There are a few mods you can do to that printer to make it even better, and inexpensively.
Ill post some links in the morning when I'm on my workstation.
I know quite a few people with that printer, they all love it.
which are you referring to? The Maker Select Plus, or the Ultimate?
which are you referring to? The Maker Select Plus, or the Ultimate?
The less expensive one..
The Maker Select is the one I was speaking of.
There is a Z-axis brace mod, that is reported to help quite a bit:
Z braces for Wanhao Duplicator i3, Cocoon Create, Maker Select, and Malyan M150 i3 3D printers. by AzzA - Thingiverse
I've also heard that a hot end upgrade to something like this is well recommended:
Micro Swiss LLC
I've had my eye on the maker select for awhile now, I will likely pick one up before too long. The above mods were recommended to me from a few maker select owners.
There is a Z-axis brace mod, that is reported to help quite a bit:
Z braces for Wanhao Duplicator i3, Cocoon Create, Maker Select, and Malyan M150 i3 3D printers. by AzzA - Thingiverse
I've also heard that a hot end upgrade to something like this is well recommended:
Micro Swiss LLC
I've had my eye on the maker select for awhile now, I will likely pick one up before too long. The above mods were recommended to me from a few maker select owners.
Monoprice is doing a promotion today. Use the code "friday20" to take 20% off any order over $100. That drops the printer price to $320.
Ran into this article last night:
CES2017: Monoprice Unveils Expanded Line of 3D Printers | Hackaday
Might be worth waiting till April to check this one?
"The Pro Filament Printer
If you jump over to Monoprice right now, you’ll notice they really have the ‘good, better, best’ market segmentation down with three printers that cost $200, $400, and $600. The huge SLA printer shows they’re ready to jump into the pro market, and for filament printers they’re offering the MP 3Series Commercial 3D Printer (or 3Mill, according to the engineers). It’s a printer that can print a 400mm cube, and it costs $800."
That could print a 15" waveguide!
SLA also sounds interesting, but.... expensive!
CES2017: Monoprice Unveils Expanded Line of 3D Printers | Hackaday
Might be worth waiting till April to check this one?
"The Pro Filament Printer
If you jump over to Monoprice right now, you’ll notice they really have the ‘good, better, best’ market segmentation down with three printers that cost $200, $400, and $600. The huge SLA printer shows they’re ready to jump into the pro market, and for filament printers they’re offering the MP 3Series Commercial 3D Printer (or 3Mill, according to the engineers). It’s a printer that can print a 400mm cube, and it costs $800."
That could print a 15" waveguide!
SLA also sounds interesting, but.... expensive!
I'm a big fan of using multiple printers to print large objects.
For instance:
The waveguide in this thread took 32 hours to print and measures 8"x8"x6"
Scale that up, and we see that a waveguide measuring 16"x16"x12" would take about five days to print
But if you 'slice' that waveguide into four pieces, you can print it in 25% as long on four printers simultaneously
Besides being able to print faster, it's also less maddening if one out of four prints fail, then if one print fails that took four days to print
Also, because you can arrange waveguides at a 45 degree angle, you can print larger than you might realize.
For instance, the printer that's on sale for $320 today prints 8"x8"x7". But if you rotate the waveguide 45 degrees, you can fit one that's 11.312" wide. This assumes the coverage angle is 90 degrees. If the coverage angle is narrower, the width will shrink.
Split the waveguide down the middle, and you could print a 20" wide waveguide on the $320 printer. This assumes a height of 7" or less.
For instance:
The waveguide in this thread took 32 hours to print and measures 8"x8"x6"
Scale that up, and we see that a waveguide measuring 16"x16"x12" would take about five days to print
But if you 'slice' that waveguide into four pieces, you can print it in 25% as long on four printers simultaneously
Besides being able to print faster, it's also less maddening if one out of four prints fail, then if one print fails that took four days to print
Also, because you can arrange waveguides at a 45 degree angle, you can print larger than you might realize.
For instance, the printer that's on sale for $320 today prints 8"x8"x7". But if you rotate the waveguide 45 degrees, you can fit one that's 11.312" wide. This assumes the coverage angle is 90 degrees. If the coverage angle is narrower, the width will shrink.
Split the waveguide down the middle, and you could print a 20" wide waveguide on the $320 printer. This assumes a height of 7" or less.
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Amazon warehouse has it available for ~$300:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B018GZBC3Y/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B018GZBC3Y/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all
I'm very curious to see if this performance is achievable 🙄...IMHO no 😉The $399 machine can go down to 0.1mm iirc
It should be a total disaster 🙄😉acetone to make the surface smooth
IMHO, you should use a very good stereolithography printer to achieve 0.1mm

Using solvents to smooth the surface of 3d prints is a well established process. Even searching "3d print smooth acetone" should be evidence of that.It should be a total disaster 🙄😉
Using solvents to smooth the surface of 3d prints is a well established process. Even searching "3d print smooth acetone" should be evidence of that.
IMHO the surfaces deformations will be uncontrolled, it can be useful for a toy or an artistic statue, but totally undesirable for a mechanical part.
Perhaps amateurism has some limits concerning mechanical parts execution because the first thing to do is a well drawn and quoted drawing... it is a little bit like building an amplifier without any schematic 🙄
at the top of the audio frequency range physical dimension resolution does seem to be a question, especially when you get into compression driver phase plug/acoustic lens ideas are the filament printers really up to it?
how tightly can you control gap dimensions, parallelism, surface smoothness even assuming adequately thick walls? - in a compression driver throat "appliance" you would need to control the expansion rate, acoustic impedance of sub 1/4 wavelength dimensioned slots/passages
if I ever got that far I would probably send out for SLA fab from a service company
how tightly can you control gap dimensions, parallelism, surface smoothness even assuming adequately thick walls? - in a compression driver throat "appliance" you would need to control the expansion rate, acoustic impedance of sub 1/4 wavelength dimensioned slots/passages
if I ever got that far I would probably send out for SLA fab from a service company
Agreed, professionals can make outstanding parts (i'm very impressed by the 3D SLM) but if you make an error in the drawing... your parts go to the bin...gap dimensions, parallelism, surface smoothness even assuming adequately thick...if I ever got that far I would probably send out for SLA fab from a service company...

Found this in some CES show reports. New models coming from Monoprice in first quarter 2017. Including this one of particular interest:
I think I may wait for this one. A lotta $$ but this could do about anything I'd want.
"They’ve also shown the MP 3Series Commercial machine, intended for professional office use. This steel-framed, filament-based machine offers a huge 295 x 195 x 575mm build volume and can print 20 micron layers. It’s heated bed and borden-style extrusion system can handle PLA, ABS, TPU, PC, Nylon, Flexible and composite 3mm diameter materials. Of course, it includes WiFi, auto leveling and other goodie features. It’s intended price: only USD$799. "

I think I may wait for this one. A lotta $$ but this could do about anything I'd want.
Or there's this for the bargain price
$183 shipped, will do 9.4"x8.5"x8.5", reviews seem good.
Anet A8 Desktop 3D Printer Prusa i3 DIY Kit-183.57 Online Shopping| GearBest.com
But it's a kit, said to take about half a day to put together. Which might not be a bad thing, I'd know better how to get at things when the inevitable mods and repairs come up.
$183 shipped, will do 9.4"x8.5"x8.5", reviews seem good.
Anet A8 Desktop 3D Printer Prusa i3 DIY Kit-183.57 Online Shopping| GearBest.com
But it's a kit, said to take about half a day to put together. Which might not be a bad thing, I'd know better how to get at things when the inevitable mods and repairs come up.

Turns out all 3D printers are on the "excluded list", so the discount code won't work there.
Those jerks at monoprice really want me to buy a second printer
The one that I have, that was a steal for $399, is now $318:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13860
Those jerks at monoprice really want me to buy a second printer
The one that I have, that was a steal for $399, is now $318:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13860
Ah, with all the talk of 3d printing, I wondered what printer you had. I'm on the brink of getting this one for general experimentation. Have you done the typical mods to it (mosfet, z-brace)
the build volume isn't big enough to consider something like Bill's cool synergy without cutting it into at least 3 if not 4 parts, but realistically they're way too big for any setup I have anyway.
I'm a big fan of using multiple printers.
Two printers can print in half the time.
Plus, it's way less annoying to have a print go wrong after ten hours instead of twenty.
(People may not realize how slooooow 3D printing is; most of my prints take over ten hours.)
I haven't modded mine (yet.)
Two printers can print in half the time.
Plus, it's way less annoying to have a print go wrong after ten hours instead of twenty.
(People may not realize how slooooow 3D printing is; most of my prints take over ten hours.)
I haven't modded mine (yet.)
Patrick, try a 1mm nozzle. More than enough detail for waveguides, and prints WAY faster. I just did a small print (non-audio related) with a 0.4mm nozzle and it's a shock how incredibly long it takes to get anything.
If you do want to try a large format, I've heard really good things about the CR10, said to take about half an hour to assemble and then it prints right off. The only think I don't like is that it's a 'Prusa' style so the thing being printed gets shaken back and forth all the while it's being printed.
You can get a little more $$ off on it with the coupon "TheHotEnd":
Creality3D CR - 10 3D Desktop DIY Printer US PLUG-474.92 Online Shopping| GearBest.com
If you do want to try a large format, I've heard really good things about the CR10, said to take about half an hour to assemble and then it prints right off. The only think I don't like is that it's a 'Prusa' style so the thing being printed gets shaken back and forth all the while it's being printed.
You can get a little more $$ off on it with the coupon "TheHotEnd":
Creality3D CR - 10 3D Desktop DIY Printer US PLUG-474.92 Online Shopping| GearBest.com
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