Designing for 3D printing is a blast because occasionally you get these really groovy neat ideas that you can’t wait to try out, and then you try it out, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. This is the story of a time it didn’t work.See, those coins I made last time I though would look better if the …
Coin Age 3D Preview
With so much of my print time occupied with etsy or MakeXYZ jobs I don’t have as much to talk about during the week. But I wanted to give you all a heads up on a project that I modeled this weekend that may or may not be printed next weekend. Adam P. McIver’s Coin Age is a really cool …
That was about as bad as it could have been
Here’s a cautionary tale. While I am waiting for my new heater block my old heater element has no home. (The thermocouple broke off, so that’s no problem.) Fortunately the unused feed tube on top close enough and just the right side for the heater element to sit in. As long as I don’t accidentally heat up the right heater …
Support your local suppliers
Through MakeXYZ I found a guy locally who is has an electronics and filament supply business, Addicore. So when I needed some more filament I contacted him. It’s been an up and down experience, some of his filament isn’t that good, but that’s not his fault. He’s learning and I don’t mind helping him and most of it is very …
Squirrel Squabble available for download on 3DHacker
Squirrel Squabble 3D is now available on 3DHacker. The original game is on Board Game Geek. It’s a marathon print to get everything done. And the coins definitely benefit from switching color filament part way through to improve readability, unless your printer has wizard level bridging. Resizing the coins could help their readability, but you lose the ability to put …
Squirrel Squabble is almost ready for release
Between fighting my 3D printer just to keep it working and finishing my etsy and MakeXYZ paid jobs I’ve managed to get together the prototype print for Squirrel Squabble. Some of the complication has come from the fact that I’m doing most of the pieces two tone, meaning I have to pause the print at some point, change the filament, and …
Just going to fix up the left extruder… and now it’s broken
It’s been a slow week because winter’s last gasp prevented me from getting good prints. Then the left extruder suddenly stopped gripping it’s filament. When I took the extruder apart I discovered that the spring loaded arm that keeps pressure on the filament is well and truly broken. Which wasn’t actually a big deal because I had already printed a …
An entire chess set in one model… kinda
This one almost slipped right past my browsing of Thingiverse. In fact if it weren’t for IDO2014 publishing something else in the same vein that had a more colorful thumbnail I might have missed it forever. But that’s what happens when a day of submissions is more than 19 pages. User IDO2014 has published a chess set that uses only …
Back in business… I hope
Nozzle flossing was not the solution I was hoping it would be. In the end I just had to order new nozzles. Of course after installing them I was able to print a few things, but jams still happened until I realized the new nozzles were slightly longer than the old ones and were crashing into my print bed. As …
3DHacker using my logo to test a Bucaneer
http://www.3dhacker.com/3dprinting/entry.php/93-Pirate3D-Buccaneer-3D-Printer-Unboxing The Bucaneer is an exciting printer from a company who seems to be focusing on all the right things. They’re making a cheap printer with software designed for the lowest level of user. Honestly, if I were a little more solvent I’d be tempted to pick one up myself. 3D printing buddy Andrew Mazzotta who runs 3D Hacker got …