Absolutely! Definitely getting second hand excitement here haha
I swear since it has arrived I have done nothing but chores and look after bubzy… the minister for war and finance can be so cruel sometimes… keeps finding things for me to do… I am feeling for the hobgob slaves atm, I must be related to them
My IPA just arrived so I now have everything I need to fire up this Mono X apart from time lol I predict a very late night tonight once everyone goes to bed. I will make sure to read through all your advice once again very carefully and take it nice and slow so I don’t break it first go lol
Only thing now is what to print first??
I am thinking either @MichaelX 's wax seal or one of @Fabelzel 's awesome Chaos Dwarfs
May Hashut’s hoof guide you to many successful prints
.
.
Tiny bit jealous of the monochromatic screen. Please let us know how it goes
Will do mate, I am just putting the thing together now and I am going to have a crack at printing a giant I just purchased after I work out how to work this thing and what this slicing/supporting and all that is about.
In the models files a section with stl but then it has another section called “Presupported” but they are not stl, its this chitubox file type so I need to read up on that too, trying very hard not to get over excited and intimidated by it all, might need a beer and a smoke before I go further lol
This is the 3D file I purchased
3D Printable Fire Giant Skullcrushers by Archvillain Games (myminifactory.com)
Those fire giants are great ( i have the set) and fairly easy to print.
It’s rather “simple” actually,
STL format is the 3d file format used for most 3d printing and some cnc milling machines. Its basically a collection of triangles that form the shape of your model.
No printer (or mill) can understand a 3d file (STL, OBJ,…).
They need the STL files to be sliced (in thin layers) and output as a format they can understand.
The filament printers need XYZ and extruder coordinates along with temperatures and such. That info is as far as i know always in a Gcode file format. Gcode are commands that can be understood by the machine and every code serves a specific function. It’s just plain text and each line is a movement (move to X10, Y100, Z0.3 and extrude Xmm f filament while moving there).
Resin printers work a little different. They also slice the STL in thin layers, but basically they output a set of images. If you print 1mm of stl file at 0.05mm layers you get 20 images of 0.05mm. They are combined in a file that also contains instructions for the z axis movement, meta data for print time and cure time.
For resin printers one of the more popular slicers is chitubox. (another is lychee). The .chitubox file you have is a project file that can be opened and edited using chitubox. What it is is basically someone opened chitubox, opened the STL files and added supports. Then saved them as a project. This is usually great since you do not have to do them but you are free to add more, or modify them.
if they are supported well (and the one i printed was supported pretty well) you can just open the chitubox file and click the slice button, and when its done click the save to disk button.
Things you have to do before slicing is add your printer to chitubox (if you havent already). This way chitubox knows what to output.
Another thing to consider is using the hollow function in chitubox to hollow out the large models (like this giant) if they havent been already. If you hollow out a model i suggest you also cut 2 holes in places you wont see when the model is assebled, like on pegs and such. This saves a lot of resin and the printer has to overcome a lot less suction force to pull the print off the FEP sheet ( the bottom of the resin tank)
If you have questions, shoot!
Thank you for that explanation, that makes alot of sense. I will get a copy of that chitubox now and set that up and have a poke about. I do recall now after reading your post about the Gcode for the filament printer I played with years ago, had to add the 3d object into a program and output it to the Gcode to make it print. Amazing how much gets forgotten over the years, I only got to play with that one for a short time and never touched a 3d printer since.
I have noticed one other thing with this Mono X printer… it does not have a USB type B port, only a type A so looks like I will be saving the slice file to a stick. Are your resin printers the same?
Yup, you print from USB drive. Works great. I suppose it works much the same as my original photon. Just put the output from chitubox on the formatted USB drive and you are good to go. My printer can not read sub folders (unfortunatly) so i have to put all files on the root of the USB stick.
I agree, i hadnt touched one of my printers for a year, right in the middle of a migration from a marlin based motherboard to a reprap based board (firmware version) and i forgot about half of what i learned about configuration and calibration. Came back fast though
I sure am glad your here helping out, I feel much more comfortable playing with this 1200 dollar machine
How resource hungry is this chitubox? I am currently in the Warhammer room with me lappy, would it be better in the computer room on the gaming rig?
Glad i can help!
well… you cant really do much wrong, If you want we could always open the voice channel on discord one day and go trough some items to keep in mind.
Read the manual for the initial setup as proper z levels (offset) is important and clean out the tank after a failed print (a piece of cured resin can do a lot of damage if squished between the display and the print platform)
Hmm, i slice in my gaming rig, but it’d an old one so…
Laptop should work fine to but know that slicing CAN be slow anyways. Saving even slower.
Last year my chitubox hung while slicing and when i killed and started it again it offered to disable volume calculations ( it tells you how much resin it will use for this print, by estimate). I don’t really care since i fill the tank each print so u clicked yes. That sped up slicing from half a minute or more to 1 or 2 seconds. Saving can take a minute and is mostly dependent on the drive you are saving to. A fast SDD wil help a little.
Roger that, I might go to the rig, this lappy is a bit beyond use by date where is the gaming rig is pretty damn beasty, cheers
I feel like I’m overloading you with information but…
If you ever get unsupported files and are in a hurry. The current prusa slicer has great auto support features. Much better then the auto support chitubox has. Not as good as doing it manually but very adequate for 95% of the print jobs.
after supporting you can export the file as a STL file with supports.
Na mate, information is good. I got the printer assembled and leveled, she is ready to go so I am now back in the computer room about to setup chitubox, getting close to 1st print now
Getting really excited!!!
Have loaded the supported torso into chitubox… any idea whats next? I gotta tell it that I am using Mono X somewhere don’t I?
OK So I hit slice and save, saved it to a freshly formatted (NTFS) USB and it saved the file on there as a cbddlp file, I am guessing I stick that in the printer now, pour some resin in and hit print yeah?
Ahh I found it, when saving the file I needed to hit the save as and select pwmx file type for this printer, should be good as gold now
Turns out the printer only likes the USB if it is formatted in FAT32, will not read ExFat or NTFS, having worked that out and I now have the files coming up. I am about to put some resin in and hit print, I will put a picture up provided I don’t roll a missfire on the artillery die haha
Bloody jinxed myself, the files come up but it does not want to print them, incorrect parameters its telling me so I told the cheeky bugga to print the test object it came with to make sure the bastard actually works and it seems happy doing that, going to take 3 hours it reckons so I might have a short kip and see what happens then try work out what went wrong with the slice on my model when its done.
Not much to see but there she is in action
Good luck.
So my 1st attempt at 3d printing produced a Frodo miniature
The print stuck to the bottom of the vat instead of the printing platform and I produced a hex base that was stuck inside the vat.
The paper funnels used for emptying the vat had a mishap resulting in resin all over the place which I have just finished cleaning up, turns out I need to pour alot slower.
No idea why it stuck to the vat instead of the printing platform