Tips and Techniques Archives - Page 2 of 2

Hot Smoking Fish in the Backcountry

April 12, 2016April 12, 2016 walter

What does my favorite way of cooking fish in the backcountry have to do with 3D printing? Not much, though some of my gear is 3D printed. Still, this way of cooking doesn’t seem as common so I though it was worth sharing and I don’t have a better place to put it. It’s very similar the method shown in this video (which is the one that inspired me to start cooking this way). So if you enjoy backpacking and fishing, here’s my favorite way to cook freshly caught fish. (I also cook fish at home the same way, so it isn’t just for backpackers).

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Using Firmware Retraction with Simplify3D

January 7, 2016January 10, 2016 walter

Why use firmware retraction? It lets you set configure retract and unretract speeds separately, and values can be adjusted mid-print. (Too much stringing? try increasing retraction distance. Nozzle marring previous layers? try increasing z-hop, Getting post-retraction bumps? try slowing the unretract speed or tweaking the restart distance). Simplify3D doesn’t provide native support firmware retraction (as of January 2016), but it does have the ability to do simple gcode post processing. This post describes how to use it to tune retraction speeds or enable firmware retraction. Even if your printer’s firmware doesn’t support firmware retraction, you can still customize the unretraction speed.

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Configuring Octoprint

January 5, 2016January 8, 2016 walter

If you have a brand new Raspberry Pi* and want to set up Octoprint, I’d recommend starting with Thomas Sanladerer’s video, it covers everything you need to get Octoprint up and running. The rest of this covers additional configuration to Octoprint after it has been set up. The case in this picture can be found on Thingiverse.

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RigidBot Modifications

December 14, 2015January 11, 2016 walter

This is my 10in³ Rigidbot, part of the Rigidbot Kickstarter in May of 2013, and delivered in August of 2014. Given the low price and large build area, I wasn’t really expecting a usable printer, but I figured it would be cheaper and easier than buying the parts to build one myself. What was delivered was well beyond what I expected and I’m grateful to Michael Lundwall the Rigidbot team for everything they put into designing, manufacturing, and delivering this printer.

While the RigidBot was a great deal, print quality and reliability out of the box was not as good as my Afinia H-Series* (not surprising as the Rigidbot was a first gen machine sold at 1/4 the price with 6 times the build volume). Since then I’ve upgraded, modified, and rebuilt the printer, it now works much better than the Afinia ever has (I have since given away the Afinia). This list includes the current changes I’ve made to my printer, but does not include the temporary changes I’ve tried along the way. Some of these changes were copied from or inspired by others in the Rigidbot Google+ community.

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Essential Tools for 3D Printing

December 1, 2015January 28, 2017 walter

This is the list of tools that I frequently use with 3D printing, both essential tools and some more specialized ones. Some of these tools may be specific to my setup (glass bed) and may not be needed with your printers. Many of these products will be more common in North America. There are affiliate links in here marked with an *. I earn a small commission on purchases made through these links if you place an order soon after you click it. Many thanks to all those who have ordered through these links.

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Empty Filament Spool Weights and Dimensions

May 28, 2015January 6, 2017 walter

Sometimes, you want to know the weight of an empty spool so you can calculate how much filament you have left on the spool. Here’s the weights of some of the spools I’ve used, along with the dimensions of the spools.

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Raptor Reloaded Print

March 28, 2015December 15, 2015 walter

Recently printed a test hand to send to e-NABLE, a community of volunteers who make free prosthetics like the one below for those who need them.

Raptor Reloaded, scaled to 140% of original
printed on a modified RigidBot
transparent purple PLA from 3D Supply Source and clear MadeSolid PET+
150 micron layer height
100% infill
0.4mm nozzle (line width adjusted per part)
assembly kit from 3D Universe
sliced with Simplify3D

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Vibratory Tumbler – Ceramic

March 25, 2015February 9, 2016 walter

Here’s some pictures from a test using a vibratory tumbler* filled with ceramic media. Some of the ceramic pieces were broken to make smaller pieces.

The original Ollie in dark grey PLA.

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Tumble Coating 3D Prints – Part 4

March 22, 2015December 15, 2015 walter

Stainless steel can work too, and creates a much brighter look, but it takes much longer. This one ran for a couple of days and the coating isn’t as even as the others I’ve tried. I also used larger/longer screws, which I don’t think worked as well as the 1.25″ deck screws.

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Tumble Coating 3D Prints – Part 3

March 17, 2015December 15, 2015 walter

You can also tumble coat in brass, as seen above, but there’s a few things you should know. Brass may contain lead, even it says “lead free” (at least in California). You probably shouldn’t be breathing in brass powder or using it to coat your children’s toys.

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Tumble Coating 3D Prints – Part 2

March 17, 2015December 15, 2015 walter

Here’s the process I used to get the results in the picture. I’m sure there are many ways to do this and I’m still trying different variations, but I’ll describe what has worked so far. I’d encourage experimenting, just be careful when working with alloys that contain lead.

What you need:

3D printed part
rock tumbler
screw tumber media

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Tumble Coating 3D Prints – Part 1

March 17, 2015December 15, 2015 walter

While polishing some Stainless Steel PLA prints in a rock tumbler (more info on this from adafruit), I noticed a regular PLA print was also starting to develop a metallic finish. After a bit of experimentation, I was able to coat white PLA with a dark metallic finish.

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