Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

blog.briancmoses.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–17 of 17 posts

Re: Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

#11

Post by jcims »

cr0sh wrote: post #8

I'm trying to figure out how one manages 24 and 48 hour prints without potentially setting the house on fire. As far as I am aware, no FDM 3D printer is safe to run unattended, overnight without supervision. I know there are ways to make things safer, with various interlocks, fire suppression items (like those kitchen vent-hood pucks), cameras for monitoring, etc. But I still wouldn't trust just letting something lik…

I think the risk management comes from a combination of a smoke alarm on the ceiling and an insurance policy covering house fires.

Re: Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

#12

Post by luma »

cr0sh wrote: post #9
bradfa wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make just 1 unit of a decently complex unique design for only $70 in materials, 227 hours of machine time, and a reasonable amount of human assembly time, is seriously impressive! 3D printing isn't the future of mass manufacturing, but it is getting much much closer to being the future of prototyping and one-offs for pretty much every plastic thing (and some metal ones, too), especially as the hobby level printers…

> but it is getting much much closer to being the future of prototyping and one-offs FDM printers, from what I recall, existed as commercial products for prototyping long before reprap and other early hobbyist efforts came to fruition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#History ...and according to that link, even more advanced processes (stereolithography, for instance) were being explored in the 1980s and 90s…

> What has really happened is that the price on the systems have dropped steeply

What has really happened is that the core patents on FDM technology expired in 2009, resulting in an explosion of new approaches to the technology and now you can buy a home unit for well under $200.

3D printing isn't that terribly complicated and the required hardware has been around for decades. The only thing that made it expensive was rent seeking.

Re: Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

#14

Post by BadJo0Jo0 »

cr0sh wrote: post #8

I'm trying to figure out how one manages 24 and 48 hour prints without potentially setting the house on fire. As far as I am aware, no FDM 3D printer is safe to run unattended, overnight without supervision. I know there are ways to make things safer, with various interlocks, fire suppression items (like those kitchen vent-hood pucks), cameras for monitoring, etc. But I still wouldn't trust just letting something lik…

I have a few 3D Printers, a scratch CoreXY build, Tevo Tarantula, and PowerSpec Ultra (rebranded FlashForge Dreamer) I run prints unattended often. Overnight or leaving my house for errands. The only thing I do is regularly check termination points and board components to see if they are fine.

I wish I knew what was wrong with other people's configurations or the quality/settings of their hardware that causes these fires.

I blame kit providers racing to the bottom to throwing together low quality hardware and passing them off as solid workhorses. For my Tevo Trantula I replaced the screw down terminal block for one with higher amperage rating after noticing some slight melting on the housing, and spent a whole day doing PID tuning for the hot end and the heated bed.

There should also be a bigger disclaimer for kits to deter people who don't have decent knowledge in electronics to just go for complete printers or higher quality/proven kits.

Re: Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

#15

Post by OldXKEGuy »

alephnil wrote: post #3
jdietrich wrote: post #2

227 hours of machine time, $70 of plastic filament, multiple failed parts and hours of hand finishing. Truly, this is the future of manufacturing.

While I know you have the hype around 3D-printing in mind, there is no sign that this guy consider this anything else than a hobby. But of cause, this article does in many ways highlight the problems with current 3D-printing technology, and why it currently is mostly a rather limited prototyping tool. This would be the case even for more professional 3D-printers. Now most of the hype is gone, and I think most people…

I ran across Brian's MK735 blog (via ixsystems) just a few days ago while looking for a server case. Have you actually gone to the 3dwebe website and read what is posted there? That "Cautions, Caveats and Considerations" section is posted by someone that looks like they know the possible issues, ACTUALLY CARES and disclosed those issues. This is not some "hobbyist" that just put a 3D printed server case together. 3D printing is absolutely a good prototyping tool. It's also a fantastic low cost, one-off manufacturing tool for some of us that cannot afford $10k in sheet metal design and setup costs to get what I want and not what someone else is offering.

Re: Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

#16

Post by OldXKEGuy »

jdietrich wrote: post #7
bradfa wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make just 1 unit of a decently complex unique design for only $70 in materials, 227 hours of machine time, and a reasonable amount of human assembly time, is seriously impressive! 3D printing isn't the future of mass manufacturing, but it is getting much much closer to being the future of prototyping and one-offs for pretty much every plastic thing (and some metal ones, too), especially as the hobby level printers…

>If you're not impressed with this, you likely haven't ever gotten quotes from a quick turn plastics manufacturing shop. Who on earth would want to make a computer case from plastic? Cutting, folding, drilling and riveting sheet metal is fast and economical, even with basic hand tools. You can buy a dizzying array of fixtures and fittings from McMaster-Carr or your local equivalent. I'm not fundamentally opposed to 3…

"Who on earth would want to make a computer case from plastic?" Look up Apple II / Apple IIe....not quite total failures.

Re: Printing and Assembling the MK735, a 3D-Printed DIY NAS Case

#17

Post by OldXKEGuy »

bradfa wrote: post #4
jdietrich wrote: post #2

227 hours of machine time, $70 of plastic filament, multiple failed parts and hours of hand finishing. Truly, this is the future of manufacturing.

To make just 1 unit of a decently complex unique design for only $70 in materials, 227 hours of machine time, and a reasonable amount of human assembly time, is seriously impressive! 3D printing isn't the future of mass manufacturing, but it is getting much much closer to being the future of prototyping and one-offs for pretty much every plastic thing (and some metal ones, too), especially as the hobby level printers…

And that 227 hours of machine time is actually 227 hours of "robot" time. No human intervention required. Fire it up, check it just now and again. Once someone creates the "hard stuff" for the robot, that robot does the work if you can afford the robot.
Post reply on HN