Tag 3D printing

Empty Filament Spool & Scrap Wood Wagon

Sandra James 1 Comment
Wagon design render

It is almost consistently warm enough in Chicago to continue with the solar oven trials. Thinking about last year’s trials, I realized that the solar oven peformed best during the first day on the ground in the park. It makes sense to return to the park this year. A means of transporting the oven to the park is needed. Since I had four empty filament spools and remembering Chuck’s Spool racer, my thoughts went toward making a wagon. I have a hand truck that converts to a 4-wheel platform cart, but it’s not something I would want to push to a park. A wagon could be the best transport for the oven, I thought and set about searching for methods of making a wagon. I found a video on the Popular Mechanics YouTube channel that provided the best information for the type of wagon I intended to make.

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Desktop Printer 3D Printable Chair With Cushion – Chair Design Series, Part 6, Iteration 1

Sandra James 2 Comments

The first iteration of an entire chair is complete! Chair dimensions are 16″ L x 13″ D x 36″ H. All chair parts were printed on desktop printers CR10 mini and MK3s+; bed sizes – 12″ x 9″ and 11″ x 8″. The filaments used to print the chair were 3dPrintlife Pro PLA, PLA/PHA, and Dura Nylon. What follows are photos and a few notes.

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Can Vases Be Printed Watertight in Vase Mode?

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In the “Dura: PLA based biodegradable Nylon Analog” blog post, I mentioned that I had not tried using the optimized bottom/ ironing-enabled method with other filaments. Later, I performed tests on vases using three types of filaments; Dura Nylon PLA, Pro PLA by 3D Printlife, and PLA by Push Plastic. The definition of watertight for these tests is the vase holds water for more than 2 weeks without leaking. The results of my tests are that vase diameter, filament, the top fill pattern, and slicer are all factors in making watertight vase mode vases.

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Asking Yourself the Patent Question

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Photo credit: Michael Neubert

As active owners of desktop 3d printers, we inevitably arrive at a point where we ask ourselves about pursuing a patent for something we have invented. Inventiveness is one of the intangibles emanating from frequent use of a desktop 3d printer. Inventions may be insignificant at the beginning; still, the potential for significant ones constantly looms in the background. The more we learn about our machines, designing prints, and 3d printing in general, the closer we get to creations we think are wholly unique. We find ourselves asking, “Should I get a patent for this?” To answer this question, we must determine if our invention qualifies for a patent and if it has commercial potential.

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Solution to Resume after Pause Problem

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After installing a Microswiss Direct Drive extruder, I had one issue – the print end would not return to its last position after pressing pause. Since I did not use the pause feature often, I was not in a hurry to find a solution. However, I started to really miss being able to make multicolor prints. I finally contacted Microswiss and asked for help. A couple of weeks after back and forth emails, a super-knowledgeable and conscientious person named Paul found a solution. It was a retraction issue in the slicer.

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What’s Special About Ender 3?

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Occasionally, when I am cruising through a Facebook 3D printing group to find answers to questions or wanting to help others looking for answers, I get the feeling that Creality Enders are all the rage. I see what seems to be endless announcements of new Ender 3 purchases. I own a different Creality printer and when I see the announcements I wonder if people know what they are in for. I have seen many complaints about the printer; especially a couple of years ago. It turns out that I am the one with the limited imagination. I failed to see the printer’s potential. Enders are open source, starter printers and if it had been around when I bought my first printer in 2016, I would never have sold it or given it away.

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