Frank
Thank you for joining us.
This is episode 66 of Amateur 3D Podcast, a podcast by amateur printers for amateur printers where we share our thoughts and experience.
The panelists this week are me, Franklin Christensen, and my friends Chris Weber, Andy Cottam, and Kevin Buckner.
And this is our first recording in the year 2024.
Andy
Yeah, holidays were long and over and now we’re back.
Frank
Yeah.
Andy
Howdy.
Frank
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Mr. Foxman.
Andy
Yeah, you say that, but I was like running almost a full hour late today because my butt slept in.
It was wonderful.
Frank
Having that opportunity sometimes is good.
And at the same time, there was a thought that I had this morning, which is probably going to be unpopular, but I thought, hey, we could start at nine and I could get time in my wood shop and all that stuff, meaningful time.
Andy
Well, if everybody else wants to do it, I’m fine with that too, but I’m flexible.
Chris
You increased your risks of the swing shift guy falling asleep.
Frank
Oh, my actual intention was to decrease that risk so that you could sleep earlier.
Andy
We just need to get to the other side of his clock, so we’re doing it before bed instead of in the morning.
Kevin
Right.
Frank
Well… Yeah, but three of us, that doesn’t work for as well.
As well.
I mean, I mean, this way we don’t interfere with Kevin’s game night… ever.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
Right.
Yeah, this is where Andy’s need to be to sleep at six p.m. so that he can wake up at the crack at dawn.
Chris
Yeah, I think that’s a big issue.
Andy
You just wait till I retire, man, and it’s going to be like three o’clock, all right?
Dinner at noon.
Chris
So Andy wakes up at four in the morning, and I’m usually going to sleep at four in the morning.
So that’s our problem.
Frank
Yeah, well, we can’t all be anomalies there, Chris.
I’ll be getting ready for bed, and Discord pops off a notification.
It’s Andy.
Andy
Yeah.
Oh, geez.
Well, I appreciate you taking the biggest hit on the scheduling conflict for us all, buddy.
I appreciate that.
Frank
Yeah, we really do, Chris, all of us, I think.
I know I’m speaking for Kevin, but I think he agrees.
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
Yeah, I get a little bit of a break.
You know, I do have Friday’s off now, so I try to get to bed a little bit earlier Friday nights.
Frank
And it’s assuming, of course, that you don’t drink until four a.m.
just because you have the time now.
Kevin
Right.
Nine o’clock really might not have worked so well with me this morning, because I actually, last night for me was weird.
I actually went to sleep at, like, 10.30 or 11, and I didn’t wake up until nine o’clock this morning.
Andy
Wow.
Chris
Oh, hey.
you had one of those Unicorn well-rested night.
Holy crap.
Kevin
Yeah.
Oh, and I had vivid dreams, I tell you what.
Andy
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Any good ones, or they just weird ones?
Kevin
Yes.
Frank
So, Kevin, the moral to this story is.
Stay away from the special mushrooms.
Kevin
I don’t have any.
I don’t eat mushrooms.
Chris
Actually, he’s describing melatonin.
Kevin
I didn’t take any melatonin either, I just, but your body does naturally produce melatonin.
So
Chris
Yup
Kevin
But yeah, like, every once in a while, I’ll have a weird dream that just feels odd, like so realistic in which I am going on a second mission.
Andy
Oh, really?
Kevin
Yeah.
And, like, every time, every single time, like, as I’m going into the MTC, I’m thinking, you know, every single time I’ve gone on this second mission, it’s always been a dream, but this time it’s real, and that’s crazy, and then, of course, I wake up and it’s also a dream.
Frank
It’s obviously not real.
Kevin
Right.
Frank
That’s an awesome, recurring dream, where you recognize the other dreams.
Kevin
Well, because, yeah, I can remember them in my dream, and so that’s part of what makes it feel so real is that I can remember having had this dream before.
Andy
That’s awesome.
Kevin
Yeah.
Kevin
And then, like, and at another part, we were going over to my parents’ house for some party, and there was this gray car parked under their carport, and there were these two dogs in the yard that I was chasing out.
One of them was taking a dump on the front lawn, which I didn’t appreciate, but then they went to the edge of the driveway and stood there barking at me.
Well, then I noticed that the gray car was starting to back out, and I was like, haha, this car is going to back straight toward those dogs, and then it took, like, this sharp turn toward me instead.
I was like, wow, that’s a really maneuverable car for a focus.
Frank
That’s the reason they call it a focus.
Kevin
Then I saw that it was actually a CRX, and I was like, oh, that explains it, because CRXs are highly maneuverable.
Andy
They a pivot on a dime.
Zero turning radius, if you do it, right?
Kevin
Mm-hmm.
So I was like, OK, that explains that all.
Yeah.
And then hunting trips, and it’s just weird, weird dreams.
It was awesome.
I loved it.
Andy
It sounds like a good night.
Kevin
Yeah.
Anyway, 3D printing?
Frank
Hey, since you brought it up there, Kev, did you work on anything these last couple of weeks?
What does Chris want to step in?
Chris
Oh, I was just saying, you know, this week’s topic is materials and properties.
Just kidding.
Frank
Well, are we going back to that then?
Kevin
Odd, you should say that, Chris, because I was going to say, yes, I did.
I printed a bunch of those Mimic ornaments, and I tried and tried and tried to get this alien star thing to print with some new resin that I got that is a metallic gold resin.
And this is the most successful one that I got.
For you visual listeners, it didn’t succeed very well.
Andy
Oh, that’s a bummer.
Chris
How do you get de-layering in resin?
Kevin
So the thing is, this metallic resin, the way it works is it’s got the pigmented resin in there that’s kind of a translucent yellow for the gold one, and then they fill it with a whole bunch of super fine glitter.
Andy
Oh, gee.
Kevin
So…
Frank
it settles out while it’s printing, right?
Kevin
Yeah.
That’s essentially what’s going on there.
Now the container is really cool.
It comes with this nifty little pour spout that you can put in there so that you don’t get resin drips all over the threads and running down the bottle and stuff, which I really liked.
I mean, I really wanted to like this resin.
I really did.
But in order to get that level of success that I did, and I started to explain it, but I didn’t really get that far.
So for the listeners, the tip of one of the arms of the star was separated from the rest of the star.
It’s kind of interesting.
There’s like a quarter-inch gap there, and then, there along the bottom of one of the arms of the star.
There are kind of weird serrations where it wasn’t exactly successful initially, but then as it went, the print was able to pull off the resin from the FEP.
Anyway, so it says on the back that for a mono screen, it recommends a bottom exposure time of 30 to 40 seconds and a layer exposure of three to four seconds.
And then for an RGB screen, a bottom exposure of 60 to 80 seconds and a layer exposure of six to 10 seconds.
Well to get it as successful as I did, I mean, I tried many, many times.
This was like the, I think the fourth attempt here, fourth or fifth.
And what I ended up doing was I had a bottom exposure of 70 seconds.
That’s my normal.
So there’s nothing too odd about that.
But then for the regular exposure, I had to crank it up to 15 seconds, and I had to make the supports sturdier than they were before and add more.
Chris
So it turned into like a three-day print?
Kevin
Uh, no, not three days.
It was like, I think in 16 hours and 10 minutes.
Andy
Wow.
Chris
Oh! Okay.
Kevin
And it’s also a lot more brittle than other resins that I’ve worked with.
So I, I just, it might be good resin for a higher end printer than the one I’ve got.
I mean, I, I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I have like the, the bottom level resin printer.
It’s got an RGB screen.
So I cannot recommend metallic resin for anybody with a Photon S.
I’ve just had way too many problems with it.
I’m, I still really want it to work and I’ll still see if I can make it work.
But it’s, it’s just been such a headache to get this stuff to work.
Frank
That sucks.
Andy
What a bummer.
Kevin
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really thought it, you know, a Christmas tree topper printed in metallic gold would look nice.
Andy
Yeah.
That would have been really nice to get that off.
Kevin
And if I could make it work, it’ll still look nice, but it’s, I’m going to have to like…
Frank
It’s taking half the bottle to achieve it, right?
Kevin
Right.
Chris
Or is it one of those things where you can, you can print it in clear and then use the metallic gold to layer, layer over it with a, with a paintbrush before you cure it?
Kevin
Well, let’s see if I were to do that.
I’ve got metallic gold paint that costs like a buck 50 for the bottle.
Chris
Well, there you go.
And it looks just fine.
Kevin
So there’s no point in, in painting over any other resin with metallic gold resin for the price I paid for the bottle.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
I think this, I think this bottle was $16.
Andy
Okay.
Kevin
So.
Frank
And if it, if it worked, that’d be more than worth it to you, I think.
But…
Kevin
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Frank
Spending half the bottle trying to figure it out sounds preventatively expensive.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Unless you figure it out before the end of the bottle, then it might be worth the R&D for another bottle.
Kevin
Right.
I mean, once I get it dialed in, I’m sure that it’ll be fine.
It’s getting there.
That is such the problem.
So I think I will continue trying it just because I’m stubborn and I have the resin.
If I didn’t have the resin, I wouldn’t.
Like if it was still a failure of the entire bottle through, then I’ll just say screw it.
This is not going to work with my printer.
Andy
Okay.
Kevin
But.
Frank
That sounds about right.
Kevin
So.
Frank
If you can’t figure it out by the end there.
Kevin
Right.
So if I do get it figured out, I will come in with an update and have recommended settings for the Photon S for the listeners.
Just right now, it’s, it’s not been successful.
Andy
That sounds good.
That’s spending that kind of money on a resin like that and having it fail.
So…
Kevin
yeah.
Andy
So badly.
Kevin
Yeah.
But it kind of did remind me of when I was doing my own experiments with glitter.
Now the glitter I was using was not as dense in the resin, but it was also larger particles of glitter.
So it had.
Andy
Okay.
Kevin
Similar effect.
Andy
Did it?
Hmm.
Yeah.
I was working with glitter over the holidays too.
Andy
Were you?
Frank
So before we go on too far, have I talked to you guys about cold casting at all on the podcast or ever?
Andy
I don’t think so.
Kevin
I don’t think so.
Frank
There’s a method.
I heard about it specifically with bronze or copper where instead of, you know, the normal casting process is you pour hot metal into a mold and then clean it up after you break the mold off.
Well, with cold casting, you have your mold and I guess you would put like a blank in the core, but you fill it with a clear resin and then the metal dust and stir it up real good until it sits, sets.
And then when you take off the mold, it’s been cast in copper or bronze or whatever, but it didn’t require any hot metal to achieve it.
And this methodology with the glitter and all that kind of sounds like an evolution of cold casting that anybody can do at home.
Chris
Oh, Okay. Yeah.
Kind of like, kind of like what some of these woodworkers do with resin, they’ll cast various stuff in resin and that’s where I was going is actually my father-in-law, he’s in his retirement, has taken up woodworking, he made himself a nice wood shop.
Frank
Wait, in his retirement, he was a carpenter professionally.
So taking up woodworking doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch.
Kevin
Right?
Chris
Well, sort of, he was a journeyman carpenter and now he’s doing woodturning and whatnot.
Frank
So now he’s using his profession for his hobby because it’s an easy transition?
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
Well, I mean, if he’s a carpenter, he probably enjoys working with the wood to start with.
Frank
I guarantee you.
Chris
Stapling…
yeah.
Nailing two by fours together is quite a bit different from using the wood.
Frank
That’s true, fair.
I accept that.
Having done both, it is very much different.
So, Chris, did you work on any projects the last couple of weeks?
Chris
So yeah, that’s where I was getting actually.
For this glitter, my father-in-law needed a glitter spritzing apparatus, right?
So we were thinking maybe getting one of those shaker bottles like you use for spices or something.
Frank
Okay.
Chris
It turns out that I’ve got these little squeezy bottles with fine tips on them.
And so if you clip the tip right where you want it, you can just squeeze it and you get a fine spritz of glitter.
But to get the glitter in the bottle, you need a really small funnel.
Frank
You can’t squeeze it and stick it in and let it vacuum in?
Chris
Well, the wife was putting this all together and so I just went with what she wanted.
Andy
Yeah.
Probably the smart thing to do.
Frank
Okay.
Fair.
Chris
So yeah, I found some.
I was able to get some of my old plastic to work long enough to make a few funnels for this.
So it worked out great.
He seems to like it.
So I did that.
Oh my gosh, I did print more things of just my head.
My head’s hit a blank.
Frank
I can offer more distractions if you like.
There’s one that came to mind.
A wash bottle might work really well, like the ones that Andy uses for his mobile bidet type.
Yeah, it’s just a it’s got your regular squeeze bottle and it’s got the straw that goes inside it and you it pulls from the bottom when you squeeze it and it seems like it’d do you the glitter probably just as well as any other.
It’s not what’s that term for the thing that’s not a fluid and not a gas plasma?
Chris
Plasma
Frank
It’s like a super fluid or something.
What is it anyway?
Andy
It does that.
Frank
Yeah.
And it would work real well with your glitter, I think, too.
If you need to replace the tool that you decided to use.
Chris
Yeah, but again, not for me.
It’s for the…
So what he’s doing is he’s doing a like a poly coat on top of the wood or whatever and then he’s spritzing it with glitter as it does.
Andy
So is this is this tool thing that you’re kind of talking about?
Is it like the same way you would or you would use for like a graphite applicator where you’re kind of spraying a dry material using something that looks like it would do water or liquids?
Chris
Yeah, that’s exactly it.
These little bottles were designed designed for liquids and they’re like little 10 milliliter bottles.
Yeah.
So anyway, we did that.
And so the holidays were upon us.
Andy
Yeah.
Chris
So I printed up some more of those measuring tape spools for sewing measuring tapes for the women’s in the wife’s family.
I printed a white elephant box.
Andy
Oh, that’s nice.
Chris
It’s just big enough to hold something like a gift card or something.
Andy
Okay, still nice.
Chris
And one of my prints started going south like when I was halfway through printing, trying to print the lid so I didn’t get the top of it.
So it was just an elephant outline.
Andy
Okay.
Chris
I took that and it’s…
I just threw it in the stocking for my sister-in-law who has a strange love of elephants and she’s like, oh, this is a really nice cookie cutter.
And I’m like, yeah.
Andy
Yeah, that’s what it is.
Chris
That’s what it is.
Andy
I like that.
Frank
Just don’t use it more than once.
Andy
Yeah.
Kevin
Right.
Chris
I did tell her, I was like, these are really our decorations.
And for the holidays also, I did get new materials.
I got a roll of PETG and a roll of TPU.
Andy
Oh, nice.
So I will finally be printing with something other than PLA.
Andy
That works.
Chris
Thanks.
Andy
Thanks to have the options.
Chris
Yep.
Especially because I needed to print something out of TPU and now I forgot what that was.
Andy
No biggie
Chris
But yes.
I need to do some TPU printing now.
Andy
TPU is definitely one…
I mean, a lot of the times you can get away with using PLA and place a PETG or vice versa.
But TPU is its own special thing.
It’s so awesome material.
The durability is just amazing.
My phone case that I printed a while back has its first little problem.
I’ve got a little bit of a single line that’s lifting a layer right there on the living hinge of my cell phone.
And I just got to get in there and clip it off.
You can see it sticking up like a hang nail.
So far, it’s the only damage that this whole case has taken.
The hinge is still completely in good work in order and looking great.
Frank
It almost looks like it was sewn together and it’s part of the stitch that’s coming off instead of…
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
It kind of does.
When I printed this, I printed it with like six or eight outside shells.
So going around the outside edge are straight lines and then the inside with the hinge, I did at 45 degrees.
This is three layers that make up my living hinge on my phone case.
The back one is absolutely vertical and then the two inside ones are at 45 degrees.
And then the outside of that print has like six or eight shells of straight.
That way around the hinge, it doesn’t come loose.
Frank
So it acts like a seam.
Andy
Yeah.
I tried to put a lot of thought into the way that it printed the shells out on it in the direction of the print and all that kind of stuff.
It’s paying off because it’s still going strong.
Chris
I would think so.
I mean, one of the things you use and abuse the most is your cell phone case.
Andy
Yeah.
No kidding.
And this has been working great.
So I absolutely love that I got to print the perfect cell phone case because I like the vertical flip ones, but all the vertical flip ones out there, they make upside down compared to what I like.
I like it flipping around from the top, not flipping from the bottom.
And so like the hole for the camera and stuff is always in the wrong place.
And I always wind up cutting them apart and making them work the way I want it to.
So having one that does exactly what I want is pretty awesome.
And it’s more durable than one of those cardboard, pleather, painted cases anyway.
So that they’re nice.
Frank
You brought it up.
Do you know how long your other one lasted you just out of curiosity?
Andy
That one.
So the first one I made the hinge started falling apart after seven or eight months of use.
Frank
Okay.
Andy
It wasn’t quite a full year, if I remember right.
And that hinge, I didn’t put forth as much effort into doing it well either.
I think I only, I think it was only one or two layers.
And this one is three.
And they were completely horizontal, like one of the layers was horizontal, one of the layers was vertical.
So there was only really the vertical layer that was holding it together.
So one single layer for the entire living hinge.
And it started to tear, which makes sense that it would.
Frank
Right.
Well, you, you started designing this during the summer.
So it’s been six, seven months.
You’ve had this one done.
Is that right?
Andy
I think so.
Yeah.
Frank
Okay.
So…
Andy
I would say it’s still damage free except for that hang now, but that’s not the hang.
Frank
Fingernail clippers can take care of that.
Just as easily as they do an actual hangnail.
So…
Andy
yeah, I think I’m actually going to try to glue it back down that way.
It still looks good.
It doesn’t look like it’s got a little piece of a, of a trace missing that still working great.
Frank
Fine.
Do it your way.
Chris
Well, he’s got that nice chemical glue stuff should take, should work pretty good.
Andy
Yeah.
I should try that actually.
The stuff that melts TPU.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
That would be a good idea.
A good use for that.
And then I just put a little dab on it and then clamp it just like as if it was glue.
And I’m sure it’ll eat up the rubber a little bit and then evaporate and then it will re-solidify and be one solid piece.
Frank
Cool.
Chris
Nice.
Frank
So, uh, we got a little far afield there, Chris.
Did you have anything else you wanted to talk about from the last couple of weeks?
Chris
No, I was hoping Andy, Andy would just keep running with the tangent and go on with what he was doing.
Andy
Yeah.
Sorry.
I didn’t mean to overrunn you there Chrissy
I applogize for that.
Frank
I believe you, Andy, why don’t you go ahead and tell us what you did do the last couple of weeks besides hyper-focus on your cell phone case?
Andy
Yes.
Yes.
I only spent a couple of days staring at the cell phone case.
Give me a break.
I spent three weeks.
So this last three weeks here, because, you know, we had the two holidays where we just did our little short recordings, we got three weeks worth of material.
And this is the most I have used my printer this entire time
Right, right as we got done recording for our last podcast before Christmas here, the wife came home and I had printed an articulated dragon for her that she wanted printed just off the Thingiverse and she fell in love with this thing and she brought it to work to sit on her stand.
It was a hair stylist, so.
And people at work were asking her where she got it, or she’s selling them and things like that.
So she came home with, like, an intention of, hey, I think I’ve got another product I could sell.
The shop that she works in, they do sell random stuff inside of the salon.
And my wife already makes earrings and jewelry and stuff like that by hand.
So this was something she said that she wants to look into printing these dragons because, you know, we saw them in other places and they seem to be really expensive for what they’re charging.
And so, you know, I can’t design something like that, but we could look into seeing if, you know, what people’s commercial payments that they want to accept for their designs and stuff are.
And so Jenny look around and she found a pretty good one where they charge more like a, what’s it called, a subscription model to sell the works and she will sell you the individual STLs.
And then if you want the commercial license from them, then you jump on their subscription and then you can sell them commercially.
And so she’s picked out what five separate models that she likes, five separate of these articulated dragons and we printed three different sizes of them.
And I think I’ve printed about 30 of these darn things over the last three weeks.
The printer’s just been running nonstop bringing these dragons, all different colors and stuff.
I’ve never had so much colored PLA my entire 3D printing time, but we went and got I think like six or seven separate rolls of that special silk colored PLA and have been running them off on that.
And she’s already sold enough that it’s already paid for all the PLA.
Kevin
Nice.
Andy
So right now it’s all profit.
Chris
Monkey brains like all of the colors.
Frank
Andy, I had a hunch that if anybody was going to violate the amateur part of our title, it was going to be you.
Andy
Oh, I don’t know.
I still call it still classified as amateur.
Frank
Yeah, but you’re now professional.
Andy, you’re not an amateur.
You’re a professional.
You are selling your product.
Andy
I’m still the amateur.
Oh, she’s the one selling it.
This is falling all underneath her schedule scene, not mine.
Frank
You are the printer supporting her sales acumen.
Andy
There you go.
I just provide the equipment, but yeah.
Frank
And the skill and the time.
Kevint
Right.
Andy
You got a good point.
I am the one being the chiropractor, getting all their spines free and washing all the hairspray off of them, everything.
I am kind of doing everything.
I did sit down and even use the laser cutter to cut out labels because part of her license is where we got to recognize her for it as well.
Yeah, whatever that’s called.
So the labels got to have her name and a link to her stuff and all that other kind of stuff designed by such and such.
And we wound up even even using the laser cutter on it to cut some labels out.
And that was neat.
I think I mentioned that already.
I went to go cut them out, but discovered that at a certain power output, I can cut through the paper and not hurt the backing paper very much.
And so it turned into like normal labels that you just pull off the backing paper.
Very cool.
Frank
That’s right.
You did mention that with the sticky label stuff.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chris
We got us all jealous about that because back when my wife was trying to sell things individually when she was trying to do a soap shop or whatever.
Yeah.
Gosh, it was an incredible headache to go buy all the different sized labels and then make pre-formatted word documents from these various label types and then print them all out, print them, make them look nice.
And again, I was saying, and heaven help you if the printer misfeeds it.
Andy
Yeah.
The first one I did.
Chris
Oh, sorry.
Plus, plus colored ink is like horribly expensive.
Andy
Yeah.
Oh man.
I tell you what, back from back in the day using inkjet printers, there is nothing better than going to a colored laser printer that you can fit and not use for months at a time and just know that it will work the minute you try to use it.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
There’s nothing better.
Yeah.
Chris
Clogged heads are a thing of the past.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, but yeah, so we got those.
And next, you know, the first set of labels I printed that label paper is not very expensive either.
I think it was like $7 for 100 sheets too on Amazon.
So it was pretty cheap stuff.
But when my first cuts, I didn’t have aligned quite well.
I think next time I go to do labels, I’m going to intentionally make some markers on my cut sheet on the cut instructions that will line up with like points of the text in the label itself in the printed label.
That way I could line it up with text instead of trying to like line up an offset to where it’s actually going to be cutting.
Chris
So I was like, why don’t you just make it a jig to stick on your cutter kind of like when you scan a paper, you line it up in the corner to scan it.
You could just do that.
Andy
Yeah.
We do that, but it’s for like, if we’re only doing one or two sheets, that takes a little bit more time.
But when I’ve cut foam and stuff for the wife where we’re doing a lot of sheets.
So on my laser cutter, it’s not strong enough to cut through sheet metal.
So I use a big piece of sheet metal to set the cutter down on so I don’t burn anything when you go for whatever I’m using it on.
But sheet metal is magnetic.
So I got a bunch of these really thin magnet or neodymium magnets that I can put down on the sheet metal to make outlines to be able to line up like the paper or whatever when you put it in.
So it’s always lined up and stuff.
But using magnets or lining up.
Yes.
Yes.
These things have been awesome to use for that.
That and we got another project coming up to talking about the laser cutter that I’m going to wind up taking my laser cutter apart and upgrading it.
I got some longer extrusions.
I’m going to make my laser cutter have the option to be bigger by almost a foot.
So right now it’s 400 millimeters by 400 millimeters.
And I’m going to bring it up closer.
See it’s like 900 millimeters long.
So that should be like eight a maybe 750 millimeters cut area with the new extrusions.
But we’ll see.
That’ll be a project all on its own in a couple of weeks I’ll talk about.
But yeah, I’m already going to tear apart the laser cutter and Frankenstein it.
It works so well on the 3D printer.
So hopefully I’ll be able to do extra stuff with this one as well.
It’s easy to crash.
So I mean it’s dumb enough that I can get it to do whatever I want it to do.
All it does is have to be able to physically do it.
I think I’ll be set.
But yeah, so I’ve been 3D printing a lot of those dragons.
I’ve put four or five reels of plastic through my printer over the last three weeks.
It hasn’t stopped working.
I’ve even been setting an alarm in the middle of the night to jump up and restart the printer for a new print job and things like that.
So it’s really been running like almost 100 percent of the time.
It’s like got probably like a 90, 95 percent run time over the last three weeks.
Kevin
Nice.
Frank
You’re working harder than most of the pros I know.
Andy
I like doing stuff like that.
Like even like on Saturdays here, it’s laundry day for me.
In fact, the listeners might not even know I spend the entire podcast folding my laundry in front of everybody every week.
So that’s…
Frank
I do think you might mention it at least once.
Kevin
You have.
Andy
Really?
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
But uh… getting ready for laundry day.
I still set alarms in the middle of the night to push the laundry through a cycle so it’s ready to go.
It’s just I’m one of those people that got lucky with the way their mind set up.
I can wake up and go right back to sleep really, really easily.
So I take advantage of that and it doesn’t hurt me at all to wake up real quick, go do something and then come back to bed.
A lot of the times I don’t even remember doing it half the time because I never actually wake up during the wake up time.
So that’s great.
So got some of that done already.
Frank
Sounds like sleepwalking, except for you are.
Lucid dreaming while you’re sleeping.
Andy
Yeah… But I’ve already had to adjust my Delrin rollers on my carriage.
So I’ve definitely already broken them in.
I went to go start a print job and notice I’ve got a lot of movement in the in the carriage, not seeing it in the prints.
The prince are still looking great, but maybe I should tighten those up a little bit before I move forward.
And they’re the rollers themselves are starting to look hairy.
And I don’t think they were over tightened.
If they were over tightened, they’ve worn well past the over tightening part and were just wearing all together.
So I’ll have to see I might have to replace some Delrin.
And there’s another type of plastic out.
I remember I was reading or listening to another 3D podcast here that they were talking about a different kind of plastic used.
Instead of Delrin for rollers.
And that they were talking about how they’ll tell, you know, all higher mighty off those poor saps still using Delrin rollers and stuff.
And I’m thinking, oh, I’m one of those poor saps season those.
So, you know, maybe maybe next time I buy some more rollers here, I’ve still got a bunch.
I need to get through that are still brand new.
But maybe once they’re done, I’ll try the different plastic, whatever they were talking about.
Frank
I was going to say, I just bought a collection of 100 of them about six months ago.
I don’t think it’s I think it’s going to take me a while to get through these.
Andy
I don’t think it’s a problem is the wear time on those rollers is pretty, pretty long.
So it’s not too big of a hassle to replace them.
And they’re not hard to replace.
So it might not be a problem.
And if it’s one of those things where the new plastic is like three times of expensive compared to a Delrin, I’m just going to buy a Delrin.
So… they seem forgiving because you can over tighten them just a little bit and know that after the first like print job, they’ll be worn down to where they exactly where they need to be.
And I love that about so.
Frank
Yeah, sounds good to me.
Andy
But we were talking about emergency 3D printing the other day or two weeks ago for Christmas.
And I ran into one of those situations that we’ve been talking about white elephant.
Because I managed to lose $100,000 that I was going to give away for a white elephant gift.
And so the 3D printer came in real handy for being able to print.
We just printed another one of those dragons up for the party.
But it was very convenient…
Frank
How?
Andy
to be able to just have the printer there to be able to whip something up, you know, the Christmas gift that got lost or whatever.
And I’m not ready to go.
Frank
My question is, I don’t understand how you lost all that fake money that you ordered just before our last episode.
Andy
Yeah.
Chris
I, you gave it to me, Andy.
Andy
That that explains a lot.
Chris
Was it in the bag as a gift?
It was I just assumed you were given as a gag gift.
And so.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
So it wasn’t lost.
Chris
I got it.
I, I, I, I ended up, I ended up giving away like three, three of them, you know, I still have the rest of the box, dude.
Andy
Oh, no.
So that was supposed to be a white elephant gift.
You’re totally fine.
Yeah, go ahead and keep it.
Sorry.
There’s money in here.
I was all excited.
Chris
We were a little confused.
Frank
We’re like, this is, this is, this is one of the oddest gag gifts Andy has given us.
And we’re talking about the guy who gives you a picture of himself every year for something you can wear.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
You got to know who it’s from or else who would you know?
Kevin
Speaking of faces on things.
I got, I got a secret Krampus gift this year.
It was, it was a Nicholas Cage’s face on a pillow.
It’s one of those pillows with the sequins and if you, if you brush them one way, it makes it all black.
If you bring it down, it’s Nicholas Cage’s face.
It was hilarious.
Chris
Wow.
Andy
Oh.
That’s awesome.
Frank
I like it.
Chris
Yeah, my, my sister in law got a Picleous Cage.
I got a 3d printed her a pickle with Nicholas Cage’s face on it.
Andy
That’s funny.
Frank
I think I’ve seen some of those around too.
So yeah, yeah.
Andy
That is funny.
For some reason, I mean, I know it’s not related, but that reminds me of the way.
Frank
Wait wait wait…
Do you know what podcast this is?
What podcast this is?
Andy
Like the one we’re doing right now.
Frank
Yeah, you said, you know, it’s not related.
Andy
Yeah.
To Nicholas Cage.
But seeing some people printing what looks to be like an air duct and putting a picture of Bruce Willis crawling through the air duct and making an ornament out of it.
I’m very against putting unrelated ornaments on my tree otherwise I would have done that this year.
Chris
Yeah, I remember to leave a pack of smokes and and and a pistol in the air ducts for for Bruce Willis this year.
Frank
Since uh Violent Night came out.
Yeah.
Now what you want to leave is a pack of smokes and two fingers of scotch.
So…
Andy
Talking about leaving stuff out here.
My son… uh
Frank
We don’t want to hear about that Andy, please keep it PG.
Andy
Oh, oh dear.
Okay.
I’ll try.
My son stepped up his what he expects from Christmas this year and he set up a camera trap to capture Santa Claus this year for the in front of the Christmas tree.
So
Frank
Ingenious little cuss…
Andy
that was an adventure.
Well, when it comes to leaving stuff out…
Yeah, he got some some video with Santa Claus this year.
Chris
Oh, you didn’t pull the Polaroid trick.
Kevin
What Polaroid trick is that?
Kevin
Where you put a Polaroid in front of the camera and then…
Chris
Yeah yeah…
You take a Polaroid camera.
You set it next to the camera right next to the camera take a picture and then take the Polaroid and set it in front of the picture itself in front of the camera and then do your thing and then pull the Polaroid away.
Andy
There you go.
There you go.
He caught me and the wife setting the gifts out that we put out because we, I’ve got a toddler still so we can’t leave gifts under the Christmas tree as they’re wrapped so you can see me and the wife putting some presents out or whatever and, and then my son’s got all disappointed and he’s like oh it’s just it’s just mom and dad putting the presents out and and I’m explaining to him like well yeah that’s the presents that we put out for you but but look there’s only like a couple under the tree there that’s not what Santa left last night.
And so we watch us a little bit more and then here comes Santa coming in Santa puts all the Christmas presents up and sits there and eats the cookies and all that and then leaves and my son’s like oh I just got proof of Santa Claus is all excited about it.
Frank
That is awesome.
Kevin
Yeah
Frank
I approve.
Andy
Hopefully it doesn’t come a normal thing every year, but… uh…
Chris
Yeah, just just pull the Polaroid Polaroid trick next time around.
Frank
One year you have someone coming is crampus and take gifts.
Andy
Oh, there you go.
There you go.
Kevin
I mean, I did watch the footage and I did notice that after Santa left he came back in and looked at the camera and did the naughty naughty finger and turn the camera off so you could have it be like.
Yeah, Chris’s idea there would work very well because Santa’s gonna be like, Nope, we’re gonna….
Frank
I let you have it once I’m not going to do it again that Christmas present.
Kevin
But you’re going back to the secret campus I just remembered.
I think I mentioned what I was going to do for my sister, who hates hot dogs.
If I didn’t, if I didn’t, what I what I ended up doing was I got some of those horn dog bites and I covered them in chocolate.
Andy
Oh God.
Kevin
And then I sprinkled powdered sugar on them while the chocolate was still hardening and so then I put them all in a box and and I also I included one of the mimic ornaments.
This this this alien star topper that I was trying to print with the metallic gold was intended to be part of this but I couldn’t make it work.
And so then I gave it to her and she opened it up and and she looked into the box and said chocolates.
And then she looked up at me and said, Are these chocolate covered jalapeno poppers?
And I said No.
She’s like, No.
She’s like, I just I feel like I shouldn’t trust these and I said, Why not?
She’s like, just, I don’t think you would have given me something good.
So I feel like I need to cut into the one of these to make sure it’s not… bad.
And I was like, No, just take a bite.
She said, I’m not going to take it’s probably like chocolate covered hot dogs or something.
And she got up and she she got a knife and cut one open.
She’s like, it is!
And she was laughing really hard.
But then…
Frank
how long did it take her to gain this kind of distrust in you, Kevin?
Kevin
Well, just knowing that it was a secret Krampus gift is is all it took was she was like she’s like it’s secret Krampus.
There’s no way this is going to be something worth eating.
But then what she did was as people were up because there were only a few people there at this point.
So then as as unsuspecting victims would come into the room or into the house, she’d go up and be like, You want a chocolate?
Frank
Definitely your sister, dude.
Kevin
And some people would be like, Well, I don’t know if I should trust these issues.
I was like, Oh, come on.
It’s all right, Kevin made them.
People would be like, Oh, well, if Kevin made them, because everybody in my family knows that I make good desserts and stuff.
And they’re thinking, why would he do something mean?
Not remembering that we were doing secret Krampus.
So they take a bite and just watching their faces.
It’s a hot dog.
Andy
Oh…
Frank
this is vile.
And then laughing at everybody else that came in and ate it too, right?
Kevin
Yeah.
Chris
You can increase your chances of success by making like the first row, something that actually is good.
Kevin
Yeah.
So that they grabbed the first one, they cut into it and they’re like, Oh, this is a chocolate.
Oh, they get to the second row and it’s like.
Kind of like../.
Frank
Of course, you tell them there are actual real chocolates in there and just don’t remember where they are.
Andy
Oh, that’s beautiful.
Frank
Wow.
Kevin
Yeah.
That’s a good, that’s a good prank.
I like that.
Kevin
Yeah, it was a popular one.
Andy
Yeah, that’s good.
That’s pretty much all that I did that was 3D printing related, just printing dragons, still printing dragons.
The wife did say that she wants me to use, got the person we’re buying the STLs from has got some cute little dragons.
And the wife’s telling me that she wants me to do some of those, but make an egg for them.
And in the egg is the shape that I can do and she wants the two halves to screw together.
So that’ll be something that I need to sit down and make this weekend to add to the little collection that she’s doing.
But yeah, there’s some money in them stupid dragons.
And I’m not, you guys know me.
I’m not somebody who likes to take other people’s designs and do them.
I’d like to do my own.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
But there’s something about those articulated dragons that are just so cute.
Man, it’s like, it’s like it’s a dang real animal when you get them printed out, you know, I love them.
Chris
Yup.
Andy
they’re cool.
Frank
Welcome to the, I know the word, and it has escaped me.
Welcome to the religion of articulated 3D printed dragons there, Andy.
That’s it.
Welcome to the cult.
Kevin
There you go.
Frank
Well, all I have to do is stop trying to remember.
Andy
Yeah.
Well, we’re definitely just sitting here and manufacturing those things daily.
So I think we’re reaching the limit.
She said she wanted to see there’s five that she’s picked out.
And so we got three of each size.
So there’s 15 that she wants on hand.
And she wants to make three more of these ones that are in eggs.
Almost to the stock level that she wants, but she’s already sold a bunch of them.
And so I’ve already had to go through and reprint a bunch that she’s already sold.
So…
Kevin
Nice.
Chris
Wow.
Frank
You might have to buy, buy a 3D printer just to dedicate to her business adventures.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah.
I have to see.
I mean, she’s really selling that much then so be it.
That’ll be great.
I don’t mind managing a printer for her
Frank
It’d be worth it.
I’m sure.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
Yeah!
Especially since she’s making money from it.
So.
Frank
The business can pay for itself.
Andy
Yeah.
And since it’s happening inside her salon, all of this just goes straight to schedule, the schedule C that we use for her, you know, a contractor work at the salon.
So as far as like taxes and all that goes, it’s already, we already got something we could just dump it into to be able to do it all properly and stuff.
Frank
Yeah.
Kevin
Yeah
Andy
It’s working out pretty good.
But yeah, that’s it for that.
I did sit down and I got a hinkering of wanting to, while I was cleaning up the living room in my basement here to set myself up an office.
I wound up taking and pulling out an airplane that I had made and have 3D printed a couple years ago.
It’s just one of those big foam airplanes, but I had printed like engine mounts that I can connect to the plane’s wings and made this big styrofoam airplane, an RC airplane.
I’ve made a battery pack for it and all that other kind of stuff.
It was kind of a fun little project, but it got me into wanting to see if I can design a plane from scratch.
And so I did sit down and play with that a little bit.
I got a wing done and both of the main wings and started on the fuselage, but then I think I may have lost interest.
It was one of those things that wasn’t really like a full blown project.
So I’m not going to sit down and do it.
It was just something for fun.
And I think I’ve already lost interest.
Chris
New project.
Shiney!
Andy
This Christmas, Santa had got my son a new laptop because the old laptop he had was the one of my very first laptop I ever got back from what was it like, 2008 or so?
Well, it works and everything.
Yeah, it’s been upgraded to hell.
Yeah, that’s the one.
But so he’s been using that and it’s got no dedicated graphics card.
And so one of the problems we were running into is he wants to be able to do some CAD software stuff, but it’s just not powerful enough to do.
And so Santa had gotten him a new computer this year.
So we sat down and I went to install Tinker CAD to sign up for Tinker CAD to be a good, you know, he knows how to use 3D paint.
And he wants to move up to another middle step, but I’m not going to sit there and like give him solid works or something and expect him to be able to figure it out.
We need another middle step here.
Frank
Right.
Andy
So Tinker CAD.
Tinker CAD is one of the worst experiences I have ever had signing up for a software package.
Absolutely terrible.
So I spent almost a full hour last night trying to figure this out.
We finally got my son signed up for it and all that.
And then it suddenly says, okay, you need parental approval.
And it’s asking for my email address.
So we give it that.
Every time you go from like the email link to the software link, it expects a whole sign in and verification through MS… or SMS, which their SMS service they’re using is like five minutes before to get the darn text message is ridiculous.
And sometimes it was taken too long to get the text message before the page would expire and you would ask you to send a new one.
All that was absolutely terrible.
And the final breaking point was the permission slip that it wanted me to sign so that my young child could play on it needed to be printed out, signed by hand, and then a picture taken and then sent back to Tinker CAD.
And then it was like three, give them three weeks to verify it kind of crap.
Chris
Wow.
Andy
It was, it was, oh man, I’ve never had such a poor experience signing up.
Chris
Wow.
Andy
I’ve never had such a poor experience before.
Chris
It sounds like it’s easier just to lie about his age.
Andy
Oh, no kidding.
Right?
Frank
I guarantee that’s what most people would have done much sooner than you.
Andy
As a parent, I did fail in that direction and I told him, you know what, I give up just go ahead, start a new account and give them 1980s as a year when you go to do it and never do this again.
You are never supposed to lie on this kind of stuff, but you have my permission to do it this time.
Chris
They made this so it inanely difficult.
Andy
And then it would not let him start a new account cookies on the web browser.
It was, it was saying that you are…
Frank
It recognized the IP and all that and…
Chris
which is, which is weird because like places like Nintendo made it insanely simple.
Like, you know, I just had to verify with, with my, with my Nintendo account.
So I created a Nintendo account for myself.
And then let me create a Nintendo account for my child.
And it just emails me anytime she needs to, you know, she needs verification, which is like next to never.
Kevin
And I’m kind of surprised about the difficulty with Tinker CAD because, and maybe it’s just involved in the permissions that we had to sign at the beginning of the year but my, my kid when he was, and I talked about this earlier when he was trying to make design some attachment to make it so that he could affix his trumpet to his guitar.
He did that at Tinker CAD and he, he has an account through his, like a student account through the school he’s going to.
Andy
Yeah.
Well, none of my complaints are about using Tinker CAD.
It was, it was just signing up for the account was where all the problems happen to me.
And if he already had an account that might make sense through the school already, but…
Kevin
I’m just saying that he got an account through the school and I don’t remember.
I mean, I didn’t really pay much attention to all the permission slips were signing users like we’ve got these permission slips.
Yeah, whatever.
Go for it.
I mean, because they’re required for the, for the class.
So maybe one of them was, do you give your child permission to have an account in Tinker CAD?
Maybe I don’t know.
Andy
It could have been.
Yeah.
Now, I don’t want to give throw too much shade on Tinker CAD.
Maybe this is the way they have to do it.
Maybe they actually do need a freaking paper signed copy.
I haven’t seen any other websites for kids do that kind of crap.
Maybe they need to.
But I tell you what, we didn’t wind up signing up for it last night and we wound up giving up because of the difficulty behind it.
So…
Frank
I can see there being a legalese aspect to it that is why they do it that way.
Andy
Yeah, but it…
Frank
Not that it necessarily needs to be that complex.
Andy
But right.
And the paper copy really bothered me because I was just, I mean, it was annoying having to print something off.
If it was something I just signed online virtually, you know, or said that it was okay using a parent account, even having to make my own account.
Frank
A docuSign.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
I do my stuff at university with a docuSign when they need me to sign something and that works just fine.
Andy
Even that would have been more acceptable than demanding an uploaded picture of the signed document on paper.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
Yeah, it was just weird and frustrating and infuriating.
It was also the website was one of those ones that just the website wasn’t designed very good.
So, you know, like choosing the year was a very long scroll down to get to my year.
Just little stupid things like that for just not well.
I might try it again later, but I think I might look into a different software for my kid to start learning.
Plus Tinkercad seems to be a prime spaced CAD software.
And I kind of want to get him into more CAD like software more to, you know, sketch extrude kind of stuff.
So…
Chris
Well, you might can still go with Fusion 360.
Andy
Yeah, I think I might wind up.
I think that’s going to be my next step today since it felt so bad last night trying to get him on the Tinkercad.
So, Fusion it is.
I know you guys love Fusion.
So that sounds like probably the way to go.
Chris
So I didn’t, I didn’t realize that Tinkerbell got herself an upgrade.
Frank
She designed it herself.
Andy
That was my experience last night.
I wanted to share.
Kevin
Okay.
Thanks for sharing.
Chris
Yeah, thanks.
Andy
What about you, Frank?
What did you do this past three weeks?
Frank
Well, I printed off some elephants.
I think I showed you guys some of those.
Chris
Yeah, I got kind of confused because you said it was a white elephant, but it was obviously gray.
Frank
I neglected to paint them before giving them away too.
There was a lot of those comments at this gift exchange, but they all loved them.
They all loved the Benchies that came in some of the, we did like five different white elephant gifts.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
And Benchies were a part of one of them.
That was fun.
Andy
Oh yeah.
Benchy.
Chris
Well, you know what’s fun about Benchies is like, there’s such a huge variety of them now.
They’ve got like squiddy Benchies and oh gosh, just huge variety of Benchies.
So when you’re doing a Benchy test, you can pick out of this big variety of Benchies and then the ones that succeed, you can give away.
Yeah.
You know, and it’s not, and it’s not the exact same Benchy you’re giving to everybody.
Andy
I’ve seen a post somebody did just a random 3D printing post of a somebody who was new to 3D printing that was asking for help, like people often do, and they printed a Benchy.
But their concern was that their Benchy would not float on water without tipping over.
And what was wrong with their printer?
And the Benchy they were doing, looked beautiful, looked like it came out really well, but they were upset that it wouldn’t float.
You know, the Benchy is not a real boat, so it just kind of tops over you.
Frank
And the keel isn’t heavy enough.
Not that there is really a keel, but it’s not going to keep it upright.
It’s very top heavy.
Andy
Yeah, but it made me kind of kind of snicker a little bit that somebody was upset at their printer because their Benchy doesn’t float right.
Frank
What did I do wrong?
I didn’t do anything wrong.
The designer did.
Chris
I printed a boat.
Why doesn’t it float?
Andy
Yeah.
And, you know, I got small kids and we got the bathtub toys and there’s several Benchy’s in the bathtub toys.
That’s usually where they go when I print them off.
I go throw them in the thing with the bathtub.
Frank
And there’s really nothing wrong with that because they’re playing with it anyway.
They’re not necessarily expecting it to float on its own.
So it doesn’t really affect anything.
Kevin
Right.
Andy
Yeah.
God, it was just a couple of days ago too.
The youngest, my four year old was in the bathtub being a way too loud.
He was doing his screening play and stuff that kids will do.
So I went in there to tell him to be quiet and he’s over there playing with the Benchy’s and making them crash into each other and stuff while he’s taking a bath.
So… for something that typically gets thrown away, it’s nice to see that it’s actively being played with as a toy.
Frank
I agree.
Well, the rest of the last three weeks, I did a whole lot of nothing.
Well, not a whole lot of nothing, just nothing 3D.
I made some progress on my coffee table that I’ve been working on for six months or so.
Andy
Oh, nice.
Frank
Repurposing the wood from a ottoman that we had that was not, the ottoman was more table than anything.
So I was like, why don’t I turn it into an actual table?
And so that’s what I’ve been doing.
Chris
So it sounds like it was more of a manual man than an ottoman.
Frank
Yes.
Not to be confused with the, the Turks.
Chris
Right.
Andy
Beautiful.
Frank
Um, the last couple of days, my wife found online a maker who had created a controller tree that spins onto this base.
And the, the screw that it spins onto is the length of like three of these modular parts tall, but you can make it as tall as you want.
And it’s actually really well made.
Looks great.
Andy
Okay.
Chris
I saw the, saw the post of the, your picture you posted very nice.
Um, well, I, I don’t have a whole lot of disposable income right now.
So I went looking for a similar device and found the one that you’re talking about Chris.
It’s just a, a regular stand that goes, you know, it’s still modular.
You can put hooks on it for more controllers.
It’s just not, um, the one that we saw that, uh, the Candice found for me was, uh, it’s four sided.
So you put the controllers on all four sides of it and it stands in the middle of whatever table or whatever you’ve got your, uh, uh, game systems on.
Um, I needed to print another base and the caps to go on the, uh, the top part.
And I ran out of the dark plastic.
So now I’ve got light plastic and dark plastic for some of the stuff to finish last night.
And that’s literally all I’ve done is those two projects for 3D printing.
Andy
Oh, it’s not like there wasn’t a lot going on over the last three weeks, you know, holidays and everything.
Frank
That’s another reason we consciously took the time off from the podcast anyway, right?
Andy
Yeah.
Well, that’s fine.
We got a whole year worth to look up to of a 3D printing goodness.
Chris
And you, uh, you guys will see me printing some of those kind of controller stands too.
Chris
Yeah.
Well, I’ve got like, uh, like over half a dozen systems with controllers that I need to make, you know, mounts for.
Andy
Yeah
Frank
Yeah.
Kevin
Yeah.
Frank
And these ones going to be worked out real good.
Now, the stand that I got was especially good for controllers without the cables.
So as you get into your older controllers, you might want to purpose find just for that controller.
Chris
Well, the Dreamcast is going to be interesting.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Just do a coat hanger for that one, dude.
Andy
Yeah.
Awful.
Well, it’s good.
Glad it’s working out.
Frank
Got any big plans of things that you might be coming up on this week to print?
Um, well, I got a electronic drum set for Christmas from my father-in-law because he’s freaking amazing.
And, um, it does not have a laptop surface.
So I was thinking about designing and printing off some brackets for that so that I can put my laptop on the same frame as everything else.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
Once I, I think that I need to figure out how to pipe the sound through my laptop first and I’m not quite there.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
Yeah.
So that’s on my list and the drum set is just an electronic drum set.
So it’s got the pipe frame and actually the parts look like they are powder bed fusion 3D printed, which is awesome.
Andy
Really?
That’s cool.
Frank
And it’s just the black nylon, but it looks like they were 3D printed and it just looks great.
It’s awesome.
Andy
That’s cool.
That’s cool.
Frank
So there’s that, but otherwise, and I am not certain I’ll even get to that project when I have so many other projects not 3D printed oriented to abuse my time.
So…
Andy
good deal.
Very good deal.
Frank
Did you get your office set up there then, Andy?
Andy
No, no, not at all.
So when at the beginning of the Christmas vacation here, the week before Christmas, I took that whole week off and I was also having my windows installed.
When the installer came over, we have a water cooler set out back that goes in through the window that we thought would be far enough away.
And I asked him while he was there, is that going to interfere?
There was a couple of questions we had about stuff that we had to move, but we could just move it right away if we needed to.
And he did say, yeah, that the cooler would be in the way.
And so me and the wife went out there and people were coming into the house.
So the anxiety suddenly shot through the roof and people were not really thinking about the weight of the water cooler.
I didn’t pull the filters out.
And I change the filters every two years.
And this is the end of the two years, so they’re very heavy right now.
It was also filled with a little bit of water that I usually tip up to drain the rest of it out because the drain plug sits like a quarter inch above the bin.
But anyway, me and the wife just kind of jerked it off there and put it down and I threw my back out.
Kind of bad.
Muscle only.
I didn’t do any spinal damage, but I have not been capable for the last three weeks here at all that’s been miserable.
So like the wife had to put all the stuff back, all the furniture and stuff back and I’ve just been sitting on the couch pretty much the whole time with my back just killing me.
And I’m down to about a quarter of the amount of pain I was in, which is good.
I am getting better, but I’m not prepared to move heavy stuff yet.
So the whole project downstairs here, it’s got a couple more things that need to be moved and I might actually do a little bit of it today.
But I’m hoping I also did go down to the store and price tables to make up the bench that goes along this back wall for the office.
And so I got those ready to go, but I haven’t actually really done anything because of my back.
So hopefully after a little while here, another week or two, I’ll get the table.
Once I put the tables in place, that’s going to be kind of it and I’ll be able to get the old SLA printer out and finally turn it on and start experimenting with that.
So I’m excited.
It’s been just sitting in a box back here the entire time, completely ready to go for like a month, two months now or something.
So it’s begging to me.
I can hear it at night screaming from the laundry room.
Frank
Maybe that’s why you wake up.
Andy
But that’s me.
So as soon as my back gets a little bit better, I’ve been doing a little bit here and there and I plan on doing a little bit this weekend to it too.
But I’ve got most of it’s pretty much cleaned up back here because from when we did the windows.
So I’ve only got a few more things to do.
And before I go down, make the run and buy the tables.
Frank
Okay.
Sounds good.
Andy
Exciting.
Very exciting.
And 3D cutter too.
That’s another thing I’m excited to be able to do with when I get those new extrusions.
I think I’ll be able to get the new extrusions, set the belts up on them and be able to swap them so I can have a smaller 3D cutter.
And when I want it to be bigger, I can just put the two, the two swap the two extrusions out and be able to have that extra size.
And it’s got belts that come down each edge.
Let me show you guys this here.
I’ll show you the plan real quick here.
Chris
Look, Andy, it’s not about the size.
It’s about how you use it.
Andy
Oh, amen.
But also having it so mobile is really nice too.
I just pull it off the wall here.
But you can see in each one of these tracks, I’ve got a belt and the belt is actually like screwed in to each end.
You can see it there out sticking out the edge there.
And when you’re talking about how it’s actually moving, the belt goes up into the gantry and then comes back out.
So I should be able to just make these long extrusions here.
I should be able to make new ones with new belts and be able to just swap them.
There’s only four screws holding in, holding this whole thing together for these two sides.
So I should be able to swap these out and make it substantially longer.
But yeah, that’s the plan.
Chris
Wow, that is incredibly light.
Andy
Yeah, it’s all just aluminum.
It’s dumb.
It’s just like our 3D printers.
It’s just dumb aluminum extrusion with what are they called?
stepper motors attached to it and the laser module.
That’s why I was saying like the cost really isn’t the gantry at all.
The gantry is a really cheap kind of thing that the entire cost of a laser cutter is the actual laser itself.
So if you guys ever come across a cheap one that you can get for 1��1to200, I would jump on it because that’s been another tool right up there with everything else that’s been extremely useful.
Frank
Thank you for not abusing the term game changer.
I’m getting tired of that.
Kevin
Me too.
It seems like everything these days is a game changer.
Andy
Yeah, it’s better than being unprecedented.
Kevin
Oh, that too.
Andy
Tired of that one as well.
Kevin
Or iconic.
Andy
Yeah, go back to Epic.
I was okay with that one for the most part.
Frank
Yeah, yeah.
Kevin
Epic was fine.
Yeah.
Chris
Legendary.
Yeah.
Legendary literally being worthy worthy of a story.
Kevin
Yeah.
Andy
That’s all I got, I think.
Chris
Yeah, I’m going to be working on a lemon.
Frank
You have to understand what awesome is.
Sorry, you’re printing a lemon.
Chris
Yeah, I need to make a combustible one.
Yeah, a combustible lemon.
To burn your house down.
Yeah.
I need to burn.
I need to burn Andy’s and these house down for your house down with lemons.
I promised.
I promised if I if, if, if, if you’re if I got a face full of pants this year.
I was going to burn your house.
Frank
Now, now…
Andy
anything for you…
Frank
to be fair that that’s not life.
Giving you lemons that’s Andy giving you pants with his face on them.
And you have to try to make life take the lemons back first.
Andy
I accidentally sent them to my home address instead of being directly to your address this year.
And so I got to actually see the gift before giving it to you this time.
They were pretty awesome.
That one made me take three separate pictures to put on the pants.
And I don’t know where the paw prints came from.
That was not on the order I sent, but I figured whatever it’s fine.
Chris
I was like, that is a very Andy kind of thing.
So…
Andy
That part wasn’t intentional.
It was supposed to be just black.
But yeah, you got paw prints, but figuring the type of gift that was, you know, whatever.
Frank
Were they Fox paw prints?
Andy
Yeah, I think the thing I did was was for like, like the picture on it was showing your pet on the pet’s face on the pants.
And they did an excellent job of cutting my face out and putting it all over the pants.
I got to give them credit, but most of the pictures on the ad were for animals.
Chris
Way to use something not as intended.
Andy
Well, I even made sure like I even stood up behind an all black curtain.
So thinking it would be, you know, would work better with that and wore a black shirt and everything.
So I can get some good pictures.
They’ve sat there and practice facial expressions for 10 minutes.
You have no idea how much work goes into making these kinds of gifts.
I even like went and redid my hair, brushed it all out, brushed my beard out getting ready.
Yes
Frank
Not not not that you’ve got that much beard to brush out in the first place.
Andy
Not compared to you, man.
This is about I get about what this is like four inches of growth, five inches of growth.
If I hold on to it, otherwise it’s like two.
And that’s just as long as mine will get.
It won’t get any longer.
I don’t really trim the bottom here lengthwise at all.
And it just doesn’t get much longer.
So don’t cut the brilliant beard you can pull off.
But I got you beat almost my hair.
So…
Frank
Well, I’m getting there.
The beard is almost what is that priestly length.
Andy
Okay.
Frank
Have you seen the shirts that have got the different lines for how long the beard is and is right at about the belt line and all that.
That’s the goal.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Um, Actually, for the first time in a while, I can get most of my beard into the first part of the braid to so.
Andy
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah, you do.
You do.
Andy
There’s always been stragglers, at least for the last while.
I used to like, like being clean shaven, but I don’t have a chin.
And I realized if I have fur down here, you don’t notice that I’m chinless.
So it’s great.
I got to hide these kinds of things.
It’s like glasses.
If I don’t wear my glasses, you notice I don’t really have eyebrows either.
And it’s kind of creepy.
Frank
They don’t hide your eyebrows that well, Andy, or your lack thereof.
Andy
Yeah, but they kind of take the attention away from it, at least of the lack of.
I don’t know.
They’re there.
I do have hair there.
It’s just so lightly colored.
You can’t really see it.
And now growing up, when you guys, if you remember seeing my mom always had her eyebrows painted on.
Now you know why it wasn’t the by choice thing for her.
Chris
I assumed your eyebrow issue always had something to do with fire.
Andy
Yeah, I can see why that would be a thought.
Frank
It’s like my brother being a welder.
His beard has never been longer than the bottom of the hood.
Andy
Okay, okay.
That makes sense.
I am jealous though, because all three of you guys can do something good.
I can do like an Amish thing.
And that’s about the only skill I’ve got for my beard.
I love Kevin’s soul patch here.
So dang thick.
He’s got, he could do evil really well with his.
Frank
Except for the Amish do length real well.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
You know, they get the, the Jerry curls and the beard going all the way down.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
I guess…
Andy
I’m thinking more like the, the neck bearded kind of dial.
Kevin
The chin strap.
Andy
Yes.
Frank
Yeah.
That’s fair.
The German appearance.
Andy
Yeah.
Frank
Maybe you just have more German in your family blood than…
Andy
Possibly.
I did do that 23 and me thing.
And I don’t remember what I’m mostly, but I don’t think it’s German.
Frank
I think it’s European.
I remember mostly European.
Frank
I would also accept that you’re part neanderthal.
Andy
Oh, thanks.
That explains the brow ridge, but we’re.
Frank
And the lack of upper face hair.
Andy
Yeah.
Yeah, that is true.
There’s like nothing up there.
It’s weird.
It’s like a nice cut line that I don’t even trim.
It’s just.
You have to…
Just be glad you don’t live here anymore.
I’d no longer go through and cut little pieces of your beard off and glue them to my face or on a regular basis.
Frank
That’s what my problem was…
That makes so much more sense all of a sudden.
Trying to grow my beard for the last 20 years and it didn’t take off until I moved out.
Andy
Oh heavens.
Frank
All right, let’s call this.
Kevin
All right.
Frank
Popsicle stand.
We’d like to thank everyone for listening to the very end.
Chris
Holy crap.
The end.
Frank
If you have any feedback, I forgot my script and I forgot how I improvised.
Chris
Yeah, you can reach us at…
Frank
If you have feedback, you can find us in our Facebook group.
Amateur3dpod.
And you can email us at Franklin Kevin Andy or Chris @amateur3dpod.com.
Or you can email us together at panelists at amateur 3d pod.com.
Kevin Buckner wrote the music for this episode.
A.I.’s whisper completed the heavy lifting for the transcripts, which you can find linked in the description, but the link won’t take you to the current transcript until I figure out my hosting issue.
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 air spray.
Chris
What do you mean PC load plastic?
Frank
I didn’t know that there was a program for that.
Kevin
Neither did I.
Chris
No, no, no, it’s a.
It’s a, you know, printer… joke.
What do you mean?
PZ load letter.
Kevin
Okay.
Chris
Okay.
never mind.
Andy
I’m sorry.