Frank
Thank you for joining us.
This is episode 38 of Amateur 3D Podcast, a podcast by amateur printers for amateur printers where we share our thoughts and experience.
Our panelists this week are me, Franklin Christensen, and my friends, Andy Cottam, Kevin Buckner, and Chris Weber.
I’m not sure who it is that farted, no, it’s definitely Kevin farting.
Andy
Man was starting to stink in here, I couldn’t tell what it was.
Chris
Close the door.
Is that a frog in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
Andy
Talk about an infestation of barking spiders.
Frank
Right.
True to form, we’re going to try to continue to warn everybody about a topic that we’re going to avoid for the whole podcast.
This week it is how to get the most from your printer, and Chris gave us a little run through of what he was thinking so we know that he’s already prepared, and the rest of us, no?
Chris
Nope, not prepared at all.
Frank
So much for that idea.
Chris, since you spoke up first, you want to share what you worked on this week or even last week since you missed us?
Chris
Kind of sort of both.
My grandpa passed on last year, and one of the things my dad brought home and gave to me was a fish shaped knife from Iwo Jima that my grandpa had served, and so I finally got around to making a little display stand for it.
So I found a nice little katana stand on the thingyverse and modified it just a little bit, and yeah, posted that picture for you guys earlier today.
Andy
It turned out really nice.
That particular picture, too, showed a lot of your print quality capabilities, it was a really nice print.
Chris
Yeah, yeah, I put the quality settings up on high because it’s a display piece.
Andy
Yeah, it turned out real pretty, real good.
Chris
And then I printed a couple of headphone mounts, one actually for headphones and then the other one I’m using for my pool rack, my billiards rack.
Andy
Okay, that works.
Chris
That’s what I did.
Frank
Fun, fun.
Kevin, you work on anything this last week?
Kevin
Yes, I did.
So well, first, I helped Andy convince his wife that they need to get an SLA printer.
So there’s that.
But then I had printed up the print.
Now, had I talked about the princess on the last podcast or did I do both princesses?
Frank
I think they were only at the king and queen and the bishops last podcast.
Kevin
Okay, so I have actually, I printed up a princess that’s a different succubus that, so I went on a website called Titan Craft, which is similar to Hero Forge in concept, but they’ve got some differences.
And then I made a little succubus on Titan Craft and downloaded it.
But they didn’t have any outfits that I thought would be fitting of a succubus, like they’re all very modest, like gowns and stuff.
So I said, you know what, I’m just going to make it with no clothes and then I’m going to import the STL into Blender and give it the clothing that I want it to have in Blender.
Frank
Are we going to joke about the irony of a succubus being modest?
Kevin
That’s exactly why I said I’m going to make it with no clothes.
Chris
Well, how do you attempt the most Puritan guys in the first place as you make it look like it’s no big deal and then you slowly go farther?
Frank
Yeah, but by then, you know, it’s like the, what is it, the mermaid song.
Andy
Sirens.
Frank
The sirens, yes.
At some point, it doesn’t matter how they’re dressed.
You’re already under the spell and do the thing.
Kevin
Anyway, so I did just that.
I put the STL into Blender and I made some really skimpy clothes for it.
Basically, it was panties and a strapless bra and printed it off and discovered that it was about half as tall as the queen, which is just way too short for what I was going for.
So then I came back home from the party, Frank’s birthday party, and I sized it up because see, one of the great things about Titan craft is that once you’ve bought an asset pack for it, you can download as many STLs as you want that use that asset pack.
And since for this one, I actually only had to pay $2 for the Baylor wings that I put on it.
Everything else was in their basic pack that everybody can do for free.
I can download that thing as much as I want without having to pay for the STL every time, which is a big, big improvement over Hero Forge.
Frank
Remind me again, what is the website called?
Kevin
It’s called titancraft.com.
So they don’t have as good of a selection of things as Hero Forge.
Chris
But we will still accept you as a sponsor.
Frank
Yes.
Kevin
And I also found their advanced posing options much better.
You can select an individual bone to position the way you want it.
And with the tail that I put on this succubus princess, it had each individual bone in the tail.
There were like 15 of them.
It was awesome.
Anyway, I scaled it up and then I downloaded it and I was and I had ported it into Blender and was about to start putting the lingerie on it.
And then I thought, you know, this has been kind of an arduous process.
Like the first time I did it, I was almost done.
I had been working on it for two hours and my computer died.
Like it overheated or no, the power went out in my whole house.
The power was out for two minutes, lost all that progress.
Took me an hour to get it back to where it was before.
So I figured stuff out.
So I was about to start that whole process again.
I was like, you know what, I should pull this into Chitubox with the queen STL to make sure it’s the right size before I go through all that process again.
And it wasn’t!
So then I scaled it up even more and then I pulled it in and I put it into Chitubox and I got it to where it’s half a head shorter than the queen, which is where I want it.
So then I went and I put it into Blender and I put more, a little bit more clothing and instead of it just being like panties and a bra, it’s kind of a tube top with a little skull just above the belly button.
And I put some little spiky things on the top of the bustier just to make it look like I had done more than just put lines on it to make it look like she had stuff on.
And then I also did the garter holders on the bottom part of the lingerie and I printed up and it looks marvelous.
Chris
Punk rock succubus.
Kevin
Yeah.
And I also printed up six pawns, they’re skeleton infantry.
I need to print two more pawns and I’ve identified what I’m going to use for rooks and what I’m going to use for the warlord.
I still haven’t figured out knights though.
But that’s what I’ve been doing.
Frank
Fun.
Chris
Cool.
Andy
I was kind of looking over titan craft a little bit here.
Chris
Well, you might find a good variety in Warhammer STLs for your knights just going out on a limer.
I know nothing about Warhammer 40k, but I know that they’ve got lots of really cool evil knight looking stuff.
So.
Frank
Other than Henry Cavill is an absolute nerd.
I don’t know anything else about 40k either.
Kevin
I’ve been doing mostly stuff from Loot Studios because I’ve got that subscription and I’ve also paid for DM stash stuff that I haven’t thoroughly perused yet.
But with Loot Studios, I’m thinking of trying to get, seeing how well, at least for the Black Army, the goblin bat rider would work for a knight, but the bat is kind of big and so I don’t know how far I’d have to scale it down.
Chris
On a side note, get yourself a UPS for your PC and your router and or whatever internet IP device you have.
That way in the future, you’ll at least have a good 10 minutes to save yourself.
Kevin
Yeah.
Well, and see the crazy thing about that is at work, I have railed against plugging computers into the wall.
At work, I’ve said, no, every single computer needs to be plugged into a UPS.
I just haven’t done that at home.
Frank
Well, that’s because a personal UPS is expensive as hell.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Yeah, they can be.
Mine was 80 bucks.
Andy
And you know what, that does kind of track with what you’re getting because if you bought even a fairly crappy inverter and a lead acid 12 volt battery and a trickle charger that could push the amps that the inverter would use, that’s the basic UPS there, you’re still looking at spending close to that same amount.
So even hokyin’ one together isn’t going to get you a really good price on a UPS.
Chris
Even my old UPS is when they go out, you know, I have to order a new battery and the new battery is still 40 bucks.
So…
Andy
yeah, that’s true.
Chris
Yes.
Speaking of, if you’d want one, Kevin, I’ve got an older one that needs a battery.
You can order a battery for it.
Kevin
Hey, I might just take you up on that.
Chris
Okay.
Cool.
Andy
You could probably get any cheap if it just uses a typical lead acid battery like an older one would.
You could probably get just about any kind of lead acid battery that would fit in there and it should operate without any difference.
Chris
Yep.
That is true.
Andy
It’s just these newer ones that use different kinds of batteries that wouldn’t work for.
But the old lead acid ones are pretty versatile.
Of course, this is also me who, Jimmy rigs everything.
So don’t take my advice.
Chris
But we are talking about a 3D printer podcast.
Don’t ever plug your 3D printer into a UPS again.
Andy
Why not?
Chris
You’ll blow up the UPS.
Oh, just the load that it will pull.
Yeah.
Your UPS will go.
It’s no pop because you’re literally plugging a heater into your UPS.
Andy
You got a very good point.
I was just going to think like, gosh, the power supply to my printer is only like eight amps max.
And I’m currently living off of broken UPS or a broken power supply.
That’s bad.
That only does like two amps at 24 volts.
That should be easy to push, but I forgot about the heater, the bed.
Frank
Well, Andy, there goes Kevin banging on stuff and it sounds like a fart.
Andy, you do anything this week?
Andy
I’ve put together a few things, nothing really worth bragging about or anything.
My coolers that I designed for my fish tank, I’ve printed off both coolers themselves and I’ve glued the two pieces that make them, you know, one component together.
But I haven’t put together the wiring yet on them or anything like that.
I haven’t really had the time.
Hopefully I’ll get that wind up done tomorrow and be able to put them up.
But that’s all I did with with those for the most part, because there’s something else.
Must not be important.
I don’t remember.
Chris
There’s those nipples Kevin printed off for you.
Andy
Yes.
Yes.
I was thinking about those a long time ago.
I had printed some and then they absolutely failed and then I asked Kevin if he could print them because I was half interested in SLA and he could print them and have them be waterproof.
And that was my main problem.
And so he printed some for me, got the wife really excited to get an SLA printer.
I’m really glad that we did that in front of her because now I’ve got the open pocket book to buy an SLA printer when I’m ready.
So thank you for that, Kevin.
Kevin
You’re welcome.
Andy
He gave them to me.
They look really great.
I do want I haven’t tried them yet.
I will be doing that as soon as I get some of my other stuff done here and put them on and see how well they work.
These adapters are are pretty much an odd thread for a my fish tanks canister pump, which is kind of a custom thread already that the pump hooks to.
And then the pump has a barbed fitting on the other end.
And I am using a totally different pump for those.
So right now I’m just pulling the water through the old pump using the old pump as that adapter.
So hopefully next week when I talk to you guys, I’ll be able to say that I was able to remove that pump and put in this adapter that Kevin printed for me and give it a really good go.
And then hopefully in the next.
Frank
That is assuming that, you know, you don’t throw it up on discord that you flooded out your basement.
Andy
Yeah, yeah, that is true.
I am kind of worried about that with having the fish tanks in and having some kind of catastrophic failure, because thankfully I’m I where I keep the tanks is downstairs and my basement does all completely slope to my floor drain in the basement.
But that’d be a couple of walls to go through first before it gets to that floor drain.
Fish tank holds a lot of water.
Frank
I was more or less being facetious, though, because it’s not like you have the water refilling the tanks.
So it’d only be what is it?
Twenty gallons worth of water.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
And I’m pretty sure that when that pipe burst next to my room many years ago, it was more than that that sprayed out before I could shut the valve so…
Andy
Yeah, that was an absolute disaster.
That was good.
But yeah, that’s that’s what I’ve been doing with my printer.
Oh, yes, I remember I for these fans that I’m switching to for that to use for these excuse me, let me start over the actual PC fans that I’m using for these blowers for my fish tank.
I’m using just 12 volt 80 millimeter.
They’re like only a quarter inch thick.
They’re kind of the thinner, cheaper fans.
And I’ve I thought I had bought replacements for my printer because my printers cooling my Peltier cooling system also uses to 80 millimeter fans.
When I went to go get them, I discovered that last time I purchased replacement fans, backup fans for my printer, I had bought proper 24 volt fans instead of 12 volt fans that I’ve got series’d together right now running off of the printer.
So I took the time to what’s that?
Chris
So that’s a nice surprise.
Andy
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, kind of.
I mean, it’s nice to have proper fans, but now I can’t use the 24 volt fans on my fish tank project.
So I went ahead and took my old fans off of my cooling system that were 12 volts that I will use for my fish tank now and put on the brand new 24 volt fans on my printer.
And the 24 volt fans seem to spin a little bit faster and give a little bit more throughput.
They’re like half an inch thick.
They’re a little bit better quality than what I was running before.
And so hopefully that’ll help my cooling system that is already too cold.
So that’ll work.
But that’s that’s all I really got.
Frank
Bigger faster fans on the heat exchanger to make it more cold.
Andy
Yeah.
Well, I mean, we were talking just like what last week about me putting together a compressor by getting a broken mini fridge from somebody and ripping out the compressor and making a cooling system for my fish tanks that just does like an alcohol loop inside of the fish tank there and then using, you know, the old refrigerator compressor and build a system out of that.
I want to have a reason to build an air conditioned unit like that for something, just a small one.
That way I can know that that I can do it, that I can just get some copper tubing of the right sizes, solder stuff together, charge it up and have it work.
And my original idea for the cooling system was to do that.
But the Peltier system I put together just works and it is able to over cool the cold end of my head, my print head.
Now that I’ve switched over to the H2 water cooled extruder, that is also cooling off the 14 millimeter stepper motor that’s on it.
So it’s the cooling systems doing quite a bit, which is kind of nice.
And those Peltiers are still got like a 50 percent duty cycle just to keep the water temperature around 60 degrees.
So it’s not worth putting the extra energy and building something newer and better and making the cooling system even better than it already is.
Because right now it’s already kind of overkill for what it needs to be.
Frank
But well, as we all learn from Tim Taylor, anything worth engineering is worth over engineering.
Andy
Agreed.
Absolutely agreed.
So hopefully I’ll have more more of what I’ll come up with next week.
But right now, my printer spent a little bit on the quiet side.
I haven’t done a whole lot with it.
I did.
I did have one thing I accidentally melted a while back.
I printed I designed and printed a nice little case for my not case for my phone.
It was a stand for my phone that will hold the stand, hold my phone at a nice 45 degree angle.
And it’s got a thing on it that you can change the angle of the phone and stuff.
And I keep this in my bed and I use it to prop up my phone.
Well, I accidentally melted it and I need to print a new one.
So that’s something I’ll be doing tonight is taking my old STL files from I think that was like a year ago that I designed that.
So hold on to your stuff.
I’ll be able to just take that project and throw it through and reprint it and have to have a nice replacement one right on hand.
So…
Frank
fun
Chris
accidentally.
Andy
It was an accident.
It was an accident.
Frank
I accidentally broke the the key holder for my wife, so I have to redesign it now.
Andy
Just don’t put it in the dryer.
That was my problem.
Frank
I didn’t have that problem.
Mine was too close to the door and I bumped it.
Andy
Oh.
Frank
I’m not even sure that I’m the first one that bumped it off.
But yeah, that’s a whole nother issue.
Andy
Gotcha.
Good deal.
Here’s another thing I had to do.
I was going through and working on my furnace a little bit and was going through and testing all the registers in the house.
And one of the registers I’ve got was a very, very odd size.
And I would have had to purchase a proper register for it.
I would have had to reduce the size of the duct in order to make it work properly.
And a while back, I had printed a register that I had designed that even has a slider to open and close the register.
It turned out really beautifully nice.
And but this was back before I had moved on to different plastics.
The dang thing is printed out of PLA and to to go.
Now, that register is in a room that we don’t typically heat.
So it’s actually left mostly closed all the time.
It does allow a little bit of heat through.
Frank
Is this the one I was in?
Andy
Yes, yes.
Frank
My old room.
So to give some history there, I rigged a cardboard box with a slider to do what you’re talking about having printed a cover for.
So like I only because it was blowing on my bed, I only gave it like a half an inch to an inch to let the air out and everything else was just flat blocked off.
So…
Chris
You know, the stuff single guys are willing to live with are not the same as what married women are willing to put up with.
Andy
Yeah.
So let me let me show this to you guys on how well this thing turned out.
So this is our audible listeners.
Yeah, absolutely.
But I’ve got a slider built into it that can open and close the hole.
Chris
Then all that visual listeners.
That’s pretty dang cool.
Kevin
Very nice.
Andy
But the things have made out of PLA and it’s screwed down and you can see it’s it’s got just a little bit of warpage near the top.
It probably deflects about a quarter of an inch.
But the whole the whole register is about a foot wide and like nine inches tall.
And so it’s a rather large component, completely built out of PLA.
But the furnace blows right through it.
And it’s got such little amounts of warping.
It goes right back to the people who complain about PLA not being able to deal with temperature well
I just look back at a lot of the things that I’ve made with PLA back when I when I thought that would be a problem and started using PETG for those higher temp stuff and things that PLA still does pretty good, really well.
That that piece that I melted, I was talking about that I melted in the dryer by accident.
That was PETG that got all warpy and distorted.
Now, given I wouldn’t think that PLA would have probably even been worse going through the dryer.
But so rarely do I have a problem with something melting on me that I printed from PLA way back in the day.
I’ve got a shroud for a phone that I use as a GPS that I keep in my work car all the time.
And that shroud I built to keep the sun off of the phone, and it’s built out of PLA.
And I’ve had that sucker in that car for almost, what, three or four years now, just baking in the sun day in, day out, keeping the sun off of the phone.
And there’s there’s such little amounts of warpage to that plastic.
It just works.
So people who are afraid of using PLA for high temperature applications, I wouldn’t say that it’s not worth trying and only worrying about it if it fails on you.
Chris
Yeah.
Or you put it through the dishwasher.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah, that is true.
Frank
So I did just see a video today.
Somebody took a what is it in the air blowers?
The fan.
What’s it called?
Andy
The an impeller.
Yeah.
Frank
So I took an impeller from a Dyson vacuum.
Oh, dear.
And turned it into a jet engine.
Andy
Oh, I know who you’re talking about.
Frank
3D printed all the parts and melted the engine itself.
But it was cool looking until that happened.
Andy
Is that an Integza?
Right.
I think…
Frank
I don’t know.
It was a short on Facebook.
I didn’t pay that much attention.
I just thought it was amusing to watch the engine melt after everything came together.
The frame of the engine where the the normal rotary jet engine would have been.
But yeah, it was fun to laugh at.
Andy
It’s fun to watch stuff get destroyed like that.
I think I was like nine or ten years old and it was my biggest thing.
I would take the old big boom boxes that took like 10 D batteries.
Right.
Those battery packs were fun to tap into and get a lot of voltage.
And then you take the little dorky motors that come out of your toys and just set them up and just slowly crank up the voltage and let the motor just destroy itself burning up.
I used to get the biggest kick out of that and I would always get in trouble by my dad because I would just leave it on the carpet and let it freaking catch fire on its own.
Frank
You’re lucky you didn’t burn down your house, dude.
Andy
Yeah, there’s a lot of weird rules.
My parents came up for me that totally makes sense now as an adult.
Now that I look back
Frank
as a parent?
Andy
things that I did.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like he was concerned about me having stuff plugged in in the walls.
I wasn’t allowed to have things that plugged in in my room.
And I thought, oh, my dad’s just that’s just a weird hang up that he had growing up.
No, I gave him reasons to make those kind of rules for me.
Chris
Yeah.
Well, the thing that sucks is when you have to turn around and apply them to your parents.
I am currently dealing with that with my in-laws.
My father in law insists on using these ancient Christmas lights.
Andy
OK
Chris
so they’re old.
All of the all of the casing on the lights is cracking.
He is he is literally it is a it is a fire hazard.
The just looking at it.
Andy
doesn’t he put up these huge oversized Christmas trees, too?
Chris
Yeah.
So…
Frank
Well he is a carpenter.
Chris
So but he I tried to explain to him that if you buy or even just take my old LED Christmas lights and use those, you will save more money than every year than using the electricity to put these things up.
And you’re not liable to burn your house down because I swear he’s going to burn his house down.
Andy
Yeah.
With the new Christmas lights, you don’t even have to worry about shutting them off.
They pull such little amounts of power and produce practically no heat.
Yeah, they’re wonderful
Frank
It’s because they’re LED.
So but it’s a light emitting diodes are like that.
Chris
One of the many things, but yes.
Frank
So we have successfully avoided talking about our topic.
Does anyone have any thoughts about it?
Specific thoughts?
Chris
Well, I’m reminded of the fun little tricks Andy uses to pinch pennies and get all of his plastic used where he’s making a the the endfuser.
What’s that thing called?
Frank
Oh, the splicer.
Chris
Yes.
Or you use the splicer.
And then on top of that, you use your your scale and say, OK, my print’s going to take my print’s going to take this much.
Do I have that left?
Yes.
Yes, I do.
So you can say, yes, I’ve got enough for this.
No, I don’t.
I will hold this until I do have enough.
And then you’re wasting almost none of your leftover stuff.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah, not…
No plastic.
You got a good point.
Chris
Or you’re you’re not getting halfway through a print.
And it keeps keeps running, but it ran out of plastic.
And now you’ve got to replace your nozzle and you have to throw away that plastic.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think another really good point to taking care of how much plastic you use is if you have anything that has the possibility of an interference fit of some kind, you really good should sit down and separately design that interference fit part that you can print off some test pieces that are really tiny that will get you the measurements you need.
That way, when you go to print it in full size, you know that you will be good.
And take care of all those problems well before you even print the full size model.
And of course, in your CAD software, run it through an assembly and make sure that in the assembly, things are lining up the way they should.
If you, you know, are supposed to, let’s say, mounted onto something or something like that, would be a great example.
Like if you got bolt holes that you need something that you’re printing to match up with something else, designing a quick interface of the studs coming out themselves that you’ve measured completely independently and created a small, stupid model that has those studs, you know, to scale.
And then you could check it in assembly that things line up perfectly and stuff like that.
You know, it just it saves you from from that moment where you successfully printed the part and you’ve got like five problems wrong with it.
You got to iterate on a fully printed part.
Frank
Well, and I’ll say that iterating on these blocks from my childhood that I’m redesigning for my mom, the first 10 iterations were just small little interference parts to make sure that they interact with the original one in the way that I expect them to.
Andy
Yeah.
And you you showed us that during your party.
And they felt good.
It’s it’s definitely this is something only a 3D printer person would really understand.
If someone gave you two Legos for you to look at and you put them together and they fit good for you to recognize how rare that is and how well you’ve done to make that work, you know.
Frank
Yeah, I’ve seen I talked about during the party where there is point seven millimeters gap between two of the same part and the originals fit like really tight, but not so tight that you couldn’t get them off.
So I would like to reduce that tolerance.
But otherwise, everything else is exactly where I need it to be.
Andy
Yeah, they worked out really good.
They were very impressive that they fit as well as they did.
I would have loved to have a second brick because you you passed around an original brick and the printed brick.
It would have been neat to have a another set of those to see what they’re supposed to feel like with the ABS plastic themselves.
And then what your print feels like to them.
But right off the bat, just filling them.
They felt like Legos.
They felt the pushing together like Legos.
They felt nice and smooth, just like Legos.
Great work.
Frank
Well, thank you for one.
Yeah, it’s been a slow road.
And I think I said it the other day while you guys were here.
But I got to the point where I was getting that target fixation and potentially even challenging my ability to do it well.
So I actually put it down and moved on.
And I am hoping to circle back on it here in the next couple of days.
Chris
That’s a healthy choice.
Frank
Have a fresh perspective on it.
Andy
Yeah, yeah, that’s good.
Just just thinking back to the original what you’ve done this week.
One thing I do have to sit down and do this week.
Just thought of it as this year for the fourth of July.
We decided that we’re not…
Last year we decided we’re not doing fireworks anymore.
They’re way too stupid, expensive, and the fireworks are garbage.
They’re just crappy all around.
Frank
Spend a lot of money for no payoff.
Chris
And then you end up with kids make making up their own.
Andy
Yeah.
I mean, we live in Utah and back a few years ago.
Aerial fireworks were illegal here in Utah, which a lot of people don’t like that.
But what I don’t think they realize is how much we benefited when it came to people spent a lot of extra money on really good fountains.
And fountains were a great firework that we grew up with.
They were they worked really well.
But ever since now that aerial fireworks are legal, the fountains are just they turn to garbage anymore.
It’s just it sucks.
But anyway, where I’m going with this is we decided, well, next year, which is coming up this year here, let’s let’s do some model rockets for everybody.
And we decided to.
Yeah, the 3D print the model rockets.
And I haven’t we haven’t printed 3D model rockets yet.
So we’re going to start out very, very simple.
I’m going to find a good, very basic Estes rocket because we’re using Estes engines for this.
We’re going to find a very basic Estes rocket and we can get the specs from it, like the weight and things like that.
And we should be able to to be able to 3D print something similar to that and be able to use that.
And then I’ll let the kids paint them, which they could have fun with doing.
And then on the fourth, we’ll go out and shoot them off.
And I think that will have the same kind of firework, you know, enjoyment that we would get from purchasing fireworks.
And then we can go watch fireworks elsewhere.
But…
Chris
OK, yeah, it’s the same note.
Yeah, with the kid, I’m doing a glow party.
And so I am 3D printing specialty glow stuff and attachments for her glow sticks.
Andy
OK, nice.
Chris
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah, that is kind of cool.
That is.
But so, yeah, sorry to interrupt with that.
That’s just some I thought about that was on the docket that we have to do this weekend is is at least put together some rudimentary design because I do have to fire one off before I build them all for the family to make sure we got something that will work, at least half work.
And of course, my son, I want my son to be a part of it.
But, oh, man, is he had some crazy ideas and trying to get him to stick to the most basic thing first before we start getting weird with it.
You know
Frank
The same son that volunteered to do a report on black holes?
Andy
Yeah, yeah.
Chris
Yeah.
Frank
Yeah.
Chris
You really got to grind home to keep it simple.
Andy
He is taking it on himself.
He’s gotten on paint 3D.
So when I say he designs something, we’ll sit down on CAD and he’ll design something.
Mostly, it’s me operating the computer and him giving me measurements and telling me what he wants to do.
But the two weeks ago, he was talking about wanting to design something in 3D.
And I’ve given him a laptop not to watch YouTube or anything with, but he loves to code.
So it’s got a visual basic IDE on there that he’s been using left and right.
He likes to write.
So it’s got Word and Excel and all that kind of stuff that he’s been playing with.
And I give him access to our printer.
And as long as he doesn’t abuse it drastically, he can go to town.
And that’s been a great learning experience for him.
He’s 10, by the way, if anybody’s curious.
So that’s been going good.
But the other day, he asked me if I will put my solid works that I use on his computer so he can design 3D stuff.
And I’m thinking, oh, the license I got is only one machine.
I can’t do that.
And SolidWorks is very put together on making sure you stick to their rules.
So can’t really do that.
And my son doesn’t really take care of his his stuff.
So I don’t want him just using my laptop to design what he wants.
So I told him, OK, well, maybe I can give you like free CAD or something like that on.
And they said, OK.
And I got thinking about it in the nightmares I had with free CAD.
And so I was thinking, maybe I’ll come talk to you guys, see what might be worth of him learning.
And since then, he has found Microsoft Paint, the 3D version of Microsoft Paint that came installed with Windows.
And so at one point, he told me that, hey, I designed the rocket that I want to build.
And so I’m expecting because he’s been using paint for drawing and stuff like that on other things, too.
So I thought he’d drawn it in there.
So I walked in there and he’s got a freaking 3D model in that paint program of a rocket he designed.
Blew my mind.
He’s like…
Chris
Wait, you can do that?
Frank
Yeah.
Andy
No kidding.
Chris
Wow.
Andy
I haven’t played with it.
I’d be curious on what like formats that it can save.
And if I could like bring it into my SolidWorks and adjust it for a proper print or something like that, to give him like a medium step into, you know, an actual CAD software, an actual CAD environment.
Just go in that that halfway point.
But I’ll have to see what formats, because if that can save an STL, even even if he doesn’t work with measurements, man, it can’t.
Frank
No, it does GLB and it does 3MF.
Chris
3MF file.
You can convert that, though.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
Frank
Got to remember 3MF is.
Andy
I remember seeing that.
Can Cura open 3MF?
Chris
No, but you can get a converter that will will do those.
Frank
Well, OK.
Chris
And into a step or an STL.
Frank
Your your slicer does two to file formats, 3MF and STL.
Chris
Boom.
Andy
I’m going to have to play with that.
Is that because even if he’s not using measurements, if he could design something in paint, that is that is a really super, super solid middle step to actual complicated CAD software for a 10 year old.
I’m going to look at that after this podcast.
That’s awesome.
Sorry.
Didn’t mean to get all excited about it for that moment.
Chris
Now is an incredibly cool tangent.
Actually
Frank
Optimize your printer use by giving your kids something fundamental to play with.
Andy
Yeah.
Chris
Right.
Andy
And I love setting him up to learn stuff because he loves loves learning, loves learning.
When he gets bored, he’ll go downstairs and read.
I have to yell at him to stop reading, to do his chores.
It’s the best problem I think a parent can have.
I love it.
Frank
My my parents had that problem when I was in sixth grade.
Yeah.
So we went from all talking over each other to everyone being quiet.
Yeah, it’s all your fault, Andy.
Kevin
Every time.
Andy
Is there anything that you that you guys do to save on plastic and make sure that you’re not wasting and getting the most out of your your money for your printer that you can?
Frank
No, not really.
I spend more plastic than I probably should.
But I also especially the last month or so since since I finished all the Easter stuff.
I haven’t been printing that much.
Oh, I didn’t say what I worked on this week.
Andy
No, no, I think we skipped over that.
I’m sorry.
I should have brought that up.
Frank
Yeah, you’re you’re usually the one the one that points at me and says, let’s talk about you, Frank.
Andy
Yeah, I think I got messed up on something.
My apologies.
Frank
Either that or we fell down a different rabbit hole.
It’s OK, though.
All I really did this week was print off a you know how you’ve got the brackets so that you can put the thing on it to hold your brooms and all that.
And your yeah, your tool closet.
I created…
Andy
I need some of those, sorry.
Frank
They’re really inexpensive at your hardware store.
It’s not that bad anyway.
So I just printed off a little bracket to hold a hand brush because I didn’t want to go to Home Depot that day.
Andy
OK, sounds reasonable.
Frank
And so, yeah, that’s all I did.
And you guys saw that on Monday when you were here.
So my printer has actually been off.
Andy
Has it.
Frank
Yeah.
But my main excuse for that is I’ve been busy with my wife’s football team.
So…
Andy
yeah, yeah, that’s fine.
And well, as far as getting the most out of your printer, getting it to rest all the time, we can’t run those things 24 7 three sixty five very comfortably without wearing parts out.
Frank
So there’s that.
But at some point, I figured I should impersonate a professional computer technician, too.
So…
Andy
True, true.
But keeping your printer in good working order for when you actually need it will help you get more use out of it, too, especially if you use it for repairs around the house and things like that.
Frank
Little odds and ends.
Agreed.
But, um, I don’t know, I guess it has probably saved me plastic by switching to the tree, the tree supports.
And I’ve been using the concentric infill and not liking it so much because it doesn’t do the… still doesn’t do the concentric like it did before the update to the the new version.
OK, but the gyroid infill has done real good and it’s been really easy to pull off with the the tree supports.
And overall, I think that has probably saved me some plastic, too.
So optimized in that way.
Otherwise, I just print small parts right now.
Andy
Well, that’s still good use of it.
That’s most of what I print small little parts for fixing things here or there.
Frank
There is the detail that I’m not fighting as hard as I was the last couple of weeks, but under extrusion has kind of been a problem for me.
And when you get your computer, your printer running real well and not doing the under extrusion, there’s less waste.
Because you don’t pull it off and go, oh, this is crap.
I need to try again.
You know?
Chris
Yeah.
So dial in your printer and then make sure it’s operating really well before you get going.
Frank
Yeah.
Before you start printing the big 300 millimeter cube castle.
Yeah.
It takes four days to run off the forceful.
Chris
Yeah, I’m going to end up whatever.
I’m going to end up printing one of those that I know it.
Andy
I’m tempted to, but I just really want to print it upside down with a centimeter base.
Frank
Well, and Andy…
Andy
A centimeter square at the very tip and then just print it off.
That would go to your full bed size.
Frank
Just get the printer that Facebook has been advertising to Kevin that prints from the the top down
Andy
upside down.
I just want to show how good hairspray is for a bed.
That’s my whole point.
Frank
Wow.
A little sphere that’s holding a 50 pound piece of plastic.
And look how good this hairspray is.
Chris
Well, I’m halfway with Andy on this one, because when I’ve had problematic plastic, you know, I’ve gone, gosh, I should have used hairspray.
Frank
I still haven’t used hairspray.
Andy
That’s fine. I still won’t use your crappy software either.
So we’ll call it even.
Frank
Fair.
Andy
However, I’m very interested in what Kevin was talking about, about adding clothes on to models using Blender and making it sound simple.
I was browsing Blender’s website a little bit here while we were talking.
Chris
I was thinking the same thing.
I’m going
That does not sound very simple.
Kevin
No. You remember the part where I said that it took me two hours to add a simple bra and panties.
Frank
So let’s be clear there, Kevin.
Chris
Well, when I’m quoting a CMM
Frank
me and Andy, I guarantee me and Andy will spend four or five hours designing a block with holes in it.
Kevin
So you’re going your your work.
You’re starting from scratch.
I’m all I’m doing is adding to a pre-existing file.
Chris
Yeah.
Well…
Andy
I think that’s what I’ve heard.
That’s so much harder.
Chris
When I’ve been when I’ve been dealing with with parts on the CMM, you know, it’s a similar concept.
You’re adding stuff to a 3D model.
I’ve had problems just this last week.
In fact, it did take me over two hours to add just a single radio measurement to a dang CAD file.
So I’m just saying something more complex than that is, wow.
Andy
Yeah, that sounds like a talent.
That’s awesome.
Frank
Complex geometry.
That one will not optimize your printer is complex geometries.
Chris
But you can you can mod your printer, too.
Most printers are can be can be modded and added to so that like you have a run out sensor that pauses your printer till you can till you can come back around and save yourself the plastic.
Andy
You mean, you don’t have to stick with the way the factory designed it.
Frank
Well, what if you’re in my situation where the factory sent you a bunch of proximity sensors?
Admittedly, you know, I got spoiled with my printer in a lot of ways compared to you, Andy.
But, yeah, I’ve got a proximity sensor on my my filament.
So if it runs out, the printer stops.
Chris
Yeah.
And I think the Creality got popular enough that they’ve got the most mods, I would think.
Frank
They’ve definitely got a lot.
And they’ve made a lot of progress just in the last year since I bought my printer.
Like, they’ve done away with the CR 10 and just gone with the CR series.
And like, they’ve moved away from the Marlin operating system and they’ve got their own proprietary system that they use now, I think.
Chris
Oh, le gasp.
Frank
I can’t remember what they call it.
But, yeah, they’re making a good name for themselves.
Andy
I know a lot of these printer companies are moving over the years to make their own printers.
Companies are moving away from eight bit printing main boards.
The Marlin is on the eight bit.
So you’re going to see Marlin phased out pretty quickly, I think here.
Frank
As the technology grows up.
Andy
But see, there’s still there’s no real.
So you could do micro stepping, which greatly reduces the noise your printer.
That’s why I was asking, are you micro stepping on your printer?
But you’re sitting there running Marlin.
So it was like, OK, you know, things are just they just got a quiet printer.
I was impressed because my like, we’re going to go.
You can hear it from upstairs.
It’s loud.
Chris
Yeah, that’s one of the big selling points on my printer was the wife was concerned that my printer would be noisy and it’s not.
Andy
Yeah, that’s good.
That’s good.
You get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom because I keep it in the laundry room and, you know, that shares a wall with the bathroom.
And it’s nice to hear it, hear it in there.
Or you go to the bathroom and you hear it.
You hear that that ticking from something going wrong every once in a while, you know, or you’ll hear steps being missed from your extruder or something from the other room and know that you’re just going to have to go as soon as you finish up.
Go open the door and look at the spaghetti mess all over your bed.
That was definitely a giggle of of experience right there.
But but yeah.
Chris
But I know exactly what you’re talking about.
I I was walking by my office and when I was printing that shelf and I hear from outside the room and I’m like, my my printer is quiet.
This is abnormal.
And I didn’t want to open the door and look in because I’m like, how’s how bad is it going to be?
Frank
Yeah, I almost don’t want to know.
Andy
No kidding.
Frank
Yeah.
Andy
So getting the most out of your printer, I think you should include having certain spare parts on hand, because if you’re getting the most out of your printer, you’re probably running it for a long time.
And there are parts that will wear out.
If you use Delrin rollers on your print on your printer, you should have quite a few spare Delrin’s to replace out.
You know, you should always have a bunch of…
Chris
There’s the reason my came with mine came with spare rollers.
Yeah
Andy
Yeah.
A bunch of tips, tips.
You should always replace the tip.
You have any reason at all to replace a brass tip.
You should replace it.
You know, just have it ready to go.
Having…
Frank
Because they’re not expensive.
They’re nowhere near as expensive as any other part.
Yeah, just if you’re fart up wind and the thing stops working for you, replace the tip first.
Andy
Yeah, no kidding.
And a replacement hot end, too.
I mean, for most of us, the eight based guys, that’s only around 10 bucks.
And that includes a heater cartridge.
Yeah, a heater cartridge and a thermal resistor, because just having one of those on hand, you’re going to have one of those moments where you have a leak and you get a completely encapsulated hot end with plastic.
I tell you what, it is so much nicer to just decide, you know what?
I’m not going to clean this up and just, you know, put on a brand new a brand new hot end all together that cost 10 bucks.
You know?
Chris
Yep.
There’s price versus your time.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah, no kidding.
Especially for those of us who used to have to wrap our heads with fiberglass.
That was that was a lot more work to doing anything with the head.
You get any plastic up in there and you’re looking at it, you know, a good 20 minutes to half an hour to to go and take it apart, clean it and rewrap it.
Chris
Well, even as a mechanic, I feared doing a head job.
Frank
So that’s several hours compared to Andy’s 30 minutes.
So I guess, you know, book hours would be a little different, too.
Chris
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Well, I don’t know.
I think we avoided and covered the topic in equal amounts at this point.
Does anybody have anything specific they wanted to… bring up about optimizing their printer.
Kevin
I was going to bring up some stuff, how to get the extend the life of your at least your FEP on an SLA printer.
Chris
Oh, yeah.
Frank
Oh, yeah.
That’s the main reason you’re here, Kevin, is SLA, right?
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Let’s cover your recovery, resin recovery also.
Kevin
Well, I mean, resin recovery is you don’t leave it in the resin vat when you’re not printing, because if you do, it’ll settle out and all your your photoactive monomers will be at the bottom.
And then, you know, to to suspend those, you shake it in the bottle and you give it a good shake.
And it’s kind of hard to do that.
If it’s in the resin vat, you’ll make a big mess.
If you try to shake
Frank
Pick up the whole box and shake it.
And yeah, I hope that your build plate stays aligned.
Kevin
Right.
Chris
You pick up your whole printer.
Why you a little!
Frank
Best case scenario, you mess along your your your plate and worst case scenario, you have to replace the damn thing because it slipped out of your hands while you were manhandling it.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
All your wife sees is the printer being chucked and wonders what the heck happened and why you were so mad at it.
You’re just trying to shake up the resin.
Frank
You’re just coming back with the white chalk paint so that you can do the outline on the carpet.
Kevin
Right.
And so.
But the like the user manual that I got with my printer said to clean out the resin vat with alcohol and a paper towel.
And then I read on a separate forum that you don’t actually want to use a paper towel because that’ll leave micro scratches on your FEP that increases FEP adhesion, which is bad because you don’t want it to stick to the FEP.
You want it to stick to the build plate.
And it made me say, huh, I bet you I bet you this is a big part of why I’ve had so many things pull off of the build plate and stick to the FEP halfway through the print.
It’s because I’ve been scratching up my FEP with a paper towel.
Oh, so what do you do instead?
From what these guys were saying is get yourself a silicone scraper.
And as we discussed just before recording, that translates to going to the kitchenware section of any store, retailer, grocery store or Walmart or whatever, and getting a silicone spatula.
Also known as a silicone scraper, depending on where you live, but…
Frank
but yeah, save money and don’t buy the 3D printing silicone scraper on Amazon.
Kevin
Right.
Exactly.
Frank
Because there’s nothing to gouge you.
Kevin
Right.
Because they’re like, hey, you’re going to have use this for a specialty thing.
I’m like, but if you buy it from the grocery store, they’re like, OK, you’re going to use this to scrape frosting out of your bowl.
Frank
You want to be able to give it to your kids to clean up when you’re done.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Make sure you mark it and keep it accordingly.
You don’t want that thing back in the kitchen.
Kevin
Well, I just keep mine right next to my 3D printer.
So yeah, there’s no way like if I if I do clean it, I just wipe it with a paper towel because I’m not concerned about scratching, getting micro scratches on that.
So what you what if you do like I found that this scraper actually does a pretty excuse me, pretty good job of getting all the resin out.
Of the vat off the step.
So I haven’t actually used the disposable microfiber paper shop towels that I bought.
Andy
Well, those are just like the blue traditional blue shop towels.
Right.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Yeah.
Frank
You say traditional, but they are much thicker and softer and they don’t leave the fibers behind so easily.
Kevin
Right.
Frank
Because you don’t you don’t want them in your engine.
Chris
Yeah, you don’t want to stuck behind on your gasket surfaces and what have you when you’re cleaning up your engine to put things back together.
Andy
Well, when I say traditional, I’m thinking like back in my childhood of my dad using those when we’d work on cars and things.
So that’s why traditional came out.
Frank
Andy you’re old enough that your dad was probably using the red rags that, you know…
Andy
Dude! I remember in my dad’s old Nova, he’ll ask him telling me, OK, I’m I’m 10 years old, maybe helping my dad out.
He says he’s got a bolt he needs me to do.
He broke it loose, but it’s really hard for him to get to.
And my small hands will make it easy.
And so he lifts me up and he puts me against the firewall and the engine.
I’m standing on the ground inside of the engine compartment between firewall and engine and enough room to just sit down and unscrew this bolt.
You just don’t see that anymore.
Chris
Little hands, tight places.
Frank
You know, adults used to be able to do that before our time, but they used to be able to do that, too.
So
Andy
no, no kidding.
Chris
Well, you know, the the early 2000 cars got got me to be kind of a contortionist.
And after that, it got worse.
So…
Andy
did it.
I opened the hood of some of these newer cars now and see just this one piece engine, and it’s just I well, I’m glad I don’t work on cars.
Chris
Well, I’ll post you an example.
I was the one I was helping Kevin replace a water pump pulley on his car when he had it over here.
And just to replace the pulley, I had to dismount one side of his engine and move his engine forward and up four or five inches just to do that.
Andy
Oh, my Lord.
Frank
Oh, boy.
Well
Andy
Terrible design.
Frank
I did try to wrap this up a little bit earlier.
Does anybody have anything else now that Kevin has said his piece?
Andy
I got a question
Chris
do you got any more pieces, Kevin?
Kevin
No.
Andy
I got a question for you, Kev.
When you were when you fill up your vat to do a print, do you feel like you lose much, much resin when from the just having to fill it up and then drain it back out back in your bottle and things after the print?
Do you lose much resin in that process?
Kevin
No.
Frank
Simple answer.
Kevin
I mean, so what what I I’ll I measure.
I’ve got a set of beakers that I will measure because the slicer tells me how much resin I can expect to use when I slice the project.
And so I’ll measure out like 10 or 15 more milliliters than that just to be on the safe side.
Andy
OK.
Kevin
So and then but yeah, I don’t feel like I lose much at all.
Like, I’d say maybe maybe 50 to 100 microliters, maybe.
Chris
Wow.
Andy
Do you have to have a certain amount in there in the vat itself in order to actually print anything at all?
Like, if it if it takes a certain amount, do you have to have a little bit up to a certain point more than that just for the printer to function?
Kevin
You have to have enough that it will fill in the the hole left when it pulls the the cured resin off of the FEP.
OK, so if it’s if it’s not filling in enough because the resin is kind of viscous, then it’s not going to print anything.
It’s not going to add anything to the build.
And then so that’s that’s why I add a few more milliliters than the two or three milliliters that I’m going to be able to print.
That’s why I add a few more milliliters than the slicer says I’m going to need just so that I can be sure that there’s going to be enough that it’s going to fill in the the holes.
Andy
OK.
Chris
I have a feeling Andy’s going to get himself an SLA printer and then re listen to all the podcasts just for Kevin’s tidbits.
Frank
Definitely the thing to do.
Andy
I’m going to pick the heck out of your brain, sir, when it comes to this, that you’ve already been through and learned all the hard lessons.
So I I’m going to try to skip those and and learn them verbally instead of through action.
So…
Frank
Now we’ve already been very clear about the fact that we’re all stubborn and we don’t learn from anybody else’s experiences.
So…
Kevin
I was just going to say good luck with that.
I hope you do.
Chris
I don’t know Andy seems pretty frugal when it comes to, you know, plastic use and stuff.
So I would say he’s going to start with whatever Kevin’s perfected.
Andy
Going to give it a shot, that’s for sure.
I don’t know.
Coming into something new, you’re a little bit more of an open book than once you’ve discovered certain ways to do stuff and get set in those ways.
You know,
Kevin
that’s true.
Chris
Yeah.
Kevin
And I have done things that you wouldn’t necessarily know it.
But when I printed up that second princess that I showed you guys just now, I did mix a little bit of gray into the black resin just to help stretch the black resin a little bit farther.
Frank
Well, you know, black is just a hue anyway.
So you add some gray to it and it’s still just a hue of white.
Kevin
Right.
And but black tends to be a strong enough hue that it kind of overpowers everything else.
Frank
Well it’s not even really a hue of white.
Kevin
Actually it is…
Frank
I imagine it’s more a hue of blue or violet.
Chris
Well, it depends on the usage, you know, because if you’re using like crayons or markers, then yeah, it’s a combination of all colors.
But when you’re using like, oh, my gosh, when you’re when you’re using other mediums, it itself in nature is not a combination of colors.
It is a hue.
Kevin
Yeah.
Frank
Yeah, that’s a good point.
Because you do have to make black and it can be made without a specific base color.
Kevin
Right.
Frank
Anyway.
Now we’re avoiding ending the podcast.
Kevin
Let’s go ahead and end it.
That’s why this baby.
Frank
I mean, the plane’s running out of fuel right now.
Chris
So we’re missing a wheel.
So let’s just get it down.
Frank
Oh, anyway.
Oh, we’d like to thank everyone for listening to the very end.
Chris
The very, very end.
Holy crap.
Frank
We’re happy to have you back, Chris, by the way.
If you like what you hear, please give us all the stars and subscribe.
We are available through a wide variety of podcast vendors, and so are easy to share.
If you have any feedback or if you have content requests, please let us know.
You can find us in our Facebook group, Amateur3DPod, or you can email us at panelists @amateur3dpod.com.
Our individual feedback emails are Franklin, Kevin, Andy or Chris at amateur3dpod.com.
The music in this episode was written by Kevin Buckner.
Well, at this point, every episode that has the music.
You get my point.
Kevin
Right.
Frank
And Open A.I.’s Whisper completed the heavy lifting for the transcripts, which you can find linked in the description below.
Our panelists are me, Franklin Christensen and my friends, Kevin Buckner, Chris Webber and Andy Cottam.
Until next time, we’re going offline.
Kevin
Keep your FEP tight.
Chris
It’s just a FEP to the left and a crank to the right.
Andy
And touchdown as the engines flame out, we pray that the brakes work well enough.
Frank
That might be asking a little bit much there, Andy.
Andy
It’s hard to do this when Chris comes up with good stuff, and I’m supposed to come up with something random after what he comes up with.
Frank
I think that he’s probably just workshopping because he got tired of explaining what he was trying to say.
Andy
How hard was it to sit there and break into song at that moment after that comment?
Frank
Yeah
Kevin
It’s just a FEP to the left and then a crank to the right.
Let’s do the 3D print tonight.