I should really reserve that title line for later since the actual quote ends with “again” but nevermind. I wanted some blue filament. Makerbot was all out so I purchased some from Protoparadigm who are closer to me geographically. When I finally manage to sell some chessbots I plan to buy some red for the opponent chess sets. But for …
Acceleration and you
The replicator 5.5 firmware included acceleration. I’ve been fiddling around with it, had every sort of problem this could have and consequently learned a lot. First of all, “acceleration” doesn’t just mean “going faster”. It also means “the change in speed over time” and both definitions are true for acceleration in 3D printing. The main feature is that instead of …
Chessbots now for sale!
If there is anyone reading this blog who doesn’t have their own 3D printer and has just been waiting for this announcement, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. You can to etsy and get your very own chessbot now. There is an opponent set coming, I just need to spend some development time on it, and the other …
Not back to production yet
It’s been a busy weekend. I’ve been making adjustments trying to get my printer back to the quality it had before without sacrificing the speed it’s gained. So most of my prints have been in the interest of small prints that test the settings. A rattleback, a scaled down the toothpaste squeezer to finish my showdown, finished and uploaded my …
Hoo, look at the detail
Holy smokes that’s small. In the middle is a king from my meta chess set. That’s the only part I’ve printed because I wasn’t sure it was even going to work. What prompted me to try was that I found the magnetic travel chess set that my kids lost the king to ages ago. So I thought I printed the …
Steps to take if you are having trouble with the Replicator firmware 5.5
I am back to printing at an… acceptable print quality. There’s still some dialing in to do but for now I’m no longer failing miserably. Here’s what I did for anyone else who may have a similar problem: Under the “Model to GCode” dialog click “defaults” and click “Load Replicator Defaults”. Under “Plastic” make sure your Filament diameter is accurate. …
The toothpaste battle
I did this and typed it all up before the whole upgrade fiasco that I am still in the middle of. So let’s remember a happier time a week ago when my only worry was what toothpaste squeezer was best… The contenders: Starno’s tube squeezer (Top) Alany’s tube key (Left) PrintTo3D’s basic toothpaste extruder (Right) The results were surprising. Before …
DIS A POINTED!
I have to remind myself that the purpose of writing this blog is to give a candid idea of what it’s like to own a 3D printer. Well, it was pretty good for a while there, but now… Somehow things got worse in my attempt to make them better. So I try to restore ReplicatorG to it’s pre-tinkered with state, …
Well… it is faster
I printed this piece so I could have something to compare the new print quality versus the old print quality and I was surprised that the new print quality went to crap. It prints faster, sure, but what it prints is not as good as it used to be. So I’m going to put some details here and see if …
Which whistle?
The light-weight contender On thingiverse the whistle is one of the more famous designs as it was one of the first that was “shipped” overseas faster than it could have been by any other means. Some guy in Germany designed and printed a whistle, posted it on Thingiverse, and Bre in New York printed his own and the whole process …