Transcript for:
Embedding Magnets in 3D Prints

as we touched on in our previous magnets video embedding magnets in your 3D prints can be a great way to add functionality to them since then we've actually learned a bit more and in this video we'll share a few refinements to our recommendations and go over some new advice regarding the use of magnets that may help you get better results as you work more with magnets you might want to think about investing in a few tools that may make working with them a bit easier a pair of non-magnetic tweezers can really help when doing Precision work with smaller magnets there are a few types including titanium and reverse action they're affordable enough to try a few different styles to see which you like or you may want to use different types for different situations for anyone often working on projects with paired magnet sets a magnetic polarity indicator will be critical this tool can be used to find out what the polarity orientation of a magnet is and helps to ensure they attract and or repel as you intend them to we have two types one is electronic with a push button activation and very clear red and green indicator lights that indicate dete of the North or South Poles of the magnet the other is a simpler 3axis mechanical device which is more delicate but provides a quicker result magnetic viewing film allows you to see the pattern of the magnetic field surrounding an object this can help to determine the reason for an object's loss of magnetic properties a magnet labeling tool can make it easier to label the poles of your Project's magnets simply place the magnet you want to label onto the corresponding section of the surface ensure that it's centered on the appropriate markings then use a Sharpie to label that side of the magnet we'll post the project files for the one we made which incorporate the shapes and sizes we've been using the most we were printing some projects that included paired magnets in the design we were using a bamboo X1 Carbon which has a fully enclosed temperature controlled print chamber and sometimes one corner seemed to be lifting off of the build plate more often than other parts that were the same or similar in shape or configuration so assuming we had all print settings optimally set this was both frustrating and concerning after making sure we had dried the filament to eliminate excess moisture as a variable we had a few theories but one of our theories involved the print bed itself after all the printer's bed was magnetic as well could the bed's magnet sometimes be repelling the magnets in the print first we removed the build plate and placed a few different magnets of different sizes and shapes directly on the bed we started with the rectangular 60 by10 by 3 Millet size we were using in our most recent project as we push the magnet across the bed from front to back parts of the magnetic bed visibly repelled the rectangular magnet as it passed over them the effect was not quite as prominent with the shorter 30X 10x 3 mm magnets but still significant we also tried different sizes of round magnets with them we noticed that we were encountering an evenly spaced magnet field when pushing them from front to back or from the back to the front but the magnets moved smoothly when pushed from left to right or vice versa this was confirmed when we looked at the field pattern with the viewing film the bed has an alternating polarity Arrangement that's referred to as a halbach array this field pattern is different from most magnets which have a single North and South Pole including the neoa magnets we use in our projects it should be noted that when the build plates are on the bed the repelling effect is greatly diminished and almost unnoticeable thicker or heavier plates plates likely containing more steel also reduce the effect even more but we theorize that if your print may already be prone to warping or having bed adhesion issues and you also happen to be embedding a magnet that has an opposing polarity to a region of the bed directly below it that slight repelling effect could be enough to dislodge that corner of the print from the bed we also discovered that the repelling effect with the rectangular magnets was greatly decreased when they were oriented perpendicular to the bed magnet field pattern and incidentally through the course of our research we ended up demagnetizing our x1's print bed we'll talk more later about how we ended up fixing that but here are our conclusions and recommendations if you are using rectangular magnets Orient the print so that the embedded magnets will be perpendicular to the bed's field pattern in other words if the field pattern is horizontal longer magnets should be oriented pointing front to back it may be good to adopt a default pole orientation to the magnets you use for instance if you want magnets used in a project series always arrange to to attract you can establish a rule of thumb that the North or end pole of the magnets should either point to the top front or right of your project this will help ensure that any new projects you create that are related to former projects will have magnet configurations that will be compatible and also help coordinate magnet use when multiple people are working on the same project if you have magnet sizes that you often use creating a quick polarity identifier tool could be very useful for hour we chose four types confirmed and marked their polarity orientation then embedded them in a plate which we Ed to quickly label magnets before use if you have a print containing a section that has been warping upward and resisting bed adhesion despite your use of a brim using a magnet may be an effective solution the next time you attempt to print the project add an additional object into the slicer file that would serve as a cradle for a magnet here we've made a cradle for a 20 by3 round magnet place the Cradle as close to your project as possible without affecting its Integrity make sure that your Project's brim and the Cradle brim are unified in that area pause the printer at the layer height just after the Cradle has been completed then place the appropriate magnet into the Cradle make sure that the magnet is oriented so that it is attracted by the bed's field and not repelled then resume the print hopefully this additional plate contact point with the adhesion power of the magnet will be able to keep the stubborn area firmly in place be aware that the magnet may also be an additional area of heat retention if your bed is heated if the problem persists and you are willing to do some additional finishing work on your project you can add a runner or sprew physically connecting your Project's problem area with the magnet cradle you can clip the connection after your project finishes Printing and finally we learned this the hard way but do not put strong magnets directly onto your print bed without a build plate in between it will jumble the factory applied halbach array and will effectively demagnetize your bed which will remove its ability to securely hold your build plate during printing we had printed dozens of projects that included magnets and never had a problem but as soon as we began placing magnets directly on the magnetic bed with no build plate or filament material in between we noticed that the bill plate would no longer securely stick to the bed luckily our research also led us to a solution to remagnetize the bed we sourced a set of 15x3 mm ring magnets and stacked them together in alternating polarity so that each magnet repelled the ones next to it we threaded them onto a 100 mm long M4 bolt as you add more ring magnets you'll need to press them all down to make room for the rest the feeling will be similar to compressing a spring always keep a firm grip on the one at the end otherwise you may have magnets flying across the the room a nut and washer keep them all flush and compressed together once constructed you can use this tool to remagnetize a print bed or any other flexible pad magnet that has lost its magnetism simply roll the tool laterally and evenly across the print bed repeating the process and going in the same direction until you've covered the entire surface this should remagnetize the bed to a working state after replacing the build plate it's apparent that the magnetic strength has been restored and it now takes a significant amount of effort to pull the plate out laterally the plate should now stay in place even during high-speed printing we will post the information and the parts list for the remagnetizing tool initially we tried 10 mm ring magnets then we tried 15 mm and they seem to result in a stronger magnetic effect we suspect that 20 mm ring magnets may work even better thanks again for checking in with us we hope you're finding this information useful and are able to apply it to your own projects as always let us know what you think or if you have any questions