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How to get involved in 3D Printing

It is easy to get involved in the exciting world of 3D printing. The internet is full of free resources, training videos and interesting things to get you going. All you need to do is take that that first step and have an idea. Come to think of it,  you can even skip the idea part and print someone else’s ideas until you have the confidence to make your own ideas come to life.

 

COMPETITION – Get your 3D model printed for Free

Morgan 3D Printers want you to dip your toe into our world and experience the excitement of 3D printing. It is because of this that we are running a monthly competition, open to everyone, where one lucky person will have the opportunity to have their idea printed for free, every month.

This is how it works:

  • Save your idea (or someone else’s) in either a .stl or .obj file format
  • Send it to michael@morgan3dp.com with a JPEG of your model
  • On the last Monday of the month we will pick the winner and we will print the winner’s design on the last Tuesday of the month.

3d printing for free

3D printing starts here:

If you want to find out what 3D printing is all about, read this article where Quentin Harley speaks about the business of ideas, Terry Pratchett and 3D printing – https://www.morgan3dp.com/in-the-business-of-ideas/

3d printing

If you want to get start designing your ideas have a look at this page for some free tools – http://3dprintingforbeginners.com/software-tools/ .  There are also some cool apps you can try –http://www.123dapp.com/apps-for-3d-printing

You don’t have to be a technical person or serious designer to get into 3D printing, you could even try going the artistic route with Sculptris – http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

3d printing Sculpture made with Sculptris
A sculpture made using Sculptris

If you want to start printing but can’t use the software yet find an exciting project here – http://3dprintingforbeginners.com/3d-model-repositories/

There are many .stl files for 3d printing available on the net.
There are many .stl files available on the net.

If you need some guidance you can see what the nerds have to say on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7aK9PpYTqt08ERh1MewlQ

 

If you still need more inspiration come and speak to Quentin at Morgan 3D Printers at the House4Hack in Centurion.

 

Quentin Harley is at the House4Hack on Tuesdays ready to inspire you... come and join him in 3d printing
Quentin Harley is at the House4Hack on Tuesdays ready to inspire you… come and join him.

We are looking forward to helping you unleash your creative potential with a tool to bring your ideas to life.

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Morgan 2 3D Printers

It is with great excitement that we can finally announce the coming of the second generation of professional Morgan 3D printers: Morgan 2.

Morgan 2 3d printersIMG_2371 IMG_2372 Made in House4Hack

Morgan 2 builds on every Morgan design that come before it.

Some of the notable features include:

  • Two main models: Pro and Mega
  • Super Easy for beginners!  Simplify3D license included in the purchase price, making you print like a pro from the word go.
  • New carbon composite arms – superlight and sturdy.  The new construction looks professional while performing like no Morgan before it.  Printing is fast,  precise and aligned properly.  Arm segments are built at exactly the same lengths using CNC machined jigs.
  • New frames in Stainless steel, aluminium and molded Polyurethane components are durable and rigid, ensuring the best possible stability during operation – translating to highest quality prints – at a much faster rate than previously possible on a MorganMorgan Pro 2 printing
  • 32bit Arm processor controller board takes care of the inverse kinematics of the robotic printing arms, ensuring smooth and precise movements without running into the limits of the computing power of the system
  • “Out of the Box” printing – the print dimensions are much larger than other machines with similar footprints and price points – 380mm x 220mm x 200mm (Pro) and 730mm x 470mm x 600mm (Mega)
  • Extremely low maintenance design with high dust tolerance – made for African conditions.
  • Back-up battery capable power supplies allows uninterrupted printing. (optional)
  • Professional Printing at a very competitive price
  • Proudly manufactured in South Africa

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Simplify your Morgan printing

Getting great prints from your Morgan has always been easy.  You just had to install the software, load the correct profile from the files we provide on the Morgan support page, and you are good to go.

Now it is even easier…

Morgan 3D has recently added Simplify3D as the bundled software on all Morgan Pro and Mega sales.  Included at no extra cost!

Simplify3D-Primary-Logo-3000x2300

More on Simplify3D here

We have also been approved as local resale agents, making safe payment options like EFT possible when you want to purchase the software only.

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A new chapter for Morgan

Back to its Roots

Morgan has gone through a lot of changes in the last years, and this last change is bringing it full circle back to the beginning. We are closing down the commercial side of Morgan. As many great 3D printer companies before us, the competition with the more efficient manufacturers left us in the dust. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve you and I still will, but in a different way

To all current Morgan Owners, do not fear. I have made arrangements with a local 3D service company to look after you when you need technical help:

https://www.3dprintingstore.co.za/

Morgan will again completely open sourced, and any of the future developments I make will be available on the Morgan github going forward:

https://github.com/RepRapMorgan

I am moving and will not have access to a workshop for quite some time. See you on the other side!

Quentin Harley

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Morgan Pro 3 released

Morgan Pro3 Product image
Morgan Pro 3

Morgan Pro 3 released after the first commercial model was completed for a preorder client this week.
Our machines have improved so much since the first morgan started printing:
https://hackaday.com/2013/02/25/scara-arm-finally-prints-plastic-parts/

Some of the improvements over the Pro2 include:

  • Single-arm robotic actuator. The new arm is lighter and cleaner, allowing much faster movement without the machine shuddering
  • Completely enclosed electronics bin to keep your fingers safe and protect the brains and brawn of the machine.
  • Stainless steel plate work gives the new machine a sleek minimalist look
  • Control interface built into the base allows easy intuitive operation.
  • Extruder now mounted on the arm allows for much shortened Bowden feed tube. This allows the use of previously tricky materials to be used with much more ease
  • Many technical improvements building on our years of experience building and maintaining the previous generations of Morgan printers
  • We are not Simplify3D resellers any more due to restrictive reseller agreements from the company. We have decided to give you, the customer, a choice in the 3D slicer you would like to use, and pay the savings forward to you. Open source slicers have improved with leaps and bounds, and we are working to include a number of good printing profiles for Slic3r and Cura. That said, S3D is easy to use with good results.

We are slowly ramping up production of the new machines. Please contact us via email for orders and information:

info@morgan3dp.com

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Easy colour 3D printing with single head

Just because you don’t have multiple print heads, it does not mean that colour 3D printing is out of reach.

I made this as a cake topper for a themed children’s party… Can you guess the theme?  Of course you can!

Morgan 3D Printer colour print
Completed Print done on a Singe head Morgan Pro

This logo was printed in four layers,

  1. Black base
  2. Thin white layer for the ghost’s lower body
  3. Red for the not allowed sign
  4. Thick white layer for the Head and hands

Morgan 3D Printer colour print
Starting the first white layer

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See Morgan 3D Printers at the Rand Show 2017

Morgan 3D printing is at the Rand Show 2017.
14 to 23 April 2017.

Come and see the new versions of the Morgan Pro and Morgan Mega machines in action, and meet the team responsible for its creation.  We are in the Science and Technology Hall (8).

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We have some great show specials for the duration of the event:
Get 15% discount if you order and pay during the show!

Morgan Pro: Normally R22,995.   now R19,545
Morgan Mega: Normally R44,995, now R38,245

We manufacture on order, so place your orders early to jump the queue and avoid waiting.  First come, first serve.  Remember, these incredible discounts are only valid till 23 April.

All the systems now include the new touch display, and a licence for Simplify3D slicing software is bundled in the price.

Hope to see you there!

 

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Prototype in Metal

To prototype in metal is in many cases the reason why designers, inventors and engineers hold off on buying a 3d printer, and in most cases, indefinitely. Metal printers are due to the technology employed incredibly expensive. Besides that they can be messy and hard to keep running. What if metal protoyping is within your reach, for a fraction of the cost?

Making metal components from wax masters is a method that endured since the dawn of history. There are two main techniques available to Morgan Owners, one of which we tried recently:

  • Lost investment casing
  • Lost wax (PLA) sand casting


We will do a full writeup on the process, and advantages and disadvantages of each process soon. 

Happy prototyping!

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RAPDASA 2016

RAPDASA 2016 is here, and Morgan 3D Printers are here and ready to participate.  The annual conference brings together all the serious players in the local additive manufacturing landscape, and looks at ways to promote the technology in the South African economy.

This year the event is at the Science and Technology center of the Vaal University of Technology, Vereeninging.

You can find us at Stand 10

2016-11-02-09-13-46 2016-11-02-09-13-35

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Morgan 3D printers at Decorex 2016 Jo’burg

Morgan 3D Printers will be at the Decorex 2016 show at Gallagher estate from 5 to 9 August 2016.

decorex16

We are teaming up with the Makers collective at the Makers Corner stand.  Come and see our machines, and some demos of us making stuff.  Our focus will be to do practical example sessions of how you could use a 3D printer in a workshop to make your workflow more efficient, especially is you want to develop new items, or create custom pieces.  Custom is very sought after in the decor market.

Decorex 2016
The Morgan 3D Printers stand at the Maker’s Corner in the link between hall 2 and 3, Galagher Estate

We have our latest Morgan Pro 2 machines at the stand, and the Morgan Mega for your viewing pleasure.

Also come and see the other makers at work, and Hans Fouche’s Cheeta printer if you did not see it before.

We will have some specials at the stand.  Come and pre-order your Morgan at great show discounts when our visit our stand…

See you at the Maker’s Corner!

 

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Meet June’s Competition Winner

Morgan 3D Printers wants you – yes you, who think that you cannot become part of the 3D printing wave that is sweeping the world – to become part of the awesome world of realising ideas and a competition winner…

To show you how easy it is, and how much fun it is, Morgan 3D is running a monthly competition where you are challenged to submit a cool design. The best design, judged on viability, talk-ability and ingenuity is then printed for free and presented to the clever winner.

The cool thing is that it does not need to be your own idea or own design. 3D printing is something anybody can get into because there are many designs on the internet that you as a beginner may go and download and use. And that is exactly what our June winner did…

AND OUR WINNER FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE IS….

Simone Goosen.

Competition winner Simone Goosen receives her prize from Quentin Harley
Simone Goosen receives her prize from Quentin Harley

Quentin selected this design as the wining idea because it gave him an opportunity to showcase the versatility of his printers working with flexible filament as well as the usual sturdy PLA. The tyres of the car is actually a quite a lot softer than the body and this approach allows for complex prototyping as well as interesting niche products with your Morgan 3D printer.

Simone downloaded the Jacob Stanton file from thingiverse

Wanna download a print-ready file? Go to a site like thingiverse...
Wanna download a print-ready file? Go to a site like thingiverse…

 

YOU TOO CAN GET INVOLVED IN THIS WORLD…

 

Start here

If you want to find out what 3D printing is all about read this article where Quentin Harley speaks about ideas, Terry Pratchett and 3D printing – https://www.morgan3dp.com/in-the-business-of-ideas/

Slide1

If you want to get start designing your ideas have a look at this page for some free tools – http://3dprintingforbeginners.com/software-tools/ .  There are also some cool apps you can try –http://www.123dapp.com/apps-for-3d-printing

You don’t have to be a technical person or serious designer to get into 3D printing, you could even try going the artistic route with Sculptris – http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

Sculpture made with Sculptris
Sculpture made with Sculptris

If you want to start printing but can’t use the software yet find an exciting project here –

http://www.thingiverse.com/explore/popular

If you still need more inspiration come and speak to Quentin at Morgan 3D Printers at the House4Hack in Centurion.

 

This is how you enter our competition:

  • Design something or download a file from thingiverse
  • Save your idea in either a .stl or .obj file format
  • Send it to michael@morgan3dp.com with a JPEG of your file
  • On the last Monday of the month we will pick the competition winner and we will print the winner’s design on the last Tuesday of the month.

Slide5

 

We are looking forward to helping you unleash your creative potential with a tool

to bring your ideas to life… Go ahead, send us your idea.

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