After repairing the nozzle I thought I was back to producing dual prints, only to discover that the right extruder was still producing fragile messed up prints. I was lucky to discover that the right extruder fan had finally given out entirely. So I got a couple of nice new ball bearing fans from Digikey, also received another new heated build platform …
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 …
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 …
How to make Lithophanes
I have been having a blast figuring out lithophanes and working out how to best make them. I think I’m going to start offering custom lithophane services in the store, which technically means I shouldn’t give away how I’m making them… but that’s not the sort of guy I am. First thing I discovered is the local dollar store sells …
Celtic Skull Gears V1
Started this what feels like months ago. May actually be months ago. I wanted a smaller version of the skull gears so to differentiate my version I use the Celtic Skull. This involved figuring out OpenSCAD, fixing an extremely non-manifold base model, and doing some modification. I love the idea of a key sticking out of the back of the skull, but …
More Heroica
Playing Heroica we set up a board where the beginning branched to one way to a long hall of high level monsters and keyed doors, and to the other way with keys and potions. The plan was that they’d go gather the keys and stuff, then go face the boss but my most driven son decided to forego the loot …
Tiki Chess
Whystler’s Tiki chess set was one of my favorites in the chess contest. Each of the pieces just had so much character and detail and it wasn’t too much of a challenge to figure out which one was which, unlike some other sets. Every piece just works so well with the theme. It’s a real treat to have this one. …
3D Scanning Pick 2 list
Seems to be a lot of talk lately about 3D scanning on various forums I’m on so I thought I’d collect and condense my thoughts in one place where I can drive traffic [winky emoticon]. It is the next logical step after 3D printing. My take on 3D scanning, with the footwork I’ve already done, is that you have 3 options and …
Talking about my i-i-iteration
The air vent in my boy’s room was broken. The drywall on one side was so shredded as to render any attempts to anchor in it useless. (The other side went into a stud, so no problems there.) I had the idea that I could print a custom joint that would attach the vent to the duct wall. It took me 4 …
Using 3D printing for SCIENCE!
My son is doing his first science fair. I’m so proud. He wanted to do something with electricity, so I needed some battery packs. There’s an electro magnet and an electric coil motor. This may end up being on the first draft, but obijuan’s Parameterized Battery Pack really helped. Functionally there’s no difference, but it looks way better than duct tape.