Frank
Thank you for joining us.
This is episode 62 of Amateur 3D Podcast, a podcast by amateur printers for amateur printers, where we share our thoughts and experience.
Panelists this week are me, Franklin Christensen and my friends, Chris Weber, Andy Codham and Kevin Buckner.
Chris
Hi.
Frank
And I was reading the script and I still got lost.
It’s been one of those weeks.
You guys had a good Thanksgiving?
Andy
Did, yes.
Yes.
A lot of food.
A lot of food.
Chris
Yeah.
Par for the course.
Kevin
Yep.
Frank
Good deal.
Chris
Minus the extra work being piled on, but yeah.
Andy
Got some more vehicles and stuff you’re working on.
Chris
Yeah.
Well, so I’ve been, I’ve been waiting a little bit longer than I probably ought to have.
It took me two months to get this engine I ordered, but it finally showed up on Wednesday.
So yeah, should have it finished up and in sometime tomorrow.
So
Andy
yeah.
Chris
Yeah.
Frank
Because you were amazing.
Andy
I guess that was an obvious of a question is, are you breathing with, do you got more work?
Chris
Yes.
And still doing the, the, the remodel on, on the child’s room and you know, I got the top coat of mud on and so it should be ready to paint here very, very soon.
Andy
Nice.
Frank
Good deal.
Andy
There is something nice about painting an area.
I just went through and redid my window stoops or stools, the window sills before I get new windows put in the house here over this next month.
That way it’s just got some, you know, good fresh painted wood to be able to seal to when they caulk it, but it does, it makes the house just feel better when you start throwing some paint down.
Chris
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
In fact, last summer I, I had to go through and scrape off some of the window sills because this, the paint was, I don’t even know how old it was painted before I bought the house and some of it started chipping up.
So you know, I’d scrape it all down, give it a light sanding and then pop a new coat of paint on it and just made them look so much better.
Andy
Yeah.
You know what, hey, that reminds me.
something that I didn’t bring up over the past couple weeks that was a nice little 3D printing moment and that was, I’ve got my orbital sander.
It’s a cheap Harvard freight one, but it’s been kicking butt for me for the last, you know, so several, several years, but it always tears the little levers on the side where you put the paper in place, always tears through the paper.
And that was, it was making me angry when I was trying to use the darn thing.
So I sat down on the solid works and made little, I don’t know what you would call it, little pieces of rubber out of TPU that would go in between the wire that clamps down and the sandpaper itself.
That way the TPU would be pushing down on the sandpaper and grabbing it better than just the raw wire itself did, but that’s still got that first piece of sandpaper on there and it’s still working great.
So it makes me wonder why, I mean, it is just a cheap one that I got and I don’t know how better ones are, you know, put together as far as how they mount the sandpaper to the bottom, but made a big difference on that one.
I’m surprised I forgot to bring that one up for things I printed.
Yeah, that was one of those nice moments where you just, you need a solution, you set down for five minutes and then you sat down the printer for another maybe five minutes and then bam, you got two rubber fittings you can go just use, you know.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
One of those nice moments.
Frank
I haven’t referenced my toothpaste squeezer for a long time and we even did topics on useful prints.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
It never came to mind because it was such a stupid little avoid thing with a slot in it that it just wasn’t a high priority.
Chris
We might want to talk about all the little things because like this last week, I found a one of those little things and printed it up and didn’t even think about it until you guys started saying something that you guys know those measuring tapes for sewing, right?
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
So it’s just a little roller for that.
So you fit the measuring tape in it, clip it together and then you just roll one side and it rolls it all up inside this little nice little container.
Andy
Oh, that’s cool.
Chris
And then, yeah.
And I showed that to the wife and printed it up and everything and she was oddly ecstatic for this tiny little thing.
Kevin
Nice.
Andy
That’s good.
I think the 3D printers are starting to get too commonplace in our worlds then we’re not even thinking about what we are using them for when we do use them for those quick one-offs.
Frank
Ubiquitous with I got a small problem that I can fix in 10 minutes.
Andy
Yeah.
I like that.
Chris
Yeah.
They are our problem solvers.
Kevin
Yep.
Frank
Yep.
Kevin
Oh, yo
Frank
jinx, pinch poke, you owe me a coke.
Chris
Anyway, that’s the only thing I’ve done this week.
So if we can move on to Andy or Kevin.
Andy
That was Chris’s, huh?
Frank
Well, Andy is off screen and we’d like to see up there he is.
What’d you do this week, Andy?
Besides cough?
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry.
I don’t mean to.
I’m sick.
Frank
He muted us, muted himself, he muted himself and then he turned his head to cough.
It’s interesting just the social things that we do that don’t necessarily jive specifically with technology.
Anyway.
Andy
Oh, I mean, you got to keep up with the routines though too.
Like I don’t know about you, but if I’m driving in my car alone and burp or something, you still verbally excuse yourself because if you don’t, it’s going to get out of habit and then you’re going to be that guy, you know…
Frank
because you practice or you perform how you practice type thing.
Andy
Amen.
Amen.
But yeah, so as far as what I’ve done is not a lot since last week, I did mention last podcast, but you know, we got the holidays starting to come up here and Thanksgiving and stuff and that was occupying quite about my time and that proved to be true.
I haven’t done anything with my model for the sandworm or 3D printing related at all.
The wife does have me, you know, we got the laser cutter and that’s been opening up a few doors and the wife wanted to make some gifts for her family and for her siblings because they usually buy each other something small for Christmas and she’s got several siblings.
I think there’s like eight or nine or 10 or something.
There’s a lot of them.
I don’t… miscountet, but so she found some models on Thingiverse that were Star Wars models that made of wood using a laser cutter.
And so we’ve been grabbed a bunch of those models, all one guy did them.
They’re really nice.
I wound up throwing them a couple of bucks for that because that was, his models are really high quality.
You guys seen the pictures that I’ve sent you on those, they’re pretty neat and then the wife’s group of friends usually do like a gift exchange and so she wanted to do something else with the laser cutter.
She found a nice image of a mermaid, put a nice border around it because it’s her mermaid group friends that she’s doing this with and we etched that out last night, took quite three hours to etch that board, that what is it like a 16 by 16 inch board, something like that.
It’s pretty big.
It’s about this big, but got full image on there of this mermaid with a border around it and then we’re going to stain it and make it look pretty and that’s going to be the gift for that.
So the laser cutter has gotten a lot of use and a lot of work, but the 3D printer unfortunately it’s been sitting kind of dry.
However, the wife did also tell me I need to print a couple of things for some other gifts for her family, the white elephant gifts that we do every year.
She thought it’d be fun if we print some stuff for that.
Chris
You’re not going to print an actual white elephant?
Andy
That’s actually not a bad idea.
Frank
Put it in a box.
Andy
Do you guys have any idea where white elephant, the whole concept of why it’s called white elephant, where that come from?
Frank
Not off the top of my head, but…
Andy
that’s going to be a research thing because I don’t know, but yeah, you got to…
Kevin
If I remember correctly, it had something to do with way back in the day, elephants being the huge exotic creatures that people didn’t get to see much was kind of a popular thing to have a porcelain elephant.
But then at some point it just became too much and so it was like the gift and nobody, people got tired of it and didn’t want it anymore and so then they’re like, hey, this is a white elephant.
Chris
Well, here’s the thing from Google is from the story that the kings of Siam gave such animals as a gift to courtiers they disliked in order to ruin the recipient by the great expense incurred maintaining the animal.
So it’s not just an expensive thing because it’s an elephant, it’s a super expensive thing because it’s a white elephant.
Kevin
And I do believe you meant Siam?
Chris
Siam.
Yeah.
But yes, I am.
Andy
Yeah.
I learned something new.
So anyway, we got a white elephant thing to do with my wife’s side of the family and we got to bring three gifts and I grabbed one of them.
I ordered 100,000��100,000in100 bills and I’m going to wrap them in brown paper with some powdered sugar and maybe some red splotches of paint, of brownish paint, red brown paint that look like dried blood and then I’m going to wrap that up so it looks like drug paraphernalia.
And that’s going to be one of the white elephant gifts and the wife wants to 3D print the other two.
So we got a little bit of contrast in the concepts here.
Frank
So I did join a white elephant last year and Candice came in and grabbed all of the benchies out of my waste bin and we put them in a box and gifted them as our white elephant gift that year.
Andy
That’s a good idea.
I like that.
That is.
That is.
Frank
It was amusing.
My father-in-law got them and he’s like, what are these?
And Carl was like, oh, they’re benchies and that’s all he got.
Andy
I think she wants me to print up one of those flexible dragons for at least one of them and I haven’t made one of those yet.
I was supposed to make one for her a long time ago and never did and she’s reminded me today that I never had done that.
So…
Frank
there’s a few of them out there.
Most of them are really good though.
Chris
Yeah.
This spiral one that I printed for the wife last time, the way it’s done is it has the four legs.
It’ll stand upright and then the whole tail of the dragon is articulated.
So it’s kind of a little bit of both.
So there’s an idea.
Andy
She sent me links for the one that she wants a long time ago.
I just got to go dig them up, but got to stay out of the doghouse for that one and then see which one she wants me to print up for the white elephant.
So I’m sure I’ll be running the printer for those things and I’ve got some of that nice like tri-colored plastic that Chris got back in the day and I’m going to make them out of that.
But that’s really all my plans.
I mean, there’s a lot going on.
So next podcast, I probably won’t have a lot either because I’m going to spend this weekend getting all the Christmas decorations and things up, taking down all the Thanksgiving Day stuff.
Frank
Cool.
Chris
So.
Frank
So Kevin…
Chris
it’s not just nuts, it’s queez nuts.
Frank
ChristmaHanukkahKwanzika.
For anybody who watched Orange County back in the day.
Andy
That one was the one that was always.
Frank
No, that one was from the singular commercial.
Christmaca was from Orange County.
Andy
Sorry.
Oh, gotcha.
Frank
Anyway, Kevin, you do anything this week?
Kevin
Yeah, I did.
I did quite a bit actually.
So I printed that tube rack that I was talking about and then in order, I didn’t think I was going to have enough time to print all the side support plate things on the FDM printer.
So I printed them on the SLA printer.
And a funny thing that happened with that was that I pulled, when I pulled the plates out of the printer, there was a cat hair poking out of one of them.
It had somehow gotten into the resin vat and gotten incorporated into the print job.
Andy
Oh, that’s funny.
Chris
It’s amazing It didn’t ruin your print or anything.
That’s kind of nice.
Kevin
Right.
I mean, and so upon further inspection, I could see that the cat hair was going completely through the plate.
It wasn’t just embedded in it.
It was like poking all the way through.
Unfortunately, for some reason, the support plates when I printed them on the SLA printer were somewhere between three and five millimeters too long for the pieces of the tube rack.
Andy
Oh, that’s a weird
Chris
Size didn’t match, huh?
So do you have on your SLA software, does it tell you how big your print is?
Kevin
Yeah.
But I didn’t really pay attention to that because I haven’t needed to do any size adjustments when I printed on the FDM printer.
And so I thought, you know, since I designed the piece to be a specific size, I thought that’s what it was going to be.
And the holes were the right size.
Oh, that’s weird.
So it’s like, I don’t know.
Frank
There’s a little out of spec in a weird place.
Kevin
Yeah.
Next time I try to do that on the SLA printer, I will have to take that into consideration and actually look at the scale of it and adjust accordingly.
But I ended up having enough, just barely enough time to actually print all the pieces on the FDM printer.
So that was fine.
Another thing I did, like I said, last week, I had changed the FEP.
I mean, I did that while on the podcast.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
I tried the headless horseman again, and it worked.
Frank
It came out great.
Kevin
Yeah.
The funny thing is though, when I went to check on it to see if it had worked, my initial thoughts were, yes, it worked.
Yay.
And then I pulled the build plate out and turned it over and saw that there was no head and had that all of, no, the head didn’t work, and I was like, wait a minute.
Chris
Oh, that’s great.
Frank
That one’s on purpose.
Kevin
Yeah.
And then I also, I printed up a couple of these guys.
Chris
Oh, that’s the Mimic ornament.
That’s pretty nice.
Kevin
Yeah.
So for visual listeners, it’s an ornament, but it’s got like four or five eyes, kind of like a mismatched spider and a big gnarly Mimic mouth.
Kevin
Yeah.
Huge.
Andy
That is neat.
Kevin
Sharp teeth.
So my plan is that I’m going to get this all painted up, and I’m going to put it on the Christmas tree and see how long it takes for me to notice.
Andy
Oh, there you go.
Chris
Did you make this one?
Frank
No, he got it in a, was it Loot Crate?
Kevin
Loot Studios.
Frank
Loot Studios, yeah.
Chris
Oh, okay.
Frank
It was that in the Alien from the DC movie.
Kevin
There was an Alien star tree topper.
Frank
Yeah.
The Alien itself is from the one where they’re all prisoners.
Kevin
I don’t know that it was the same Alien as in the Suicide Squad.
Frank
It looked like it was though.
That’s a Suicide Squad.
Kevin
Kind of similar, I suppose.
Frank
On a thing.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Kevin
Anyway.
So I’ve done a couple of those.
And then I tried to print up on the FDM printer an articulated bat, because my nephew was at an event a few years ago, actually.
And he, there was a guy there selling 3D printed articulated bats and other 3D printed things.
And he really wanted one, but this guy was charging like 10 bucks for em.
My sister said, I’m pretty sure Kevin can hook us up.
This was before I had an FDM printer.
And I did try to print it on the SLA printer way back in the day.
And we talked about it at that point, and it did not work on.
Frank
I was going to say this sounds like a familiar story.
Kevin
Yeah.
So I tried to print it on the FDM printer, and I walked away and came back after an hour or so to see how it was doing.
And it had shifted the build plate to the right that was not working.
So I started it again, like I stopped it, got it all cleaned up, started it again to watch exactly where it would fail.
And it was on one of the left wings, the like the second segment to the left from the body.
When it started trying to print there, there was no bed adhesion.
So it was just kind of like spaghetti-ing all over.
And I think what happened was the nozzle caught the spaghetti and just shifted the build plate to the left.
So I don’t know why that happened.
So I think I need to re-tram the bed.
Chris
Yep.
Frank
My assumption with something like that has always been that I touched it, and it doesn’t take a lot of your finger oils or something like that to be a problem.
And I started using the, it’s not the skirt.
What is it?
Kevin
Raft?
Frank
No.
The raft takes up four layers, and I’ve been trying to move away from that.
The one that starts at the edge and moves out is that…
Chris
Oh.
A brim.
Frank
A brim.
Because it ties everything together, and even the little places where it doesn’t necessarily stick very well, it’ll be stuck to everything else.
So it’s a good middle ground if you don’t want to take the nuclear option and hairspray it down.
Kevin
Right.
Well, and see, Chris has said that hairspray with the textured bed makes it impossible to remove.
And I’ve got a textured bed.
It’s a very textured bed, but the skirt works fine.
So yeah, it might just be the finger oil to do.
So I can try it again with the brim.
Chris
Yeah.
I take it in levels.
So I try my normal print, if that doesn’t work, you know, I’ll start with a brim.
And if that doesn’t work, then I’ll, then I’ll go nuclear and go with the hairspray.
But you can get it off the bed with the hairspray.
You just have to let everything cool down and use a proper scraper.
Kevin
Scrapers are kind of hard with my, with my super textured bed, though, like it’s, it’s very textured.
You could look at it and see that it’s textured.
Andy
Oh, really?
Chris
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, mine is too, but again, you know, I just use one of those.
It’s not an actual, it’s a scraper, but it’s not like a razor knife scraper.
It’s
Kevin
yeah.
Frank
Yeah.
It’s a painting knife.
It’s an oil paint knife.
Chris
Yeah.
So.
Kevin
Okay.
Frank
And they’re actually less expensive if you go to buy them for anyone listening.
They’re less expensive.
If you go buy them as an oil paint knife, than if you buy them as a 3D painter scraper.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
Frank
3D printer scraper.
Andy
I think I still use the cheap old paint scraper that my printer originally came with.
It’s got like a crappy wood handle and about as cheap as you can get, but it was, it’s still been my go-to this entire time.
Chris
So.
Frank
Yeah.
I got a, I got a putty knife with mine.
Chris
Yep.
Frank
I use, I use a putty knife.
Chris
Oh yeah.
That’s exactly what I used to get.
So.
Andy
Yeah.
Works good.
Chris
Yeah.
So get a putty knife to pull it off after you’ve used hairspray.
Frank
And at the hardware store, you can get a decent one for like 10 bucks, five, 10 bucks.
Chris
Or less.
Yeah.
I actually used to work maintenance at the mall of Warts.
And so I had a handy dandy scraper to pull, pull gum up off of the floor.
And I still have it.
And that’s actually what I, what I’m using.
So.
Andy
It’s good to repurpose that kind of stuff.
Kevin
And I, I do have the scrape putty knife scraper that came with the printer.
But in my experience, this just has not been very good at getting stuff off of the build plate.
I’ve got a flexible one though.
So I bend that to get stuff off.
Maybe that would work with, if, if I was using hairspray.
Chris
Yeah.
Anyway, you guys are going to get my outro that we decided not to use.
It’s a, I printed a scraper, but no, I can’t get it off my printer.
Andy
That’s a good one.
That’s a good one.
Frank
Uh, yeah.
That’s as bad as the, the scissors or the snips that are zip tied to their, uh, together.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
They’re zip tied closed and to the package.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Yeah.
3D print your scraper there Chris
Chris
Yeah.
I’m done.
I’m done interjecting.
Sorry.
Andy
I was considering doing that the other day, like, um, uh, so I got when, when, when my bathtub was installed, I don’t think the surround was screwed down tightly to the, the base.
And now it’s all put in to the bathroom and, and all that years ago.
But, um, I went to, I’ve got a problem with it leaking.
And so I’d go and caulk around the bathtub to connect the surround to the tub.
And I would always develop a crack along it.
And I thought I just don’t know how to caulk, you know, I’m just not good at this.
So I’m the one causing the problem.
So I’m ripping the caulk off, trying again, trying again, get frustrated.
I’ll try it a couple of years later.
And, um, uh, to this, to this time, I tried a couple of weeks ago.
I realized when I’m standing in the bathtub doing the caulking that I can see it actually moving a little bit.
It’s moving about the thickness of a penny between the two…
Frank
but it’s separating while you’re in it.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it’s just my, my weight on the bathtub, the bottom base of the bathtub that is pulling it down just a little bit.
And so that got me thinking like, okay, what do I do about this?
Did a little research.
There’s some stretchy caulk you could use that will solve this problem.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
But I got to remove all the old caulk and a while back with, um, some of the printer crap that I’ve purchased in the, in the past, where they give you a little extras, they gave a little plastic, um, a scraper for the printer.
And I never want to use it, but it was sitting on top on top of the, uh, my dryer here forever.
And I figured, oh, that would be great to go in there, grab that to get the caulk off because it won’t scrape the bathtub, but it will scrape the caulk.
And, uh, I went to go find it and couldn’t find it.
So I’m the first thought after that is I, maybe I could just 3D print a small scraper that I could use for the bathtub where that was going was 3D printing a scraper.
But yeah.
Chris
Yeah.
Kevin
Well, it took the long way to get there a little bit.
Frank
The plastic ones that you get at the hardware store, just injection molded and shaped with an edge.
So…
Andy
it is true, but that means I’d have to leave the house with the kids.
Frank
No, I’m saying you should be able to print one off because it’s not going to be that much different.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
I mean, the injection molded one will probably be a little bit stronger, but it depends on how long you expect it to last.
Andy
Yeah.
I need just a one time use thing.
Frank
Don’t beat the out of it and you should be fine.
Andy
Yeah.
Well, I’m hoping I’d be able to beat the crap out of a little bit, but you know, I was going to, I was looking up to start that dragon that I was talking about, but I think I will throw a thing of a scraper on there.
Chris
Yeah.
Frank
Just don’t let your side quests get you in trouble with the wife.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
Yeah.
Chris
Got to finish the main story.
Frank
Got to get those main quests done too.
Andy
Yeah.
No kidding.
And I’m already kind of in the doghouse for forgetting about it to begin with.
Frank
For the last year.
Yeah.
Don’t need to remind me every six months.
Andy
Yeah.
Well, it’s the way she said it too, because she says, hey, you remember that dragon that you were going to print me a while back that you never did?
Can we do that for the white elephant?
Frank
Prompt.
Prompt.
Prompt.
Andy
It was like really rubbing it in.
Oh, I forgot about that.
I’m so sorry.
Frank
In the end, it’s fair.
Let’s be honest about it.
We earned the criticism.
Andy
Oh, yeah.
Definitely.
I completely messed that one up.
Chris
I try to keep the communication open as far as her expectations.
So I go, okay, if there was something you wanted me to do and I didn’t get around to, it is okay to remind me.
Just don’t be mean about it.
Frank
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
Yep.
Yep.
Andy
I hate it when somebody wants you to print something and you get all excited.
It’s like, yes, we could do that and then they start throwing at you what they wanted.
It’s something that’s impossible and it feels like whenever anybody asks me to print something like that, it’s like, yeah, I would love to do that for you.
We could definitely do that.
And then everything that they point out, it’s like, oh, that’s not going to work the way you want it to.
Chris
Yeah.
Frank
The one that gets me.
Chris
You don’t throw a fit.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
The one that gets me in trouble is there’s a lot that I want to do.
So my wife will be like, yeah, let’s do this.
And I’ll be like, I can print that or I can build that or I can project that.
And it actually kind of became a joke where she’s like, should we do this?
And it’s like, yeah, let’s put it on the list.
It doesn’t physically go on the list because it just gets too long to do.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
So…
Chris
a list is a great thing to do.
Frank
Indeed.
Yeah.
Well, it takes a project to build the list, and which is why there’s no physical list to track everything that’s on the list because it’s on the list.
Kevin
One of my favorite sayings, though, is listen, ladies, when a man says he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it.
There’s no need to remind him about it every six months.
Andy
I like that.
I like…
Frank
Chris’s shirt there, right?
Kevin
I don’t know.
Chris
I’ve got a little can cozy that’s got that on it.
Frank
Maybe that’s where I saw it.
I’m pretty sure I have this memory of seeing it at your place.
I can’t remember how I saw it.
Chris
It’s the little canned cozy I have on my display shelf by all the Coke stuff.
Yeah.
Frank
Yeah.
That would be it.
Because that’s where we do the game night stuff, too, when we do it.
All right.
Well, a quick summary for me.
I didn’t do nothing this week except for gorge on turkey mashed potatoes and pork butt.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
You’ve done it right.
Frank
So yeah.
We did get together early today specifically so that I could go spend more Thanksgiving time with yet another branch of the family.
So if you guys don’t have anything else, let’s wrap this up.
Kevin
Okay.
Frank
All right.
We’d like to thank everyone for listening to the very end.
Chris
The very, very, very, very end.
Frank
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You can find us in our Facebook group, Amateur3DPod
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or you can email us individually at Franklin, Kevin, Andy, or Chris @amateur3dpod.com.
Kevin Buckner wrote the music for this episode.
OpenAI’s Whisper completed the heavy lifting for the transcripts, which you can find linked in the description.
Our panelists are me, Franklin Christensen, and my friends, Kevin Buckner, Chris Weber, and Andy Cottam.
And until next time, we’re going offline.
Kevin
Keep your FEP tight.
Andy
Always use hairspray.
Chris
Go big plastic, or go home.