It's my creation... is it real?

I know the last few posts have been boring to non-d&d players, and a bit exposition heavy.

In our d&d sessions, the group seemed to like the book base I printed for my miniature (which is funny because the character is obsessed with books and has a small library in her backpack, for buying/selling/trading.) My DM described a life counter style he would like to use for his monsters/mobs.

His request was to have three digits, and he sketched out his idea - which was basically a flat counter with three 0-9, all stacked on top of each other, so that 000-999 would be visible from the top view.

I found a couple interesting things on thingiverse, but nothing that works how I wanted, so I opened up SketchUp and designed a couple prototypes of my own.

My first design was a little cumbersome and blocky. I never printed anything to keep all the pieces together, so it was just a cup with three thing rings that had a small gap between them (for spinning ease.) But if you flip it over, the three rings fall out.

My second design was intended to print a topper piece that would snap into place, and hold the rings down. I also decided to make the rings more nested, with a thin disc on the bottom of each, with just a small hole in the very middle to stick on the spindle. I liked this idea more, but the snap on top didn't work very well.

My third design was base-free. Keep the nested pieces with the bottoms, and stuck a small spindle through, capping it with a snapon piece that has just an indication arrow. This is neat, but harder to change the numbers, because it makes some weird pressure points, causing numbers to spin out of turn.

My fourth design incorporated the base again, so there could be a clear line from side to side. (An arrow on the base and the center. I designed the center of the base to stick up through the disks and another snap on top to hold everything down and also line up with the outside arrow. Also, realizing how big these were coming out, and how large the battlefield in 4e is (25mm squares for each mini) I made the discs smaller.

I colored the numbers in with sharpies because I didn't want to mess around with swapping colors. The reaction at game night(Session 3) was mostly interested, but unenthusiastic. It got a look and then they got pushed to the side, unused for the evening. To be fair, they are just prototypes, and they are kind of huge, even the smallest one is 40mm diameter. The DM commented on their size, so my next prototype will be working towards functionality + small size/printer detail ability. On our next game night(Session 4), DM did whip them out and use, our battlefield was small and easy to put them to the side, corresponding with each monster.

Going forward, I am going to expand on my 4th design, making them thinner and maybe resize some of the spacing so it is easier to spin. Let's see if i can get 3 digits and a base within 25 mm.

Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Lordaelyn. D&D p3

As you may have seen on my instagram, I bought my representative figurine for our game! And painted! And I found an STL on thingiverse to use as a base! (she's kind of giant on top of the base)

Success - Dixit Game insert

Here is the dixit insert. Originally printed in mostly white, it ended up milimeters too tall, so i reworked everything and came up with the black version - it has space for the original game + all 7 expansions, and can probably squeeze the promo cards in there as well

Dunno what to do when the next expansion comes out...

Merry Christmass - With Cura Settings

Here's a picture of a remix of the Christmas boxes I printed last week.  The bows and ribbons were separated and snap in (i had some issue snapping the bows, so I used some glue.

My favorite thing about this build is that I was able to print the top, bottom, ribbons and bow complete set in one full color. Then I can mismatch which goes where. I am not sure what to do with them - fill them with coins? A little bit of candy - They are small, maybe two snack packs of m&ms from Halloween would fit.

BASIC SETTINGS
Quality
Layer Height - 0.24
Shell Thickness - 1.2
Enable Retraction - X

Fill
Bottom/Top Thickness - 1
Fill Density - 20

Speed and Temperature
Print Speed - 50
Printing Temperature - 201
Bed temperature - 60

Support
Support Type - none
Platform Adhesion Type - raft

Filament
Diameter - 1.75
Flow - 89

Machine
Nozzle Size - 0.4

ADVANCED SETTINGS
Retraction
Speed - 40
Distance - 4.5

Quality
Initial Layer Thickness - 0.0
Initial Layer Line Width - 100
Cut Off Object Bottom - 0.0
Dual Extrusion Overlap - 0

Speed
Travel Speed - 150
Bottom Layer Speed - 20
Infill Speed - 0.0
Top/Bottom Speed - 0.0
Outer Shell Speed - 0.0
Inner Shell Speed - 0.0

Cool
Minimal Layer Time - 5
Enable Cooling Fan - X

EXPERT SETTINGS
Retraction
Minimum Travel - 1.5
Enable combing - all
Minimal Extrusion Before Retracting - 0.02
ZHop When Retracting - 0.0

Skirt
Line Count - 1
Start Distance - 3.0
Minimal Length - 150

Cool
Fan Full on at Height - 0.5
Fan Speed Min - 100
Fan Speed Max - 100
Minimum Speed - 10
Cool Head Lift -

Infill
Solid Infill Top - X
Solid Infill Bottom - X
Infill Overlap - 15
Infill Prints After Perimeters -

Support
Structure Type - line
Overhand Angle for support - 60
Fill amount - 15
Distance X/Y - 0.7
Distance Z - 0.15

Black Magic
Spiralize the Outer Contour -
Only Follow Mesh Surface -

Brim
Brim Line Amount - 20

Raft
Extra Margin - 5.0
Line Spacing - 3.0
Base Thickness - 0.3
Base Line Width - 1.0
Interface Thickness - 0.27
Interface Line Width - 0.4
Airgap - 0.0
First Layer Airgap - 0.26
Surface Layers - 1
Surface Layer Thickness - 0.27
Surface Layer Line Width - 0.4

Fix Horrible
Combine Everything (Type A) - X
Combine Everything (Type B) -
Keep Open Faces -
Extensive Stitching -

Interlude During the Holidays!

Hi guys,

It's been a very busy month! Lots of calibration. For every adjustment I made, three other things broke. I ended up needing to recalibrate flow AND my raft settings - after I finally had it tuned in to peal away. I have messed up a couple prints, solely because of the bad print. I moved on to a couple gift boxes. I would like to print something neat for everyone I see at Christmas - they have business-card-sized build-a-prints. it gets all the pieces for a snowman, a reindeer, etc.

I am not sure that will pan out. For now here's some cool gift boxes I have been printing.. I used my gold and red PLA from pushplastics.com They fit together perfectly, and I have been able to interchange the colors. I am waiting on white and green so I can make more Christmassy stuff.

Success - Puzzle Boxes!

I finally have a success! Long needed, after a week of calibrations and each solution causing another problem - I'm still trying to get my first layer to be perfect AND also  separate from the raft easily.

Here I am printing in PushPlastic's Gold and Black. I also have a Red, which I may try later on. I wish I had Green and White, you know. . For Christmas. I used a generator online to make some neat snowflakes, and would like to use them on gifts.

Plastic day!

My favorite day! Delivery of plastics from pushplastic.com! I got Metallic Gold, Red and Black.  Not much going on in the way of news regarding prints, but here's a quick unboxing post of my beautiful spools!

I can't wait to print all the things!! I have a couple puzzle boxes and some gift boxes to print, along with finishing up my cosmic encounters box, now that I think I figured out the flow issues I had.

Charlotte was also excited to open the box with me! She couldnt wait to see what was in the box and wanted to smell every single spool.

I can go with the flow, don't say it doesn't matter anymore.

One of the better things about having my own printer is that I can switch gears, and make neat stuff that I find. With Christmas coming up, and my Nameless Roommate #1 leaving, cross country to be with his Texan Lady Love, we have a very low spending limit for the holiday. Since his birthday is a month after Christmas, and he will be gone, I am buying him something small for under the tree, and then wanted to give him some cash money (above our limit, because + birthday) (Sorry if you read my blog, Nameless Roommate #1, spoilers!)

I didn't want to just give him a crispy Hundo, because while that is my ultimate favorite gift to give, it's harder to spend and he will probably be stopping at places like restaurants or gas stations, where that is cumbersome. Also, I love the idea of opening lots of presents Christmas morning, because I'm basically a 5 year old.

I considered breaking it into 1s and 5s and individually wrapping it. However, that is a lot of work and would be frustrating/hilarious Christmas morning. I am not sure if he would find it as hilarious as I would. I havent really made much for him, outside of a tiny dickbutt and a life counter for Magic, which he no longer plays. So when I hit a wall with my Cosmic Encounters project, I thought. . maybe I could print him a nifty gift box? I have seem some beautiful gift boxes on thingiverse and I have a couple colors coming. . someday. . from Push Plastics, So I can make him a non-black box. (most of my prints are in black if you havent noticed.)

But thats kind of boring, and I know he hates having extra junk around the house, plus with a giant move coming. Long story short (too late!) I decided on a puzzle box. After browsing what was already available on the web, I found  This Cool Labyrinth Gift Box by Sneakypoo on thingiverse.

I read the comments, most people LOVED it, but recommended to print the lid just a fraction larger than designed, as the fit was so tight some people had issues getting it to fit at all. I started with the inside, that has the maze on it. I wanted to make sure it would look good when printed.

However, as you can see, I had some issues with the first attempt. Maybe related to my cosmic encounter fail from earlier in the week, I am seeing a lot of unclean lines and bubbling/zits, etc once the print reaches a certain height. Google led me to Reddit and Printrbot Forums, which told me that I am probably overextruding. PLA should usually be around 90% flow. I had it at 100% flow.

The second print I used 90% flow and had a much better result. I may try one more at 87%, because the very tip-top is a little messier than I would like. Plus having a couple of these lying around couldn't hurt.

I will post some more images when I get the top printed too. I am a little worried that I will put it on and won't be able to open it again, even though I know the pattern and have multiple copies of the same puzzle.

Cosmic Encounters Updates

I have been busily printing, adjusting, scratching my head.

Like I've said, I don't have the expansions, So I'm not sure how great this solution will be. I have been printing out the pieces, just a little time consuming as my printer is too small to print more than one piece at a time, including the lids!

I also might need to find a different solution for the Alien cards. I can fit the holder on my bed, but once it starts closing the spaces on the top layer, everything starts falling apart and the print actually looks distorted., the plastic widens, and become loosely melted together. I did three attempts - the first attempt died when my power died. The second had the horrible issue with the layers, and the third I stopped when it started having the same issues, even though I slowed the speed.

I probably need to print it without the holes, or make the holes smaller. I have noticed that the Printrbot doesn't like fine detail when it's high up.

Mo printin, mo problems

I had a small issue with a very thin piece for cosmic encounter. I had some rounded holes cut out, when it was closing off on the top, there we
re connection issues - I think it was printing too fast.

I might also need to make the walls thicker than 1mm, because the brittleness of those middle pieces has causes snapping issues. Also - you can see the horrible print quality after the circles closed off.

Designing Cosmic Encounter insert part 3.

I think I figured some stuff out so that it will fit on the printer bed! Yay!

Designing an Insert: Stage 1

Hey guys! While I am out of PLA, impatiently awaiting my refill, I decided to sit down and start mocking up a design, so I have something to print when it gets here.I sat down with some graph paper, calipers, pencils, rulers and a couple boxes of games I have issues sorting/ storing/ setting up. 

The first game on the list was Dixit, one of my favorite party games. The issue I have with this game box is that it only accomodates the base plus 3 expansions as it is.  The cards are too large to sit on their side, so I will have to put them at an angle. The hardest part was holding the cards in place while I calculated angles. I had to take into account that the board still needs to fit in the box and there are player pieces. The original design for storing pieces is good. instead of having it 2x3, I thought it out and figured that it could go 1x6 and fit perfectly in the negative space. This drawing, of course, shows none of that - just some degree and measurement notes - I did get around to drawing it all out to work out my thoughts and keep them fresh.

The second game I started designs for was Cosmic Encounter. I don't have the expansions, but I looked into how many pieces each one added - Hopefully the design leaves enough space to add all of those in perfectly. most of it was adding extra players, which are easy to count, and extra cards, hopefully the card area is big enough for that. The alien cards, with all 6(?) expansion will triple the big card height. I am hoping a lot of the extra stuff they add will fit into the two MISC areas I had left over. Most of this was super easy, just squares, no angles, making sure the pieces will fit into smaller boxes an

For now all I have are a couple hand sketches, but my next step will be translating them into sketchup designs. (and uploading my first all-original designs to thingiverse!) Hopefully my next post will have some peeks at what I have mocked up.

She's got a ticket to ride, but she don't care.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today I have some random garbage I have been working on, no finished project, just a little insight into my work process, which is kind of wasteful.

I have been looking into a storage solution for ticket to ride that fits for me. I have taken out and done who-knows-what with the original insert, so I need to make this work in a barely structured box space.  I also need to find(but haven't yet) a good solution for my cards (and I have 1910, so they are all full sized.)

For some reason all of the storage solutions I found pre-designed are weird. None of the lids snap or slide into place. This feels like it's a great way to end up needing to sort all your trains every time you want to play.

I can't find the source for the first box I had - it has been in my "to print" folder for a while, and of course I didnt save anything to attribute - but I didn't design it, if you did, give me a holler and i'll throw the link up.

the breakdown of what you are seeing:

Green & blue are in a simple design from thingiverse.. had to rubber band the lid to the body. I had an issue printing the lid and ended up needing to carve/cut up the lid to make it fit. I also adjusted the lip a bit so the lid would sink down into the box. But it has to be rubber-banded closed, which I hate. And you have to set the trains in just right (at least for the american map.) While I don't mind this, I know a lot of my friends and playgroups would hate this.

Yellow is in a second original design from thingiverse, designed by Nicofr57. I didn't like the relationship between the lid and body so i started changing stuff. The original design was made to allow you to keep the original insert for TTR:Europe. You should set the body in the cup, place the oversized lid on top, and then use a spacer to hold it in place and stack another body on top.

 Since I also have TTR:USA, and have lost the insert for it, i needed a slightly enhanced storage solution.


Black is modification no.1 from Nicofr57's design, All I did was raise the outer edge 3mm and in Cura set the width/height to fit inside the outer rim (66mm x 95mm) This is good and looks great when the bin is full and the lid is on. However, this didn't really solve my "trains all over the place when transported" issue, without rubberbands.

Red is in modification no.2 This is my favorite so far. I lifted the outer rim another 1mm and then pulled that 1mm out so that it would form a lip on 3 sides. I then lowered the front side to match the original height, that was preserved by the inner divider. The only issue I am having here is that it is a little tight. I think I can just make the change in Cura on the lid (make it half a millimeter thinner and take a millimeter off the width. I also added 3 mm to the length to create an overhang to give the player something to hold onto to yank that lid out.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with modification no.2, and once I get a Filament refil, I will be printing two sets  - one for TTR:Europe and one for TTR: USA

Interlude

I guess I could have taken more photos of what I was doing, but I was generally busy being grouchy and frustrated.

It is recommended to do maintenance on your machine frequently, especially after a meltdown like the one I had earlier in the week.

I ended up dusting out the fan by the extruder and tightening the belts. I took out some screws and put them back, etc. nothing too labor intensive, just tightening and printing calibration squares.

Nothing exciting at all, but here's a post to keep the masses entertained.

On a side note - for those of you hobbyists you are looking for deals on 3d printing, some dude on reddit has collected a list of 3d printing sales, filament and printers!

 Push Plastic is having a sale - buy 2 get 1 sale. I seriously contemplated spending my christmas present budget on it.

A cause for calibration - or - Success! Codenames

I am going to spend the day calibrating, after a "success" but the successful print didn't work as intended. So I am going to use some calibration tools and document that, inc. tomorrow or maybe Wednesday.

In the meantime, here was an actual success! An organizer for the games Codenames. I had to use sketchup to edit it a littl bit, removing 2mm from each end do it would fit on my printer.  The original size would have fit perfectly the other orientation in the box, but this way, the hourglass holds it in place perfectly.

If it Fits, I prints

A quick write up of my experience with printing the Eldritch Horror insert. Two of the larger pieces didn't fit. (sad face)  I covered this a bit in the last post, but I thought I would include more images.

Here I have a screenshot of my Cura(splicing software that sends prints to printer) and one of the two pieces that was too big for my printer. The blue checked area is representative of the area my printer can handle. When an item will not fit on the printer, it turns gray. As you can see in the above image, this image overhangs, but only on one axis, which is pretty easy to fix.

I imported the .STL file into Google Sketchup and cut the last compartment off the storage unit. As you can see below, the newly sliced piece fits both pieces on the bed, so I was still able to print it all at once.

After I printed the two smaller pieces, I used tacky glue to connect them!  It's not 100% aesthetically pleasing, but it works, and the glue is actually strong enough to pick it up by either side and it will not fall apart.