Kevin
Hi Cra-
Frank
Hey Andy say words
Chris
Hello. Hello, Craig. Hello.
Andy
Hey, Craig.
Frank
Thank you for joining us
This is episode 86 of amateur 3d podcast a podcast by amateur printers for amateur printers
Where we share thoughts and experience
Our panelists this week are me Franklin Christensen and my friends Andy Codham Chris Weber and Kevin Buckner
Good morning guys
Kevin
Good morning.
Chris
Good morning.
Andy
Hi-Di-Ho
How are we doing?
Frank
Not quite as early as we have done the last couple of weeks, but not as bad as we’ve started either
Andy
Very true.
Frank
Kind of middle ground
Andy
At least I was able to join this one, so I’m happy about that.
Frank
Yeah, not having you last week just totally killed our
Our timeline
Andy
Yeah, really, uh, gotta get into the habit of maybe, um, I don’t know, let’s see, you, when you publish the podcast, you do.
So when did you have yesterday’s done, not necessarily published, but done?
Frank
Yesterday’s you mean the last recording
Andy
Yeah, yeah, the last podcast, sorry.
Frank
I’m going to publish or produce
I’m going to produce
last week’s recording today and
Andy
Oh, okay.
Frank
Most recently I’ve been getting the production done at about 1 30 or 2 o’clock in the morning
Andy
Oh my gosh.
Frank
Sunday morning and because the goal is to have the episodes come out Sunday mornings.
I just go in and do a direct publish but if I win, instead of the ADHD, if I win I usually will get the
The I’ll try to get the episode published… produced I’ll try to get it produced and staged so that it goes at midnight tonight
Andy
Oh, okay. That makes sense.
Frank
Local time so either way either way if I get it done early, it’s still not going to go up until Sunday morning
Andy
Yeah, yeah. My only thought was, was, uh, if it was an option to ask for an early released before the podcast so I could listen to what was missed when, you know, I might miss a day, but it’s not, since it’s not done or anything, that’s fine.
And it’s not that important either, but yeah.
Frank
If we ever decide to do something like a, what’s it… where you have patreon if we ever decide to do something like a patreon or something I
will have to be more on top of it. I think
so that we can have at least as one part of the the investment in the podcast is you can get the episodes a week early
I really don’t think that I’m going to worry about it as long as we only have 40 subscribers though
Andy
Yeah, that makes sense.
Frank
We love you guys all 40 of you
Andy
Yes.
Frank
That’s not enough for me to put the kind of effort into it is
Andy
Yeah, it’s all good.
If this was making…
Frank
especially since probably 20 of our subscribers are family and you guys
Maybe bots
Andy
Yeah, or bots scraping for AI models.
Frank
Could be the a number of
Chris
I’d be terrified of the AI modeled after this.
Frank
Because we’re available on with vendors that are not consciously like I’m not pushing the podcast to some vendors.
I imagine that their automated process will scrape say Spotify or iTunes or something like that
for the podcast list for their own podcast and that might be a few of those subscribers as well
Andy
Yeah, I could see that happening. That’s okay. It’s all about this group here that it is for doing it for the listeners anyway. Not that I don’t love the listeners, but yeah.
Frank
Well, and I I don’t want to get too far into that because I know at least three or four people personally
that have subscribed to the podcast also so that there is that balance there are real people listening to me talk about bots and automated processes. So…
Andy
Yeah, that’s good. Okay. Very nice.
Frank
Well Andy you missed last week, did you work on anything two weeks?
Andy
You know what, honestly, I haven’t done a whole lot, but I do got some stuff that I would like to, to talk about here.
Frank
Shocker
Andy
I got a hairspray problem. Nothing, nothing that I’ve tried, it is, is as good as RAV4, RAV4X was for me.
And right now I’m using Aquanet because it’s kind of the best and it’s what everybody recommends for those of us who use hairspray and it works, but it’s not, not as nearly as good.
I used to be able to claim that I could print it, you know, a full 300 by 300 millimeter funnel with a 10 millimeter spigot on my printer with no problem and I really believe that with no kind of adhesion, but not anymore.
And in fact, even things like my little drawer boxes that I’ve been making, which are 120 millimeters by 80 millimeters footprint on the build place on the on the build plate.
I am, I’m having, you know, issues with corners lifting.
Unless I do like a brim on stuff like this, I have adhesion problems like traditional adhesion problems I’m having to use you can see on this one here I used helper disks, and even, you know, small helper disks still didn’t really help the lifting of this one.
Frank
Is it still flexed a little bit?
Andy
Yeah
So, it’s, it’s really kind of disappointing here.
Last night, you know, I’m, I’m making another box or to do a puzzle this weekend with the kids we’ve been, you know, using the laser cutter to cut out our own puzzles of pictures of our family, but I’ve been 3d printing the boxes they go in.
And it’s been really nice it’s been okay and when I printed the the bottom of this box here, I had the corner lift just a little bit it was not enough to call it a bad printer anything like that it was only something you could really notice when you put it on the flat ground.
And they’re looking at it but we’ll probably never even notice when it’s in use, but when I went to print the top I figured the heat my build chamber up and see how, how good that does you know maybe if I heat soak this is just out of PLA.
If I heat soak it I might have some more luck with the adhesion without having to use, you know, a brim or helper disks or something like this I mean these boxes are.
What is this almost 200 millimeters by 150 millimeters footprint
Frank
Okay
Andy
but it’s absolutely square you know, but so I tried heating up the build chamber.
Frank
So got that mirror finish on the bottom
Andy
Yeah, well that that’s just the mirror finish I just get from my printer this is just how it how it does it because I print on plate glass.
So the bottoms of my printer always this nice sexy mirror I mean it is really like your finish.
Frank
Now that’s beautiful man
Andy
But it’s this is before I’ve washed off the hairspray.
So it’s more reflective than it is, but it is this flat and and once I wash off the hairspray it goes to a matte black that you know looks like this.
Frank
More like the inside yeah
Chris
Okay.
Andy
Yeah, so it still looks great but the biggest problem is when I heat soaked this one, I ended up with warping where it’s like the center of the box got pulled in.
This piece is completely destroyed all four corners lifted on the build plate so heat soaking PLA was far worse in this situation for adhesion, and it did more damage on it around the edges so.
Frank
It almost looks like, if I may
Kevin
Yeah,
Frank
it crumpled under its own weight because it wasn’t cool enough as it went higher
Just because it’s flexing in the middle and
But when it finished it would it allowed everything to cool right so
Andy
Maybe. I mean that that could explain that.
Yeah, so I don’t know.
I mean the fact that it didn’t help with the adhesion at all with the corners lifting pretty badly. I mean in the mirror surface you can see where the, the errors were for them.
Frank
Yeah, that one corner especially yeah, it’s all distorted
Andy
Yeah, and it’s all four corners are like that. So I heat soaking is not an option I heat soaked it to 50 degrees Celsius on the inside so it wasn’t even really super hot I thought I would just get it warm in there and.
Frank
That’s basically where I run my my hot plate so
Andy
Yeah, yeah, and that’s the same temperature that I run my bed at as well 50 degrees and so I am I’m thinking about possibly spending some money and maybe like 20 or $30 and just buying all the different kinds of hair spray that are out there, the cheaper kind that have the vinyl stuff in it, and just retrying them myself.
Because the rev the rave four x stuff, no matter what they say that it’s the same formula it is definitely not the same formula it is extremely different, and I’ve gone through four or five different cans of this stuff, while trying to buy the old stuff and getting shipped the new stuff and trying it
because it’s all the same, and it’s not the original. So…
Frank
And you were having this issue before your heat or your power source went out right
Andy
yep, yep this happened before, and I’ve completely cleaned off the bed and completely tried to reset and start over and things like that.
The aquanet seems to be working the same as it always have when I tried to switch from rave for to aquanet because everybody recommends aquanet, I was kind of disappointed because it doesn’t work quite as good it’s it’s very similar, but it’s like the stickiness when it’s hot is less.
The release is more with aquanet when it’s cold. So stuff literally pops off the bed when it cools down. So nothing is attached to the bed at all when I go to pick it up.
When with the rav for sometimes it would still be attached a little bit and you’d have to pop it off.
So there’s that benefit but it’s not nearly as sticky as the rave four was when it’s hot when the rave for was hot. I wouldn’t even try to remove anything off the bed because I would would be feared that I would chip the glass out of the bed kind of sticky like…
Frank
Right
Andy
the times I’ve tried to pop something off with the scraper and really hitting it hard.
I’m feeling like I’m doing damage to other components I’m striking it so hard to try to pop it off so it’s turned into I just don’t try to pull stuff off when it’s hot until it cools down, and then it’s really easy to pop off you know.
And so that’s I think.
Frank
Right you look at it just right and it slides right
Chris
Yeah, which is funny. That’s that happens with my build plate without any additives.
Andy
Yeah, you got a textured build plate too.
Chris
Yeah, big difference.
Andy
So, yeah, yeah, but with that you don’t get the nice mirrored finishes either so there’s kind of a give and take.
And I definitely want to stick with a last plate bed. I mean this is working I just I mean what was me first world problems I’m having to use a little bed adhesion kind of stuff to make my prints work like everybody else does you know I might have to use a brim every once in a while or helper discs.
Chris
Yeah. Um.
I sent you a link so any of us can look at the back of the ingredient list on the new Rave hairspray, and I”m noticing that it’s got…
Andy
Did you compare the old to the new.
Chris
I’m trying to, and it looks like it’s got a different cocopolymer.
Andy
Okay.
So that really pisses me off.
If it’s that easy.
Chris
Amino Ethyl Propynol as opposed to…
Andy
Amino Ethyl Propynol I think that’s a accelerator or not an accelerant…
a to get gas that expands. Yeah.
Chris
Catalyst
Frank
I’m over here googling copolymer myself so
Chris
So I think it’s got a different catalyst.
Which is probably changing the way it chemically bonds to your PLA.
Andy
That would make sense. It is and no it’s it’s to the glass. I definitely think it’s to the glass because I noticed before when I would pull stuff off the bed.
It was like 50% it would be stuck to the glass 50% of the hairspray would be a stuck to the part. And now 100% of it comes off the glass comes off the glass really easy now so it’s it’s the it connecting to the glass is the problem.
Chris
The glass stickyness… so I would say that is definitely gotta be the uh catalyst.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
I have seen
Some instances where people will grab a sheet of glass or like a mirror or something like that
Which is glass with the reflective on the one side anyway and they talk about how the plate loses its stickiness over time
Andy
Oh really I’ve never heard of that.
Frank
Which is weird. Yeah, it was weird to me, but it was also kind of irrelevant because
I’m using the the OEM glass plate instead of grabbing a
commercially available mirror or something like that to print on
Andy
Yeah. And I think most people who do use a simple piece of glass like that are our folks who’ve had beds that didn’t come designed to be glass from the start to
Frank
Right and and so I wonder if repeated use either adds or removes some aspect of that commercial glass that
Andy
it could be the only argue.
Frank
But
Like
The hairspray when you clean it you’re cleaning it pretty good though
So anything that you’re removing would be hairspray or plastic it wouldn’t I would expect it to be like a
maybe some treatment for some publicly available glasses and that treatment comes off over time when you’re scraping it, but
Andy
So a couple of things that I did that I do know to kind of fight that argument a little bit is it did seem to happen all at once.
Frank
Okay
Andy
And printing out now with FDM printers we can kind of get away with just printing in the same spot all the time,
or at least I thought so because I didn’t think that kind of where occurred.
So I’ve always just been a center of the bed printer and printing on the outside skirts of my bed that have seen a lot less printing still are affected the exact same way.
Frank
Okay
Andy
I guess that with these drawers that I’m doing because I’m occupying the entire bed with drawers
Frank
Right
Andy
and they’re they’re popping off individually in small areas. And so that gives me a real good test of how easy something’s pulling off from the edges to the center.
And it is identical across there’s really kind of no difference on how sticky things are.
Frank
So, so there’s no indication that maybe there’s a heat differential happening or anything like that
Andy
Nope, I’ve got one little section of it that does cause me problems, and I have not changed it and that’s because the whenever I start my start g code, I have do a prime line across the very top edge, or I guess it would be the very bottom Y access of my printer.
And then the drawer things that I got started because I got so many squished in there to be able to print them individually and as many as I can that I’ve got it so it prints on top of the prime line.
And so, since the prime line is is in an area that gets printed on every single time I start a print, my hairspray builds up funny in that area, because then I got this one line that is like a recessed area and then hairspray just kind of builds up around it.
Frank
Mm-hmm
Andy
Because I’m always spraying that last to get that one little line. But if I haven’t cleaned it off for a lot that means when the drawers get sat down in that thicker hairspray it sticks better.
So that’s the only notice I could find it’s really not that big of a note, a big of a change.
Frank
Right
Andy
I do like what what Chris just pointed out though…
Frank
Cura calls that a wipe by the way
Andy
a wipe
Frank
yep
Andy
The uh…
Chris
I do love how Frank has been suggesting that your glass is old.
Andy
not well it is, it definitely is, and it’s not easy to change because the glass is the bed I’ve got only.
Frank
Yeah, it’s bolted on so
Andy
Yeah, the bolts go right through the glass, the heater is adhered to the bottom of the glass and you print directly on top of the glass and it’s a quarter inch thick.
And it’s the stuff they make the tops of glass ovens out of that kind of glass it’s a pyrex like glass that heat tempered shit stuff that heat tempered stuff.
But yes, so I don’t know but Chris did point out something that will be useful instead of just buying a bunch of random hairsprays.
I should really look at the ingredients since there is a difference and go through hairsprays and find ones that have the most similar
especially the chemical that is now changed from the old version of Rave Four that might lead me.
Chris
I’m pretty sure…
It probably had something to do with the California… cancer chemical… issues.
Andy
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised but the fact that they, they, you know were advertising that it’s the same great formula that really bothers me because it’s not.
Chris
No.
Andy
And it also like I noticed it.
Frank
New and improved
Andy
Yeah, it doesn’t dilute in water is good, like almost at all anymore.
RAV4 used to you hit it with a little bit of water because you know with with with me using hairspray.
When I get a piece done, I go right to the bathroom and rinse it off real quick where it was making contact with the bed.
And with the RAV4 it really was like three, four or five wipes and then it’s all washed off and it’s done so it was like a non real issue at all to clean it up and it was super easy.
The Aquanet takes a little bit more scrubbing but the new version of RAV4, you have to really scrub it it doesn’t come off, but yet it doesn’t stick to the glass either.
So, whatever it…
Frank
More sticky to the plastic less sticky to the glass
Chris
So it’s so it sticks to rougher surfaces better and then doesn’t wash up with water as easily.
That sounds like there were there purposely making it so it sticks to your hair really well and then keeps it from frizzing in the humidity.
Andy
How dare these people decide to favor hair over 3d printing tries me nuts man people’s priorities I swear.
I guess like…
Frank
They probably get more business from 3d printers these days and they do people doing hair on their anyway
Andy
There’s, there’s a lot of sprays that they make out there for 3d printing directly, but they’re so much more expensive too, however, to be honest.
Frank
Kind of like how if you want a good quality hairspray you’re getting by the big half gallon can for a hundred bucks
Andy
I don’t know, I’m half a half gallon for 100 by.
I think I would be willing to pay like about $15 a can for the old hair spray I was using that would get me like four or five reels of plastic.
Frank
No I mean… I’m talking about for hair
Andy
So, with that in mind, the 3d printed the 3d printing sprays that are supposed to be mimicking hair spray but are supposed to be just for 3d printing might be worth checking out to if I’m willing to find a spray that works that good just because I mean this whole time we’ve been doing this broadscast.
I’ve been, you know, talking about how you should always use hair spray, because it’s solved just about every single problem that I had with the printer.
But turns out it was this just this one kind of hair spray that was doing that this RAV4x stuff.
I want I would love to be able to buy another bottle of it.
And I wish I could I tried so that I can go back and test it again to see if it really is was as good as it was this whole, you know, past time, and not that something else has changed about my printer.
But you with all the rest of the, you know, like difficulty to wash off and stuff like that changing with it as well.
And having the consistency of the Aquanet because the Aquanet has not changed from when I first tried it and was a little unhappy with it to going back to it now, and it acting pretty much the exact same way.
So, all those kind of clues tell me that it is the spray and it’s not necessarily the printer.
I want to I want to be able to play around because I’ve had probably maybe one out of every 10 prints I do has been a failed print because I’m trying to print like the way I used to instead of using a brim here and there when I need or, you know, throwing a helper disk on a corner when I need.
Chris
Yeah. Get with the times Andy
Andy
Yeah, well, you know, once you’ve, once you’ve seen how green the grass was on the other side, coming back to y’alls gray lawns really sucks. That sounded more insulting that I meant it to be.
I’m sorry.
Frank
Don’t think it was more insulting than you intended I think it was just as insulting as you intended there Andy
Chris
I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying my lawn just fine thank you.
Andy
I like being insulting out of the love for my friends kind of insulting I don’t like actually insulting that felt like actual insulting.
Kevin
I wasn’t offended by the comments so…
Chris
No, I wasn’t either. It’s more or less that I don’t really see what you think you’re missing because I don’t have to use hairspray. It just sticks to my bed incredibly well once it’s trammed right.
Andy
You got a…
Kevin
Right.
Andy
Yeah, you’ve got a textured bed. So, I mean that that does help you having a textured bed, but then you also don’t get the glass, you know, bottoms and like what.
Frank
That’s another one I hadn’t thought of because you’re tramming
Once you get it set you get consistent prints, so it’s not like…
I would be surprised if you hadn’t sat down with it and made sure you were getting a good first layer, right?
So it’s like later in the print that you see that it’s curling up. It’s not a
Tramming issue per se
Andy
Yes, yep, I have definitely.
Yep, I’m getting the same amount of squish as I always had. And again, with the use of Aquanet, I’m still getting the same quality of princess that I’ve always gotten with Aquanet the past too so that has stayed standard that has stayed pretty consistent so.
Frank
Hmm
Chris
he’s just griping that he doesn’t get the good…
That it’s harder to get the good stuff.
Andy
What if I want to print a funnel. I mean, I can’t do that anymore. I’ll have to use adhesion stuff for it so.
Chris
You’re not you’re not wrong.
Andy
No, it was just always a bragging point before. Yeah, it was just always a breaking point before being able to have it so so fixed to the bed.
And now it’s like, it’s not always the best, but I thank you for pointing me in the direction of thinking about the chemicals the ingredients on the hairspray there Chris that that will point me into trying other things.
Chris
Yeah, well at the base level that is the issue though.
Andy
Yeah, yeah, well it’s nice to know that you did see that there was something different to so that gives me hopes that it’s not all in my head here,
or an odd other problem with the printer.
Chris
No.
Andy
It’s not even really a problem either if I just use proper adhesion, then everything works fine.
Chris
Well see the thing is is they they can lie and say it’s the same great formula. We’re just changing the look on the cans.
And nobody actually cares enough to sue them over it because nothing in their life has changed enough to warrant this, you know,
Frank
Nine nine out of ten dentists recommend every toothpaste on the market
Kevin
Yup.
Chris
that last dentist, he hates toothpaste and we don’t know why.
Kevin
Right?
Andy
Oh, dear. But I mean, as far as other things that I’ve printed, I’ve just been kind of doing my normal I haven’t been doing as much printing of my drawer boxes because I’ve got like three that are damaged, that I’m going to have to go in and fix.
And the bottom of my drawers curl up. I can go in with a heat gun and heat up the corner and, you know, force delamination with it, you know, push the corner down, force it to delaminate and then fill it in with my little plastic with the pen.
I am
Chris
With the pen.
Andy
And it doesn’t look good, but it’s all in the back of the drawer. So, you know, it still works.
Chris
Nobody looks in the back anymore man.
Andy
Yeah, but I mean, that’s, it’s becoming a problem and it’s being annoying because like the first time I ran into these problems, I didn’t have any adhesion.
So I went in and I changed my base models to have a brim and that was working. And then it occurred to me because the brim, there’s always that like last line of brim that you have to cut off, it doesn’t just peel away like the rest of it did.
Chris
Oh yeah, I have to use a de-burning knife for those.
Frank
I keep intending to get one of those because I’m not as
Accurate with the
The blade is I would like to be
Chris
And you know that there’s there’s the nice ones that I have at work but you can get a cheap, a really cheap one
Andy
Uh-huh.
Chris
for like 10 less than 10 bucks down at your local hardware store.
But you also could buy just the blades and print your own handle.
Andy
I might look into that while I deal with this problem because that would be kind of nice. I’ve been using my surface nippers to cut it off and then taking a little bit of sandpaper to the corner, you know, and cleaning it up that way.
Chris
I still have to sandpaper the corner because the de-burr knife is not so great about going around corners but just along straight lines that is super super good and super easy it’s just one quick swipe done, and you have a nice rounded rounded beveled corner.
Andy
Nice. Okay. Yeah, I will definitely look into that. But, um, you know, after dealing with that, it occurred to me, I could just use helper disks on the corners and then leave the edges just as they were without a brim.
And the first helper disks I made were too small and didn’t really have an effect.
Made them a little bit bigger and that was this last time and it still did, it helped a little bit, but they really need to be full-size helper disks, you know.
And so I got to go back in and I’ve got three models of the boxes I’ve been using regularly that I’ve been keeping on my, you know, SD card that I keep in the printer to print these off.
And it would, you know, I’ve been changing all three each time and that’s actually doing helper disks is actually changing the model itself.
So it’s been kind of annoying having to go back and do that over and over and over.
Chris
So you say helper disks and I’m, my head is just going straight to venture brothers where you’re feeding these things to helper.
Andy
Oh. Yeah, helper.
Chris
Here helper.
Andy
I love helper.
It’s one of my most favorite characters of that series.
Yes, always got the shaft, but, but yeah, so that’s what I’ve been doing.
I’ve got some more easier components that I’m putting up with in my drawer boxes.
I’m doing inductors today.
I’ve got about, I don’t know, 30 drawers to set up out of, from my inductors because I got what three or four different kinds of inductors and about 10 or 15 different values of each different kind.
So doing that today. In fact, before the podcast, you guys seen me cutting out a batch of labels for them. So.
Frank
Those actually went really quick for some reason I was thinking the laser printer
Would take I don’t know longer than it did for you to cut out. What was that 20 labels?
Andy
Yeah, and for the credit of the laser cutter, I just put in the normal numbers I use to cut out.
Frank
Mm-hmm
Andy
And my labels are just made of normal paper. So I probably could have done it at least twice as fast as that.
But yeah, and you see how long it took me to set up the cut job and then cut it. And there’s no reason why I can’t just cut these out with a pair of scissors, but it was so much quicker to do it with the printer and saves your wrist from cutting out all the small little labels.
Frank
Especially when you’re doing what are you up to now 500 600 drawers
Andy
I’ve done five sheets of labels. I don’t know I’d have to count how many drawers it’s a lot.
Chris
I don’t know. I just kind of assumed that you know, you would use the kachunk kachunk machine but even still that that saves your wrist from that thing to, you know, and your fingers possibly.
Andy
Yeah, and I do use that you got a good point I do use that a lot and I probably could use that to be even quicker, but then I wouldn’t get to play with the laser.
It might be about the same amount of speed using the big kachunmk machine.
And which I do use it a lot don’t get me wrong I that is a great gift you got me back in the day that gets used probably at least once every other week. Yeah.
Chris
Oh yeah.
That was me.
Frank
Be clear to our listeners the kachunk kachunk machine is the giant scimitar on a cutting plate
Where people used to loot loot like kids used to lose fingers to it in at public libraries
Chris
Lose fingers.
Andy
When we were having game night over our house and we were coming up with our own game of UNO we were making our own cards.
And I think it was for my birthday one year. I was using a little slide cutter.
And so Chris bought me an actual official office grade metal, kachunk kahunk machine. So it’s got the crazy blade on it.
Chris
It’s just called an industrial paper cutter is all that it called. Yeah.
Andy
Yep.
Yeah, I love it but yeah we actually get I mean you can even see there’s no dust on it it gets used about every other week once by either me or the kids so been a great gift.
Frank
And they haven’t lost any fingers yet
Andy
Yeah, well I mean it’s not actually sharp you probably I mean you could cut yourself you could, but it would probably be a little bit more of a pinch wound.
So if you were able to cut yourself, but yeah it would make you bleed but it’s not going to like cut off fingers, and they don’t they don’t do it without me down here with them anyway. So, but yeah.
Frank
That’s a good distinction to make
Andy
Oh yes, yes I wouldn’t let them use it alone heck no. In fact it’s kind of more like I’ll set it up and then let the kid push the handle down kind of treatment so it’s not. Yeah, not a dangerous stab and it comes to that kind of stuff.
It’s trained really good with the laser to whenever I’m using the laser. I don’t know if you guys saw in the camera but even when I had it running down here, I put my three sets of glasses by this little desk we have at the base of the stairs.
When the kids come down if they see the blue light on the walls, they’re supposed to pick up a pair of glasses, and they do it regularly so whenever I’m cutting down here and the kids come down to visit.
I’m surprised to turn around and see a kid and they’re already glassed up so.
Chris
Nice.
Frank
Good those are good habits for them to have as they get older anyway
Chris
Yep.
Andy
Yes, yes. So, and I got three sets of glasses for three kids so and me and the wife are taller. So we are above where the housing for the laser blocks the laser light itself.
So you can’t actually select when you see around the room all the blue is about I don’t know for four foot down and there’s nothing above that four foot so unless you’re sitting down on a chair or something like that you don’t have to worry about glasses as an adult either unless you’re cutting something where like I’ve used straight sheet metal to cut on.
I’ve had had that reflect and shoot around the room. And so at times when I’m using that it’s glasses on no matter what’s happening with laser.
Chris
Yeah, or you could just, you know, always wear glasses while it’s an operation.
Andy
Yeah, well I use the darn thing lots.
Chris
Like, how I have glasses or safety glasses for on whenever I’m using my air compressor or air compressor holes.
Andy
Do you really.
Chris
I’m always wearing glasses, usually anyway, but
Andy
Yeah, I’m interest like as a as an honest thing like you know you always got to the other preach the first aid, but then the first aid when you’re on your own isn’t I mean I’m sure with most people probably isn’t always 100%.
So that’s awesome that you actually are taking that extra step and making sure that happens.
Chris
Well, you always got to check your PPE before you’re using on on any, any job. I mean, there’s a reason that, you know, you, you check your electrical cords before using your appliances at home and stuff like that too.
I mean, most of the most people just take it for granted that they’re going to be okay but
and in the age of wireless vacuums, it’s a lot less issue also, but it used to be that, you know, if you had kids using the vacuum that the vacuum cord would get pretty chewed up and become hazardous at some point.
Andy
You got a good point. You know what you’re right I do check my like extension cords that I use outside and stuff like that. So you do got a good point.
Frank
And I will say that whenever I’m in my garage
Working with my, uh, like I’ve got table saws and skill saws and saws all and you know just all kinds of stuff
That’s gonna be throwing sawdust. I wear my safety glasses anytime. I’m in there doing that
Chris
Yeah, and, and my kid has a pair of safety glasses that hangs on the hooks by our doors. So that, so that if she
Frank
So in other words Andy, yes, you are a negligent parent
Andy
Yeah, because I do the same thing with laser cutter.
Chris
for for making his kids wear their PPE
Frank
No for not wearing the PPE himself always because you’re modeling bad habits I
in front of them.
Andy
Yeah, when I’m cutting.
When I’m cutting on waffle board, the laser light stays below a certain level so excuse me.
Frank
I did not intend for that to be a let’s attack Andy moment.
Chris
It’s okay, he insulted us first.
Frank
That’s fair
Andy
I’ve got more fire extinguishers and you do so speak for yourself.
Frank
That’s because you understand yourself as well as we do
Andy
Yeah, well, I don’t tend to actually burn down or anything. If you notice like I’ve never really had a fire. I’m very cautious about that kind of stuff.
Frank
Recently.
Andy
But never really had the only fires I’ve really had was when I used to weld those those iron iron art stuff out my shop.
Frank
Ironworks, yeah
Andy
But yeah, but that that was kind of different because I, I put down a piece of plywood on my desk
Frank
As the backer
Andy
intentionally to weld on yeah I called it my burn board and I did I welded right on the wood.
And the wood would always catch fire right on the weld.
Chris
Yeah, you’d have to replace it every, every couple of months, every couple months or so and that was fine.
After you flip it over and you flip it over again and the both sides are unusable.
Frank
Realize that you need to replace it
Andy
Yeah, yeah, so.
Yeah, yeah. So, when it comes to fires like that, that’s probably the most fire I’ve ever actually had as funny as it is to oh Andy is going to burn himself down and stuff like that.
Chris
It’s just a running gag.
Andy
Yeah, I actually haven’t. Yeah, yeah, I do try to do all the extra stuff to be on the safe side.
And half of the joke is understanding that there is a problem with what you’re doing or there is a caution that you need to take with something you know, so.
Frank
Right
Chris
I think if anything the running joke keeps Andy the safest.
Andy
Yeah, yeah, if anything you’re absolutely right.
Frank
He doesn’t want to give us the man, I don’t do words today
Kevin
Satisfaction?
Frank
Yes, he doesn’t want to give us the satisfaction
Andy
No, no, I don’t know. I don’t like the overly dangerous person today I guess I think it’s just today thing.
Chris
Speaking of I need to pony up some dough to replace all of my fire extinguishers and and like so when I bought my house, I spent a couple hundred bucks just getting fire alarms and the CO detectors and extinguishers just all in one go.
But now my problem is that they’re all expiring all in one go.
Andy
Yep, yep.
I had that happen a couple years ago, and I really wanted to go like when I first got online I did what you did. And, you know, I didn’t have that much money so I got all Kidde supplies and Kidde are garbage.
And so I really wanted to go with badger this last time, but badgers are like freaking expensive for the same kind of fire extinguishers I get everywhere else.
So I went up picking up some first alert ones. And this was kind of a nice medium when you go to do yours, because it does have an all metal head.
So heat and stuff is going to mess up the handle like it on the old Kidde ones. And it doesn’t it’s got a normal ring pole. I’ve noticed a lot of the other fire extinguishers have some kind of weird extra thing you need to do that doesn’t just look like what we’re used to pull the
thing. And, you know, it just works like it looks like it should. It’s not like oh you got this weird button on top you need to push to make it work or anything like that so.
Frank
Three point contact to actuate the head
All of them made out of plastic. So if you’re actually in a fire situation, they’ll melt before you can get the valve to open
Andy
Yes, yes.
Yeah, yeah, that’s Kidde for you. But in fact when I was looking for these I don’t think Kidde was making the plastic headed once anymore so Kidde may have actually already fixed the problem.
But either way if you got plastic ones definitely change them out for the metal ones. And they’re also made out of like their sheet metal.
So if like your worry about them being hot would be very similar to the same worry about like taking the foil off the top of your food in the oven.
You know the foil itself just doesn’t really hold a lot of heat and so you’re not going to burn yourself by touching the foil.
And these are are like that same kind of metal not like the thin like it’s going to collapse on you, but so that it won’t hold the heat either if it’s, you know, if you’re worried about them being hot because they’re metal so.
But yeah, the first alert one was kind of good it’s not no badger, but it’s close.
Chris
Okay, cool.
Andy
Oh, and one thing that was really awesome to do after I got all my old fire extinguishers set aside,
because I’m looking at them I’m thinking ah project tanks I should hold on to these you know,
I should put in an extra one or two of these old ones in my shop where if I’m going to have a fire it’s going to be out there and that way I can have more than one up on the wall and take advantage of an expired one,
because if you pull it out and it doesn’t work, there’s another one right there, and they’re kind of expensive
But what I wound up doing with some of the extras that I didn’t find uses for an expired one was taking the kids out in the backyard and tipping the garbage can over and letting showing them how to spray it into the garbage can.
So they knew what to expect when spraying one of the hydrants.
Chris
Yep, there’s a lot of difference between
Frank
And then once they’re empty you can use them as tanks for your potato gun
Andy
Yes, and another thing too was also pointing out that they’re messy look how much of a mess that made. If you ever fire these off in the house is a toy you’re going to clean it up.
Frank
You can be cleaning it for the next week
Andy
Yes, no kidding and I think that was was a good thing to separate emergency from from playing around,
because you know you don’t want them afraid. If there’s a fire, if they got that kind of escalation they’re not going to be worried about the mess.
It’s going to make and again you know if there’s a fire no you don’t have to clean it up but if you play with the darn thing, you’re going to have to clean it up.
And you know what they’ve they’ve never touched them sense and, and both of my kids my youngest was too young to be doing stuff like that he was still a toddler.
But my two youngest kids were able to fire the extinguishers off into the garbage can.
Chris
When I get mine replaced I’ll send a couple your way so you can do it again.
Andy
So you got your own daughter you should show how to use.
Chris
Yeah, but I don’t need to do that for eight extinguishers six extinguishers.
Andy
Well, I’ll tell you this from personal experience.
When I went to do one with the kids I did one myself first and kind of fun.
They make some neat motor noises sounds like a motor on the inside when you’re using them.
So, I shot, I shot a couple off myself just because I thought it was fun.
But there’s also the whole thing like if you’ve got a fire extinguisher that’s expired you should probably get rid of it.
I mean, the the thought that I’ve got an expired fire extinguisher installed below my normal extinguisher at my in my shop is kind of an oddity you know it’s kind of a little bit more of a dangerous that extinguisher for me is kind of like the the when my squirt bottle back there that I put out my burn board with isn’t working good enough or it exceeds that size of fire. Then that gives me a plan B before going to you know one that’s actually going to cost me anything so.
But if anybody’s running for one, the one at the correct level to be able to grab and stuff is the good ones so and fire extinguishers should work even when they’re expired.
You know, it’s, you know, that they, they have them expire for a reason but if you’re making fire extinguishers you should be making them to be able to last well past that expiration date, just in case.
Frank
That would be my expectation
Andy
Yeah, should never rely on it.
Frank
And that’s why the date is where it is right they’re saying it’s reliable this long at the very least
They’re not saying it is…
They’re not saying it’ll never work after this date
Andy
Yeah, something clicks on the inside when it expires and just locks itself out.
Frank
Well, then it’s really hard to use it as an air tank so…
Andy
Yeah, no kidding. That’s what it drills for. But yeah, so.
Frank
Well Chris did you do anything this week?
Chris
Speaking of fires. Yes, actually. So, no, I’m,
Frank
You started a fire did you burn down in your garage?
Chris
I’m a gas cap. So, you know,
Frank
You are a gas cap
Andy
I love this project he did.
Chris
so it’s super simple, right? So, um, I, again, was playing with TPU this,
this week, I did my second print with TPU turned out a little bit better.
I used, I started with Cura’s recommended settings and printed off this tether for a gas cap.
So, because my car, my car needs one, right? But the only way to get one for my Subaru is to buy a whole new gas cap at circa,
you know, you know, 30 ish dollars, which is dumb.
I’m not paying $30 for a tether on my perfectly good gas cap.
Frank
Not super preventatively expensive but still a waste, yeah
Chris
Yeah, still more than, still more than I want to pay for a tether to keep my gas cap from disappearing. And, you know, I’m, I’m pretty good at, you know, I had cars from the previous era that never had a tether on the gas cap, so that you always made sure to double check your gas cap before you left the gas station.
Andy
Always look on top of the phone.
Frank
Or never put it on top of the pump
Andy
I’m an I’m an on top of the pump kind of guy that right right.
Frank
I’m an on top of the trunk type of guy
Chris
And some, some people do that just because of paint. So, so anyway.
Frank
Yeah, I can see that
Andy
Are you.
I like it to right right above where you put the nozzle back that way you’re right there when you put the nozzle back it’s right there you know.
Chris
So, yes, so, so most cars come with it tethered nowadays.
And so there’s anyway the my new to me Subaru that I just finished fixing didn’t have one from the get go, or I mean it, it was broken from the get go, right.
And my father in law, a couple of weeks ago, lost his gas cap because the one on his Subaru. No, it wasn’t his Subaru that broke he he has a scion. Also, and the scion tether gas cap broke, and he’s getting to be forgetful in his age.
And he forgot his gas cap. And he went back after he realized he’d lost it. And the attendant was like, Well, there’s been a couple of them that have been left here, but the good one that he had had was gone.
Andy
Oh, no.
Chris
And his replacement actually had a cracked seal, and he had to buy a new gas cap anyway. And the new gas cap didn’t come with a tether.
So anyway, so I was printing, I was, I was going to be printing two of these things, either way.
So, the first one I went with Cura’s default settings. And it printed okay, you know, there was still quite a bit of stringing, especially around the edges and where it would end the print and then go back to the start of the next layer.
And then I decided to check out the settings that the guy on Thingiverse that posted this Subaru tether went with. And they were, they were a little bit different.
Andy
Okay.
Chris
Like, so I ended up changing my settings for TPU. So Cura’s infill printing was 15 millimeters, a print speed was 15 millimeters a second as opposed to 30 that this guy has suggested.
So I moved to that. My print temperature on Cura’s default was like 228, 229. And this guy says this, this guy was printing at 220. So I moved that to 220.
Andy
Okay.
Chris
And there was one more, the cooling. Yeah.
Frank
So turning off the fan or turning it okay
Chris
Lowering the percentage, the cooling percentage. So I lowered the cooling percentage to like 70%.
Frank
Okay
Andy
If I could point out one thing.
Lowering the temperature on TPU does stop the stringing, but it also stops the adhesion between layers for TPU. So it’s kind of a like in this case, it’s, you would prefer the non stringing over making sure for perfect adhesion.
But if you’re building something stronger beam a little bit more acceptable to the stringing stuff because then you’ll get much, much better adhesion they’re just they’re right at the same level so it’s really kind of either one or the other.
Chris
So, and I did find the combing option and it turns out the combing option that you suggested Andy was turned turns out.
I had it for the infill only. And so I turned it, so I turned it on for everything so that it’ll, yeah.
Andy
Okay.
Yeah, that’ll help. It does add a little bit more time to the print especially yours where you know it was kind of an arc kind of situation that it was doing.
So when to go from one side to the other it couldn’t go straight it would have to follow the inside of your print to get to where it needed to go.
So those travel moves do add to time but it almost gets rid of stringing all together, which is kind of nice.
Chris
Mm hmm.
Andy
And you’re only left with those little spots where it does pull up and have to travel where it can’t be printing the whole time.
Chris
Yeah. So, and, oh, that’s what it was. It was the Z hop settings and the retract settings. So the retract settings.
I had to stop up by half a millimeter. And then I went from oddly enough, 1.5 millimeters to four millimeter Z hop.
Frank
Hmm
Andy
That’s quite tall.
Chris
Yeah, but it made a world of difference actually in the in the print itself.
And so the, the, the one I got from this, the, the recommended settings from this thingiverse user was quite a bit better than the default settings set by cura.
And I think it probably is because this guy was also using a white a volcano head printer, instead of the typical FDM nozzles. So that probably has a lot to do with the way that the way that all all works.
So I turned the temperature down a little bit. But I also turned the cooling down a little bit as well.
Andy
Okay.
Chris
So anyway, so yes, printing with TPUs going a little going quite a bit better on this already.
Andy
That’s great.
Chris
And so you guys saw me post the installed a tether on my gas cap. So that was it looks like it looks like it’s supposed to be there.
Andy
Yeah, it looked really great.
It does.
Chris
So there was that I am in the middle of printing up some more of those Pokemon card boxes because because I printed the one and now they’re all the rave with the kids.
The kid that the child has another birthday party to attend next weekend with some twins. So I’m printing off a set of two currently for those.
Andy
Oh, it’s nice. It’ll be nice little present.
Chris
Yeah, yep. And see what else did I print this week. I did print something else and I’m trying to remember what that was. Yeah, I mean it’s printing has gotten so into our lives that
Andy
There’s a lot. I was pulling some chairs out of the attic some of my folding chairs that I got dozens of and I noticed one of the feet is missing on one of them.
And so I put it aside and it was just kind of nice like the first thought is, oh, no big deal. I’ll just print out a new one.
Frank
For that new one
Andy
Yeah, when the wife brings the chairs back I’ll pull off one of the feet and print a new one real quick and when I go to put them back in the attic I’ll bring it with me.
It’s just nice. I love having a 3D printer.
Chris
you know I can look at my print files from here.
Frank
While you do that Chris Kevin did you work on anything this week?
Kevin
Yes
I did actually.
I know that I told you and christ last week about the Do Better plackards
Frank
Yes, I believe so
Chris
The first part of it, when you were talking about it but not when you actually had had it pulled up in the design.
Frank
I Remember we did the the outro after you designed your placard so
Kevin
Yeah, so I printed up three of them and you can’t read it with the light there, but yeah,
it’s all white right now.
Frank
Is it all one color
Right
Kevin
So that’s this, but if I hold it close to the camera, it’s blurry, but you can see the
Frank
Right
Kevin
letters at least that says do better.
And then the other side says, do normal, yes, do normal.
And that’s because, and I don’t think this part was on the podcast, but I was originally trying to make it say be normal on the other side.
But then I remembered that in Dutch, if a kid is being weird, or just being all kinds of hyper and stuff,
their parents will frequently tell them, do normal, kint, or do affe normal, which means be normal.
So I was like, hey, that’s what I’ll put on the other side, just as a little inside joke.
So I printed up three of those.
The plan is now that I’ve got them cleaned up that I’m going to either get red and green sharpie to color them accordingly so there can be a color cue instead of just having to lean over like, now what does that say?
I haven’t decided whether I’m going to use paint or Sharpie for that, though.
I don’t know that it really matters.
I also thought maybe I could get some of my glitter out because I have a whole bunch of glitter and I could glue that to it as well.
Andy
Oh, there you go.
Kevin
So when you’re doing better, you can have the sparkly bits.
I wouldn’t make the normal side all glittery, though, because there’s nothing exciting about
being normal.
Frank
Use it as a stamp put it on there
Kevin
I wouldn’t make the Normal side all glittery though, because there’s nothing exciting about being normal.
Andy
Oh!
Chris
Only for you.
Kevin
And then I also printed up the biometer thing for Ryan.
He had asked me about in the chat.
So the first attempt was really, really small because I had asked him how far apart the tick marks are supposed to be and he said those are supposed to be one millimeter apart.
So I assumed he meant, because this thing’s shaped like a protractor.
So I assumed he meant that the tick marks along the bottom, the straight edge, are supposed
to be one millimeter apart.
So that’s how I scaled it.
When I opened it up in Chitubox, I had to zoom way in to see it because the native size
of this thing was ridiculously small.
I actually still have it pulled up here, so I can actually go in and see what the native
size is on their scale.
Chris
Lizard scale
Andy
And this really kind of surprised me what you’re talking about here. I’m really interested into the reasoning why.
Kevin
Yeah, so the native size of this has it at, oops, fail, where are you?
Oh, there it is, that little blip.
The native size of this is 0.1 millimeter on the x-axis and 0.08 millimeters on the y-axis.
And because of rounding, it doesn’t even register on the z-axis, right, right.
Andy
That’s funny. So he just when he designed it, it sounds like he just didn’t design it to scale at all. It’s super tidy. Yeah, that’s fine.
Kevin
Right. So, um…
Frank
So he designed to this I didn’t catch that whole conversation
Kevin
So it was actually Ryan’s, it’s Ryan’s dad who designed this thing.
Frank
Okay
Kevin
And so it was, it’s just, the native size is just super tiny.
He did it in Blender, I believe, and Blender doesn’t always translate very well to having
a good size in Chitubox.
Frank
Hmm
Kevin
Now Ryan told me when he printed it on his FDM printer that it was too big.
So the software he’s using, the slicer he’s using is interpreting the scale of this thing
differently than Chitubox is, which is interesting to me.
Andy
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because like when we load stuff into Kirin stuff that’s a stupid size, Cura says right off the bat, hey, we reduce the size by a certain percentage. Usually it’s a rounding of 100% or something like that, you know.
Kevin
Right, right.
Andy
But so it’s not necessarily that the slicers are doing anything wrong. They’re just interpreting this stupid tiny size and trying to make it usable.
But yeah.
Kevin
And that, that could be because what you said there reminds me that I’ve, I’ve done stuff in Blender that was accidentally ridiculously small.
And then when I open it up in Cura, it says, hey, I automatically scaled this up 10,000 percent.
Chris
Yeah, I had that issue with the plate holders. Yeah.
Kevin
Yeah
It might be that auto scaling and not necessarily something wrong with the model.
Andy
Yeah, yeah.
So it might be that.
Kevin
And that, that very well could be and, but Chitubox doesn’t do that, unfortunately.
Anyway, so I talked to Ryan about it and he said, no, no, no, no, it’s supposed to be 102 millimeters wide,
which meant that the, the tick marks that go along the arc of this protractor shape thing are what are supposed to be one millimeter apart.
And when you print it to full size, that’s actually what happened.
So, yeah.
Andy
That looks cool.
Chris
Oh, that is so pretty.
Andy
That makes me wonder how would you know how that would be used where the where you would normally have angle marks on a because I mean it looks like a protractor,
Kevin
Right.
Andy
but why would you have millimeter measurements along that.
Kevin
I don’t know.
And so I, I Googled, what is a biometer?
And the answer I got was it’s a device used to measure the CO2 output of something,
Chris
I was going to say bio inherently suggests that you’re doing something with living matter of some sort.
Andy
Uh huh.
Kevin
right.
So I don’t know how it works.
I just know that this is what I was asked to print.
And there is a hole through it and an indentation around the hole, which suggests to me that
there’s probably some kind of spindle or something that’s going to attach to that.
But I, I don’t know.
Andy
Okay.
Could it be like that it’s still a scale but they call it millimeters like when you’re measuring blood pressure.
What are you calling the actual numbers themselves isn’t it like meters of of something.
Frank
It’s it’s cubic centimeters ccs with blood
Kevin
No, that’s, it’s, it’s pounds per square inch, I think.
Yeah, no, it is, it’s actually, no, it is millimeters of mercury.
Andy
Okay, I might be thinking of something else where they’re they’re measuring like how much mercury.
Kevin
You’re right.
Blood pressure is millimeters of mercury.
Andy
Okay, and so the scale itself might not have anything to do with millimeters.
It’s designed to measure that way so it might not needed to be millimeters, but it’s still measuring. Yeah, something like that.
Chris
Unless it’s an optical biometer.
Kevin
Um, but those don’t look like protractors.
Chris
Oh, no, there it is. Yeah, that looks nothing like this. Okay.
Kevin
So I mean, I couldn’t find a picture of a CO2 biometer, but I, I’m assuming that’s what
this one is because the optical biometers are machines with screens and stuff on them.
Chris
And though the ones that used to puff your eyes but don’t anymore. Yeah.
Andy
So what these machines are. Okay.
Chris
No, I’m saying we’re saying that’s what the optical one is not what Kevin printed here.
Frank
As we all go into the Google
Andy
Okay, I hated those puffer machines. Oh my gosh, worst thing ever.
Chris
Yeah, they don’t do them anymore, at least not at competent places.
Andy
Really.
Well if it was working it was fine it’s just oh my gosh and it’s not like it was bad the anticipation is what sucked about it. The actual puffing wasn’t a problem.
Frank
Hmm Chris did you ever find the the rest of your projects? I
Chris
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, um, I did.
Frank
Guess I should have asked if Kevin had covered all of his projects first
Kevin
I mean, so that’s what I’ve done this week, but last night I went to play Magic the Gathering at the director of my community community choir’s house, and he recently had a birthday.
And I gave him, for his birthday, a command zone tray that I had printed, mostly with the FDM printer,
but I also, I printed a set of life counter dials and their housing with the FDM printer that I gave him,
but I also gave him three others that I had printed with the resin printer.
And everybody was just so impressed that there’s, that I was able to 3D print this thing.
And then I pointed out that you can see it, the difference in quality between FDM and resin printing, um, with those dials and, and so they were more impressed.
They were also impressed with that and that led to a brief conversation with one of the people who was there about him wanting to get a resin printer or just make sure that
someone in his friend group had one so that they could print mini figures and stuff.
Andy
This is a great tool to have.
Kevin
So, yeah, it’s, you know, this, this 3D printing thing is, I’ve been doing it so long that I’m just like, yeah, I just simply 3D printed it, it’s no big deal.
But people who, I found that people who are not in the 3D printing world are always just so impressed anytime they see something that’s 3D printed.
Andy
Yeah, even when you got like prints that didn’t turn out very good that are FDM that you could really tell or 3D printed. We look at that one think like oh that’s not a very good that’s a very coarse print that’s not very good.
But when you can see that it was 3D printed some people really like that kind of stuff. Okay.
Frank
There’s an aesthetic to it for sure
Andy
Just be just been doing it for so long it’s all about trying to hide the fact that it’s 3D printed to us when people who’ve never seen it before still like to see that it was 3D printed.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
My goal is to make it so you can’t tell if this was, you know, formed or 3D printed or brought into existence by the Lord himself so.
Kevin
And, and so that, that’s my piece.
Frank
Which one the tech God or the 3d printing God because they’re friends
Kevin
So that’s, that’s all I have to say about what I’ve been doing.
Frank
Cool, that is fun
Andy
That right there shows that if you’re running an SLA printer it’s good to have some straight clear resin on hand for projects like those because that would have turned out so differently if you couldn’t have done it in clear.
Kevin
Right.
Chris
And there are so many gaming things that I I want to do in some sort of translucent that definitely obviously won’t be the same doing in FDM versus SLA so
Frank
It’s true Chris those projects that I distracted you from what was the other one
Chris
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, um, it’s a stylus a stylus holder right for work.
Frank
Another one
Chris
Oh, no, no, this is for a tablet stylus.
Frank
Okay
Andy
Okay.
Chris
Yeah. And, um, yeah. And I am current I currently just barely got a syringe cap file. So, again,
so I was telling you about these couple of quality issues before the podcast about anodizing.
Well, after these parts are anodized they get Helicoil installed with this primer in them. Right.
And we’ve been having issues with primer being spattered and stuff on the parts where this primer is not supposed to be.
So they end up the people assemble, you know, assemble the parts push pins in but Helicoil and push them into quality.
And I look at it and I said, What’s all this overspray guy, the customer will be ticked if they have to clean this off themselves.
And so, you know, so anyway apparently what it is is the, the, when they were have when they had the primer and open bottle and we’re using a brush tips to brush them on the Helicoil to install them.
And it would dry out too much. And then, and our customer had issues installing the various mounting screws into these things because the primer was not like it was supposed to be it was over.
Right.
It was over dried and over set in in the coils, or the amount wasn’t controlled and it was dry dried and anyway, so dried and cakey and flaky and so they switched to the syringe this last week to control the control the amounts, you know,
better and keep it from getting dried out and flaky and whatever else, but it gets dried and flaky on the end of the needle. So it’s, it’s getting squirted everywhere while they’re breaking the thing loose to.
So I’m printing caps to put on to put on it kind of like you do with a super glue bottle to keep it from getting dried and cakey on the ends between applications so that they’re not spraying the parts with
Andy
That’s a great idea.
Frank
Or with the the caulk ends yeah
Chris
Yeah, yeah, the little nozzle cap.
Same, same, same, same concept. So I’m printing some of those off this weekend as well.
I’m going to try a couple in PLA and a couple in TPU and see which one works better I’m hoping TPU works better because
you can just kind of squish it a little bit and get yeah squish it a little bit and get the cakey stuff off and then wash it and reuse it.
We, because we were looking at it and obviously, you know, it’s work so if you can order these things you want to, but the only way to get them is to buy them in like packs of 100 or something like that, when we only need like six or six or so reusable ones.
So it doesn’t make sense.
Frank
It makes sense to push harder for them to get the printer in the shop too wo you got the five or six and then when you know have one or two extras just on hand and as those disappear print off a new set
Chris
machines. So it didn’t make sense, you know.
Chris
That’s actually kind of where I’m going with this is the boss was saying, hey, if you can show how useful a 3D printer is and can be around this shop.
I can, I can convince the bosses to let us spend money on one.
Frank
It doesn’t need to be like a big build plate like you know as obvious we like to have as much space as possible if you’re printing off a couple of syringe caps and maybe
Frank
your your
Holders and that sort of thing they would fit just fine on the what is the Ender 3? 100 millimeter squared so?
Kevin
No, it’s more than that.
Frank
Is it
Kevin
Yeah, it’s 220 by 220.
Frank
Okay, that’s almost as big as mine at 300 I
Chris
Yep, mine’s 220.
Frank
Must not be the end of three. I’ve seen some that have got a fairly small build plate
Kevin
Yeah, I’ve seen some small ones also.
Chris
That’s the one I yeah that’s the one I saw at the thrift store, but it was all enclosed also it was a completely enclosed unit with a about 100 by 100 millimeter build plate.
Frank
In the end what I’m getting at is is if you’re doing the small parts then you don’t need to spend $500 on a 3d printer
Andy
Yeah, that is true.
Chris
Yep.
Frank
It’s nice to have the big print space when I need it though, so there’s that
Andy
I agree. I was far as FDM I think getting the 300 by 300 should be it’s about right it feels like a good size, maybe 350 by 350 might be a little bit more usable or like a 400 by 300.
Cause there are some things I wanted to print that just been a little bit too big, but.
Frank
And when I was doing my research, I didn’t see any reasonably priced in my mind reasonably priced printers for bigger than 300 That were You know something that I I could afford so
Chris
Well, right now I’m not concerned so much with the size of the build plate as I am finding my way into an affordable version of pellet printing.
Frank
Yes
Chris
So, I did find an article and maybe I’ll share it with you guys about this printer pellet startup. Now, if they they’re saying it’s more affordable but without sorry $2,000 is still not more affordable on our end of it.
Frank
So
Andy
Yeah, it’s still pretty up there.
Frank
Commercially it’s very affordable though just to you know put that out there
Chris
So, yes.
And commercially it’s very viable because it’s like one tenth the cost to get pellets as it is to buy filament.
And there’s a lot of people out there that are like, well, you know, you can buy pellets pellets and then there’s this contraption you can,
you can make that turns it into filament and blah, blah, blah.
And really, it’s like, yes,
Frank
It becomes preventatively expensive
Chris
time consuming, you know, you got to you got to babysit it and do, you know, it’s not, I mean, yes, you can do it. It’s not worth my time.
Frank
So there’s
Maybe it’s just because I’ve had classes on economics and higher math and all that but when I say expensive, I’m not just talking about cost… erm… money
Mental expenses are something that needs to be accounted for
Chris
Yes, just expenses.
Yep, just expenses in general time headache, so on so forth.
So, my, I, I, I mean the concept of the way these heads work is actually fairly simple.
So it looks like what really needs to happen is I we just need to I need to find a way to make a decent feeder system that will take the plastic pellets in a bigger volume somewhere else
down to reliably not not clogging fashion down to the printer printer head where it’s got this big screw that, you know, funnels screw funnels it all down to the heated head.
Frank
Hmm
Andy
So much consistency to the pellets themselves.
That would be cool.
Chris
So, um, yeah, the pellets are generally generally standardized size and, and that I’m, I’m looking for something to, to make and design something more reliable so that anybody can just take a home shredder, add of add X% of new pellets to it and reuse stuff at home.
So you can take these PETG bottles and instead of string stringing it into this big long machine and wasting the bottom and the top, you know, you can just take the whole bottle and put it into a shredder of some some sort at home.
And you can take that shredded stuff and put it directly right into your printer.
Now, there’s going to be obviously issues with people that decide not to wash their bottles out properly before doing, doing this process.
There’s going to be issues with different type of shredder setups and whatnot so you want to account for some of these inconsistencies and how fine the plastic is shredded or whatnot and either set it up so that the shredder unit is consistent across the board, or, you know, say, hey, you know, keep it between these sizes and you’ll have great print quality or make these adjustments based on how fine it’s shredded, you know, something like that. Yeah.
The thing that’s stopping you right at the moment isn’t isn’t the shredder or anything like that. It’s the the expense in the print in getting a pellet printhead.
And then on top of that, feeding it so that you can, you don’t have to babysit it during large prints and say, Oh, is my hopper out of plastic, you know, so that you can just fill a big hopper toward the top of the printer, right.
And then let’s say, okay, let’s say you’re done with a print. Well, you take the end of the tube, right, plug it off, move your hopper with plastic and then you’ve got another hopper with a different kind of plastic.
There you go. It’s just like changing filament.
Andy
That would be a neat system to have.
Chris
So yeah, so I’m trying to get it working myself first. And then if it if it works and it’s, you know, tried and tested and I can I can do that on a regular.
Then I’ll be saying, Oh, I find a way to post it public or whatever so that we can because it needs to be easy.
It needs to be just as easy to maintain as an as the filament or resin printers being used now.
And it needs to be just as reliable and needs to be able to be used on regular home plastics that you throw out every day.
I’m, I’m probably going to start with milk jugs.
Frank
The plastic is a little bit softer
Chris
Kevin
There you go.
Chris
But the biggest purpose of this is to start actually reusing all of the plastic that keeps being produced, instead of sending it to the landfill.
So if we can find a way to properly recycle it instead of, Oh, hey, I’m sending it to the recycling company and the recycling company sends it off to India where it’s burned in a big fire to for recycling it by using it for fuel.
No, not really.
Andy
That is a neat endeavor.
That would be neat to come up with if it works like that.
Chris
Anyway, but, but yeah, there’s this startup that was saying, Oh yeah, I had a, you know, fund us on Kickstarter, like $2,000 and you’ll be able to get this printer and we’re thinking about making just so that you can get just the print head assembly for like 1200 or something
like that. And I’m like, yeah, it’s not really helping your case there.
Andy
Yeah, really up there. Yeah.
Frank
I would love to but
Chris
Look, I would take my existing printer and spend another 300��300or400 it to upgrade just the head unit if the head unit was only 300��300or400, you know, but we’re not there yet.
Kevin
Yeah
Andy
Any more than that is. Yes, not going to work.
Frank
Hobbyists. it’s because we’re all hobbyists
We love this hobby, but we’re not gonna necessarily drop that kind of money into it.
Chris
Yep. And that’s the thing that gets me to is they’re, they’re just using a NEMA 17 motor on this get up, like, I know, I’m just saying, why are you charging so much if you’re using a, yeah.
Andy
Okay well that’s I mean they’re strong motors are good motors.
Andy
Yeah, that’s all because of the design and no other competition with it I think right.
Chris
Yeah, maybe.
Frank
Maybe that’s how we fix the issue is we between the four of us figure out how to design it ourselves
And then sell it for half as much and still make a major profit off it
Chris
Yeah, I’m getting there.
Andy
So what about you Frank? Have you done anything?
Frank
Nope not a single thing
Andy
Not a single thing.
Frank
um… I did design um my wife is signed us up for a speed puzzling competition with uh our town’s celebration of its anniversary of incorporation and um we noticed because she watches youtubers the speed puzzle some of them have got stands for the lid and I was looking at them and it’s like oh, this would be easy to design.
I threw one of those together adjusted it a little bit and now I have two lid stands for the puzzles and uh yeah, that’s actually all I’ve done this week.
Andy
They looked really nice.
Frank
Yeah quick and easy design
Chris
Yep, my, my child has a puzzle table so I am totally printing one up for her.
Frank
And they’re light, you know, it’s
two millimeters wide so that’s basically I can’t remember two or three of my walls and just a little like a few dots down the middle for where the uh infill is
And uh, you know quick and easy
Andy
Yeah, that worked out really well.
Kevin
yeah
Andy
We do puzzles here at the house too and yeah thinking about it we always try to stick the bottom of the puzzle box into the lid to hold the lid up but that’s always set at an awkward 90 degree angles and so what you came up holds it up you know at a degree there.
Frank
I think the biggest reason especially with speed puzzlers is they don’t do that is because of the um area
It takes up on their table
Andy
Oh.
Frank
So if you can put it on a stand
Then the footprint that it takes up is smaller and you can spread out more
for your strategy of putting the puzzle together
Andy
Yeah. Yeah, that’s true.
Frank
But yeah, that’s really all I’ve done
It’s been a slow week
Andy
Any plans for the upcoming week.
Frank
Um nothing major I
Andy
Okay.
Frank
designed some risers for my uh coffee table that I’ve been tinkering with for my um Carpentry project and those risers I designed in CAD
So I needed to translate them to measurements that I can actually do on my table saw
Andy
Okay.
Frank
With a minimum of trouble We’re still talking widths that are two and 1.062 inches wide that that don’t translate very well when you’re eyeballing In setting um the the the the fence on your
Andy
Okay.
Frank
Table saw um so I’ve translated all of that into measurements that I can eyeball with a tape measure
and hopefully this weekend I’ll get the last little bit of this cut out and stained and in the next week or so get it
Andy
Okay.
Frank
assembled and put up so…
Andy
Okay, well that would be good.
Frank
and then I’m still thinking about the uh the park cleanup project I kind of backburnered for a minute and
Andy
Have you wanted to make any tools for that at all or designing any of them or are they all filling ideas?
Frank
Not yet like I I’ve got I’ve got a nail here that i’m gonna build my spike around and that’s as far as I’ve gone and I’m still thinking about a shredder type of design, you know the the big industrial shredders for like a Metal and that sort of thing rocks even
Andy
Okay.
Frank
But I that design the well, I guess it’s a Paper shredder design as well with the inner linking wheels um I’m gonna put something like that together so that I can grind up the the dry uh Laundry detergent When it gets a little moist and cakes up and all that so I don’t have to touch it myself.
Chris
It’s a texture thing.
I totally get it.
Frank
Yeah, and it’s a sticky thing. I I don’t like having to wash my hands after I do my laundry
Chris
Yeah. And I’m, I’m so privileged I’m just you got used to the liquid soap.
Frank
And I I use liquid myself, but you know not everybody in my household does.
Anyway.
We’re going on an hour and a half. Is there anything that anyone
Absolutely needs to get off their chest or should we wrap this up?
Andy
Absolutely.
Kevin
Let’s wrap it up I think
Andy
I did lose the Peltier plates on my cooling system on my 3D printer. I’m having to order some new ones. Apparently that really does help with my wet noodle problem in printing TPU because when I tried to print TPU without the cooling system, it was a disaster.
Frank
So you need a good cold end for your uh TPU
Andy
So, it gets rid of a lot of the problems. Yeah.
I went back to using my little script that injects retractions into the job at certain intervals and that did wind up fixing it up and I did get my my full print but yeah it’ll be nice once I got the Peltier plate the new Peltier plates back so.
Chris
Yeah, you can do better.
Andy
Yeah, it wasn’t very pretty. This one turned out it’s kind of it’s got some stringies on it.
It’s just the overall surface quality is not the greatest but this is a handle for my locating equipment that I made.
But yeah, that’s all for me. I forgot to mention that when it was my turn.
Frank
Oh, well now it’s done
Frank
And on that note, we’d like to thank everyone for listening to the very end
Chris
The very, very, very, very, very, very end.
Frank
I’m tired too
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You can email us at franklin, kevin, andy, or chris, @amateur3dpod.com or you can email us collectively at panelists@amateur3dpod.com
Kevin Buckner wrote the music for this episode
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Our panelists are me Franklin Christensen and my friends Kevin Buckner, Chris Weber and Andy Cottam.
Until next time we’re going offline
Kevin
Keep your FEP tight
Andy
Always use hairspray.
Chris
No joke, only print.
Frank
In Tussia the printer prints you
Chris
Print you.