State of the Blog

Guys!

Bloggers app sucks a lot. It doesnt save much, anytime you try to upload images, it boofs.

Also, I am down to phone -only  transmissions for another week or so. I didn't get a chance to post - but Frankenstein's Computer Died - CPU and MoBo have been RMAd.

I dragged my feet a lot on getting the RMAs processed and then packaged and sent.

But honestly, I was super surprised at the turn around from AMD for the processor - Had to ship to Miami, which has just been hit by Irma and expecting Maria (maybe) it left my house on Wednesday last week and returned to me Thursday this week.

The Mobo, which went to Walnut, Ca left on Wednesday as well, it was approved, but isn't supposed to be home until Tuesday.. SO maybe Frankie 2 will be better.

I've been using my down time to create maps and backstory and have even had a couple d&d sessions!

I'll document them later, suffice to say 5e is fun and all the numbers are weird.. My Darling Cousin has been DMing. His Girlfriend, our friend and his boyfriend, who recently returned from out of state, and I are braving his story. I'll write that one out when I have more time.

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.

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.

Back to the drawing Board on Cosmic Encounter

I somehow managed to mismeasure my box  I can't fit the player boxes on their sides like I thought, because I have about 4 less millimeters than I thought I did. I think I can make, basically 2x2x2 and it should still allow much room for tokens.. though I will probably need to remeasure everything to make sure it will fit in my slightly smaller box.

Here are the pictures of my successful print that utterly failed.

I commit seppuku now.

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.

Note To Self - Clear the bed

Tuesday night I went to bed with my printer going - about 40 minutes left on a print. It finished beautifully. I had one more piece left to print in my upcoming project reveal! I have mentioned it a few times, but I will post pics and a write up when it's done.

Wednesday morning I set up the print in Cura, the software to control the printer, because i have just enough time to finish a 3-hour-print before work. Then I walked upstairs to make a quick breakfast. I usually catch up on my stories and eat a leisurely breakfast, snuggle the puppers, catch up on my Words With Friends, etc, morning stuff. I turned the TV on for the last round of Holiday Baking Championship, turned the tv back off without worrying about my DVR, cleaned my dishes and came downstairs. I figured I would have some Netflix and MTG card sorting before work.

"Let me check on that print and see how sexy it is," I told Charlotte the dog. I look at the printer and can't quite get my head around what I am seeing. Half of the print is completely finished. but the arm is jumping and twitching in a hardening puddle of plastic, the bed, I immediately notice is making a weird noise.

Why is the arm still down low, if half the print is already 2 inches tall?

Have you guessed?

I didn't take my print from Tuesday night off the bed before I tried to print again.

That's right, I literally tried to print over my print, so I could have a print while I had my print.

The second half of the story: I peeled the Cronenberg abomination print from the bed, strip it, clean it, sigh deeply. (If I can interject on my own story on my own blog, the raft on piece one came away perfectly, like safefty guard on electronics... too bad the burned and weirdly melted pieces messed it up) I guess I could get the smaller of the two parts reprinted before work. Before I do that, I remember the weird clanking noise and check the screws on the bed for tightness. Everything's tight. I decide to print a calibration test - the standard 3mm square provided by printrbot.

Oh my. There is something definitely wrong with the bed's axis. I played with the pronterface - trying to move the x axis, hearing only thumps and whirring. I start to worry. I grab my coffee and set up shop in the office instead of the living room - it's going to be a long morning...

The story has a semi-decent ending, I promise. I unplugged it, disconnected from computer and removed the bed, dusting it off, nothing looked broken, the toothy belt that moves the axis was a bit loose. I cut the zip tie and tightened it, rezip-tying it.screwed all the screws back in, tried again. same problem.

I do it again. This time when I have the bed off, I live dangerously and turn it on, use the pronterface to move the x axis. it seems to be moving the belt, no thumping. I turn it back off and kind of "floss" the area, pulling the toothy belt back and forth for about 30 seconds. Reassemble the bed, turn it all on, try to move the x-axis. It works fine, the bed moves, no grinding, jsut the normal "whurrrr" as it moves.

I print another calibration square. this time it works perfectly.  I write up a post and it's time for work!

During my down time on the phone i set the printer to go, printing the bigger piece, and then the small piece, It finishes about 30 minutes after I am done working and I tacky glue the two pieces together. The tacky glue worked just fine on the smaller pieces from the day before. I just gotta wait on that, and then I can takes pictures and write up my next piece!

An exercise in rafts

Lately I've been having issues with my raft. I have had luck with a couple - they peel away from the main print easily and leave barely any stress marks. However more and more frequently I seem to be having issues with the raft sticking to the print.

Google has informed me that maybe I need to experiment with my raft settings. Probably the Airgap. Cura has two airgap settings, so that's not frustrating.. I think this issue stems from having a messy raft. Sometimes when pla is being melted it gets a little stringy or at the beginning the bed and extruder heat at different rates and the extruder ends up at full heat before the bed is ready to go. This means that a little plastic is melting out of the extruder, not too much but enough to leave strings or a clump. Before printing the z-axis lowers and touches the bed and then lift's a little and pulls. That is meant to grab whatever plastic has been oozing out of the extruder.

However it's not a perfect system and sometimes strands get stuck in the first layer of the print and then they get pulled around which causes the raft to be imperfect. When the raft is imperfect the first layer of the main print can get entangled with the plastic from the raft. I think this is what is causing the difficulty in separation of raft from print.

My experiments tonight have been printing some cases for the Trains in Ticket To Ride. I got the file from Thingiverse, thought I am not sure I will end up using this in my set. The lid doesnt seem to stay on properly, and I found some matchbox style alternatives I might use, but  for now it's good enough to test.

As you can see from the above pictures, I had some difficulty with the first layers of the print while using a larger airgap on the raft settings. the gray, gross result is actually because i cut most of the first layer off and then sanded it down. It looks 10x better, but still not even half as good as the second print with only a .15 gap.

I am printing again with the same airgap, but 90% initial layers instead of the 115% it was set at on the second print. I also adjusted the surface layer thickness from .2 to .5, so we'll see what this does!

Good thing I ordered another roll of black PLA
 

Too Hot To Hoot

My Printerbot Simple Metal does this "quirky" thing where it will stop printing halfway through a 4 hour print and just sit there.

Usually on the long prints, it will do it for 30-90 seconds, but often if I am printing a lot of parts at once, it just shuts down and disconnects.

Very annoying, and using Cura, there doesn't seem to be a way to start from the error, so i have to scrp the whole project.

I was using up the last of my bronze to make sure nothing went to waste and it stopped with moments left, maybe three lines were left out.. except I also printed a Teddy Bust in that batch of pieces and he got cut off as well.. Oh well, will try again in black, I suppose.

Note to self - stop touching the print bed when it's printing - or "the tale of the cursed stl"

Funny story guys... during my technically third attempt at the Art Deco box I placed something on the bed to compare sizes and it caught on one of the exposed screws and held the bed in place when it should have been moving. This of course caused the entire print to shift about an inch and ruined it at about the same spot that my first attempt was ruined.

On my fourth attempt to reprint ... from the beginning... again I ran out of pla halfway through. I have the remainder of a 100 yard spool sampler that came with my printer, it is translucent white. I attempted to feed it in as the black ran out, but for some reason it just didn't fit in. Honestly I'm not sure if the rest of the white spool would even have finished the print, as I was about halfway through and there wasn't a ton of filament left.

I am hoping that my 5th attempt at printing this Art Deco box from thingiverse will prove successful and I will be able to post some pictures. In the meantime I'll probably end up posting a couple snaps of what I ended up with so you can compare and contrast in the pla vs. Abs.

I considered switching to abs since I have three nearly full spools of abs but I haven't been able to properly calibrate my printer to work with abs. I have gotten it to work a little bit but I end up with an obscene amount of warping and or cracking in my prints. So I now have a roll of black pla in the mail from Amazon it should be here Tuesday the 1st. I also ordered some antique bronze pla it should be here about the same time. This will be great because I have had a request to print a bust of Teddy Roosevelt and I think that bronze wood accent that pretty well.

But that's a future post for days to come. In the meanwhile here's a comparison picture of print in abs and the same print in pla.

Note to Self - Check infill Percentage!

Hello printfans! In my second attempt at printing the Art Deco Magic Box from thingiverse, I loaded the model into Cura, waited for it to load, hemmed and hawed over what type of supports I should use for that overhang, and opened up the printer controls I was a little discouraged at the 26 hour print time expectation, but it was a lot longer the last time I tried to print it, with ABS. I started printing and about 10 layers in I thought "...why does this need to be 100% infill? The PLA is less brittle than the ABS always ends up, and I bet I can get away with 25% or less. I stop the print, peel it off, change the settings and start the next print. Est. 10 hours! Must better!

3d printing ups and downs.

The Halloween season is upon us. Now that I have my 3D printer mostly configured... It's only been two years... and I've started using pla instead of abs. I've had many successful prints in the last week.

The majority of my prints have been working towards my private hobby of board gaming. I have been on thingiverse and found a lot of pre-made board game organizers. To test the endurance of my printer I have been printing back-to-back projects and experimenting with speed and support structures.

Printed 4 pieces to Eldritch Horror. They all came out beautifully I have to take pictures of them later. And as it's Halloween coming up I thought I would print something thematic. So I found a really cool pre-made file of a mesh skull and decided to print that...

The skull set at 1.9 size in cura was set to take just over 16 hours. That's a good test for my machine because I haven't done a lot of long prints. this would be a print I would have to do overnight because I work from home and I have to answer the phones occasionally. The printer is loud so I I try to print around the time I'm on the phone.

So after I took lunch at work last night around 7 I set my printer to start because I don't take phone calls after that... I realized a couple hours into it that it's printing  supports  both inside and outside of the skull. I don't really think about  it's going to affect the final project . it printed into the night.

I woke up this morning and it was still printing. I went upstairs made breakfast took a shower came back and it was done. I pulled it off of the bed. I definitely noticed that the supports printed strangely... I guess not strangely they printed as intended. However looking at the project it probably didn't need support and it's kind of fragile so getting any type of Leverage to remove the supports is going to be difficult.

In fact removing the supports was very difficult and I ended up damaging the structure. I chipped off a couple pieces along the top. Also all of the spots where the structure was touching the object, you know all of the spots because it was supporting the object, end up getting a funky white stress mark that sometimes happens when you separate two pieces of filament. Not to mention all of the spaces in the mesh are filled with this structure filament so it ends up just being a total mess. Once I chipped off a couple of the pieces I knew it was basically a scrap project and wasted 16 hours of time.. Oh well lesson learned.

I was testing in Cura and after I turned off supports the print time went from 16 hours and change to about 8.5 hours so I decided to increase the size of the print from 1.9 to 2.5 and the time went up to 12 hours. So I'm going to try that after lunch today and let it print through the night again. The original file for the skull it was suggested not to use supports and as long as I set the printer to go slow enough I think I should be pretty safe.

That said, here are some pictures of the "failure" it would have been perfect if not for those supports!