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I've been without a 3d printer for over half a year now

They both just kept breaking while working on some stuff for http://enablingthefuture.org/ and my bubble gum repairs wasn't holding them together anymore.

My 'Scribbler' (named in part for it's original creator and the fact that I have it set up for fast, sloppy prints) is the easier fix as I can fix it with tools and not printed parts.

I've only had the parts for maybe 3 months? Finally got to modifying the bits so they work together.

It's amazing how much better buying a few parts for a few bucks works.

In album Scribbler Short Bowden Tube mark 2

I machined part of the sholders off on the brass fitting so it would sit in the carrier and made a plastic nut. The intent is that it matches the groove mount that the EZstruder can work with so well.

The fitting now just sits in the EZstruder like it was made for it.

The bottom piece I just drilled out with a varibit, reamed a bit with a flat screwdriver and pushed hard to get the NPT threads to bite into the plastic. As long as this bit doesn’t get hot enough to soften the PLA I think I should be fine.

The updated short bowden tube.

A google plus auto-awesome animated gif. The right #3DBenchy failed due to a loose connection on the extruder wiring. The left one is my 2nd successful print with the new feed system. The current print is a few tweaks to get it to print faster, better.

Playing with the new Microsoft Hyperlapse app. Lets face it printing videos are only interesting to the people who’s machine it is. The print motion is a bit twitchy, but it’s a twitchy printer. The pan motion is very nice and smooth.

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Busted! Again!

The mirror print bed broke when I tried to heat the bed up to ABS temps. It looks like a 2nd temp sensor is just a touch high and created a stress point. PLA temps didn't cause any problems with it.

One thing I noticed is when I used just the shard of mirror, the temperature quickly climbed that last 10 degrees. The temperature sensor was no longer under the mirror. The mirror must be radiating heat faster than the plain PCB board? Anybody have any science on this?

I put 2 pieces of tape down to hold some heat around the part as the printer is out in the open in my cold basement. I got a lot less lifting printing straight to glass with a bit of hairspray than I expected.

In album 2013-08-01

Broken bits of my print surface laying on the edge of the aquarium next to my printer. It’s a cheap IKEA mirror tile, so I will cut another and edge it this time. I also will adjust the sensor that the glass broke over.

Printing on a shard of my broken bed. The blue tape is to create a warm pocket of air to reduce ABS curl.

This part lifted surprisingly little for it’s shape & printing in an open basement. Less than a mm lift that worked back less than a cm. First print with the ABS after switching from PLA, so I am sure the first few layers where contaminated with PLA and I didn’t have the temps tuned right for clean printing.

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I made a toybox for the living room

No, not for my toys – that's called a toolbox, or a pole barn. This is for my kids toys. To hide them. Because toys need to be hidden. 

I used a mix of power tools, old school hand tools, and high-tech RepRap 3D printers.

A Stereoscopic Photo Essay…

In album Toy Box

I made a custom toybox to match our IKEA flatpack dresser that we use for a TV center in the living room. It’s designed to look similar, but not exactly the same.

Bella was happy to help move the wood on the cart.

Bella helped with the straps.

She loved that dad was making a toybox with ribbons.

The bungie and rope is a neat trick. You can open up the corners to glue them easily and it all holds together nicely.

No worries, I will just print another.

See! More corner clamps in the making. I love my 3d printer.

The first model in black, and the ones sized for my straps are in green.

Installing the edge trim. Clamping it a lot, but lightly. The tape held the trim on until I could strap it.

The side edges went first, as they are what’s most visable, then the long bottom edge, then the short bottom edge.

I cut some interior nailers and reinforcing ribs.

Julie wanted to help. She’s inspecting the inside for me.

I used a cheap plastic miterbox to do all the angled cuts for this. Much quicker than running out to use the radial arm for every cut.

Bella wanted to help sand the inside. And I used masking tape for masking. Amazing, considering I got this roll for my 3d printer for PLA printing.

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Printing tools to make a toybox

I made something to help me make something. If this trend continues, I can see a dangerous chain of events occurring at some far point in the future.

A friend of mine and I designed on a napkin (Actually, it may have been a white board, but bear with me) some corner brackets so we can use simple ratchet straps as corner clamps for large woodworking projects.

I wrote some OpenScad code to model our idea and uploaded the thing to http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45754.

3d printed plastic Ratchet Strap Corner Bracket
The corner brackets feature a lip to help keep them from sliding out from under the strap. They also feature a glue slot to help keep them from getting glued to the project.

I used these little plastic bits to help me make a toybox for my children. I will soon make a 2nd one as well, but, lets just stick to the story about the first toy box for now. And Ratchet Straps… And 3d Printers… And Stereoscopic photographs – because at least that way people have a better experience when looking at my website and go cross-eyed.

Toy Box strapped together
I used some ratchet straps to hold the toy box together while I am test-fitting the pieces.
StereoScopic Photo of a #RepRap printing plastic parts
I printed the corner clamp brackets out on my MakerGear Prusa Mendal RepRap 3d Printer. I just love that tool… Wait… I made a tool to make some tools to make a toybox… See, this is starting to get dangerous.
toybox held together with ratchet strap and plastic bits
The plastic corner brackets allow me to tighten the ratchet straps up much tighter.
plastic corner strap guide
The lip on the plastic bracket helps keep everything where I set it. The strap doesn’t dig into the tip of the wood so I can slide the corner up and down and in and out to get a better joint.
a box assembly trick
There is the wooden base there, but it’s not visable. The rope and bungee cord helped keep the box held together while I glued everything up. I can slide an end panel out, smother it in glue, and fit it back in place. The rest of the boards didn’t try to fall over because of the bungee (I’d removed the 2 straps for the gluing phase)
little girl playing with ratchet straping
Bella loved that I was making her toy box with ribbons! She helped me sort out the straps and untangle them.
little girl untangling a strap
Believe it or not, this is a big help. She LOVES helping. I am a bit bummed as I had to keep her away from this one due to the gorilla glue…
boxed clamped together with ratchet straps
Three sets of straps seems to have held the box together well.
broken corner bracket
I broke one of the corner brackets. The hook lined the strap up just right that it put extra force on the bracket and I crushed it.
upside down strapped box
I turned everything upside down and glued and strap-clamped the bottom on. This one didn’t get the plastic bits, as they where still printing and I was impatient, and the strapping dug into the wood pretty bad.
corner bracket
The corner brackets sure do make the ratchet strap clamps work nicely.
broken corner bracket
I am thinking of how to redesign the brackets so they won’t break like this one did. Luckily they are pretty easy for me to replace.
printing corner brackets
The brackets take about an hour to print each or so. I can just start the printer, and walk away and let it do it’s thing while I do my thing. This batch was given away to those who had input in the design.

 

For those who are wanting to print their own http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45754 brackets, my print settings for the UltaMachine 3mm Green PLA are:

 generated by Slic3r 0.9.8 on 2013-03-10 at 23:03:36
 layer_height = 0.15
 perimeters = 2
 top_solid_layers = 4
 bottom_solid_layers = 3
 fill_density = 0.30
 perimeter_speed = 60
 infill_speed = 100
 travel_speed = 130
 scale = 1
 nozzle_diameter = 0.35
 filament_diameter = 2.85
 extrusion_multiplier = 1
 perimeters extrusion width = 0.56mm
 infill extrusion width = 0.56mm
 first layer extrusion width = 0.38mm