Whenever anyone says “3D printers can make anything” there is an immediate response from the uninitiated: Oh, so can it print a 3D printer? It’s difficult not to go straight into eye-roll mode whenever this is asked. Mostly because if someone is asking it it shows that they know nothing about 3D printing. But then I remember that there are likely 10,000 people …
I want to believe
Thinkgeek is selling a child’s 3D printer that uses playdough! Awesome and only $50! Yes, I know what today is.
Replaced the nozzle. Dual printing again.
As usual I was going to take a lot of picture and walk you step-by-step through the process i went through, but the Makerbot’s support page pretty much covers it, except for the absolutely filthy state of my old nozzles. And when I lost one of the nozzles, just put it down somewhere and I lost track of it. I’ll find it. …
Acetone Vapor for Smoothing ABS
Jumping to the end the final result: This is a great way to quickly give a glossy finish to your prints and it does hide the layers somewhat, but getting good results necessitates having good starting material. There’s a lot of talk about using an acetone vapor to smooth ABS prints so I thought I’d try it out. But instead …
Again, seriously?
Darn it, I replaced the HBP cable already, I should not have to deal with this again. Talked to makerbot, sounds like they’re shipping me a new one so I’ll give it another shot, but I hope there’s some advice to prevent this from happening again. At least this time it’s still printing. Makerbot says not to worry as long …
Do Printing Services Undercut Open Sales?
Joseph Chiu pulled me up in chat to ask if I had put in an order with PrintAThing. PrintAThing and MakeXYZ are services where you can register if you have a 3D printer to print things for other people and where you can request if you don’t have a 3D printer a quote for a print you want made. They’re …
TinkerCad is ending
TinkerCad is ending in a few months.In a very real way I owe TinkerCad for Joe’s Makerbot. My boys love TinkerCad. But with TinkerCad’s recent switch to a very prohibitive paid model it was difficult to continue recommending them. And now they’re ending. Part of me wishes that someone will buy them up and keep it going, maybe make a …
More Chess Sets Weekend
I’ve been sitting on the plans for Chessbot Prime for a while now, just haven’t taken the time to print it out to make sure it works. Now I have. In addition I tried out the Wireframe Chess Set by ethanjurman. I modified the knight since that once clearly isn’t going to like printing without supports. I knew the rest of …
Nice primer on 3D printing
Someone texted me a link to this video: Watch Will 3D Printing Change the World? on PBS. See more from Off Book. Good one. No sensationalism, just telling it. Nothing new said, just throw it on the stack of running commentary.
New Chess Set
Finally got some more natural PLA from Joseph Chiu and finished printing SteedMaker’s Classic Chess Set, the chess set where I got the knight I used before from. Now I have a set to play against the Tiki set. I had to start this print as I ran out the door to work. I laid down the blue tape, re-leveled the build plate, set …