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 …
Good Sketchup Links
Before I settled on Blender for all my modeling needs I experimented with many different programs including Sketchup. It was owned by Google when I started playing with it, now its owned by Trimble. Some people seem to like it, but it never really worked for me mostly because getting STLs out of it was more trouble than it was worth. But …
Fixing the crack by poking holes
Problem: Printing large flat surfaces in ABS causes cracks in the final build. Theory: Increasing the plastic around corners will strengthen adhesion. Method: Adding little holes in the print around the corners the result will use the shells to increase the plastic around the corners. I’ve proven that more plastic does decrease cracks, but adding extra shells adds plastic everywhere. …
Fixing the Heated Build Platform Cable
When my heated build platform cable burned out my more DIY centric friends suggested I just cut the cable and solder directly to the connectors. Maybe one day, but for now I’ve got the new cable from makerbot support so I’m gonna go that route. The PDF that makerbot sends with instructions to help you install your cable looks like this: …
Filament by the foot is not enough for every job
Today’s lesson is 100g of plastic, while enough to make one side of a pocket tactics game, is not enough to print a whole chess set, even if you scale it down 70%. That is the supposedly clear PLA. Not exactly clear, but it does have a good look. I’ll probably get more and try again. In fact I’ve got a …
Quick Repair to the Ceramic Insulation
I’m a little bit surprised there’s not more about doing this online. It seems to me that the way the insulation is wrapped around the hot end that a lot more people would be having trouble with this. But maybe it’s just me. The goal this time was getting it back to working with the minimum effort possible. So instead …
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 …
Print success by orientation
The story is I’m printing a replacement key that someone who had never done home 3D printing designed. Without thinking I just threw the STL he sent me into the printer instead of looking it over first. Never a good idea. The problem was the peg in the middle was actually raised off the build platform. So when it finally …
3D Printing Tidbit – Shells are important
Okay, lesson learned. There is a reason why shells is one of the options on print-o-matic. Shells are as important to successful prints as filament diameter. I was having a terrible time printing stacking bins without cracking. I moved the Replicator somewhere warmer, slowed the print down, sped it up, increased printing temp, lowered it, all to no effect. Finally …
Don’t fear the update tutorial video
There are some people who are afraid to update their makerbot firmware. It’s really not that bad. Sorry about the crappy and dark video, but I just wanted to show what it was like. The take away’s from this are: Don’t leave your bot plugged into the USB when its turned off, it can ruin the board. When the update …