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.

Success - MTG Life Counters

 I printed more of these - this time experimenting with mixing pieces from different batches - The black is harder to read, but I think the black framing the gold looks really good together.

Keeping it short - More tomorrow!

Success! - Eldritch Horror

Earlier in the week I posted some reviews of my favorite boardgame accessories - The Broken Token inserts.

While I love Broken Token, and would love to spend all my extra money on them, they don't have solutions for every boardgame I own. That said, every single new 3d printing site with free files is bombarded by searches for my favorite topic - board games, box organizers, specific board game titles, because some people don't know how to properly tag or title or describe their stuff to be easily found.

I have a folder of all the STLs I have found, waiting to be printed. Amongst them is a folder for a custom Eldritch Horror insert that ZektheMad created over on thingiverse. He did a great job! Except that two of the 9 pieces are too large for my tiny printer to accommodate. I printed the 7/9 small pieces that would fit, and then spent 4 or 5 days pouting about the remaining pieces, contemplating seppeku.. or even just contacting Zek or one of the commenters on that "thing" requesting the file. He did provide a .dwg file, but I don't have the software or knowledge of how to handle that/make google sketchup handle it. In reality, I was just hectic and busy the last week or so, trying to keep up with my blogging goals, and having a hard time of it.

I was able to get the original .stl files into Google Sketchup and cut them in half. Or really more like 2/3 + 1/3 & 3/4+ 1/4, making them just small enough to fit on my printer and then to be glued back together on before being placed in the box.

I actually got the chance to finally post something on thingiverse! It's just a remix, but it already has likes, shares and collection adds..

Down to the nitty gritty! It took me a while to print all the pieces, I only batched a couple of the smaller pieces, but the rest were individual.  There are supposed to be 9 pieces, but I have 11, since I had to cut two up. There is still enough room in the box for another board. Since I don't have any of the expansions yet, I may just print a couple spacers to hold everything in place.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the print. I feel that this might have been underwhelming and built up.

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!