Frank
Thank you for joining us.
This is episode 60 of Amateur 3D Podcast, a podcast by amateur printers, for amateur printers, where we share our thoughts and experience.
This week are me, Franklin Christensen, and my friends, Chris Weber, Andy Cottam, and Kevin Buckner.
And we’re actually getting going fairly quickly today, guys.
How’s it going?
Chris
Ahoy manoy
Andy
Yeah.
This is unusual.
We usually got that hour worth of talk, and before we even start the podcast, and kicking each other constantly for talking about 3D-printed stuff.
Frank
Yeah.
And Kevin even started to join in and realized that it was podcast content, so we just fired up and went from there.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Since you were ready to go, Kevin, you want to tell us what you did this week?
Kevin
Yeah.
So, once again, I did nothing with the SLA printer, but I did do a test print of the ends of the shelf, the modular shelf that I’m working on to store some of our extra spices, because they’re just kind of sitting out on a countertop next to the stove, and they keep on getting a little too close to the heat, and the plastic containers kind of start warping.
So, my wife had asked it that I make some kind of a rack thing to put them on, which is, like I said, last week, just a glorified shelf.
I did a test print of that, and it worked okay, except for the tongues didn’t fit into the grooves, and the rail was a little bit taller than my wife would have liked.
So I need to make that shorter.
Then I was also thinking of ways that I can do this without supports, if possible.
And so, I was saying, I could get away with that if I were to have a post every centimeter or so.
But then…
Andy
I saw your model, and when I was thinking about how I would have printed that, I think I would have done your posts, however you want them to be done, but I would have taken the top rail off and printed it as a separate component, and then just glued it together.
Kevin
Right.
Chris
And maybe put some holes in it for the posts to rest into a little bit.
Kevin
Yes, and therein lies the problem, because my Google Foo is not strong enough for me to figure out how to create holes in Blender.
Andy
Oh, okay.
That would make it more difficult.
Kevin
Yeah, I’ve tried many kinds of searches to figure out how to make a negative object or whatever, and I just haven’t been able to figure it out yet.
But I’ve got this dice tower that I printed that’s got the dice fall down, and they go down one of three channels into a plaza, for lack of a better word, like just this tray that catches it, and that is surrounded by a fence made of intersecting arches.
So I was looking at that, and I said, hey, I could do something similar to that, and my wife said, yeah, that would work.
Then it would be like a fence and not so much a rail.
So I’m probably going to do kind of a hybrid thing, because I do like these sculpted fence posts that I’ve been able to do that make it look like they’ve been turned on a lathe.
Chris
So kind of like a mismatch of a good lattice work and posts.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Cool.
Andy
That’d be cool.
Frank
It actually sounds like it’ll work out real good.
Kevin
And the other thing that I realized with this test print was that I forgot to put any kind of mounting grommets on the initial design, so I took some time, and even though I don’t know how to make holes yet, I do know how to manipulate a torus.
So what I did was I essentially, I created a torus, and I made that upright, and then I made a cube and made the two overlap, and then I joined the two together, and then I used the sculpting tool to actually, before I joined the two together, I used the sculpting tool to carve the cube out so that it is not visible through the torus, or on the inside of the torus, and then I joined the two together.
And now I have the mounting grommet that I can propagate throughout the entire thing as frequently as I want it.
Frank
I only have one question.
What does a bull have to do with your rack?
Kevin
What?
Chris
Feet.
Frank
You said Taurus.
Kevin
Yes.
Andy
Torus.
Yeah.
Think doughnut.
He used it to make the hole.
Frank
Oh, so not the bull?
Kevin
Oh.
Frank
Because I’m a torus.
Andy
Oh!
Okay.
That went clear over my head.
Frank
At least it came back around, right?
So it merged the taurus with the torus?
Kevin
Right.
So you said bull, and my brain heard bowl.
Andy
I heard bowl too.
Kevin
As in something you would eat cereal out of, and I’m like…
Frank
I am from Utah.
I’m sorry, guys.
Andy
No problem.
Chris
That’s abominable.
Kevin
The other thing…
Frank
Now, why would you put a bomb in a bull?
Kevin
right?
That just seems like a bad idea.
Frank
And messy.
Kevin
And then to solve the tongue and groove problem during the week, I did go in and make some test blocks to get that better.
So yeah.
Frank
Sounds fun.
Kevin
Yeah.
Frank
Progress.
Andy
That’s great.
Frank
I wish I had the compulsion to put in the time to learn Blender.
I started and didn’t even get as far as any of the test projects.
Kevin
Yeah.
It is not very intuitive.
Frank
But it’s super powerful once you figure stuff out.
Kevin
Oh yeah.
Once you get the hang of it, it is super powerful.
I love it.
Frank
Good deal.
Chris
Well, it came highly recommended when I was looking up different CAD programs.
So…
Kevin
yeah, when I was looking it up, it was right up near the top.
I looked at a list of the top 10 free CAD things.
No, it was even just the top 10 CAD things.
So the fact that this is free was a big bonus on it.
But then one of the big cons on it was that it is not simple.
Chris
That…
Frank
yeah.
Kevin
Yeah.
The thing said, yes, the software is free and you can find tutorials on YouTube, but a lot of people end up paying for tutorials on how to use Blender because it’s just not very intuitive.
Andy
huh.
Chris
And see, I know that Andy and I are the kind of guys that like we buy a software and then we, if we want to use it, we spend all kinds of time just playing around with it, trying to get all the ins and outs of whatever said software instead of looking up the help options.
Andy
I so used to be that way.
I’m honestly not anymore.
I spent like a month and a half trying to figure out solid works on my own with not understanding how CAD software even works.
And that was the biggest like pain in my ass, I swear, it was bad, but I really, really wanted to do it.
So he kept on like coming back to it, getting confused, getting pissed, walking away and coming back like, I need to learn this.
Frank
That’s how you get the experience though, that goes back to what I was saying.
I just wish I had the compulsion to put the time into it because it’s like anything else at that point.
Right.
Repetition, repetition, repetition.
Andy
But anymore, I just do a tutorial, find a decent tutorial online and no matter how simple it is, I don’t just watch it, I follow along and do the exact same thing they’re doing on the software.
Frank
That’s how I started with my first, it was a flange, a three-hole flange.
So it’s got the hole for the pipe and then two mounting bolts.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
And that was my reintroduction to CAD and actually building something that was not a two-dimensional thing.
Andy
Yeah.
I think mine was a miscellaneous shape, to be honest.
They just made something weird to kind of cover a good portion of the shapes and things that you can make with it, but oh my gosh, save so much time.
So I’m all about tutorials now.
Kevin
Yeah.
Frank
And I know in the Blender communities I’ve found, they tend to, the first big step is the donut actually that we saw Kevin do a month or so ago.
Was it Kev?
Kevin
It was a couple months, yeah.
And donut seems to be a big first step into Blender.
So…
Kevin
yeah.
It’s amazing.
Like when I saw that this was the thing, I was like, really?
That doesn’t seem all that complex, but then you get into it and you say, oh wow.
By the, you come away with a much better understanding of how Blender works after doing the donut.
Frank
I’m sure.
Kevin
That’s the go-to first lesson.
Chris
Because they got you doin’ ut.
Frank
Chris, I censored myself earlier.
You need to get better at that too.
Chris
That’s a good dad joke.
There’s got to be at least one listener that comes for at least the jokes, the horrible, horrible.
Frank
Yeah.
37 listeners is definitely your biggest fan.
All right.
Did you have anything else there, Kev?
Kevin
Nope.
Frank
Cool.
Chris, did you do anything this week?
I see the solemn look on your face.
Did you not do anything this week?
Chris
Not with my printer.
The wife’s been sick.
The wife’s been sick, but I have been going around finding some nice things to print.
She’s got the birthday coming up, and again, Christmas is coming up, so it is time to start printing for the holidays, so I am spending a little bit of my downtime finding stuff and socking it away so I can get started printing on them.
Andy
Are you going to be making ornaments and stuff this year like you did last year?
Chris
Absolutely.
Andy
That looked pretty neat.
Yeah.
Chris
So I found, last year, I found this nice little gingerbread house card.
So you pause it at said layers and switch out the color, and you can end up with a brown house with green trees and little bits of white on top.
And so I test printed that last year, but my pauses did not actually pause the print.
So it ended up being all brown, so I just left it alone, kind of ran out of time for things.
So I’m going to be trying that one again this year, and giving out these little cards to the neighbors.
And essentially, it’s a nice little card that fits in a half-sized letter envelope, and you punch it out, and you kind of assemble it into this nice cute little gingerbread house.
Frank
Okay.
Chris
So it looks fun.
You can find it on Thingiverse.
Again, give your patrons some money, please.
Frank
Yeah.
Sounds good.
Andy
I went to go download from Thingiverse, and I noticed this last week that the download window has a tip option to the maker, which is kind of cool.
Chris
Yeah.
More convenient, yes.
Frank
Yeah.
The option has always been there, but I think it’s good that they added it to the download window.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
It reduces the, I mean, I see that there’s a sales aspect to it, where they break down the steps for people to go look for it and tip their maker.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Toss a coin to the maker.
Anyway.
Chris
So, yeah, yesterday, I was getting at the grocery store, getting some more juice because the life is sick, and I had the child with me, and we went to, we were at that particular grocery store that sells, has that little end cap of 3D printed items, and this time they had a articulated stegosaurus, which was really cool looking, and I’m like, okay, cool.
I can hop online and buy the STL and get it going, but the STL was almost the same price as the printed one at the store, and I’m like, but I only want to print one.
I mean, why would you, why is it, so this particular model was like almost 20������ℎ��������������3�����������������20tobuythemodeloffCults3Dversusalsoalmost20 to buy in the store, and I’m going, that’s a little off-putting, you know, just the price is a little bit high for one model.
I would accept that maybe the designer is the same person that’s doing this at the store, and I admit that I also think that 20������������������������,����ℎ��,�������,������������′���ℎ����������,�����������′�����������ℎ��������ℎ�������������,�����′�������������,�′�����������20forasingleSTLisabitsteep,butthen,youknow,goingbacktoI′macheapbastard,Iusuallydon′tprintsomethingmorethanonceortwice,soifI′mgoingtobuyit,I′mgoingtopay2, 3�������������.����′����������ℎ,�ℎ�����ℎ,�����′�����������������ℎ����������������,��′�����ℎ3forasingleSTL.Ifit′sgoodenough,thenyeah,ifyou′regoingtodolikeathousandprintsonit,it′sworth20, right?
Chris
Right.
Andy
Especially if it comes with the license to be able to sell it or something, but I don’t know how that works.
Yeah, just as a one-off for yourself, $20 is a little high.
Kevin
Yeah, that reminds me of when I was searching for Lilith STLs, and I saw the model, it was $35 for the model, and I was like, I can’t do that, but it was more than one STL.
It was going to end up being a huge thing, and it consisted of multiple parts that you’d have to glue together after it’s all done printing.
So when it’s all said and done, it’s like, okay, I can see somebody saying, I’m going to charge this much because it would have taken hours upon hours to get it as good as they had it.
Andy
Yeah, if you’ve got a kit like that that’s that big, like you say, it is buying more than one model, so a higher price does make a little sense.
Frank
Indeed.
You got me looking at silk PLA there, Chris.
I normally avoid this stuff, but you got me thinking about Christmas.
Kevin
Yeah, and speaking of Christmas and ornaments.
I found this guy in my Loot Studios bundle.
Chris
Visual listener time.
Kevin
It is a Mimic ball ornament, so it’s your standard ball, but it’s got a huge ugly mouth and like four eyes coming out of it of various sizes.
I’m going to take this one up, painting it up and putting it on the tree.
Chris
Nice.
Frank
Must be an adolescent Mimic.
It’s not doing the ornament ball very well.
Kevin
This is probably where it’s gotten, somebody’s gotten close enough to it, and then there’s the alien star.
I don’t think I’m going to print this one though.
We’ve got a pretty good star.
My goal with this Mimic Bobble is that I’m going to print it and put it on the tree and see how long it takes anybody to notice.
Andy
Okay
Chris
cool.
Frank
Yeah.
Chris
If it was a Mimic, you’d be dead.
That’s the new, if it was a snake, it would have bit you.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Frank
Indeed.
Chris
Cool.
Frank
Was there any other immediate plans there, Chris?
Chris
No.
Frank
Okay.
Andy.
Andy
Nice and simple.
Frank
Do you do anything this week?
Andy
Oh my gosh, I got hours of content for you guys.
Frank
We’re going to ask you to condense it to 15 and let you go for 30, like what you normally do.
Andy
God, I think I could do like 30 seconds, so I didn’t do anything with my printer this week, guys.
Not at all.
Frank
Oh no.
That’s sacrilegious, dude.
Andy
I didn’t even work on my model.
I’m still at the same place with my sandworm model as I was last week.
Frank
Not.
Andy
Just been on a busy week.
Frank
That’s unacceptable.
Andy
I know.
I know.
Chris
You did something with the laser though, right?
Andy
Yes.
Yes.
So I did some 3D printing adjacent stuff.
I got the laser cutter out.
We’ve been getting a bunch of boxes from shipments for Christmas gifts and stuff like that that have started to come to the house.
So last night, I got home from work a little early and I had a little bit of time before bed and I thought, oh, it’d be fun.
My kids love to keep these boxes, and it drives me nuts because the boxes end up on the floor everywhere, stacked up in their rooms, and then it begins to, they have to make paths to get to their beds, and I just don’t like that.
And so I’ve always kind of fought them a little bit on the boxes.
I want them to be able to have fun with it, but I usually try to give the boxes an expiration date of when they need to be in the garbage can.
And last night, I was thinking, I might be able to speed up this garbage can process.
The wife has once me to use the laser cutter to cut a couple things out of wood for family gifts this year.
And so this weekend, I was telling her, okay, well, let’s cut one because the laser cutter is still new to us.
Let’s cut one to make sure we can accomplish that this weekend before we are for sure that’s what you want to do for your family gifts, you know?
And then I was thinking last night, like I could use some more practice even before that first one because I don’t want to waste money burning the wood that I’ve got to find errors or something.
And I’ve got all this cardboard that I really want to throw away.
And so I sat down with the kids and I said, well, why don’t we try cutting some cardboard stuff out?
And that turned into a lot of fun.
They wanted to make paper, they wanted to make airplanes.
And so we looked up some models for some 3D-cut, 3D-cut airplanes on Thingiverse, found a couple of those and ran those through the cutter and made some airplanes.
It was a lot of fun.
Frank
Andy, I did just have a weird thought.
There’s got to be a site like Thingiverse, except for the engraver, where you can collect designs like that.
Andy
Yeah, there’s a lot on Thingiverse.
Thingiverse isn’t just for print stuff.
Frank
What?
Andy
Yeah, I wish they would put it in categories, though, and if they do, I just didn’t look hard enough.
It’s just prefixed my search with laser-cut in order to narrow down the laser-cut stuff.
But yeah, there’s a lot of stuff on Thingiverse.
Not as much as there is 3D-printed items, but it’s still quite a selection.
And I bet there’s places elsewhere that are like Thingiverse specifically for laser-cut stuff.
But those airplanes worked out really good.
And I had a really wonderful thing happen when I was doing those, and that is, I stunk up the house really badly with burnt cardboard smell.
Not a single complaint out of the wife, says she didn’t smell it.
And so that’s a good thing.
It’s opening the door a little further for my SLA printer.
Kevin
Yes.
Andy
So today…
When I’m doing laundry here, the only space I really have is my laundry room for my 3D-printed stuff, as the wife’s cosplay stuff takes up everything else.
Frank
As a visualization for visual learners or listeners, if you were to take one of the large outhouses, not outhouses, porta-potties.
The bigger ones, you might maybe be able to fit that inside Andy’s washroom.
Andy
Yeah, I’ve got a tiny washroom.
It used to be a huge washroom, but we sectioned it off and converted most of it to a bedroom.
So I’ve got a pretty decent-sized bedroom now on that side, and my washroom is now tiny.
That’s a space that I have available that the kids and the wife have not impeded on yet, so that’s where I keep my 3D printer sitting on top of the dryer.
When I came down earlier today and looked in there, and I’m seeing the washing machine just a little unbalanced, it’s just got a little bit of jiggle to it, and I’m thinking, there’s no way I want to put the laser printer on top of that and have it move like that all the time.
That’s going to mess up your cut.
Even if you’re not using it right then and there, I think just moving the machine around like that could damage it.
So I’m thinking I need to do something else with that.
In our household, we’ve got a living room downstairs.
In fact, that’s where I’m at now.
That’s where I record the podcast at.
That way I can leave the kids upstairs where they make a lot of noise.
But down here is a little bit of a catch-all, unfortunately, and I was just thinking right before the podcast, I should clean this up and convert half of this living room into like an office for myself, kind of like what you and Kevin have at Chris and Kevin.
Chris
That window right there would give you easy access for venting.
Andy
Yeah, if I needed it, because right now I’m not sure, but there’s a lot of space down here.
My wife has only taken up this edge wall.
I’ve got a piece of conduit stretched across the ceiling acting as a closet rack.
And she’s got all of her costumes in here, 10-foot-long closet rack on this edge of the room.
But all the rest of the room kind of open space.
I’ve got a little futon down here.
Frank
It’s always been multi-purpose in there, but it’s also been the home for your server and all that stuff, too.
Andy
Yeah, and that takes up room on the other side of the room.
So this whole in-between area is kind of free game if I were to clean it up.
And a lot of it can actually get thrown away.
I’ve got an old couch down here that can get tossed, the futon we want to keep.
So it’s probably the only thing that would stay.
I’ll put that up against the rack for the wife.
That gives me like 10-foot of desk space under here that I could use.
And so I think I’m going to do that.
It’s kind of one of those things where it’s just been real obvious.
Like, I’ve always been pushed for space.
I’ve always wanted an office or something.
And I’ve always just looked past this because this living room is not a room by itself.
But nobody could use this space.
Frank
And you’ve always put people in the other rooms.
Andy
Yeah, so I might have an office next week.
We’ll have to see.
Frank
Well, I’m pulling for you.
I want you to have the experience of having an office free.
Chris
Your own personal office is very much a thing for grown men that do things.
Andy
Yeah.
Well, I do have my tool shed outside.
And that’s kind of taken that emotional space for me.
But it’s a different place than what 3D printing and working on electronics and stuff is.
So I think just…
Chris
I’ve got my garage and then I’ve got my office.
And they’re very, very different spaces.
And they are for a reason.
Having your own office is definitely, definitely a good go to for guys that do their, do fix it stuff.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
when possible anyway.
Andy
Yeah.
You’re right.
The whole garage or, you know, like in my case, my tool shed here, that’s for like repairing stuff on the house vehicles or stuff like that.
You know, that’s the major kind of things.
Frank
There’s not really a lot of room for stuff in there a little bit.
You’ve got your workbench in there, but more often than not, you have to pull stuff out and work on it in the yard and then put it back when you’re done.
Right.
So…
Andy
yeah, any of my big woodworking stuff like my bench or my table saw and stuff like that does have to come out to be used.
You’re right.
And I can’t have stuff live on the desk because all the tools are put away, but my tools are big.
Like, you know, if I want my cutoff soft, well, that sits under the desk.
I have to pull that out, put it on top in order to use it.
I want to weld something, got to get the welder out, weld something, you know.
My drill press is the only thing that lives up there.
And so, and I’ve got an arbor press too that lives up there, but you get the idea.
Frank
Yeah
Andy
I hear you.
There’s not a lot of space to work with, but that’s been working okay.
I’m not really too worried about that, but it’s the wrong environment for working on electronics or 3D printing or stuff like that.
So even though this wouldn’t be a private area, which I’m sure is quite beneficial when you’re, you know, just wanting to isolate yourself and work on a project, but it’s halfway there.
So hopefully next week I’ll have an office.
I’ll just get a lifetime table and put it up against this wall.
And that’s all I really need to do after cleaning it up.
I’ll be done.
That’ll be great.
Frank
You’re a do it guy.
I mean, you turned, you turned a four by eight sheet of plywood into a table without cutting it.
Why don’t you just rip another sheet of plywood in half long ways and put the legs on it like you did the other one and make that your bench?
Chris
I think it’s cheaper to get a lifetime table than a piece, than a four by eight sheet of wood right now.
Frank
I mean, I agree with that, but it would be more Andy, I think.
Andy
I hear you.
And I still use them.
In fact, that’s where my laptop right now is sitting for me to work with you guys.
And, you know, I pull out one of those big four by eight tables and these things are, I got three of these tables that I made and I just used, what are they called, replaceable collapsible legs for like lifetime tables.
I just bought some sets of those, attached those to, you know, a four by eight sheet of plywood, got some two by fours to wrap around the underside of it.
Keep the plywood fixed, stabilize it.
Frank
Yeah.
Andy
And these tables have been great this entire time and they live up against the wall.
Yeah, they’ve been wonderful.
But…
Frank
I think that you had to replace like one in the last like 15 years.
Andy
But we made, we made four of them and I don’t, I haven’t, I haven’t had to replace any of them.
I still got all four.
I’ve got three of the four by eights.
And then when we were doing game night, we made a three by eight table that was a squatty table.
It’s only what, because when we used to do card game nights and stuff, we would all sit in the living room on a big table
Frank
or on the ground or something like that.
And it was convenient.
Andy
Yeah, I love the squatty tables.
Yeah, those are really nice.
But yeah, we still got those.
Frank
And maybe that’s what I was, maybe that’s what I was remembering is you didn’t replace it.
You created the squatty table.
Andy
Yeah, yeah.
You did wind up tiling the top of the squatty table with floor tiles to make it not.
Frank
I do remember that.
Andy
And then you wound up pulling those off because they just were falling off on their own.
Chris
Yeah, they’re the type of laminate that you got to use the, you got to use the pressure tool for them to actually stick proper.
So
Chris
yeah
Frank
the idea was the…
Chris
didn’t realize that at the time.
Frank
The cards are awkward on the chip.
And so we put the tiles on it so that they wouldn’t catch on the little edges from the chipboard.
Andy
Yeah, yeah.
Frank
But so I’ve said plywood this whole time.
It’s not your big sheet of wood applied to another big sheet of wood.
It’s the chipboard we’re talking about.
Andy
That makes sense.
I’ve always called this plywood, but yeah, this isn’t plywood.
It’s chipboard.
Frank
I guess technically it is plywood.
I think the hardware store even describes it as plywood, but it’s a different kind of plywood.
The chip is much closer to what is the wood.
It’s MDF, which is basically just compressed sawdust and glue to get.
Yeah, and glue.
And the chip is very similar to that.
It’s just bigger pieces of wood.
Kevin
So I’ve already seen that at the hardware store as particle board.
Andy
Particle board.
Yeah
Chris
yeah.
Andy
Well, I think people will understand exactly what we’re talking about if we do say chipboard, because I don’t think you can confuse chipboard with anything but this kind of kind of wood.
So…
Frank
yeah
Chris
yeah
Frank
that’s fair.
Chris
Do it, do it, do it.
Andy
But yeah, so that’s my bit.
I think I’m just hoping to get that.
I’m going to wait to get the, I was going to try to get the SLA printer out today.
I don’t know, got a lot of chores.
I mean, it’s winter’s coming around.
So, you know, I’m blowing out the sprinkler system, getting the snowblower, ready and all that other kind of stuff has taken up a lot of time.
Frank
You need a big bare skin cloak the next time you say winter is coming.
Andy
Yeah, winter is coming, but we’ll get there.
I think I’m going to wait on opening the SLA printer because I still have had that and it’s kind of bugging me because it’s just sitting there ready to go.
And now the whole smell issue with the wife, I’m actually thinking might not be a problem, but yeah, I’m still finding excuses not to turn, not to open it up.
Frank
Well, I imagine that there’s part of that that is you recognizing that once you start, you’re not going to stop for a while.
Andy
Yeah
Frank
You’re going to want dedicated time for it
Chris
and a dedicated space.
You know, it’s one of those things where there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
If you set it up intending to move it later and then you never move it later.
Andy
No kidding.
However, with that in mind, when I got my laser cutter out, I brought it upstairs.
That sucker is easy to move, man.
I’m kind of happy about that because right now I just got it hanging up on the wall over there above my server room, hanging off of the ceiling because I don’t have a real place for it.
And I figured when I want to use it, I will just get my big folding, my big table out in the living room that I do laundry and stuff on.
And whenever I need to use it, I’ll just bring that out and put it down.
But yesterday, I brought it upstairs and it was easy to move.
I also…
Chris
need to get…
Andy
what’s that?
Chris
It’s like we need to 3D print you a fire extinguisher mount to go on the side of the laser cutter there.
Andy
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you guys know me when I was using the upstairs.
I did undo one of the fire extinguishers from downstairs here and brought it upstairs and had it underneath the right by the counter.
Just natural reaction.
Okay, I’m going to be doing something that causes fire, so let’s go grab a fire extinguisher.
Frank
Let’s avoid burning down the house if at all possible.
Andy
Yeah, yeah.
And I pulled one from a different area of the house too, so all the normal extinguishers are still there.
I’m afraid of fire.
Frank
Justifiable.
You live in a tinder box, in a 80-year-old tinder box.
Andy
Yeah.
I did find something kind of cool with my laser cutter though.
I’ve got a, so when you’re doing the laser cutter, it has a fan on it to keep the laser cool and the exhaust of that fan after it’s cooled, the laser is used to kind of blow around the head to keep the smoke clear so that the laser can go through the smoke easily.
Frank
Right.
Andy
But a lot of these have an additional air supply that actually blows through the lens area of the laser to make sure that it is clear all the way through.
And they use, typically I found, these cheap diode cutters use a lot of fish tank supply stuff, aquarium pumps, in order to supply air on that.
And I didn’t, you know, I seen the pump that came with the Creality here, and it’s a common aquarium pump, but they wanted like 50 bucks for it.
And so I figured, okay, well, if that’s all it is as an aquarium pump, I’ll just grab one of the ones that I like to use for my aquariums that are indestructible.
That’s this one here.
And the only bad thing I realized though is that my aquarium pump, the one that comes with that one, doesn’t pulsate as hard for, because it’s a diaphragm air pump.
So it doesn’t pulsate as hard.
My one that I got that I like actually is very strong at pulsating and was vibrating the whole head, because it’s just a, you know, as it would push that air through.
And so this was my solution.
I got one of those long balloons that you can tie knots and stuff in, and I turned that balloon into a pipe from off of the pump.
And so I can hook this up to the system.
And that balloon kind of absorbs each…
Frank
diaphragms, the pressure and levels it out.
Andy
And it really levels it out really, really well.
And so I got, I tried it for the first time yesterday upstairs, and I could cut a pretty fine line without seeing the pump vibrating anything at all.
So that worked out really well.
So if anybody who’s doing laser cutting has that kind of problem, these long balloons, turn a section of it into the, into a hose and it works really good.
Chris
Wow.
Andy
Yeah, so that’s, that’s all I’ve really done for the 3D printing world this last week.
Hopefully I’ll have more next week, but we’ll have to see.
Today, there’s a, like I say, there’s a lot of choice to get ready for winter.
So I don’t know if I’ll be able to clean up this area and get a table and stuff to have some kind of material for next week, but you know, we’ll see what happens next week.
Frank
Yeah.
Andy
Now, the thing I want to know is, how are you doing Frank?
Because I know you got a topic for us.
Frank
Oh, this week, everybody’s been hearing me talk about maybe me goofing around with a pick and, and, you know, arcing wires and smashing into prints and
Chris
and you PID’d something.
Frank
Well.
I’ve PID to a couple of things at this point.
So I broke down and well, okay.
So I disassembled my carriage and I took all last week to do a 30 minute job.
I didn’t, you know, really want to do it.
I finally finished that job this week.
And when I got down to the heat block to where I can investigate what’s going on, I turned it a little bit and one of the connections just broke off.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
You know, and I’m sitting here going, well, there’s no way that had anything to do with it, whether I caused it or whether it was on its way there in the first place, right?
Chris
Found the gremlin.
Andy
I’m hoping.
I mean, there’s a chance not because they are fragile and you could have just broken it from scratch there, but I was thinking about it a lot.
If that had worn down and the wire was really thin right there from being bent or whatever, then most of the resistance would have been there.
But that should have thrown the heating out of the envelope and the printer should have thrown an error if that was a problem.
Frank
And the sensor should have recognized that it was all over the place.
Now
Kevin
so much S word there.
Frank
Capital S.
Well, the whole word is in capitals right now.
Anyway, so I needed to get a new heat node for my printer.
Yeah.
And while I was at it, I was like, you know, I’m getting the new heater.
I might as well get a new thermostat to go with it.
Well, because the plastic kind of fused everything into the heat block, then I couldn’t warm up the same issue that you were having a little while ago there, Andy.
So I just decided, okay, screw it, I’m going to buy a new heat block.
And I got some new heat breaks, the little tube that goes inside of your heatsink.
And I thought about getting some new heat sinks as well.
But, you know, I was already up to, well, I decided to get two of all of them so that I had extras.
And by that point, with just those things, I was at 60 bucks.
Andy
Oh, man, is there something special about your?
Frank
Well, they’re also upgraded for the Ender 3.
So, you know, quote unquote, you can’t, you’re not looking at your computers, but I’m doing the air quotes.
Anyway, got you.
So it still is supposed to be better than the OEM components.
At this point, it’s more ender three on a CR-10 form factor than it is any other.
But, you know, the carriage is basically the same for all their products.
Anyhow, it’s just how you upgrade it and use it.
So I got the stuff in Wednesday and was inspecting the heat cartridge and I realized it didn’t have the connector on the end.
And I was like, well
Andy
the JST connector was missing.
Frank
Yeah.
And so I, you know, I don’t do a whole lot with those connectors in the first place.
I didn’t have any extras and I didn’t even have the crimping tool.
So I bought a little collection of those.
I now have 600 JST or not 600.
Andy
Be around 200, right?
Frank
Yeah, I think it’s 200.
200 of the JST connectors that are going to sit in storage for who knows how long, but it’s good to have them.
And I have the tool to crimp them and I got the, you know, I spent like an hour, hour and a half.
JST has got so many different families of connectors that it’s a little disconcerting when you’re trying to find a specific one.
Andy
Yeah.
I think HC is one of the most popular used ones out of the JST family.
What ones did you settle on?
Frank
Let me look in the chat.
I think I shared it.
No, it doesn’t look like, I think it’s JH, VH, something like that.
But I got it all connected and my thermistor connector wouldn’t go in the thing and I looked at it and compared it to the old one.
And it’s the wrong family of JST connectors.
So I still ended up popping it out or popping the casing off of the brand new thermistor and putting the old one on it.
Andy
That works.
Frank
I mean, it did the job, right?
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
And then I went in and recalibrated my PID and that’s where some of the things got interesting.
We talked about being configured for the, for like a short in my heat cartridge, right?
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Well, the P, which I’m interpreting as the voltage, the initial voltage to start warming it up.
Was at, no, what’s the P for?
Andy
No, so the, okay, so PID is, I don’t even completely understand it.
Frank
Okay.
Andy
So I know it has a lot to do with like the amount of, after it’s reached its target or how close it is to the target, how much it will decelerate the overall gain that it’s using.
Frank
So it looks like the curve is that it approaches the target?
Andy
Yes.
Yeah.
So one of the, like the acceleration that you get there and then the one is the, yeah, I don’t know.
So it’s not like a voltage thing though.
Frank
So…
Chris
it stands for proportional.
Proportional integral derivative.
Andy
Yes.
Frank
So proportional, maybe it’s the amount of voltage it takes to maintain the temperature?
Andy
Nope.
It’s not a voltage thing.
You’re calculating, what the PID calculates is like a zero to one ratio of whether the actual heater is on or off.
Frank
Anyway, I still haven’t been able to visualize in my head what the integral part is, but the derivative from calculus and physics with calculus and all that is a change for each distinct time zone or whatever in this case is probably seconds.
So the P is one third of what it was to, I don’t know, maintain temperature, I guess.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
And the derivative to approach that temperature is also one third of what it was on the old heat block.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
So I think that calibrating or attempting to calibrate for, to calibrate my, calibrate everything before, probably accounted at least for a little bit of the connection being ready to fall off.
But because everything is so brand new on it now, it was able to go to a less intensive approach to temperature.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
And the, I ran into an issue where I’m overextruding.
Andy
Really?
Frank
Yeah.
Well, okay.
So one other detail that was, I didn’t cover yet was when I first tried to do the PID, I went for my regular printing temperature for the test and it overshot like bad.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
And then I went to, instead of 250, I just went to 200 Celsius and it overshot.
It went to 260 and then it didn’t error out and beep at me like everything was way too hot.
It just said that this is way too far out of parameters for the PID test.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
And the internet suggested that I, instead of having what Marlin refers to as the bang bang or the PID max at 255, it’s one whole byte, you know, in my head, I would say, you know, one whole byte worth of values.
And instead of having it just push straight voltage at, you know, full value 255 to back it off to 100 for the PID max.
And that made it so that it didn’t heat up so quickly and overshoot so hard.
And then it was able to calibrate the PID from there.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
Which is why my brain keeps going back to power or, I guess, voltage for the PID, but that’s more research.
Chris
That is not what it means.
Yeah.
Frank
So anyway, so I did run a couple of tests and it does still like the 250 for my temperature, but it actually likes being at 250 now instead of under extruding.
And for my tests, it all looked great.
My speed test, I’ve actually got it pushed to 150 millimeters right now.
Andy
Okay.
Chris
That’s like twice as fast as I normally print.
That’s pretty cool.
Frank
But the starboard side of my benchy was overextruded and it was only one side.
It wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t uniform on both sides, which is kind of weird to me.
Chris
That is weird.
Frank
Um, so I did not do a flow tower because everything just looked like it was fine for all the other towers.
I wasn’t worried about flow.
I did do a flow tower on this morning and so far it looks like the benchy is still overextruded.
So I don’t think it’s a flow issue so much as maybe the change in direction because it’s going clockwise and the starboard side of the benchy is on the backside after it goes around the front of the boat.
So I think that the acceleration is probably too fast and it’s missing where it’s supposed to be before it gets to the target.
So I may have to slow down just to get a good benchy out of it.
Andy
Yeah, 150 is way fast.
Chris
Yeah, try rotating your benchy and see if the same thing happens, but it’s instead of like on the starboard side, just if it moves around the benchy, if you rotate it.
Frank
Yeah, that’s a good test.
If it stays on the starboard side because the direction of the head isn’t going to change.
If it stays on the starboard side, it’ll support my hypothesis.
But if the overextrusion stays in the same place, that’ll suggest something else.
That’s a good idea.
I like it.
Chris
Yep.
Frank
Anyway, yeah, that’s where I’ve been this week, figuring out the new components.
Andy
That’s good.
Yeah, you got a lot of weird going on.
150 seems really fast though and still the extrusion thing, all your extrusion problems are weird for me to understand just because mathematically it should always be the same.
And that’s how I’ve always run mine.
If I got to adjust my flow settings and there’s something wrong with my printer that I have to figure out, that should be something that should always be at zero because flow settings are wrong, then you’re either using something like if you’re compensating for undersized filament or oversized filament or something like that.
But if you got correct sized filament and your millimeters per step are all correct and all that kind of stuff, then you should be putting as much plastic down as what is calculated for that area.
Frank
And I haven’t done anything like my stepper motors are bulletproof at this point.
I imagine they’re going to fail me eventually, but they don’t seem like they’re anywhere close to it.
So…
Andy
your controllers for the stepper motors might, but stepper motors are pretty beefy.
They usually don’t break.
They’re just inductors.
Frank
Don’t challenge me, Andy.
I will.
I will find a way if you challenge me.
Andy
you’ll probably kill the bearings in one.
I guess the bearings could go on them.
You got a good point.
Frank
So anyway, yeah, that’s where I am with this.
I do feel like replacing components fixed a lot.
Andy
That’s good.
Frank
Obviously, the one cable was ready to go and I just looked at it and it fell off.
I still don’t know if my old thermistor was bad or going bad.
I just abandoned it once the heater cables fell off.
So whatever new components, whatever was wrong, the new components are doing the job.
I just need to get it tuned up.
Andy
Yeah, that’s good.
That’s good.
I’m hoping this really works because you need a working printer.
Frank
I agree.
Andy
A good working printer.
You’ve had problems for too long.
Frank
Yeah, it’s been like two, three months.
I’ve gotten prints that are decent off of it by abusing the damn thing.
But it’ll be nice if I can just treat it like a normal printer for a little while.
Andy
Yeah, agreed.
Well, great.
well, here’s hoping a little bit more testing here will get these overextruded bugs worked out.
Did you revert your settings and stuff from when you were having problems?
Frank
Most of them, like I reset my speed initially and I did forget to reset my flow, but it was only, or no, I didn’t forget to reset my flow.
I forgot to reset my Z offset after changing everything.
But it was only 0.1 millimeters down.
So it didn’t have a major effect.
Everything else just went back to the baseline and then I tested for it and ended up back where they were before.
Andy
Okay, that’s good.
I hope that’ll work.
Frank
That’s everything I’ve done this week.
Andy
Nice.
Chris
wee.
Frank
I did not do you, Chris.
Chris
But I said we.
Fran
Oh, I thought you said me.
Kevin
I also thought he said me.
Chris
Sorry.
Kevin
As you should be.
Frank
Yeah, Chris, let’s keep this PG-13 at least.
Anyway, yeah, I kind of feel like this episode justifies a continuation with the, do quick and dirty and get it done and go on with our day.
What do you guys think?
Andy
Sounds good to me.
I don’t just have a lot to talk about.
I just didn’t really do anything this week.
Kevin
Yeah
Frank
Kevin.
Kevin’s always game to get this done early.
Kevin
Right.
I mean, I, you know, I frequently think of there’s a Queensrich, Queensrich song where the, the opening line is I want to be a busy man.
And I, I am a busy man.
And a lot of the time I’m like, why, why would you want to be a busy man?
I mean, I get it.
Idleness is also not great, but.
Right.
Like, and, and I’m, I’m really glad that I have the wife that I do because she, she sees how much is on my plate and she’s from time to time will say, you know, you can go part time at work.
We can, afford it if you go part time at work, that would free up a lot of your time so that you can do your projects.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
So like, yeah, she’s super supportive in that regard.
Like, she’s great.
She actually wants me to finish my, my trilogy.
Andy
That would be cool.
I would love to see you.
Kevin
Yeah, me too.
I’ve heard from a lot of writers that their, their family and their spouse, the stuff just are not supportive at all.
But I’m like, you know, my, my, my wife is the complete opposite of that.
Andy
Hit the jackpot.
Frank
And I hate to put it this way, but it kind of feels appropriate at the same time.
You’ve got an expiration date.
Kevin
Yes
Frank
she wants, she wants you to finish what you started there.
And she’s already done her part to be prepared for when it happens.
You know, it’s not going to be easy when it does, but it’s not going to be a financial issue.
Right.
So, I mean, yeah, I see all sides to it, honestly, but that one seems pretty glaringly, you know, elephant in the room type stuff.
Kevin
Sure.
Sure.
Andy
Looking at the model that you’re just playing with here.
Kevin
Even before I had the expiration date, she was still super supportive.
Yeah.
Frank
Oh no, she was.
Absolutely.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Yep.
Kevin
This is, this is as far as I’ve made it now.
Frank
Oh, that looks great.
Kevin
Hosts.
Frank
That looks awesome.
Chris
Nice.
Kevin
Yeah.
Frank
And then you don’t really even need like a top rail at this point.
Kevin
That, that was kind of the point.
Frank
I missed that.
Andy was talking about printing the top rail second, and then that’s what I ended up focusing on.
But no, this’ll, this’ll look great when you got it done.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
And no need for supports.
Kevin
Right.
Chris
Bye supports.
Andy
Let’s try to stay above that 60 degree mark.
Frank
Yeah.
That one’s going to be tough.
The one that your mouse is on right now.
Kevin
Yeah.
But I’m going to get some more stuff in there.
I’m thinking another one up in here along this way to help support that.
And also the scale of this is pretty small.
Like these posts here, I think are three millimeters in diameter.
To give you an idea that the height of this platform here is 10 millimeters.
Frank
Okay.
Andy
Okay.
All right.
So yeah, that is short.
That’s like 20 millimeters tall off of the deck.
Kevin
Yeah.
Frank
That was one thing that always, well, not always, but kind of got me distracted when I have played with Blender is the default scale is in meters.
It’s like, I don’t want to change this every time.
I’m just going to leave it in meters and scale it down when I print it.
Andy
Yeah.
That is something that you can just change the default for, can’t you?
I know.
Frank
I didn’t look very hard for it.
Kevin
Yes, you can.
Frank
I expect you can.
Kevin
You can.
Now, I’ve done that.
And when I first made the shelf ends that I did last time, I put it into Cura and it said, oh, this is automatically scaled up to 10,000 percent.
And it still wasn’t large enough because the 100 percent, even though I thought I had changed the default was like the full size of the thing was only a few millimeters.
And so I was like, okay, yeah, that’s why I ended up scaling it up even more.
So basically, I’m just like, you know what?
I know what the dimensions of this are supposed to be.
So when I put it into Cura, I can adjust accordingly.
Andy
Yeah, that works.
Kevin
And since it lets you lock the scaling so it’s all uniform, that’s what I do.
Chris
Yeah, that’s another thing I love about Cura is you don’t have to lock the scaling either.
Like if you want to scale just a Z dimension to take the same thing and make it taller.
Andy
Yeah, that is very convenient.
Frank
Indeed.
Andy
Sorry, I don’t got a lot to say.
Frank
Don’t apologize for that.
I’m just going to close this up.
How about that?
Andy
Fine, be that way.
I don’t want to say anything anyway.
Chris
That’s going to close up on me.
Frank
And yet he keeps talking.
All right, we’d like to thank everyone for listening to the very end.
Chris
The very, very end.
Frank
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 easier to share.
If you have feedback or if you have content requests, please let us know.
And let us know, please.
You can find us in our Facebook group, Amateur 3D Pod, and you can also email us at panelists@amateur3dpod.com.
If you really need to, you can email us individually at Franklin, Kevin, Andy or Chris at amateur3dpod.com.
Chris
In case you want to tell me a secret.
Frank
Or tell Chris that you’re his biggest fan.
I love how we all find that hilarious.
Andy
He would be my favorite if I was just listening.
Frank
Oh, he’s my people.
You guys are all my people.
You know that?
Andy
Yep.
Frank
Anyway, Kevin Buckner wrote the music for all this eppi.
Wow.
Kevin Buckner wrote the music for this episode.
Chris
Every episode.
Frank
Yes, like that.
OpenEI’s Whisper completed the heavy lifting for the transcripts, which you can find linked in the description.
Our panelists are me, Franklin Christensen, and my friends, Kevin Buckner, Chris Weber, and Andy Cottam.
And until next time, we’re going offline.
Kevin
Keep your FEP tight.
Andy
Always use hairspray.
Chris
I heard about this new kind of plastic I’m going to try called C4.
What do you guys think?
Frank
I don’t think it’ll like melting.
Andy
That’s awesome.
That’s a really good one.
Frank
Maybe C2, C1.
C1 to be safe.
Unless it goes in the other direction.
Maybe what you want is C-10.
Andy
I don’t know how it works either, but it was still funny.
I don’t know how any of this works.
Kevin
It’s not how this works.
That’s not how any of this works.