My Prusa MK4 is now clearly better!

It's a pity that the Prusa MK4 hides its beautiful planetary gearbox under a cover. I wanted to see it and made transparent covers using FDM, resin, and my new CNC router. Which result is the best?

💚 Support me 💚
Join as a YouTube member!

📚 Further information:

⚙ My gear:
🎥 CAMERAS & LENSES
🎙AUDIO
🔴 LIVE STREAMING

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:44 Planetary Gearbox
01:19 Clear FDM Printing
03:11 Machining on the Carvera CNC
07:15 Clear Resin Printing
08:26 Finishing the parts
10:34 Sponsor

#3Dprinting #cnc #resin
DISCLAIMER: Part of this video was sponsored by VoxelPLA.
FTC Disclaimer: A percentage of sales is made through Affiliate links

[CNCKitchen]

Which clear cover would you make yourself? FDM, resin or CNC?

[robertgcode]

For PETG and acrylic you can use a heat gun to slightly melt the surface to make is clearer.

[topek]

On acrylic you can easily use flame, just don't overwork it. It's called flame polishing, gives pretty good results

[pbft.j]

For a tip on clear resin, I've seen that adding a couple drops of blue resin to your clear will really help counteract any yellowing. Common practice with detergent and white clothes. Also one of the earliest known "life hacks" that people have used for hundreds of years of white clothes, to add blue dye.

[mewil]

FDM printed is clear enough to show the gears and layers give it vibe that fits well with 3D printer

[zachrywd]

I felt a great disturbance in the 3D printing community, as if millions of Mk4 warranties suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

[pbdD]

That Nova3D Clear Resin really is as good as they say, I have done a lot of Prints with it and its just awesome, how clear it is and stays. No yellowing, even when baking for 20 minutes in UV light

[rcmaniac]

HA! I did the same thing for my MK4 and XL about 2 weeks ago. It was one of the first things I did because I wanted to see the gears. I did the FDM method (using your older video) though it's not as transparent. But the good news is I can always reprint them. Glad to see someone else do this.

[Peter-DOC-Docter]

"...and play with yourself" was meant to b; and play with it yourself. You gotta love what gets lost in translation sometimes. Nice vid, love how clear and clean you make them and honest results with fixes.

[TheGrimmindustries]

Good video! I'm sure a lot of people have considered this topic. In my experience there are clear resins that don't yellow. The Anycubic clear is a good example, as long as the vat is completely cleans of the tints from a previous resin it'll stay nice and clear, adding a little blue resin tint can also help keep some resins from noticeably yellowing. After the sanding of a clear resin part coating it with a clear gloss spray paint will make it transparent too.

[jeremiahembs]

Another option you should use when 3d printing clear filament is ironing and increase top layers to an imaginary number like 50, 000 so every layer is treated as a top layer. I'd also recommend a clear lithium grease for the planetary gear. It looks dry which is good for the video but not good for the gear. I love the cnc machine. I'd like to learn more about it like price and how it could be modified for rigidity and to cut other materials at higher precision.

[ltlder]

I work as a print finisher at an SLA Resin printing company and we use accura clearview for any clear parts. Then sand to 800 grit and polish for glass clarity

[ziggystardog]

While I too like the CNC aesthetic, I’d probably work out-of-the-box and try casting clear acrylic in a FDM mold.

[EKUL]

Another option could be to use some cut glass and FDM print a frame for it to screw or slide into

[TheMidnightSmith]

Try using some 2k clear gloss spray paint on those parts. It really makes transparent resin prints stay clear and not yellow. Also cure the resin in a glass jar full of water to prevent yellowing.

[antonsemenyura]

Resin turned the best one in this vid! so many useful comments, love the community behind <3

[charmio]

I have a small printing company and when I print parts like this with resin, I just print them directly on the build plate. Far less sanding needed that way. They're usually easy enough to just pry/knock off but heating the build plate does the trick if they stick. Better yet, you can get magnetic spring steel sheets that stick to the platform and make printing large flat bottom surfaces directly on the plate easy as pie. Just flex the sheet and everything detaches perfectly.

[essensse]

I love the look of the FDM. Something about seeing those lines make it honest to the materials and making process. The fact that the lines obscure the view a little bit works in favor of seeing the black gasket that hides portion of the gears inside

[Smokinjoewhite]

I think the FDM print suits the reprap stylings of the Prusa really well, but aesthetically I think the CNC part looks so clean and professional. Printing on clean glass with a nice even spray of hairspray also makes it so the bottom layer is extremely transparent.

[flamixin]

So happy to see CNC kitchen doing CNC.