because of its popularity, it has all the settings dialed in. Thirdly, I'd suggest trying to print technic picies first, as they dont require such small tolarences. I would suggest checking out some youtube channels that specialise on 3d printing lego picies, for example SaperPL Maybe you could even do a collab with him!
I'm sorry but I don't believe in such brand preferences. My Prusa printer needed a lot of work to be "dialed in", and I've seen many people using Flashforge (and Prusa or other brands) printers with great results. What I wanted to show first is the experience "out of the box" without many background information and research. You're right my initial leveling was incorrect for some reason, but that's also something I will address in the next video.
I can print that entire ferrari model with my bambu a1 mini with ams lite as long as i uave the lego parts list and i can find all the pieces which may be difficult but i bet i can find most and peoppe do have pirated lego torrents which is crazy and i can go look ... but i already have many lego parts from a 3mf file on makerworld of a lego syar destriywe, wven flat lego pieces etc
I think this is foreshadowing of what we will have in the not-too-distant future. The technology just has to get better, and then Lego will have to reinvent itself because everyone will be printing their sets off at home instead of buying them. It's not really a matter of if, just when. The question is, will we be able to do it for cheaper than what Lego sells it at? Going by the recent skyrocketing Lego set prices, I don't think that will be an issue.
Thank you very much everyone for the comments, yes I had to do a bed leveling and calibration again to fix my issues. You can find the second video of the series here - ua-cam.com/video/y034g-KxwPM/v-deo.html
You should try and print a Lego one piece ship hull element
I recomend to you to create your own pieces because there isn't a lot of pieces in thingiverse. Frirstly, do nesting tests and secondly fit them into your parts. Print these pieces with the higher quality possible. Good luck
I will definitely try to design parts myself, but first wanted to try the "quick and easy" way
Printablebricks has a nice collection.
I suggest a universal joint but on one side it is a 3 stud long axle it would be so useful
@@NLGeebee I tried to download and print a few files from that site but the models are rather low-poly versions so the results are not compatible with other LEGO pieces
@@spikethegamer6690 but universal joints need a lot of couple. 3D printed parts will be break.
I 3d print rods for my lego train models on my ender 3. A method I used for tolerances was to print out several slightly different sized holes and studs. Once I found the ones that worked, I copied them into my actual parts and they still work consistently. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to share files of some of my custom parts to test out!
If you use cura as your slicer you can fix it using the expansion function, specifically the hole expansion function. Also calibrating your printer's esteps might help
Sounds like a great approach, thank you! I'd be also happy to test your files!
@@anhex.5747 e-steps and flow for the material
ender 3 gang 💪
As others have said calibration and tweaking settings can get you much better prints. Most FDM printers should be able to hit the 10micron tolerance. However, for better precision and surface finish a 4k SLA printer would probably be best.
I’ve been 3D printing since 2017.
1. I’ve never used a raft and don’t plan on using one unless it’s for a specific purpose.
2. I’ve never used a flash forge but there should be a setting called z-offset. Find it.
3. After you’ve leveled the bed, move the z axis to zero and then adjust the z-offset until the distance between the nozzle and the bed is about the thickness of a piece of paper.
The perfect z-offset is critical for getting the initial layer to adhere correctly. To close and you’ll be scratching the bed; to far and your print will look like 7:52
The UA-cam channel Teaching Tech is very helpful for all things 3D printing!
Resin printers are the way to go if you want to print Lego parts, but you'll have to experiment with mixing resins of differing properties to get the best mix of strength and just enough flexibility to not snap the first time you try to take it apart.
Best practices?
- Do not forget that plastic will cool down and SHRINK few % of the original size, so make a part that will have 1cm, print it and measure
You will probably get something like ~97%, so do the math and edit your design (enlarge by ~1.04%) so next time when it shrinks, it will have exact dimensions (numbers are not real, you need to find out for your material and printer)
That's why you had problems to put it together with LEGO parts
- This shrinking is different for different plastic/brand/color, so unless you are making whole rainbow of pieces from different brands, it is not much work to do
- If you are making something with holes, best orientation for part is that up/down printer axis is along the axis of holes. Bridging (laying plastic above air gap) could make holes non-spherical
- If you are making parts that will be loaded, for example leaf springs, make the spring lay on its side, loading all layers equally when used
When I see a person new to 3D Printing having problems, diagnosing those problems incorrectly, going off of incorrect information, and trying to fix what they have done in the most ineffective way, it puts a smile on my face. 3D printers are finnicky ill tempered machines that have to be tamed. Your knowledge and skills in running/fixing/modding the machine, CAD, and slicer, will develop over time. When someone asks if I can print them something and it comes out perfect the first time and relatively fast, they always think it must be easy to do. Makes me feel good for the 1000's of hours spent honing my craft. Great video of the beginning struggles. Thanks for showing them.
I think the lego community need new custom 1:8 scale supercar rims for cool mocs,new bigger gears,and some parts were broken easily in some cases unfortunately and a lego dont produce them so this will be a really promising possibilty to replace older sets and don't give collectors headaches with missing or color-changing items. Best regards your respectable work!
I've had decent success with 3D printing Technic frames on my Ender 3 pro. It reaaaalllly takes a lot of trial and error to find the right settings, but I've found that the print speed and elephant's foot compensation are the 2 largest problems I had to overcome to get proper stud/technic pin engagement. I would love to see you try to print some of the roller coaster track parts! I've had terrible luck with those.
For the top layer, if the software supports it, try enabling ironing to smooth out the layer and receive a better finish.
@RacingBrick the problem you're having at 7:50 is caused by your first layer being very far from the build plate. When you start printing, the nozzle should be almost touching the build plate, but from your video it seems to be a few millimeters to about a centimeter away. Here's a great video on how to set your first layer height and level your bed: ua-cam.com/video/Ze36SX1xzOE/v-deo.html Hope this helps!
I learned to 3D print mostly on my own and did succesfully print LEGO-compatible parts such as wheels for Spano GTA, Ferrari Daytona and many other prototypes such as housing for BuWizz 3.0. As you said, you have to tinker a lot to get the proper tolerances and fitting, but once you get the proper dimensions figured out, the parts are quite reliable and repeatable to print. If you need any help for specific projetcs, please let me know!
Hello! I have a couple suggestions,
1. Make sure to level the print bed almost every print
2. if want higher print quality there should be a setting in your slicer
3. I prefer using a skirt rather than a raft
4. You can slow down the print for higher quality
5. maybe turn on 'retraction' it should be in your slicer
Hope that helps!
Bed leveling at every print sounds quite exhausting, I hope that's not the standard :) Thanks for the other advises, will check the settings in details!
@@RacingBrick I know, It's quite exhausting but it's worth it!
I’ve been 3D printing since 2017.
1. I don’t think it necessary to level the bed before each and every print.
2. I’ve never used a raft and don’t plan on using one unless it’s for a specific purpose.
3. I’ve never used a flash forge but there should be a setting called z-offset. Find it.
4. After you’ve leveled the bed, move the z axis to zero and then adjust the z-offset until the distance between the nozzle and the bed is about the thickness of a piece of paper.
The perfect z-offset is critical for getting the initial layer to adhere correctly. To close and you’ll be scratching the bed; to far and your print will look like 7:44
The UA-cam channel Teaching Tech is very helpful for all things 3D printing!
@@SpacedHawk Thanks for the feedback!
I am already enjoying Teaching Tech channel.
for 800$ it should have auto bed leveling only thing u need to do is to set the z offset and for pla u dont need raft. that old prusa u have probably would do a better job than flashforge, in the next episode u could do a little comparison
Very cool topic RacingBrick, I am looking forward to see what will this serie bring to us, Technic MOC builders. If I would suggest one thing to try out, it would be custom differentials with different gear ratios, maybe real torsen differential that could fit in 5x7 technic frame? :D Take care and best of luck in your researches!
Not sure FDM printers can handle that sort of intricacy
I will show a professionally printed torsen differential, not sure if that one can be replicated with this printer though
I printed a metal lego technic gear but not at home.
It ended up being to small but it does stick to magnets so it is now a magnet
Regarding precision of small pieces and detail SLA printers might be an interesting option. I have to try out printing some bricks on my Elegoo Saturn 2. The big problem there is that most resins are fairly brittle. There are however engineering resins which are at least somewhat robust (but usually still fail violently when they fail) but they might be robust enough for some lego purposes. FDM printers really struggle to have the level of detail and precision necessary for reliably clamping power.
It all depends on your FDM. Assuming you get a higher end printer like a prusa and take the time to tune it in, they get remarkably accurate
6:58 for those who want to skip to the actual lego printing
He bought it as a "kid"??? He doesn't look like he was a kid in 2016
Bought as a ‘kit’
Kit
I have to correct a statement in the video. PLA is actually a stiffer (and also more brittle) material than ABS. If it is printed thin enough however, it will also flex fairly easily, but less so than an equal ABS part. By far and large at least. There are differences between different filaments even from the same base polymer. The reason why PLA is absolutely unsuitable for Lego is that it does creep quite a lot. That means under long term forces it deforms. In other words, clamped together bricks would get loose over time, much more so at least than with ABS which shows much less creeping tendencies.
It's interesting, thanks for the comment! I am definitely trying to print ABS, but based on my previous experiences it was way more difficult to print properly, had tons of warping with my previous printer.
@@RacingBrick Yes, ABS is more difficult and not the best material to start 3d printing with. If you have however a printer with an enclosure which reaches 40 or better 50°C during printing (because of heat from the bed and nozzle), that can mitigate the warping problem almost entirely, certainly for smaller prints. If you don't reach that, try out some ABS+ formulations. My recommendation is "TitanX" filament. It is not pure ABS but shows most of its features while warping possibly even less than PLA. The key for successful ABS prints is to cool as little as possible as that reduces layer adhesion (however, also here, the hotter the enclosure the less this is a problem).
I print regular ABS with my Voron 0.1 where I have ~50°C enclosure temperature and it works like a charm.
PETG (or its brother PCTG) is in many cases which do not involve extreme heat, a very good alternative to ABS, slightly more flexible but fairly easy to print. It is not the most beautiful material though, because it is very shiny and highlights layer lines and imperfections.
@@RacingBrick i'm assuming u printed unenclosed base abs now u can get abs+/super/smart is way easier to print(esun have good abs) and now i have enclosed printer so warping shouldn't be an issue just turn on bed heater for 10min before printing to het up the chamber
I printed Lego parts several years ago, they work ok, but if you print with PLA the plastic is soft on several connections or sometimes damage original lego parta so they will have weak connection, also František Hajdekr printed a lot of parts designed by himself.
I created an adapter piece for Technic to Gravitrax and I also included a test cube for pin tolerances.
But to change the tolerances you need to change the settings in the scad files and render it.
You can find the project(Thingiverse) and videos(UA-cam) under "Technitrax".
I'm currently taking a course at university about 3D-printing. One part of the course is to write a small essay about 3D-printing. My group is looking into the possibility of 3D-printing spare parts for classic cars, but anther group is looking into 3D-printing Lego-bricks.
I believe they will among other things will look into which printing method is the most feasible.
I'm curious to see what they come up with
That's interesting! It'd be super cool if you could share a short summary about their findings :)
@@RacingBrick I'll se what I can do!
what could help is reconfigurate your bed hight, it looked that there was a very large gap between the bed and nozzle
cool video! can you try custom gears? specifically planetary gears?
I actually did that, works nice
I just made a cylinder and removed the 24th gear shape from it
You should make a collab with @CNCKitchen on this. Adjusting some settings on your printer could improve the quality dramatically.
It would be useful to print adapters for things like Arduino UNO and servo motors, to be able to use these with LEGO Technic.
I’d love to see a 3D model for that limited edition Lego duck that can be printed at home, I also love this video!
i have some experience printing lego bricks on a FDM and SLA machines, allow me to share some tips:
general tip, use a proper slicer, not that flashforge "garbage", i use cura but superslicer (version of prusaslicer but no ads and bs) is also very good
for FDM printing bricks: (i have cheap V1 ender 3)
-print technic beams with the holes vertically, the technic beam is then ~7.8mm tall, print with layer height: 0.2mm (7.8/39layers) or 0.12mm (7.8/65layers) for the best quality
-retracting could be used
-for better quality i prefer not to print with a raft, try printing directly on the bed, i have first layer speed of 10mm/sec, very hot and slow, also first layer is 0.28mm high, i have spend a lot and time and plastic on a good first layer, it is no fun but very rewarding...
-in general try to only print vertical holes
-do calibration prints to see if your printer prints parts within dimensions and to test overhangs/bridges, first layer, temperatures, etc, etc, i know it isnt fun and it takes a long time but once you have your printer dialed in (even the expensive ones take a good time) you'll have proper and consistent results....
-printing lego gears is possible but you REALLY need a good dialed in printer to do so!
for SLA printing bricks: (i have elegoo mars pro)
-have the brick tilted 45° on one side
-A LOT of supports, i would say every 1 or 2 mm, definitely have supports in the corners!!!! SLA printers suck with overhangs, max overhang of 45° is best, dont bother with bridging over 2 points...
-proper parts rely heavily on dimensionnaly accurate resin, sadly these resins are very expensive
-cleaning is very important...i use the sun for curing...
in general:
-FDM: good with a good dialed in printer, useful for custom parts
-SLA: not recommended but rewarding when properly done but quite hard and wasteful, expensive and dirty
i think that is about it... :-)
happy printing!
Thank you for the great suggestions!
I have 1st generation Bionicle Lego sets which included all 6 the Toas and all 6 the Turagas. One of them, turaga Nokama's trident got lost.
I'd love to use the 3D printer to make a replacement.
Great video. A couple of bits of 3d printing advice. You may want to use a smaller nozzle. The standard 0.4mm nozzle is likely too big for lego pieces and you may benefit from 0.2mm nozzle. Also, the calibration of you printer and filament appear off. Each filament extrudes at a set volume and shrinks at a variable rate. If these parameters are not perfect the prints will not be dimensionally accurate such as what was happening with your printed bricks. There are many calibration objects that can help with this adjustment such as the Voron cube
Thank you for the advise, will check the calibration for sure
Can you try to print a 1x6 gear rack? That'd be a very useful part imho
I've had success with printing 4d brix train tracks, highly recommend
I once found a 3d printed Lego snake tail, and using the school printers, it turned out quite well!
I haven’t 3D printed anything yet, but I have been working on 3D modeling of Lego pieces (custom and no longer made parts). The designs out there can very, and stray from the dimensions that the Lego company uses. Lego has very precise demands on the dimensions, down to the 0.01 micrometer at rare times and a 0.1 micrometers at most times. The brick designs call for a 0.2 mm space between them for example (a one stud width is 7.8 mm, and a two stud is 15.8 mm). It’s not surprising that you can have issues with the compatibility.
For precision pieces, you need a resin printer or SLA, it’s basically perfect detail and it’s pretty cheap, super easy too
toxic fumes are the main problem. It definitely is annoying to deal with the byproducts of resin, and can be dangerous too. Just get a higher end printer, they offer similar tolerances, especially with a tiny nozzle
Absolutely, SLA is the way to go.
I’m printing death star 2 Lego set. So far coming out very good. With a preset super quality on Cura.
Very cool topic Balasz, I look forward to the next videos!!
I saw some 3D printing rims for their lego speed champions MOC to replicate the actual car's rims, maybe you should try that.
I've got some designs on my thingiverse, but I guess I can't post a link here... More interesting ones are custom wheel rims with perfect pivot steering arms and 2-piece 2-stud-wide differential frame.
I don't see why you couldn't post a link, I'd be happy to take a look at the files
@RacingBrick you need to do Z calibration before printing. That why the first layer is messy. After Z calibration also do heat bed leveling. This should solve most of you current problems with first layer. And also try to use 0.2mm nozzle with lower layer heights ( Example 0.08mm works well with 0.2mm nozzle ).
i have the smaller adventurer 3 and i can tell that it needs be calibrated.
the stock bed calibration is really loose in my opinion also increase the walls on the slicer to fill the gaps on the print
Hi, I was going to use my 3d printer to mainly print custom lego rims, so I wanted to ask you: could you try to print the rim from set 42056 or in any case a lego compatible rim? I've already tried to print it, but i encountered some problems and in the end the result wasn't the best. If you decide to print it i would be very happy because you could also find some settings to change that I didn't do to further improve printing. Thanks in advance.
I will definitely try to print some rims once I manage to fine-tune the printer
I print on a ender 3 and i have actually printed a lego brick with text on it, the file is on thingaverse it is one of the first results when you search up lego on the site.
couldn't you bump the resolution more?
With the raft it seems to me that the printer might be calibrated wrong and prints too high.
Just don’t use the raft it wastes material and time. You need to adjust the z-offset properly
I print planetary gear sets and they work well.
Main issues I have found printing Lego:
1. you need to dial in the design well
2. different printing filament materials have different shrinkage rates so you need to adjust for each different type
3. printer settings have to be very good.
It works for what I am doing
I've got a bit of experience printing LEGO parts on a 4(?) year old ender 3 pro. When the UCS AT-AT was revealed with its new small quarter ring gears, I wanted to use them to make a planetary gearbox, but no one had those parts for sale for a price I wanted to pay at the time. I ended up designing the piece with the help of 3D models of similar existing pieces and your review video. It took a good few attempts of modifying my model to get it to mesh well with gears and the pin & axle holes to have good fitment, but eventually got it good enough to use. (I still haven't bought the actual gears yet) I've also successfully designed printed 1:8 scale rims and some spokes / wheel covers for the medium sized rims.
Sounds pretty cool! Are you rim designs available anywhere to download? Would love to test them if possible.
@@RacingBrick No, but I'd be glad to share them with you. I planned to put them on thingyverse when I'd consider them finished products, but never felt like they were perfect enough.
@@Moki314 that would be great, thank you! You can find my e-mail address on the channel's main page under the About section.
@@RacingBrick I need to make a few minor adjustments to get them ready to share, but I'll get to it within a day
@@Moki314 no rush, the next episode won't come anytime soon so take your time
It seems to me that your nozzle isn't close enough to the buildplate, and its not putting enough pressure on the plastic. A bit of bed leveling and calibration should fix this issue.
Use a resin 3d printer. Should be fairly easy to get the tolerances, though the time/hassle of using resin would definitely limit you to rare parts.
I used an ender 3 to print my gearbox parts. I'm not a 3D printing expert but my approach seemed to work to get good tolerances. I measured the dimensions of Lego parts to within 0.01mm (I could see the difference between a tight fitting cross axle hole and a loose fitting cross axle hole, such as with the sliding red 8 tooth gear) and modelled my parts based off those exact dimensions. Of course the first prints didn't fit exactly right but I didn't change the dimensions. I changed the printer settings until the parts came out right. Mostly I changed the flow percentage/ratio to be about 94% in my case. I also never used any raft as the glass bed gave a nice, flat, smooth finish. I also orientated the parts to get the best result and sometimes, when no single orientation would give good results I would print the element in multiple parts and glue them together to get the final part. Each of the drive rings of my gearbox had to be printed in three separate parts and glued together to get the tolerances and smooth inner surfaces I wanted. They work great but I'm sure they would be much better if they were injection moulded.
Oh, and here's an idea to print, the new differential gears, they are big and don't require to be as accurate as normal ones. I can print some too and we can compare the results!
Resin SLA printer and adjusting the 3D models dimensions manually is the way to go with LEGO compatible pieces. Plastic will shrink and warp and depending on the length and material it will impact the dimensions of the final part differently, so you can't just take the nominal dimensions of LEGO bricks and expect it to work. At least use ABS filament and experiment with that more.
Seems that your Prusa could provide fairly the same result.
I have a lot of experience with 3d printing, since my dad often uses it.
You should try to design and print waterproof motor cases for lego boats and submarines.
You should use a creality printer, the quality and the precision will be so much better but they won't connect to wifi and they haven't gotten any camera, but you could of course add these things yourself. I made a non exciting lego gear for my rc lego bugatti chiron and it works great and it looks almost like it's a real lego part.
I've been 3D printing myself Technic parts at home (On a dirt-cheap $190 Ender 3), and I'd be inclined to be more optimistic than this video makes it sound like, if one is willing to do more work.
I had to do initial calibration to figure out what sizes worked best for pinholes and axle holes(I haven't printed much studded; that would also be required.), and it turns out that my printer is happiest with 4.8mm pinholes, for example.
Because of the fine tolerances, I don't think you're going to have success with generic stuff from Thingiverse, though I'm sure your printer is more precise than mine.
However, when models are homemade, with dimensions well-suited to the individual printer, I have had good results! I've printed lots of custom gears that work fine, alternating-pinhole liftarms that are just a bit weak, and even a fullly functional custom-modeled swashplate for the new Airbus helicopter, so I'd say good results are possible at home, if you're willing for it to look a bit worse.
One tip you might want to try: Look into the ironing option in certain slicers. (I know Cura has it). It can be used on relatively flat objects like the bricks you printed in this video to make the upper surface look a lot smoother and less 3D printed.
Thanks for a start to an interesting video series!
Thanks for sharing your experience! I definitely didn't want this to sound pessimistic, tried to be realistic with the simple "just 3d print it at home" approach most people say. I will try to design my own stuff for sure, and also look at other possible resources than Thingiverse.
@@RacingBrick Yeah, good point, it's possible but not going to be simple.
Very interesting. Not just for the Lego, but as an introduction to the whole 3d printing world.
How about printing an ordinary 6x2 brick?
can you import files from bricklink's part designer?
Even though 3D printing is difficult, it is very interesting to play around. One question: Are the 3D printed technic parts durable? Can they withstand big loads or are they brittle and fragile? I am interested in printing some custom suspersion and steering elements which need to withstand big loads and a potential crash (maybe it's too much to ask for because the car can go 20km/h) but I don't have my own 3D printer so I want to know whether it's worth trying or not
3d printed parts can be extremely strong if made right - sometimes even stronger than normal plastic depending on the way the force is handled
@@sidewinded1 I suppose the filament matters too
First and foremost, you need a proper buildplate calibration (Z offset and levelling) From the video, I can clearly see that the nozzle start way too far from the surface. Then, disable raft (switch to skirt). Quality will dramatically increase.
I did the calibration initially, and you could see what happened when I disabled raft. But I will try to calibrate again..
I agree with snowcat3116: you need to find the z-offset and adjust it to about the thickness of a piece of paper. 7:44 the nozzle was way too far off the bed indeed
@@SpacedHawk thanks! I did calibrate the printer initially, but I did it again and now I clearly see the difference so at some point my settings were apparently lost. Now I'm printing a perfect test cube without raft :)
I wonder if resin printing would do better in this situation, as resin printing is pretty good at very small detail, I may test later this week and leave my results in this comment!
Let us know how it works, most people who tried resin printing said the result is too brittle
try resib 3d printer think that would work really good
and you could try a smaller nozzel to on a fdm printer
Idea - knuckle coupler for Lego trains.
There's this website which has pretty much all Lego sets as 3D models as well as all parts as downloadable files. If you want i can see if I can find it for you.
I've seen one but that had very low quality files, it'd be great if you could share the one you found
@@RacingBrick i just checked and it unfortunately doesn't seem to exist anymore. You could try converting stud.io files with blender or meshmixer but that's kind of a mess you don't want to get into when it's your first time trying 3D-printing
Mb use UV 3d printer? It has bigger resolution
I use my Creality Ender 3 to 3D print custom technic beams, and despite the occasional stringing and rough edges, the finished parts are usually of decent quality:)
I've been using my 3d printer to make technic-compatible things for projects. where possible, if i need one 3d printed element to be removable from another, or if i need to have it a certain distance away, i'll use technic axle holes or pin holes, then use the technic beams/axles for the long parts, so i don't have to print them. :D
Lego CAD software export a 3DS to sel then edit in Cura or WiiBuilder then save as gcode then print g code.just need the correct print settings so that the density matches the quality and sizing of the pieces
*stl
what model is the black one right next to vw bully on the shelf?
41999 built in black
@@RacingBrick thx
Thank you!
Important tip!
Your bed is not leveled correctly. The first layer of the skirt and raft is making a spiral on your bed because the nozzle is way too high. You're basically starting your print mid air. It should never be like that.
I'm sure your printer has an Auto Bed Leveling function, look up how to run it. After that, you should get nice first layers and perhaps you'll don't even have to use a raft.
(You can check your bed level by homing your Z axis and then you should be able to move a sticky note sheet between the nozzle and the bed. The nozzle should scrath the paper just enough that you can still move the paper easily by hand)
By the way Balázs, szívesen segítek akár magyarul 3d nyomtatós kérdésben, nagy rajongója vagyok a csatornának!😃
Köszönöm, azóta már sokat javult a helyzet, rajta vagyunk a kérdésen :) Az alap szintezés megtörtént az elején de valamilyen okból elmászott a beállítás, ez okozta a problémát.
What a super awesome video! I hadn't thought of ever printing LEGO pieces and having a Adventure 4 myself, it is cool to see the potential! Thanks for the video and have a great one!
Can you print gears?
So you can have bigger gears
I will definitely try
That’s awesome. I wish you could print me a Technic hood scoop for the Technic Mclaren P1 MOC…it’s like $40 per piece.
First get rid of the flashforge and get a ender3s1 or a sermoon d1, and to not use raft apply some glustick evenly on the bed to make it stick and calibrate the x and y esteps with printing a calibration cube and taking measurements
3D printing is one of my favorite hobbies. I also have a Prusa, but mine is a bit more modern. I'm a bit confused since this brand new flashforge seems to have fairly low print quality by default, but my 2018 Prusa would print these perfectly. I'd be curious to see how well you can get this tuned.
EDIT: This video may be of good use ua-cam.com/video/XwPLn7XWOw4/v-deo.html , it's by Prusa Research and it explain so of the setting you may want to use to print good parts.
aye prusa gang :) those machines are workhorses, the best prints I have seen are from my own printer
I suggest making the model bigger by a couple percent
I printed a lot of functional (rather good looking) LEGO compatible parts for my car factories.
My $200 bambu a1 mini makes beautiful technic 8x1 pieces with holes
what about resin printing legos?
I also have videos about that
@@RacingBrickI got an a1 and a1 mini bambu printer man and I have plenty of amaz8ng Legos and 1 scale minifgires all from the 1 click banbu handy app no messing at all with settings LOL so easily and I've replaced all my lego bricks even SMOOTH surfaces with ironing and insanely good 0.4mm nozzle text with hilbert cueve!
TECHNIC FLEX PIECES!
Oh that's a good one, I'll take a note!
@@RacingBrick Looking forward to it.
you cant compete versus abs molted bricks.
3d stamp is good for not structural pieces as the train tracks and figure fittings.
also try a resin printer they start from $200 plus depending on the size
could an SLA printer do better for this?
The quality of the appearance definitely. A well tuned in SLA printer will also have good precision. The challenge is mainly that most resins are fairly brittle. You would definitely have to use more expensive engineering resins for Lego parts, which do not snap immediately. I wonder how resistant to creep theses resins are, ie how fast parts would become loose when clamped together.
could you try to make The Duck?
I might try it at some point but at that size it's a real challenge, and of course I'd need to design it first :)
How Doe you gat thet
The problem is the z offset
I print super high precision parts with my stock ender 3s. I could make a set of legos that will snap together all day. You need to learn to dial in your machine and also you need some experience to make tolerance fit parts.
I plan on 3d printing custom wheels but thats about it
Thank you for the video. I wanted to buy an entry level 3D printer to create some LEGO heads of characters that are not currently produced. Now I don't think I will anymore.😅
This was my first video and attempt with 3d printing, I suggest to watch the other videos :)
Resin printers are a bit more smoother than this it works with bionicle masks so thats a plus
Legos are made out of ABS, which is a material you CAN print with but its quite a difficult material to print without it warping if you don't have an enclosure for your printer. PLA works just as well and is more forgiving.
As for the printer itself. The Adventurer 4 is significantly overpriced for the build size. Its a 220x220x220 build volume, the same as an Ender 3 or its clones, all of which are sub $200 printers. I used to have a Monoprice Voxel, which is an Adventurer 3 clone and it was a good printer and great for a beginner printer. However the two Neptune 2's I now have, both were cheaper, together, then the price of that Voxel AND are bigger. That is just for the printers, I do have enclosures for both of them as well, which were about 80 bucks each for a $170 printer. So even individually they were cheaper. What you get with the Adventurer 4, an enclosed printer with wifi and a camera, you can do cheaper. That is, printer itself, say about $200, enclosure about $100, and a Raspberry Pi about another $100 (for running Octopi) and then 20 bucks for a web cam. So for less then half of the cost of the Adv 4, you could do the same thing it does. Not saying its a bad printer, just saying its an overpriced printer, and lets not get started on the astronomical price for replacement nozzles for it.......
All options you list by adding Raspberry Pi and so on requires experience and knowledge to assemble, this thing requires a power cord to be plugged in. There are certainly cheaper options, there might be better options for your money, the aim here was to test what can be done with a "plug and play" printer like this and practically zero experience.
I know that you can print ABS, I tried it with my Prusa printer and it was quite a challenge to get a proper result. I will certainly test it with this printer as well, but as I said this is the first episode of a series.
As an experienced 3d printer owner, this was painful to watch. There are a few things to change right off the bat. First of all, please dont use rafts, and if you have bed adhesion issues, use a brim instead. Also level your bed and set z height correctly. Secondly I would not recommend using flashforge printers, use your prusa instead! It has settings dialed in perfectly, also use prusaslicer. I know its a sponsored video, but this makes 3d printing seem really bad, and even a cheap ass ender 3 can produce way nicer prints. And again, because of its popularity, it has all the settings dialed in. Thirdly, I'd suggest trying to print technic picies first, as they dont require such small tolarences.
I would suggest checking out some youtube channels that specialise on 3d printing lego picies, for example SaperPL
Maybe you could even do a collab with him!
I'm sorry but I don't believe in such brand preferences. My Prusa printer needed a lot of work to be "dialed in", and I've seen many people using Flashforge (and Prusa or other brands) printers with great results. What I wanted to show first is the experience "out of the box" without many background information and research. You're right my initial leveling was incorrect for some reason, but that's also something I will address in the next video.
you can export an obj from MECABRICKS to get parts
I can print that entire ferrari model with my bambu a1 mini with ams lite as long as i uave the lego parts list and i can find all the pieces which may be difficult but i bet i can find most and peoppe do have pirated lego torrents which is crazy and i can go look ... but i already have many lego parts from a 3mf file on makerworld of a lego syar destriywe, wven flat lego pieces etc
maybe try to make some weapons for minifigures
I think this is foreshadowing of what we will have in the not-too-distant future. The technology just has to get better, and then Lego will have to reinvent itself because everyone will be printing their sets off at home instead of buying them. It's not really a matter of if, just when. The question is, will we be able to do it for cheaper than what Lego sells it at? Going by the recent skyrocketing Lego set prices, I don't think that will be an issue.
I don't think home 3d printing will be a true competition to injection molded pieces in the upcoming years
@@RacingBrick OH I totally agree, 100%
I would be so scared to do this, I don't wanna be sued by LEGO haha
The video (0:00 - 7:00) also functions as a Primer to 3D Printing. No prior knowledge needed. Impressive.