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

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

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!

 

Morgan 3D print gallery

Morgan 3D print gallery

Many of you may have wondered where the 3D print gallery for Morgan prints were. South Africans are inherently camera shy, and we should change this, for the better.

You spoke, and we listened.  We have hundreds of photos of the stuff we printed over the years… yet we failed to share most of it.  You know how it is.  You print something incredible, quickly snap it on a mobile phone, and let it go.  Here is an example:

Morgan 3d print gallery now open!
Sonia Verdu’s Braq dragon keeping watch over the Morgan print room at H4H

3D Print Gallery

I am working through all the photos, and will post some of the best ones in our new 3d print gallery in due course.  Our 3D machines are built to last.  Come and see what we are doing!

Morgan Gallery

If you have suggestions of prints we should do for demo purposes, make contact, and we try to make it happen and add it to our 3d print gallery   We are always busy working on improvements to our processes, and this we will always share with our fans and customers.

We have registered ourselves on 3D hubs, and we kept our printing fees low in order to give you a chance to sample a Morgan today:
https://www.3dhubs.com/centurion/hubs/morgan-3dp

Customers, if you have great print you would like to share with us, make contact, and we will make sure you get a mention in the 3d print gallery for your skills!

Remember that we are running a Free 3D print promotion. Submit an idea or stl, and if you win, collect it at House4Hack!  While you are there, come and see all the crazy people that makes this legendary makerspace what it is.  I am available every Tuesday night at the club meet in Centurion.

South African 3D Printers at work. Morgan 3D printers come with Simplify3D software that will ensure you hit the mark much quicker.

Happy Printing,
Quentin

 

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.

In the Business of Ideas

In the Business of Ideas

by Michael Raubenheimer

 

‘There is a South African designer who prototyped a new mask for a blast suit used by bomb squads…’

I was trying my best not to cry. It was a Saturday morning at the local crafter’s market and the craft beer hadn’t lived up to the promise… In fact, they hadn’t even pitched up.  I was busy herding kids through various stalls with very breakable, but utterly boring goods. It was then that I saw a small crowd milling excitedly around a stall in the corner. I could see people call their partners, kids and companions to ‘Come and look here… quickly.’

Quentin Harley, Founder of Morgan 3D Printers
Quentin Harley, Founder of Morgan 3D Printers

 

‘One of my clients runs a full time car bumper printing business on his Mega and our printers handle full-time production environments as well as they do the occasional job for a hobbyist…’

I walked over and found a gap to peer through… 3-D printing. I easily get mesmerised watching these printers build layer upon layer with a beautiful take on monotony… but 3-D printing is nothing new. In fact, many 3-D printing companies in the US have already lost interest or gone bust, so I thought these excited people simply didn’t get out enough.

‘He built it himself’ one lady told her son and I immediately had to take a second look… The 3-D printer was different from the usual kind of printers you find in the Stuff sections of tech magazines and websites. It wasn’t the typical enclosed cube… in fact it was open, bigger and simply clever. I tried to look for a gap to speak to the mastermind but he was surrounded by wide-eyed people who wanted to lap up some of the inspiration and brilliance that the man behind the display table exuded. I took a pamphlet, saw the name Quentin Harley and made a note to catch up with him later.

Jumping to later – I tracked Quentin down in his workshop, situated behind the iconic maker’s clubhouse, House4Hack in Centurion, and asked him some questions. Quentin is the owner of Morgan 3D Printers and his business attire is a T-shirt. He patiently answered my questions, going about his work, fiddling with the digital insides of a 3-D printer.  Quentin seemed laid back but I knew that what I was witnessing was a calm confidence of a master at work and a quiet focus on the job at hand.

A 3-D printed alien skull

Me: Quentin, what is the premise of a 3-D printer? I mean, why bother?

Q:  People are creative beings and we always have ideas and things we want to make. I think Terry Pratchett described this idea well in his take on dwarfs in the Discworld fantasy series. He wrote that a dwarf only needs an axe and a way to make fire, to make things. With the fire and the axe he is able to make simple tools. With the simple tools he able to make complicated tools, and the with complicated tools he is able to make practically anything.

So people, like dwarfs, love making things and people love making things with which enable us to make things. A 3-D printer is a tool we made to help us make many different things… Like a very complicated hammer. The great thing about a 3-D printer is that it democratises the making process. It eliminates the skills barrier. You do not need years of specific training and experience, with a wide variety of tools, to make something unique.

Me: Where did 3-D printing start?

Q:  3-D printing, as we know it today, is based on what we call FDM or Fused Deposition Modelling. It all started about 25 years ago with a company called Stratasys, when founder Scott Crump invented the process. … but design students in the sixties laid the foundation for this type of printing. They used to cut of pieces of paper and layer it one on top of another to make sculptures. This was time consuming and labour intensive but a 3-D printer makes this process a cakewalk. So that’s where it started. They didn’t call it printing back then… printing is a bit of a misnomer… It was called printing because that is what people are used to… you know, when you plug a printer into your computer and send a file for printing… so that name stuck because it is a similar concept. It is actually a CNC additive manufacturing machine. A normal CNC milling machine will cut away layer for layer but instead of taking away bit by bit from a big block of something – with a lot of discarded material – this process starts with nothing but an idea and adds layer for layer until you have what you designed… and there is virtually no waste.

 

Me: Quentin, I believe in a community-first approach to business. What opportunities can 3-D printing create in our community?

Q:  The opportunities are basically only limited by imagination and depends on the interests and background of the particular maker. For instance, two people will look at a 3-D printer and one will make tools for his garage, clips for his car and perhaps a toy for a child. The second person would use it for jewellery design, ornaments or a replacement heel for an expensive Jimmy Choo shoe. There is a South African designer who prototyped a new mask for a blast suit used by bomb squads. The company is based in Germiston and they sell worldwide.   One of my clients started off a while ago as a 3-D printing enthusiast but now has a roaring trade making spare parts for people in the Centurion drone and quad-copter circles. You can go as big or small as you want to.

Me: That leads to my next question, who should buy a 3-D printer?

Q:  Anybody with a good idea. I would like to say creative people but most of us have been brainwashed to think that we are not creative. Anybody who has the desire to make something should consider 3-D printing. If you see something you want but would rather make it, then 3-D printing is for you. If you want something but no one else has made it, then 3-D printing is for you… And you grow with each job. I have become much better at it over time and eventually your 3-D printer becomes part of your tool chain. I started off with a 3-D printer but now I have many more tools to take my designs even further. So if you want make things but don’t want to struggle making it, get a 3-D printer.

Me: Quentin why did you design and make a 3-D printer?

Q:  I was an engineer at a company where I maintained and installed medical imaging equipment. I kept myself busy on the side with own projects and couldn’t find anybody to print the things I needed, so I decided to build a 3-D printer and that is how it all started. A lot of people were interested and soon I started helping them build their own 3-D printers. I had my own design – and it is quite distinct – and after blogging about it I got quite a bit of attention from international media and people wanting my machine. I kind of entered a competition by default and won first prize in the Uplift Prize for Interim Personal Manufacturing, 2013. The $20 000 prize money helped towards setting up my business. My 3-D printer has also won me 3rd place at GAP ICT in 2014.

Me: OK, so we have covered the history and uses of 3-D printing, tell me more about your printers… Why should I buy a Morgan instead of one of the imports I see in the tech magazines?

Q: We make it super easy for beginners. Our printers are simple, effective and easy to work with.  A license for Simplify3D, which is an all-in-one 3-D printing software package, is included in the purchase price, making you print like a pro from the word go. Apart from the lightweight materials and the precision design we believe in out-of-the box printing. That simply means that we don’t have the needless casing around our printing area. This enables bigger print   dimensions than other machines with similar footprints and price points. We have two models; the Pro and the Mega. One of my clients runs a full time car bumper printing business on his Mega and our printers handle full-time production environments as well as they do the occasional job for a hobbyist. Morgan printers sport an extremely low maintenance design, with high dust tolerance – they are perfectly suited to African conditions. We have a one-year walk-in warranty for personal use, back-up batteries for uninterrupted printing and we are priced very competitively …and we are a proudly South African company operating from the heart of Centurion.

Me: OK… but you had me at hello already, just take my money.

 

If you are interested in a Morgan printer check out their website https://www.morgan3dp.com/

For a good discount, quote #MORGANPROMO1JUN when you buy a Morgan Printer… and you know you need to buy one.

New Z adjust feature

At Morgan 3D Printers we always keep innovating, and the latest Z adjust feature firmware update is no exception.

Anyone that use 3D printers will attest to the fact that different materials will need different optimal first layer heights.

We have added an in print Z adjustment to allow you to adjust the first layer of your print on the fly!

Also check out the new experimental PET-G profiles for Smoothieware on the software setup page.  PET-G is a great material, since it prints almost as easily as PLA, and has great mechanical properties, all without the hassle and bad smell of ABS.

Keep tuned for more exciting innovations and options coming soon…

Morgan Year end Order party!

The end of 2015 is just about on us.  The Morgan factory is quiet and we are all enjoying some time with our families.

The South African currency, South African Rand is meanwhile trying out new record lows against the major world currencies.  This is a problem if you love technology as much as I do…

South Africans! Beat inflation and pre-order your Morgan today.  If you order and pay at least 50% deposit before the workshop opens on the 11th of January, we will add 5% discount on top of our 2015 price!

Delivery will be in the order of orders received, and on full settlement of the invoice.  You can order in the web store below, or contact us for a quotation if you have specific invoicing needs.

With the rand continuing on its slippery slope we will have to increase pricing a bit, but because source locally it should be much better than some of our unfortunate 3D printer importers.

We are also working on some essential options, available soon that will be compatible to Morgan 2 systems.

  • Filament out sensor
  • Controller with removable SD
  • … and some secret ones 😉

More on that soon!

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